{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_19833/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_19833","id":"gutenberg_19833","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19833","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Poetry","Philosophical anthropology","Philosophy, Renaissance"],"text":"Produced by Sjaani, Ted Garvin and the Online Distributed\nProofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE\n\nHEROIC ENTHUSIASTS\n\n(_GLI EROICI FURORI_)\n\n=An Ethical Poem=\n\nBY GIORDANO BRUNO\n\n\n=PART THE SECOND=\n\nTRANSLATED BY\n\nL. WILLIAMS\n\n\n\nLONDON\n\nBERNARD QUARITCH\n\nPICCADILLY\n\n1889\n\n\n\nLONDON:\n\nG. NORMAN AND SON, PRINTERS, HART STREET,\n\nCOVENT GARDEN.\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE.\n\n\nThe second part of \"The Heroic Enthusiasts\" which I am now sending to\nthe press is on the same subject as the first, namely the struggles of\nthe soul in its upward progress towards purification and freedom, and\nthe author makes use of lower things to picture and suggest the higher.\nThe aim of the Heroic Enthusiast is to get at the Truth and to see the\nLight, and he considers that all the trials and sufferings of this life,\nare the cords which draw the soul upwards, and the spur which quickens\nthe mind and purifies the will.\n\nThe blindness of the soul may signify the descent into the material\nbody, and \"visit the various kingdoms\" may be an allusion to the soul\npassing through the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms before it\narrives at man.\n\nIt is interesting to note that in the first part of \"The Heroic\nEnthusiasts\" (page 122), Bruno makes a distinct allusion to the power of\nsteam, and in the second part, one might almost think, that in using the\nnumber nine in connexion with the blind men, he intended a reference to\nelectricity, for we read in \"The Secret Doctrine,\" by H.P. Blavatsky,\n\"There exists an universal _agent unique_ of all forms and of life, that\nis called Od, Ob, and Aour, active and passive, positive and negative,\nlike day and night; it is the first light in creation; and the first\nlight of the primordial Elo-him--the A-dam,--male and female, or,\n(scientifically) Electricity and Life. Its universal value is nine, for\nit is the ninth letter of the alphabet and the ninth door of the fifty\nportals or gateways, that lead to the concealed mysteries of being....\nOd is the pure life-giving Light or magnetic fluid.\"\n\nThe notices of the press upon the first half of this work, were for the\nmost part such, as to lead me to hope that the appearance of the second\npart will meet with a favourable reception.\n\nWhen I first began this translation little was known about Giordano\nBruno except through the valuable works of Sig. Berti and Sig. Levi, and\nsince then Mrs. Firth has given us a life of the Nolan, written in\nEnglish, and several able articles in the magazines have been published,\nin one of which, by C.E. Plumptre (_Westminster Review_, August, 1889),\nan interesting parallel is drawn between Shelley and Bruno.\n\nI will close this short notice with a sentence from an article in the\n_Nineteenth Century_, September, 1889, entitled \"Criticism as a trade.\"\n\"There is probably no author who does not feel how much he owes to the\nwriters who have reviewed his books, whether he has occasion to\nacknowledge it or not. It is humiliating to find how many errors remain\nin writings that seemed comparatively free from them. Everyone who knows\nhis subject, and has any modesty, is aware that there are defects in his\nwork which his own eye has not seen; and he is more than grateful for\nthe correction of every error that is pointed out to him by an honest\ncensor.\" If this is the case with authors who produce original work, it\nmay be still more aptly said of translators, especially of those who\nattempt to translate books so full of difficulties as those presented in\nthe works of Giordano Bruno.\n\nL. WILLIAMS.\n\n\n\n\nSECOND PART OF\n\nTHE\n\nHEROIC ENTHUSIASTS.\n\n\n\n\n=First Dialogue.=\n\n_Interlocutors:_\n\nCESARINO. MARICONDO.\n\n1.\n\n\nCES. It is said that the best and most excellent things are in the world\nwhen the whole universe responds from every part, perfectly, to those\nthings; and this it is said takes place as the planets arrive at Aries,\nbeing when that one of the eighth sphere again reaches the upper\ninvisible firmament, where is also the other Zodiac;[A] and low and evil\nthings prevail when the opposite disposition and order supervene, and\nthus through the power of change comes the continual mutation of like\nand unlike, from one opposite to another. The revolution then of the\ngreat year of the world is that space of time in which, through the most\ndiverse customs and effects, and by the most opposite and contrary\nmeans, it returns to the same again. As we see in particular years such\nas that of the sun, where the beginning of an opposite tendency is the\nend of one year, and the end of this is the beginning of that. Therefore\nnow that we have been in the dregs of the sciences, which have brought\nforth the dregs of opinions, which are the cause of the dregs of customs\nand of works, we may certainly expect to return to the better condition.\n\n    [A] Astronomers distinguish between a fixed and intellectual zodiac;\n    and the movable and visible zodiac. According to the former, Aries\n    still stands as the first of the signs; that is to say, the first\n    thirty degrees of the zodiacal circle, reckoning from the\n    equinoctial point in spring, are allotted to Aries in the\n    intellectual zodiac.... Astronomers generally choose to reckon by\n    the fixed and intellectual zodiac.--(Drummond's \"Oedipus Judaicus.\")\n\nMARICONDO. Know, my brother, that this succession and order of things is\nmost true and most certain; but as regards ourselves in all ordinary\nconditions whatever, the present afflicts more than the past, nor can\nthese two together console, but only the future, which is always in hope\nand expectation as you may see designated in this figure which is taken\nfrom the ancient Egyptians, who made a certain statue which is a bust,\nupon which they placed three heads, one of a wolf which looks behind,\none of a lion with the face turned half round, and the third of a dog\nwho looks straight before him; to signify that things of the past\nafflict by means of thoughts, but not so much as things of the present\nwhich actually torment, while the future ever promises something better;\ntherefore behold the wolf that howls, the lion that roars and the dog\nthat barks (applause).\n\nCES. What means that legend that is written above?\n\nMAR. See, that above the wolf is Lam, above the lion Modo, above the dog\nPraeterea, which are words signifying the three parts of time.\n\nCES. Now read the tablet.\n\nMAR. I will do so.\n\n41.\n\n    A wolf, a lion, and a dog appear\n    At dawn, at midday, and dark night.\n    That which I spent, retain and for myself procure,\n    So much was given, is given, and may be given;\n    For that which I did, I do, and have to do.\n    In the past, in the present and in the future,\n    I do repent, torment myself and re-assure,\n    For the loss, in suffering and in expectation.\n    With sour, with bitter and with sweet\n    Experience, the fruits, and hope,\n    Threatens, afflict, and comforts me.\n    The age I lived, do live and am to live,\n    Affrights me, shakes me and upholds\n    In absence, presence and in prospect.\n    Much, too much and sufficient\n    Of the past, of now, and of to come,\n    Put me in fear, in anguish and in hope.\n\nCES. This is precisely the humour of a furious lover, though the same\nmay be said of nearly all mortals who are seriously affected in any way.\nWe cannot say that this accords with all conditions in a general way,\nbut only with those mortals who were, and who are, wretched. So that to\nhim who sought a kingdom and obtained it, belongs the fear of losing the\nsame; and to one who has laboured to secure the fruits of love, such as\nthe special grace of the beloved, belongs the tooth of jealousy and\nsuspicion. Thus, too, with the states of the world; when we find\nourselves in darkness and in adversity we may surely prophecy light and\nprosperity, and when we are in a state of happiness and discipline,\ndoubtless we have to expect the advent of ignorance and distress. As in\nthe case of Hermes Trismegistus, who, seeing Egypt in all the splendour\nof the sciences and of occultism, so that he considered that men were\nconsorting with gods and spirits and were in consequence most pious, he\nmade that prophetic lament to Asclepios, saying that the darkness of new\nreligions and cults must follow, and that of the then present things\nnothing would remain but idle tales and matter for condemnation. So the\nHebrews, when they were slaves in Egypt, and banished to the deserts,\nwere comforted by their prophets with the hope of liberty and the\nre-acquisition of their country; when they were in authority and\ntranquillity they were menaced with dispersion and captivity. And as in\nthese days there is no evil nor injury to which we are not subject, so\nthere is no good nor honour that we may not promise ourselves. Thus does\nit happen to all the other generations and states, the which, if they\nendure and be not destroyed entirely by the force of vicissitude, it is\ninevitable that from evil they come to good, from good to evil, from low\nestate to high, from high to low, out of obscurity into splendour, out\nof splendour into obscurity, for this is the natural order of things;\noutside of which order, if another should be found which destroys or\ncorrects it, I should believe it and not dispute it, for I reason with\nnone other than a natural spirit.[B]\n\n    [B] As in long-drawn systole and long-drawn diastole, must the\n    period of Faith, alternate with the period of Denial; must the\n    vernal growth, the summer luxuriance of all Opinions, Spiritual\n    Representations and Creations, be followed by, and again follow the\n    autumnal decay, the winter dissolution.--(\"Sartor Resartus.\")\n\nMAR. We know that you are not a theologian but a philosopher, and that\nyou treat of philosophy and not of theology.\n\nCES. It is so. But let us see what follows.\n\n\nII.\n\nCES. I see a smoking thurible, supported by an arm, and the legend which\nsays: \"Illius aram,\" and then the following:--\n\n42.\n\n    Now who shall say the breath of my desire\n    Of high and holy worship is demeaned\n    If decked in divers forms ornate she come\n    Through vows I offer to the shrine of Fame?\n    And if another work should call, and lead me on,\n    Who would aver that more it might beseem\n    If that, of Heaven so loved and eulogized,\n    Should hold me not in its captivity.\n    Leave, oh leave me, every other wish,\n    Cease, fretting thoughts, and give me peace;\n    Why draw me forth from looking at the sun,\n    From looking at the sun that I so love.\n    You ask in pity, wherefore lookest thou\n    On that, on which to look is thy undoing?\n    Wherefore so captivated by that light?\n    And I will say, because to me this pain\n    Is dearer than all other pleasures are.\n\nMAR. In reference to this I told you that although one should be\nattached to corporeal and external beauty yet he may honourably and\nworthily be so attached; provided that, through this material beauty,\nwhich is a glittering ray of spiritual form and action, of which it is\nthe trace and shadow, he comes to raise himself to the consideration and\nworship of divine beauty, light and majesty; so that, from these visible\nthings his heart becomes exalted towards those things which are more\nexcellent in themselves and grateful to the purified soul, in so far as\nthey are removed from matter and sense. Ah me! he will say, if beauty so\nshadowy, so dim, so fugitive, painted on the surface of bodily matter\npleases me so much, and moves my affections so much, and stamps upon my\nspirit I know not what of reverence for majesty, captivates me, softly\nbinds me, and draws me, so that I find nothing that comes within the\nsenses that satisfies me so much,--how will it be with the\nsubstantially, originally, primitively beautiful? How will it be with my\nsoul, the divine intellect, and the law of nature? It is right, then,\nthat the contemplation of this vestige of light lead me, through the\npurification of my soul, to the imitation, and to conformity and\nparticipation in that which is more worthy and higher, into which I am\ntransformed and unto which I unite myself: for I am certain that\nnature, which has placed this beauty before my eyes and has gifted me\nwith an interior sense, through which I am able to infer a deeper and\nincomparably greater beauty, wills that I be promoted to the altitude\nand eminence of more excellent kinds. Nor do I believe that my true\ndivinity, as she shows herself to me in symbols and vestiges, will scorn\nme if in symbols and vestiges I honour her and sacrifice to her; as my\nheart and affections are always so ordered as to look higher. For who\nmay he be, that can honour in essence and real substance, if in such\nmanner he cannot understand it?\n\n     It is in and through Symbols that man, consciously or\n     unconsciously, lives, works, and has his being. For is not a Symbol\n     ever, to him who has eyes for it, some dimmer or clearer\n     revelation, of the Godlike?--(\"Sartor Resartus.\")\n\nCES. Right well do you demonstrate how, to men of heroic spirit, all\nthings turn to good and how they are able to turn captivity into greater\nliberty, and the being vanquished into an occasion for greater victory.\nWell dost thou know that the love of corporeal beauty to those who are\nwell disposed, not only does not keep them back from higher enterprises,\nbut rather does it lend wings to arrive at these, when the necessity for\nlove is converted into a study of the virtuous, through which the lover\nis forced into those conditions in which he is worthy of the thing loved\nand perchance of even a still higher, better and more beautiful thing;\nso that he comes to be either contented to have gained that which he\ndesires, or so satisfied with its own beauty, that he can despise that\nof others, which comes to be, by him, vanquished and overcome, so that\nhe either remains tranquil, or else he aspires to things more excellent\nand grand. And so will the heroic spirit ever go on trying until it\nbecomes raised to the desire of divine beauty itself, without\nsimilitude, figure, symbol, or kind, if it be possible, and what is more\none knows that he will reach that height.\n\nMAR. You see, Cesarino, how this enthusiast is justified in his anger\nagainst those who reproach him with being in captivity to a low beauty,\nto which he dedicates his vows, and attributes these forms, so that he\nis deaf to those voices which call him to nobler enterprises: for these\nlow things are derived from those, and are dependent upon them, so that\nthrough these you may gain access to those, according to their own\ndegrees. These, if they be not God, are things divine, are living images\nof Him, in the which, if He sees Himself adored, He is not offended.\nFor we have a charge from the supernal spirit which says: Adorate\nsgabellum pedum eius. And in another place a divine messenger says:\nAdorabimus ubi steterunt pedes eius.\n\nCES. God, the divine beauty, and splendour shines and _is_ in all\nthings; and therefore it does not appear to me an error to admire Him in\nall things, according to the way in which we have communion with them.\nError it would surely be if we should give to another the honour due to\nHim alone. But what means the enthusiast when he says, \"Leave, leave me,\nevery other wish\"?\n\nMAR. That he banishes every thought presented to him by different\nobjects, which have not the power to move him and which would rob him of\nthe sight of the sun which comes to him through that window more than\nthrough others.\n\nCES. Why, importuned by thoughts, does he continually gaze at that\nsplendour which destroys him, and yet does not satisfy him, as it\ntorments him ever so fiercely?\n\nMAR. Because all our consolations in this state of controversy are not\nwithout their discouragements, however vast those consolations may be.\nJust as the fear of a king for the loss of his kingdom, is greater than\nthat of a mendicant who is in peril of losing ten farthings; and more\nimportant is the care of a prince over a republic, than that of a rustic\nover a herd of swine; as perchance the pleasures and delights of the one\nare greater than the pleasures and delights of the other. Therefore the\nloving and aspiring higher, brings with it greater glory and majesty,\nwith more care, thought, and pain: I mean in this state, where the one\nopposite is always joined to the other, finding the greatest contrariety\nalways in the same genus, and consequently about the same subject,\nalthough the opposites cannot be together. And thus proportionally in\nthe love of the supernal Eros, as the Epicurean poet declares of vulgar\nand animal desire when he says:--\n\n    Fluctuat incertis erroribus ardor amantum,\n    Nec constat, quid primum oculis, manibusque fruantur:\n    Quod petiere, premunt arte, faciuntque dolorem\n    Corporis, et dentes inlidunt saepe labellis,\n    Osculaque adfigunt, quia non est pura voluptas,\n    Et stimuli subsunt, qui instigant laedere id ipsum,\n    Quodcunque est, rabies, unde illa haec germina surgunt.\n    Sed leviter poenas frangit Venus inter amorem,\n    Blandaque refraenat morsus admixta voluptas;\n    Namque in eo spes est, unde est ardoris origo,\n    Restingui quoque posse ab eodem corpore flammam.\n\nBehold, then, with what condiments the skill and art of nature works,\nso that one is wasted with the pleasure of that which destroys him, is\nhappy in the midst of torment, and tormented in the midst of all the\nsatisfactions. For nothing is produced absolutely from a homoeogeneous\n(pacifico) principle, but all from opposite principles, through the\nvictory and dominion of one part of the opposites, and there is no\npleasure of generation on one side without the pain of corruption on the\nother: and where these things which are generated and corrupted are\njoined together and as it were compose the same subject, the feeling of\ndelight and of sadness are found together; so that it comes to be called\nmore easily delight than sadness, if it happens that this predominates,\nand solicits the senses with greater force.\n\n\nIII.\n\nCES. Now let us take into consideration the following image which is\nthat of a phoenix, which burns in the sun, and the smoke from which\nalmost obscures the brightness of that by which it is set on fire, and\nhere is the motto which says: Neque simile, nec par mar.\n\n43.\n\nMAR.:\n\n    This phoenix set on fire by the bright sun,\n    Which slowly, slowly to extinction goes,\n    The while she, girt with splendour burning lies;\n    Yields to her star antagonistic fief\n    Through that which towards the sky to Heaven ascends.\n    Black smoke, and sombre fog of murky hue\n    Concealing thus his radiance from our eyes,\n    And veiling that which makes her burn and shine.\n    And so my soul, illumined and inflamed\n    By radiance divine, would fain display\n    The brightness of her own effulgent thought;\n    The lofty concept of her song sends forth.\n    In words which do but hide the glorious light,\n    [C]While I dissolve and melt and am destroyed.\n    Ah me! this lowering cloud, this smoky fire of words\n    Abases that which it would elevate.\n\n    [C] But not till the whole personality of the man is dissolved and\n    melted--not until it is held by the divine fragment which has\n    created it, as a mere subject for the grave experiment and\n    experience--not until the whole nature has yielded and become\n    subject unto its higher self, can the bloom open.--(\"Light on the\n    Path.