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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Heroic Enthusiast, Part II (Gli Eroici
+Furori), by Giordano Bruno
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Heroic Enthusiast, Part II (Gli Eroici Furori)
+       An Ethical Poem
+
+Author: Giordano Bruno
+
+Release Date: November 16, 2006 [EBook #19833]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HEROIC ENTHUSIAST ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Sjaani, Ted Garvin and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE
+
+HEROIC ENTHUSIASTS
+
+(_GLI EROICI FURORI_)
+
+=An Ethical Poem=
+
+BY GIORDANO BRUNO
+
+
+=PART THE SECOND=
+
+TRANSLATED BY
+
+L. WILLIAMS
+
+
+
+LONDON
+
+BERNARD QUARITCH
+
+PICCADILLY
+
+1889
+
+
+
+LONDON:
+
+G. NORMAN AND SON, PRINTERS, HART STREET,
+
+COVENT GARDEN.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+The second part of "The Heroic Enthusiasts" which I am now sending to
+the press is on the same subject as the first, namely the struggles of
+the soul in its upward progress towards purification and freedom, and
+the author makes use of lower things to picture and suggest the higher.
+The aim of the Heroic Enthusiast is to get at the Truth and to see the
+Light, and he considers that all the trials and sufferings of this life,
+are the cords which draw the soul upwards, and the spur which quickens
+the mind and purifies the will.
+
+The blindness of the soul may signify the descent into the material
+body, and "visit the various kingdoms" may be an allusion to the soul
+passing through the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms before it
+arrives at man.
+
+It is interesting to note that in the first part of "The Heroic
+Enthusiasts" (page 122), Bruno makes a distinct allusion to the power of
+steam, and in the second part, one might almost think, that in using the
+number nine in connexion with the blind men, he intended a reference to
+electricity, for we read in "The Secret Doctrine," by H.P. Blavatsky,
+"There exists an universal _agent unique_ of all forms and of life, that
+is called Od, Ob, and Aour, active and passive, positive and negative,
+like day and night; it is the first light in creation; and the first
+light of the primordial Elo-him--the A-dam,--male and female, or,
+(scientifically) Electricity and Life. Its universal value is nine, for
+it is the ninth letter of the alphabet and the ninth door of the fifty
+portals or gateways, that lead to the concealed mysteries of being....
+Od is the pure life-giving Light or magnetic fluid."
+
+The notices of the press upon the first half of this work, were for the
+most part such, as to lead me to hope that the appearance of the second
+part will meet with a favourable reception.
+
+When I first began this translation little was known about Giordano
+Bruno except through the valuable works of Sig. Berti and Sig. Levi, and
+since then Mrs. Firth has given us a life of the Nolan, written in
+English, and several able articles in the magazines have been published,
+in one of which, by C.E. Plumptre (_Westminster Review_, August, 1889),
+an interesting parallel is drawn between Shelley and Bruno.
+
+I will close this short notice with a sentence from an article in the
+_Nineteenth Century_, September, 1889, entitled "Criticism as a trade."
+"There is probably no author who does not feel how much he owes to the
+writers who have reviewed his books, whether he has occasion to
+acknowledge it or not. It is humiliating to find how many errors remain
+in writings that seemed comparatively free from them. Everyone who knows
+his subject, and has any modesty, is aware that there are defects in his
+work which his own eye has not seen; and he is more than grateful for
+the correction of every error that is pointed out to him by an honest
+censor." If this is the case with authors who produce original work, it
+may be still more aptly said of translators, especially of those who
+attempt to translate books so full of difficulties as those presented in
+the works of Giordano Bruno.
+
+L. WILLIAMS.
+
+
+
+
+SECOND PART OF
+
+THE
+
+HEROIC ENTHUSIASTS.
+
+
+
+
+=First Dialogue.=
+
+_Interlocutors:_
+
+CESARINO. MARICONDO.
+
+1.
+
+
+CES. It is said that the best and most excellent things are in the world
+when the whole universe responds from every part, perfectly, to those
+things; and this it is said takes place as the planets arrive at Aries,
+being when that one of the eighth sphere again reaches the upper
+invisible firmament, where is also the other Zodiac;[A] and low and evil
+things prevail when the opposite disposition and order supervene, and
+thus through the power of change comes the continual mutation of like
+and unlike, from one opposite to another. The revolution then of the
+great year of the world is that space of time in which, through the most
+diverse customs and effects, and by the most opposite and contrary
+means, it returns to the same again. As we see in particular years such
+as that of the sun, where the beginning of an opposite tendency is the
+end of one year, and the end of this is the beginning of that. Therefore
+now that we have been in the dregs of the sciences, which have brought
+forth the dregs of opinions, which are the cause of the dregs of customs
+and of works, we may certainly expect to return to the better condition.
+
+    [A] Astronomers distinguish between a fixed and intellectual zodiac;
+    and the movable and visible zodiac. According to the former, Aries
+    still stands as the first of the signs; that is to say, the first
+    thirty degrees of the zodiacal circle, reckoning from the
+    equinoctial point in spring, are allotted to Aries in the
+    intellectual zodiac.... Astronomers generally choose to reckon by
+    the fixed and intellectual zodiac.--(Drummond's "Oedipus Judaicus.")
+
+MARICONDO. Know, my brother, that this succession and order of things is
+most true and most certain; but as regards ourselves in all ordinary
+conditions whatever, the present afflicts more than the past, nor can
+these two together console, but only the future, which is always in hope
+and expectation as you may see designated in this figure which is taken
+from the ancient Egyptians, who made a certain statue which is a bust,
+upon which they placed three heads, one of a wolf which looks behind,
+one of a lion with the face turned half round, and the third of a dog
+who looks straight before him; to signify that things of the past
+afflict by means of thoughts, but not so much as things of the present
+which actually torment, while the future ever promises something better;
+therefore behold the wolf that howls, the lion that roars and the dog
+that barks (applause).
+
+CES. What means that legend that is written above?
+
+MAR. See, that above the wolf is Lam, above the lion Modo, above the dog
+Praeterea, which are words signifying the three parts of time.
+
+CES. Now read the tablet.
+
+MAR. I will do so.
+
+41.
+
+    A wolf, a lion, and a dog appear
+    At dawn, at midday, and dark night.
+    That which I spent, retain and for myself procure,
+    So much was given, is given, and may be given;
+    For that which I did, I do, and have to do.
+    In the past, in the present and in the future,
+    I do repent, torment myself and re-assure,
+    For the loss, in suffering and in expectation.
+    With sour, with bitter and with sweet
+    Experience, the fruits, and hope,
+    Threatens, afflict, and comforts me.
+    The age I lived, do live and am to live,
+    Affrights me, shakes me and upholds
+    In absence, presence and in prospect.
+    Much, too much and sufficient
+    Of the past, of now, and of to come,
+    Put me in fear, in anguish and in hope.
+
+CES. This is precisely the humour of a furious lover, though the same
+may be said of nearly all mortals who are seriously affected in any way.
+We cannot say that this accords with all conditions in a general way,
+but only with those mortals who were, and who are, wretched. So that to
+him who sought a kingdom and obtained it, belongs the fear of losing the
+same; and to one who has laboured to secure the fruits of love, such as
+the special grace of the beloved, belongs the tooth of jealousy and
+suspicion. Thus, too, with the states of the world; when we find
+ourselves in darkness and in adversity we may surely prophecy light and
+prosperity, and when we are in a state of happiness and discipline,
+doubtless we have to expect the advent of ignorance and distress. As in
+the case of Hermes Trismegistus, who, seeing Egypt in all the splendour
+of the sciences and of occultism, so that he considered that men were
+consorting with gods and spirits and were in consequence most pious, he
+made that prophetic lament to Asclepios, saying that the darkness of new
+religions and cults must follow, and that of the then present things
+nothing would remain but idle tales and matter for condemnation. So the
+Hebrews, when they were slaves in Egypt, and banished to the deserts,
+were comforted by their prophets with the hope of liberty and the
+re-acquisition of their country; when they were in authority and
+tranquillity they were menaced with dispersion and captivity. And as in
+these days there is no evil nor injury to which we are not subject, so
+there is no good nor honour that we may not promise ourselves. Thus does
+it happen to all the other generations and states, the which, if they
+endure and be not destroyed entirely by the force of vicissitude, it is
+inevitable that from evil they come to good, from good to evil, from low
+estate to high, from high to low, out of obscurity into splendour, out
+of splendour into obscurity, for this is the natural order of things;
+outside of which order, if another should be found which destroys or
+corrects it, I should believe it and not dispute it, for I reason with
+none other than a natural spirit.[B]
+
+    [B] As in long-drawn systole and long-drawn diastole, must the
+    period of Faith, alternate with the period of Denial; must the
+    vernal growth, the summer luxuriance of all Opinions, Spiritual
+    Representations and Creations, be followed by, and again follow the
+    autumnal decay, the winter dissolution.--("Sartor Resartus.")
+
+MAR. We know that you are not a theologian but a philosopher, and that
+you treat of philosophy and not of theology.
+
+CES. It is so. But let us see what follows.
+
+
+II.
+
+CES. I see a smoking thurible, supported by an arm, and the legend which
+says: "Illius aram," and then the following:--
+
+42.
+
+    Now who shall say the breath of my desire
+    Of high and holy worship is demeaned
+    If decked in divers forms ornate she come
+    Through vows I offer to the shrine of Fame?
+    And if another work should call, and lead me on,
+    Who would aver that more it might beseem
+    If that, of Heaven so loved and eulogized,
+    Should hold me not in its captivity.
+    Leave, oh leave me, every other wish,
+    Cease, fretting thoughts, and give me peace;
+    Why draw me forth from looking at the sun,
+    From looking at the sun that I so love.
+    You ask in pity, wherefore lookest thou
+    On that, on which to look is thy undoing?
+    Wherefore so captivated by that light?
+    And I will say, because to me this pain
+    Is dearer than all other pleasures are.
+
+MAR. In reference to this I told you that although one should be
+attached to corporeal and external beauty yet he may honourably and
+worthily be so attached; provided that, through this material beauty,
+which is a glittering ray of spiritual form and action, of which it is
+the trace and shadow, he comes to raise himself to the consideration and
+worship of divine beauty, light and majesty; so that, from these visible
+things his heart becomes exalted towards those things which are more
+excellent in themselves and grateful to the purified soul, in so far as
+they are removed from matter and sense. Ah me! he will say, if beauty so
+shadowy, so dim, so fugitive, painted on the surface of bodily matter
+pleases me so much, and moves my affections so much, and stamps upon my
+spirit I know not what of reverence for majesty, captivates me, softly
+binds me, and draws me, so that I find nothing that comes within the
+senses that satisfies me so much,--how will it be with the
+substantially, originally, primitively beautiful? How will it be with my
+soul, the divine intellect, and the law of nature? It is right, then,
+that the contemplation of this vestige of light lead me, through the
+purification of my soul, to the imitation, and to conformity and
+participation in that which is more worthy and higher, into which I am
+transformed and unto which I unite myself: for I am certain that
+nature, which has placed this beauty before my eyes and has gifted me
+with an interior sense, through which I am able to infer a deeper and
+incomparably greater beauty, wills that I be promoted to the altitude
+and eminence of more excellent kinds. Nor do I believe that my true
+divinity, as she shows herself to me in symbols and vestiges, will scorn
+me if in symbols and vestiges I honour her and sacrifice to her; as my
+heart and affections are always so ordered as to look higher. For who
+may he be, that can honour in essence and real substance, if in such
+manner he cannot understand it?
+
+     It is in and through Symbols that man, consciously or
+     unconsciously, lives, works, and has his being. For is not a Symbol
+     ever, to him who has eyes for it, some dimmer or clearer
+     revelation, of the Godlike?--("Sartor Resartus.")
+
+CES. Right well do you demonstrate how, to men of heroic spirit, all
+things turn to good and how they are able to turn captivity into greater
+liberty, and the being vanquished into an occasion for greater victory.
+Well dost thou know that the love of corporeal beauty to those who are
+well disposed, not only does not keep them back from higher enterprises,
+but rather does it lend wings to arrive at these, when the necessity for
+love is converted into a study of the virtuous, through which the lover
+is forced into those conditions in which he is worthy of the thing loved
+and perchance of even a still higher, better and more beautiful thing;
+so that he comes to be either contented to have gained that which he
+desires, or so satisfied with its own beauty, that he can despise that
+of others, which comes to be, by him, vanquished and overcome, so that
+he either remains tranquil, or else he aspires to things more excellent
+and grand. And so will the heroic spirit ever go on trying until it
+becomes raised to the desire of divine beauty itself, without
+similitude, figure, symbol, or kind, if it be possible, and what is more
+one knows that he will reach that height.
+
+MAR. You see, Cesarino, how this enthusiast is justified in his anger
+against those who reproach him with being in captivity to a low beauty,
+to which he dedicates his vows, and attributes these forms, so that he
+is deaf to those voices which call him to nobler enterprises: for these
+low things are derived from those, and are dependent upon them, so that
+through these you may gain access to those, according to their own
+degrees. These, if they be not God, are things divine, are living images
+of Him, in the which, if He sees Himself adored, He is not offended.
+For we have a charge from the supernal spirit which says: Adorate
+sgabellum pedum eius. And in another place a divine messenger says:
+Adorabimus ubi steterunt pedes eius.
+
+CES. God, the divine beauty, and splendour shines and _is_ in all
+things; and therefore it does not appear to me an error to admire Him in
+all things, according to the way in which we have communion with them.
+Error it would surely be if we should give to another the honour due to
+Him alone. But what means the enthusiast when he says, "Leave, leave me,
+every other wish"?
+
+MAR. That he banishes every thought presented to him by different
+objects, which have not the power to move him and which would rob him of
+the sight of the sun which comes to him through that window more than
+through others.
+
+CES. Why, importuned by thoughts, does he continually gaze at that
+splendour which destroys him, and yet does not satisfy him, as it
+torments him ever so fiercely?
+
+MAR. Because all our consolations in this state of controversy are not
+without their discouragements, however vast those consolations may be.
+Just as the fear of a king for the loss of his kingdom, is greater than
+that of a mendicant who is in peril of losing ten farthings; and more
+important is the care of a prince over a republic, than that of a rustic
+over a herd of swine; as perchance the pleasures and delights of the one
+are greater than the pleasures and delights of the other. Therefore the
+loving and aspiring higher, brings with it greater glory and majesty,
+with more care, thought, and pain: I mean in this state, where the one
+opposite is always joined to the other, finding the greatest contrariety
+always in the same genus, and consequently about the same subject,
+although the opposites cannot be together. And thus proportionally in
+the love of the supernal Eros, as the Epicurean poet declares of vulgar
+and animal desire when he says:--
+
+    Fluctuat incertis erroribus ardor amantum,
+    Nec constat, quid primum oculis, manibusque fruantur:
+    Quod petiere, premunt arte, faciuntque dolorem
+    Corporis, et dentes inlidunt saepe labellis,
+    Osculaque adfigunt, quia non est pura voluptas,
+    Et stimuli subsunt, qui instigant laedere id ipsum,
+    Quodcunque est, rabies, unde illa haec germina surgunt.
+    Sed leviter poenas frangit Venus inter amorem,
+    Blandaque refraenat morsus admixta voluptas;
+    Namque in eo spes est, unde est ardoris origo,
+    Restingui quoque posse ab eodem corpore flammam.
+
+Behold, then, with what condiments the skill and art of nature works,
+so that one is wasted with the pleasure of that which destroys him, is
+happy in the midst of torment, and tormented in the midst of all the
+satisfactions. For nothing is produced absolutely from a homoeogeneous
+(pacifico) principle, but all from opposite principles, through the
+victory and dominion of one part of the opposites, and there is no
+pleasure of generation on one side without the pain of corruption on the
+other: and where these things which are generated and corrupted are
+joined together and as it were compose the same subject, the feeling of
+delight and of sadness are found together; so that it comes to be called
+more easily delight than sadness, if it happens that this predominates,
+and solicits the senses with greater force.
+
+
+III.
+
+CES. Now let us take into consideration the following image which is
+that of a phoenix, which burns in the sun, and the smoke from which
+almost obscures the brightness of that by which it is set on fire, and
+here is the motto which says: Neque simile, nec par mar.
+
+43.
+
+MAR.:
+
+    This phoenix set on fire by the bright sun,
+    Which slowly, slowly to extinction goes,
+    The while she, girt with splendour burning lies;
+    Yields to her star antagonistic fief
+    Through that which towards the sky to Heaven ascends.
+    Black smoke, and sombre fog of murky hue
+    Concealing thus his radiance from our eyes,
+    And veiling that which makes her burn and shine.
+    And so my soul, illumined and inflamed
+    By radiance divine, would fain display
+    The brightness of her own effulgent thought;
+    The lofty concept of her song sends forth.
+    In words which do but hide the glorious light,
+    [C]While I dissolve and melt and am destroyed.
+    Ah me! this lowering cloud, this smoky fire of words
+    Abases that which it would elevate.
+
+    [C] But not till the whole personality of the man is dissolved and
+    melted--not until it is held by the divine fragment which has
+    created it, as a mere subject for the grave experiment and
+    experience--not until the whole nature has yielded and become
+    subject unto its higher self, can the bloom open.--("Light on the
+    Path.")
+
+CES. This fellow then says that as this phoenix set on fire by the sun
+and accustomed to light and flame comes to send upwards that smoke which
+obscures him who has rendered her so luminous, so he, the inflamed and
+illuminated enthusiast, through that which he does in praise of such an
+illustrious subject which has warmed his heart and which shines in his
+thought, comes rather to conceal it than to render it light for light,
+sending forth that smoke the effect of the flame, in which the
+substance of himself is resolved.
+
+MAR. I, without weighing and comparing the studies of that fellow,
+repeat what I said to you the other day, that praise is one of the
+greatest oblations that human affection can offer to an object. And
+leaving on one side the proposition of the Divine, tell me, who would
+have known of Achilles, Ulysses, and all the other Greek and Trojan
+chiefs? Who would have heard of all those great soldiers, the wise and
+the heroes of the earth, if they had not been placed amongst the stars
+and deified by the oblation of praise which has lighted the fire on the
+altar of the heart of illustrious poets and other singers, so that
+usually, the sacrificant, the victim and the sanctified deity, all
+mounted to the skies, through the hand and the vow of a worthy and
+lawful priest?
+
+CES. Well sayest thou "of a worthy and lawful priest," for the world is
+at present full of apostate ones, the which, as they are for the most
+part unworthy themselves, sing the praises of other unworthy ones, so
+that, asini asinos fricant. But Providence wills that these, instead of
+rising to the sky, should go together to the shades of Orcus, so that
+naught is the glory of him who extols and of him who is extolled; for
+the one has woven a statue of straw, or carved the trunk of a tree, or
+cast a piece of chalk, and the other, the idol of shame and infamy,
+knows not that there is no need to wait for the keen tooth of the age
+and the scythe of Saturn in order to be put down, for through those
+self-same praises he gets buried alive then and there, while he is being
+praised, saluted, hailed, and presented. Just as it happened in a
+contrary way, so that much-praised Moecenatus, who, if he had had no
+other glory than a soul inclined to protect and favour the Muses, for
+this alone merited, that the genius of so many illustrious poets should
+do him homage, and place him in the number of the most famous heroes who
+have trod this earth. His own studies and his own brightness made him
+prominent and grand, and not the being born of a royal race, and not the
+being grand secretary and councillor of Augustus. That, I say, which
+made him illustrious was the having made himself worthy to fulfil the
+promise of that poet who says:--
+
+    Fortunati ambo, si quid mea carmina possunt,
+    Nulla dies nunquam memori vos eximet aevo,
+    Dum domus Aeneae Capitoli immobile saxum
+    Accolet, imperiumque pater romanus habebit.
+
+MAR. I remember what Seneca says in certain letters where he refers to
+the words of Epicurus to a friend, which are these: "If the love of
+glory is dear to thy breast, these letters of mine will make thee more
+famous and known than all those other things which thou honourest, by
+which thou art honoured, and of which thou mayest boast. The same might
+Homer have said if Achilles or Ulysses had presented themselves before
+him, or Eneas and his offspring before Virgil; as that moral philosopher
+well said; Domenea is more known through the letters of Epicurus, than
+all the magicians, satraps and royalties upon whom depended his title of
+Domenea and the memory of whom was lost in the depths of oblivion.
+Atticus does not survive because he was the son-in-law of Agrippa and
+ancestor of Tiberius, but through the epistles of Tully; Drusus, the
+ancestor of Cæsar, would not be found amongst the number of great names
+if Cicero had not inserted it. Many, many years may pass over our heads,
+and in all that time not many geniuses will keep their heads raised.
+
+Now to return to the question of this enthusiast, who, seeing a phoenix
+set on fire by the sun, calls to mind his own cares, and laments that
+like the phoenix he sends, in exchange for the light and heat received,
+a sluggish smoke from the holocaust of his melted substance. Wherefore
+not only can we never discourse about things divine, but we cannot even
+think of them without detracting from, rather than adding to the glory
+of them; so that the best thing to be done with regard to them is, that
+man, in the presence of other men, should rather praise himself for his
+earnestness and courage, than give praise to anything, as complete and
+perfected action; seeing that no such thing can be expected where there
+is progress towards the infinite, where unity and infinity are the same
+thing and cannot be followed by the other number, because there is no
+unity from another unity, nor is there number from another number and
+unity, because they are not the same absolute and infinite. Therefore
+was it well said by a theologian that as the fountain of light far
+exceeds not only our intellects, but also the divine, it is decorous
+that one should not discourse with words, but that with silence alone it
+should be magnified.[D]
+
+    [D] Now, it may be asked, what is the state of a man who followeth
+    the true Light to the utmost of his power? I answer truly, it will
+    never be declared aright, for he who is not such a man, can neither
+    understand nor know it, and he who is, knoweth it indeed; but he
+    cannot utter it, for it is unspeakable.--("Theologia Germanica.")
+
+CES. Not, verily, with such silence as that of the brutes who are in the
+likeness and image of men, but of those whose silence is more exalted
+than all the cries and noise and screams of those who may be heard.[E]
+
+    [E] "Speech is of time, silence is of eternity."--("Sartor
+    Resartus.")
+
+
+IV.
+
+MAR. Let us go on and see what the rest means.
+
+CES. Say, if you have seen and considered it, what is the meaning of
+this fire in the form of a heart with four wings, two of which have eyes
+and the whole is girt with luminous rays and has round about it this
+question: Nitimur incassum?
+
+MAR. I remember well, that it signifies the state of the mind, heart and
+spirit and eyes of the enthusiast, but read the sonnet!
+
+44.
+
+    [F]Splendour divine, to which this mind aspires,
+    The intellect alone cannot unveil.
+    The heart, which those high thoughts would animate,
+    Makes not itself their lord; nor spirit, which
+    Should cease from pleasure for a space,
+    Can ever from those heights withdraw.
+    The eyes which should be closed at night in sleep,
+    Awake remain, open, and full of tears.
+    Ah me, my lights! where are the zeal and art
+    With which to tranquillize the afflicted sense?
+    Tell me my soul; what time and in what place
+    Shall I thy deep transcendent woe assuage?
+    And thou my heart, what solace can I bring
+    As compensation to thy heavy pain?
+    When, oh unquiet and perturbed mind,
+    Wilt thou the soul for debt and dole receive
+    With heart, with spirit and the sorrowing eyes?
+
+    [F] Let no one suppose that we may attain to this true light and
+    perfect knowledge by hearsay, or by reading and study, nor yet by
+    high skill and great learning.--("Theologia Germanica.")
+
+The mind which aspires to the divine splendour flees from the society of
+the crowd and retires from the multitude of subjects, as much as from
+the community of studies, opinions and sentences; seeing that the peril
+of contracting vices and illusions is greater, according to the number
+of persons with whom one is allied. In the public shows, said the moral
+philosopher, by means of pleasure, vices are more easily engendered. If
+one aspires to the supreme splendour, let him retire as much as he can,
+from union and support, into himself (Di sorte che non sia simile a
+molti, per che son molti; e non sia nemico di molti per che son
+dissimili), so that he be not like unto many, because they are many; and
+be not adverse to many, because they are dissimilar; if it be possible,
+let him retain the one and the other; otherwise he will incline to that
+which seems to him best. Let him associate either with those whom he can
+make better or with those through whom he may be made better, through
+brightness which he may impart to those or that he may receive from
+them. Let him be content with one ideal rather than with the inept
+multitude. Nor will he hold that he has gained little, when he has
+become such an one who is wise unto himself, remembering what Democritus
+says: Unus mihi pro populo est, et populus pro uno; and what Epicurus
+said to a companion of his studies, writing to him: "Haec tibi, non
+multis! Satis enim magnum alter alteri theatrum sumus."
+
+The mind, then, which aspires high, leaves, for the first thing, caring
+about the crowd, considering that that divine light despises striving
+and is only to be found where there is intelligence, and yet not every
+intelligence, but that which is amongst the few, the chief, the first
+among the first, the principal one.
+
+CES. How do you mean that the mind aspires high? For example, by looking
+at the stars? At the empyreal heaven above the ether?
+
+MAR. Certainly not! but by plunging into the depths of the mind, for
+which there is no great need to open the eyes to the sky, to raise the
+hands, to direct the steps to the temple, nor sing to the ears of
+statues in order to be the better heard, but to come into the inner self
+believing that, God is near, present and within, more fully than man
+himself,[G] being soul of souls, life of lives, essence of essences: for
+that which you see above or below, or round about, or however you please
+to say it, of the stars, are bodies, are created things, similar to this
+globe on which we are, and in which the divinity is present neither more
+nor less than he is in this globe of ours or in ourselves. This is how,
+then, one must begin to withdraw oneself from the multitude into
+oneself. One ought to arrive at such a point to despise and not to
+overestimate every labour, so that, the more the desires and the vices
+contend with each other inwardly and the vicious enemies dispute
+outwardly, so much the more should one breathe and rise, and with
+spirit, if possible, surmount this steep hill. Here there is no need for
+other arms and shield than the majesty of an unconquered soul and a
+tolerant spirit, which maintains the quality and meaning of that life
+which proceeds from science and is regulated by the art of considering
+attentively things low and high, divine and human, in the which consists
+that highest good, and in reference to this, a moral philosopher wrote
+to Lucillus that one must not linger between Scylla and Charybdis,
+penetrate the wilds of Candavia and the Apennines or lose oneself in the
+sandy plains, because the road is as sure and as blythe as Nature
+herself could make it. "It is not," says he, "gold and silver that makes
+one like God, because these are not treasure to Him; nor vestments, for
+God is naked; nor ostentation and fame, for He shows Himself to few, and
+perhaps not one knows Him, and certainly many, and more than many, have
+a bad opinion of Him. Not all the various conditions of things which we
+usually admire, for not those things of which we desire to have copies,
+make one rich, but the contempt for those things."
+
+    [G] For, in this (degree), God cannot be tasted, felt, seen, because
+    he is more ourselves than ourselves, is not distinct from
+    us.--("Spiritual Torrents.")
+
+CES. Well. But tell me in what manner will this fellow tranquillize the
+senses, assuage the woes of the spirit, compensate the heart and give
+its just debts to the mind, so that with this aspiration of his he come
+not to say: "Nitimur incassum"?
+
+MAR. He will be present in the body in such wise that the best part of
+himself will be absent from it, and will join himself by an indissoluble
+sacrament to divine things, in such a way that he will not feel either
+love or hatred of things mortal. Considering himself as master, and that
+he ought not to be servant and slave to his body, which he would regard
+only as the prison which holds his liberty in confinement, the glue
+which smears his wings, chains which bind fast his hands, stocks which
+fix his feet, veil which hides his view. Let him not be servant,
+captive, ensnared, chained, idle, stolid and blind, for the body which
+he himself abandons cannot tyrannize over him, so that thus, the spirit
+in a certain degree comes before him as the corporeal world, and matter
+is subject to the divinity and to nature. Thus will he become strong
+against fortune, magnanimous towards injuries, intrepid towards poverty,
+disease and persecution.
+
+CES. Well is the heroic enthusiast instructed!
+
+
+V.
+
+CES. Close by is to be seen that which follows. See the wheel of time,
+which moves round its own centre, and there is the legend: "Manens
+moveor." What do you mean by that?
+
+MAR. This means that movement is circular where motion concurs with
+rest, seeing that in orbicular motion upon its own axis and about its
+own centre is understood rest and stability according to right
+movement, or, rest of the whole and movement of the parts; and from the
+parts which move in a circle is understood two different kinds of
+motion, inasmuch as some parts rise to the summit and others from the
+summit descend to the base successively; others reach the medium
+differences, and others the extremes of high and low. And all this seems
+to me suitably expressed in the following:
+
+45.
+
+    That which keeps my heart both open and concealed,
+    Beauty imprints and honesty dispels;
+    Zeal holds me fast; all other care comes to me
+    By that same path whence all care to the soul doth come:
+    Seek I myself from pain to disengage,
+    Hope sustains me then, whoso scourges, tires;--(altrui rigor mi lassa)
+    Love doth exalt and reverence abase me
+    What time I yearn towards the highest good.
+    High thoughts, holy desires, and mind intent
+    Upon the labours and the cunning of the heart
+    Towards the immense divine immortal object,
+    So do, that I be joined, united, fed,
+    That I lament no more; that reason, sense, attend,
+    Discourse and penetrate to other things.
+
+So that the continual movement of one part supposes and carries with it
+the movement of the whole, in such a way that the attraction of the
+posterior parts is consequent upon the repulsion of the anterior parts;
+thus the movement of the superior parts results of necessity from that
+of the inferior, and from the raising of one opposite power, follows the
+depression of the other opposite. Therefore the heart, which signifies
+all the affections generally, comes to be concealed and open, held by
+zeal, raised by magnificent thoughts, sustained by hope, weakened by
+fear, and in this state and condition will it ever be seen and found.
+
+
+VI.
+
+CES. That is all well. Let us come to that which follows. I see a ship
+floating on the waves; its ropes are attached to the shore and there is
+the legend: Fluctuat in portu. Deliberate about the signification of
+this, and when you are decided about it, explain.
+
+MAR. Both the legend and the figure have a certain connexion with the
+present legend and figure, as may be easily understood, if one considers
+it a little. But let us read the sonnet.
+
+46.
+
+    If I by gods, by heroes and by men
+    Be re-assured, so that I not despair,
+    Nor fear, pain, nor the impediments
+    Of death of body, joy and happiness,
+    Yet must I learn to suffer and to feel.
+    And that I may my pathways clearly see,
+    Let doubts arise, and dolour, and the woe
+    Of vanished hopes, of joy and all delight.
+    But if _he_ should behold, should grant, and should attend
+    My thoughts, my wishes, and my reasoning,
+    Who makes them so uncertain, hot, and vague,
+    Such dear conceits, such acts and speech,
+    Will not be given nor done to him, who stays
+    From birth, through life, to death in sheltered home.
+
+    Non dà, non fa, non ha qualunque stassi
+    De l'orto, vita e morte a le magioni.
+
+From what we have considered and said in the preceding discourses one is
+able to understand these sentiments, especially where it is shown that
+the sense of low things is diminished and annulled whenever the superior
+powers are strongly intent upon a more elevated and heroic object. The
+power of contemplation is so great, as is noted by Jamblichus, that it
+happens sometimes, not only that the soul ceases from inferior acts, but
+that it leaves the body entirely. The which I will not understand
+otherwise than in such various ways as are explained in the book of
+thirty seals, wherein are produced so many methods of contraction, of
+which some infamously, others heroically operate, that one learns not to
+fear death, suffers not pain of body, feels not the hindrances of
+pleasures: wherefore the hope, the joy, and the delight of the superior
+spirit are of so intense a kind that they extinguish all those passions
+which may have their origin in doubt, in pain and all kinds of sadness.
+
+CES. But what is that, of which he requests that it consider those
+thoughts which it has rendered so uncertain, fulfil those desires which
+it has made so ardent, and listen to those discourses which it has
+rendered so vague?
+
+MAR. He means the Object, which he beholds when it makes itself present;
+for to see the Divine is to be seen by it, as to see the sun concurs
+with the being seen of the sun. Equally, to be heard by the Divine, is
+precisely to listen to it, and to be favoured by it, is the same as to
+offer to it; for from the one immoveable and the same, proceed thoughts
+uncertain and certain, desires ardent and appeased, and reasonings valid
+and vain, according as the man worthily or unworthily puts them before
+himself, with the intellect, the affections and actions. As that same
+pilot may be said to be the cause of the sinking or of the safety of the
+ship, according as he is present in it or absent from it; with this
+difference, that the pilot through his defectiveness or his efficiency
+ruins or saves the ship; but the Divine potency which is all in all does
+not proffer or withhold except through assimilation or rejection by
+oneself.[H]
+
+    [H] Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock,
+    and it shall be opened unto you.--("St. Matthew.")
+
+
+VII.
+
+MAR. It seems to me that the following figure is closely connected and
+linked with the above; there are two stars in the form of two radiant
+eyes, with the legend: Mors et vita.
+
+CES. Read the sonnet!
+
+MAR. I will do so:
+
+47.
+
+    Writ by the hand of Love may each behold
+    Upon my face the story of my woes.
+    But thou, so that thy pride no curb may know,
+    And I, unhappy one, eternally might rest,
+    Thou dost torment, by hiding from my view
+    Those lovely lights beneath the beauteous lids.
+    Therefore the troubled sky's no more serene,
+    Nor hostile baleful shadows fall away.
+    By thine own beauty, by this love of mine
+    (So great that e'en with this it may compare),
+    Render thyself, oh Goddess, unto pity!
+    Prolong no more this all-unmeasured woe,
+    Ill-timed reward for such a love as this.
+    Let not such rigour with such splendour mate
+    If it import thee that I live!
+    Open, oh lady, the portals of thine eyes,
+    And look on me if thou wouldst give me death!
+
+Here, the face upon which the story of his woes appears is the soul; in
+so far as it is open to receive those superior gifts, for the which it
+has a potential aptitude, without the fulness of perfection and act
+which waits for the dew of heaven. Thus was it well said: Anima mea
+sicut terra sine aqua tibi; and again: Os meum operui; and again:
+Spiritum, quia mandata tua desiderabam. Then "pride which knows no curb"
+is said in metaphor and similitude, as God is sometimes said to be
+jealous, angry, or that He sleeps, and that signifies the difficulty
+with which He grants so much even as to show his shoulders, which is the
+making himself known by means of posterior things and effects. So the
+lights are covered with the eyelids, the troubled sky of the human mind
+does not clear itself by the removal of the metaphors and enigmas.
+Besides which, because he does not believe that all which is not, could
+not be, he prays the divine light, that by its beauty, which ought not
+to be entirely concealed, at least according to the capacity of whoever
+beholds it, and by his love, which, perchance, is equal to so much
+beauty (equal, he means, of the beauty, in so far as he can comprehend
+it) that it surrender itself to pity, that is, that it should do as
+those who are compassionate, and who from being capricious and gloomy
+become gracious and affable and that it prolong not the evil which
+results from that privation, and not allow that its splendour, for which
+it is so much desired, should appear greater than that love by means of
+which it communicates itself, seeing that in it all the perfections are
+not only equal but are also the same. In fine, he begs that it will no
+further sadden by privation, for it can kill with the glance of its eyes
+and can also with those same give him life.
+
+CES. Does he mean that death of lovers, which comes from intense joy,
+called by the Kabalists, mors osculi, which same is eternal life, which
+a man may anticipate in this life and enjoy in eternity?
+
+MAR. He does.
+
+
+VIII.
+
+MAR. It is time to proceed to the consideration of the following design,
+similar to those previously brought forward, and with which it has a
+certain affinity. There is an eagle, which with two wings cleaves the
+sky; but I do not know how much and in what manner it comes to be
+retarded by the weight of a stone which is tied to its leg. There is the
+legend: Scinditur incertum. It is certain that it signifies the
+multitude, number and character (volgo) of the powers of the soul, to
+exemplify which, that verse is taken: Scinditur incertum studia in
+contraria vulgus. The whole of which character (volgo) in general is
+divided into two factions; although subordinate to these, others are not
+wanting, of which some appeal to the high intelligence and splendour of
+rectitude, while others incite and force in a certain manner to the low,
+to the uncleanness of voluptuousness and compliance with natural
+desires. Therefore says the sonnet:
+
+48.
+
+    I would do well--to me 'tis not allowed.
+    With me my sun is not, although I be with him,
+    For being with him, I'm no more with myself:
+    The farther from myself--the nearer unto him;
+    The nearer unto him, the farther from myself.
+    Once to enjoy, doth cost me many tears,
+    And seeking happiness, I meet with woe.
+    For that I look aloft, so blind am I.
+    That I may gain my love, I lose myself.
+    Through bitter joy, and through sweet pain,
+    Weighted with lead, I rise towards the sky.
+    Necessity withholds, goodness conducts me on,
+    Fate sinks me down, and counsel raises me,
+    Desire spurs me, fear keeps me in check.
+    Care kindles and the peril backward draws.
+    Tell me, what power or what subterfuge
+    Can give me peace and bring me from this strife,
+    If one repels, the other draws me on.
+
+The ascension goes on in the soul through the power and appulsion in
+the wings, which are the intellect, or intellectual will upon which she
+naturally depends and through which she fixes her gaze toward God, as to
+the highest good, and primal truth, as to absolute goodness and beauty.
+Thus everything has an impetus towards its beginning retrogressively,
+and progressively towards its end and perfection, as Empedocles well
+said, and from which sentence I think may be inferred that which the
+Nolan said in this octave:
+
+    The sun must turn and reach his starting-point,
+    Each wandering light must go towards its source,
+    That which is earth to earth itself reverts,
+    The rivers from the sea to sea return,
+    And thither, whence desires have life and grow
+    Must they aspire as to revered divinity,
+    So every thought born of my lady fair
+    Comes back perforce to her, my goddess dear.
+
+The intellectual power is never at rest, it is never satisfied with any
+comprehended truth, but ever proceeds on and on towards that truth which
+is not comprehended. So also the will which follows the apprehension, we
+see that it is never satisfied with anything finite. In consequence of
+this, the essence of the soul is always referred to the source of its
+substance and entity. Then as to the natural powers, by means of which
+it is turned to the protection and government of matter, to which it
+allies itself, and by appulsion benefits and communicates of its
+perfection to inferior things, through the likeness which it has to the
+Divine, which in its benignity communicates itself or produces
+infinitely, _i.e._ imparts existence to the universal infinite and to
+the innumerable worlds in it, or, finitely, produces this universe
+alone, subject to our eyes and our common reason. Thus then in the one
+sole essence of the soul are found these two kinds of powers, and as
+they are used for one's own good and for the good of others, it follows
+that they are depicted with a pair of wings, by means of which it is
+potent towards the object of the primal and immaterial potencies, and
+with a heavy stone, through which it is active and efficacious towards
+the objects of the secondary and material potencies. Whence it follows
+that the entire affection of the enthusiast is bifold, divided,
+harassed, and placed in a position to incline itself more easily
+downwards than to force itself upwards: seeing that the soul finds
+itself in a low and hostile country, and reaches the far-off region of
+its more natural home where its powers are the weakest.
+
+CES. Do you think that this difficulty can be overcome?
+
+MAR. Perfectly well; but the beginning is most difficult, and according
+as we make more and more fruitful progress in contemplation we arrive at
+a greater and greater facility. As happens to whoever flys up high, the
+more he rises above the earth the more air he has beneath to uphold him,
+and consequently the less he is affected by gravitation; he may even
+rise so high that he cannot, without the labour of cleaving the air,
+return downwards, although one might imagine it were more easy to cleave
+the air downwards towards the earth than to rise on high towards the
+stars.
+
+CES. So that with progress of this kind a greater and greater facility
+is acquired for mounting on high?
+
+MAR. So it is; therefore well said Tansillo:--
+
+    "The more I feel the air beneath my feet
+    So much the more towards the wind I bend
+    My swiftest pinions
+    And spurn the world and up towards Heaven I go."
+
+As every part of bodies and of their elements, the nearer they come to
+their natural place, the greater the impetus and force with which they
+move, until at last, whether they will or not, they must prevail. That
+which we see then in the parts of bodies and in the bodies themselves we
+ought also to allow of intellectual things towards their proper
+objects, as their proper places, countries, and ends. Whence you may
+easily comprehend the entire significance of the figure, the legend, and
+the verses.
+
+CES. So much so that whatsoever you might add thereto would appear to me
+superfluous.
+
+
+IX.
+
+CES. Let us see what is here represented by those two radiating arrows
+upon a target around which is written: Vicit instans.
+
+MAR. The continual struggle in the soul of the enthusiast, the which, in
+consequence of the long familiarity which it had with matter was hard
+and incapable of being penetrated by the rays of the splendour of the
+Divine intelligence and the species of the Divine goodness; during which
+time, he says that the heart was enamelled with diamond, that is, the
+affection was hard and not capable of being heated and penetrated, and
+it rejected the blows of love which assailed it on innumerable sides.
+That is, it did not feel itself wounded by those wounds of eternal life
+of which the Psalmist speaks when he says: Vulnerasti cor meum, o
+dilecta, vulnerasti cor meum. The which wounds are not from iron or
+other material through the vigour and strength of nerves, but are darts
+of Diana, or of Phoebus, that is, either from the goddess of the
+deserts--of contemplation of truth, that is, from Diana, who is the
+order of the second intelligences, which transfer the splendour received
+from the first and communicate it to the others, who are deprived of a
+more open vision; or else from the principal god Apollo, who with his
+own, and not a borrowed splendour, sends his darts, that is, his rays,
+so many and from such innumerable points, which are all the species of
+things, which are indications of Divine goodness, intelligence, beauty,
+and wisdom, according to the various degrees, from the simple
+comprehension, to the becoming heroic enthusiasts; because the
+adamantine subject does not reflect from its surface the impression of
+the light, but, destroyed and overcome by the heat and light, it becomes
+in substance luminous--all light--so that it is penetrated within the
+affection and conception. This is not immediately, at the beginning of
+generation, when the soul comes forth fresh from the intoxication of
+Lethe, and drenched with the waves of forgetfulness and confusion, so
+that the spirit comes into captivity to the body, and is put into the
+condition of growth; but little by little, it goes on digesting, so as
+to become fitted for the action of the sensitive faculty, until,
+through the rational and discursive faculty, it comes to a purer
+intellectual one, so that it can present itself to the mind, without
+feeling itself befogged by the exhalations of that humour, which,
+through the exercise of contemplation, has been saved from putrefaction
+in the stomach and is duly digested. In this state, the present
+enthusiast shows himself to have remained thirty years, during which
+time he had not reached that purity of conception which would make him a
+suitable habitation for the wandering species, which offering themselves
+to all, equally, knock, ever at the door of the intelligence. At last,
+Love, who in various ways and at different times had assaulted him as it
+were in vain--as the light and heat of the sun are said to be useless to
+those who are in the opaque depths and bowels of the earth--having
+located itself in those sacred lights, that is having shown forth the
+Divine Beauty through two intelligible species the which bound his
+intellect through the reasoning of Truth and warmed his affections
+through the reasoning of Goodness; while the material and sensitive
+desires became superseded, which aforetime used, as it were, to triumph,
+remaining intact, notwithstanding the excellence of the soul. Because
+those lights which made present the illuminating, acting intellect and
+sun of intelligence found easy ingress through his eyes; that of Truth
+(the intellect of Truth?) through the door of the intellectual faculty;
+that of Goodness (intellect of Goodness?) through the door of the
+appetitive faculty, to the heart, that is, the substance of the general
+affection. This was that double ray, which came as from the hand of an
+irate warrior, who showed himself, now, as ready and as bold, as
+aforetime he had appeared weak and negligent.[I]
+
+Then, when he first felt warmed and illuminated in his conception, was
+that victorious point and moment of which it is said: Vicit instans.
+
+    [I] He takes it by assault, without offering battle: the heart is
+    unable to resist him.--("Spiritual Torrents.")
+
+Thus you can understand the sense of the following figure, legend and
+sonnet, which says:--
+
+49.
+
+    I fought with all my strength, 'gainst Love Divine
+    When he assailed with blows from every side
+    This cold, enamelled, adamantine heart,
+    Whence my desires defeated his intent.
+    At last, one day, 'twas as the heavens had willed.
+    Encamped I found him in those holy lights
+    Which, through mine own alone, of all the rest
+    An easy entrance to my heart could find.
+    'Twas then upon me fell that double bolt,
+    Flung as from hand of irate warrior
+    Who had for thirty years besieged in vain.
+    He marked that place and strongly there he held,
+    Planted the trophy there, and evermore
+    He holds my fleet wings in restrainment.
+    Meanwhile since then with more solemnity of preparation
+    The anger and the ire of my sweet enemy
+    Cease not to wound my heart.
+
+Rare moment was that; the end of the beginning and perfection of
+victory; rare were those two species which amongst all others found easy
+entrance, seeing that they contain in themselves the efficacy and the
+virtue of all the others; for what higher and more excellent form can
+present itself than that of the beauty, goodness and truth, which are
+the source of every other truth, beauty, and goodness? "He marked that
+place"--that is, took possession of the affections, noted them, and
+impressed upon them his own character; "and strongly there he held;" he
+confirmed and established them and sanctified them so that he can never
+again lose them; for it is not possible that one should turn to love any
+other thing when once he has conceived in his mind the Divine Beauty,
+and it is as impossible that he can do other than love it, as it is
+impossible that his desires should fall otherwise than towards good, or
+species of good. Therefore his inclination is in the highest degree
+towards the primal good. So again, the wings, which used to be so fleet
+to go downwards with the weight of matter, are kept in restrainment, and
+the sweet augers which are the efficacious assaults of the gracious
+enemy, who has been for so long time kept back, and excluded, a stranger
+and a pilgrim, never cease to wound, soliciting the affections and
+awakening thought. But now, the sole and entire possessor and disposer
+of the soul, for she neither wills nor wishes to will other, nor is she
+pleased, nor will she that any other please her, whence he often says:--
+
+    Dolci ire, guerra dolce, dolci dardi,
+    Dolci mie piaghe, miei dolci dolori!
+
+
+X.
+
+CES. It would seem that we have nothing more to consider upon this
+proposition. Let us see now, how this quiver and bow of Eros display the
+sparks around, and the knot of the string, which hangs down with the
+legend, which is: Subito, clam.
+
+MAR. Well do I remember having seen it expressed in the sonnet. But let
+us read it first.
+
+50.
+
+    Eager to find the much desired food,
+    The eagle towards the sky spreads out his wings
+    And warns of his approach both bird and beast,
+    The third flight bringing him upon the prey.
+    And the fierce lion roaring from his lair
+    Spreads horror all around and mortal fear;
+    And all wild beasts, admonished and forewarned,
+    Fly to the caves and cheat his cruel jaw.
+    The whale, ere he the dumb Protean herd
+    Hungry pursues, sends forth his nuncio,
+    From caves of Thetys spouts his water forth.
+    Lions and eagles of the earth and sky,
+    And whales, lords of the seas, come not with treachery,
+    But the assaults of Love come stealing secretly.
+
+The animal kingdom is divided into three, and is composed of various
+elements: the earth, the water, the air, and there are three
+species--beasts, fishes, and birds. Into three kinds are the principles
+of nature settled and defined, in the air the eagle, on earth the lion,
+in the water the whale; of the which, each one, as it displays more
+strength and command over the others, makes a show of magnanimous
+action, or apparently magnanimous. Therefore it is observed, that the
+lion, before he starts on the hunt trumpets forth his roar, which
+resounds through the whole forest, like to the poetical description of
+the fury-hunter.
+
+    At saeva e speculis tempus dea nacta nocendi,
+    Ardua tecta petit, stabuli et de culmine summo
+    Pastorale canit signum, cornuque recurvo
+    Tartaream intendit vocem, qua protinus omne
+    Contremuit nemus, et silvae intonuere profundae.
+
+The eagle again, before he proceeds to his venery, first rises straight
+from the nest in a perpendicular line upwards, and generally speaking at
+the third time he swoops from above with greater impetus and swiftness
+than if he were flying in a direct line, so that at the time when he is
+gaining the greatest velocity of flight, he is able also to speculate
+upon his success with the prey, and after three inspections he knows
+whether he will succeed or fail.
+
+CES. Can one imagine why, if at the first his prey presents itself
+before his eyes, he does not instantly pounce upon it?
+
+MAR. No; unless it be to see whether anything better, or more easily
+taken, comes to sight. At the same time I do not believe that this is
+always so, but most often it is. But to return. Of the whale it is
+manifest that, being such a huge animal, he cannot divide the waters
+without making his presence known through the repulsion of the waves,
+besides which there are several species of this fish, that when they
+move or breathe, spout forth a windy tempest of water. Thus from these
+three principal species of animals, the inferior kinds have warning to
+enable them to get away, so that they do not conduct themselves as
+deceivers and traitors. But Love, who is stronger and greater and who
+has supreme dominion in heaven, on earth, and in the seas, and who in
+comparison ought perhaps to show greater magnanimity, as he also has
+more power, does nothing of the kind, but assaults and wounds suddenly
+and swiftly.
+
+    Labitur totas furor in medullas,
+    Igne furtivo populante venas,
+    Nec habet latum data plaga frontem;
+    Sed vorat tectas penitas medullas,
+    Virginum ignoto ferit igne pectus.
+
+As you perceive, the tragic poet calls him a furtive fire, an unknown
+flame. Solomon calls it furtive waters. Samuel named it the whisper of a
+gentle wind. The which three significations show with what sweetness,
+gentleness, and astuteness, in seas, on earth, in sky, does this fellow
+come and tyrannize over the whole universe.
+
+CES. There is no vaster empire, no worse tyranny, no better dominion, no
+more necessary magistracy, nothing more sweet and dear, no food to be
+found more hard and bitter, no deity more violent, no god more pleasing,
+no agent more treacherous and false, no author more regal and faithful,
+and, in fine, it seems to me that Love is all and does all, of him all
+may be said, and all may refer itself to him.
+
+MAR. You say well. Love then, as he who works chiefly through the
+sight, which is the most spiritual of all the senses, and which reaches
+swiftly the known ends of the earth, and without stretch of time takes
+in the whole horizon of the visible, comes to be quick, furtive, sudden
+and instantaneous. Besides which, we must remember what the ancients
+say, that Love precedes all the other gods, and therefore it is no use
+to imagine that Saturn shows him the way except by following him. Now
+must we find out, whether Love appears and makes himself known
+externally, whether his home is the soul itself, his bed the heart
+itself, and whether he consists of the same composition as our own
+substance, the same impulse as our own powers. Finally everything
+naturally desires the beautiful and the good, and therefore it is
+useless to argue and discuss, because the affection informs and confirms
+itself, and in one instant desire joins itself to the desirable, as the
+sight to the visible.
+
+
+XI.
+
+CES. Let us see here, what is the meaning of that burning arrow, around
+which is the legend: Cui nova plaga loco? Explain what part does this
+seek to wound?
+
+MAR. Read the sonnet which says:--
+
+51.
+
+    That all the ears of corn that may be reaped
+    In burning Apuleia, or sunbrowned Lybia,
+    With all that they unto the winds entrust,
+    Or that the rays from the great planet sent,
+    Should number those sad pains of my glad soul,
+    Which she from those two burning stars receives
+    With mournful joy in sweetest agony,
+    Forbid me Sense and Reason to believe.
+    What would'st thou more, sweet foe?
+    What wish is that which moves thee still to hurt,
+    Since this my heart of but one wound is made?
+    So that there lies no part that now may be
+    By thee or others printed, stabbed, or pierced,
+    Turn thee aside, turn otherwhere thy bow,
+    For thou dost waste thy powers, oh beauteous god!
+    In slaying him who lies already dead.
+
+The meaning of all this is metaphorical, like the rest, and may be
+understood in the same sense as that. Here the number of darts which
+have wounded and do wound the heart, signify the innumerable individuals
+and species of things, in which shine the splendour of Divine Beauty,
+according to their degrees, and whence the affection for the good, well
+proposed and well apprehended warms us. The which through the causes of
+potentiality and actuality, of possibility and of effect, crucify and
+console, give the sense of sweetness and also make the bitter to be
+felt. But where the entire affection is all turned towards God, that is
+towards the Idea of Ideas, from the light of intelligible things, the
+mind becomes exalted to the super-essential unity, and, all love, all
+one, it feels itself no longer solicited by various objects, which
+distract it, but is one sole wound, in the which the whole affection
+concurs and which comes to be one and the same affection. Then there is
+no love or desire of any particular thing, that can urge, nor even
+present itself before the will; for there is nothing more straight than
+the straight, nothing more beautiful than beauty, nothing better than
+goodness, nothing can be found larger than size, nor anything lighter
+than that light which with its presence darkens and obliterates all
+lights.
+
+CES. To the perfect, if it be perfect, there is nothing that can be
+added; therefore the will is not capable of any other desire, when that
+which is of the perfect is present with it, highest and best. Therefore
+I understand the conclusion where he says to Love, "Turn otherwhere thy
+bow," and wherefore should he try to kill him who is already dead, that
+is, he, who has no more life nor sense about other things, so that he
+cannot be stabbed or pierced or become exposed to other species. And
+this lament proceeds from him, who having tasted of the highest unity,
+desires to be in all things severed and withdrawn from the multitude.
+
+MAR. You understand quite well.
+
+
+XII.
+
+CES. Now here is a boy in a boat, which little by little is being
+submerged in the tempestuous waves, and he, languid and tired, has
+abandoned the oars; around it the legend "Fronti nulla, fides." There is
+no doubt that this signifies that he was induced, by the serene aspect
+of the waters, to venture on the treacherous sea, which having suddenly
+become troubled, the boy, in mortal fear, and in his impotence to still
+the tempest, has lost his head, his hope, and the power of his arm. But
+let us see the rest:--
+
+52.
+
+    Oh, gentle boy, that from the shore didst loose
+    The baby bark, and to the slender oar
+    Didst set thy unskilled hand; lured by the sea!
+    Late hast thou seen the evil of thy plight.
+    See there the traitor rolls his fatal waves,
+    The prow of thy frail bark, now sinks, now mounts.
+    The soul borne down with anxious cares
+    Prevaileth not against the swollen floods.
+    Thy oars thou yieldst to thy fierce enemy,
+    Waiting for death with calm collected thought,
+    With eyelids closed, lest thou shouldst see him come.
+    If thee no friendly aid should quickly reach
+    Thou surely must the full result soon feel,
+    Of thy inquisitive temerity.
+    My cruel fate is like unto thine own,
+    For I too, lured, enticed by Love, must feel,
+    The rigour keen of this most treacherous one.
+
+In what manner and why Love is a traitor and deceiver we have just seen;
+but as I see the following without figure or legend, I believe that it
+must have connection with the above. Therefore let us go on and read it.
+
+53.
+
+    Methought to leave the shelter of my port,
+    And from maturer studies rest awhile:
+    When, looking round me to enjoy my ease,
+    Sudden I saw those unrelenting fates.
+    These have inflamed me with so ardent fires.
+    Vainly I strive some safer shores to reach,
+    Vainly from pitying hands invoke some aid,
+    And swift deliverance from my enemies.
+    Weary and hoarse I yield me, impotent,
+    And seek no more to elude my destiny,
+    Or make endeavour to escape my death:
+    Let every other life to me be null,
+    And let not the extremest torment fail,
+    Which my hard fate for me prescribed.
+    Type of my own deep ills,
+    Is that which thou for pastime didst entrust
+    To hostile breast. Oh, careless boy.
+
+Here I would not pretend to understand or determine all that the
+enthusiast means. Yet there is well expressed the strange condition of a
+soul cast down by the knowledge of the difficulty of the operation, the
+amount of the labour, the vastness of the work on one side, and on the
+other the ignorance, want of knowledge of the way, weakness of nerves
+and peril of death. He has no knowledge suitable to the business, he
+does not know where and how to turn, no place of flight or refuge
+presents itself; and he sees that, from every side, the waves threaten,
+with frightful, fatal impetus. Ignoranti portum, nullus suus ventus est.
+Behold him, who has committed himself indeed to fortuitous things, and
+has brought upon himself trouble, prison, ruin, and drowning. See how
+fortune deludes us, and that which we put carefully into her hands, she
+either breaks or lets it fall from her hands, or causes it to be removed
+by the violence of another, or suffocates and poisons, or taints with
+suspicion, fear, and jealousy to the great hurt and ruin of the
+possessor. Fortunae au ulla putatis dona carcere dolis? For strength
+which cannot give proof of itself is dissipated; magnanimity, which
+cannot prevail, is naught, and vain is study without results; he sees
+the effects of the fear of evil, which is worse than evil itself. Peior
+est morte timor ipse mortis. He already suffers, through fear, that
+which he fears to suffer, terror in the limbs, imbecility in the nerves,
+tremors in the body, anxiety of the spirit, and that which has not yet
+appeared becomes present to him, and is certainly worse than whatsoever
+may happen. What can be more stupid than to be in pain about future
+things and absent ones which at present are not felt?
+
+CES. These considerations are on the surface and belong to the external
+of the figure. But the proposition of the heroic enthusiast, I think,
+deals with the imbecility of human nature (ingegno) which, intent on the
+Divine undertaking, finds itself all at once engulphed in the abyss of
+incomprehensible excellence, and the sense and the imagination become
+confused and absorbed, and not knowing how to pass on, nor to go back,
+nor where to turn, vanishes and loses itself as a drop of water vanishes
+in the sea, or as a small spirit, becomes attenuated, losing its own
+substance in the space and immensity of the atmosphere.
+
+MAR. Well. But let us go towards our chamber and talk as we go, for it
+is night.
+
+
+
+
+=Second Dialogue=
+
+
+MARICONDO. Here you see a flaming yoke enveloped in knots round which is
+written: Levius aura; which means that Divine love does not weigh down,
+nor carry his servant captive and enslaved to the lowest depths, but
+raises him, supports him and magnifies him above all liberty whatsoever.
+
+CES. Prithee, let us read the sonnet, so that we may consider the sense
+of it in due order with propriety and brevity.
+
+MAR. It says thus:--
+
+54.
+
+    She who my mind to other love did move,
+    To whom all others vile and vain appear,
+    In whom alone is sovereign beauty seen,
+    And excellence Divine is manifest.
+    She from the forest coming, I beheld,
+    Huntress of myself, beloved Artemis,
+    'Midst beauteous nymphs, with air of nascent bells.
+    Then said I unto Love: See, I am hers.
+    And he to me: Oh, happy lover thou!
+    Delectable companion of thy fate!
+    That she alone of all the numberless,
+    That hold within their bosom life and death,
+    Who most with virtues high the world adorns,
+    Thou didst obtain, through will and destiny,
+    Within the Court of Love.
+    So happy thou in thy captivity
+    Thou enviest not the liberty of man or God.
+
+See how contented he is under that yoke, that marriage which has joined
+him to her whom he saw issuing from the forest, from the desert, from
+the woods, that is, from parts removed from the crowd, and from the
+conversation of the vulgar who have but small enlightenment. Diana, the
+splendour of the intelligible species, and huntress; because with her
+beauty and grace she first wounded him, and then bound him and holds him
+in her power, more contented than otherwise he could possibly have been.
+He speaks of her "amidst beauteous nymphs," that is, the multitude of
+other species, forms and ideas, and "air of bells," that is the genius
+and the spirit which displayed itself at Nola, which lies on the plain
+of the Campanian horizon.[J] He acknowledges her, and she, more than any
+other, is praised by Love, who considers him so fortunate, because
+amongst all those present or absent to mortal eyes, she does more highly
+adorn the world, and makes man glorious and beautiful. Hence he says
+that his mind is raised towards the highest love, and that it learns to
+consider "every other goddess," that is, the care or observation of
+every other kind, as vile and vain.[K] Now, in saying that she has
+roused his mind to high love, he takes occasion to magnify the heart
+through the thoughts, desires and works, as much as possible, and (to
+say) that we ought not to be entertained with low things which are
+beneath our faculties, as happens to those who, through avarice or
+through negligence, or indolence, become in this brief life attached to
+unworthy things.
+
+    [J] Does he allude to the fact that bells were first used in
+    Christian Churches at Nola?--(Tr.)
+
+    [K] The delights which are perceived in things corporeal are vile;
+    for every delight is such that it becomes viler the more it proceeds
+    to external things, and happier, the more it proceeds to things
+    internal.--("Spiritual Torrents.")
+
+CES. There must be artisans, mechanics, agriculturists, servants,
+trotters, ignoble, low, poor, pedants and such like, for otherwise there
+could not be philosophers, meditators, cultivators of souls, masters,
+captains, nobles, illustrious ones, rich, wise, and the rest who may be
+heroes like to gods. Now why should we force ourselves to corrupt the
+state of nature which has separated the universe into things major and
+minor, superior and inferior, illustrious and obscure, worthy and
+unworthy, not only outside ourselves but also inside in the substance of
+us, even to that part of us which is said to be immaterial?
+
+So of the intelligences: some are low, others are pre-eminent, some
+serve and some obey, some command and govern. I believe, however, that
+this ought not to be brought forward as an example, so that subjects
+wishing to be superiors, and the ignoble to equal the noble, the order
+of things would become perverted and confounded, so that a sort of
+neutrality would supervene, and a brutal equality, such as is found in
+certain deserts and uncultured republics. Do you not see what damage has
+been done to science through this: _i.e._ pedants wishing to be
+philosophers; to treat of natural things, and mix themselves with and
+decide about things Divine? Who does not see how much evil has happened,
+and does happen, through the mind having been moved through similar
+facts to exalted affections? Who is there, of good sense, who cannot see
+what a fine thing Aristotle made of it, when, being a master of belles
+lettres at Alexandria, he set himself to oppose and make war against the
+Pythagorean doctrine, and that of natural philosophy; seeking by means
+of his logical ratiocination to propose definitions and notions,
+certain fifth entities and other abortive portions of fantastical
+cogitations, as principles and substance of things, more anxious about
+the esteem of the vulgar stupid crowd, which is influenced and governed
+by sophisms and appearances which are found in the superficies of things
+rather than by the Truth, which is occult and hidden in the substance of
+them, and is the substance itself of them? He roused his mind, not to
+make himself a mediator, but judge and censor of things which he had
+never studied, nor well understood. Thus in our day, that little which
+Aristotle can bring, is peculiar for its inventive reasoning, its
+suggestiveness, its metaphysics, and is useful for other pedants, who
+work with the same "Sursum corda," who institute new dialectics and
+modes of forming the reason (judgment?) which are as much viler than
+those of Aristotle, as may be the philosophy of Aristotle is
+incomparably viler than that of the ancients. And it has been caused by
+this, that certain grammarians having grown old in the birching of
+children, and in anatomizing phrases and words, have sought to rouse the
+mind to the formation of new logic and metaphysics, judging and
+sentencing those which they had never studied nor understood: as also
+these by the approbation of the ignorant multitude, with whose mind
+they have most affinity, can easily demolish the humanities and
+ratiocination of Aristotle, as the latter was the executioner of the
+Divine philosophies of others. See, then, what it comes to, if all
+should aspire to the sacred splendour, and yet are occupied about things
+low and vain.