\")\n\nCES. This fellow then says that as this phoenix set on fire by the sun\nand accustomed to light and flame comes to send upwards that smoke which\nobscures him who has rendered her so luminous, so he, the inflamed and\nilluminated enthusiast, through that which he does in praise of such an\nillustrious subject which has warmed his heart and which shines in his\nthought, comes rather to conceal it than to render it light for light,\nsending forth that smoke the effect of the flame, in which the\nsubstance of himself is resolved.\n\nMAR. I, without weighing and comparing the studies of that fellow,\nrepeat what I said to you the other day, that praise is one of the\ngreatest oblations that human affection can offer to an object. And\nleaving on one side the proposition of the Divine, tell me, who would\nhave known of Achilles, Ulysses, and all the other Greek and Trojan\nchiefs? Who would have heard of all those great soldiers, the wise and\nthe heroes of the earth, if they had not been placed amongst the stars\nand deified by the oblation of praise which has lighted the fire on the\naltar of the heart of illustrious poets and other singers, so that\nusually, the sacrificant, the victim and the sanctified deity, all\nmounted to the skies, through the hand and the vow of a worthy and\nlawful priest?\n\nCES. Well sayest thou \"of a worthy and lawful priest,\" for the world is\nat present full of apostate ones, the which, as they are for the most\npart unworthy themselves, sing the praises of other unworthy ones, so\nthat, asini asinos fricant. But Providence wills that these, instead of\nrising to the sky, should go together to the shades of Orcus, so that\nnaught is the glory of him who extols and of him who is extolled; for\nthe one has woven a statue of straw, or carved the trunk of a tree, or\ncast a piece of chalk, and the other, the idol of shame and infamy,\nknows not that there is no need to wait for the keen tooth of the age\nand the scythe of Saturn in order to be put down, for through those\nself-same praises he gets buried alive then and there, while he is being\npraised, saluted, hailed, and presented. Just as it happened in a\ncontrary way, so that much-praised Moecenatus, who, if he had had no\nother glory than a soul inclined to protect and favour the Muses, for\nthis alone merited, that the genius of so many illustrious poets should\ndo him homage, and place him in the number of the most famous heroes who\nhave trod this earth. His own studies and his own brightness made him\nprominent and grand, and not the being born of a royal race, and not the\nbeing grand secretary and councillor of Augustus. That, I say, which\nmade him illustrious was the having made himself worthy to fulfil the\npromise of that poet who says:--\n\n    Fortunati ambo, si quid mea carmina possunt,\n    Nulla dies nunquam memori vos eximet aevo,\n    Dum domus Aeneae Capitoli immobile saxum\n    Accolet, imperiumque pater romanus habebit.\n\nMAR. I remember what Seneca says in certain letters where he refers to\nthe words of Epicurus to a friend, which are these: \"If the love of\nglory is dear to thy breast, these letters of mine will make thee more\nfamous and known than all those other things which thou honourest, by\nwhich thou art honoured, and of which thou mayest boast. The same might\nHomer have said if Achilles or Ulysses had presented themselves before\nhim, or Eneas and his offspring before Virgil; as that moral philosopher\nwell said; Domenea is more known through the letters of Epicurus, than\nall the magicians, satraps and royalties upon whom depended his title of\nDomenea and the memory of whom was lost in the depths of oblivion.\nAtticus does not survive because he was the son-in-law of Agrippa and\nancestor of Tiberius, but through the epistles of Tully; Drusus, the\nancestor of Caesar, would not be found amongst the number of great names\nif Cicero had not inserted it. Many, many years may pass over our heads,\nand in all that time not many geniuses will keep their heads raised.\n\nNow to return to the question of this enthusiast, who, seeing a phoenix\nset on fire by the sun, calls to mind his own cares, and laments that\nlike the phoenix he sends, in exchange for the light and heat received,\na sluggish smoke from the holocaust of his melted substance. Wherefore\nnot only can we never discourse about things divine, but we cannot even\nthink of them without detracting from, rather than adding to the glory\nof them; so that the best thing to be done with regard to them is, that\nman, in the presence of other men, should rather praise himself for his\nearnestness and courage, than give praise to anything, as complete and\nperfected action; seeing that no such thing can be expected where there\nis progress towards the infinite, where unity and infinity are the same\nthing and cannot be followed by the other number, because there is no\nunity from another unity, nor is there number from another number and\nunity, because they are not the same absolute and infinite. Therefore\nwas it well said by a theologian that as the fountain of light far\nexceeds not only our intellects, but also the divine, it is decorous\nthat one should not discourse with words, but that with silence alone it\nshould be magnified.[D]\n\n    [D] Now, it may be asked, what is the state of a man who followeth\n    the true Light to the utmost of his power? I answer truly, it will\n    never be declared aright, for he who is not such a man, can neither\n    understand nor know it, and he who is, knoweth it indeed; but he\n    cannot utter it, for it is unspeakable.--(\"Theologia Germanica.\")\n\nCES. Not, verily, with such silence as that of the brutes who are in the\nlikeness and image of men, but of those whose silence is more exalted\nthan all the cries and noise and screams of those who may be heard.[E]\n\n    [E] \"Speech is of time, silence is of eternity.\"--(\"Sartor\n    Resartus.\")\n\n\nIV.\n\nMAR. Let us go on and see what the rest means.\n\nCES. Say, if you have seen and considered it, what is the meaning of\nthis fire in the form of a heart with four wings, two of which have eyes\nand the whole is girt with luminous rays and has round about it this\nquestion: Nitimur incassum?\n\nMAR. I remember well, that it signifies the state of the mind, heart and\nspirit and eyes of the enthusiast, but read the sonnet!\n\n44.\n\n    [F]Splendour divine, to which this mind aspires,\n    The intellect alone cannot unveil.\n    The heart, which those high thoughts would animate,\n    Makes not itself their lord; nor spirit, which\n    Should cease from pleasure for a space,\n    Can ever from those heights withdraw.\n    The eyes which should be closed at night in sleep,\n    Awake remain, open, and full of tears.\n    Ah me, my lights! where are the zeal and art\n    With which to tranquillize the afflicted sense?\n    Tell me my soul; what time and in what place\n    Shall I thy deep transcendent woe assuage?\n    And thou my heart, what solace can I bring\n    As compensation to thy heavy pain?\n    When, oh unquiet and perturbed mind,\n    Wilt thou the soul for debt and dole receive\n    With heart, with spirit and the sorrowing eyes?\n\n    [F] Let no one suppose that we may attain to this true light and\n    perfect knowledge by hearsay, or by reading and study, nor yet by\n    high skill and great learning.--(\"Theologia Germanica.\")\n\nThe mind which aspires to the divine splendour flees from the society of\nthe crowd and retires from the multitude of subjects, as much as from\nthe community of studies, opinions and sentences; seeing that the peril\nof contracting vices and illusions is greater, according to the number\nof persons with whom one is allied. In the public shows, said the moral\nphilosopher, by means of pleasure, vices are more easily engendered. If\none aspires to the supreme splendour, let him retire as much as he can,\nfrom union and support, into himself (Di sorte che non sia simile a\nmolti, per che son molti; e non sia nemico di molti per che son\ndissimili), so that he be not like unto many, because they are many; and\nbe not adverse to many, because they are dissimilar; if it be possible,\nlet him retain the one and the other; otherwise he will incline to that\nwhich seems to him best. Let him associate either with those whom he can\nmake better or with those through whom he may be made better, through\nbrightness which he may impart to those or that he may receive from\nthem. Let him be content with one ideal rather than with the inept\nmultitude. Nor will he hold that he has gained little, when he has\nbecome such an one who is wise unto himself, remembering what Democritus\nsays: Unus mihi pro populo est, et populus pro uno; and what Epicurus\nsaid to a companion of his studies, writing to him: \"Haec tibi, non\nmultis! Satis enim magnum alter alteri theatrum sumus.\"\n\nThe mind, then, which aspires high, leaves, for the first thing, caring\nabout the crowd, considering that that divine light despises striving\nand is only to be found where there is intelligence, and yet not every\nintelligence, but that which is amongst the few, the chief, the first\namong the first, the principal one.\n\nCES. How do you mean that the mind aspires high? For example, by looking\nat the stars? At the empyreal heaven above the ether?\n\nMAR. Certainly not! but by plunging into the depths of the mind, for\nwhich there is no great need to open the eyes to the sky, to raise the\nhands, to direct the steps to the temple, nor sing to the ears of\nstatues in order to be the better heard, but to come into the inner self\nbelieving that, God is near, present and within, more fully than man\nhimself,[G] being soul of souls, life of lives, essence of essences: for\nthat which you see above or below, or round about, or however you please\nto say it, of the stars, are bodies, are created things, similar to this\nglobe on which we are, and in which the divinity is present neither more\nnor less than he is in this globe of ours or in ourselves. This is how,\nthen, one must begin to withdraw oneself from the multitude into\noneself. One ought to arrive at such a point to despise and not to\noverestimate every labour, so that, the more the desires and the vices\ncontend with each other inwardly and the vicious enemies dispute\noutwardly, so much the more should one breathe and rise, and with\nspirit, if possible, surmount this steep hill. Here there is no need for\nother arms and shield than the majesty of an unconquered soul and a\ntolerant spirit, which maintains the quality and meaning of that life\nwhich proceeds from science and is regulated by the art of considering\nattentively things low and high, divine and human, in the which consists\nthat highest good, and in reference to this, a moral philosopher wrote\nto Lucillus that one must not linger between Scylla and Charybdis,\npenetrate the wilds of Candavia and the Apennines or lose oneself in the\nsandy plains, because the road is as sure and as blythe as Nature\nherself could make it. \"It is not,\" says he, \"gold and silver that makes\none like God, because these are not treasure to Him; nor vestments, for\nGod is naked; nor ostentation and fame, for He shows Himself to few, and\nperhaps not one knows Him, and certainly many, and more than many, have\na bad opinion of Him. Not all the various conditions of things which we\nusually admire, for not those things of which we desire to have copies,\nmake one rich, but the contempt for those things.\"\n\n    [G] For, in this (degree), God cannot be tasted, felt, seen, because\n    he is more ourselves than ourselves, is not distinct from\n    us.--(\"Spiritual Torrents.\")\n\nCES. Well. But tell me in what manner will this fellow tranquillize the\nsenses, assuage the woes of the spirit, compensate the heart and give\nits just debts to the mind, so that with this aspiration of his he come\nnot to say: \"Nitimur incassum\"?\n\nMAR. He will be present in the body in such wise that the best part of\nhimself will be absent from it, and will join himself by an indissoluble\nsacrament to divine things, in such a way that he will not feel either\nlove or hatred of things mortal. Considering himself as master, and that\nhe ought not to be servant and slave to his body, which he would regard\nonly as the prison which holds his liberty in confinement, the glue\nwhich smears his wings, chains which bind fast his hands, stocks which\nfix his feet, veil which hides his view. Let him not be servant,\ncaptive, ensnared, chained, idle, stolid and blind, for the body which\nhe himself abandons cannot tyrannize over him, so that thus, the spirit\nin a certain degree comes before him as the corporeal world, and matter\nis subject to the divinity and to nature. Thus will he become strong\nagainst fortune, magnanimous towards injuries, intrepid towards poverty,\ndisease and persecution.\n\nCES. Well is the heroic enthusiast instructed!\n\n\nV.\n\nCES. Close by is to be seen that which follows. See the wheel of time,\nwhich moves round its own centre, and there is the legend: \"Manens\nmoveor.\" What do you mean by that?\n\nMAR. This means that movement is circular where motion concurs with\nrest, seeing that in orbicular motion upon its own axis and about its\nown centre is understood rest and stability according to right\nmovement, or, rest of the whole and movement of the parts; and from the\nparts which move in a circle is understood two different kinds of\nmotion, inasmuch as some parts rise to the summit and others from the\nsummit descend to the base successively; others reach the medium\ndifferences, and others the extremes of high and low. And all this seems\nto me suitably expressed in the following:\n\n45.\n\n    That which keeps my heart both open and concealed,\n    Beauty imprints and honesty dispels;\n    Zeal holds me fast; all other care comes to me\n    By that same path whence all care to the soul doth come:\n    Seek I myself from pain to disengage,\n    Hope sustains me then, whoso scourges, tires;--(altrui rigor mi lassa)\n    Love doth exalt and reverence abase me\n    What time I yearn towards the highest good.\n    High thoughts, holy desires, and mind intent\n    Upon the labours and the cunning of the heart\n    Towards the immense divine immortal object,\n    So do, that I be joined, united, fed,\n    That I lament no more; that reason, sense, attend,\n    Discourse and penetrate to other things.\n\nSo that the continual movement of one part supposes and carries with it\nthe movement of the whole, in such a way that the attraction of the\nposterior parts is consequent upon the repulsion of the anterior parts;\nthus the movement of the superior parts results of necessity from that\nof the inferior, and from the raising of one opposite power, follows the\ndepression of the other opposite. Therefore the heart, which signifies\nall the affections generally, comes to be concealed and open, held by\nzeal, raised by magnificent thoughts, sustained by hope, weakened by\nfear, and in this state and condition will it ever be seen and found.\n\n\nVI.\n\nCES. That is all well. Let us come to that which follows. I see a ship\nfloating on the waves; its ropes are attached to the shore and there is\nthe legend: Fluctuat in portu. Deliberate about the signification of\nthis, and when you are decided about it, explain.\n\nMAR. Both the legend and the figure have a certain connexion with the\npresent legend and figure, as may be easily understood, if one considers\nit a little. But let us read the sonnet.\n\n46.\n\n    If I by gods, by heroes and by men\n    Be re-assured, so that I not despair,\n    Nor fear, pain, nor the impediments\n    Of death of body, joy and happiness,\n    Yet must I learn to suffer and to feel.\n    And that I may my pathways clearly see,\n    Let doubts arise, and dolour, and the woe\n    Of vanished hopes, of joy and all delight.\n    But if _he_ should behold, should grant, and should attend\n    My thoughts, my wishes, and my reasoning,\n    Who makes them so uncertain, hot, and vague,\n    Such dear conceits, such acts and speech,\n    Will not be given nor done to him, who stays\n    From birth, through life, to death in sheltered home.\n\n    Non da, non fa, non ha qualunque stassi\n    De l'orto, vita e morte a le magioni.\n\nFrom what we have considered and said in the preceding discourses one is\nable to understand these sentiments, especially where it is shown that\nthe sense of low things is diminished and annulled whenever the superior\npowers are strongly intent upon a more elevated and heroic object. The\npower of contemplation is so great, as is noted by Jamblichus, that it\nhappens sometimes, not only that the soul ceases from inferior acts, but\nthat it leaves the body entirely. The which I will not understand\notherwise than in such various ways as are explained in the book of\nthirty seals, wherein are produced so many methods of contraction, of\nwhich some infamously, others heroically operate, that one learns not to\nfear death, suffers not pain of body, feels not the hindrances of\npleasures: wherefore the hope, the joy, and the delight of the superior\nspirit are of so intense a kind that they extinguish all those passions\nwhich may have their origin in doubt, in pain and all kinds of sadness.\n\nCES. But what is that, of which he requests that it consider those\nthoughts which it has rendered so uncertain, fulfil those desires which\nit has made so ardent, and listen to those discourses which it has\nrendered so vague?\n\nMAR. He means the Object, which he beholds when it makes itself present;\nfor to see the Divine is to be seen by it, as to see the sun concurs\nwith the being seen of the sun. Equally, to be heard by the Divine, is\nprecisely to listen to it, and to be favoured by it, is the same as to\noffer to it; for from the one immoveable and the same, proceed thoughts\nuncertain and certain, desires ardent and appeased, and reasonings valid\nand vain, according as the man worthily or unworthily puts them before\nhimself, with the intellect, the affections and actions. As that same\npilot may be said to be the cause of the sinking or of the safety of the\nship, according as he is present in it or absent from it; with this\ndifference, that the pilot through his defectiveness or his efficiency\nruins or saves the ship; but the Divine potency which is all in all does\nnot proffer or withhold except through assimilation or rejection by\noneself.[H]\n\n    [H] Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock,\n    and it shall be opened unto you.--(\"St. Matthew.\")\n\n\nVII.\n\nMAR. It seems to me that the following figure is closely connected and\nlinked with the above; there are two stars in the form of two radiant\neyes, with the legend: Mors et vita.\n\nCES. Read the sonnet!\n\nMAR. I will do so:\n\n47.\n\n    Writ by the hand of Love may each behold\n    Upon my face the story of my woes.\n    But thou, so that thy pride no curb may know,\n    And I, unhappy one, eternally might rest,\n    Thou dost torment, by hiding from my view\n    Those lovely lights beneath the beauteous lids.\n    Therefore the troubled sky's no more serene,\n    Nor hostile baleful shadows fall away.\n    By thine own beauty, by this love of mine\n    (So great that e'en with this it may compare),\n    Render thyself, oh Goddess, unto pity!\n    Prolong no more this all-unmeasured woe,\n    Ill-timed reward for such a love as this.\n    Let not such rigour with such splendour mate\n    If it import thee that I live!\n    Open, oh lady, the portals of thine eyes,\n    And look on me if thou wouldst give me death!\n\nHere, the face upon which the story of his woes appears is the soul; in\nso far as it is open to receive those superior gifts, for the which it\nhas a potential aptitude, without the fulness of perfection and act\nwhich waits for the dew of heaven. Thus was it well said: Anima mea\nsicut terra sine aqua tibi; and again: Os meum operui; and again:\nSpiritum, quia mandata tua desiderabam. Then \"pride which knows no curb\"\nis said in metaphor and similitude, as God is sometimes said to be\njealous, angry, or that He sleeps, and that signifies the difficulty\nwith which He grants so much even as to show his shoulders, which is the\nmaking himself known by means of posterior things and effects. So the\nlights are covered with the eyelids, the troubled sky of the human mind\ndoes not clear itself by the removal of the metaphors and enigmas.