+
+MAR.
+
+    Ride, si sapis, o puella, ride,
+    Pelignus, puto, dixerat poeta;
+    Sed non dixerat omnibus puellis;
+    Et si dixerat omnibus puellis,
+    Non dixit tibi. Tu puella non es.
+
+Thus the "Sursum corda" is not the measure for all; but for those that
+have wings. We see that pedantry has never been held in such esteem for
+the government of the world as in our times, and it offers as many paths
+of the true intelligible species and objects of infallible and sole
+truth as there are individual pedants. Therefore in this present time it
+is proper that noble spirits equipped with truth and enlightened with
+the Divine intelligence, should arm themselves against dense ignorance
+by climbing up to the high rock and tower of contemplation.[L]
+
+    [L] If meditation be a nobler thing
+        Than action, wherefore, then, great Ke['s]ava!
+        Dost thou impel me to this dreadful fight?
+
+            --("Song Celestial.")
+
+To them it is seemly that they hold every other object as vile and vain.
+Nor should these spend their time in light and vain things; for time
+flies with infinite velocity; the present rushes by with the same
+swiftness with which the future draws near. That which we have lived is
+nothing; that which we live is a point; that which we have to live is
+not yet a point, but may be a point which, together, shall be and shall
+have been. And with all this we crowd our memories with genealogies:
+this one is intent upon the deciphering of writings, that other is
+occupied in multiplying childish sophisms, and we shall see, for
+example, a volume full of: Cor est fons vitae. Nix est alba, ergo cornix
+est fons vitae alba, and one prattles about the noun; was it first, or
+the verb; the other, whether the sea was first or the springs; again,
+another tries to revive obsolete vocabularies which, because they were
+once used and approved by some old writer, must now be exalted to the
+stars. Yet another takes his stand upon the false or the true
+orthography, and so on, with various similar nonsense only worthy of
+contempt. They fast, they become thin and emaciated, they scourge the
+skin, and lengthen the beard, they rot, and in these things they place
+the anchor of their highest good. They despise fortune, and put up
+these as shield and refuge against the strokes of fate. With such-like
+most vile thoughts they think to mount to the stars, to be equal to
+gods, and to understand the good and the beautiful which philosophy
+promises.
+
+CES. A grand thing, indeed, that time, which does not suffice for
+necessary things, however carefully we use it, should come to be chiefly
+consumed about superfluous things, and things vile and shameful.
+
+Is it not rather a thing to laugh at than to praise in Archimedes, that
+at the time when the city was in confusion, everything in ruins, fire
+broken out in his room, enemies there at his back who had it in their
+power to make him lose his brain, his life, his art; that he, meanwhile,
+having abandoned all desire or intention of saving his life, lost it
+while he was inquiring, perhaps, into the proportion of the curve to the
+straight line, of the diameter to the circle, or other similar mathesis,
+as suitable for youth, as it were unsuitable for one who, being old,
+should be intent upon things more worthy of being put as the end of
+human desires?
+
+MAR. In connection with this I like what you said just now, that there
+must be all sorts of persons in the world, and that the number of the
+imperfect, the ugly, the poor, the unworthy and the villanous, should
+be the greater, and, in short, it ought not to be otherwise than as it
+is. The long life of Archimedes, of Euclid, of Priscian, of Donato, and
+others, who were found up to their death occupied with numbers, lines,
+diction, concordances, writings, dialectics, syllogisms, forms, methods,
+systems of science, organs, and other preambles, is ordained for the
+service of youth, so that they may learn to receive the fruits of the
+mature age of those (sages) and be full of the same even in their green
+age, so that when they are older they may be fit and ready to arrive
+without hindrance to higher things.
+
+CES. I am not wrong in the proposition I moved just now when I spoke of
+those who make it their study to appropriate to themselves the place and
+the fame of the ancients with new works which are neither better nor
+worse than those already existing, and spend their life in considering
+how to turn wheat into tares,[M] and find the work of their life in the
+elaboration of those studies which are suited for children and are
+generally profitable to no one, not even to themselves.
+
+    [M] E spendono la vita su le considerazioni da mettere avanti lana
+    di capra, o l'ombra de l'asino.
+
+MAR. But enough has been said about those who neither can nor dare to
+have their mind roused to highest love. Let us now come to the
+consideration of the voluntary captivity and of the pleasant yoke under
+the dominion of the said Diana; that yoke, I say, without which, the
+soul is impotent to rise to that height from which it fell, and which
+renders it light and agile, while the noose renders it more active and
+disengaged.
+
+CES. Speak on then!
+
+MAR. To begin, to continue, and to conclude in order; I consider that
+all which lives must feed itself and nourish itself in a manner suitable
+to the way in which it lives. Therefore, nothing squares with the
+intellectual nature but the intellectual, as with the body nothing but
+the corporeal; seeing that nourishment is taken for no other reason, but
+that it should go to the substance of him who is to be nourished. As
+then the body does not transmute into spirit, nor the spirit into
+body,--for every transmutation takes place, when matter, which was in
+one form, comes to be in another,[N]--so the spirit and the body are not
+the same matter; in that that, which was subject to one should come to
+be subject to the other.
+
+    [N] Carlyle says, "For matter, were it never so despicable, is
+    spirit: were it never so honourable, can it be more?"--("Sartor
+    Resartus.")
+
+CES. Surely, if the soul should be nourished with body, it would carry
+itself better there, where the fecundity of the material is, (as
+Jamblichus argues); so that when a large fat body presents itself, we
+should imagine that it were the habitation of a strong soul, firm, ready
+and heroic, and we should say: Oh, fat soul, oh, fecund spirit, oh, fine
+nature, oh, divine intelligence, oh, clear mind, oh, blessed repast, fit
+to spread before lions, or verily for a banquet for dogs. On the other
+hand, an old man shrivelled, weak, of failing strength, would be held to
+be of little savour and of small account. But go on.
+
+MAR. Now, it must be said that the outcome of the mind is that alone
+which is always by it desired, sought for, and embraced, and that which
+is more enjoyed than anything else, with which it is filled, comforted
+and becomes better,--that is Truth, towards which, in all times, in
+every state, and in whatsoever condition man finds himself, he always
+aspires, and for the which he despises every fatigue, attempts every
+study, makes no account of the body, and hates this life. Therefore
+Truth is an incorporeal thing; and neither physics, metaphysics, nor
+mathematics can be found in the body, because we see that the eternal
+human essence is not in individuals, who are born and die. It (Truth) is
+specific unity, said Plato, not the numerical multitude that holds the
+substance of things. Therefore he called Idea one and many, movable and
+immovable because as incorruptible species it is intelligible and one,
+and as it communicates itself to matter and is subject to movement and
+generation, it is sensible and many. In this second mode it has more of
+non-entity than of entity; seeing that it is one and another and is ever
+running but never diminishes.[O] In the first mode it is an entity, and
+true. See now, the mathematicians take it for granted, that the true
+figures are not to be found in natural bodies, nor can they be there
+through the power either of nature or of art. You know, besides, that
+the truth (reality) of supernatural substances is above matter. We must
+therefore conclude that he who seeks the truth must rise above the
+reason of corporeal things. Besides which it must be considered, that he
+who feeds has a certain natural memory of his food, especially when it
+is most required; it leaves in the mind the likeness and species of it,
+in an elevated manner, according to the elevation and glory of him who
+aims, and of that which is aimed at. Hence it is that everything has,
+innate, the intelligence of those things which belong to the
+conservation of the individual and species, and furthermore its final
+perfection depends upon efforts to seek its food through some kind of
+hunting or chase. Therefore it is necessary that the human soul should
+have the light, the genius, and the instruments suitable for its
+pursuit. And here contemplation comes to aid, and logic, the fittest
+mode for the pursuit of truth, to find it, to distinguish it, and to
+judge of it. So that one goes rambling amongst the wild woods of natural
+things, where there are many objects under shadow and mantle, for it is
+in a thick, dense, and deserted solitude that Truth most often has its
+secret cavernous retreat, all entwined with thorns and covered with
+bosky, rough and umbrageous plants; it is hidden, for the most part, for
+the most excellent and worthy reasons, buried and veiled with utmost
+diligence, just as we hide with the greatest care the greatest
+treasures, so that, sought by a great variety of hunters, of whom some
+are more able and expert, some less, it cannot be discovered without
+great labour.
+
+Pythagoras went seeking for it with his imprints and vestiges impressed
+upon natural objects, which are numbers, the which display its
+progress, reasons, modes and operations in a certain manner, because in
+the number (of) multitude, the number (of) measures, and the number (of)
+moment or weight, the truth and Being are found in all things.[P]
+
+    [O] Atteso che sempre è altro ed altro, e corre eterno per la
+    privazione.
+
+    [P] Number is, as the great writer (Balzac) thought, an Entity, and
+    at the same time, a Breath emanating from what he called God, and
+    what we call the ALL, the breath which alone could organize the
+    physical Kosmos.--("The Secret Doctrine.")
+
+Anaxagoras and Empedocles considered that the omnipotent and
+all-producing divinity fills all things, and with them nothing was so
+small that it did not contain within it the occult in every respect,
+although they were always progressing onwards to where it was
+predominant, and where it found a more magnificent and elevated
+expression.
+
+The Chaldeans sought for Truth by means of subtraction, not knowing how
+to affirm anything about it; and proceeded without these dogs of
+demonstrations and syllogisms, but solely forcing themselves to
+penetrate by removing and digging and clearing away by means of
+negations of every kind and discourses both open and secret.
+
+Plato went twisting and turning and tearing to pieces and placing
+embankments so that the volatile and fugacious species should be as it
+were caught in a net and held behind the hedges of definitions, and he
+considered that superior things were, by participation, and according to
+similitude, reflected in those inferior, and these in those according to
+their greater dignity and excellence, and that the truth was in both the
+one and the other, according to a certain analogy, order and scale, in
+which the lowest of the superior order agrees with the highest of the
+inferior order. So that progress was from the lowest of nature to the
+highest, as from evil to good, from darkness to light, from the simple
+power to the simple action.
+
+Aristotle boasts of being able to arrive at the desired booty by means
+of the imprints of tracks and vestiges, while he believes the effects
+will lead to the cause, although he, above all others who have occupied
+themselves with this sort of chase, has most deviated from the path, so
+as to be able hardly to distinguish the footsteps. Theologians there
+are, who, nourished in certain sects, seek the truth of nature in all
+her specific natural forms in which they see the eternal essence, the
+specific substantial perpetuator of the eternal generation and mutation
+of things, which are called after their founders and builders and above
+them all presides the form of forms,[Q] the fountain of light, very
+truth of very truth, God of gods, through whom all is full of divinity,
+truth, entity, goodness. This truth is sought as a thing inaccessible,
+as an object not to be objectized, incomprehensible. But yet, to no one
+does it seem possible to see the sun, the universal Apollo, the absolute
+light through supreme and most excellent species; but only its shadow,
+its Diana, the world, the universe, nature, which is in things, light
+which is in the opacity of matter, that is to say, so far as it shines
+in darkness.
+
+    [Q] A discerning of the Infinite in the Finite.--("Sartor
+    Resartus.")
+
+Many then wander amongst the aforesaid paths of this deserted wood, very
+few are those who find the fountain of Diana. Many are content to hunt
+for wild beasts and things less elevated, and the greater number do not
+understand why, having spread their nets to the wind, they find their
+hands full of flies. Rare, I say, are the Actæons to whom fate has
+granted the power of contemplating the nude Diana and who, entranced
+with the beautiful disposition of the body of nature, and led by those
+two lights, the twin splendour of Divine goodness and beauty become
+transformed into stags; for they are no longer hunters, but that which
+is hunted. For the ultimate and final end of this sport, is to arrive at
+the acquisition of that fugitive and wild body, so that the thief
+becomes the thing stolen, the hunter becomes the thing hunted; in all
+other kinds of sport, for special things, the hunter possesses himself
+of those things, absorbing them with the mouth of his own intelligence;
+but in that Divine and universal one, he comes to understand to such an
+extent, that he becomes of necessity included, absorbed, united. Whence,
+from common, ordinary, civil, and popular, he becomes wild, like a stag,
+an inhabitant of the woods; he lives god-like under that grandeur of the
+forest; he lives in the simple chambers of the cavernous mountains,
+whence he beholds the great rivers; he vegetates intact and pure from
+ordinary greed, where the speech of the Divine converses more freely, to
+which so many men have aspired who longed to taste the Divine life while
+upon earth, and who with one voice have said: Ecce elongavi fugiens, et
+mansi in solitudine. Thus the dogs--thoughts of Divine things--devour
+Actæon, making him dead to the vulgar and the crowd, loosened from the
+knots of perturbation of the senses, free from the fleshly prison of
+matter, whence they no longer see their Diana as through a hole or a
+window, but having thrown down the walls to the earth, the eye opens to
+the view of the whole horizon.[R] So that he sees all as one; he sees no
+more by distinctions and numbers, which, according to the different
+senses, as through various cracks, cause to be seen and understood in
+confusion.
+
+    [R] For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to
+    face.--("St. Paul to the Corinthians.")
+
+He sees Amphitrite, the source of all numbers, of all species, of all
+reasons, which is the monad, the real essence of the being of all, and
+if he does not see it in its essence, in absolute light, he sees it in
+its seed, which is like unto it, which is its image; for from the monad,
+which is the divinity, proceeds this monad which is nature, the
+universe, the world, where it is beheld and reflected, as the sun is in
+the moon by means of which it is illuminated;[S] he finding himself in
+the hemisphere of intellectual substances. This is that Diana, that one
+who is the same entity, that entity which is comprehensible nature, in
+which burns the sun and the splendour of the higher nature, according to
+which, unity is both the generated and the generating, the producer and
+produced. Thus you can of yourself determine the mode, the dignity, and
+the success, which are most worthy of the hunter and the hunted.
+Therefore the enthusiast boasts of being the prey of Diana, to whom he
+rendered himself, and of whom he considers himself the accepted consort,
+and happy as a captive and a subject. Why, he envies no man (for there
+is none that can have more) or any other god that can have that species
+which is impossible to be obtained by an inferior nature, and therefore
+is not worthy to be desired, nor can one hunger after it.
+
+    [S] There is no potentiality for creation, or self-consciousness, in
+    a pure Spirit on this our plane, unless its too homogeneous,
+    perfect, because Divine, nature is, so to say, mixed with, and
+    strengthened by, an essence already differentiated. It is only the
+    lower line of the Triangle--representing the first triad that
+    emanates from the Universal Monad--that can furnish this needed
+    consciousness on the plane of differentiated Nature.--("The Secret
+    Doctrine.")
+
+CES. I have well understood all that you have said, and you have more
+than satisfied me. Now it is time to return home.
+
+MAR. Well.
+
+
+
+
+=Third Dialogue=.
+
+_Interlocutors_:
+
+LIBERIO. LAODONIO.
+
+
+LIB. Reclining in the shade of a cypress-tree, the enthusiast finding
+his mind free from other thoughts, it happened that the heart and the
+eyes spoke together as if they were animals and substances of different
+intellects and senses, and they made lament of that which was the
+beginning of his torment and which consumed his soul.
+
+LAO. Repeat, if you can recollect, the reasons and the words.
+
+LIB. The heart began the dialogue, which, making itself heard by the
+breast, broke into these words:
+
+55.
+
+_First proposition of the heart to the eyes_.
+
+    How, eyes of mine, can that so much torment,
+    Which as an ardent fire from ye derives,
+    And which this mortal subject so afflicts
+    With unrelenting burning never spared?
+    Can ocean floods suffice to mitigate
+    The ardour of those flames? or slowest star
+    Within the frozen circle of the north
+    Offer umbrageous shade?
+    Ye took me captive, and the self-same hand
+    Doth hold me and reject me and through you
+    I in the body am: out of it with the sun.
+    I am the source of life, yet am I not alive.
+    I know not what I am, for I belong
+    Unto this soul; but this soul is not mine.
+
+LAO. Truly the hearing, the seeing, the knowing, is that which kindles
+desire, and therefore it is through the operation of the eyes that the
+heart becomes inflamed: and the more worthy the object which is present
+with them the stronger is the fire, and the more active are the flames.
+What then, must that kind be, for which the heart burns in such a way
+that the coldest star in the Arctic circle cannot cool it, nor can the
+whole body of water of the ocean stop its burning! What must be the
+excellence of that object that has made him an enemy to himself, a rebel
+to his own soul and content with such hostility and rebellion, although
+he be captive to one who despises and will have none of him! But let me
+hear whether the eyes made a response, and what they said.
+
+LIB. They, on the other hand, complained of the heart as being the
+origin and cause why they shed so many tears, and this was the sum of
+their proposition.
+
+56.
+
+_First proposition of the eyes to the heart_.
+
+    How, oh my heart, do waters gush from thee
+    Like to the springs that bathe the Nereids' brows
+    Which daily in the sun are born and die?
+    Like to the double fountain of Amphitrite,
+    Which pours so great a flood across the earth,
+    That one might say, the sum of it exceeds
+    That of the stream which Egypt inundates,
+    Running its sevenfold course unto the sea.
+    Nature hath given two lights
+    To this small earth for governance;
+    But thou, perverter of eternal law,
+    Hast turned them into everlasting streams.
+    But Heaven is not content to see her law
+    Decline before unbridled violence.
+
+LAO. It is certain that the heart, grieved and stung, causes tears to
+spring to the eyes, and while these light the flames in this, that other
+dims those with moisture. But I am surprised at such exaggeration which
+says that the Nereids raising their wet faces to the eastern sun, is
+less than these waters (of the eyes). And more than that, they are equal
+to the ocean, not because they do pour, but because these two springing
+streams can pour such, and so much, that compared with them the Nile
+would appear a tiny stream divided into seven streamlets.[T]
+
+    [T] Is this an allusion to the seven activities or changes which
+    water goes through to produce form; Water being the formative power
+    which Fire, itself formless and the moving power, animates?--(Tr.)
+
+LIB. Be not surprised at that exaggeration nor at that potency without
+action! For you will understand all, after having heard the conclusion
+of their argument. Now listen how the heart responds to the proposition
+of the eyes.
+
+LAO. I pray you, let me hear.
+
+LIB.
+
+57.
+
+_First response of the heart to the eyes_.
+
+    Eyes, if an immortal flame within me burn,
+    And I no other am than burning fire;
+    If to come near me is to feel the blaze,
+    So that the heavens are fervid with my heat;
+    Why does my blazing flame consume you not,
+    But only contrary effects you feel?
+    Why saturated and not roasted ye,
+    If not of water but of fire I be?
+    Believe ye, oh ye blind,
+    That from such ardent burning is derived
+    The double passage, and those living founts
+    Have had their elements from Vulcan?
+    As force sometimes acquires a power
+    When by its contrary it is opposed.
+
+You see that the heart could not persuade itself that from an opposite
+cause and beginning, could proceed a force of an opposite effect. So
+that it will not allow the possibility of it, except through
+antiperistasis, which means the strength which an opposite acquires from
+that which, flying from the other, comes to unite itself, incorporate
+itself, insphere itself, or concentrate itself towards the individual,
+through its own virtue, which, the farther it is removed from the
+dimensions (dimensioni) the more efficacious it becomes.
+
+LAO. Tell me, how did the eyes respond to the heart?
+
+58.
+
+_First response of the eyes to the heart._
+
+    Thy passion does confuse thee, on my heart,
+    The path of truth thou hast entirely lost;
+    That which in us is seen--that which is hid--
+    Is seed of oceans. Neptune, if by fate
+    His kingdom he should lose, would find it here entire.
+    How does the burning flame from us derive
+    Who of the sea the double parent are?
+    So senseless thou'rt become!
+    Dost thou believe the flame will pass
+    And leave the doors all wet behind
+    That thou may'st feel the ardour of the same?
+    As splendour through a glass, dost thou
+    Believe that it through us will penetrate?
+
+Now I will not begin to philosophize about the identity of opposites
+which I have studied in the book De Principio ed uno, and I will
+suppose that which is usually received, that the opposites in the same
+genus are quite separate (distantissimi), so that the meaning of this
+response is more easily learned where the eyes call themselves the seed
+or founts in the virtual potentiality of which is the sea; so that if
+Neptune should lose all the waters, he could recall them into action by
+their own potentiality, where they are as in the beginning, medium and
+material. But it is not urged as a necessity, when they say it cannot
+be, that the flame passes over to the heart through their room (stanza e
+cortile) and courtyard leaving so many waters behind, for two reasons.
+First, because such an impediment cannot exist in action, if (equally?)
+violent opposition is not put into action;[U] second, because in so far
+as the waters are actually in the eyes, they can give passage to the
+heat as to the light; for, experience proves that the luminous ray
+kindles, by means of reflection, any material that becomes opposed to
+it, without heating the glass; and the ray passes through a glass,
+crystal or other vase, full of water, and heats an object placed under
+it, without heating the thick intervening body. As it is also true that
+it causes dry and dusty impressions in the caves of the deep sea.
+Therefore by analogy, if not by the same sort of reasons, we may see how
+it is possible that, through the lubricant and dark passage of the eyes,
+the affection may be kindled and inflamed by that light, the which for
+the same reason cannot be in the middle.[V] As the light of the sun,
+according to other reasoning, is in the middle air, or again in the
+nearer sense, and again in the common sense, or again in the intellect,
+notwithstanding that from one mode proceeds the other mode of being.
+
+    [U] Prima, per che tal impedimento in atto non puo essere se non
+    posti in atto tali oltraggiosi ripari. Does this mean that the
+    opposites which are called into action must be equal in
+    power?--(Translator.)
+
+    If, when fire is ascending again to its proper sphere, it should
+    meet with obstacles, such as a bit of wood or of straw, it would
+    resume its former activity, and consume this obstacle or hindrance;
+    and the greater the resistance, the more its activity would be
+    increased.... You will observe that the obstacle which the fire
+    meets with would serve only to increase its velocity, by giving it a
+    new ardour to overcome all obstacles in joining itself to its
+    centre.--("Spiritual Torrents," Lady Guion.)
+
+    [V] Nel mezzo.
+
+LAO. Are there any more discourses?
+
+LIB. Yes; because both the one and the other are trying to find out in
+what way it is that it (the heart) contains so many flames and those
+(the eyes) so many waters. The heart then makes the next proposition.
+
+59.
+
+_Second proposition of the heart to the eyes_.
+
+    If to the foaming sea the rivers run,
+    And pour their streams into the sea's dark gulf,
+    How does the kingdom of the water-gods,
+    Fed by the double torrent of these eyes,
+    Increase not; since the earth
+    Must lose the glorious overflow?
+    How is it that we do not see the day,
+    When from the mount Deukalion returns?
+    Where are the lengthening shores,
+    Where is the torrent to put out my flame,
+    Or, failing this, to give it greater power?
+    Does drop of water ever fall to earth
+    In such a way as leads me to suppose
+    It is not as the senses show it?
+
+It asks, what power is this, which is not put into action? If the waters
+are so many, why does Neptune not come to tyrannize over the kingdoms of
+the other elements? Where are the inundated banks? Where is he who will
+give coolness to the ardent fire? Where is the drop of water by which I
+may affirm through the eyes that which the senses deny? But the eyes in
+the same way ask another question.
+
+60.
+
+_Second proposition of the eyes to the heart_.
+
+    If matter changed and turned to fire acquires
+    The movement of a lighter element,
+    Rising aloft unto the highest heaven;
+    Wherefore, ignited by the fire of love,
+    Swifter than wind, dost thou not rise and flash.
+    Into the sun and be incorporate there?
+    Why rather stay a pilgrim here below
+    Than open through the air and us a way?
+    No spark of fire from that heart
+    Goes out through the wide atmosphere.
+    Body of dust and ashes is not seen,
+    Nor water-laden smoke ascends on high.
+    All is contained entire within itself,
+    And not of flame, is reason, sense, or thought.
+
+LAO. This proposition is neither more nor less conclusive than the
+other. But let us come at once to the answers if there be any.
+
+LIC. There are some certainly and full of sap. Listen.
+
+61.
+
+_Second response of the heart to the eyes_.
+
+    He is a fool, who that alone believes,
+    Which to the sense appears, who reason scorns.
+    My flame could never wing its way above.
+    The conflagration infinite remains unseen.
+    Between the eyes their waters are contained,
+    One infinite encroaches not upon another.
+    Nature wills not that all should perish.
+    If so much fire's enough for so much sphere,
+    Say, say, oh eyes,
+    What shall we do? how act
+    In order to make known, or I, or you,
+    For its deliverance, the sad plight of the soul?
+    If one and other of us both be hid,
+    How can we move the beauteous god to pity?
+
+LAS. If it is not true it is very well imagined: if it is not so, it is
+yet a very good excuse the one for the other; because where there are
+two forces, of the which one is not greater than the other, the
+operation of both must cease, for one resists as much as the other
+insists, and one assails while the other defends. If therefore the sea
+is infinite and the force of tears in the eyes is immense, it never can
+be made apparent by speech, nor the impetus of the fire concealed in the
+heart break forth, nor can they (the eyes) send forth the twin torrent
+to the sea if the heart shelters them with equal tenacity. Therefore the
+beautiful deity cannot be expected to be pitiful towards the afflicted
+soul because of the exhibition of tears which distil from the eyes, or
+speech which breaks forth from the breast.
+
+LIB. Now note the answer of the eyes to this proposition:--
+
+62.
+
+_Second response of the eyes to the heart_.
+
+    Alas! we poured into the wavy sea,
+    The strength of our two founts in vain,
+    For two opposing powers hold it concealed,
+    Lest it go rolling aimlessly adown.
+    The strength unmeasured of the burning heart,
+    Withholds a passage to the lofty streams;
+    Barring their twofold course unto the sea,
+    Nature abhors the covered ground.[W]
+    Now say, afflicted heart, what canst thou bring
+    To oppose against us with an equal force?
+    Oh, where is he, will boast himself to be
+    Exalted by this most unhappy love,
+    If of thy pain and mine it can be said,
+    The greater they, the less it may be seen.
+
+[W] Ch'il coperto terren natura aborre.
+
+Both these evils being infinite, like two equally vigorous opposites
+they curb and suppress each other: it could not be so if they were both
+finite, seeing that a precise equality does not belong to natural
+things, nor would it be so if the one were finite, the other infinite;
+for of a certainty the one would absorb the other, and they would both
+be seen, or, at least one, through the other. Beneath these sentences,
+there lies hidden, ethical and natural philosophy, and I leave it to be
+searched for, meditated upon and understood, by whosoever will and can.
+This alone I will not leave (unsaid) that it is not without reason that
+the affection of the heart is said to be the infinite sea by the
+apprehension of the eyes.[X] For the object of the mind being infinite,
+and no definite object being proposed to the intellect, the will cannot
+be satisfied by a finite good, but if besides that, something else is
+found, it is desired and sought for; for, as is commonly said, the apex
+of the inferior species is the beginning of the superior species,
+whether the degrees are taken according to the forms, the which we
+cannot consider as being infinite, or according to the modes and reasons
+of those, in which way, the highest good being infinite, it would be
+supposed to be infinitely communicated, according to the condition of
+the things, over which it is diffused. However, there is no definite
+species of the universe. I speak according to the figure and mass; there
+is no definite species of the intellect; the affections are not a
+definite species.
+
+    [X] Fire, Flame, Day, Smoke, Night, and so on ... These are all
+    names of various deities which preside over the Cosmo-psychic
+    Powers.--("The Secret Doctrine.")
+
+LAO. These two powers of the soul, then, never are nor can be perfect
+for the object, if they refer to it infinitely?
+
+LIB. So it would be if this infinite were by negative privation or
+privative negation of the end, as it is for a more positive affirmation
+of the end, infinite and endless.[Y]
+
+    [Y] "The deity is one, because it is infinite. It is triple, because
+    it is ever manifesting." This manifestation is triple in its
+    aspects, for it requires, as Aristotle has it, three principles for
+    every natural body to become objective: privation, form and matter.
+    Privation meant in the mind of the great philosopher ... the lowest
+    plane and world of the Anima Mundi.--("The Secret Doctrine.")
+
+LAO. You mean, then, two kinds of affinity; the one privative, the which
+may be towards something which is power, as, infinite is darkness, the
+end of which is the position of light; the other perfecting, which tends
+to the act and perfection, as infinite is the light, the end of which
+would be privation and darkness.[Z] In this, then, the intellect
+conceives the light, the good, the beautiful, in so far as the horizon
+of its capacity extends, and the soul, which drinks of Divine nectar and
+the fountain of eternal life in so far as its own vessel allows, and one
+sees that the light is beyond the circumference of his horizon, where it
+can go and penetrate more and more, and the nectar and fount of living
+water is infinitely fruitful, so that it can become ever more and more
+intoxicated.
+
+    [Z] "Darkness adopted illumination in order to make itself visible."
+    Darkness in its radical, metaphysical basis, is subjective and
+    absolute light; while the latter, in all its seeming effulgence and
+    glory, is merely a mass of shadows, as it can never be eternal, and
+    is simply an illusion, or Maya.--("The Secret Doctrine.")
+
+LIB. From this it does not follow that there is imperfection in the
+object, nor that there is little satisfaction in the potency, but that
+the power is included in the object and beatifically absorbed by it.
+Here the eyes imprint upon the heart, that is upon the intelligence, and
+rouse in the will an infinite torment of love, where there is no pain
+because nothing is sought which is not obtained; but it is happiness,
+because that which is there sought is always found, and there is no
+satiety, inasmuch as there is always appetite, and therefore enjoyment;
+in this it is not like the food of the body, the which with satiety
+loses enjoyment, has no pleasure before the enjoyment, nor after
+enjoyment, but only in the enjoyment itself, and where it passes certain
+limits it comes to feel annoyance and disgust. Behold, then, in a
+certain analogy, how the highest good ought to be also infinite, in
+order that it should not some time turn to evil; as food, which is good
+for the body, if it is not limited, may come to be poison. Thus it is
+that the water of the ocean does not extinguish that flame, and the
+rigour of the Arctic circle does not mitigate that ardour. Therefore it
+is bad through (the) one hand, which holds him and rejects him; it holds
+him, because it has him for its own; it rejects him because, flying
+from him, the higher it makes itself the more he ascends upwards to it;
+the more he follows it, the further off it appears, by reason of its
+high excellence, according as it is said: Accedit homo ad cor altum, et
+exaltabitur Deus. Such blessedness of affection begins in this life, and
+in this state it has its mode of being. Hence the heart can say that it
+is within with the body, and without with the sun, in so far as the soul
+with its twin faculty, puts into operation two functions: the one to
+vivify and realize the animal body, the other to contemplate superior
+things; so that it is in receptive potentiality from above, as it is in
+re-active potentiality below, towards the body. The body is, as it were,
+dead, and as it were apart from the soul, the which is its life and its
+perfection; and the soul is as it were dead, and a thing apart from the
+superior illuminating intelligence, from which the intellect is derived
+as to its nature and acts. Therefore, the heart is said to be the
+beginning of life, and not to be alive, it is said to belong to the
+animating soul, and that this does not belong to it; because it is
+inflamed by Divine love, and finally converted into fire, which can set
+on fire that which comes near it, seeing that it has contracted into
+itself the divinity; it is made god, and consequently in its kind it can
+inspire others with love; as the splendour of the sun may be seen and
+admired in the moon. And as for that which belongs to the consideration
+of the eyes, know, that in the present discourse they have two
+functions; one to impress the heart, the other to receive the impression
+of the heart; as this also has two functions, one to receive the
+impressions from the eyes, the other to impress them. The eyes study the
+species and propose them to the heart; the heart desires them, and
+presents his desire to the eyes; these conceive the light, diffuse it,
+and kindle the fire in the heart, which heated and kindled, sends its
+waters (umore) to them, so that they may dispose of them[AA]
+(digeriscano). Thus, firstly, cognition moves the affection, and soon
+the affection moves the cognition. The eyes, when they move (the heart),
+are dry, because they perform the office of a looking-glass, and of a
+representer; when they are moved, however, they become troubled and
+perturbed, because they perform the office of a diligent executer,
+seeing that with the speculating intellect, the beautiful and the good
+is first seen, then the will desires it; and later the industrious
+intellect procures it, follows it, and seeks it. Tearful eyes signify
+the difficulty of separating the thing wished for from, the wisher, the
+which in order that it should not pall, nor disgust, presents itself as
+an infinite longing (studio) which ever has, and ever seeks; seeing that
+the delight of the gods is ascribed to drinking, not to having tasted
+ambrosia, and to the continual enjoyment of food and drink, and not in
+being satiated and without desire for them. Hence they have satiety as
+it were in movement and apprehension, not in quiet and comprehension;
+they are not satiated without appetite, nor are they in a state of
+desire, without being in a certain way satiated.
+
+    [AA] "Deity is an arcane, living (or moving) FIRE, and the eternal
+    witnesses to this unseen Presence are Light, Heat, Moisture," this
+    trinity including, and being the cause of every phenomenon in
+    Nature.--("The Secret Doctrine.")
+
+LAO. Esuries satiata, satietas esuriens.
+
+LIB. Precisely so.
+
+LAO: From this I can comprehend how, without blame, but with great truth
+and understanding, it has been said that Divine love weeps with
+indescribable groans, because having all it loves all, and loving all
+has all.
+
+LIB. But many comments would be necessary if we would understand that
+Divine love which is deity itself; and one easily understands Divine
+love, so far as it is to be found in its effects and in the inferior
+nature. I do not say that which from the divinity is diffused into
+things, but that of things which aspires to the divinity.
+
+LAO. Now of this and of other matters we will discourse more at our ease
+presently. Let us go.
+
+
+
+
+=Fourth Dialogue=.
+
+_Interlocutors_:
+
+SEVERINO. MINUTOLO.
+
+
+SEV. You will see the origin of the nine blind men, who state nine
+reasons and special causes of their blindness, and yet they all agree in
+one general reason and one common enthusiasm.[AB]
+
+    [AB] May one suggest an analogy between the nine months of
+    gestation, during which time the foetus goes through various stages
+    and conditions to complete the "individual cycle of evolution," and
+    the nine blind men who, at the end of their probation, are brought
+    to see the light--to be born--illuminated?--("Translator.")
+
+MIN. Begin with the first!
+
+SEV. The first of these, notwithstanding that he is blind by nature, yet
+he laments, saying to the others that he cannot persuade himself that
+nature has been less courteous to them than to him; seeing that although
+they do not (now) see, yet they have enjoyed sight, and have had
+experience of that sense, and of the value of that faculty, of which
+they have been deprived, while he came into the world as a mole, to be
+seen and not to see, to long for the sight of that which he never had
+seen.
+
+MIN. Many have fallen in love through report alone.
+
+SEV. They have, says he, the happiness of retaining that Divine image
+present in the mind, so that, although blind, they have in imagination
+that which he cannot have. Then in the sistine he turns to his guide and
+begs him to lead him to some precipice, so that he may no longer endure
+this contempt and persecution of nature. He says then:
+
+63.
+
+_The first blind man_.
+
+    Ye now afflicted are, who erst were glad,
+    For ye have lost the light that once was yours,
+    Yet happy, for ye have the twin lights known.
+    These eyes ne'er lighted were, and ne'er were quenched;
+    But a more grievous destiny is mine
+    Which calls for heavier lamentation.
+    Who will deny that nature upon me
+    Has frowned more harshly than on you?
+    Conduct me to the precipice, my guide,
+    And give me peace, for there will I a cure
+    For this my dolour and affliction find;
+    For to be seen, yet not to see the light,
+    Like an incapable and sightless mole,
+    Is to be useless and a burden on the earth.
+
+Now follows the other, who, bitten by the serpent of jealousy, became
+affected in the organ of sight. He wanders without any guide, unless he
+has jealousy for his escort. He begs some of the bystanders, that seeing
+there is no remedy for his misfortune, they should have pity upon him,
+so that he should no longer feel it; that he might become as unmanifest
+to himself as he is to the light, and that they bury him together with
+his own misfortune. He says then:
+
+64.
+
+_The second blind man_.
+
+    Alecta has torn from out her dreadful hair,
+    The infernal worm that with a cruel bite,
+    Has fiercely fastened on my soul,
+    And of my senses, torn the chief away,
+    Leaving the intellect without its guide.
+    In vain the soul some consolation seeks.
+    That spiteful, rabid, rancorous jealousy
+    Makes me go stumbling along the way.
+    If neither magic spell nor sacred plant,
+    Nor virtue hid in the enchanter's stone,
+    Will yield me the deliverance that I ask:
+    Let one of you, my friends, be pitiful,
+    And put me out, as are put out my eyes,
+    That they and I together be entombed.
+
+The other follows, who says that he became blind through having been
+suddenly brought out of the darkness into a great light: accustomed to
+behold ordinary beauties, a celestial beauty was suddenly presented
+before his eyes--a sun-god--in this manner his sight became dull and the
+twin lights which shine at the prow of the soul were put out: for the
+eyes are like two beacons, which guide the ship, and this would happen
+to one brought up in Cimmerian obscurity if he fixed his eyes suddenly
+upon the sun. In the sistine he begs for free passage to Hades, because
+darkness alone is suitable to a dark condition. He says:
+
+65.
+
+_The third blind man_.
+
+    If sudden on the sight, the star of day
+    Should shed his beams on one in darkness reared,
+    Nurtured beneath the black Cimmerian sky,
+    Far from the radiance of the glorious sun,
+    The double light, the beacon of the soul
+    He quenches: then as a foe he hides.
+    Thus were my eyes made dull, inept,
+    Used only, wonted beauties to behold.
+    Conduct me to the land where darkness reigns!
+    Wherefore being dead, speak I amidst the folk?
+    A chip of Hell, why do I mix and move
+    Amongst the living, wherefore do I drink
+    The hated air, since all my pain
+    Is due to having seen the highest good?
+
+The fourth blind man comes forward, not blind for the same reason as the
+former one. For as that one was blinded through the sudden aspect of
+the light, this one is so, from having too frequently beheld it, or
+through having fixed his eyes too much upon it, so that he has lost the
+sense of all other light, but he does not consider himself to be blind
+through looking at that one which has blinded him: and the same may be
+said of the sense of sight as of the sense of hearing, that those whose
+ears are accustomed to great noises, do not hear the lesser, as is well
+known of those who live near the cataracts of the great river Nile which
+fall precipitously down to the plain.
+
+MIN. Thus, all those who have accustomed the body and the soul to things
+more difficult and great, are not apt to feel annoyed by smaller
+difficulties. So that fellow ought not to be discontented about his
+blindness.
+
+SEV. Certainly not. But one says, voluntarily blind, of one who desires
+that every other thing be hidden because it annoys him to be diverted
+from looking at that which alone he wishes to behold. Meanwhile he prays
+the passers-by to prevent his coming to mischief in any encounter, while
+he goes so absorbed and captivated by one principal object.
+
+MIN. Repeat his words!
+
+SEV. He says:
+
+66
+
+_The fourth blind man_.
+
+    Headlong from on high, to the abyss,
+    The cataract of the Nile falls down and dulls the senses
+    Of the joyless folk to every other sound,
+    So stood I too, with spirit all intent
+    Upon the living light, that lights the world;
+    Dead henceforth to all the lesser splendours,
+    While that light shines, let every other thing
+    Be to the voluntary blind concealed.
+    I pray you save me stumbling 'mongst the stones,
+    Make me aware of the wild beast,
+    Show me whether up or down I go;
+    So that the miserable bones fall not,
+    Into a low and cavernous place,
+    While I, without a guide, am stepping on.
+
+To the blind man that follows, it happens that having wept so much, his
+eyes are become dim, so that he is not able to extend the visual ray, so
+as to distinguish visible objects, nor can he see the light, which in
+spite of himself, through so many sorrows, he at one time was able to
+see. Besides which he considers that his blindness is not from
+constitution, but from habit, and is peculiar to himself, because the
+luminous fire which kindles the soul in the pupil, was for too long a
+time and with too much force, repressed and restrained by a contrary
+humour, so that although he might cease from weeping, he cannot be
+persuaded that this would result in the longed-for vision. You will hear
+what he says to the throng in order that they should enable him to
+proceed on his way:
+
+67.
+
+_The fifth blind man_.
+
+    Eyes of mine, with waters ever full,
+    When will the bright spark of the visual ray,
+    Darting, spring through each veiling obstacle,
+    That I may see again those holy lights
+    That were the alpha of my darling pain?
+    Ah, woe! I fear me it is quite extinct,
+    So long oppressed and conquered by its opposite.
+    Let the blind man pass on!
+    And turn your eyes upon these founts
+    Which overcome the others one and all.
+    Should any dare dispute it with me,
+    There's one would surely answer him again;
+    That in one eye of mine an ocean is contained.
+
+The sixth blind man is sightless because, through so much weeping, there
+remains no more moisture, not even the crystalline and moisture through
+which, as a diaphanous medium, the visual ray was transmitted, and the
+external light and visible species were introduced, so that the heart
+became compressed because all the moist substance, whose office it is to
+keep united the various parts and opposites, was absorbed, and the
+amorous affection remains without the effect of tears. Therefore the
+organ is destroyed through the victory of the other elements, and it is
+consequently left without sight and without consistency of the parts of
+the body altogether.[AC] He then proposes to the bystanders that which
+you shall hear:
+
+68.
+
+_The sixth blind man_.
+
+    Eyes, no longer eyes, fountains no longer founts,
+    Ye have wept out the waters that did keep
+    The body, soul, and spirit joined in one,
+    And thou, reflecting crystal, which from without
+    So much unto the soul made manifest,
+    Thou art consumed by the wounded heart.
+    So towards the dark and cavernous abyss,
+    I, a blind arid man, direct my steps.
+    Ah, pity me, and do not hesitate
+    To help my speedy going. I who
+    So many rivers in the dark days spread out,
+    Finding my only comfort in my tears,
+    Now that my streams and fountains all are dry,
+    Towards profound oblivion lead the way.
+
+    [AC] Water is the first principle of all things; this was the
+    central doctrine of his system (Thales). Now, if we may believe
+    Aristotle, this thought was suggested to him not so much by
+    contemplating the illimitable ocean, out of which, as old
+    cosmogonists taught, all things had at first proceeded, as by
+    noticing the obvious fact, that moisture is found in all living
+    things, and that if it were absent they would cease to be. Thales,
+    no doubt, believed this humour or moisture to be, as he said, the
+    essence and principle of all things.--("Encyclopædia
+    Metropolitana.")
+
+The next one avers that he has lost his sight through the intensity of
+the flame, which, proceeding from the heart, first destroyed the eyes,
+and then dried up all the remaining moisture of the substance of the
+lover, so that being all melted and turned to flame, he is no longer
+himself, because the fire whose property it is to resolve all bodies
+into their atoms, has converted him into impalpable dust, whereas by
+virtue of water alone, the atoms of other bodies thicken, and are welded
+together to make a substantial composition. Yet he is not deprived of
+the sense of the most intense flame. Therefore, in the sistine he would
+have space made for him to pass; for if anybody should be touched by his
+fires he would become such that he would have no more feeling of the
+flames of hell, for their heat would be to him as cold snow.
+
+69.
+
+_The seventh blind man_.
+
+    Beauty, which through the eyes rushed to the heart,
+    And formed the mighty furnace in my breast,
+    Absorbing first the visual moisture; then,
+    Spouting aloft its grasping flashing flame,
+    Devouring every other fluid,
+    To set the dryer element at rest,
+    Has thus reduced me to a boneless dust,
+    Which now to its own atoms is resolved,
+    If anguish infinite your fears should rouse
+    Make space, give way, oh peoples!
+    Beware of my fierce penetrating fire,
+    For if it should invade and touch you, ye
+    Would feel and know the fires of hell
+    To be like winter's cold.
+
+The eighth follows, whose blindness is caused by the dart which love has
+caused to penetrate from the eyes to the heart. Hence, he laments not
+only as being blind, but furthermore because he is wounded and burnt so
+fiercely, that he believes no other can be equally so. The sense of it
+is easily expressed in this sonnet:--
+
+70.
+
+_The eighth blind man_.
+
+    Vile onslaught, evil struggle, unrighteous palm,
+    Fine point, devouring fire, strong nerve,
+    Sharp wound, impious ardour, cruel body,
+    Dart, fire and tangle of that wayward god
+    Who pierced the eyes, inflamed the heart, bound the soul,
+    Made me at once sightless, a lover, and a slave,
+    So that, blind I have at all times, in all ways and places,
+    The feeling of my wound, my fire, my noose.
+    Men, heroes, and gods!
+    Who be on earth, or near to Ditis or to Jove,
+    I pray ye say, when, how, and where did ye
+    Feel ever, hear, or see in any place
+    Woes like to these, amongst the oppressed
+    Amongst the damned, 'mongst lovers?
+
+Finally comes the last one, who is also mute through not having been
+able, or having dared, to say that which he most desired to say, for
+fear of offending or exciting contempt, and he is deprived of speaking
+of every other thing: therefore, it is not he who speaks, but his guide
+who relates the affair, about which I do not speak, but only bring you
+the sense thereof:
+
+71.
+
+_The guide of the ninth blind man_.
+
+    Happy are ye, oh all ye sightless lovers,
+    That ye the reason of your pains can tell,
+    By virtue of your tears you can be sure
+    Of pure and favourable receptions.
+    Amongst you all, the latent fire of him
+    Whose guide I am, rages most fiercely,
+    Though he is mute for want of boldness
+    To make known his sorrows to his deity.
+    Make way! open ye wide the way,
+    Be ye benign unto this vacant face,
+    Oh people full of grievous hindrances,
+    The while this harassed weary trunk
+    Goes knocking at the doors
+    To meet a death less painful, more profound.
+
+Here are mentioned nine reasons, which are the cause that the human mind
+is blind as regards the Divine object and cannot fix its eyes upon it.
+And of these, the first, allegorized through the first blind man, is
+the quality of its own species, which in so far as the degree in which
+he finds himself admits, he aspires certainly higher, than he is able to
+comprehend.
+
+MIN. Because no natural desire is vain, we are able to assure ourselves
+of a more excellent state which is suitable to the soul outside of this
+body, in the which it may be possible to unite itself, or to approach
+more nearly, to its object.
+
+SEV. Thou sayest well that no natural impulse or power is without strong
+reason; it is in fact the same rule of nature which orders things. So
+far, it is a thing most true and most certain to well-disposed
+intellects, that the human soul, whatever it may show itself while it is
+in the body, that same, which it makes manifest in this state, is the
+expression of its pilgrim existence in this region; because it aspires
+to the truth and to universal good, and is not satisfied with that which
+comes on account of and to the profit of its species.
+
+The second, represented by the second blind man, proceeds from some
+troubled affection, as in the question of Love and Jealousy, the which
+is like a moth, which has the same subject, enemy and father, that is,
+it consumes the cloth or wood from which, it is generated.
+
+MIN. This does not seem to me to take place with heroic love.
+
+SEV. True, according to the same reason which is seen in the lower kind
+of love; but I mean according to another reason similar to that which
+happens to those who love truth and goodness, which shows itself when
+they are angry against those who adulterate it, spoil it, or corrupt it,
+or who in other ways would treat it with indignity, as has been the case
+with those who have brought themselves to suffer death and pains, and to
+being ignominiously treated by ignorant peoples and vulgar sects.
+
+MIN. Certainly no one truly loves the truth and the good who is not
+angry against the multitude; as no one loves in the ordinary way who is
+not jealous and fearful about the thing loved.
+
+SEV. And so he comes to be really blind in many things, and according to
+the common opinion he is quite infatuated and mad.
+
+MIN. I have noted a place which says that all those are infatuated and
+mad, who have sense beyond and outside of the general sense of other
+men. But such extravagance is of two kinds, according as one goes beyond
+and ascends up higher than the greater number rise or can rise, and
+these are they who are inspired with Divine enthusiasm; or by going
+down lower where those are found who have greater defect of sense and
+of reason than the many, and the ordinary; but in that kind of madness,
+insensibility and blindness, will not be found the jealous hero.
+
+SEV. Although he is told that much learning makes him mad, yet no one
+can really abuse him. The third, represented by the third blind man,
+proceeds from this: that Divine Truth according to supernatural
+reasoning, called metaphysics, manifests itself to those few to whom it
+shows itself, and does not proceed with measure of movement and time as
+occurs in the physical sciences, that is, those which are acquired by
+natural light, the which, in discoursing of a thing known to reason by
+means of the senses, proceed to the knowledge of another thing, unknown,
+the which discourse is called argument; but immediately and suddenly,
+according to the method which belongs to such efficiency.[AD] Whence a
+divine has said: "Attenuati sunt oculi mei suspicientes in excelsum." So
+that it does not require a useless lapse of time, fatigue, and study,
+and inquisitorial act to have it, but it is taken in quickly, as the
+solar light, without hesitation, and makes itself present to whoever
+turns himself to it and opens himself to it.
+
+    [AD] When somewhat of this Perfect Good is discovered and revealed
+    within the soul of man, as it were in a glance or flash, the soul
+    conceiveth a longing to approach unto the Perfect
+    Goodness.--("Theologia Germanica.")
+
+MIN. Do you mean then, that the student and the philosopher are not more
+apt to receive this light than the ignorant?
+
+SEV. In a certain way no, and in a certain way yes. There is no
+difference, when the Divine mind through its providence comes to
+communicate itself without disposition of the subject; I mean to say
+when it communicates itself because it seeks and elects its subject; but
+there is a great difference, when it waits and would be sought, and then
+according to its own good will and pleasure it makes itself to be found.
+In this way it does not appear to all, nor can it appear to others, than
+to those who seek it. Hence it is said, "Qui quærunt me, invenient me;"
+and again: "Qui sitit, veniat et bibat!"
+
+MIN. It is not to be denied, that the apprehension of the second manner
+is made in Time. (Comes with time?)
+
+SEV. You do not distinguish between the disposition towards the Divine
+light and the apprehension of the same. Certainly I do not deny that it
+requires time to dispose oneself, discourse, study and fatigue; but as
+we say that change takes place in time, and generation in an instant,
+and as we see that with time, the windows are opened, but the sun enters
+in a moment, so does it happen similarly in this case.
+
+The fourth, represented in the following, is not really unworthy, like
+that which results from the habit of believing in the false opinions of
+the vulgar, which are very far removed from the opinions of
+philosophers, and are derived from the study of vulgar philosophies,
+which are by the multitude considered the more true, the more they
+appeal to common sense. And this habit is one of the greatest and
+strongest disadvantages, because as Alcazele and Averroes showed, it is
+like that which happens to those persons who from childhood and youth
+are in the habit of eating poison, and have become such, that it is
+converted into sweet and proper nutriment, and on the other hand, they
+abominate those things which are really good and sweet according to
+common nature; but it is most worthy, because it is founded upon the
+habit of looking at the true light; the which habit cannot come into use
+for the multitude, as we have said. This blindness is heroic, and is of
+such a kind that it can worthily satisfy the present heroic blind man,
+who is so far from troubling himself about it that he is able to explain
+every other sight, and he would crave nothing else from the community
+save a free passage and progress in contemplation, for he finds himself
+usually hampered and blocked by obstacles and opposition.
+
+The fifth results from the disproportion of the means of our cognition
+to the knowable; seeing that in order to contemplate Divine things, the
+eyes must be opened by means of images, analogies and other reasonings
+which by the Peripatetics are comprehended under the name of fancies
+(fantasmi); or, by means of Being, to proceed to speculate about
+Essence, by means of its effects and the knowledge of the cause; the
+which means, are so far from ensuring the attainment of such an end,
+that it is easier to believe that the highest and most profound
+cognition of Divine things, is through negation and not through
+affirmation, knowing that the Divine beauty and goodness is not that
+which can or does fall within our conception, but that which is above
+and beyond, incomprehensible; chiefly in that condition called by the
+philosopher speculation of phantoms, and by the theologian, vision
+through analogies, reflections and enigmas, because we see, not the true
+effects and the true species of things, or the substance of ideas, but
+the shadows, vestiges and simulacra of them, like those who are inside
+the cave and have from their birth their shoulders turned away from the
+entrance of the light, and their faces towards the end, where they do
+not see that which is in reality, but the shadows of that which is found
+substantially outside the cave. Therefore by the open vision which it
+has lost, and knows it has lost, a spirit similar to or better than that
+of Plato weeps, desiring exit from the cave, whence, not through
+reflexion, but through immediate conversion he may see the light again.
+
+MIN. It appears to me that this blind man does not refer to the
+difficulty which proceeds from reflective vision, but to that which is
+caused through the medium between the visual power and the object.
+
+SEV. These two modes, although they are distinct in the sensitive
+cognition, or ocular vision, at the same time are united together in the
+rational or intellectual cognition.
+
+MIN. It seems to me that I have heard and read that in every vision, the
+means, or the intermediary is required between the power and the object.
+Because as by means of the light diffused in the air and the figure of
+the thing, which in a certain way proceeds from that which is seen, to
+that which sees, the act of seeing is put into effect, so in the
+intellectual region, where shines the sun of the intellect, acting
+between the intelligible species formed as proceeding from the object,
+our intellect comes to comprehend something of the divinity, or
+something inferior to it. Because, as our eye, when we see, does not
+receive the light of the fire and of gold, in substance, but in
+similitude; so the intellect, in whatever state it is found, does not
+receive the divinity substantially, so that there should be
+substantially as many gods as there are intelligences, but in
+similitude; therefore they are not formally gods, but denominatively
+divine, the divinity and Divine beauty being one, exalted above all
+things.
+
+SEV. You say well; but for all your well saying, there is no need for me
+to retract, because I have never said the contrary. But I must declare
+and explain. Therefore, first I maintain that the immediate vision, so
+called and understood by us, does not do away with that sort of medium
+which is the intelligible species, nor that which is the light; but that
+which is equal to the thickness and density of the crystalline or opaque
+intermediate body; as happens to him who sees by means of the waters
+more or less turbid, or air foggy and cloudy, who would believe he was
+looking as without a medium when it was conceded to him to look through
+the pure air, light and clear. All which you have explained where it
+says:
+
+    "When will the bright spark of the visual ray
+    Darting, spring through each veiling obstacle."
+
+But let us return. The sixth, represented in the following, is caused
+only by the imbecility and unreality of the body, which is in continual
+motion, mutation, and change, the operations of which must follow the
+condition of its faculty, the which is a result of the condition of its
+nature and being. How can immobility, reality, entity, truth be
+contained in that which is ever different, and always makes and is made,
+other and otherwise? What truth, what picture can be painted and
+impressed, where the pupils of the eyes are dispersed in water, the
+water into steam, the steam into flame, the flame into air, and this in
+other and other without end: the subject of sense and cognition turns
+for ever upon the wheel of mutation?
+
+MIN. Movement is change, and that which is changeable works and operates
+ever differently, because the conception and affection follow the reason
+and condition of the subject; and he who sees other and other different
+and differently must necessarily be blind as regards that beauty which
+is one and alone and is the same unity and entity.
+
+SEV. So it is. The seventh, contained allegorically in the sentiment of
+the seventh blind man, is the result of the fire of the affections,
+whence some become impotent and incapable of comprehending the truth, by
+making the affection precede the intellect. There are those who love
+before they understand: whence it happens that all things appear to them
+according to the colour of their affections, whereas he who would
+understand the truth by means of contemplation, ought to be perfectly
+pure in thought.
+
+MIN. In truth, one sees how much diversity there is in meditators and
+inquirers, because some, according to their habits and early fundamental
+discipline, proceed by means of numbers,[AE] others by means of images,
+others by means of order and disorder, others through composition and
+division, others by separation and congregation, others by inquiry and
+doubt, others by discussions and definitions, others by interpretations
+and decypherings of voices, words, and dialects, so that some are
+mathematical philosophers, some metaphysicians, others logicians, others
+grammarians; so there are divers contemplators, who with different
+affections set themselves to study and apply the meaning of written
+sentences; whence we find that the same light of truth, expressed in the
+selfsame book, serves with the same words the proposition of so
+numerous, diverse, and contrary sects.[AF]
+
+    [AE] Number is, as the great writer (Balzac) thought, an Entity,
+    and, at the same time, a Breath emanating from what he termed God,
+    and what we call the ALL; the breath which alone could organize the
+    physical kosmos.--("The Secret Doctrine.")
+
+    [AF] As the Bible serves as the basis for all the different
+    Protestant sects.
+
+SEV. That is to say, that the affections are very powerful in hindering
+the comprehension of the Truth, notwithstanding that the person may not
+himself perceive it; just as it happens to a stupid invalid who does not
+say that his mouth is bittered but that the food is bitter. Now that
+kind of blindness is expressed by him whose eyes are changed and
+deprived of their natural powers, by that which the heart has given and
+imprinted upon it, powerful not only to change the sense, but besides
+that, all the faculties of the soul as the present image shows.
+According to the meaning of the eighth, the high intelligible object
+has blinded the intellect, as the high superposed sensible has
+corrupted the senses. Thus it would happen to him who should see Jove in
+his majesty, he would lose his life and in consequence his senses. As he
+who looks aloft sometimes is overcome by the majesty.[AG] Besides, when
+he comes to penetrate the Divine species, he passes it like a ray.
+Whence say the theologians that the Divine word is more penetrating than
+sharp point of sword or knife. Hence is derived the form and impression
+of His own footstep, upon which nothing else can be imprinted and
+sealed. Therefore, that form being there confirmed and the new strange
+one not being able to take its place unless the other yields,
+consequently he can say, that he has no power of taking any other, if
+there is one who replaces it or scatters it through the necessary want
+of proportion. The ninth reason is exemplified, by the ninth who is
+blind through want of confidence, through dejection of spirit, the which
+is caused and brought about also by a great love which He fears to
+offend by His temerity. Whence says the Psalm: "Averte oculos tuos a me,
+quia ipsi me avolare fecere." And so he suppresses his eyes so as not to
+see that which most of all he desires, as he keeps his tongue from
+talking with whom he most wishes to speak, from fear that a defective
+look or word should humiliate him or bring him in some way into
+misfortune. And this generally proceeds from the apprehension of the
+excellence of the object above its potential faculty: whence the most
+profound and divine theologians say, that God is more honoured and loved
+by silence than by words; as one sees more by shutting the eyes to the
+species represented, than by opening them, therefore the negative
+theology of Pythagoras and Dionysius is more celebrated than the
+demonstrative theology of Aristotle and the scholastic doctors.
+
+[AG]
+
+      ... Gaze, as thy lips have said,
+      On God Eternal, Very God! See me, see what thou prayest!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+      O Eyes of God! O Head!
+      My strength of soul is fled.
+    Gone is heart's force, rebuked is mind's desire!
+      When I behold Thee so,
+      With awful brows a-glow,
+    With burning glance, and lips lighted by fire,
+      Fierce as those flames which shall
+      Consume, at close of all,
+      Earth, Heaven!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+      God is it I did see,
+    This unknown marvel of Thy Form! but fear
+      Mingles with joy! Retake,
+      Dear Lord! for pity's sake,
+    Thine earthly shape, which earthly eyes may bear!
+                              --("The Song Celestial.")
+                      (Sir Edwin Arnold's translation.)
+
+MIN. Let us go; and we will reason by the way.
+
+SEV. As you please.
+
+
+
+
+=Fifth Dialogue=.
+
+_Interlocutors_:
+
+LAODOMIA. GIULIA.
+
+
+LAO. Some other time, oh my sister, thou wilt hear what happened to
+those nine blind men, who were at first nine most beautiful and amorous
+youths, who being so inspired by the loveliness of your face, and having
+no hope of receiving the reward of their love, and fearing that such
+despair would reduce them to final ruin, went away from the happy
+Campanian country, and of one accord, those who at first were rivals for
+your beauty, swore not to separate until they had tried in all possible
+ways to find something more beautiful than you or at least equal to you;
+besides which, that they might discover that mercy and pity which they
+could not find in your breast armed with pride; for they believed this
+was the only remedy which could bring them out of that cruel captivity.
+The third day after their solemn departure, as they were passing by the
+Circean mount, it pleased them to go and see those antiquities, the
+cave and fane of that goddess. When they were come there, the majesty of
+the solitary place, the high, storm-beaten rocks, the murmur of the sea
+waves which break amongst those caves, and many other circumstances of
+the locality and the season combined, made them feel inspired; and one
+of them I will tell thee, more bold than the others, spoke these words:
+"Oh might it please heaven that in these days, as in the past more happy
+ages, some wise Circe might make herself present who, with plants and
+minerals working her incantations, would be able to curb nature. I
+should believe that she, however proud, would surely be pitiful unto our
+woes. She, solicited by our supplications and laments, would condescend
+either to give a remedy or to concede a grateful vengeance for the
+cruelty of our enemy."