\nBesides which, because he does not believe that all which is not, could\nnot be, he prays the divine light, that by its beauty, which ought not\nto be entirely concealed, at least according to the capacity of whoever\nbeholds it, and by his love, which, perchance, is equal to so much\nbeauty (equal, he means, of the beauty, in so far as he can comprehend\nit) that it surrender itself to pity, that is, that it should do as\nthose who are compassionate, and who from being capricious and gloomy\nbecome gracious and affable and that it prolong not the evil which\nresults from that privation, and not allow that its splendour, for which\nit is so much desired, should appear greater than that love by means of\nwhich it communicates itself, seeing that in it all the perfections are\nnot only equal but are also the same. In fine, he begs that it will no\nfurther sadden by privation, for it can kill with the glance of its eyes\nand can also with those same give him life.\n\nCES. Does he mean that death of lovers, which comes from intense joy,\ncalled by the Kabalists, mors osculi, which same is eternal life, which\na man may anticipate in this life and enjoy in eternity?\n\nMAR. He does.\n\n\nVIII.\n\nMAR. It is time to proceed to the consideration of the following design,\nsimilar to those previously brought forward, and with which it has a\ncertain affinity. There is an eagle, which with two wings cleaves the\nsky; but I do not know how much and in what manner it comes to be\nretarded by the weight of a stone which is tied to its leg. There is the\nlegend: Scinditur incertum. It is certain that it signifies the\nmultitude, number and character (volgo) of the powers of the soul, to\nexemplify which, that verse is taken: Scinditur incertum studia in\ncontraria vulgus. The whole of which character (volgo) in general is\ndivided into two factions; although subordinate to these, others are not\nwanting, of which some appeal to the high intelligence and splendour of\nrectitude, while others incite and force in a certain manner to the low,\nto the uncleanness of voluptuousness and compliance with natural\ndesires. Therefore says the sonnet:\n\n48.\n\n    I would do well--to me 'tis not allowed.\n    With me my sun is not, although I be with him,\n    For being with him, I'm no more with myself:\n    The farther from myself--the nearer unto him;\n    The nearer unto him, the farther from myself.\n    Once to enjoy, doth cost me many tears,\n    And seeking happiness, I meet with woe.\n    For that I look aloft, so blind am I.\n    That I may gain my love, I lose myself.\n    Through bitter joy, and through sweet pain,\n    Weighted with lead, I rise towards the sky.\n    Necessity withholds, goodness conducts me on,\n    Fate sinks me down, and counsel raises me,\n    Desire spurs me, fear keeps me in check.\n    Care kindles and the peril backward draws.\n    Tell me, what power or what subterfuge\n    Can give me peace and bring me from this strife,\n    If one repels, the other draws me on.\n\nThe ascension goes on in the soul through the power and appulsion in\nthe wings, which are the intellect, or intellectual will upon which she\nnaturally depends and through which she fixes her gaze toward God, as to\nthe highest good, and primal truth, as to absolute goodness and beauty.\nThus everything has an impetus towards its beginning retrogressively,\nand progressively towards its end and perfection, as Empedocles well\nsaid, and from which sentence I think may be inferred that which the\nNolan said in this octave:\n\n    The sun must turn and reach his starting-point,\n    Each wandering light must go towards its source,\n    That which is earth to earth itself reverts,\n    The rivers from the sea to sea return,\n    And thither, whence desires have life and grow\n    Must they aspire as to revered divinity,\n    So every thought born of my lady fair\n    Comes back perforce to her, my goddess dear.\n\nThe intellectual power is never at rest, it is never satisfied with any\ncomprehended truth, but ever proceeds on and on towards that truth which\nis not comprehended. So also the will which follows the apprehension, we\nsee that it is never satisfied with anything finite. In consequence of\nthis, the essence of the soul is always referred to the source of its\nsubstance and entity. Then as to the natural powers, by means of which\nit is turned to the protection and government of matter, to which it\nallies itself, and by appulsion benefits and communicates of its\nperfection to inferior things, through the likeness which it has to the\nDivine, which in its benignity communicates itself or produces\ninfinitely, _i.e._ imparts existence to the universal infinite and to\nthe innumerable worlds in it, or, finitely, produces this universe\nalone, subject to our eyes and our common reason. Thus then in the one\nsole essence of the soul are found these two kinds of powers, and as\nthey are used for one's own good and for the good of others, it follows\nthat they are depicted with a pair of wings, by means of which it is\npotent towards the object of the primal and immaterial potencies, and\nwith a heavy stone, through which it is active and efficacious towards\nthe objects of the secondary and material potencies. Whence it follows\nthat the entire affection of the enthusiast is bifold, divided,\nharassed, and placed in a position to incline itself more easily\ndownwards than to force itself upwards: seeing that the soul finds\nitself in a low and hostile country, and reaches the far-off region of\nits more natural home where its powers are the weakest.\n\nCES. Do you think that this difficulty can be overcome?\n\nMAR. Perfectly well; but the beginning is most difficult, and according\nas we make more and more fruitful progress in contemplation we arrive at\na greater and greater facility. As happens to whoever flys up high, the\nmore he rises above the earth the more air he has beneath to uphold him,\nand consequently the less he is affected by gravitation; he may even\nrise so high that he cannot, without the labour of cleaving the air,\nreturn downwards, although one might imagine it were more easy to cleave\nthe air downwards towards the earth than to rise on high towards the\nstars.\n\nCES. So that with progress of this kind a greater and greater facility\nis acquired for mounting on high?\n\nMAR. So it is; therefore well said Tansillo:--\n\n    \"The more I feel the air beneath my feet\n    So much the more towards the wind I bend\n    My swiftest pinions\n    And spurn the world and up towards Heaven I go.\"\n\nAs every part of bodies and of their elements, the nearer they come to\ntheir natural place, the greater the impetus and force with which they\nmove, until at last, whether they will or not, they must prevail. That\nwhich we see then in the parts of bodies and in the bodies themselves we\nought also to allow of intellectual things towards their proper\nobjects, as their proper places, countries, and ends. Whence you may\neasily comprehend the entire significance of the figure, the legend, and\nthe verses.\n\nCES. So much so that whatsoever you might add thereto would appear to me\nsuperfluous.\n\n\nIX.\n\nCES. Let us see what is here represented by those two radiating arrows\nupon a target around which is written: Vicit instans.\n\nMAR. The continual struggle in the soul of the enthusiast, the which, in\nconsequence of the long familiarity which it had with matter was hard\nand incapable of being penetrated by the rays of the splendour of the\nDivine intelligence and the species of the Divine goodness; during which\ntime, he says that the heart was enamelled with diamond, that is, the\naffection was hard and not capable of being heated and penetrated, and\nit rejected the blows of love which assailed it on innumerable sides.\nThat is, it did not feel itself wounded by those wounds of eternal life\nof which the Psalmist speaks when he says: Vulnerasti cor meum, o\ndilecta, vulnerasti cor meum. The which wounds are not from iron or\nother material through the vigour and strength of nerves, but are darts\nof Diana, or of Phoebus, that is, either from the goddess of the\ndeserts--of contemplation of truth, that is, from Diana, who is the\norder of the second intelligences, which transfer the splendour received\nfrom the first and communicate it to the others, who are deprived of a\nmore open vision; or else from the principal god Apollo, who with his\nown, and not a borrowed splendour, sends his darts, that is, his rays,\nso many and from such innumerable points, which are all the species of\nthings, which are indications of Divine goodness, intelligence, beauty,\nand wisdom, according to the various degrees, from the simple\ncomprehension, to the becoming heroic enthusiasts; because the\nadamantine subject does not reflect from its surface the impression of\nthe light, but, destroyed and overcome by the heat and light, it becomes\nin substance luminous--all light--so that it is penetrated within the\naffection and conception. This is not immediately, at the beginning of\ngeneration, when the soul comes forth fresh from the intoxication of\nLethe, and drenched with the waves of forgetfulness and confusion, so\nthat the spirit comes into captivity to the body, and is put into the\ncondition of growth; but little by little, it goes on digesting, so as\nto become fitted for the action of the sensitive faculty, until,\nthrough the rational and discursive faculty, it comes to a purer\nintellectual one, so that it can present itself to the mind, without\nfeeling itself befogged by the exhalations of that humour, which,\nthrough the exercise of contemplation, has been saved from putrefaction\nin the stomach and is duly digested. In this state, the present\nenthusiast shows himself to have remained thirty years, during which\ntime he had not reached that purity of conception which would make him a\nsuitable habitation for the wandering species, which offering themselves\nto all, equally, knock, ever at the door of the intelligence. At last,\nLove, who in various ways and at different times had assaulted him as it\nwere in vain--as the light and heat of the sun are said to be useless to\nthose who are in the opaque depths and bowels of the earth--having\nlocated itself in those sacred lights, that is having shown forth the\nDivine Beauty through two intelligible species the which bound his\nintellect through the reasoning of Truth and warmed his affections\nthrough the reasoning of Goodness; while the material and sensitive\ndesires became superseded, which aforetime used, as it were, to triumph,\nremaining intact, notwithstanding the excellence of the soul. Because\nthose lights which made present the illuminating, acting intellect and\nsun of intelligence found easy ingress through his eyes; that of Truth\n(the intellect of Truth?) through the door of the intellectual faculty;\nthat of Goodness (intellect of Goodness?) through the door of the\nappetitive faculty, to the heart, that is, the substance of the general\naffection. This was that double ray, which came as from the hand of an\nirate warrior, who showed himself, now, as ready and as bold, as\naforetime he had appeared weak and negligent.[I]\n\nThen, when he first felt warmed and illuminated in his conception, was\nthat victorious point and moment of which it is said: Vicit instans.\n\n    [I] He takes it by assault, without offering battle: the heart is\n    unable to resist him.--(\"Spiritual Torrents.\")\n\nThus you can understand the sense of the following figure, legend and\nsonnet, which says:--\n\n49.\n\n    I fought with all my strength, 'gainst Love Divine\n    When he assailed with blows from every side\n    This cold, enamelled, adamantine heart,\n    Whence my desires defeated his intent.\n    At last, one day, 'twas as the heavens had willed.\n    Encamped I found him in those holy lights\n    Which, through mine own alone, of all the rest\n    An easy entrance to my heart could find.\n    'Twas then upon me fell that double bolt,\n    Flung as from hand of irate warrior\n    Who had for thirty years besieged in vain.\n    He marked that place and strongly there he held,\n    Planted the trophy there, and evermore\n    He holds my fleet wings in restrainment.\n    Meanwhile since then with more solemnity of preparation\n    The anger and the ire of my sweet enemy\n    Cease not to wound my heart.\n\nRare moment was that; the end of the beginning and perfection of\nvictory; rare were those two species which amongst all others found easy\nentrance, seeing that they contain in themselves the efficacy and the\nvirtue of all the others; for what higher and more excellent form can\npresent itself than that of the beauty, goodness and truth, which are\nthe source of every other truth, beauty, and goodness? \"He marked that\nplace\"--that is, took possession of the affections, noted them, and\nimpressed upon them his own character; \"and strongly there he held;\" he\nconfirmed and established them and sanctified them so that he can never\nagain lose them; for it is not possible that one should turn to love any\nother thing when once he has conceived in his mind the Divine Beauty,\nand it is as impossible that he can do other than love it, as it is\nimpossible that his desires should fall otherwise than towards good, or\nspecies of good. Therefore his inclination is in the highest degree\ntowards the primal good. So again, the wings, which used to be so fleet\nto go downwards with the weight of matter, are kept in restrainment, and\nthe sweet augers which are the efficacious assaults of the gracious\nenemy, who has been for so long time kept back, and excluded, a stranger\nand a pilgrim, never cease to wound, soliciting the affections and\nawakening thought. But now, the sole and entire possessor and disposer\nof the soul, for she neither wills nor wishes to will other, nor is she\npleased, nor will she that any other please her, whence he often says:--\n\n    Dolci ire, guerra dolce, dolci dardi,\n    Dolci mie piaghe, miei dolci dolori!\n\n\nX.\n\nCES. It would seem that we have nothing more to consider upon this\nproposition. Let us see now, how this quiver and bow of Eros display the\nsparks around, and the knot of the string, which hangs down with the\nlegend, which is: Subito, clam.\n\nMAR. Well do I remember having seen it expressed in the sonnet. But let\nus read it first.\n\n50.\n\n    Eager to find the much desired food,\n    The eagle towards the sky spreads out his wings\n    And warns of his approach both bird and beast,\n    The third flight bringing him upon the prey.\n    And the fierce lion roaring from his lair\n    Spreads horror all around and mortal fear;\n    And all wild beasts, admonished and forewarned,\n    Fly to the caves and cheat his cruel jaw.\n    The whale, ere he the dumb Protean herd\n    Hungry pursues, sends forth his nuncio,\n    From caves of Thetys spouts his water forth.\n    Lions and eagles of the earth and sky,\n    And whales, lords of the seas, come not with treachery,\n    But the assaults of Love come stealing secretly.\n\nThe animal kingdom is divided into three, and is composed of various\nelements: the earth, the water, the air, and there are three\nspecies--beasts, fishes, and birds. Into three kinds are the principles\nof nature settled and defined, in the air the eagle, on earth the lion,\nin the water the whale; of the which, each one, as it displays more\nstrength and command over the others, makes a show of magnanimous\naction, or apparently magnanimous. Therefore it is observed, that the\nlion, before he starts on the hunt trumpets forth his roar, which\nresounds through the whole forest, like to the poetical description of\nthe fury-hunter.\n\n    At saeva e speculis tempus dea nacta nocendi,\n    Ardua tecta petit, stabuli et de culmine summo\n    Pastorale canit signum, cornuque recurvo\n    Tartaream intendit vocem, qua protinus omne\n    Contremuit nemus, et silvae intonuere profundae.\n\nThe eagle again, before he proceeds to his venery, first rises straight\nfrom the nest in a perpendicular line upwards, and generally speaking at\nthe third time he swoops from above with greater impetus and swiftness\nthan if he were flying in a direct line, so that at the time when he is\ngaining the greatest velocity of flight, he is able also to speculate\nupon his success with the prey, and after three inspections he knows\nwhether he will succeed or fail.\n\nCES. Can one imagine why, if at the first his prey presents itself\nbefore his eyes, he does not instantly pounce upon it?\n\nMAR. No; unless it be to see whether anything better, or more easily\ntaken, comes to sight. At the same time I do not believe that this is\nalways so, but most often it is. But to return. Of the whale it is\nmanifest that, being such a huge animal, he cannot divide the waters\nwithout making his presence known through the repulsion of the waves,\nbesides which there are several species of this fish, that when they\nmove or breathe, spout forth a windy tempest of water. Thus from these\nthree principal species of animals, the inferior kinds have warning to\nenable them to get away, so that they do not conduct themselves as\ndeceivers and traitors. But Love, who is stronger and greater and who\nhas supreme dominion in heaven, on earth, and in the seas, and who in\ncomparison ought perhaps to show greater magnanimity, as he also has\nmore power, does nothing of the kind, but assaults and wounds suddenly\nand swiftly.\n\n    Labitur totas furor in medullas,\n    Igne furtivo populante venas,\n    Nec habet latum data plaga frontem;\n    Sed vorat tectas penitas medullas,\n    Virginum ignoto ferit igne pectus.\n\nAs you perceive, the tragic poet calls him a furtive fire, an unknown\nflame. Solomon calls it furtive waters. Samuel named it the whisper of a\ngentle wind. The which three significations show with what sweetness,\ngentleness, and astuteness, in seas, on earth, in sky, does this fellow\ncome and tyrannize over the whole universe.\n\nCES. There is no vaster empire, no worse tyranny, no better dominion, no\nmore necessary magistracy, nothing more sweet and dear, no food to be\nfound more hard and bitter, no deity more violent, no god more pleasing,\nno agent more treacherous and false, no author more regal and faithful,\nand, in fine, it seems to me that Love is all and does all, of him all\nmay be said, and all may refer itself to him.\n\nMAR. You say well. Love then, as he who works chiefly through the\nsight, which is the most spiritual of all the senses, and which reaches\nswiftly the known ends of the earth, and without stretch of time takes\nin the whole horizon of the visible, comes to be quick, furtive, sudden\nand instantaneous. Besides which, we must remember what the ancients\nsay, that Love precedes all the other gods, and therefore it is no use\nto imagine that Saturn shows him the way except by following him. Now\nmust we find out, whether Love appears and makes himself known\nexternally, whether his home is the soul itself, his bed the heart\nitself, and whether he consists of the same composition as our own\nsubstance, the same impulse as our own powers. Finally everything\nnaturally desires the beautiful and the good, and therefore it is\nuseless to argue and discuss, because the affection informs and confirms\nitself, and in one instant desire joins itself to the desirable, as the\nsight to the visible.\n\n\nXI.\n\nCES. Let us see here, what is the meaning of that burning arrow, around\nwhich is the legend: Cui nova plaga loco? Explain what part does this\nseek to wound?\n\nMAR. Read the sonnet which says:--\n\n51.\n\n    That all the ears of corn that may be reaped\n    In burning Apuleia, or sunbrowned Lybia,\n    With all that they unto the winds entrust,\n    Or that the rays from the great planet sent,\n    Should number those sad pains of my glad soul,\n    Which she from those two burning stars receives\n    With mournful joy in sweetest agony,\n    Forbid me Sense and Reason to believe.\n    What would'st thou more, sweet foe?\n    What wish is that which moves thee still to hurt,\n    Since this my heart of but one wound is made?\n    So that there lies no part that now may be\n    By thee or others printed, stabbed, or pierced,\n    Turn thee aside, turn otherwhere thy bow,\n    For thou dost waste thy powers, oh beauteous god!\n    In slaying him who lies already dead.\n\nThe meaning of all this is metaphorical, like the rest, and may be\nunderstood in the same sense as that. Here the number of darts which\nhave wounded and do wound the heart, signify the innumerable individuals\nand species of things, in which shine the splendour of Divine Beauty,\naccording to their degrees, and whence the affection for the good, well\nproposed and well apprehended warms us. The which through the causes of\npotentiality and actuality, of possibility and of effect, crucify and\nconsole, give the sense of sweetness and also make the bitter to be\nfelt. But where the entire affection is all turned towards God, that is\ntowards the Idea of Ideas, from the light of intelligible things, the\nmind becomes exalted to the super-essential unity, and, all love, all\none, it feels itself no longer solicited by various objects, which\ndistract it, but is one sole wound, in the which the whole affection\nconcurs and which comes to be one and the same affection. Then there is\nno love or desire of any particular thing, that can urge, nor even\npresent itself before the will; for there is nothing more straight than\nthe straight, nothing more beautiful than beauty, nothing better than\ngoodness, nothing can be found larger than size, nor anything lighter\nthan that light which with its presence darkens and obliterates all\nlights.\n\nCES. To the perfect, if it be perfect, there is nothing that can be\nadded; therefore the will is not capable of any other desire, when that\nwhich is of the perfect is present with it, highest and best. Therefore\nI understand the conclusion where he says to Love, \"Turn otherwhere thy\nbow,\" and wherefore should he try to kill him who is already dead, that\nis, he, who has no more life nor sense about other things, so that he\ncannot be stabbed or pierced or become exposed to other species. And\nthis lament proceeds from him, who having tasted of the highest unity,\ndesires to be in all things severed and withdrawn from the multitude.\n\nMAR. You understand quite well.\n\n\nXII.\n\nCES. Now here is a boy in a boat, which little by little is being\nsubmerged in the tempestuous waves, and he, languid and tired, has\nabandoned the oars; around it the legend \"Fronti nulla, fides.\" There is\nno doubt that this signifies that he was induced, by the serene aspect\nof the waters, to venture on the treacherous sea, which having suddenly\nbecome troubled, the boy, in mortal fear, and in his impotence to still\nthe tempest, has lost his head, his hope, and the power of his arm. But\nlet us see the rest:--\n\n52.\n\n    Oh, gentle boy, that from the shore didst loose\n    The baby bark, and to the slender oar\n    Didst set thy unskilled hand; lured by the sea!\n    Late hast thou seen the evil of thy plight.\n    See there the traitor rolls his fatal waves,\n    The prow of thy frail bark, now sinks, now mounts.\n    The soul borne down with anxious cares\n    Prevaileth not against the swollen floods.\n    Thy oars thou yieldst to thy fierce enemy,\n    Waiting for death with calm collected thought,\n    With eyelids closed, lest thou shouldst see him come.\n    If thee no friendly aid should quickly reach\n    Thou surely must the full result soon feel,\n    Of thy inquisitive temerity.\n    My cruel fate is like unto thine own,\n    For I too, lured, enticed by Love, must feel,\n    The rigour keen of this most treacherous one.\n\nIn what manner and why Love is a traitor and deceiver we have just seen;\nbut as I see the following without figure or legend, I believe that it\nmust have connection with the above. Therefore let us go on and read it.\n\n53.\n\n    Methought to leave the shelter of my port,\n    And from maturer studies rest awhile:\n    When, looking round me to enjoy my ease,\n    Sudden I saw those unrelenting fates.\n    These have inflamed me with so ardent fires.\n    Vainly I strive some safer shores to reach,\n    Vainly from pitying hands invoke some aid,\n    And swift deliverance from my enemies.\n    Weary and hoarse I yield me, impotent,\n    And seek no more to elude my destiny,\n    Or make endeavour to escape my death:\n    Let every other life to me be null,\n    And let not the extremest torment fail,\n    Which my hard fate for me prescribed.\n    Type of my own deep ills,\n    Is that which thou for pastime didst entrust\n    To hostile breast. Oh, careless boy.\n\nHere I would not pretend to understand or determine all that the\nenthusiast means. Yet there is well expressed the strange condition of a\nsoul cast down by the knowledge of the difficulty of the operation, the\namount of the labour, the vastness of the work on one side, and on the\nother the ignorance, want of knowledge of the way, weakness of nerves\nand peril of death. He has no knowledge suitable to the business, he\ndoes not know where and how to turn, no place of flight or refuge\npresents itself; and he sees that, from every side, the waves threaten,\nwith frightful, fatal impetus. Ignoranti portum, nullus suus ventus est.\nBehold him, who has committed himself indeed to fortuitous things, and\nhas brought upon himself trouble, prison, ruin, and drowning. See how\nfortune deludes us, and that which we put carefully into her hands, she\neither breaks or lets it fall from her hands, or causes it to be removed\nby the violence of another, or suffocates and poisons, or taints with\nsuspicion, fear, and jealousy to the great hurt and ruin of the\npossessor. Fortunae au ulla putatis dona carcere dolis? For strength\nwhich cannot give proof of itself is dissipated; magnanimity, which\ncannot prevail, is naught, and vain is study without results; he sees\nthe effects of the fear of evil, which is worse than evil itself. Peior\nest morte timor ipse mortis. He already suffers, through fear, that\nwhich he fears to suffer, terror in the limbs, imbecility in the nerves,\ntremors in the body, anxiety of the spirit, and that which has not yet\nappeared becomes present to him, and is certainly worse than whatsoever\nmay happen. What can be more stupid than to be in pain about future\nthings and absent ones which at present are not felt?\n\nCES. These considerations are on the surface and belong to the external\nof the figure. But the proposition of the heroic enthusiast, I think,\ndeals with the imbecility of human nature (ingegno) which, intent on the\nDivine undertaking, finds itself all at once engulphed in the abyss of\nincomprehensible excellence, and the sense and the imagination become\nconfused and absorbed, and not knowing how to pass on, nor to go back,\nnor where to turn, vanishes and loses itself as a drop of water vanishes\nin the sea, or as a small spirit, becomes attenuated, losing its own\nsubstance in the space and immensity of the atmosphere.\n\nMAR. Well. But let us go towards our chamber and talk as we go, for it\nis night.\n\n\n\n\n=Second Dialogue=\n\n\nMARICONDO. Here you see a flaming yoke enveloped in knots round which is\nwritten: Levius aura; which means that Divine love does not weigh down,\nnor carry his servant captive and enslaved to the lowest depths, but\nraises him, supports him and magnifies him above all liberty whatsoever.\n\nCES. Prithee, let us read the sonnet, so that we may consider the sense\nof it in due order with propriety and brevity.\n\nMAR. It says thus:--\n\n54.\n\n    She who my mind to other love did move,\n    To whom all others vile and vain appear,\n    In whom alone is sovereign beauty seen,\n    And excellence Divine is manifest.\n    She from the forest coming, I beheld,\n    Huntress of myself, beloved Artemis,\n    'Midst beauteous nymphs, with air of nascent bells.\n    Then said I unto Love: See, I am hers.\n    And he to me: Oh, happy lover thou!\n    Delectable companion of thy fate!\n    That she alone of all the numberless,\n    That hold within their bosom life and death,\n    Who most with virtues high the world adorns,\n    Thou didst obtain, through will and destiny,\n    Within the Court of Love.\n    So happy thou in thy captivity\n    Thou enviest not the liberty of man or God.\n\nSee how contented he is under that yoke, that marriage which has joined\nhim to her whom he saw issuing from the forest, from the desert, from\nthe woods, that is, from parts removed from the crowd, and from the\nconversation of the vulgar who have but small enlightenment. Diana, the\nsplendour of the intelligible species, and huntress; because with her\nbeauty and grace she first wounded him, and then bound him and holds him\nin her power, more contented than otherwise he could possibly have been.\nHe speaks of her \"amidst beauteous nymphs,\" that is, the multitude of\nother species, forms and ideas, and \"air of bells,\" that is the genius\nand the spirit which displayed itself at Nola, which lies on the plain\nof the Campanian horizon.[J] He acknowledges her, and she, more than any\nother, is praised by Love, who considers him so fortunate, because\namongst all those present or absent to mortal eyes, she does more highly\nadorn the world, and makes man glorious and beautiful. Hence he says\nthat his mind is raised towards the highest love, and that it learns to\nconsider \"every other goddess,\" that is, the care or observation of\nevery other kind, as vile and vain.[K] Now, in saying that she has\nroused his mind to high love, he takes occasion to magnify the heart\nthrough the thoughts, desires and works, as much as possible, and (to\nsay) that we ought not to be entertained with low things which are\nbeneath our faculties, as happens to those who, through avarice or\nthrough negligence, or indolence, become in this brief life attached to\nunworthy things.\n\n    [J] Does he allude to the fact that bells were first used in\n    Christian Churches at Nola?--(Tr.)\n\n    [K] The delights which are perceived in things corporeal are vile;\n    for every delight is such that it becomes viler the more it proceeds\n    to external things, and happier, the more it proceeds to things\n    internal.--(\"Spiritual Torrents.\")\n\nCES. There must be artisans, mechanics, agriculturists, servants,\ntrotters, ignoble, low, poor, pedants and such like, for otherwise there\ncould not be philosophers, meditators, cultivators of souls, masters,\ncaptains, nobles, illustrious ones, rich, wise, and the rest who may be\nheroes like to gods. Now why should we force ourselves to corrupt the\nstate of nature which has separated the universe into things major and\nminor, superior and inferior, illustrious and obscure, worthy and\nunworthy, not only outside ourselves but also inside in the substance of\nus, even to that part of us which is said to be immaterial?\n\nSo of the intelligences: some are low, others are pre-eminent, some\nserve and some obey, some command and govern. I believe, however, that\nthis ought not to be brought forward as an example, so that subjects\nwishing to be superiors, and the ignoble to equal the noble, the order\nof things would become perverted and confounded, so that a sort of\nneutrality would supervene, and a brutal equality, such as is found in\ncertain deserts and uncultured republics. Do you not see what damage has\nbeen done to science through this: _i.e._ pedants wishing to be\nphilosophers; to treat of natural things, and mix themselves with and\ndecide about things Divine? Who does not see how much evil has happened,\nand does happen, through the mind having been moved through similar\nfacts to exalted affections? Who is there, of good sense, who cannot see\nwhat a fine thing Aristotle made of it, when, being a master of belles\nlettres at Alexandria, he set himself to oppose and make war against the\nPythagorean doctrine, and that of natural philosophy; seeking by means\nof his logical ratiocination to propose definitions and notions,\ncertain fifth entities and other abortive portions of fantastical\ncogitations, as principles and substance of things, more anxious about\nthe esteem of the vulgar stupid crowd, which is influenced and governed\nby sophisms and appearances which are found in the superficies of things\nrather than by the Truth, which is occult and hidden in the substance of\nthem, and is the substance itself of them? He roused his mind, not to\nmake himself a mediator, but judge and censor of things which he had\nnever studied, nor well understood. Thus in our day, that little which\nAristotle can bring, is peculiar for its inventive reasoning, its\nsuggestiveness, its metaphysics, and is useful for other pedants, who\nwork with the same \"Sursum corda,\" who institute new dialectics and\nmodes of forming the reason (judgment?) which are as much viler than\nthose of Aristotle, as may be the philosophy of Aristotle is\nincomparably viler than that of the ancients. And it has been caused by\nthis, that certain grammarians having grown old in the birching of\nchildren, and in anatomizing phrases and words, have sought to rouse the\nmind to the formation of new logic and metaphysics, judging and\nsentencing those which they had never studied nor understood: as also\nthese by the approbation of the ignorant multitude, with whose mind\nthey have most affinity, can easily demolish the humanities and\nratiocination of Aristotle, as the latter was the executioner of the\nDivine philosophies of others. See, then, what it comes to, if all\nshould aspire to the sacred splendour, and yet are occupied about things\nlow and vain.\n\nMAR.\n\n    Ride, si sapis, o puella, ride,\n    Pelignus, puto, dixerat poeta;\n    Sed non dixerat omnibus puellis;\n    Et si dixerat omnibus puellis,\n    Non dixit tibi. Tu puella non es.\n\nThus the \"Sursum corda\" is not the measure for all; but for those that\nhave wings. We see that pedantry has never been held in such esteem for\nthe government of the world as in our times, and it offers as many paths\nof the true intelligible species and objects of infallible and sole\ntruth as there are individual pedants. Therefore in this present time it\nis proper that noble spirits equipped with truth and enlightened with\nthe Divine intelligence, should arm themselves against dense ignorance\nby climbing up to the high rock and tower of contemplation.[L]\n\n    [L] If meditation be a nobler thing\n        Than action, wherefore, then, great Ke['s]ava!\n        Dost thou impel me to this dreadful fight?\n\n            --(\"Song Celestial.\")\n\nTo them it is seemly that they hold every other object as vile and vain.\nNor should these spend their time in light and vain things; for time\nflies with infinite velocity; the present rushes by with the same\nswiftness with which the future draws near. That which we have lived is\nnothing; that which we live is a point; that which we have to live is\nnot yet a point, but may be a point which, together, shall be and shall\nhave been. And with all this we crowd our memories with genealogies:\nthis one is intent upon the deciphering of writings, that other is\noccupied in multiplying childish sophisms, and we shall see, for\nexample, a volume full of: Cor est fons vitae. Nix est alba, ergo cornix\nest fons vitae alba, and one prattles about the noun; was it first, or\nthe verb; the other, whether the sea was first or the springs; again,\nanother tries to revive obsolete vocabularies which, because they were\nonce used and approved by some old writer, must now be exalted to the\nstars. Yet another takes his stand upon the false or the true\northography, and so on, with various similar nonsense only worthy of\ncontempt. They fast, they become thin and emaciated, they scourge the\nskin, and lengthen the beard, they rot, and in these things they place\nthe anchor of their highest good. They despise fortune, and put up\nthese as shield and refuge against the strokes of fate. With such-like\nmost vile thoughts they think to mount to the stars, to be equal to\ngods, and to understand the good and the beautiful which philosophy\npromises.\n\nCES. A grand thing, indeed, that time, which does not suffice for\nnecessary things, however carefully we use it, should come to be chiefly\nconsumed about superfluous things, and things vile and shameful.\n\nIs it not rather a thing to laugh at than to praise in Archimedes, that\nat the time when the city was in confusion, everything in ruins, fire\nbroken out in his room, enemies there at his back who had it in their\npower to make him lose his brain, his life, his art; that he, meanwhile,\nhaving abandoned all desire or intention of saving his life, lost it\nwhile he was inquiring, perhaps, into the proportion of the curve to the\nstraight line, of the diameter to the circle, or other similar mathesis,\nas suitable for youth, as it were unsuitable for one who, being old,\nshould be intent upon things more worthy of being put as the end of\nhuman desires?\n\nMAR. In connection with this I like what you said just now, that there\nmust be all sorts of persons in the world, and that the number of the\nimperfect, the ugly, the poor, the unworthy and the villanous, should\nbe the greater, and, in short, it ought not to be otherwise than as it\nis. The long life of Archimedes, of Euclid, of Priscian, of Donato, and\nothers, who were found up to their death occupied with numbers, lines,\ndiction, concordances, writings, dialectics, syllogisms, forms, methods,\nsystems of science, organs, and other preambles, is ordained for the\nservice of youth, so that they may learn to receive the fruits of the\nmature age of those (sages) and be full of the same even in their green\nage, so that when they are older they may be fit and ready to arrive\nwithout hindrance to higher things.\n\nCES. I am not wrong in the proposition I moved just now when I spoke of\nthose who make it their study to appropriate to themselves the place and\nthe fame of the ancients with new works which are neither better nor\nworse than those already existing, and spend their life in considering\nhow to turn wheat into tares,[M] and find the work of their life in the\nelaboration of those studies which are suited for children and are\ngenerally profitable to no one, not even to themselves.\n\n    [M] E spendono la vita su le considerazioni da mettere avanti lana\n    di capra, o l'ombra de l'asino.\n\nMAR. But enough has been said about those who neither can nor dare to\nhave their mind roused to highest love. Let us now come to the\nconsideration of the voluntary captivity and of the pleasant yoke under\nthe dominion of the said Diana; that yoke, I say, without which, the\nsoul is impotent to rise to that height from which it fell, and which\nrenders it light and agile, while the noose renders it more active and\ndisengaged.\n\nCES. Speak on then!\n\nMAR. To begin, to continue, and to conclude in order; I consider that\nall which lives must feed itself and nourish itself in a manner suitable\nto the way in which it lives. Therefore, nothing squares with the\nintellectual nature but the intellectual, as with the body nothing but\nthe corporeal; seeing that nourishment is taken for no other reason, but\nthat it should go to the substance of him who is to be nourished. As\nthen the body does not transmute into spirit, nor the spirit into\nbody,--for every transmutation takes place, when matter, which was in\none form, comes to be in another,[N]--so the spirit and the body are not\nthe same matter; in that that, which was subject to one should come to\nbe subject to the other.\n\n    [N] Carlyle says, \"For matter, were it never so despicable, is\n    spirit: were it never so honourable, can it be more?\"--(\"Sartor\n    Resartus.