+
+Hardly had he finished uttering these words than there became visible to
+them a palace, which, whoever had knowledge of human things, could
+easily comprehend that it was not the work of man, nor of nature; the
+form and manner of it I will explain to thee another time. Whence,
+filled with great wonder and touched by hope that some propitious deity,
+who must have placed this before them, would explain their condition and
+fortunes, they said with one accord they could meet with nothing worse
+than death, which they considered a less evil than to live in so much
+anguish. Therefore they entered, not finding any door that was shut
+against them nor janitor who questioned them. They found themselves in a
+very richly ornamented room, where with royal majesty, (as one may say,
+Apollo was found again by Phaeton;) appears she, who is called his
+daughter, and at whose appearance they saw vanish all the figures of
+many other deities who ministered unto her. Then, received and comforted
+by this gracious face, they advanced, and overcome by the splendour of
+that majesty, they bent their knee to the earth, and altogether, with
+the diversity of tones which their various genius suggested, they laid
+open their vows to the goddess. By her finally, they were treated in
+such a manner that, blind and homeless, with great labour having
+ploughed the seas, passed over rivers, overcome mountains, traversed
+plains for the space of ten years, and at the end of which time having
+arrived under that temperate sky of the British Isles, and come into the
+presence of the lovely, graceful nymphs of Father Thames, they (the
+nine), having made humble obeisance, and the nymphs having received them
+with acts of purest courtesy, one, the principal amongst them, who
+later on will be named, with tragic and lamenting accents laid bare the
+common cause in this manner:
+
+    Of those, oh gentle Dames, who with closed urn,
+    Present themselves, whose hearts are pierced
+    Not for a fault by nature caused,
+    But through a cruel fate,
+    That in a living death,
+    Does hold them fast, we each and all are blind.
+
+    Nine spirits are we, wandering many years,
+    Longing to know; and many lands
+    O'ertravelled, one day were surprised
+    By a sore accident,
+    To which if you attend,
+    You'll say, oh worthy, oh unhappy lovers!
+
+    An impious Circe, who presumes to boast
+    Of having for her sire this glorious sun,
+    Welcomed us after many wanderings:
+    Opened a certain urn,
+    With water sprinkled us,
+    And to the sprinkling added an enchantment.
+
+    Waiting the finish of this work of hers
+    We all were quiet, mute, attent,
+    Until she said, "Oh ye unhappy ones,
+    Blind be ye all,
+    Gather that fruit
+    Those get who fix their thoughts on things above."
+
+    Daughter and Mother of horror and darkness and woe
+    They cried, who sudden were struck blind,
+    It pleased you then, so proud and harsh,
+    To treat these wretched lovers,
+    Who put themselves before you,
+    Ready to consecrate to you their hearts.
+
+    But when the sudden fury somewhat stayed,
+    Which this new case had brought on them,
+    Each one within himself withdrew,
+    While rage to grief gave place;
+    To her they turned for pity,
+    With chosen words companioning their tears.
+
+    Now if it please thee, gracious sorceress,
+    If zeal for glory chance to move thy heart,
+    Or milk of kindness soften it,
+    Be merciful to us,
+    And with thy magic herbs,
+    Heal up the wound imprinted on our hearts.
+
+    If wish to succour rules thy beauteous hand,
+    Make no delay, lest some of us
+    Unhappy ones reach death, ere we
+    Praising thy act
+    Can each one say,
+    So much did she torment, yet more did heal.
+
+    Then she replied: Oh curious prying minds,
+    Take this my other fatal urn,
+    Which my own hand may not unclose;
+    Over the wide expanse of earth,
+    Wander ye still,
+    Search for and visit all the various kingdoms.
+
+    Fate hath decreed, it ne'er shall be unclosed
+    Till lofty wisdom, noble chastity
+    And loveliness with these combined,
+    Shall set their hands to it;
+    All other efforts vain,
+    To make this fluid open to the sky.
+
+    Then should it chance to sprinkle beauteous hands,
+    Of those who come anear for remedy,
+    Its god-like virtues you may prove,
+    And turning cruel pain
+    Into a sweet content,
+    Two lovely stars upon the earth you'll see.
+
+    Meanwhile be none of you cast down or sad,
+    Although long while in deep obscurity
+    All that the heavens contain remain concealed,
+    For good so great as this,
+    No pain, however sharp,
+    Can be accounted worthy of the cost.
+
+    That Good to which through blindness you are led,
+    Should make appear all other-having, vile,
+    And every torment be as pleasure held,
+    Who, hoping to behold
+    Graces unique and rare,
+    May hold in high disdain all other lights.
+
+    Ah, weary ones! Too long, too long our limbs
+    Have wandered o'er the terrene globe,
+    So that to us it seems
+    As if the shrewd wild beast,
+    With false and flattering hopes,
+    Our bosoms has encumbered with her wiles.
+
+    Wretched henceforth, we see, though late, the witch
+    Concerned to keep us all with promises
+    (And for our greater hurt), at bay;
+    For surely she believes
+    No woman can be found
+    Beneath the roof of heaven so dowered as she.
+
+    Now that we know that every hope is vain,
+    We yield to destiny and are content,
+    Nor will withdraw from all our strivings sore;
+    And staying not our steps,
+    Though trembling, tired and vexed,
+    We languish through the days that yet are ours.
+
+    Oh graceful nymphs, that on the grassy banks
+    Of gentle Thames do make your home,
+    Do not disdain, ye beauteous ones,
+    To try, although in vain,
+    With those white hands of yours
+    To uncover that which in our urn is hid.
+
+    Who knows? perchance it may be on these shores,
+    Where, with the Nereids, may be seen
+    The rapid torrent from below ascend
+    And wind again
+    Back to its source,
+    That heaven has destined there she shall be found.
+
+One of the nymphs took the urn in her hand, and without trying to do
+more offered it to one at a time, but not one was found who dared to be
+the first to try (to open it), but all by common consent, after simply
+looking at it, referred and proposed it with respect and reverence to
+one alone; who, finally, not so much to exhibit her own glory as to
+succour those unhappy ones, and while in a sort of doubt, the urn opened
+as it were spontaneously of itself. But what shall I say to you of the
+applause of the nymphs? How can you imagine that I can express the
+extreme joy of the nine blind men, when, hearing that the urn was open,
+they felt themselves sprinkled with the desired waters, they opened
+their eyes and saw the two suns, and felt they had gained a double
+happiness; one, the having recovered the light they had lost, the other
+that of the newly discovered light which alone could show them the image
+of the highest good upon earth. How, I say, can you expect me to
+describe the joy and exulting merriment of voices of spirit and of body
+which they themselves all together could not express? For a time it was
+like seeing so many furious bacchanals, inebriated with that which they
+saw so plainly, until at last, the impetus of their fury being somewhat
+calmed, they put themselves in a row.
+
+73.
+
+_The first played the guitar and sang the following_:
+
+    Oh cliffs, oh deeps, oh thorns, oh snags, oh stones,
+    Oh mounts, oh plains, oh valleys, rivers, seas,
+    How dear and sweet you show yourselves,
+    For by your aid and favour,
+    To us the sky's unveiled.
+    Oh fortunate and well-directed steps,
+
+_The second with the mandoline played and sang_:
+
+    Oh fortunate and well-directed steps,
+    Oh goddess Circe, oh transcendent woes,
+    With which ye did afflict us months and years;
+    They were the grace of heaven,
+    For such an end as this,
+    After such weariness and such distress.[AH]
+
+[AH] For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us
+a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.--("St. Paul to the
+Corinthians.")
+
+_The third with the lyre played and sang_:
+
+    After such weariness and such distress;
+    If such a port the tempests have prescribed,
+    Then is there nothing more that we can do,
+    But render thanks to heaven,
+    Who closely veiled our eyes,
+    And pierced anon with such a light as this.
+
+_The fourth with the viola sang_:
+
+    And pierced anon with such a light as this;
+    Blindness worth more than every other sight,
+    Pains sweeter far than other pleasures are,
+    For to the fairest light
+    Thou art thyself a guide,
+    Show to the soul all lower things are null.
+
+_The fifth with the Spanish drum sang_:
+
+    Showing the soul all lower things are null,
+    Seasoning with hope the high thought of the mind,
+    Was one who pushed us to the only path,
+    And so did show us plain,
+    The fairest work of God,
+    Thus does a fate benign present itself.[AI]
+
+[AI] The lonely sore-footed pilgrims on their way back to their home are
+never sure to the last moment of not losing their way in this limitless
+desert of illusion and matter called Earth-life.--("The Secret
+Doctrine.")
+
+_The sixth with a lute sang_:
+
+    Thus does a fate benign present itself,
+    Who wills not that to good, good should succeed,
+    Or pain forerunner be of pain,
+    But turning round, the wheel,
+    Now rising, now depressed,
+    As day and night succeed alternately.
+
+_The seventh with the Irish harp_:
+
+    As day and night succeed alternately;
+    While the great mantle of the lights of night,
+    Blanches the chariot of diurnal flames,
+    As He who governs all,
+    With everlasting laws,
+    Puts down the high and raises up the low.
+
+_The eighth with the violin_:
+
+    Puts down the high and raises up the low,
+    He who the infinite machine sustains,
+    With swiftness, with the medium or with slow,
+    Apportioning the turning
+    Of this gigantic mass,
+    The hidden is unveiled and open stands.
+
+_The ninth with the rebeck_:
+
+    The hidden is unveiled and open stands,
+    Therefore deny not, but admit the triumph,
+    Incomparable end of all the pains
+    Of field and mount,
+    Of pools and streams and seas,
+    Of cliffs and deeps, of thorns and snags and stones.
+
+After each one in this way, singly, playing his instrument, had sung his
+sistine, they danced altogether in a circle and sang together in praise
+of the one Nymph with the softest accents a song which I am not sure
+whether I can call to memory.
+
+GIU. I pray you, my sister, do not fail to let me hear so much of it as
+you can remember!
+
+LAO.
+
+74.
+
+_Song of the Illuminati_:
+
+    "I envy not, oh Jove, the firmament,"
+    Said Father Ocean, with the haughty brow:
+    "For that I am content
+    With that which my own empire gives to me."
+
+    Then answered Jove, "What arrogance is thine.
+    What to thy riches have been added now,
+    Oh god of the mad waves,
+    To make thy foolish boasting rise so high?"
+
+    "Thou hast," said the sea-god, "in thy command,
+    The flaming sky, where is the burning zone,
+    In which the heavenly host
+    Of stars and planets stand within thy sight.[AJ]
+
+    "Of these, the world looks most upon the sun,
+    Which, let me tell you, shineth not so bright,
+    As she who makes of me,
+    The god most glorious of the mighty whole.
+
+    "And I contain within my bosom vast,
+    With other lands, that, where the happy Thames
+    Goes gliding gaily on,
+    Which has of graceful nymphs a lovely throng.
+
+    "There will be found 'mongst those where all are fair,
+    Will make thee lover more of sea than sky,
+    Oh Jove, High Thunderer!
+    Whose sun shines pale beside the starry night."
+
+    Then answered Jove, "God of the billowy sea!
+    That one should ere be found more blest than I
+    Fate nevermore permits,
+    My treasures with thine own run parallel.
+
+    "The sun is equal to thy chiefest nymph,
+    By virtue of the everlasting laws,
+    And pauses alternating,
+    Amongst my stars she's equal to the sun."
+
+[AJ] Plato says that [Greek: Theos] is derived from the verb [Greek:
+Theein], to move, to run, as the first astronomers who observed the
+motions of the heavenly bodies called the planets [Greek: Theoi], the
+gods.--("The Secret Doctrine," foot note, p. 2, vol. 1.)
+
+I believe that I have recalled it entirely.
+
+GIU. You can see that no sentence is wanting to the perfecting of the
+proposition, nor rhyme to the completion of the stanzas. Now if I by the
+grace of heaven have received beauty, a greater favour I consider is
+mine, in that whatever beauty I may have had it has been in a certain
+way instrumental in causing that Divine and only one to be found. I
+thank the gods, because in that time, when I was so tender (verde), that
+the amorous flames could not be lighted in my breast, by reason of my
+intractability, such simple and innocent cruelty was used in order to
+yield more graces to my lovers than otherwise it would have been
+possible for them to obtain, through any kindness of mine however great.
+
+LAO. As to the souls of those lovers, I assure you that as they are not
+ungrateful to the sorceress Circe for their blindness, grievous
+thoughts, and bitter trials, by means of which they have reached so
+great a good, so they can be no less grateful to thee.[AK]
+
+GIU. So I desire and hope.
+
+[AK] For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not
+worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in
+us.--(St. Paul to the Romans.)
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+Page 15: The last paragraph has only one double quote. I think the
+line quoted is a single sentence, but I'm not sure. The line begins:
+["If the love of glory is dear to thy breast,]. Unchanged.
+
+Page 78: LIC is suspected of being a typo for LIB. No other occurences.
+Unchanged.
+
+Page 79: LAS is suspected to be a typo for LAO, as this name occurs
+only once. Unchanged.
+
+Page 109: The term selfsame occurs only once without a hyphen.
+Unchanged.
+
+Footnote L: Ke['s]ava could not be represented with a latin-1 character.
+The ['s] is an s with an acute accent above.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Heroic Enthusiast, Part II (Gli
+Eroici Furori), by Giordano Bruno
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+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" />
+    <title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Heroic Enthusiasts, Part the Second, by Giordano Bruno.</title>
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Heroic Enthusiast, Part II (Gli Eroici
+Furori), by Giordano Bruno
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Heroic Enthusiast, Part II (Gli Eroici Furori)
+       An Ethical Poem
+
+Author: Giordano Bruno
+
+Release Date: November 16, 2006 [EBook #19833]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HEROIC ENTHUSIAST ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Sjaani, Ted Garvin and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+
+
+<h3>THE</h3>
+
+<h1>HEROIC ENTHUSIASTS</h1>
+
+<h3>(<i>GLI EROICI FURORI</i>)</h3>
+
+<h3><i><strong>An Ethical Poem</strong></i></h3>
+
+<h2>BY GIORDANO BRUNO</h2>
+
+<h3><strong>PART THE SECOND</strong></h3>
+
+<h4>TRANSLATED BY</h4>
+
+<h3>L. WILLIAMS</h3>
+
+<p class="style1 center">LONDON<br />
+BERNARD QUARITCH<br />
+PICCADILLY<br />
+1889<br /><br /><br /><br />
+LONDON:<br />
+G. NORMAN AND SON, PRINTERS, HART STREET,<br />
+COVENT GARDEN.</p>
+
+<hr />
+<div class="center">
+  <!-- Autogenerated TOC. Additional to Original Document. -->
+<p>
+<a href="#First"><strong>First Dialogue</strong></a><br />
+<a href="#Second"><strong>Second Dialogue</strong></a><br />
+<a href="#Third"><strong>Third Dialogue.</strong></a><br />
+<a href="#Fourth"><strong>Fourth Dialogue.</strong></a><br />
+<a href="#Fifth"><strong>Fifth Dialogue.</strong></a><br />
+</p>
+<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. -->
+</div>
+<hr />
+<p><strong>PREFACE.</strong></p>
+
+
+<p>The second part of "The Heroic Enthusiasts"
+which I am now sending to the press is on the
+same subject as the first, namely the struggles of
+the soul in its upward progress towards purification
+and freedom, and the author makes use of
+lower things to picture and suggest the higher.
+The aim of the Heroic Enthusiast is to get at the
+Truth and to see the Light, and he considers that
+all the trials and sufferings of this life, are the
+cords which draw the soul upwards, and the spur
+which quickens the mind and purifies the will.</p>
+
+<p>The blindness of the soul may signify the descent
+into the material body, and "visit the various
+kingdoms" may be an allusion to the soul passing
+through the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms
+before it arrives at man.</p>
+
+<p>It is interesting to note that in the first part of
+"The Heroic Enthusiasts" (page 122), Bruno
+makes a distinct allusion to the power of steam,
+and in the second part, one might almost think,
+that in using the number nine in connexion with
+the blind men, he intended a reference to electricity,
+for we read in "The Secret Doctrine," by H.P.
+Blavatsky, "There exists an universal <i>agent unique</i>
+of all forms and of life, that is called Od, Ob, and
+Aour, active and passive, positive and negative,
+like day and night; it is the first light in creation;
+and the first light of the primordial Elo-him&mdash;the
+A-dam,&mdash;male and female, or, (scientifically) Electricity
+and Life. Its universal value is nine, for
+it is the ninth letter of the alphabet and the ninth
+door of the fifty portals or gateways, that lead to
+the concealed mysteries of being.... Od is the
+pure life-giving Light or magnetic fluid."</p>
+
+<p>The notices of the press upon the first half of
+this work, were for the most part such, as to lead
+me to hope that the appearance of the second part
+will meet with a favourable reception.</p>
+
+<p>When I first began this translation little was
+known about Giordano Bruno except through the
+valuable works of Sig. Berti and Sig. Levi, and
+since then Mrs. Firth has given us a life of the
+Nolan, written in English, and several able articles
+in the magazines have been published, in one of
+which, by C.E. Plumptre (<i>Westminster Review</i>,
+August, 1889), an interesting parallel is drawn
+between Shelley and Bruno.</p>
+
+<p>I will close this short notice with a sentence from
+an article in the <i>Nineteenth Century</i>, September,
+1889, entitled "Criticism as a trade." "There is
+probably no author who does not feel how much
+he owes to the writers who have reviewed his
+books, whether he has occasion to acknowledge it
+or not. It is humiliating to find how many errors
+remain in writings that seemed comparatively free
+from them. Everyone who knows his subject, and
+has any modesty, is aware that there are defects in
+his work which his own eye has not seen; and he
+is more than grateful for the correction of every
+error that is pointed out to him by an honest
+censor." If this is the case with authors who
+produce original work, it may be still more aptly
+said of translators, especially of those who attempt
+to translate books so full of difficulties as those
+presented in the works of Giordano Bruno.</p>
+
+<p>L. WILLIAMS.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><!-- Page 1 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p>
+<h2>SECOND PART OF</h2>
+
+<h3>THE</h3>
+
+<h1>HEROIC ENTHUSIASTS.</h1>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><a name="First" id="First"></a><strong>First Dialogue.</strong></p>
+
+<p><i>Interlocutors:</i></p>
+
+<p><span class="style3">Cesarino. Maricondo.</span></p>
+
+<p>1.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Ces.</span> It is said that the best and most excellent things are in
+the world when the whole universe responds from every part, perfectly,
+to those things; and this it is said takes place as the planets arrive
+at Aries, being when that one of the eighth sphere again reaches the
+upper invisible firmament, where is also the other Zodiac;[A] and low
+and evil things <!-- Page 2 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span>prevail when the opposite disposition and order
+supervene, and thus through the power of change comes the continual
+mutation of like and unlike, from one opposite to another. The
+revolution then of the great year of the world is that space of time in
+which, through the most diverse customs and effects, and by the most
+opposite and contrary means, it returns to the same again. As we see in
+particular years such as that of the sun, where the beginning of an
+opposite tendency is the end of one year, and the end of this is the
+beginning of that. Therefore now that we have been in the dregs of the
+sciences, which have brought forth the dregs of opinions, which are the
+cause of the dregs of customs and of works, we may certainly expect to
+return to the better condition.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote">[A] Astronomers distinguish between a fixed and intellectual zodiac; and
+the movable and visible zodiac. According to the former, Aries still
+stands as the first of the signs; that is to say, the first thirty
+degrees of the zodiacal circle, reckoning from the equinoctial point in
+spring, are allotted to Aries in the intellectual zodiac.... Astronomers
+generally choose to reckon by the fixed and intellectual
+zodiac.&mdash;(Drummond's "Oedipus Judaicus.")</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Maricondo.</span> Know, my brother, that this succession and order of
+things is most true and most certain; but as regards ourselves in all
+ordinary conditions whatever, the present afflicts more than the past,
+nor can these two together console, but only the future, which is always
+in hope and expectation as you may see designated in this figure which
+is taken from the ancient Egyptians, who made a certain statue which is
+a bust, upon which they placed three heads, one of a wolf which looks
+behind, one<!-- Page 3 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> of a lion with the face turned half round, and the third of
+a dog who looks straight before him; to signify that things of the past
+afflict by means of thoughts, but not so much as things of the present
+which actually torment, while the future ever promises something better;
+therefore behold the wolf that howls, the lion that roars and the dog
+that barks (applause).</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Ces.</span> What means that legend that is written above?</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mar.</span> See, that above the wolf is Lam, above the lion Modo,
+above the dog Praeterea, which are words signifying the three parts of
+time.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Ces.</span> Now read the tablet.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mar.</span> I will do so.</p>
+
+<p>41.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">A wolf, a lion, and a dog appear</span><br />
+<span class="i0">At dawn, at midday, and dark night.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">That which I spent, retain and for myself procure,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">So much was given, is given, and may be given;</span><br />
+<span class="i0">For that which I did, I do, and have to do.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">In the past, in the present and in the future,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">I do repent, torment myself and re-assure,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">For the loss, in suffering and in expectation.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">With sour, with bitter and with sweet</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Experience, the fruits, and hope,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Threatens, afflict, and comforts me.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">The age I lived, do live and am to live,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Affrights me, shakes me and upholds</span><br />
+<!-- Page 4 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span><span class="i0">In absence, presence and in prospect.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Much, too much and sufficient</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Of the past, of now, and of to come,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Put me in fear, in anguish and in hope.</span><br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Ces.</span> This is precisely the humour of a furious lover, though
+the same may be said of nearly all mortals who are seriously affected in
+any way. We cannot say that this accords with all conditions in a
+general way, but only with those mortals who were, and who are,
+wretched. So that to him who sought a kingdom and obtained it, belongs
+the fear of losing the same; and to one who has laboured to secure the
+fruits of love, such as the special grace of the beloved, belongs the
+tooth of jealousy and suspicion. Thus, too, with the states of the
+world; when we find ourselves in darkness and in adversity we may surely
+prophecy light and prosperity, and when we are in a state of happiness
+and discipline, doubtless we have to expect the advent of ignorance and
+distress. As in the case of Hermes Trismegistus, who, seeing Egypt in
+all the splendour of the sciences and of occultism, so that he
+considered that men were consorting with gods and spirits and were in
+consequence most pious, he made that prophetic lament to Asclepios,
+saying that the darkness of new religions and cults must follow, and
+that of the then present things nothing would<!-- Page 5 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> remain but idle tales and
+matter for condemnation. So the Hebrews, when they were slaves in Egypt,
+and banished to the deserts, were comforted by their prophets with the
+hope of liberty and the re-acquisition of their country; when they were
+in authority and tranquillity they were menaced with dispersion and
+captivity. And as in these days there is no evil nor injury to which we
+are not subject, so there is no good nor honour that we may not promise
+ourselves. Thus does it happen to all the other generations and states,
+the which, if they endure and be not destroyed entirely by the force of
+vicissitude, it is inevitable that from evil they come to good, from
+good to evil, from low estate to high, from high to low, out of
+obscurity into splendour, out of splendour into obscurity, for this is
+the natural order of things; outside of which order, if another should
+be found which destroys or corrects it, I should believe it and not
+dispute it, for I reason with none other than a natural spirit.[B]</p>
+
+<div class="footnote">[B] As in long-drawn systole and long-drawn diastole, must the period of
+Faith, alternate with the period of Denial; must the vernal growth, the
+summer luxuriance of all Opinions, Spiritual Representations and
+Creations, be followed by, and again follow the autumnal decay, the
+winter dissolution.&mdash;("Sartor Resartus.")<!-- Page 6 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span></div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mar.</span> We know that you are not a theologian
+but a philosopher,
+and that you treat of philosophy and not of theology.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Ces.</span> It is so. But let us see what follows.</p>
+
+
+<p>II.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Ces.</span> I see a smoking thurible, supported by an arm, and the
+legend which says: "Illius aram," and then the following:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>42.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Now who shall say the breath of my desire</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Of high and holy worship is demeaned</span><br />
+<span class="i0">If decked in divers forms ornate she come</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Through vows I offer to the shrine of Fame?</span><br />
+<span class="i0">And if another work should call, and lead me on,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Who would aver that more it might beseem</span><br />
+<span class="i0">If that, of Heaven so loved and eulogized,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Should hold me not in its captivity.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Leave, oh leave me, every other wish,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Cease, fretting thoughts, and give me peace;</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Why draw me forth from looking at the sun,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">From looking at the sun that I so love.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">You ask in pity, wherefore lookest thou</span><br />
+<span class="i0">On that, on which to look is thy undoing?</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Wherefore so captivated by that light?</span><br />
+<span class="i0">And I will say, because to me this pain</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Is dearer than all other pleasures are.</span><br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mar.</span> In reference to this I told you that although one should
+be attached to corporeal and<!-- Page 7 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> external beauty yet he may honourably and
+worthily be so attached; provided that, through this material beauty,
+which is a glittering ray of spiritual form and action, of which it is
+the trace and shadow, he comes to raise himself to the consideration and
+worship of divine beauty, light and majesty; so that, from these visible
+things his heart becomes exalted towards those things which are more
+excellent in themselves and grateful to the purified soul, in so far as
+they are removed from matter and sense. Ah me! he will say, if beauty so
+shadowy, so dim, so fugitive, painted on the surface of bodily matter
+pleases me so much, and moves my affections so much, and stamps upon my
+spirit I know not what of reverence for majesty, captivates me, softly
+binds me, and draws me, so that I find nothing that comes within the
+senses that satisfies me so much,&mdash;how will it be with the
+substantially, originally, primitively beautiful? How will it be with my
+soul, the divine intellect, and the law of nature? It is right, then,
+that the contemplation of this vestige of light lead me, through the
+purification of my soul, to the imitation, and to conformity and
+participation in that which is more worthy and higher, into which I am
+transformed and unto which I unite myself: for I am certain<!-- Page 8 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> that
+nature, which has placed this beauty before my eyes and has gifted me
+with an interior sense, through which I am able to infer a deeper and
+incomparably greater beauty, wills that I be promoted to the altitude
+and eminence of more excellent kinds. Nor do I believe that my true
+divinity, as she shows herself to me in symbols and vestiges, will scorn
+me if in symbols and vestiges I honour her and sacrifice to her; as my
+heart and affections are always so ordered as to look higher. For who
+may he be, that can honour in essence and real substance, if in such
+manner he cannot understand it?</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">It is in and through Symbols that man, consciously or</span><br />
+<span class="i0">unconsciously, lives, works, and has his being. For is not a Symbol</span><br />
+<span class="i0">ever, to him who has eyes for it, some dimmer or clearer</span><br />
+<span class="i0">revelation, of the Godlike?&mdash;("Sartor Resartus.") </span><br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Ces.</span> Right well do you demonstrate how, to men of heroic
+spirit, all things turn to good and how they are able to turn captivity
+into greater liberty, and the being vanquished into an occasion for
+greater victory. Well dost thou know that the love of corporeal beauty
+to those who are well disposed, not only does not keep them back from
+higher enterprises, but rather does it lend wings to arrive at these,
+when the necessity for love is converted<!-- Page 9 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> into a study of the virtuous,
+through which the lover is forced into those conditions in which he is
+worthy of the thing loved and perchance of even a still higher, better
+and more beautiful thing; so that he comes to be either contented to
+have gained that which he desires, or so satisfied with its own beauty,
+that he can despise that of others, which comes to be, by him,
+vanquished and overcome, so that he either remains tranquil, or else he
+aspires to things more excellent and grand. And so will the heroic
+spirit ever go on trying until it becomes raised to the desire of divine
+beauty itself, without similitude, figure, symbol, or kind, if it be
+possible, and what is more one knows that he will reach that height.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mar.</span> You see, Cesarino, how this enthusiast is justified in his
+anger against those who reproach him with being in captivity to a low
+beauty, to which he dedicates his vows, and attributes these forms, so
+that he is deaf to those voices which call him to nobler enterprises:
+for these low things are derived from those, and are dependent upon
+them, so that through these you may gain access to those, according to
+their own degrees. These, if they be not God, are things divine, are
+living images of Him, in the which, if He sees Himself<!-- Page 10 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> adored, He is
+not offended. For we have a charge from the supernal spirit which says:
+Adorate sgabellum pedum eius. And in another place a divine messenger
+says: Adorabimus ubi steterunt pedes eius.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Ces.</span> God, the divine beauty, and splendour shines and <i>is</i> in
+all things; and therefore it does not appear to me an error to admire
+Him in all things, according to the way in which we have communion with
+them. Error it would surely be if we should give to another the honour
+due to Him alone. But what means the enthusiast when he says, "Leave,
+leave me, every other wish"?</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mar.</span> That he banishes every thought presented to him by
+different objects, which have not the power to move him and which would
+rob him of the sight of the sun which comes to him through that window
+more than through others.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Ces.</span> Why, importuned by thoughts, does he continually gaze at
+that splendour which destroys him, and yet does not satisfy him, as it
+torments him ever so fiercely?</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mar.</span> Because all our consolations in this state of controversy
+are not without their discouragements, however vast those consolations
+may be. Just as the fear of a king for the loss of his kingdom,<!-- Page 11 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> is
+greater than that of a mendicant who is in peril of losing ten
+farthings; and more important is the care of a prince over a republic,
+than that of a rustic over a herd of swine; as perchance the pleasures
+and delights of the one are greater than the pleasures and delights of
+the other. Therefore the loving and aspiring higher, brings with it
+greater glory and majesty, with more care, thought, and pain: I mean in
+this state, where the one opposite is always joined to the other,
+finding the greatest contrariety always in the same genus, and
+consequently about the same subject, although the opposites cannot be
+together. And thus proportionally in the love of the supernal Eros, as
+the Epicurean poet declares of vulgar and animal desire when he says:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Fluctuat incertis erroribus ardor amantum,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Nec constat, quid primum oculis, manibusque fruantur:</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Quod petiere, premunt arte, faciuntque dolorem</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Corporis, et dentes inlidunt saepe labellis,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Osculaque adfigunt, quia non est pura voluptas,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Et stimuli subsunt, qui instigant laedere id ipsum,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Quodcunque est, rabies, unde illa haec germina surgunt.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Sed leviter poenas frangit Venus inter amorem,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Blandaque refraenat morsus admixta voluptas;</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Namque in eo spes est, unde est ardoris origo,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Restingui quoque posse ab eodem corpore flammam.</span><br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Behold, then, with what condiments the skill and<!-- Page 12 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> art of nature works,
+so that one is wasted with the pleasure of that which destroys him, is
+happy in the midst of torment, and tormented in the midst of all the
+satisfactions. For nothing is produced absolutely from a hom&#339;ogeneous
+(pacifico) principle, but all from opposite principles, through the
+victory and dominion of one part of the opposites, and there is no
+pleasure of generation on one side without the pain of corruption on the
+other: and where these things which are generated and corrupted are
+joined together and as it were compose the same subject, the feeling of
+delight and of sadness are found together; so that it comes to be called
+more easily delight than sadness, if it happens that this predominates,
+and solicits the senses with greater force.</p>
+
+
+<p>III.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Ces.</span> Now let us take into consideration the following image
+which is that of a ph&#339;nix, which burns in the sun, and the smoke from
+which almost obscures the brightness of that by which it is set on fire,
+and here is the motto which says: Neque simile, nec par mar.</p>
+
+<p>43.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mar.</span>:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">This phoenix set on fire by the bright sun,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Which slowly, slowly to extinction goes,</span><br />
+<!-- Page 13 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span><span class="i0">The while she, girt with splendour burning lies;</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Yields to her star antagonistic fief</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Through that which towards the sky to Heaven ascends.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Black smoke, and sombre fog of murky hue</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Concealing thus his radiance from our eyes,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">And veiling that which makes her burn and shine.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">And so my soul, illumined and inflamed</span><br />
+<span class="i0">By radiance divine, would fain display</span><br />
+<span class="i0">The brightness of her own effulgent thought;</span><br />
+<span class="i0">The lofty concept of her song sends forth.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">In words which do but hide the glorious light,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">[C]While I dissolve and melt and am destroyed.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Ah me! this lowering cloud, this smoky fire of words</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Abases that which it would elevate.</span><br />
+</div></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">[C] But not till the whole personality of the man is dissolved and
+melted&mdash;not until it is held by the divine fragment which has created
+it, as a mere subject for the grave experiment and experience&mdash;not until
+the whole nature has yielded and become subject unto its higher self,
+can the bloom open.&mdash;("Light on the Path.")