\")\n\nCES. Surely, if the soul should be nourished with body, it would carry\nitself better there, where the fecundity of the material is, (as\nJamblichus argues); so that when a large fat body presents itself, we\nshould imagine that it were the habitation of a strong soul, firm, ready\nand heroic, and we should say: Oh, fat soul, oh, fecund spirit, oh, fine\nnature, oh, divine intelligence, oh, clear mind, oh, blessed repast, fit\nto spread before lions, or verily for a banquet for dogs. On the other\nhand, an old man shrivelled, weak, of failing strength, would be held to\nbe of little savour and of small account. But go on.\n\nMAR. Now, it must be said that the outcome of the mind is that alone\nwhich is always by it desired, sought for, and embraced, and that which\nis more enjoyed than anything else, with which it is filled, comforted\nand becomes better,--that is Truth, towards which, in all times, in\nevery state, and in whatsoever condition man finds himself, he always\naspires, and for the which he despises every fatigue, attempts every\nstudy, makes no account of the body, and hates this life. Therefore\nTruth is an incorporeal thing; and neither physics, metaphysics, nor\nmathematics can be found in the body, because we see that the eternal\nhuman essence is not in individuals, who are born and die. It (Truth) is\nspecific unity, said Plato, not the numerical multitude that holds the\nsubstance of things. Therefore he called Idea one and many, movable and\nimmovable because as incorruptible species it is intelligible and one,\nand as it communicates itself to matter and is subject to movement and\ngeneration, it is sensible and many. In this second mode it has more of\nnon-entity than of entity; seeing that it is one and another and is ever\nrunning but never diminishes.[O] In the first mode it is an entity, and\ntrue. See now, the mathematicians take it for granted, that the true\nfigures are not to be found in natural bodies, nor can they be there\nthrough the power either of nature or of art. You know, besides, that\nthe truth (reality) of supernatural substances is above matter. We must\ntherefore conclude that he who seeks the truth must rise above the\nreason of corporeal things. Besides which it must be considered, that he\nwho feeds has a certain natural memory of his food, especially when it\nis most required; it leaves in the mind the likeness and species of it,\nin an elevated manner, according to the elevation and glory of him who\naims, and of that which is aimed at. Hence it is that everything has,\ninnate, the intelligence of those things which belong to the\nconservation of the individual and species, and furthermore its final\nperfection depends upon efforts to seek its food through some kind of\nhunting or chase. Therefore it is necessary that the human soul should\nhave the light, the genius, and the instruments suitable for its\npursuit. And here contemplation comes to aid, and logic, the fittest\nmode for the pursuit of truth, to find it, to distinguish it, and to\njudge of it. So that one goes rambling amongst the wild woods of natural\nthings, where there are many objects under shadow and mantle, for it is\nin a thick, dense, and deserted solitude that Truth most often has its\nsecret cavernous retreat, all entwined with thorns and covered with\nbosky, rough and umbrageous plants; it is hidden, for the most part, for\nthe most excellent and worthy reasons, buried and veiled with utmost\ndiligence, just as we hide with the greatest care the greatest\ntreasures, so that, sought by a great variety of hunters, of whom some\nare more able and expert, some less, it cannot be discovered without\ngreat labour.\n\nPythagoras went seeking for it with his imprints and vestiges impressed\nupon natural objects, which are numbers, the which display its\nprogress, reasons, modes and operations in a certain manner, because in\nthe number (of) multitude, the number (of) measures, and the number (of)\nmoment or weight, the truth and Being are found in all things.[P]\n\n    [O] Atteso che sempre e altro ed altro, e corre eterno per la\n    privazione.\n\n    [P] Number is, as the great writer (Balzac) thought, an Entity, and\n    at the same time, a Breath emanating from what he called God, and\n    what we call the ALL, the breath which alone could organize the\n    physical Kosmos.--(\"The Secret Doctrine.\")\n\nAnaxagoras and Empedocles considered that the omnipotent and\nall-producing divinity fills all things, and with them nothing was so\nsmall that it did not contain within it the occult in every respect,\nalthough they were always progressing onwards to where it was\npredominant, and where it found a more magnificent and elevated\nexpression.\n\nThe Chaldeans sought for Truth by means of subtraction, not knowing how\nto affirm anything about it; and proceeded without these dogs of\ndemonstrations and syllogisms, but solely forcing themselves to\npenetrate by removing and digging and clearing away by means of\nnegations of every kind and discourses both open and secret.\n\nPlato went twisting and turning and tearing to pieces and placing\nembankments so that the volatile and fugacious species should be as it\nwere caught in a net and held behind the hedges of definitions, and he\nconsidered that superior things were, by participation, and according to\nsimilitude, reflected in those inferior, and these in those according to\ntheir greater dignity and excellence, and that the truth was in both the\none and the other, according to a certain analogy, order and scale, in\nwhich the lowest of the superior order agrees with the highest of the\ninferior order. So that progress was from the lowest of nature to the\nhighest, as from evil to good, from darkness to light, from the simple\npower to the simple action.\n\nAristotle boasts of being able to arrive at the desired booty by means\nof the imprints of tracks and vestiges, while he believes the effects\nwill lead to the cause, although he, above all others who have occupied\nthemselves with this sort of chase, has most deviated from the path, so\nas to be able hardly to distinguish the footsteps. Theologians there\nare, who, nourished in certain sects, seek the truth of nature in all\nher specific natural forms in which they see the eternal essence, the\nspecific substantial perpetuator of the eternal generation and mutation\nof things, which are called after their founders and builders and above\nthem all presides the form of forms,[Q] the fountain of light, very\ntruth of very truth, God of gods, through whom all is full of divinity,\ntruth, entity, goodness. This truth is sought as a thing inaccessible,\nas an object not to be objectized, incomprehensible. But yet, to no one\ndoes it seem possible to see the sun, the universal Apollo, the absolute\nlight through supreme and most excellent species; but only its shadow,\nits Diana, the world, the universe, nature, which is in things, light\nwhich is in the opacity of matter, that is to say, so far as it shines\nin darkness.\n\n    [Q] A discerning of the Infinite in the Finite.--(\"Sartor\n    Resartus.\")\n\nMany then wander amongst the aforesaid paths of this deserted wood, very\nfew are those who find the fountain of Diana. Many are content to hunt\nfor wild beasts and things less elevated, and the greater number do not\nunderstand why, having spread their nets to the wind, they find their\nhands full of flies. Rare, I say, are the Actaeons to whom fate has\ngranted the power of contemplating the nude Diana and who, entranced\nwith the beautiful disposition of the body of nature, and led by those\ntwo lights, the twin splendour of Divine goodness and beauty become\ntransformed into stags; for they are no longer hunters, but that which\nis hunted. For the ultimate and final end of this sport, is to arrive at\nthe acquisition of that fugitive and wild body, so that the thief\nbecomes the thing stolen, the hunter becomes the thing hunted; in all\nother kinds of sport, for special things, the hunter possesses himself\nof those things, absorbing them with the mouth of his own intelligence;\nbut in that Divine and universal one, he comes to understand to such an\nextent, that he becomes of necessity included, absorbed, united. Whence,\nfrom common, ordinary, civil, and popular, he becomes wild, like a stag,\nan inhabitant of the woods; he lives god-like under that grandeur of the\nforest; he lives in the simple chambers of the cavernous mountains,\nwhence he beholds the great rivers; he vegetates intact and pure from\nordinary greed, where the speech of the Divine converses more freely, to\nwhich so many men have aspired who longed to taste the Divine life while\nupon earth, and who with one voice have said: Ecce elongavi fugiens, et\nmansi in solitudine. Thus the dogs--thoughts of Divine things--devour\nActaeon, making him dead to the vulgar and the crowd, loosened from the\nknots of perturbation of the senses, free from the fleshly prison of\nmatter, whence they no longer see their Diana as through a hole or a\nwindow, but having thrown down the walls to the earth, the eye opens to\nthe view of the whole horizon.[R] So that he sees all as one; he sees no\nmore by distinctions and numbers, which, according to the different\nsenses, as through various cracks, cause to be seen and understood in\nconfusion.\n\n    [R] For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to\n    face.--(\"St. Paul to the Corinthians.\")\n\nHe sees Amphitrite, the source of all numbers, of all species, of all\nreasons, which is the monad, the real essence of the being of all, and\nif he does not see it in its essence, in absolute light, he sees it in\nits seed, which is like unto it, which is its image; for from the monad,\nwhich is the divinity, proceeds this monad which is nature, the\nuniverse, the world, where it is beheld and reflected, as the sun is in\nthe moon by means of which it is illuminated;[S] he finding himself in\nthe hemisphere of intellectual substances. This is that Diana, that one\nwho is the same entity, that entity which is comprehensible nature, in\nwhich burns the sun and the splendour of the higher nature, according to\nwhich, unity is both the generated and the generating, the producer and\nproduced. Thus you can of yourself determine the mode, the dignity, and\nthe success, which are most worthy of the hunter and the hunted.\nTherefore the enthusiast boasts of being the prey of Diana, to whom he\nrendered himself, and of whom he considers himself the accepted consort,\nand happy as a captive and a subject. Why, he envies no man (for there\nis none that can have more) or any other god that can have that species\nwhich is impossible to be obtained by an inferior nature, and therefore\nis not worthy to be desired, nor can one hunger after it.\n\n    [S] There is no potentiality for creation, or self-consciousness, in\n    a pure Spirit on this our plane, unless its too homogeneous,\n    perfect, because Divine, nature is, so to say, mixed with, and\n    strengthened by, an essence already differentiated. It is only the\n    lower line of the Triangle--representing the first triad that\n    emanates from the Universal Monad--that can furnish this needed\n    consciousness on the plane of differentiated Nature.--(\"The Secret\n    Doctrine.\")\n\nCES. I have well understood all that you have said, and you have more\nthan satisfied me. Now it is time to return home.\n\nMAR. Well.\n\n\n\n\n=Third Dialogue=.\n\n_Interlocutors_:\n\nLIBERIO. LAODONIO.\n\n\nLIB. Reclining in the shade of a cypress-tree, the enthusiast finding\nhis mind free from other thoughts, it happened that the heart and the\neyes spoke together as if they were animals and substances of different\nintellects and senses, and they made lament of that which was the\nbeginning of his torment and which consumed his soul.\n\nLAO. Repeat, if you can recollect, the reasons and the words.\n\nLIB. The heart began the dialogue, which, making itself heard by the\nbreast, broke into these words:\n\n55.\n\n_First proposition of the heart to the eyes_.\n\n    How, eyes of mine, can that so much torment,\n    Which as an ardent fire from ye derives,\n    And which this mortal subject so afflicts\n    With unrelenting burning never spared?\n    Can ocean floods suffice to mitigate\n    The ardour of those flames? or slowest star\n    Within the frozen circle of the north\n    Offer umbrageous shade?\n    Ye took me captive, and the self-same hand\n    Doth hold me and reject me and through you\n    I in the body am: out of it with the sun.\n    I am the source of life, yet am I not alive.\n    I know not what I am, for I belong\n    Unto this soul; but this soul is not mine.\n\nLAO. Truly the hearing, the seeing, the knowing, is that which kindles\ndesire, and therefore it is through the operation of the eyes that the\nheart becomes inflamed: and the more worthy the object which is present\nwith them the stronger is the fire, and the more active are the flames.\nWhat then, must that kind be, for which the heart burns in such a way\nthat the coldest star in the Arctic circle cannot cool it, nor can the\nwhole body of water of the ocean stop its burning! What must be the\nexcellence of that object that has made him an enemy to himself, a rebel\nto his own soul and content with such hostility and rebellion, although\nhe be captive to one who despises and will have none of him! But let me\nhear whether the eyes made a response, and what they said.\n\nLIB. They, on the other hand, complained of the heart as being the\norigin and cause why they shed so many tears, and this was the sum of\ntheir proposition.\n\n56.\n\n_First proposition of the eyes to the heart_.\n\n    How, oh my heart, do waters gush from thee\n    Like to the springs that bathe the Nereids' brows\n    Which daily in the sun are born and die?\n    Like to the double fountain of Amphitrite,\n    Which pours so great a flood across the earth,\n    That one might say, the sum of it exceeds\n    That of the stream which Egypt inundates,\n    Running its sevenfold course unto the sea.\n    Nature hath given two lights\n    To this small earth for governance;\n    But thou, perverter of eternal law,\n    Hast turned them into everlasting streams.\n    But Heaven is not content to see her law\n    Decline before unbridled violence.\n\nLAO. It is certain that the heart, grieved and stung, causes tears to\nspring to the eyes, and while these light the flames in this, that other\ndims those with moisture. But I am surprised at such exaggeration which\nsays that the Nereids raising their wet faces to the eastern sun, is\nless than these waters (of the eyes). And more than that, they are equal\nto the ocean, not because they do pour, but because these two springing\nstreams can pour such, and so much, that compared with them the Nile\nwould appear a tiny stream divided into seven streamlets.[T]\n\n    [T] Is this an allusion to the seven activities or changes which\n    water goes through to produce form; Water being the formative power\n    which Fire, itself formless and the moving power, animates?--(Tr.)\n\nLIB. Be not surprised at that exaggeration nor at that potency without\naction! For you will understand all, after having heard the conclusion\nof their argument. Now listen how the heart responds to the proposition\nof the eyes.\n\nLAO. I pray you, let me hear.\n\nLIB.\n\n57.\n\n_First response of the heart to the eyes_.\n\n    Eyes, if an immortal flame within me burn,\n    And I no other am than burning fire;\n    If to come near me is to feel the blaze,\n    So that the heavens are fervid with my heat;\n    Why does my blazing flame consume you not,\n    But only contrary effects you feel?\n    Why saturated and not roasted ye,\n    If not of water but of fire I be?\n    Believe ye, oh ye blind,\n    That from such ardent burning is derived\n    The double passage, and those living founts\n    Have had their elements from Vulcan?\n    As force sometimes acquires a power\n    When by its contrary it is opposed.\n\nYou see that the heart could not persuade itself that from an opposite\ncause and beginning, could proceed a force of an opposite effect. So\nthat it will not allow the possibility of it, except through\nantiperistasis, which means the strength which an opposite acquires from\nthat which, flying from the other, comes to unite itself, incorporate\nitself, insphere itself, or concentrate itself towards the individual,\nthrough its own virtue, which, the farther it is removed from the\ndimensions (dimensioni) the more efficacious it becomes.\n\nLAO. Tell me, how did the eyes respond to the heart?\n\n58.\n\n_First response of the eyes to the heart._\n\n    Thy passion does confuse thee, on my heart,\n    The path of truth thou hast entirely lost;\n    That which in us is seen--that which is hid--\n    Is seed of oceans. Neptune, if by fate\n    His kingdom he should lose, would find it here entire.\n    How does the burning flame from us derive\n    Who of the sea the double parent are?\n    So senseless thou'rt become!\n    Dost thou believe the flame will pass\n    And leave the doors all wet behind\n    That thou may'st feel the ardour of the same?\n    As splendour through a glass, dost thou\n    Believe that it through us will penetrate?\n\nNow I will not begin to philosophize about the identity of opposites\nwhich I have studied in the book De Principio ed uno, and I will\nsuppose that which is usually received, that the opposites in the same\ngenus are quite separate (distantissimi), so that the meaning of this\nresponse is more easily learned where the eyes call themselves the seed\nor founts in the virtual potentiality of which is the sea; so that if\nNeptune should lose all the waters, he could recall them into action by\ntheir own potentiality, where they are as in the beginning, medium and\nmaterial. But it is not urged as a necessity, when they say it cannot\nbe, that the flame passes over to the heart through their room (stanza e\ncortile) and courtyard leaving so many waters behind, for two reasons.\nFirst, because such an impediment cannot exist in action, if (equally?)\nviolent opposition is not put into action;[U] second, because in so far\nas the waters are actually in the eyes, they can give passage to the\nheat as to the light; for, experience proves that the luminous ray\nkindles, by means of reflection, any material that becomes opposed to\nit, without heating the glass; and the ray passes through a glass,\ncrystal or other vase, full of water, and heats an object placed under\nit, without heating the thick intervening body. As it is also true that\nit causes dry and dusty impressions in the caves of the deep sea.\nTherefore by analogy, if not by the same sort of reasons, we may see how\nit is possible that, through the lubricant and dark passage of the eyes,\nthe affection may be kindled and inflamed by that light, the which for\nthe same reason cannot be in the middle.[V] As the light of the sun,\naccording to other reasoning, is in the middle air, or again in the\nnearer sense, and again in the common sense, or again in the intellect,\nnotwithstanding that from one mode proceeds the other mode of being.\n\n    [U] Prima, per che tal impedimento in atto non puo essere se non\n    posti in atto tali oltraggiosi ripari. Does this mean that the\n    opposites which are called into action must be equal in\n    power?--(Translator.)\n\n    If, when fire is ascending again to its proper sphere, it should\n    meet with obstacles, such as a bit of wood or of straw, it would\n    resume its former activity, and consume this obstacle or hindrance;\n    and the greater the resistance, the more its activity would be\n    increased.... You will observe that the obstacle which the fire\n    meets with would serve only to increase its velocity, by giving it a\n    new ardour to overcome all obstacles in joining itself to its\n    centre.--(\"Spiritual Torrents,\" Lady Guion.)\n\n    [V] Nel mezzo.\n\nLAO. Are there any more discourses?\n\nLIB. Yes; because both the one and the other are trying to find out in\nwhat way it is that it (the heart) contains so many flames and those\n(the eyes) so many waters. The heart then makes the next proposition.\n\n59.\n\n_Second proposition of the heart to the eyes_.\n\n    If to the foaming sea the rivers run,\n    And pour their streams into the sea's dark gulf,\n    How does the kingdom of the water-gods,\n    Fed by the double torrent of these eyes,\n    Increase not; since the earth\n    Must lose the glorious overflow?\n    How is it that we do not see the day,\n    When from the mount Deukalion returns?\n    Where are the lengthening shores,\n    Where is the torrent to put out my flame,\n    Or, failing this, to give it greater power?\n    Does drop of water ever fall to earth\n    In such a way as leads me to suppose\n    It is not as the senses show it?\n\nIt asks, what power is this, which is not put into action? If the waters\nare so many, why does Neptune not come to tyrannize over the kingdoms of\nthe other elements? Where are the inundated banks? Where is he who will\ngive coolness to the ardent fire? Where is the drop of water by which I\nmay affirm through the eyes that which the senses deny? But the eyes in\nthe same way ask another question.\n\n60.\n\n_Second proposition of the eyes to the heart_.\n\n    If matter changed and turned to fire acquires\n    The movement of a lighter element,\n    Rising aloft unto the highest heaven;\n    Wherefore, ignited by the fire of love,\n    Swifter than wind, dost thou not rise and flash.\n    Into the sun and be incorporate there?\n    Why rather stay a pilgrim here below\n    Than open through the air and us a way?\n    No spark of fire from that heart\n    Goes out through the wide atmosphere.\n    Body of dust and ashes is not seen,\n    Nor water-laden smoke ascends on high.\n    All is contained entire within itself,\n    And not of flame, is reason, sense, or thought.\n\nLAO. This proposition is neither more nor less conclusive than the\nother. But let us come at once to the answers if there be any.\n\nLIC. There are some certainly and full of sap. Listen.\n\n61.\n\n_Second response of the heart to the eyes_.\n\n    He is a fool, who that alone believes,\n    Which to the sense appears, who reason scorns.\n    My flame could never wing its way above.\n    The conflagration infinite remains unseen.\n    Between the eyes their waters are contained,\n    One infinite encroaches not upon another.\n    Nature wills not that all should perish.\n    If so much fire's enough for so much sphere,\n    Say, say, oh eyes,\n    What shall we do? how act\n    In order to make known, or I, or you,\n    For its deliverance, the sad plight of the soul?\n    If one and other of us both be hid,\n    How can we move the beauteous god to pity?\n\nLAS. If it is not true it is very well imagined: if it is not so, it is\nyet a very good excuse the one for the other; because where there are\ntwo forces, of the which one is not greater than the other, the\noperation of both must cease, for one resists as much as the other\ninsists, and one assails while the other defends. If therefore the sea\nis infinite and the force of tears in the eyes is immense, it never can\nbe made apparent by speech, nor the impetus of the fire concealed in the\nheart break forth, nor can they (the eyes) send forth the twin torrent\nto the sea if the heart shelters them with equal tenacity. Therefore the\nbeautiful deity cannot be expected to be pitiful towards the afflicted\nsoul because of the exhibition of tears which distil from the eyes, or\nspeech which breaks forth from the breast.\n\nLIB. Now note the answer of the eyes to this proposition:--\n\n62.\n\n_Second response of the eyes to the heart_.\n\n    Alas! we poured into the wavy sea,\n    The strength of our two founts in vain,\n    For two opposing powers hold it concealed,\n    Lest it go rolling aimlessly adown.\n    The strength unmeasured of the burning heart,\n    Withholds a passage to the lofty streams;\n    Barring their twofold course unto the sea,\n    Nature abhors the covered ground.[W]\n    Now say, afflicted heart, what canst thou bring\n    To oppose against us with an equal force?\n    Oh, where is he, will boast himself to be\n    Exalted by this most unhappy love,\n    If of thy pain and mine it can be said,\n    The greater they, the less it may be seen.\n\n[W] Ch'il coperto terren natura aborre.\n\nBoth these evils being infinite, like two equally vigorous opposites\nthey curb and suppress each other: it could not be so if they were both\nfinite, seeing that a precise equality does not belong to natural\nthings, nor would it be so if the one were finite, the other infinite;\nfor of a certainty the one would absorb the other, and they would both\nbe seen, or, at least one, through the other. Beneath these sentences,\nthere lies hidden, ethical and natural philosophy, and I leave it to be\nsearched for, meditated upon and understood, by whosoever will and can.\nThis alone I will not leave (unsaid) that it is not without reason that\nthe affection of the heart is said to be the infinite sea by the\napprehension of the eyes.[X] For the object of the mind being infinite,\nand no definite object being proposed to the intellect, the will cannot\nbe satisfied by a finite good, but if besides that, something else is\nfound, it is desired and sought for; for, as is commonly said, the apex\nof the inferior species is the beginning of the superior species,\nwhether the degrees are taken according to the forms, the which we\ncannot consider as being infinite, or according to the modes and reasons\nof those, in which way, the highest good being infinite, it would be\nsupposed to be infinitely communicated, according to the condition of\nthe things, over which it is diffused. However, there is no definite\nspecies of the universe. I speak according to the figure and mass; there\nis no definite species of the intellect; the affections are not a\ndefinite species.\n\n    [X] Fire, Flame, Day, Smoke, Night, and so on ... These are all\n    names of various deities which preside over the Cosmo-psychic\n    Powers.--(\"The Secret Doctrine.\")\n\nLAO. These two powers of the soul, then, never are nor can be perfect\nfor the object, if they refer to it infinitely?\n\nLIB. So it would be if this infinite were by negative privation or\nprivative negation of the end, as it is for a more positive affirmation\nof the end, infinite and endless.[Y]\n\n    [Y] \"The deity is one, because it is infinite. It is triple, because\n    it is ever manifesting.\" This manifestation is triple in its\n    aspects, for it requires, as Aristotle has it, three principles for\n    every natural body to become objective: privation, form and matter.\n    Privation meant in the mind of the great philosopher ... the lowest\n    plane and world of the Anima Mundi.--(\"The Secret Doctrine.\")\n\nLAO. You mean, then, two kinds of affinity; the one privative, the which\nmay be towards something which is power, as, infinite is darkness, the\nend of which is the position of light; the other perfecting, which tends\nto the act and perfection, as infinite is the light, the end of which\nwould be privation and darkness.[Z] In this, then, the intellect\nconceives the light, the good, the beautiful, in so far as the horizon\nof its capacity extends, and the soul, which drinks of Divine nectar and\nthe fountain of eternal life in so far as its own vessel allows, and one\nsees that the light is beyond the circumference of his horizon, where it\ncan go and penetrate more and more, and the nectar and fount of living\nwater is infinitely fruitful, so that it can become ever more and more\nintoxicated.\n\n    [Z] \"Darkness adopted illumination in order to make itself visible.\"\n    Darkness in its radical, metaphysical basis, is subjective and\n    absolute light; while the latter, in all its seeming effulgence and\n    glory, is merely a mass of shadows, as it can never be eternal, and\n    is simply an illusion, or Maya.--(\"The Secret Doctrine.\")\n\nLIB. From this it does not follow that there is imperfection in the\nobject, nor that there is little satisfaction in the potency, but that\nthe power is included in the object and beatifically absorbed by it.\nHere the eyes imprint upon the heart, that is upon the intelligence, and\nrouse in the will an infinite torment of love, where there is no pain\nbecause nothing is sought which is not obtained; but it is happiness,\nbecause that which is there sought is always found, and there is no\nsatiety, inasmuch as there is always appetite, and therefore enjoyment;\nin this it is not like the food of the body, the which with satiety\nloses enjoyment, has no pleasure before the enjoyment, nor after\nenjoyment, but only in the enjoyment itself, and where it passes certain\nlimits it comes to feel annoyance and disgust. Behold, then, in a\ncertain analogy, how the highest good ought to be also infinite, in\norder that it should not some time turn to evil; as food, which is good\nfor the body, if it is not limited, may come to be poison. Thus it is\nthat the water of the ocean does not extinguish that flame, and the\nrigour of the Arctic circle does not mitigate that ardour. Therefore it\nis bad through (the) one hand, which holds him and rejects him; it holds\nhim, because it has him for its own; it rejects him because, flying\nfrom him, the higher it makes itself the more he ascends upwards to it;\nthe more he follows it, the further off it appears, by reason of its\nhigh excellence, according as it is said: Accedit homo ad cor altum, et\nexaltabitur Deus. Such blessedness of affection begins in this life, and\nin this state it has its mode of being. Hence the heart can say that it\nis within with the body, and without with the sun, in so far as the soul\nwith its twin faculty, puts into operation two functions: the one to\nvivify and realize the animal body, the other to contemplate superior\nthings; so that it is in receptive potentiality from above, as it is in\nre-active potentiality below, towards the body. The body is, as it were,\ndead, and as it were apart from the soul, the which is its life and its\nperfection; and the soul is as it were dead, and a thing apart from the\nsuperior illuminating intelligence, from which the intellect is derived\nas to its nature and acts. Therefore, the heart is said to be the\nbeginning of life, and not to be alive, it is said to belong to the\nanimating soul, and that this does not belong to it; because it is\ninflamed by Divine love, and finally converted into fire, which can set\non fire that which comes near it, seeing that it has contracted into\nitself the divinity; it is made god, and consequently in its kind it can\ninspire others with love; as the splendour of the sun may be seen and\nadmired in the moon. And as for that which belongs to the consideration\nof the eyes, know, that in the present discourse they have two\nfunctions; one to impress the heart, the other to receive the impression\nof the heart; as this also has two functions, one to receive the\nimpressions from the eyes, the other to impress them. The eyes study the\nspecies and propose them to the heart; the heart desires them, and\npresents his desire to the eyes; these conceive the light, diffuse it,\nand kindle the fire in the heart, which heated and kindled, sends its\nwaters (umore) to them, so that they may dispose of them[AA]\n(digeriscano). Thus, firstly, cognition moves the affection, and soon\nthe affection moves the cognition. The eyes, when they move (the heart),\nare dry, because they perform the office of a looking-glass, and of a\nrepresenter; when they are moved, however, they become troubled and\nperturbed, because they perform the office of a diligent executer,\nseeing that with the speculating intellect, the beautiful and the good\nis first seen, then the will desires it; and later the industrious\nintellect procures it, follows it, and seeks it. Tearful eyes signify\nthe difficulty of separating the thing wished for from, the wisher, the\nwhich in order that it should not pall, nor disgust, presents itself as\nan infinite longing (studio) which ever has, and ever seeks; seeing that\nthe delight of the gods is ascribed to drinking, not to having tasted\nambrosia, and to the continual enjoyment of food and drink, and not in\nbeing satiated and without desire for them. Hence they have satiety as\nit were in movement and apprehension, not in quiet and comprehension;\nthey are not satiated without appetite, nor are they in a state of\ndesire, without being in a certain way satiated.\n\n    [AA] \"Deity is an arcane, living (or moving) FIRE, and the eternal\n    witnesses to this unseen Presence are Light, Heat, Moisture,\" this\n    trinity including, and being the cause of every phenomenon in\n    Nature.--(\"The Secret Doctrine.\")\n\nLAO. Esuries satiata, satietas esuriens.\n\nLIB. Precisely so.\n\nLAO: From this I can comprehend how, without blame, but with great truth\nand understanding, it has been said that Divine love weeps with\nindescribable groans, because having all it loves all, and loving all\nhas all.\n\nLIB. But many comments would be necessary if we would understand that\nDivine love which is deity itself; and one easily understands Divine\nlove, so far as it is to be found in its effects and in the inferior\nnature. I do not say that which from the divinity is diffused into\nthings, but that of things which aspires to the divinity.\n\nLAO. Now of this and of other matters we will discourse more at our ease\npresently. Let us go.\n\n\n\n\n=Fourth Dialogue=.\n\n_Interlocutors_:\n\nSEVERINO. MINUTOLO.\n\n\nSEV. You will see the origin of the nine blind men, who state nine\nreasons and special causes of their blindness, and yet they all agree in\none general reason and one common enthusiasm.[AB]\n\n    [AB] May one suggest an analogy between the nine months of\n    gestation, during which time the foetus goes through various stages\n    and conditions to complete the \"individual cycle of evolution,\" and\n    the nine blind men who, at the end of their probation, are brought\n    to see the light--to be born--illuminated?--(\"Translator.\")\n\nMIN. Begin with the first!\n\nSEV. The first of these, notwithstanding that he is blind by nature, yet\nhe laments, saying to the others that he cannot persuade himself that\nnature has been less courteous to them than to him; seeing that although\nthey do not (now) see, yet they have enjoyed sight, and have had\nexperience of that sense, and of the value of that faculty, of which\nthey have been deprived, while he came into the world as a mole, to be\nseen and not to see, to long for the sight of that which he never had\nseen.\n\nMIN. Many have fallen in love through report alone.\n\nSEV. They have, says he, the happiness of retaining that Divine image\npresent in the mind, so that, although blind, they have in imagination\nthat which he cannot have. Then in the sistine he turns to his guide and\nbegs him to lead him to some precipice, so that he may no longer endure\nthis contempt and persecution of nature. He says then:\n\n63.\n\n_The first blind man_.\n\n    Ye now afflicted are, who erst were glad,\n    For ye have lost the light that once was yours,\n    Yet happy, for ye have the twin lights known.\n    These eyes ne'er lighted were, and ne'er were quenched;\n    But a more grievous destiny is mine\n    Which calls for heavier lamentation.\n    Who will deny that nature upon me\n    Has frowned more harshly than on you?\n    Conduct me to the precipice, my guide,\n    And give me peace, for there will I a cure\n    For this my dolour and affliction find;\n    For to be seen, yet not to see the light,\n    Like an incapable and sightless mole,\n    Is to be useless and a burden on the earth.\n\nNow follows the other, who, bitten by the serpent of jealousy, became\naffected in the organ of sight. He wanders without any guide, unless he\nhas jealousy for his escort. He begs some of the bystanders, that seeing\nthere is no remedy for his misfortune, they should have pity upon him,\nso that he should no longer feel it; that he might become as unmanifest\nto himself as he is to the light, and that they bury him together with\nhis own misfortune. He says then:\n\n64.\n\n_The second blind man_.\n\n    Alecta has torn from out her dreadful hair,\n    The infernal worm that with a cruel bite,\n    Has fiercely fastened on my soul,\n    And of my senses, torn the chief away,\n    Leaving the intellect without its guide.\n    In vain the soul some consolation seeks.\n    That spiteful, rabid, rancorous jealousy\n    Makes me go stumbling along the way.\n    If neither magic spell nor sacred plant,\n    Nor virtue hid in the enchanter's stone,\n    Will yield me the deliverance that I ask:\n    Let one of you, my friends, be pitiful,\n    And put me out, as are put out my eyes,\n    That they and I together be entombed.\n\nThe other follows, who says that he became blind through having been\nsuddenly brought out of the darkness into a great light: accustomed to\nbehold ordinary beauties, a celestial beauty was suddenly presented\nbefore his eyes--a sun-god--in this manner his sight became dull and the\ntwin lights which shine at the prow of the soul were put out: for the\neyes are like two beacons, which guide the ship, and this would happen\nto one brought up in Cimmerian obscurity if he fixed his eyes suddenly\nupon the sun. In the sistine he begs for free passage to Hades, because\ndarkness alone is suitable to a dark condition. He says:\n\n65.\n\n_The third blind man_.\n\n    If sudden on the sight, the star of day\n    Should shed his beams on one in darkness reared,\n    Nurtured beneath the black Cimmerian sky,\n    Far from the radiance of the glorious sun,\n    The double light, the beacon of the soul\n    He quenches: then as a foe he hides.\n    Thus were my eyes made dull, inept,\n    Used only, wonted beauties to behold.\n    Conduct me to the land where darkness reigns!\n    Wherefore being dead, speak I amidst the folk?\n    A chip of Hell, why do I mix and move\n    Amongst the living, wherefore do I drink\n    The hated air, since all my pain\n    Is due to having seen the highest good?\n\nThe fourth blind man comes forward, not blind for the same reason as the\nformer one. For as that one was blinded through the sudden aspect of\nthe light, this one is so, from having too frequently beheld it, or\nthrough having fixed his eyes too much upon it, so that he has lost the\nsense of all other light, but he does not consider himself to be blind\nthrough looking at that one which has blinded him: and the same may be\nsaid of the sense of sight as of the sense of hearing, that those whose\nears are accustomed to great noises, do not hear the lesser, as is well\nknown of those who live near the cataracts of the great river Nile which\nfall precipitously down to the plain.\n\nMIN. Thus, all those who have accustomed the body and the soul to things\nmore difficult and great, are not apt to feel annoyed by smaller\ndifficulties. So that fellow ought not to be discontented about his\nblindness.\n\nSEV. Certainly not. But one says, voluntarily blind, of one who desires\nthat every other thing be hidden because it annoys him to be diverted\nfrom looking at that which alone he wishes to behold. Meanwhile he prays\nthe passers-by to prevent his coming to mischief in any encounter, while\nhe goes so absorbed and captivated by one principal object.\n\nMIN. Repeat his words!\n\nSEV. He says:\n\n66\n\n_The fourth blind man_.\n\n    Headlong from on high, to the abyss,\n    The cataract of the Nile falls down and dulls the senses\n    Of the joyless folk to every other sound,\n    So stood I too, with spirit all intent\n    Upon the living light, that lights the world;\n    Dead henceforth to all the lesser splendours,\n    While that light shines, let every other thing\n    Be to the voluntary blind concealed.\n    I pray you save me stumbling 'mongst the stones,\n    Make me aware of the wild beast,\n    Show me whether up or down I go;\n    So that the miserable bones fall not,\n    Into a low and cavernous place,\n    While I, without a guide, am stepping on.