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Ces.</span> This fellow then says that as this phoenix set on fire by
+the sun and accustomed to light and flame comes to send upwards that
+smoke which obscures him who has rendered her so luminous, so he, the
+inflamed and illuminated enthusiast, through that which he does in
+praise of such an illustrious subject which has warmed his heart and
+which shines in his thought, comes rather to conceal it than to render
+it light for light, sending forth that<!-- Page 14 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> smoke the effect of the flame,
+in which the substance of himself is resolved.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mar.</span> I, without weighing and comparing the studies of that
+fellow, repeat what I said to you the other day, that praise is one of
+the greatest oblations that human affection can offer to an object. And
+leaving on one side the proposition of the Divine, tell me, who would
+have known of Achilles, Ulysses, and all the other Greek and Trojan
+chiefs? Who would have heard of all those great soldiers, the wise and
+the heroes of the earth, if they had not been placed amongst the stars
+and deified by the oblation of praise which has lighted the fire on the
+altar of the heart of illustrious poets and other singers, so that
+usually, the sacrificant, the victim and the sanctified deity, all
+mounted to the skies, through the hand and the vow of a worthy and
+lawful priest?</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Ces.</span> Well sayest thou "of a worthy and lawful priest," for the
+world is at present full of apostate ones, the which, as they are for
+the most part unworthy themselves, sing the praises of other unworthy
+ones, so that, asini asinos fricant. But Providence wills that these,
+instead of rising to the sky, should go together to the shades of Orcus,
+so that naught is the glory of him who extols and of him<!-- Page 15 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> who is
+extolled; for the one has woven a statue of straw, or carved the trunk
+of a tree, or cast a piece of chalk, and the other, the idol of shame
+and infamy, knows not that there is no need to wait for the keen tooth
+of the age and the scythe of Saturn in order to be put down, for through
+those self-same praises he gets buried alive then and there, while he is
+being praised, saluted, hailed, and presented. Just as it happened in a
+contrary way, so that much-praised M&#339;cenatus, who, if he had had no
+other glory than a soul inclined to protect and favour the Muses, for
+this alone merited, that the genius of so many illustrious poets should
+do him homage, and place him in the number of the most famous heroes who
+have trod this earth. His own studies and his own brightness made him
+prominent and grand, and not the being born of a royal race, and not the
+being grand secretary and councillor of Augustus. That, I say, which
+made him illustrious was the having made himself worthy to fulfil the
+promise of that poet who says:&mdash;</p>
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Fortunati ambo, si quid mea carmina possunt,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Nulla dies nunquam memori vos eximet aevo,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Dum domus Aeneae Capitoli immobile saxum</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Accolet, imperiumque pater romanus habebit.</span><br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mar.</span> I remember what Seneca says in certain<!-- Page 16 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> letters where he
+refers to the words of Epicurus to a friend, which are these: <ins
+class="correction" title="Transcriber&apos;s note: The end quote was
+added, but is not certain.">"If the
+love of glory is dear to thy breast, these letters of mine will make
+thee more famous and known than all those other things which thou
+honourest, by which thou art honoured, and of which thou mayest
+boast."</ins>
+The same might Homer have said if Achilles or Ulysses had presented
+themselves before him, or Eneas and his offspring before Virgil; as that
+moral philosopher well said; Domenea is more known through the letters
+of Epicurus, than all the magicians, satraps and royalties upon whom
+depended his title of Domenea and the memory of whom was lost in the
+depths of oblivion. Atticus does not survive because he was the
+son-in-law of Agrippa and ancestor of Tiberius, but through the epistles
+of Tully; Drusus, the ancestor of C&aelig;sar, would not be found amongst the
+number of great names if Cicero had not inserted it. Many, many years
+may pass over our heads, and in all that time not many geniuses will
+keep their heads raised.</p>
+
+<p>Now to return to the question of this enthusiast, who, seeing a ph&#339;nix
+set on fire by the sun, calls to mind his own cares, and laments that
+like the ph&#339;nix he sends, in exchange for the light and heat received, a
+sluggish smoke from the holocaust of<!-- Page 17 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> his melted substance. Wherefore
+not only can we never discourse about things divine, but we cannot even
+think of them without detracting from, rather than adding to the glory
+of them; so that the best thing to be done with regard to them is, that
+man, in the presence of other men, should rather praise himself for his
+earnestness and courage, than give praise to anything, as complete and
+perfected action; seeing that no such thing can be expected where there
+is progress towards the infinite, where unity and infinity are the same
+thing and cannot be followed by the other number, because there is no
+unity from another unity, nor is there number from another number and
+unity, because they are not the same absolute and infinite. Therefore
+was it well said by a theologian that as the fountain of light far
+exceeds not only our intellects, but also the divine, it is decorous
+that one should not discourse with words, but that with silence alone it
+should be magnified.[D]</p>
+
+<div class="footnote">[D] Now, it may be asked, what is the state of a man who followeth the
+true Light to the utmost of his power? I answer truly, it will never be
+declared aright, for he who is not such a man, can neither understand
+nor know it, and he who is, knoweth it indeed; but he cannot utter it,
+for it is unspeakable.&mdash;("Theologia Germanica.")<!-- Page 18 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Ces.</span> Not, verily, with such silence as that of the brutes who
+are in the likeness and image of men, but of those whose silence is more
+exalted than all the cries and noise and screams of those who may be
+heard.[E]</p>
+
+<div class="footnote">[E] "Speech is of time, silence is of eternity."&mdash;("Sartor Resartus.")</div>
+
+
+
+<p>IV.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mar.</span> Let us go on and see what the rest means.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Ces.</span> Say, if you have seen and considered it, what is the
+meaning of this fire in the form of a heart with four wings, two of
+which have eyes and the whole is girt with luminous rays and has round
+about it this question: Nitimur incassum?</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mar.</span> I remember well, that it signifies the state of the mind,
+heart and spirit and eyes of the enthusiast, but read the sonnet!</p>
+
+<p>44.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[F]Splendour divine, to which this mind aspires,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">The intellect alone cannot unveil.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">The heart, which those high thoughts would animate,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Makes not itself their lord; nor spirit, which</span><br />
+<!-- Page 19 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span><span class="i0">Should cease from pleasure for a space,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Can ever from those heights withdraw.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">The eyes which should be closed at night in sleep,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Awake remain, open, and full of tears.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Ah me, my lights! where are the zeal and art</span><br />
+<span class="i0">With which to tranquillize the afflicted sense?</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Tell me my soul; what time and in what place</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Shall I thy deep transcendent woe assuage?</span><br />
+<span class="i0">And thou my heart, what solace can I bring</span><br />
+<span class="i0">As compensation to thy heavy pain?</span><br />
+<span class="i0">When, oh unquiet and perturbed mind,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Wilt thou the soul for debt and dole receive</span><br />
+<span class="i0">With heart, with spirit and the sorrowing eyes?</span><br />
+</div></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">[F] Let no one suppose that we may attain to this true light and perfect
+knowledge by hearsay, or by reading and study, nor yet by high skill and
+great learning.&mdash;("Theologia Germanica.")</div>
+
+
+<p>The mind which aspires to the divine splendour flees from the society of
+the crowd and retires from the multitude of subjects, as much as from
+the community of studies, opinions and sentences; seeing that the peril
+of contracting vices and illusions is greater, according to the number
+of persons with whom one is allied. In the public shows, said the moral
+philosopher, by means of pleasure, vices are more easily engendered. If
+one aspires to the supreme splendour, let him retire as much as he can,
+from union and support, into himself (Di sorte che non sia simile a
+molti, per che son molti; e non sia nemico di molti per che son
+dissimili), so that he be not like unto many, because they are many; and
+be not adverse to many, because they are dissimilar; if it be possible,
+let him retain<!-- Page 20 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> the one and the other; otherwise he will incline to that
+which seems to him best. Let him associate either with those whom he can
+make better or with those through whom he may be made better, through
+brightness which he may impart to those or that he may receive from
+them. Let him be content with one ideal rather than with the inept
+multitude. Nor will he hold that he has gained little, when he has
+become such an one who is wise unto himself, remembering what Democritus
+says: Unus mihi pro populo est, et populus pro uno; and what Epicurus said to
+a companion of his studies, writing to him: "Haec tibi, non multis!
+Satis enim magnum alter alteri theatrum sumus."</p>
+
+<p>The mind, then, which aspires high, leaves, for the first thing, caring
+about the crowd, considering that that divine light despises striving
+and is only to be found where there is intelligence, and yet not every
+intelligence, but that which is amongst the few, the chief, the first
+among the first, the principal one.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Ces.</span> How do you mean that the mind aspires high? For example,
+by looking at the stars? At the empyreal heaven above the ether?</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mar.</span> Certainly not! but by plunging into the depths of the
+mind, for which there is no great need to open the eyes to the sky, to
+raise the hands,<!-- Page 21 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> to direct the steps to the temple, nor sing to the
+ears of statues in order to be the better heard, but to come into the
+inner self believing that, God is near, present and within, more fully
+than man himself,[G] being soul of souls, life of lives, essence of
+essences: for that which you see above or below, or round about, or
+however you please to say it, of the stars, are bodies, are created
+things, similar to this globe on which we are, and in which the divinity
+is present neither more nor less than he is in this globe of ours or in
+ourselves. This is how, then, one must begin to withdraw oneself from
+the multitude into oneself. One ought to arrive at such a point to
+despise and not to overestimate every labour, so that, the more the
+desires and the vices contend with each other inwardly and the vicious
+enemies dispute outwardly, so much the more should one breathe and rise,
+and with spirit, if possible, surmount this steep hill. Here there is no
+need for other arms and shield than the majesty of an unconquered soul
+and a tolerant spirit, which maintains the quality and meaning of that
+life which proceeds from science and is regulated by the art of<!-- Page 22 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span>
+considering attentively things low and high, divine and human, in the
+which consists that highest good, and in reference to this, a moral
+philosopher wrote to Lucillus that one must not linger between Scylla
+and Charybdis, penetrate the wilds of Candavia and the Apennines or lose
+oneself in the sandy plains, because the road is as sure and as blythe
+as Nature herself could make it. "It is not," says he, "gold and silver
+that makes one like God, because these are not treasure to Him; nor
+vestments, for God is naked; nor ostentation and fame, for He shows
+Himself to few, and perhaps not one knows Him, and certainly many, and
+more than many, have a bad opinion of Him. Not all the various
+conditions of things which we usually admire, for not those things of
+which we desire to have copies, make one rich, but the contempt for
+those things."</p>
+
+<div class="footnote">[G] For, in this (degree), God cannot be tasted, felt, seen, because he
+is more ourselves than ourselves, is not distinct from us.&mdash;("Spiritual
+Torrents.")</div>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Ces.</span> Well. But tell me in what manner will this fellow
+tranquillize the senses, assuage the woes of the spirit, compensate the
+heart and give its just debts to the mind, so that with this aspiration
+of his he come not to say: "Nitimur incassum"?</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mar.</span> He will be present in the body in such wise that the best
+part of himself will be absent from it, and will join himself by an
+indissoluble sacrament to divine things, in such a way that he will not
+feel<!-- Page 23 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> either love or hatred of things mortal. Considering himself as
+master, and that he ought not to be servant and slave to his body, which
+he would regard only as the prison which holds his liberty in
+confinement, the glue which smears his wings, chains which bind fast his
+hands, stocks which fix his feet, veil which hides his view. Let him not
+be servant, captive, ensnared, chained, idle, stolid and blind, for the
+body which he himself abandons cannot tyrannize over him, so that thus,
+the spirit in a certain degree comes before him as the corporeal world,
+and matter is subject to the divinity and to nature. Thus will he become
+strong against fortune, magnanimous towards injuries, intrepid towards
+poverty, disease and persecution.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Ces.</span> Well is the heroic enthusiast instructed!</p>
+
+
+<p>V.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Ces.</span> Close by is to be seen that which follows. See the wheel
+of time, which moves round its own centre, and there is the legend:
+"Manens moveor." What do you mean by that?</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mar.</span> This means that movement is circular where motion concurs
+with rest, seeing that in orbicular motion upon its own axis and about
+its own centre is understood rest and stability according to right<!-- Page 24 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span>
+movement, or, rest of the whole and movement of the parts; and from the
+parts which move in a circle is understood two different kinds of
+motion, inasmuch as some parts rise to the summit and others from the
+summit descend to the base successively; others reach the medium
+differences, and others the extremes of high and low. And all this seems
+to me suitably expressed in the following:</p>
+
+<p>45.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">That which keeps my heart both open and concealed,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Beauty imprints and honesty dispels;</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Zeal holds me fast; all other care comes to me</span><br />
+<span class="i0">By that same path whence all care to the soul doth come:</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Seek I myself from pain to disengage,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Hope sustains me then, whoso scourges, tires;&mdash;(altrui rigor mi lassa)</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Love doth exalt and reverence abase me</span><br />
+<span class="i0">What time I yearn towards the highest good.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">High thoughts, holy desires, and mind intent</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Upon the labours and the cunning of the heart</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Towards the immense divine immortal object,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">So do, that I be joined, united, fed,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">That I lament no more; that reason, sense, attend,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Discourse and penetrate to other things.</span><br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p>So that the continual movement of one part supposes and carries with it
+the movement of the whole, in such a way that the attraction of the
+posterior parts is consequent upon the repulsion of the<!-- Page 25 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> anterior parts;
+thus the movement of the superior parts results of necessity from that
+of the inferior, and from the raising of one opposite power, follows the
+depression of the other opposite. Therefore the heart, which signifies
+all the affections generally, comes to be concealed and open, held by
+zeal, raised by magnificent thoughts, sustained by hope, weakened by
+fear, and in this state and condition will it ever be seen and found.</p>
+
+
+<p>VI.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Ces.</span> That is all well. Let us come to that which follows. I see
+a ship floating on the waves; its ropes are attached to the shore and
+there is the legend: Fluctuat in portu. Deliberate about the
+signification of this, and when you are decided about it, explain.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mar.</span> Both the legend and the figure have a certain connexion
+with the present legend and figure, as may be easily understood, if one
+considers it a little. But let us read the sonnet.</p>
+
+<p>46.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">If I by gods, by heroes and by men</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Be re-assured, so that I not despair,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Nor fear, pain, nor the impediments</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Of death of body, joy and happiness,</span><br />
+<!-- Page 26 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span><span class="i0">Yet must I learn to suffer and to feel.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">And that I may my pathways clearly see,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Let doubts arise, and dolour, and the woe</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Of vanished hopes, of joy and all delight.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">But if <i>he</i> should behold, should grant, and should attend</span><br />
+<span class="i0">My thoughts, my wishes, and my reasoning,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Who makes them so uncertain, hot, and vague,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Such dear conceits, such acts and speech,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Will not be given nor done to him, who stays</span><br />
+<span class="i0">From birth, through life, to death in sheltered home.</span><br />
+</div>
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Non d&agrave;, non fa, non ha qualunque stassi</span><br />
+<span class="i0">De l'orto, vita e morte a le magioni.</span><br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p>From what we have considered and said in the preceding discourses one is
+able to understand these sentiments, especially where it is shown that
+the sense of low things is diminished and annulled whenever the superior
+powers are strongly intent upon a more elevated and heroic object. The
+power of contemplation is so great, as is noted by Jamblichus, that it
+happens sometimes, not only that the soul ceases from inferior acts, but
+that it leaves the body entirely. The which I will not understand
+otherwise than in such various ways as are explained in the book of
+thirty seals, wherein are produced so many methods of contraction, of
+which some infamously, others heroically operate, that one learns not to
+fear death, suffers not pain of body, feels not the hindrances of
+pleasures:<!-- Page 27 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> wherefore the hope, the joy, and the delight of the superior
+spirit are of so intense a kind that they extinguish all those passions
+which may have their origin in doubt, in pain and all kinds of sadness.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Ces.</span> But what is that, of which he requests that it consider
+those thoughts which it has rendered so uncertain, fulfil those desires
+which it has made so ardent, and listen to those discourses which it has
+rendered so vague?</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mar.</span> He means the Object, which he beholds when it makes itself
+present; for to see the Divine is to be seen by it, as to see the sun
+concurs with the being seen of the sun. Equally, to be heard by the
+Divine, is precisely to listen to it, and to be favoured by it, is the
+same as to offer to it; for from the one immoveable and the same,
+proceed thoughts uncertain and certain, desires ardent and appeased, and
+reasonings valid and vain, according as the man worthily or unworthily
+puts them before himself, with the intellect, the affections and
+actions. As that same pilot may be said to be the cause of the sinking
+or of the safety of the ship, according as he is present in it or absent
+from it; with this difference, that the pilot through his defectiveness
+or his efficiency ruins or saves the ship; but the Divine potency which
+is all in all does not proffer<!-- Page 28 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> or withhold except through assimilation
+or rejection by oneself.[H]</p>
+
+<div class="footnote">[H] Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and
+it shall be opened unto you.&mdash;("St. Matthew.")</div>
+
+
+
+<p>VII.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mar.</span> It seems to me that the following figure is closely
+connected and linked with the above; there are two stars in the form of
+two radiant eyes, with the legend: Mors et vita.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Ces.</span> Read the sonnet!</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mar.</span> I will do so:</p>
+
+<p>47.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Writ by the hand of Love may each behold</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Upon my face the story of my woes.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">But thou, so that thy pride no curb may know,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">And I, unhappy one, eternally might rest,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Thou dost torment, by hiding from my view</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Those lovely lights beneath the beauteous lids.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Therefore the troubled sky's no more serene,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Nor hostile baleful shadows fall away.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">By thine own beauty, by this love of mine</span><br />
+<span class="i0">(So great that e'en with this it may compare),</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Render thyself, oh Goddess, unto pity!</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Prolong no more this all-unmeasured woe,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Ill-timed reward for such a love as this.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Let not such rigour with such splendour mate</span><br />
+<span class="i0">If it import thee that I live!</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Open, oh lady, the portals of thine eyes,</span><br />
+<!-- Page 29 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span><span class="i0">And look on me if thou wouldst give me death!</span><br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Here, the face upon which the story of his woes appears is the soul; in
+so far as it is open to receive those superior gifts, for the which it
+has a potential aptitude, without the fulness of perfection and act
+which waits for the dew of heaven. Thus was it well said: Anima mea
+sicut terra sine aqua tibi; and again: Os meum operui; and again:
+Spiritum, quia mandata tua desiderabam. Then "pride which knows no curb"
+is said in metaphor and similitude, as God is sometimes said to be
+jealous, angry, or that He sleeps, and that signifies the difficulty
+with which He grants so much even as to show his shoulders, which is the
+making himself known by means of posterior things and effects. So the
+lights are covered with the eyelids, the troubled sky of the human mind
+does not clear itself by the removal of the metaphors and enigmas.
+Besides which, because he does not believe that all which is not, could
+not be, he prays the divine light, that by its beauty, which ought not
+to be entirely concealed, at least according to the capacity of whoever
+beholds it, and by his love, which, perchance, is equal to so much
+beauty (equal, he means, of the beauty, in so far as he can comprehend
+it) that it surrender itself to pity, that is, that it should do as
+those who are compassionate, and who from being capricious<!-- Page 30 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> and gloomy
+become gracious and affable and that it prolong not the evil which
+results from that privation, and not allow that its splendour, for which
+it is so much desired, should appear greater than that love by means of
+which it communicates itself, seeing that in it all the perfections are
+not only equal but are also the same. In fine, he begs that it will no
+further sadden by privation, for it can kill with the glance of its eyes
+and can also with those same give him life.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Ces.</span> Does he mean that death of lovers, which comes from
+intense joy, called by the Kabalists, mors osculi, which same is eternal
+life, which a man may anticipate in this life and enjoy in eternity?</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mar.</span> He does.</p>
+
+
+<p>VIII.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mar.</span> It is time to proceed to the consideration of the
+following design, similar to those previously brought forward, and with
+which it has a certain affinity. There is an eagle, which with two wings
+cleaves the sky; but I do not know how much and in what manner it comes
+to be retarded by the weight of a stone which is tied to its leg. There
+is the legend: Scinditur incertum. It is certain that it signifies the
+multitude, number and character<!-- Page 31 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> (volgo) of the powers of the soul, to
+exemplify which, that verse is taken: Scinditur incertum studia in
+contraria vulgus. The whole of which character (volgo) in general is
+divided into two factions; although subordinate to these, others are not
+wanting, of which some appeal to the high intelligence and splendour of
+rectitude, while others incite and force in a certain manner to the low,
+to the uncleanness of voluptuousness and compliance with natural
+desires. Therefore says the sonnet:</p>
+
+<p>48.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">I would do well&mdash;to me 'tis not allowed.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">With me my sun is not, although I be with him,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">For being with him, I'm no more with myself:</span><br />
+<span class="i0">The farther from myself&mdash;the nearer unto him;</span><br />
+<span class="i0">The nearer unto him, the farther from myself.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Once to enjoy, doth cost me many tears,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">And seeking happiness, I meet with woe.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">For that I look aloft, so blind am I.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">That I may gain my love, I lose myself.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Through bitter joy, and through sweet pain,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Weighted with lead, I rise towards the sky.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Necessity withholds, goodness conducts me on,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Fate sinks me down, and counsel raises me,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Desire spurs me, fear keeps me in check.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Care kindles and the peril backward draws.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Tell me, what power or what subterfuge</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Can give me peace and bring me from this strife,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">If one repels, the other draws me on.</span><br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The ascension goes on in the soul through the<!-- Page 32 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> power and appulsion in
+the wings, which are the intellect, or intellectual will upon which she
+naturally depends and through which she fixes her gaze toward God, as to
+the highest good, and primal truth, as to absolute goodness and beauty.
+Thus everything has an impetus towards its beginning retrogressively,
+and progressively towards its end and perfection, as Empedocles well
+said, and from which sentence I think may be inferred that which the
+Nolan said in this octave:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The sun must turn and reach his starting-point,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Each wandering light must go towards its source,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">That which is earth to earth itself reverts,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">The rivers from the sea to sea return,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">And thither, whence desires have life and grow</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Must they aspire as to revered divinity,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">So every thought born of my lady fair</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Comes back perforce to her, my goddess dear.</span><br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The intellectual power is never at rest, it is never satisfied with any
+comprehended truth, but ever proceeds on and on towards that truth which
+is not comprehended. So also the will which follows the apprehension, we
+see that it is never satisfied with anything finite. In consequence of
+this, the essence of the soul is always referred to the source of its
+substance and entity. Then as to the natural powers, by means of which
+it is turned to the<!-- Page 33 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> protection and government of matter, to which it
+allies itself, and by appulsion benefits and communicates of its
+perfection to inferior things, through the likeness which it has to the
+Divine, which in its benignity communicates itself or produces
+infinitely, <i>i.e.</i> imparts existence to the universal infinite and to
+the innumerable worlds in it, or, finitely, produces this universe
+alone, subject to our eyes and our common reason. Thus then in the one
+sole essence of the soul are found these two kinds of powers, and as
+they are used for one's own good and for the good of others, it follows
+that they are depicted with a pair of wings, by means of which it is
+potent towards the object of the primal and immaterial potencies, and
+with a heavy stone, through which it is active and efficacious towards
+the objects of the secondary and material potencies. Whence it follows
+that the entire affection of the enthusiast is bifold, divided,
+harassed, and placed in a position to incline itself more easily
+downwards than to force itself upwards: seeing that the soul finds
+itself in a low and hostile country, and reaches the far-off region of
+its more natural home where its powers are the weakest.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Ces.</span> Do you think that this difficulty can be overcome?<!-- Page 34 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mar.</span> Perfectly well; but the beginning is most difficult, and
+according as we make more and more fruitful progress in contemplation we
+arrive at a greater and greater facility. As happens to whoever flys up
+high, the more he rises above the earth the more air he has beneath to
+uphold him, and consequently the less he is affected by gravitation; he
+may even rise so high that he cannot, without the labour of cleaving the
+air, return downwards, although one might imagine it were more easy to
+cleave the air downwards towards the earth than to rise on high towards
+the stars.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Ces.</span> So that with progress of this kind a greater and greater
+facility is acquired for mounting on high?</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mar.</span> So it is; therefore well said Tansillo:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"The more I feel the air beneath my feet</span><br />
+<span class="i0">So much the more towards the wind I bend</span><br />
+<span class="i0">My swiftest pinions</span><br />
+<span class="i0">And spurn the world and up towards Heaven I go."</span><br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p>As every part of bodies and of their elements, the nearer they come to
+their natural place, the greater the impetus and force with which they
+move, until at last, whether they will or not, they must prevail. That
+which we see then in the parts of bodies and in the bodies themselves we
+ought also to allow of<!-- Page 35 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> intellectual things towards their proper
+objects, as their proper places, countries, and ends. Whence you may
+easily comprehend the entire significance of the figure, the legend, and
+the verses.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Ces.</span> So much so that whatsoever you might add thereto would
+appear to me superfluous.</p>
+
+
+<p>IX.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Ces.</span> Let us see what is here represented by those two radiating
+arrows upon a target around which is written: Vicit instans.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mar.</span> The continual struggle in the soul of the enthusiast, the
+which, in consequence of the long familiarity which it had with matter
+was hard and incapable of being penetrated by the rays of the splendour
+of the Divine intelligence and the species of the Divine goodness;
+during which time, he says that the heart was enamelled with diamond,
+that is, the affection was hard and not capable of being heated and
+penetrated, and it rejected the blows of love which assailed it on
+innumerable sides. That is, it did not feel itself wounded by those
+wounds of eternal life of which the Psalmist speaks when he says:
+Vulnerasti cor meum, o dilecta, vulnerasti cor meum. The which wounds
+are not from iron or other material through the vigour and strength of<!-- Page 36 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span>
+nerves, but are darts of Diana, or of Ph&#339;bus, that is, either from the
+goddess of the deserts&mdash;of contemplation of truth, that is, from Diana,
+who is the order of the second intelligences, which transfer the
+splendour received from the first and communicate it to the others, who
+are deprived of a more open vision; or else from the principal god
+Apollo, who with his own, and not a borrowed splendour, sends his darts,
+that is, his rays, so many and from such innumerable points, which are
+all the species of things, which are indications of Divine goodness,
+intelligence, beauty, and wisdom, according to the various degrees, from
+the simple comprehension, to the becoming heroic enthusiasts; because
+the adamantine subject does not reflect from its surface the impression
+of the light, but, destroyed and overcome by the heat and light, it
+becomes in substance luminous&mdash;all light&mdash;so that it is penetrated
+within the affection and conception. This is not immediately, at the
+beginning of generation, when the soul comes forth fresh from the
+intoxication of Lethe, and drenched with the waves of forgetfulness and
+confusion, so that the spirit comes into captivity to the body, and is
+put into the condition of growth; but little by little, it goes on
+digesting, so as to become fitted for<!-- Page 37 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> the action of the sensitive
+faculty, until, through the rational and discursive faculty, it comes to
+a purer intellectual one, so that it can present itself to the mind,
+without feeling itself befogged by the exhalations of that humour,
+which, through the exercise of contemplation, has been saved from
+putrefaction in the stomach and is duly digested. In this state, the
+present enthusiast shows himself to have remained thirty years, during
+which time he had not reached that purity of conception which would make
+him a suitable habitation for the wandering species, which offering
+themselves to all, equally, knock, ever at the door of the intelligence.
+At last, Love, who in various ways and at different times had assaulted
+him as it were in vain&mdash;as the light and heat of the sun are said to be
+useless to those who are in the opaque depths and bowels of the
+earth&mdash;having located itself in those sacred lights, that is having
+shown forth the Divine Beauty through two intelligible species the which
+bound his intellect through the reasoning of Truth and warmed his
+affections through the reasoning of Goodness; while the material and
+sensitive desires became superseded, which aforetime used, as it were,
+to triumph, remaining intact, notwithstanding the excellence of the
+soul. Because those lights which<!-- Page 38 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> made present the illuminating, acting
+intellect and sun of intelligence found easy ingress through his eyes;
+that of Truth (the intellect of Truth?) through the door of the
+intellectual faculty; that of Goodness (intellect of Goodness?) through
+the door of the appetitive faculty, to the heart, that is, the substance
+of the general affection. This was that double ray, which came as from
+the hand of an irate warrior, who showed himself, now, as ready and as
+bold, as aforetime he had appeared weak and negligent.[I]</p>
+
+<p>Then, when he first felt warmed and illuminated in his conception, was
+that victorious point and moment of which it is said: Vicit instans.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote">[I] He takes it by assault, without offering battle: the heart is unable
+to resist him.&mdash;("Spiritual Torrents.")</div>
+
+
+<p>Thus you can understand the sense of the following figure, legend and
+sonnet, which says:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>49.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">I fought with all my strength, 'gainst Love Divine</span><br />
+<span class="i0">When he assailed with blows from every side</span><br />
+<span class="i0">This cold, enamelled, adamantine heart,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Whence my desires defeated his intent.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">At last, one day, 'twas as the heavens had willed.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Encamped I found him in those holy lights</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Which, through mine own alone, of all the rest</span><br />
+<span class="i0">An easy entrance to my heart could find.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">'Twas then upon me fell that double bolt,</span><br />
+<!-- Page 39 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span><span class="i0">Flung as from hand of irate warrior</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Who had for thirty years besieged in vain.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">He marked that place and strongly there he held,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Planted the trophy there, and evermore</span><br />
+<span class="i0">He holds my fleet wings in restrainment.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Meanwhile since then with more solemnity of preparation</span><br />
+<span class="i0">The anger and the ire of my sweet enemy</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Cease not to wound my heart.</span><br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Rare moment was that; the end of the beginning and perfection of
+victory; rare were those two species which amongst all others found easy
+entrance, seeing that they contain in themselves the efficacy and the
+virtue of all the others; for what higher and more excellent form can
+present itself than that of the beauty, goodness and truth, which are
+the source of every other truth, beauty, and goodness? "He marked that
+place"&mdash;that is, took possession of the affections, noted them, and
+impressed upon them his own character; "and strongly there he held;" he
+confirmed and established them and sanctified them so that he can never
+again lose them; for it is not possible that one should turn to love any
+other thing when once he has conceived in his mind the Divine Beauty,
+and it is as impossible that he can do other than love it, as it is
+impossible that his desires should fall otherwise than towards good, or
+species of good. Therefore his inclination<!-- Page 40 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> is in the highest degree
+towards the primal good. So again, the wings, which used to be so fleet
+to go downwards with the weight of matter, are kept in restrainment, and
+the sweet augers which are the efficacious assaults of the gracious
+enemy, who has been for so long time kept back, and excluded, a stranger
+and a pilgrim, never cease to wound, soliciting the affections and
+awakening thought. But now, the sole and entire possessor and disposer
+of the soul, for she neither wills nor wishes to will other, nor is she
+pleased, nor will she that any other please her, whence he often says:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Dolci ire, guerra dolce, dolci dardi,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Dolci mie piaghe, miei dolci dolori!</span><br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p>X.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Ces.</span> It would seem that we have nothing more to consider upon
+this proposition. Let us see now, how this quiver and bow of Eros
+display the sparks around, and the knot of the string, which hangs down
+with the legend, which is: Subito, clam.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mar.</span> Well do I remember having seen it expressed in the sonnet.
+But let us read it first.</p>
+
+<p>50.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Eager to find the much desired food,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">The eagle towards the sky spreads out his wings</span><br />
+<span class="i0">And warns of his approach both bird and beast,</span><br />
+<!-- Page 41 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span><span class="i0">The third flight bringing him upon the prey.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">And the fierce lion roaring from his lair</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Spreads horror all around and mortal fear;</span><br />
+<span class="i0">And all wild beasts, admonished and forewarned,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Fly to the caves and cheat his cruel jaw.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">The whale, ere he the dumb Protean herd</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Hungry pursues, sends forth his nuncio,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">From caves of Thetys spouts his water forth.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Lions and eagles of the earth and sky,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">And whales, lords of the seas, come not with treachery,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">But the assaults of Love come stealing secretly.</span><br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The animal kingdom is divided into three, and is composed of various
+elements: the earth, the water, the air, and there are three
+species&mdash;beasts, fishes, and birds. Into three kinds are the principles
+of nature settled and defined, in the air the eagle, on earth the lion,
+in the water the whale; of the which, each one, as it displays more
+strength and command over the others, makes a show of magnanimous
+action, or apparently magnanimous. Therefore it is observed, that the
+lion, before he starts on the hunt trumpets forth his roar, which
+resounds through the whole forest, like to the poetical description of
+the fury-hunter.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">At saeva e speculis tempus dea nacta nocendi,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Ardua tecta petit, stabuli et de culmine summo</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Pastorale canit signum, cornuque recurvo</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Tartaream intendit vocem, qua protinus omne</span><br />
+<!-- Page 42 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span><span class="i0">Contremuit nemus, et silvae intonuere profundae.</span><br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The eagle again, before he proceeds to his venery, first rises straight
+from the nest in a perpendicular line upwards, and generally speaking at
+the third time he swoops from above with greater impetus and swiftness
+than if he were flying in a direct line, so that at the time when he is
+gaining the greatest velocity of flight, he is able also to speculate
+upon his success with the prey, and after three inspections he knows
+whether he will succeed or fail.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Ces.</span> Can one imagine why, if at the first his prey presents
+itself before his eyes, he does not instantly pounce upon it?</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mar.</span> No; unless it be to see whether anything better, or more
+easily taken, comes to sight. At the same time I do not believe that
+this is always so, but most often it is. But to return. Of the whale it
+is manifest that, being such a huge animal, he cannot divide the waters
+without making his presence known through the repulsion of the waves,
+besides which there are several species of this fish, that when they
+move or breathe, spout forth a windy tempest of water. Thus from these
+three principal species of animals, the inferior kinds have warning to
+enable them to get away, so that they do not conduct themselves as
+deceivers and traitors. But Love, who is stronger and greater and who
+has<!-- Page 43 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> supreme dominion in heaven, on earth, and in the seas, and who in
+comparison ought perhaps to show greater magnanimity, as he also has
+more power, does nothing of the kind, but assaults and wounds suddenly
+and swiftly.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Labitur totas furor in medullas,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Igne furtivo populante venas,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Nec habet latum data plaga frontem;</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Sed vorat tectas penitas medullas,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Virginum ignoto ferit igne pectus.</span><br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p>As you perceive, the tragic poet calls him a furtive fire, an unknown
+flame. Solomon calls it furtive waters. Samuel named it the whisper of a
+gentle wind. The which three significations show with what sweetness,
+gentleness, and astuteness, in seas, on earth, in sky, does this fellow
+come and tyrannize over the whole universe.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Ces.</span> There is no vaster empire, no worse tyranny, no better
+dominion, no more necessary magistracy, nothing more sweet and dear, no
+food to be found more hard and bitter, no deity more violent, no god
+more pleasing, no agent more treacherous and false, no author more regal
+and faithful, and, in fine, it seems to me that Love is all and does
+all, of him all may be said, and all may refer itself to him.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mar.</span> You say well. Love then, as he who works<!-- Page 44 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> chiefly through
+the sight, which is the most spiritual of all the senses, and which
+reaches swiftly the known ends of the earth, and without stretch of time
+takes in the whole horizon of the visible, comes to be quick, furtive,
+sudden and instantaneous. Besides which, we must remember what the
+ancients say, that Love precedes all the other gods, and therefore it is
+no use to imagine that Saturn shows him the way except by following him.
+Now must we find out, whether Love appears and makes himself known
+externally, whether his home is the soul itself, his bed the heart
+itself, and whether he consists of the same composition as our own
+substance, the same impulse as our own powers. Finally everything
+naturally desires the beautiful and the good, and therefore it is
+useless to argue and discuss, because the affection informs and confirms
+itself, and in one instant desire joins itself to the desirable, as the
+sight to the visible.</p>
+
+
+<p>XI.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Ces.</span> Let us see here, what is the meaning of that burning
+arrow, around which is the legend: Cui nova plaga loco? Explain what
+part does this seek to wound?</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mar.</span> Read the sonnet which says:<!-- Page 45 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span>&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>51.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">That all the ears of corn that may be reaped</span><br />
+<span class="i0">In burning Apuleia, or sunbrowned Lybia,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">With all that they unto the winds entrust,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Or that the rays from the great planet sent,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Should number those sad pains of my glad soul,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Which she from those two burning stars receives</span><br />
+<span class="i0">With mournful joy in sweetest agony,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Forbid me Sense and Reason to believe.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">What would'st thou more, sweet foe?</span><br />
+<span class="i0">What wish is that which moves thee still to hurt,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Since this my heart of but one wound is made?</span><br />
+<span class="i0">So that there lies no part that now may be</span><br />
+<span class="i0">By thee or others printed, stabbed, or pierced,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Turn thee aside, turn otherwhere thy bow,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">For thou dost waste thy powers, oh beauteous god!</span><br />
+<span class="i0">In slaying him who lies already dead.</span><br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The meaning of all this is metaphorical, like the rest, and may be
+understood in the same sense as that. Here the number of darts which
+have wounded and do wound the heart, signify the innumerable individuals
+and species of things, in which shine the splendour of Divine Beauty,
+according to their degrees, and whence the affection for the good, well
+proposed and well apprehended warms us. The which through the causes of
+potentiality and actuality, of possibility and of effect, crucify and
+console, give the sense of sweetness and also make the bitter to be
+felt. But where the entire affection is all turned towards God, that is
+towards the Idea of Ideas, from the<!-- Page 46 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> light of intelligible things, the
+mind becomes exalted to the super-essential unity, and, all love, all
+one, it feels itself no longer solicited by various objects, which
+distract it, but is one sole wound, in the which the whole affection
+concurs and which comes to be one and the same affection. Then there is
+no love or desire of any particular thing, that can urge, nor even
+present itself before the will; for there is nothing more straight than
+the straight, nothing more beautiful than beauty, nothing better than
+goodness, nothing can be found larger than size, nor anything lighter
+than that light which with its presence darkens and obliterates all
+lights.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Ces.</span> To the perfect, if it be perfect, there is nothing that
+can be added; therefore the will is not capable of any other desire,
+when that which is of the perfect is present with it, highest and best.
+Therefore I understand the conclusion where he says to Love, "Turn
+otherwhere thy bow," and wherefore should he try to kill him who is
+already dead, that is, he, who has no more life nor sense about other
+things, so that he cannot be stabbed or pierced or become exposed to
+other species. And this lament proceeds from him, who having tasted of
+the highest unity, desires to be in all things severed and withdrawn
+from the multitude.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mar.</span> You understand quite well. <!-- Page 47 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p>XII.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Ces.</span> Now here is a boy in a boat, which little by little is
+being submerged in the tempestuous waves, and he, languid and tired, has
+abandoned the oars; around it the legend "Fronti nulla, fides." There is
+no doubt that this signifies that he was induced, by the serene aspect
+of the waters, to venture on the treacherous sea, which having suddenly
+become troubled, the boy, in mortal fear, and in his impotence to still
+the tempest, has lost his head, his hope, and the power of his arm. But
+let us see the rest:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>52.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Oh, gentle boy, that from the shore didst loose</span><br />
+<span class="i0">The baby bark, and to the slender oar</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Didst set thy unskilled hand; lured by the sea!</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Late hast thou seen the evil of thy plight.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">See there the traitor rolls his fatal waves,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">The prow of thy frail bark, now sinks, now mounts.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">The soul borne down with anxious cares</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Prevaileth not against the swollen floods.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Thy oars thou yieldst to thy fierce enemy,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Waiting for death with calm collected thought,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">With eyelids closed, lest thou shouldst see him come.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">If thee no friendly aid should quickly reach</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Thou surely must the full result soon feel,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Of thy inquisitive temerity.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">My cruel fate is like unto thine own,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">For I too, lured, enticed by Love, must feel,</span><br />
+<!-- Page 48 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span><span class="i0">The rigour keen of this most treacherous one.</span><br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p>In what manner and why Love is a traitor and deceiver we have just seen;
+but as I see the following without figure or legend, I believe that it
+must have connection with the above. Therefore let us go on and read it.</p>
+
+<p>53.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Methought to leave the shelter of my port,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">And from maturer studies rest awhile:</span><br />
+<span class="i0">When, looking round me to enjoy my ease,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Sudden I saw those unrelenting fates.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">These have inflamed me with so ardent fires.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Vainly I strive some safer shores to reach,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Vainly from pitying hands invoke some aid,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">And swift deliverance from my enemies.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Weary and hoarse I yield me, impotent,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">And seek no more to elude my destiny,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Or make endeavour to escape my death:</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Let every other life to me be null,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">And let not the extremest torment fail,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Which my hard fate for me prescribed.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Type of my own deep ills,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Is that which thou for pastime didst entrust</span><br />
+<span class="i0">To hostile breast. Oh, careless boy.</span><br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Here I would not pretend to understand or determine all that the
+enthusiast means. Yet there is well expressed the strange condition of a
+soul cast down by the knowledge of the difficulty of the operation, the
+amount of the labour, the vastness of the work on one side, and on the
+other the ignorance, want of knowledge of the way, weakness of nerves
+and<!-- Page 49 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> peril of death. He has no knowledge suitable to the business, he
+does not know where and how to turn, no place of flight or refuge
+presents itself; and he sees that, from every side, the waves threaten,
+with frightful, fatal impetus. Ignoranti portum, nullus suus ventus est.
+Behold him, who has committed himself indeed to fortuitous things, and
+has brought upon himself trouble, prison, ruin, and drowning. See how
+fortune deludes us, and that which we put carefully into her hands, she
+either breaks or lets it fall from her hands, or causes it to be removed
+by the violence of another, or suffocates and poisons, or taints with
+suspicion, fear, and jealousy to the great hurt and ruin of the
+possessor. Fortunae au ulla putatis dona carcere dolis? For strength
+which cannot give proof of itself is dissipated; magnanimity, which
+cannot prevail, is naught, and vain is study without results; he sees
+the effects of the fear of evil, which is worse than evil itself. Peior
+est morte timor ipse mortis. He already suffers, through fear, that
+which he fears to suffer, terror in the limbs, imbecility in the nerves,
+tremors in the body, anxiety of the spirit, and that which has not yet
+appeared becomes present to him, and is certainly worse than whatsoever
+may happen. What can be more stupid than to be in pain about future<!-- Page 50 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span>
+things and absent ones which at present are not felt?</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Ces.</span> These considerations are on the surface and belong to the
+external of the figure. But the proposition of the heroic enthusiast, I
+think, deals with the imbecility of human nature (ingegno) which, intent
+on the Divine undertaking, finds itself all at once engulphed in the
+abyss of incomprehensible excellence, and the sense and the imagination
+become confused and absorbed, and not knowing how to pass on, nor to go
+back, nor where to turn, vanishes and loses itself as a drop of water
+vanishes in the sea, or as a small spirit, becomes attenuated, losing
+its own substance in the space and immensity of the atmosphere.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mar.</span> Well. But let us go towards our chamber and talk as we go,
+for it is night.<!-- Page 51 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><a name="Second" id="Second"></a><strong>Second Dialogue</strong></p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Maricondo.</span> Here you see a flaming yoke enveloped in knots round which is
+written: Levius aura; which means that Divine love does not weigh down,
+nor carry his servant captive and enslaved to the lowest depths, but
+raises him, supports him and magnifies him above all liberty whatsoever.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Ces.</span> Prithee, let us read the sonnet, so that we may consider
+the sense of it in due order with propriety and brevity.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mar.</span> It says thus:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>54.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">She who my mind to other love did move,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">To whom all others vile and vain appear,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">In whom alone is sovereign beauty seen,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">And excellence Divine is manifest.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">She from the forest coming, I beheld,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Huntress of myself, beloved Artemis,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">'Midst beauteous nymphs, with air of nascent bells.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Then said I unto Love: See, I am hers.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">And he to me: Oh, happy lover thou!</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Delectable companion of thy fate!</span><br />
+<span class="i0">That she alone of all the numberless,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">That hold within their bosom life and death,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Who most with virtues high the world adorns,</span><br />
+<!-- Page 52 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span><span class="i0">Thou didst obtain, through will and destiny,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Within the Court of Love.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">So happy thou in thy captivity</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Thou enviest not the liberty of man or God.</span><br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p>See how contented he is under that yoke, that marriage which has joined
+him to her whom he saw issuing from the forest, from the desert, from
+the woods, that is, from parts removed from the crowd, and from the
+conversation of the vulgar who have but small enlightenment. Diana, the
+splendour of the intelligible species, and huntress; because with her
+beauty and grace she first wounded him, and then bound him and holds him
+in her power, more contented than otherwise he could possibly have been.
+He speaks of her "amidst beauteous nymphs," that is, the multitude of
+other species, forms and ideas, and "air of bells," that is the genius
+and the spirit which displayed itself at Nola, which lies on the plain
+of the Campanian horizon.[J] He acknowledges her, and she, more than any
+other, is praised by Love, who considers him so fortunate, because
+amongst all those present or absent to mortal eyes, she does more highly
+adorn the world,<!-- Page 53 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> and makes man glorious and beautiful. Hence he says
+that his mind is raised towards the highest love, and that it learns to
+consider "every other goddess," that is, the care or observation of
+every other kind, as vile and vain.[K] Now, in saying that she has
+roused his mind to high love, he takes occasion to magnify the heart
+through the thoughts, desires and works, as much as possible, and (to
+say) that we ought not to be entertained with low things which are
+beneath our faculties, as happens to those who, through avarice or
+through negligence, or indolence, become in this brief life attached to
+unworthy things.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p>[J] Does he allude to the fact that bells were first used in Christian
+Churches at Nola?&mdash;(Tr.)</p></div>
+
+
+<div class="footnote"><p>[K] The delights which are perceived in things corporeal are vile; for
+every delight is such that it becomes viler the more it proceeds to
+external things, and happier, the more it proceeds to things
+internal.&mdash;("Spiritual Torrents.")</p></div>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Ces.</span> There must be artisans, mechanics, agriculturists,
+servants, trotters, ignoble, low, poor, pedants and such like, for
+otherwise there could not be philosophers, meditators, cultivators of
+souls, masters, captains, nobles, illustrious ones, rich, wise, and the
+rest who may be heroes like to gods. Now why should we force ourselves
+to corrupt the state of nature which has separated the universe into
+things major and minor, superior and inferior, illustrious<!-- Page 54 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> and obscure,
+worthy and unworthy, not only outside ourselves but also inside in the
+substance of us, even to that part of us which is said to be immaterial?</p>
+
+<p>So of the intelligences: some are low, others are pre-eminent, some
+serve and some obey, some command and govern. I believe, however, that
+this ought not to be brought forward as an example, so that subjects
+wishing to be superiors, and the ignoble to equal the noble, the order
+of things would become perverted and confounded, so that a sort of
+neutrality would supervene, and a brutal equality, such as is found in
+certain deserts and uncultured republics. Do you not see what damage has
+been done to science through this: <i>i.e.</i> pedants wishing to be
+philosophers; to treat of natural things, and mix themselves with and
+decide about things Divine? Who does not see how much evil has happened,
+and does happen, through the mind having been moved through similar
+facts to exalted affections? Who is there, of good sense, who cannot see
+what a fine thing Aristotle made of it, when, being a master of belles
+lettres at Alexandria, he set himself to oppose and make war against the
+Pythagorean doctrine, and that of natural philosophy; seeking by means
+of his logical ratiocination to propose definitions<!-- Page 55 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> and notions,
+certain fifth entities and other abortive portions of fantastical
+cogitations, as principles and substance of things, more anxious about
+the esteem of the vulgar stupid crowd, which is influenced and governed
+by sophisms and appearances which are found in the superficies of things
+rather than by the Truth, which is occult and hidden in the substance of
+them, and is the substance itself of them? He roused his mind, not to
+make himself a mediator, but judge and censor of things which he had
+never studied, nor well understood. Thus in our day, that little which
+Aristotle can bring, is peculiar for its inventive reasoning, its
+suggestiveness, its metaphysics, and is useful for other pedants, who
+work with the same "Sursum corda," who institute new dialectics and
+modes of forming the reason (judgment?) which are as much viler than
+those of Aristotle, as may be the philosophy of Aristotle is
+incomparably viler than that of the ancients. And it has been caused by
+this, that certain grammarians having grown old in the birching of
+children, and in anatomizing phrases and words, have sought to rouse the
+mind to the formation of new logic and metaphysics, judging and
+sentencing those which they had never studied nor understood: as also
+these by the approbation of the ignorant multitude,<!-- Page 56 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> with whose mind
+they have most affinity, can easily demolish the humanities and
+ratiocination of Aristotle, as the latter was the executioner of the
+Divine philosophies of others. See, then, what it comes to, if all
+should aspire to the sacred splendour, and yet are occupied about things
+low and vain.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mar.</span></p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Ride, si sapis, o puella, ride,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Pelignus, puto, dixerat poeta;</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Sed non dixerat omnibus puellis;</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Et si dixerat omnibus puellis,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Non dixit tibi. Tu puella non es.</span><br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Thus the "Sursum corda" is not the measure for all; but for those that
+have wings. We see that pedantry has never been held in such esteem for
+the government of the world as in our times, and it offers as many paths
+of the true intelligible species and objects of infallible and sole
+truth as there are individual pedants. Therefore in this present time it
+is proper that noble spirits equipped with truth and enlightened with
+the Divine intelligence, should arm themselves against dense ignorance
+by climbing up to the high rock and tower of contemplation.[L]</p>
+
+<div class="footnote">[L]
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">If meditation be a nobler thing</span>
+<span class="i0">Than action, wherefore, then, great Ke&#347;ava!</span>
+<span class="i0">Dost thou impel me to this dreadful fight?</span>
+
+<p>&mdash;("Song Celestial.") <!-- Page 57 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span></p>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>To them it is seemly that they hold every other object as vile and vain.
+Nor should these spend their time in light and vain things; for time
+flies with infinite velocity; the present rushes by with the same
+swiftness with which the future draws near. That which we have lived is
+nothing; that which we live is a point; that which we have to live is
+not yet a point, but may be a point which, together, shall be and shall
+have been. And with all this we crowd our memories with genealogies:
+this one is intent upon the deciphering of writings, that other is
+occupied in multiplying childish sophisms, and we shall see, for
+example, a volume full of: Cor est fons vitae. Nix est alba, ergo cornix
+est fons vitae alba, and one prattles about the noun; was it first, or
+the verb; the other, whether the sea was first or the springs; again,
+another tries to revive obsolete vocabularies which, because they were
+once used and approved by some old writer, must now be exalted to the
+stars. Yet another takes his stand upon the false or the true
+orthography, and so on, with various similar nonsense only worthy of
+contempt. They fast, they become thin and emaciated, they scourge the
+skin, and lengthen the beard, they rot, and in these things they place
+the anchor of their highest good. They despise fortune, and put<!-- Page 58 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> up
+these as shield and refuge against the strokes of fate. With such-like
+most vile thoughts they think to mount to the stars, to be equal to
+gods, and to understand the good and the beautiful which philosophy
+promises.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Ces.</span> A grand thing, indeed, that time, which does not suffice
+for necessary things, however carefully we use it, should come to be
+chiefly consumed about superfluous things, and things vile and shameful.</p>
+
+<p>Is it not rather a thing to laugh at than to praise in Archimedes, that
+at the time when the city was in confusion, everything in ruins, fire
+broken out in his room, enemies there at his back who had it in their
+power to make him lose his brain, his life, his art; that he, meanwhile,
+having abandoned all desire or intention of saving his life, lost it
+while he was inquiring, perhaps, into the proportion of the curve to the
+straight line, of the diameter to the circle, or other similar mathesis,
+as suitable for youth, as it were unsuitable for one who, being old,
+should be intent upon things more worthy of being put as the end of
+human desires?</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mar.</span> In connection with this I like what you said just now,
+that there must be all sorts of persons in the world, and that the
+number of the imperfect,<!-- Page 59 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> the ugly, the poor, the unworthy and the
+villanous, should be the greater, and, in short, it ought not to be
+otherwise than as it is. The long life of Archimedes, of Euclid, of
+Priscian, of Donato, and others, who were found up to their death
+occupied with numbers, lines, diction, concordances, writings,
+dialectics, syllogisms, forms, methods, systems of science, organs, and
+other preambles, is ordained for the service of youth, so that they may
+learn to receive the fruits of the mature age of those (sages) and be
+full of the same even in their green age, so that when they are older
+they may be fit and ready to arrive without hindrance to higher things.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Ces.</span> I am not wrong in the proposition I moved just now when I
+spoke of those who make it their study to appropriate to themselves the
+place and the fame of the ancients with new works which are neither
+better nor worse than those already existing, and spend their life in
+considering how to turn wheat into tares,[M] and find the work of their
+life in the elaboration of those studies which are suited for children
+and are generally profitable to no one, not even to themselves.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote">[M] E spendono la vita su le considerazioni da mettere avanti lana di
+capra, o l'ombra de l'asino.<!-- Page 60 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span></div>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mar.</span> But enough has been said about those who neither can nor
+dare to have their mind roused to highest love. Let us now come to the
+consideration of the voluntary captivity and of the pleasant yoke under
+the dominion of the said Diana; that yoke, I say, without which, the
+soul is impotent to rise to that height from which it fell, and which
+renders it light and agile, while the noose renders it more active and
+disengaged.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Ces.</span> Speak on then!</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mar.</span> To begin, to continue, and to conclude in order; I
+consider that all which lives must feed itself and nourish itself in a
+manner suitable to the way in which it lives. Therefore, nothing squares
+with the intellectual nature but the intellectual, as with the body
+nothing but the corporeal; seeing that nourishment is taken for no other
+reason, but that it should go to the substance of him who is to be
+nourished. As then the body does not transmute into spirit, nor the
+spirit into body,&mdash;for every transmutation takes place, when matter,
+which was in one form, comes to be in another,[N]&mdash;so the spirit and the
+body are not the same matter; in that that, which was subject to one
+should come to be subject to the other.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote">[N] Carlyle says, "For matter, were it never so despicable, is spirit:
+were it never so honourable, can it be more?"&mdash;("Sartor Resartus.")<!-- Page 61 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span></div>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Ces.</span> Surely, if the soul should be nourished with body, it
+would carry itself better there, where the fecundity of the material is,
+(as Jamblichus argues); so that when a large fat body presents itself,
+we should imagine that it were the habitation of a strong soul, firm,
+ready and heroic, and we should say: Oh, fat soul, oh, fecund spirit,
+oh, fine nature, oh, divine intelligence, oh, clear mind, oh, blessed
+repast, fit to spread before lions, or verily for a banquet for dogs. On
+the other hand, an old man shrivelled, weak, of failing strength, would
+be held to be of little savour and of small account. But go on.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mar.</span> Now, it must be said that the outcome of the mind is that
+alone which is always by it desired, sought for, and embraced, and that
+which is more enjoyed than anything else, with which it is filled,
+comforted and becomes better,&mdash;that is Truth, towards which, in all
+times, in every state, and in whatsoever condition man finds himself, he
+always aspires, and for the which he despises every fatigue, attempts
+every study, makes no account of the body, and hates this life.
+Therefore Truth is an incorporeal thing; and neither physics,
+metaphysics, nor mathematics can be found in the body, because we see
+that the<!-- Page 62 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> eternal human essence is not in individuals, who are born and
+die. It (Truth) is specific unity, said Plato, not the numerical
+multitude that holds the substance of things. Therefore he called Idea
+one and many, movable and immovable because as incorruptible species it
+is intelligible and one, and as it communicates itself to matter and is
+subject to movement and generation, it is sensible and many. In this
+second mode it has more of non-entity than of entity; seeing that it is
+one and another and is ever running but never diminishes.[O] In the
+first mode it is an entity, and true. See now, the mathematicians take
+it for granted, that the true figures are not to be found in natural
+bodies, nor can they be there through the power either of nature or of
+art. You know, besides, that the truth (reality) of supernatural
+substances is above matter. We must therefore conclude that he who seeks
+the truth must rise above the reason of corporeal things. Besides which
+it must be considered, that he who feeds has a certain natural memory of
+his food, especially when it is most required; it leaves in the mind the
+likeness and species of it, in an elevated manner, according to<!-- Page 63 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> the
+elevation and glory of him who aims, and of that which is aimed at.
+Hence it is that everything has, innate, the intelligence of those
+things which belong to the conservation of the individual and species,
+and furthermore its final perfection depends upon efforts to seek its
+food through some kind of hunting or chase. Therefore it is necessary
+that the human soul should have the light, the genius, and the
+instruments suitable for its pursuit. And here contemplation comes to
+aid, and logic, the fittest mode for the pursuit of truth, to find it,
+to distinguish it, and to judge of it. So that one goes rambling amongst
+the wild woods of natural things, where there are many objects under
+shadow and mantle, for it is in a thick, dense, and deserted solitude
+that Truth most often has its secret cavernous retreat, all entwined
+with thorns and covered with bosky, rough and umbrageous plants; it is
+hidden, for the most part, for the most excellent and worthy reasons,
+buried and veiled with utmost diligence, just as we hide with the
+greatest care the greatest treasures, so that, sought by a great variety
+of hunters, of whom some are more able and expert, some less, it cannot
+be discovered without great labour.</p>
+
+<p>Pythagoras went seeking for it with his imprints and vestiges impressed
+upon natural objects, which<!-- Page 64 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> are numbers, the which display its
+progress, reasons, modes and operations in a certain manner, because in
+the number (of) multitude, the number (of) measures, and the number (of)
+moment or weight, the truth and Being are found in all things.[P]</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p>[O] Atteso che sempre &egrave; altro ed altro, e corre eterno per la
+privazione.</p></div>
+
+
+<div class="footnote"><p>[P] Number is, as the great writer (Balzac) thought, an Entity, and at
+the same time, a Breath emanating from what he called God, and what we
+call the ALL, the breath which alone could organize the physical
+Kosmos.&mdash;("The Secret Doctrine.")</p></div>
+
+
+<p>Anaxagoras and Empedocles considered that the omnipotent and
+all-producing divinity fills all things, and with them nothing was so
+small that it did not contain within it the occult in every respect,
+although they were always progressing onwards to where it was
+predominant, and where it found a more magnificent and elevated
+expression.</p>
+
+<p>The Chaldeans sought for Truth by means of subtraction, not knowing how
+to affirm anything about it; and proceeded without these dogs of
+demonstrations and syllogisms, but solely forcing themselves to
+penetrate by removing and digging and clearing away by means of
+negations of every kind and discourses both open and secret.</p>
+
+<p>Plato went twisting and turning and tearing to pieces and placing
+embankments so that the volatile<!-- Page 65 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> and fugacious species should be as it
+were caught in a net and held behind the hedges of definitions, and he
+considered that superior things were, by participation, and according to
+similitude, reflected in those inferior, and these in those according to
+their greater dignity and excellence, and that the truth was in both the
+one and the other, according to a certain analogy, order and scale, in
+which the lowest of the superior order agrees with the highest of the
+inferior order. So that progress was from the lowest of nature to the
+highest, as from evil to good, from darkness to light, from the simple
+power to the simple action.</p>
+
+<p>Aristotle boasts of being able to arrive at the desired booty by means
+of the imprints of tracks and vestiges, while he believes the effects
+will lead to the cause, although he, above all others who have occupied
+themselves with this sort of chase, has most deviated from the path, so
+as to be able hardly to distinguish the footsteps. Theologians there
+are, who, nourished in certain sects, seek the truth of nature in all
+her specific natural forms in which they see the eternal essence, the
+specific substantial perpetuator of the eternal generation and mutation
+of things, which are called after their founders and<!-- Page 66 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> builders and above
+them all presides the form of forms,[Q] the fountain of light, very
+truth of very truth, God of gods, through whom all is full of divinity,
+truth, entity, goodness. This truth is sought as a thing inaccessible,
+as an object not to be objectized, incomprehensible. But yet, to no one
+does it seem possible to see the sun, the universal Apollo, the absolute
+light through supreme and most excellent species; but only its shadow,
+its Diana, the world, the universe, nature, which is in things, light
+which is in the opacity of matter, that is to say, so far as it shines
+in darkness.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote">[Q] A discerning of the Infinite in the Finite.&mdash;("Sartor Resartus.")</div>
+
+
+<p>Many then wander amongst the aforesaid paths of this deserted wood, very
+few are those who find the fountain of Diana. Many are content to hunt
+for wild beasts and things less elevated, and the greater number do not
+understand why, having spread their nets to the wind, they find their
+hands full of flies. Rare, I say, are the Act&aelig;ons to whom fate has
+granted the power of contemplating the nude Diana and who, entranced
+with the beautiful disposition of the body of nature, and led by those<!-- Page 67 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span>
+two lights, the twin splendour of Divine goodness and beauty become
+transformed into stags; for they are no longer hunters, but that which
+is hunted. For the ultimate and final end of this sport, is to arrive at
+the acquisition of that fugitive and wild body, so that the thief
+becomes the thing stolen, the hunter becomes the thing hunted; in all
+other kinds of sport, for special things, the hunter possesses himself
+of those things, absorbing them with the mouth of his own intelligence;
+but in that Divine and universal one, he comes to understand to such an
+extent, that he becomes of necessity included, absorbed, united. Whence,
+from common, ordinary, civil, and popular, he becomes wild, like a stag,
+an inhabitant of the woods; he lives god-like under that grandeur of the
+forest; he lives in the simple chambers of the cavernous mountains,
+whence he beholds the great rivers; he vegetates intact and pure from
+ordinary greed, where the speech of the Divine converses more freely, to
+which so many men have aspired who longed to taste the Divine life while
+upon earth, and who with one voice have said: Ecce elongavi fugiens, et
+mansi in solitudine. Thus the dogs&mdash;thoughts of Divine things&mdash;devour
+Act&aelig;on, making him dead to the vulgar and the crowd, loosened from the
+knots of perturbation of the<!-- Page 68 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> senses, free from the fleshly prison of
+matter, whence they no longer see their Diana as through a hole or a
+window, but having thrown down the walls to the earth, the eye opens to
+the view of the whole horizon.[R] So that he sees all as one; he sees no
+more by distinctions and numbers, which, according to the different
+senses, as through various cracks, cause to be seen and understood in
+confusion.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote">[R] For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to
+face.&mdash;("St. Paul to the Corinthians.")</div>
+
+
+<p>He sees Amphitrite, the source of all numbers, of all species, of all
+reasons, which is the monad, the real essence of the being of all, and
+if he does not see it in its essence, in absolute light, he sees it in
+its seed, which is like unto it, which is its image; for from the monad,
+which is the divinity, proceeds this monad which is nature, the
+universe, the world, where it is beheld and reflected, as the sun is in
+the moon by means of which it is illuminated;[S] he<!-- Page 69 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> finding himself in
+the hemisphere of intellectual substances. This is that Diana, that one
+who is the same entity, that entity which is comprehensible nature, in
+which burns the sun and the splendour of the higher nature, according to
+which, unity is both the generated and the generating, the producer and
+produced. Thus you can of yourself determine the mode, the dignity, and
+the success, which are most worthy of the hunter and the hunted.