\n\nTo the blind man that follows, it happens that having wept so much, his\neyes are become dim, so that he is not able to extend the visual ray, so\nas to distinguish visible objects, nor can he see the light, which in\nspite of himself, through so many sorrows, he at one time was able to\nsee. Besides which he considers that his blindness is not from\nconstitution, but from habit, and is peculiar to himself, because the\nluminous fire which kindles the soul in the pupil, was for too long a\ntime and with too much force, repressed and restrained by a contrary\nhumour, so that although he might cease from weeping, he cannot be\npersuaded that this would result in the longed-for vision. You will hear\nwhat he says to the throng in order that they should enable him to\nproceed on his way:\n\n67.\n\n_The fifth blind man_.\n\n    Eyes of mine, with waters ever full,\n    When will the bright spark of the visual ray,\n    Darting, spring through each veiling obstacle,\n    That I may see again those holy lights\n    That were the alpha of my darling pain?\n    Ah, woe! I fear me it is quite extinct,\n    So long oppressed and conquered by its opposite.\n    Let the blind man pass on!\n    And turn your eyes upon these founts\n    Which overcome the others one and all.\n    Should any dare dispute it with me,\n    There's one would surely answer him again;\n    That in one eye of mine an ocean is contained.\n\nThe sixth blind man is sightless because, through so much weeping, there\nremains no more moisture, not even the crystalline and moisture through\nwhich, as a diaphanous medium, the visual ray was transmitted, and the\nexternal light and visible species were introduced, so that the heart\nbecame compressed because all the moist substance, whose office it is to\nkeep united the various parts and opposites, was absorbed, and the\namorous affection remains without the effect of tears. Therefore the\norgan is destroyed through the victory of the other elements, and it is\nconsequently left without sight and without consistency of the parts of\nthe body altogether.[AC] He then proposes to the bystanders that which\nyou shall hear:\n\n68.\n\n_The sixth blind man_.\n\n    Eyes, no longer eyes, fountains no longer founts,\n    Ye have wept out the waters that did keep\n    The body, soul, and spirit joined in one,\n    And thou, reflecting crystal, which from without\n    So much unto the soul made manifest,\n    Thou art consumed by the wounded heart.\n    So towards the dark and cavernous abyss,\n    I, a blind arid man, direct my steps.\n    Ah, pity me, and do not hesitate\n    To help my speedy going. I who\n    So many rivers in the dark days spread out,\n    Finding my only comfort in my tears,\n    Now that my streams and fountains all are dry,\n    Towards profound oblivion lead the way.\n\n    [AC] Water is the first principle of all things; this was the\n    central doctrine of his system (Thales). Now, if we may believe\n    Aristotle, this thought was suggested to him not so much by\n    contemplating the illimitable ocean, out of which, as old\n    cosmogonists taught, all things had at first proceeded, as by\n    noticing the obvious fact, that moisture is found in all living\n    things, and that if it were absent they would cease to be. Thales,\n    no doubt, believed this humour or moisture to be, as he said, the\n    essence and principle of all things.--(\"Encyclopaedia\n    Metropolitana.\")\n\nThe next one avers that he has lost his sight through the intensity of\nthe flame, which, proceeding from the heart, first destroyed the eyes,\nand then dried up all the remaining moisture of the substance of the\nlover, so that being all melted and turned to flame, he is no longer\nhimself, because the fire whose property it is to resolve all bodies\ninto their atoms, has converted him into impalpable dust, whereas by\nvirtue of water alone, the atoms of other bodies thicken, and are welded\ntogether to make a substantial composition. Yet he is not deprived of\nthe sense of the most intense flame. Therefore, in the sistine he would\nhave space made for him to pass; for if anybody should be touched by his\nfires he would become such that he would have no more feeling of the\nflames of hell, for their heat would be to him as cold snow.\n\n69.\n\n_The seventh blind man_.\n\n    Beauty, which through the eyes rushed to the heart,\n    And formed the mighty furnace in my breast,\n    Absorbing first the visual moisture; then,\n    Spouting aloft its grasping flashing flame,\n    Devouring every other fluid,\n    To set the dryer element at rest,\n    Has thus reduced me to a boneless dust,\n    Which now to its own atoms is resolved,\n    If anguish infinite your fears should rouse\n    Make space, give way, oh peoples!\n    Beware of my fierce penetrating fire,\n    For if it should invade and touch you, ye\n    Would feel and know the fires of hell\n    To be like winter's cold.\n\nThe eighth follows, whose blindness is caused by the dart which love has\ncaused to penetrate from the eyes to the heart. Hence, he laments not\nonly as being blind, but furthermore because he is wounded and burnt so\nfiercely, that he believes no other can be equally so. The sense of it\nis easily expressed in this sonnet:--\n\n70.\n\n_The eighth blind man_.\n\n    Vile onslaught, evil struggle, unrighteous palm,\n    Fine point, devouring fire, strong nerve,\n    Sharp wound, impious ardour, cruel body,\n    Dart, fire and tangle of that wayward god\n    Who pierced the eyes, inflamed the heart, bound the soul,\n    Made me at once sightless, a lover, and a slave,\n    So that, blind I have at all times, in all ways and places,\n    The feeling of my wound, my fire, my noose.\n    Men, heroes, and gods!\n    Who be on earth, or near to Ditis or to Jove,\n    I pray ye say, when, how, and where did ye\n    Feel ever, hear, or see in any place\n    Woes like to these, amongst the oppressed\n    Amongst the damned, 'mongst lovers?\n\nFinally comes the last one, who is also mute through not having been\nable, or having dared, to say that which he most desired to say, for\nfear of offending or exciting contempt, and he is deprived of speaking\nof every other thing: therefore, it is not he who speaks, but his guide\nwho relates the affair, about which I do not speak, but only bring you\nthe sense thereof:\n\n71.\n\n_The guide of the ninth blind man_.\n\n    Happy are ye, oh all ye sightless lovers,\n    That ye the reason of your pains can tell,\n    By virtue of your tears you can be sure\n    Of pure and favourable receptions.\n    Amongst you all, the latent fire of him\n    Whose guide I am, rages most fiercely,\n    Though he is mute for want of boldness\n    To make known his sorrows to his deity.\n    Make way! open ye wide the way,\n    Be ye benign unto this vacant face,\n    Oh people full of grievous hindrances,\n    The while this harassed weary trunk\n    Goes knocking at the doors\n    To meet a death less painful, more profound.\n\nHere are mentioned nine reasons, which are the cause that the human mind\nis blind as regards the Divine object and cannot fix its eyes upon it.\nAnd of these, the first, allegorized through the first blind man, is\nthe quality of its own species, which in so far as the degree in which\nhe finds himself admits, he aspires certainly higher, than he is able to\ncomprehend.\n\nMIN. Because no natural desire is vain, we are able to assure ourselves\nof a more excellent state which is suitable to the soul outside of this\nbody, in the which it may be possible to unite itself, or to approach\nmore nearly, to its object.\n\nSEV. Thou sayest well that no natural impulse or power is without strong\nreason; it is in fact the same rule of nature which orders things. So\nfar, it is a thing most true and most certain to well-disposed\nintellects, that the human soul, whatever it may show itself while it is\nin the body, that same, which it makes manifest in this state, is the\nexpression of its pilgrim existence in this region; because it aspires\nto the truth and to universal good, and is not satisfied with that which\ncomes on account of and to the profit of its species.\n\nThe second, represented by the second blind man, proceeds from some\ntroubled affection, as in the question of Love and Jealousy, the which\nis like a moth, which has the same subject, enemy and father, that is,\nit consumes the cloth or wood from which, it is generated.\n\nMIN. This does not seem to me to take place with heroic love.\n\nSEV. True, according to the same reason which is seen in the lower kind\nof love; but I mean according to another reason similar to that which\nhappens to those who love truth and goodness, which shows itself when\nthey are angry against those who adulterate it, spoil it, or corrupt it,\nor who in other ways would treat it with indignity, as has been the case\nwith those who have brought themselves to suffer death and pains, and to\nbeing ignominiously treated by ignorant peoples and vulgar sects.\n\nMIN. Certainly no one truly loves the truth and the good who is not\nangry against the multitude; as no one loves in the ordinary way who is\nnot jealous and fearful about the thing loved.\n\nSEV. And so he comes to be really blind in many things, and according to\nthe common opinion he is quite infatuated and mad.\n\nMIN. I have noted a place which says that all those are infatuated and\nmad, who have sense beyond and outside of the general sense of other\nmen. But such extravagance is of two kinds, according as one goes beyond\nand ascends up higher than the greater number rise or can rise, and\nthese are they who are inspired with Divine enthusiasm; or by going\ndown lower where those are found who have greater defect of sense and\nof reason than the many, and the ordinary; but in that kind of madness,\ninsensibility and blindness, will not be found the jealous hero.\n\nSEV. Although he is told that much learning makes him mad, yet no one\ncan really abuse him. The third, represented by the third blind man,\nproceeds from this: that Divine Truth according to supernatural\nreasoning, called metaphysics, manifests itself to those few to whom it\nshows itself, and does not proceed with measure of movement and time as\noccurs in the physical sciences, that is, those which are acquired by\nnatural light, the which, in discoursing of a thing known to reason by\nmeans of the senses, proceed to the knowledge of another thing, unknown,\nthe which discourse is called argument; but immediately and suddenly,\naccording to the method which belongs to such efficiency.[AD] Whence a\ndivine has said: \"Attenuati sunt oculi mei suspicientes in excelsum.\" So\nthat it does not require a useless lapse of time, fatigue, and study,\nand inquisitorial act to have it, but it is taken in quickly, as the\nsolar light, without hesitation, and makes itself present to whoever\nturns himself to it and opens himself to it.\n\n    [AD] When somewhat of this Perfect Good is discovered and revealed\n    within the soul of man, as it were in a glance or flash, the soul\n    conceiveth a longing to approach unto the Perfect\n    Goodness.--(\"Theologia Germanica.\")\n\nMIN. Do you mean then, that the student and the philosopher are not more\napt to receive this light than the ignorant?\n\nSEV. In a certain way no, and in a certain way yes. There is no\ndifference, when the Divine mind through its providence comes to\ncommunicate itself without disposition of the subject; I mean to say\nwhen it communicates itself because it seeks and elects its subject; but\nthere is a great difference, when it waits and would be sought, and then\naccording to its own good will and pleasure it makes itself to be found.\nIn this way it does not appear to all, nor can it appear to others, than\nto those who seek it. Hence it is said, \"Qui quaerunt me, invenient me;\"\nand again: \"Qui sitit, veniat et bibat!\"\n\nMIN. It is not to be denied, that the apprehension of the second manner\nis made in Time. (Comes with time?)\n\nSEV. You do not distinguish between the disposition towards the Divine\nlight and the apprehension of the same. Certainly I do not deny that it\nrequires time to dispose oneself, discourse, study and fatigue; but as\nwe say that change takes place in time, and generation in an instant,\nand as we see that with time, the windows are opened, but the sun enters\nin a moment, so does it happen similarly in this case.\n\nThe fourth, represented in the following, is not really unworthy, like\nthat which results from the habit of believing in the false opinions of\nthe vulgar, which are very far removed from the opinions of\nphilosophers, and are derived from the study of vulgar philosophies,\nwhich are by the multitude considered the more true, the more they\nappeal to common sense. And this habit is one of the greatest and\nstrongest disadvantages, because as Alcazele and Averroes showed, it is\nlike that which happens to those persons who from childhood and youth\nare in the habit of eating poison, and have become such, that it is\nconverted into sweet and proper nutriment, and on the other hand, they\nabominate those things which are really good and sweet according to\ncommon nature; but it is most worthy, because it is founded upon the\nhabit of looking at the true light; the which habit cannot come into use\nfor the multitude, as we have said. This blindness is heroic, and is of\nsuch a kind that it can worthily satisfy the present heroic blind man,\nwho is so far from troubling himself about it that he is able to explain\nevery other sight, and he would crave nothing else from the community\nsave a free passage and progress in contemplation, for he finds himself\nusually hampered and blocked by obstacles and opposition.\n\nThe fifth results from the disproportion of the means of our cognition\nto the knowable; seeing that in order to contemplate Divine things, the\neyes must be opened by means of images, analogies and other reasonings\nwhich by the Peripatetics are comprehended under the name of fancies\n(fantasmi); or, by means of Being, to proceed to speculate about\nEssence, by means of its effects and the knowledge of the cause; the\nwhich means, are so far from ensuring the attainment of such an end,\nthat it is easier to believe that the highest and most profound\ncognition of Divine things, is through negation and not through\naffirmation, knowing that the Divine beauty and goodness is not that\nwhich can or does fall within our conception, but that which is above\nand beyond, incomprehensible; chiefly in that condition called by the\nphilosopher speculation of phantoms, and by the theologian, vision\nthrough analogies, reflections and enigmas, because we see, not the true\neffects and the true species of things, or the substance of ideas, but\nthe shadows, vestiges and simulacra of them, like those who are inside\nthe cave and have from their birth their shoulders turned away from the\nentrance of the light, and their faces towards the end, where they do\nnot see that which is in reality, but the shadows of that which is found\nsubstantially outside the cave. Therefore by the open vision which it\nhas lost, and knows it has lost, a spirit similar to or better than that\nof Plato weeps, desiring exit from the cave, whence, not through\nreflexion, but through immediate conversion he may see the light again.\n\nMIN. It appears to me that this blind man does not refer to the\ndifficulty which proceeds from reflective vision, but to that which is\ncaused through the medium between the visual power and the object.\n\nSEV. These two modes, although they are distinct in the sensitive\ncognition, or ocular vision, at the same time are united together in the\nrational or intellectual cognition.\n\nMIN. It seems to me that I have heard and read that in every vision, the\nmeans, or the intermediary is required between the power and the object.\nBecause as by means of the light diffused in the air and the figure of\nthe thing, which in a certain way proceeds from that which is seen, to\nthat which sees, the act of seeing is put into effect, so in the\nintellectual region, where shines the sun of the intellect, acting\nbetween the intelligible species formed as proceeding from the object,\nour intellect comes to comprehend something of the divinity, or\nsomething inferior to it. Because, as our eye, when we see, does not\nreceive the light of the fire and of gold, in substance, but in\nsimilitude; so the intellect, in whatever state it is found, does not\nreceive the divinity substantially, so that there should be\nsubstantially as many gods as there are intelligences, but in\nsimilitude; therefore they are not formally gods, but denominatively\ndivine, the divinity and Divine beauty being one, exalted above all\nthings.\n\nSEV. You say well; but for all your well saying, there is no need for me\nto retract, because I have never said the contrary. But I must declare\nand explain. Therefore, first I maintain that the immediate vision, so\ncalled and understood by us, does not do away with that sort of medium\nwhich is the intelligible species, nor that which is the light; but that\nwhich is equal to the thickness and density of the crystalline or opaque\nintermediate body; as happens to him who sees by means of the waters\nmore or less turbid, or air foggy and cloudy, who would believe he was\nlooking as without a medium when it was conceded to him to look through\nthe pure air, light and clear. All which you have explained where it\nsays:\n\n    \"When will the bright spark of the visual ray\n    Darting, spring through each veiling obstacle.\"\n\nBut let us return. The sixth, represented in the following, is caused\nonly by the imbecility and unreality of the body, which is in continual\nmotion, mutation, and change, the operations of which must follow the\ncondition of its faculty, the which is a result of the condition of its\nnature and being. How can immobility, reality, entity, truth be\ncontained in that which is ever different, and always makes and is made,\nother and otherwise? What truth, what picture can be painted and\nimpressed, where the pupils of the eyes are dispersed in water, the\nwater into steam, the steam into flame, the flame into air, and this in\nother and other without end: the subject of sense and cognition turns\nfor ever upon the wheel of mutation?\n\nMIN. Movement is change, and that which is changeable works and operates\never differently, because the conception and affection follow the reason\nand condition of the subject; and he who sees other and other different\nand differently must necessarily be blind as regards that beauty which\nis one and alone and is the same unity and entity.\n\nSEV. So it is. The seventh, contained allegorically in the sentiment of\nthe seventh blind man, is the result of the fire of the affections,\nwhence some become impotent and incapable of comprehending the truth, by\nmaking the affection precede the intellect. There are those who love\nbefore they understand: whence it happens that all things appear to them\naccording to the colour of their affections, whereas he who would\nunderstand the truth by means of contemplation, ought to be perfectly\npure in thought.\n\nMIN. In truth, one sees how much diversity there is in meditators and\ninquirers, because some, according to their habits and early fundamental\ndiscipline, proceed by means of numbers,[AE] others by means of images,\nothers by means of order and disorder, others through composition and\ndivision, others by separation and congregation, others by inquiry and\ndoubt, others by discussions and definitions, others by interpretations\nand decypherings of voices, words, and dialects, so that some are\nmathematical philosophers, some metaphysicians, others logicians, others\ngrammarians; so there are divers contemplators, who with different\naffections set themselves to study and apply the meaning of written\nsentences; whence we find that the same light of truth, expressed in the\nselfsame book, serves with the same words the proposition of so\nnumerous, diverse, and contrary sects.[AF]\n\n    [AE] Number is, as the great writer (Balzac) thought, an Entity,\n    and, at the same time, a Breath emanating from what he termed God,\n    and what we call the ALL; the breath which alone could organize the\n    physical kosmos.--(\"The Secret Doctrine.\")\n\n    [AF] As the Bible serves as the basis for all the different\n    Protestant sects.\n\nSEV. That is to say, that the affections are very powerful in hindering\nthe comprehension of the Truth, notwithstanding that the person may not\nhimself perceive it; just as it happens to a stupid invalid who does not\nsay that his mouth is bittered but that the food is bitter. Now that\nkind of blindness is expressed by him whose eyes are changed and\ndeprived of their natural powers, by that which the heart has given and\nimprinted upon it, powerful not only to change the sense, but besides\nthat, all the faculties of the soul as the present image shows.\nAccording to the meaning of the eighth, the high intelligible object\nhas blinded the intellect, as the high superposed sensible has\ncorrupted the senses. Thus it would happen to him who should see Jove in\nhis majesty, he would lose his life and in consequence his senses. As he\nwho looks aloft sometimes is overcome by the majesty.[AG] Besides, when\nhe comes to penetrate the Divine species, he passes it like a ray.\nWhence say the theologians that the Divine word is more penetrating than\nsharp point of sword or knife. Hence is derived the form and impression\nof His own footstep, upon which nothing else can be imprinted and\nsealed. Therefore, that form being there confirmed and the new strange\none not being able to take its place unless the other yields,\nconsequently he can say, that he has no power of taking any other, if\nthere is one who replaces it or scatters it through the necessary want\nof proportion. The ninth reason is exemplified, by the ninth who is\nblind through want of confidence, through dejection of spirit, the which\nis caused and brought about also by a great love which He fears to\noffend by His temerity. Whence says the Psalm: \"Averte oculos tuos a me,\nquia ipsi me avolare fecere.\" And so he suppresses his eyes so as not to\nsee that which most of all he desires, as he keeps his tongue from\ntalking with whom he most wishes to speak, from fear that a defective\nlook or word should humiliate him or bring him in some way into\nmisfortune. And this generally proceeds from the apprehension of the\nexcellence of the object above its potential faculty: whence the most\nprofound and divine theologians say, that God is more honoured and loved\nby silence than by words; as one sees more by shutting the eyes to the\nspecies represented, than by opening them, therefore the negative\ntheology of Pythagoras and Dionysius is more celebrated than the\ndemonstrative theology of Aristotle and the scholastic doctors.\n\n[AG]\n\n      ... Gaze, as thy lips have said,\n      On God Eternal, Very God! See me, see what thou prayest!\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n      O Eyes of God! O Head!\n      My strength of soul is fled.\n    Gone is heart's force, rebuked is mind's desire!\n      When I behold Thee so,\n      With awful brows a-glow,\n    With burning glance, and lips lighted by fire,\n      Fierce as those flames which shall\n      Consume, at close of all,\n      Earth, Heaven!\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n      God is it I did see,\n    This unknown marvel of Thy Form! but fear\n      Mingles with joy! Retake,\n      Dear Lord! for pity's sake,\n    Thine earthly shape, which earthly eyes may bear!\n                              --(\"The Song Celestial.\")\n                      (Sir Edwin Arnold's translation.)\n\nMIN. Let us go; and we will reason by the way.\n\nSEV. As you please.\n\n\n\n\n=Fifth Dialogue=.\n\n_Interlocutors_:\n\nLAODOMIA. GIULIA.\n\n\nLAO. Some other time, oh my sister, thou wilt hear what happened to\nthose nine blind men, who were at first nine most beautiful and amorous\nyouths, who being so inspired by the loveliness of your face, and having\nno hope of receiving the reward of their love, and fearing that such\ndespair would reduce them to final ruin, went away from the happy\nCampanian country, and of one accord, those who at first were rivals for\nyour beauty, swore not to separate until they had tried in all possible\nways to find something more beautiful than you or at least equal to you;\nbesides which, that they might discover that mercy and pity which they\ncould not find in your breast armed with pride; for they believed this\nwas the only remedy which could bring them out of that cruel captivity.\nThe third day after their solemn departure, as they were passing by the\nCircean mount, it pleased them to go and see those antiquities, the\ncave and fane of that goddess. When they were come there, the majesty of\nthe solitary place, the high, storm-beaten rocks, the murmur of the sea\nwaves which break amongst those caves, and many other circumstances of\nthe locality and the season combined, made them feel inspired; and one\nof them I will tell thee, more bold than the others, spoke these words:\n\"Oh might it please heaven that in these days, as in the past more happy\nages, some wise Circe might make herself present who, with plants and\nminerals working her incantations, would be able to curb nature. I\nshould believe that she, however proud, would surely be pitiful unto our\nwoes. She, solicited by our supplications and laments, would condescend\neither to give a remedy or to concede a grateful vengeance for the\ncruelty of our enemy.\"\n\nHardly had he finished uttering these words than there became visible to\nthem a palace, which, whoever had knowledge of human things, could\neasily comprehend that it was not the work of man, nor of nature; the\nform and manner of it I will explain to thee another time. Whence,\nfilled with great wonder and touched by hope that some propitious deity,\nwho must have placed this before them, would explain their condition and\nfortunes, they said with one accord they could meet with nothing worse\nthan death, which they considered a less evil than to live in so much\nanguish. Therefore they entered, not finding any door that was shut\nagainst them nor janitor who questioned them. They found themselves in a\nvery richly ornamented room, where with royal majesty, (as one may say,\nApollo was found again by Phaeton;) appears she, who is called his\ndaughter, and at whose appearance they saw vanish all the figures of\nmany other deities who ministered unto her. Then, received and comforted\nby this gracious face, they advanced, and overcome by the splendour of\nthat majesty, they bent their knee to the earth, and altogether, with\nthe diversity of tones which their various genius suggested, they laid\nopen their vows to the goddess. By her finally, they were treated in\nsuch a manner that, blind and homeless, with great labour having\nploughed the seas, passed over rivers, overcome mountains, traversed\nplains for the space of ten years, and at the end of which time having\narrived under that temperate sky of the British Isles, and come into the\npresence of the lovely, graceful nymphs of Father Thames, they (the\nnine), having made humble obeisance, and the nymphs having received them\nwith acts of purest courtesy, one, the principal amongst them, who\nlater on will be named, with tragic and lamenting accents laid bare the\ncommon cause in this manner:\n\n    Of those, oh gentle Dames, who with closed urn,\n    Present themselves, whose hearts are pierced\n    Not for a fault by nature caused,\n    But through a cruel fate,\n    That in a living death,\n    Does hold them fast, we each and all are blind.\n\n    Nine spirits are we, wandering many years,\n    Longing to know; and many lands\n    O'ertravelled, one day were surprised\n    By a sore accident,\n    To which if you attend,\n    You'll say, oh worthy, oh unhappy lovers!\n\n    An impious Circe, who presumes to boast\n    Of having for her sire this glorious sun,\n    Welcomed us after many wanderings:\n    Opened a certain urn,\n    With water sprinkled us,\n    And to the sprinkling added an enchantment.\n\n    Waiting the finish of this work of hers\n    We all were quiet, mute, attent,\n    Until she said, \"Oh ye unhappy ones,\n    Blind be ye all,\n    Gather that fruit\n    Those get who fix their thoughts on things above.\"\n\n    Daughter and Mother of horror and darkness and woe\n    They cried, who sudden were struck blind,\n    It pleased you then, so proud and harsh,\n    To treat these wretched lovers,\n    Who put themselves before you,\n    Ready to consecrate to you their hearts.\n\n    But when the sudden fury somewhat stayed,\n    Which this new case had brought on them,\n    Each one within himself withdrew,\n    While rage to grief gave place;\n    To her they turned for pity,\n    With chosen words companioning their tears.\n\n    Now if it please thee, gracious sorceress,\n    If zeal for glory chance to move thy heart,\n    Or milk of kindness soften it,\n    Be merciful to us,\n    And with thy magic herbs,\n    Heal up the wound imprinted on our hearts.\n\n    If wish to succour rules thy beauteous hand,\n    Make no delay, lest some of us\n    Unhappy ones reach death, ere we\n    Praising thy act\n    Can each one say,\n    So much did she torment, yet more did heal.\n\n    Then she replied: Oh curious prying minds,\n    Take this my other fatal urn,\n    Which my own hand may not unclose;\n    Over the wide expanse of earth,\n    Wander ye still,\n    Search for and visit all the various kingdoms.\n\n    Fate hath decreed, it ne'er shall be unclosed\n    Till lofty wisdom, noble chastity\n    And loveliness with these combined,\n    Shall set their hands to it;\n    All other efforts vain,\n    To make this fluid open to the sky.\n\n    Then should it chance to sprinkle beauteous hands,\n    Of those who come anear for remedy,\n    Its god-like virtues you may prove,\n    And turning cruel pain\n    Into a sweet content,\n    Two lovely stars upon the earth you'll see.\n\n    Meanwhile be none of you cast down or sad,\n    Although long while in deep obscurity\n    All that the heavens contain remain concealed,\n    For good so great as this,\n    No pain, however sharp,\n    Can be accounted worthy of the cost.\n\n    That Good to which through blindness you are led,\n    Should make appear all other-having, vile,\n    And every torment be as pleasure held,\n    Who, hoping to behold\n    Graces unique and rare,\n    May hold in high disdain all other lights.\n\n    Ah, weary ones! Too long, too long our limbs\n    Have wandered o'er the terrene globe,\n    So that to us it seems\n    As if the shrewd wild beast,\n    With false and flattering hopes,\n    Our bosoms has encumbered with her wiles.\n\n    Wretched henceforth, we see, though late, the witch\n    Concerned to keep us all with promises\n    (And for our greater hurt), at bay;\n    For surely she believes\n    No woman can be found\n    Beneath the roof of heaven so dowered as she.\n\n    Now that we know that every hope is vain,\n    We yield to destiny and are content,\n    Nor will withdraw from all our strivings sore;\n    And staying not our steps,\n    Though trembling, tired and vexed,\n    We languish through the days that yet are ours.\n\n    Oh graceful nymphs, that on the grassy banks\n    Of gentle Thames do make your home,\n    Do not disdain, ye beauteous ones,\n    To try, although in vain,\n    With those white hands of yours\n    To uncover that which in our urn is hid.\n\n    Who knows? perchance it may be on these shores,\n    Where, with the Nereids, may be seen\n    The rapid torrent from below ascend\n    And wind again\n    Back to its source,\n    That heaven has destined there she shall be found.\n\nOne of the nymphs took the urn in her hand, and without trying to do\nmore offered it to one at a time, but not one was found who dared to be\nthe first to try (to open it), but all by common consent, after simply\nlooking at it, referred and proposed it with respect and reverence to\none alone; who, finally, not so much to exhibit her own glory as to\nsuccour those unhappy ones, and while in a sort of doubt, the urn opened\nas it were spontaneously of itself. But what shall I say to you of the\napplause of the nymphs? How can you imagine that I can express the\nextreme joy of the nine blind men, when, hearing that the urn was open,\nthey felt themselves sprinkled with the desired waters, they opened\ntheir eyes and saw the two suns, and felt they had gained a double\nhappiness; one, the having recovered the light they had lost, the other\nthat of the newly discovered light which alone could show them the image\nof the highest good upon earth. How, I say, can you expect me to\ndescribe the joy and exulting merriment of voices of spirit and of body\nwhich they themselves all together could not express? For a time it was\nlike seeing so many furious bacchanals, inebriated with that which they\nsaw so plainly, until at last, the impetus of their fury being somewhat\ncalmed, they put themselves in a row.\n\n73.\n\n_The first played the guitar and sang the following_:\n\n    Oh cliffs, oh deeps, oh thorns, oh snags, oh stones,\n    Oh mounts, oh plains, oh valleys, rivers, seas,\n    How dear and sweet you show yourselves,\n    For by your aid and favour,\n    To us the sky's unveiled.\n    Oh fortunate and well-directed steps,\n\n_The second with the mandoline played and sang_:\n\n    Oh fortunate and well-directed steps,\n    Oh goddess Circe, oh transcendent woes,\n    With which ye did afflict us months and years;\n    They were the grace of heaven,\n    For such an end as this,\n    After such weariness and such distress.[AH]\n\n[AH] For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us\na far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.--(\"St. Paul to the\nCorinthians.\")\n\n_The third with the lyre played and sang_:\n\n    After such weariness and such distress;\n    If such a port the tempests have prescribed,\n    Then is there nothing more that we can do,\n    But render thanks to heaven,\n    Who closely veiled our eyes,\n    And pierced anon with such a light as this.\n\n_The fourth with the viola sang_:\n\n    And pierced anon with such a light as this;\n    Blindness worth more than every other sight,\n    Pains sweeter far than other pleasures are,\n    For to the fairest light\n    Thou art thyself a guide,\n    Show to the soul all lower things are null.\n\n_The fifth with the Spanish drum sang_:\n\n    Showing the soul all lower things are null,\n    Seasoning with hope the high thought of the mind,\n    Was one who pushed us to the only path,\n    And so did show us plain,\n    The fairest work of God,\n    Thus does a fate benign present itself.[AI]\n\n[AI] The lonely sore-footed pilgrims on their way back to their home are\nnever sure to the last moment of not losing their way in this limitless\ndesert of illusion and matter called Earth-life.--(\"The Secret\nDoctrine.\")\n\n_The sixth with a lute sang_:\n\n    Thus does a fate benign present itself,\n    Who wills not that to good, good should succeed,\n    Or pain forerunner be of pain,\n    But turning round, the wheel,\n    Now rising, now depressed,\n    As day and night succeed alternately.\n\n_The seventh with the Irish harp_:\n\n    As day and night succeed alternately;\n    While the great mantle of the lights of night,\n    Blanches the chariot of diurnal flames,\n    As He who governs all,\n    With everlasting laws,\n    Puts down the high and raises up the low.\n\n_The eighth with the violin_:\n\n    Puts down the high and raises up the low,\n    He who the infinite machine sustains,\n    With swiftness, with the medium or with slow,\n    Apportioning the turning\n    Of this gigantic mass,\n    The hidden is unveiled and open stands.\n\n_The ninth with the rebeck_:\n\n    The hidden is unveiled and open stands,\n    Therefore deny not, but admit the triumph,\n    Incomparable end of all the pains\n    Of field and mount,\n    Of pools and streams and seas,\n    Of cliffs and deeps, of thorns and snags and stones.\n\nAfter each one in this way, singly, playing his instrument, had sung his\nsistine, they danced altogether in a circle and sang together in praise\nof the one Nymph with the softest accents a song which I am not sure\nwhether I can call to memory.\n\nGIU. I pray you, my sister, do not fail to let me hear so much of it as\nyou can remember!\n\nLAO.\n\n74.\n\n_Song of the Illuminati_:\n\n    \"I envy not, oh Jove, the firmament,\"\n    Said Father Ocean, with the haughty brow:\n    \"For that I am content\n    With that which my own empire gives to me.\"\n\n    Then answered Jove, \"What arrogance is thine.\n    What to thy riches have been added now,\n    Oh god of the mad waves,\n    To make thy foolish boasting rise so high?\"\n\n    \"Thou hast,\" said the sea-god, \"in thy command,\n    The flaming sky, where is the burning zone,\n    In which the heavenly host\n    Of stars and planets stand within thy sight.[AJ]\n\n    \"Of these, the world looks most upon the sun,\n    Which, let me tell you, shineth not so bright,\n    As she who makes of me,\n    The god most glorious of the mighty whole.\n\n    \"And I contain within my bosom vast,\n    With other lands, that, where the happy Thames\n    Goes gliding gaily on,\n    Which has of graceful nymphs a lovely throng.\n\n    \"There will be found 'mongst those where all are fair,\n    Will make thee lover more of sea than sky,\n    Oh Jove, High Thunderer!\n    Whose sun shines pale beside the starry night.\"\n\n    Then answered Jove, \"God of the billowy sea!\n    That one should ere be found more blest than I\n    Fate nevermore permits,\n    My treasures with thine own run parallel.\n\n    \"The sun is equal to thy chiefest nymph,\n    By virtue of the everlasting laws,\n    And pauses alternating,\n    Amongst my stars she's equal to the sun.\"\n\n[AJ] Plato says that [Greek: Theos] is derived from the verb [Greek:\nTheein], to move, to run, as the first astronomers who observed the\nmotions of the heavenly bodies called the planets [Greek: Theoi], the\ngods.--(\"The Secret Doctrine,\" foot note, p. 2, vol. 1.)\n\nI believe that I have recalled it entirely.\n\nGIU. You can see that no sentence is wanting to the perfecting of the\nproposition, nor rhyme to the completion of the stanzas. Now if I by the\ngrace of heaven have received beauty, a greater favour I consider is\nmine, in that whatever beauty I may have had it has been in a certain\nway instrumental in causing that Divine and only one to be found. I\nthank the gods, because in that time, when I was so tender (verde), that\nthe amorous flames could not be lighted in my breast, by reason of my\nintractability, such simple and innocent cruelty was used in order to\nyield more graces to my lovers than otherwise it would have been\npossible for them to obtain, through any kindness of mine however great.\n\nLAO. As to the souls of those lovers, I assure you that as they are not\nungrateful to the sorceress Circe for their blindness, grievous\nthoughts, and bitter trials, by means of which they have reached so\ngreat a good, so they can be no less grateful to thee.[AK]\n\nGIU. So I desire and hope.\n\n[AK] For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not\nworthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in\nus.--(St. Paul to the Romans.)\n\n\n\n\nTranscriber's Notes:\n\nPage 15: The last paragraph has only one double quote. I think the\nline quoted is a single sentence, but I'm not sure. The line begins:\n[\"If the love of glory is dear to thy breast,]. Unchanged.\n\nPage 78: LIC is suspected of being a typo for LIB. No other occurences.\nUnchanged.\n\nPage 79: LAS is suspected to be a typo for LAO, as this name occurs\nonly once. Unchanged.\n\nPage 109: The term selfsame occurs only once without a hyphen.\nUnchanged.\n\nFootnote L: Ke['s]ava could not be represented with a latin-1 character.\nThe ['s] is an s with an acute accent above.","title":"The Heroic Enthusiasts (Gli Eroici Furori) Part the Second: An Ethical Poem","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":27500}