+Therefore the enthusiast boasts of being the prey of Diana, to whom he
+rendered himself, and of whom he considers himself the accepted consort,
+and happy as a captive and a subject. Why, he envies no man (for there
+is none that can have more) or any other god that can have that species
+which is impossible to be obtained by an inferior nature, and therefore
+is not worthy to be desired, nor can one hunger after it.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote">[S] There is no potentiality for creation, or self-consciousness, in a
+pure Spirit on this our plane, unless its too homogeneous, perfect,
+because Divine, nature is, so to say, mixed with, and strengthened by,
+an essence already differentiated. It is only the lower line of the
+Triangle&mdash;representing the first triad that emanates from the Universal
+Monad&mdash;that can furnish this needed consciousness on the plane of
+differentiated Nature.&mdash;("The Secret Doctrine.")</div>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Ces.</span> I have well understood all that you have said, and you
+have more than satisfied me. Now it is time to return home.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mar.</span> Well.<!-- Page 70 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><a name="Third" id="Third"></a><strong>Third Dialogue.</strong></p>
+
+<p><i>Interlocutors</i>:</p>
+
+<p class="style3">Liberio. Laodonio.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap"><span class="smcap">Lib.</span></span> Reclining in the shade of a cypress-tree, the
+enthusiast finding his mind free from other thoughts, it happened that
+the heart and the eyes spoke together as if they were animals and
+substances of different intellects and senses, and they made lament of
+that which was the beginning of his torment and which consumed his soul.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap"><span class="smcap">Lao.</span></span> Repeat, if you can recollect, the reasons and the
+words.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap"><span class="smcap">Lib.</span></span> The heart began the dialogue, which, making
+itself heard by the breast, broke into these words:</p>
+
+<p>55.</p>
+
+<p><i>First proposition of the heart to the eyes</i>.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">How, eyes of mine, can that so much torment,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Which as an ardent fire from ye derives,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">And which this mortal subject so afflicts</span><br />
+<span class="i0">With unrelenting burning never spared?</span><br />
+<!-- Page 71 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span><span class="i0">Can ocean floods suffice to mitigate</span><br />
+<span class="i0">The ardour of those flames? or slowest star</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Within the frozen circle of the north</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Offer umbrageous shade?</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Ye took me captive, and the self-same hand</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Doth hold me and reject me and through you</span><br />
+<span class="i0">I in the body am: out of it with the sun.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">I am the source of life, yet am I not alive.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">I know not what I am, for I belong</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Unto this soul; but this soul is not mine.</span><br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap"><span class="smcap">Lao.</span></span> Truly the hearing, the seeing, the knowing, is
+that which kindles desire, and therefore it is through the operation of
+the eyes that the heart becomes inflamed: and the more worthy the object
+which is present with them the stronger is the fire, and the more active
+are the flames. What then, must that kind be, for which the heart burns
+in such a way that the coldest star in the Arctic circle cannot cool it,
+nor can the whole body of water of the ocean stop its burning! What must
+be the excellence of that object that has made him an enemy to himself,
+a rebel to his own soul and content with such hostility and rebellion,
+although he be captive to one who despises and will have none of him!
+But let me hear whether the eyes made a response, and what they said.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Lib.</span> They, on the other hand, complained of the<!-- Page 72 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> heart as being
+the origin and cause why they shed so many tears, and this was the sum
+of their proposition.</p>
+
+<p>56.</p>
+
+<p><i>First proposition of the eyes to the heart</i>.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">How, oh my heart, do waters gush from thee</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Like to the springs that bathe the Nereids' brows</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Which daily in the sun are born and die?</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Like to the double fountain of Amphitrite,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Which pours so great a flood across the earth,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">That one might say, the sum of it exceeds</span><br />
+<span class="i0">That of the stream which Egypt inundates,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Running its sevenfold course unto the sea.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Nature hath given two lights</span><br />
+<span class="i0">To this small earth for governance;</span><br />
+<span class="i0">But thou, perverter of eternal law,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Hast turned them into everlasting streams.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">But Heaven is not content to see her law</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Decline before unbridled violence.</span><br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap"><span class="smcap">Lao.</span></span> It is certain that the heart, grieved and stung,
+causes tears to spring to the eyes, and while these light the flames in
+this, that other dims those with moisture. But I am surprised at such
+exaggeration which says that the Nereids raising their wet faces to the
+eastern sun, is less than these waters (of the eyes). And more than
+that, they are equal to the ocean, not because they do pour, but because
+these two springing streams can pour such, and so much, that compared
+with them the Nile<!-- Page 73 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> would appear a tiny stream divided into seven
+streamlets.[T]</p>
+
+<div class="footnote">[T] Is this an allusion to the seven activities or changes which water
+goes through to produce form; Water being the formative power which
+Fire, itself formless and the moving power, animates?&mdash;(Tr.)</div>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Lib.</span> Be not surprised at that exaggeration nor at that potency
+without action! For you will understand all, after having heard the
+conclusion of their argument. Now listen how the heart responds to the
+proposition of the eyes.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Lao.</span> I pray you, let me hear.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Lib.</span></p>
+
+<p>57.</p>
+
+<p><i>First response of the heart to the eyes</i>.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Eyes, if an immortal flame within me burn,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">And I no other am than burning fire;</span><br />
+<span class="i0">If to come near me is to feel the blaze,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">So that the heavens are fervid with my heat;</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Why does my blazing flame consume you not,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">But only contrary effects you feel?</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Why saturated and not roasted ye,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">If not of water but of fire I be?</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Believe ye, oh ye blind,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">That from such ardent burning is derived</span><br />
+<span class="i0">The double passage, and those living founts</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Have had their elements from Vulcan?</span><br />
+<span class="i0">As force sometimes acquires a power</span><br />
+<!-- Page 74 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span><span class="i0">When by its contrary it is opposed.</span><br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p>You see that the heart could not persuade itself that from an opposite
+cause and beginning, could proceed a force of an opposite effect. So
+that it will not allow the possibility of it, except through
+antiperistasis, which means the strength which an opposite acquires from
+that which, flying from the other, comes to unite itself, incorporate
+itself, insphere itself, or concentrate itself towards the individual,
+through its own virtue, which, the farther it is removed from the
+dimensions (dimensioni) the more efficacious it becomes.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Lao.</span> Tell me, how did the eyes respond to the heart?</p>
+
+<p>58.</p>
+
+<p><i>First response of the eyes to the heart.</i></p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Thy passion does confuse thee, on my heart,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">The path of truth thou hast entirely lost;</span><br />
+<span class="i0">That which in us is seen&mdash;that which is hid&mdash;</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Is seed of oceans. Neptune, if by fate</span><br />
+<span class="i0">His kingdom he should lose, would find it here entire.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">How does the burning flame from us derive</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Who of the sea the double parent are?</span><br />
+<span class="i0">So senseless thou'rt become!</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Dost thou believe the flame will pass</span><br />
+<span class="i0">And leave the doors all wet behind</span><br />
+<span class="i0">That thou may'st feel the ardour of the same?</span><br />
+<span class="i0">As splendour through a glass, dost thou</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Believe that it through us will penetrate?</span><br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Now I will not begin to philosophize about the identity of opposites
+which I have studied in the<!-- Page 75 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> book De Principio ed uno, and I will
+suppose that which is usually received, that the opposites in the same
+genus are quite separate (distantissimi), so that the meaning of this
+response is more easily learned where the eyes call themselves the seed
+or founts in the virtual potentiality of which is the sea; so that if
+Neptune should lose all the waters, he could recall them into action by
+their own potentiality, where they are as in the beginning, medium and
+material. But it is not urged as a necessity, when they say it cannot
+be, that the flame passes over to the heart through their room (stanza e
+cortile) and courtyard leaving so many waters behind, for two reasons.
+First, because such an impediment cannot exist in action, if (equally?)
+violent opposition is not put into action;[U] second, because in so<!-- Page 76 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> far
+as the waters are actually in the eyes, they can give passage to the
+heat as to the light; for, experience proves that the luminous ray
+kindles, by means of reflection, any material that becomes opposed to
+it, without heating the glass; and the ray passes through a glass,
+crystal or other vase, full of water, and heats an object placed under
+it, without heating the thick intervening body. As it is also true that
+it causes dry and dusty impressions in the caves of the deep sea.
+Therefore by analogy, if not by the same sort of reasons, we may see how
+it is possible that, through the lubricant and dark passage of the eyes,
+the affection may be kindled and inflamed by that light, the which for
+the same reason cannot be in the middle.[V] As the light of the sun,
+according to other reasoning, is in the middle air, or again in the
+nearer sense, and again in the common sense, or again in the intellect,
+notwithstanding that from one mode proceeds the other mode of being.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p>[U] Prima, per che tal impedimento in atto non puo essere se non posti
+in atto tali oltraggiosi ripari. Does this mean that the opposites which
+are called into action must be equal in power?&mdash;(Translator.)</p>
+
+
+<p>If, when fire is ascending again to its proper sphere, it should meet
+with obstacles, such as a bit of wood or of straw, it would resume its
+former activity, and consume this obstacle or hindrance; and the greater
+the resistance, the more its activity would be increased.... You will
+observe that the obstacle which the fire meets with would serve only to
+increase its velocity, by giving it a new ardour to overcome all
+obstacles in joining itself to its centre.&mdash;("Spiritual Torrents," Lady
+Guion.)</p></div>
+
+
+<div class="footnote">[V] Nel mezzo.</div>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Lao.</span> Are there any more discourses?</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Lib.</span> Yes; because both the one and the other are trying to find
+out in what way it is that it (the heart) contains so many flames and
+those (the eyes) so many waters. The heart then makes the next
+proposition. <!-- Page 77 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>59.</p>
+
+<p><i>Second proposition of the heart to the eyes</i>.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">If to the foaming sea the rivers run,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">And pour their streams into the sea's dark gulf,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">How does the kingdom of the water-gods,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Fed by the double torrent of these eyes,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Increase not; since the earth</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Must lose the glorious overflow?</span><br />
+<span class="i0">How is it that we do not see the day,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">When from the mount Deukalion returns?</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Where are the lengthening shores,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Where is the torrent to put out my flame,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Or, failing this, to give it greater power?</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Does drop of water ever fall to earth</span><br />
+<span class="i0">In such a way as leads me to suppose</span><br />
+<span class="i0">It is not as the senses show it?</span><br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p>It asks, what power is this, which is not put into action? If the waters
+are so many, why does Neptune not come to tyrannize over the kingdoms of
+the other elements? Where are the inundated banks? Where is he who will
+give coolness to the ardent fire? Where is the drop of water by which I
+may affirm through the eyes that which the senses deny? But the eyes in
+the same way ask another question.</p>
+
+<p>60.</p>
+
+<p><i>Second proposition of the eyes to the heart</i>.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">If matter changed and turned to fire acquires</span><br />
+<span class="i0">The movement of a lighter element,</span><br />
+<!-- Page 78 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span><span class="i0">Rising aloft unto the highest heaven;</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Wherefore, ignited by the fire of love,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Swifter than wind, dost thou not rise and flash.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Into the sun and be incorporate there?</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Why rather stay a pilgrim here below</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Than open through the air and us a way?</span><br />
+<span class="i0">No spark of fire from that heart</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Goes out through the wide atmosphere.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Body of dust and ashes is not seen,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Nor water-laden smoke ascends on high.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">All is contained entire within itself,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">And not of flame, is reason, sense, or thought.</span><br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Lao.</span> This proposition is neither more nor less conclusive than
+the other. But let us come at once to the answers if there be any.</p>
+
+<p><ins class="correction"
+title="Transcriber&apos;s note: This is possibly a typo for
+LIB."><span class="smcap">Lic.</span></ins> There are some certainly and
+full of sap. Listen.</p>
+
+<p>61.</p>
+
+<p><i>Second response of the heart to the eyes</i>.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">He is a fool, who that alone believes,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Which to the sense appears, who reason scorns.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">My flame could never wing its way above.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">The conflagration infinite remains unseen.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Between the eyes their waters are contained,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">One infinite encroaches not upon another.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Nature wills not that all should perish.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">If so much fire's enough for so much sphere,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Say, say, oh eyes,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">What shall we do? how act</span><br />
+<!-- Page 79 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span><span class="i0">In order to make known, or I, or you,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">For its deliverance, the sad plight of the soul?</span><br />
+<span class="i0">If one and other of us both be hid,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">How can we move the beauteous god to pity?</span><br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p><ins class="correction"
+title="Transcriber&apos;s note: This is possibly a typo for
+LAO."><span class="smcap">Las.</span></ins> If it is not true it is very
+well imagined: if it is not so, it is
+yet a very good excuse the one for the other; because where there are
+two forces, of the which one is not greater than the other, the
+operation of both must cease, for one resists as much as the other
+insists, and one assails while the other defends. If therefore the sea
+is infinite and the force of tears in the eyes is immense, it never can
+be made apparent by speech, nor the impetus of the fire concealed in the
+heart break forth, nor can they (the eyes) send forth the twin torrent
+to the sea if the heart shelters them with equal tenacity. Therefore the
+beautiful deity cannot be expected to be pitiful towards the afflicted
+soul because of the exhibition of tears which distil from the eyes, or
+speech which breaks forth from the breast.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Lib.</span> Now note the answer of the eyes to this proposition:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>62.</p>
+
+<p><i>Second response of the eyes to the heart</i>.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Alas! we poured into the wavy sea,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">The strength of our two founts in vain,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">For two opposing powers hold it concealed,</span><br />
+<!-- Page 80 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span><span class="i0">Lest it go rolling aimlessly adown.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">The strength unmeasured of the burning heart,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Withholds a passage to the lofty streams;</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Barring their twofold course unto the sea,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Nature abhors the covered ground.[W]</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Now say, afflicted heart, what canst thou bring</span><br />
+<span class="i0">To oppose against us with an equal force?</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Oh, where is he, will boast himself to be</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Exalted by this most unhappy love,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">If of thy pain and mine it can be said,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">The greater they, the less it may be seen.</span><br />
+</div></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">[W] Ch'il coperto terren natura aborre.</div>
+
+<p>Both these evils being infinite, like two equally vigorous opposites
+they curb and suppress each other: it could not be so if they were both
+finite, seeing that a precise equality does not belong to natural
+things, nor would it be so if the one were finite, the other infinite;
+for of a certainty the one would absorb the other, and they would both
+be seen, or, at least one, through the other. Beneath these sentences,
+there lies hidden, ethical and natural philosophy, and I leave it to be
+searched for, meditated upon and understood, by whosoever will and can.
+This alone I will not leave (unsaid) that it is not without reason that
+the affection of the heart is said to be the infinite sea by the
+apprehension of the eyes.[X] For the object of the mind<!-- Page 81 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> being infinite,
+and no definite object being proposed to the intellect, the will cannot
+be satisfied by a finite good, but if besides that, something else is
+found, it is desired and sought for; for, as is commonly said, the apex
+of the inferior species is the beginning of the superior species,
+whether the degrees are taken according to the forms, the which we
+cannot consider as being infinite, or according to the modes and reasons
+of those, in which way, the highest good being infinite, it would be
+supposed to be infinitely communicated, according to the condition of
+the things, over which it is diffused. However, there is no definite
+species of the universe. I speak according to the figure and mass; there
+is no definite species of the intellect; the affections are not a
+definite species.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote">[X] Fire, Flame, Day, Smoke, Night, and so on ... These are all names of
+various deities which preside over the Cosmo-psychic Powers.&mdash;("The
+Secret Doctrine.")</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Lao.</span> These two powers of the soul, then, never are nor can be
+perfect for the object, if they refer to it infinitely?</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Lib.</span> So it would be if this infinite were by negative privation
+or privative negation of the end, as it is for a more positive
+affirmation of the end, infinite and endless.[Y]</p>
+
+<div class="footnote">[Y] "The deity is one, because it is infinite. It is triple, because it
+is ever manifesting." This manifestation is triple in its aspects, for
+it requires, as Aristotle has it, three principles for every natural
+body to become objective: privation, form and matter. Privation meant in
+the mind of the great philosopher ... the lowest plane and world of the
+Anima Mundi.&mdash;("The Secret Doctrine.")<!-- Page 82 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span></div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Lao.</span> You mean, then, two kinds of affinity; the one privative,
+the which may be towards something which is power, as, infinite is
+darkness, the end of which is the position of light; the other
+perfecting, which tends to the act and perfection, as infinite is the
+light, the end of which would be privation and darkness.[Z] In this,
+then, the intellect conceives the light, the good, the beautiful, in so
+far as the horizon of its capacity extends, and the soul, which drinks
+of Divine nectar and the fountain of eternal life in so far as its own
+vessel allows, and one sees that the light is beyond the circumference
+of his horizon, where it can go and penetrate more and more, and the
+nectar and fount of living water is infinitely fruitful, so that it can
+become ever more and more intoxicated.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote">[Z] "Darkness adopted illumination in order to make itself visible."
+Darkness in its radical, metaphysical basis, is subjective and absolute
+light; while the latter, in all its seeming effulgence and glory, is
+merely a mass of shadows, as it can never be eternal, and is simply an
+illusion, or Maya.&mdash;("The Secret Doctrine.")<!-- Page 83 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span></div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Lib.</span> From this it does not follow that there is imperfection in
+the object, nor that there is little satisfaction in the potency, but
+that the power is included in the object and beatifically absorbed by
+it. Here the eyes imprint upon the heart, that is upon the intelligence,
+and rouse in the will an infinite torment of love, where there is no
+pain because nothing is sought which is not obtained; but it is
+happiness, because that which is there sought is always found, and there
+is no satiety, inasmuch as there is always appetite, and therefore
+enjoyment; in this it is not like the food of the body, the which with
+satiety loses enjoyment, has no pleasure before the enjoyment, nor after
+enjoyment, but only in the enjoyment itself, and where it passes certain
+limits it comes to feel annoyance and disgust. Behold, then, in a
+certain analogy, how the highest good ought to be also infinite, in
+order that it should not some time turn to evil; as food, which is good
+for the body, if it is not limited, may come to be poison. Thus it is
+that the water of the ocean does not extinguish that flame, and the
+rigour of the Arctic circle does not mitigate that ardour. Therefore it
+is bad through (the) one hand, which holds him and rejects him; it holds
+him, because it has him for its own; it rejects him because, flying<!-- Page 84 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>
+from him, the higher it makes itself the more he ascends upwards to it;
+the more he follows it, the further off it appears, by reason of its
+high excellence, according as it is said: Accedit homo ad cor altum, et
+exaltabitur Deus. Such blessedness of affection begins in this life, and
+in this state it has its mode of being. Hence the heart can say that it
+is within with the body, and without with the sun, in so far as the soul
+with its twin faculty, puts into operation two functions: the one to
+vivify and realize the animal body, the other to contemplate superior
+things; so that it is in receptive potentiality from above, as it is in
+re-active potentiality below, towards the body. The body is, as it were,
+dead, and as it were apart from the soul, the which is its life and its
+perfection; and the soul is as it were dead, and a thing apart from the
+superior illuminating intelligence, from which the intellect is derived
+as to its nature and acts. Therefore, the heart is said to be the
+beginning of life, and not to be alive, it is said to belong to the
+animating soul, and that this does not belong to it; because it is
+inflamed by Divine love, and finally converted into fire, which can set
+on fire that which comes near it, seeing that it has contracted into
+itself the divinity; it is made god, and consequently in its kind it can
+inspire<!-- Page 85 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> others with love; as the splendour of the sun may be seen and
+admired in the moon. And as for that which belongs to the consideration
+of the eyes, know, that in the present discourse they have two
+functions; one to impress the heart, the other to receive the impression
+of the heart; as this also has two functions, one to receive the
+impressions from the eyes, the other to impress them. The eyes study the
+species and propose them to the heart; the heart desires them, and
+presents his desire to the eyes; these conceive the light, diffuse it,
+and kindle the fire in the heart, which heated and kindled, sends its
+waters (umore) to them, so that they may dispose of them[AA]
+(digeriscano). Thus, firstly, cognition moves the affection, and soon
+the affection moves the cognition. The eyes, when they move (the heart),
+are dry, because they perform the office of a looking-glass, and of a
+representer; when they are moved, however, they become troubled and
+perturbed, because they perform the office of a diligent executer,
+seeing that with the speculating intellect, the beautiful and the good
+is first seen, then the will<!-- Page 86 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> desires it; and later the industrious
+intellect procures it, follows it, and seeks it. Tearful eyes signify
+the difficulty of separating the thing wished for from, the wisher, the
+which in order that it should not pall, nor disgust, presents itself as
+an infinite longing (studio) which ever has, and ever seeks; seeing that
+the delight of the gods is ascribed to drinking, not to having tasted
+ambrosia, and to the continual enjoyment of food and drink, and not in
+being satiated and without desire for them. Hence they have satiety as
+it were in movement and apprehension, not in quiet and comprehension;
+they are not satiated without appetite, nor are they in a state of
+desire, without being in a certain way satiated.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote">[AA] "Deity is an arcane, living (or moving) FIRE, and the eternal
+witnesses to this unseen Presence are Light, Heat, Moisture," this
+trinity including, and being the cause of every phenomenon in
+Nature.&mdash;("The Secret Doctrine.")</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Lao.</span> Esuries satiata, satietas esuriens.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Lib.</span> Precisely so.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Lao:</span> From this I can comprehend how,
+without blame, but with great truth
+and understanding, it has been said that Divine love weeps with
+indescribable groans, because having all it loves all, and loving all
+has all.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Lib.</span> But many comments would be necessary if we would
+understand that Divine love which is deity itself; and one easily
+understands Divine love, so far as it is to be found in its effects and
+in the<!-- Page 87 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> inferior nature. I do not say that which from the divinity is
+diffused into things, but that of things which aspires to the divinity.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Lao.</span> Now of this and of other matters we will discourse more at
+our ease presently. Let us go.<!-- Page 88 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><a name="Fourth" id="Fourth"></a><strong>Fourth Dialogue.</strong></p>
+
+<p><i>Interlocutors</i>:</p>
+
+<p class="style3">Severing. Minutolo.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap"><span class="smcap">Sev.</span></span> You will see the origin of the nine blind men,
+who state nine reasons and special causes of their blindness, and yet
+they all agree in one general reason and one common enthusiasm.[AB]</p>
+
+<div class="footnote">[AB] May one suggest an analogy between the nine months of gestation,
+during which time the foetus goes through various stages and conditions
+to complete the "individual cycle of evolution," and the nine blind men
+who, at the end of their probation, are brought to see the light&mdash;to be
+born&mdash;illuminated?&mdash;("Translator.")</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap"><span class="smcap">Min.</span></span> Begin with the first!</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap"><span class="smcap">Sev.</span></span> The first of these, notwithstanding that he is
+blind by nature, yet he laments, saying to the others that he cannot
+persuade himself that nature has been less courteous to them than to
+him; seeing that although they do not (now) see, yet they have enjoyed
+sight, and have had experience of that sense, and of the value of that
+faculty, of which they<!-- Page 89 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> have been deprived, while he came into the world
+as a mole, to be seen and not to see, to long for the sight of that
+which he never had seen.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap"><span class="smcap">Min.</span></span> Many have fallen in love through report alone.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Sev.</span> They have, says he, the happiness of retaining that Divine
+image present in the mind, so that, although blind, they have in
+imagination that which he cannot have. Then in the sistine he turns to
+his guide and begs him to lead him to some precipice, so that he may no
+longer endure this contempt and persecution of nature. He says then:</p>
+
+<p>63.</p>
+
+<p><i>The first blind man</i>.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Ye now afflicted are, who erst were glad,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">For ye have lost the light that once was yours,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Yet happy, for ye have the twin lights known.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">These eyes ne'er lighted were, and ne'er were quenched;</span><br />
+<span class="i0">But a more grievous destiny is mine</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Which calls for heavier lamentation.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Who will deny that nature upon me</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Has frowned more harshly than on you?</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Conduct me to the precipice, my guide,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">And give me peace, for there will I a cure</span><br />
+<span class="i0">For this my dolour and affliction find;</span><br />
+<span class="i0">For to be seen, yet not to see the light,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Like an incapable and sightless mole,</span><br />
+<!-- Page 90 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span><span class="i0">Is to be useless and a burden on the earth.</span><br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Now follows the other, who, bitten by the serpent of jealousy, became
+affected in the organ of sight. He wanders without any guide, unless he
+has jealousy for his escort. He begs some of the bystanders, that seeing
+there is no remedy for his misfortune, they should have pity upon him,
+so that he should no longer feel it; that he might become as unmanifest
+to himself as he is to the light, and that they bury him together with
+his own misfortune. He says then:</p>
+
+<p>64.</p>
+
+<p><i>The second blind man</i>.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Alecta has torn from out her dreadful hair,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">The infernal worm that with a cruel bite,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Has fiercely fastened on my soul,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">And of my senses, torn the chief away,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Leaving the intellect without its guide.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">In vain the soul some consolation seeks.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">That spiteful, rabid, rancorous jealousy</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Makes me go stumbling along the way.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">If neither magic spell nor sacred plant,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Nor virtue hid in the enchanter's stone,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Will yield me the deliverance that I ask:</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Let one of you, my friends, be pitiful,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">And put me out, as are put out my eyes,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">That they and I together be entombed.</span><br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The other follows, who says that he became blind through having been
+suddenly brought out of the darkness into a great light: accustomed to<!-- Page 91 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span>
+behold ordinary beauties, a celestial beauty was suddenly presented
+before his eyes&mdash;a sun-god&mdash;in this manner his sight became dull and the
+twin lights which shine at the prow of the soul were put out: for the
+eyes are like two beacons, which guide the ship, and this would happen
+to one brought up in Cimmerian obscurity if he fixed his eyes suddenly
+upon the sun. In the sistine he begs for free passage to Hades, because
+darkness alone is suitable to a dark condition. He says:</p>
+
+<p>65.</p>
+
+<p><i>The third blind man</i>.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">If sudden on the sight, the star of day</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Should shed his beams on one in darkness reared,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Nurtured beneath the black Cimmerian sky,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Far from the radiance of the glorious sun,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">The double light, the beacon of the soul</span><br />
+<span class="i0">He quenches: then as a foe he hides.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Thus were my eyes made dull, inept,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Used only, wonted beauties to behold.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Conduct me to the land where darkness reigns!</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Wherefore being dead, speak I amidst the folk?</span><br />
+<span class="i0">A chip of Hell, why do I mix and move</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Amongst the living, wherefore do I drink</span><br />
+<span class="i0">The hated air, since all my pain</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Is due to having seen the highest good?</span><br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The fourth blind man comes forward, not blind for the same reason as the
+former one. For as<!-- Page 92 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> that one was blinded through the sudden aspect of
+the light, this one is so, from having too frequently beheld it, or
+through having fixed his eyes too much upon it, so that he has lost the
+sense of all other light, but he does not consider himself to be blind
+through looking at that one which has blinded him: and the same may be
+said of the sense of sight as of the sense of hearing, that those whose
+ears are accustomed to great noises, do not hear the lesser, as is well
+known of those who live near the cataracts of the great river Nile which
+fall precipitously down to the plain.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Min.</span> Thus, all those who have accustomed the body and the soul
+to things more difficult and great, are not apt to feel annoyed by
+smaller difficulties. So that fellow ought not to be discontented about
+his blindness.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Sev.</span> Certainly not. But one says, voluntarily blind, of one who
+desires that every other thing be hidden because it annoys him to be
+diverted from looking at that which alone he wishes to behold. Meanwhile
+he prays the passers-by to prevent his coming to mischief in any
+encounter, while he goes so absorbed and captivated by one principal
+object.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Min.</span> Repeat his words!</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Sev.</span> He says:<!-- Page 93 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>66</p>
+
+<p><i>The fourth blind man</i>.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Headlong from on high, to the abyss,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">The cataract of the Nile falls down and dulls the senses</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Of the joyless folk to every other sound,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">So stood I too, with spirit all intent</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Upon the living light, that lights the world;</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Dead henceforth to all the lesser splendours,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">While that light shines, let every other thing</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Be to the voluntary blind concealed.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">I pray you save me stumbling 'mongst the stones,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Make me aware of the wild beast,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Show me whether up or down I go;</span><br />
+<span class="i0">So that the miserable bones fall not,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Into a low and cavernous place,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">While I, without a guide, am stepping on.</span><br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p>To the blind man that follows, it happens that having wept so much, his
+eyes are become dim, so that he is not able to extend the visual ray, so
+as to distinguish visible objects, nor can he see the light, which in
+spite of himself, through so many sorrows, he at one time was able to
+see. Besides which he considers that his blindness is not from
+constitution, but from habit, and is peculiar to himself, because the
+luminous fire which kindles the soul in the pupil, was for too long a
+time and with too much force, repressed and restrained by a contrary
+humour, so that although he might cease from weeping, he<!-- Page 94 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> cannot be
+persuaded that this would result in the longed-for vision. You will hear
+what he says to the throng in order that they should enable him to
+proceed on his way:</p>
+
+<p>67.</p>
+
+<p><i>The fifth blind man</i>.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Eyes of mine, with waters ever full,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">When will the bright spark of the visual ray,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Darting, spring through each veiling obstacle,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">That I may see again those holy lights</span><br />
+<span class="i0">That were the alpha of my darling pain?</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Ah, woe! I fear me it is quite extinct,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">So long oppressed and conquered by its opposite.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Let the blind man pass on!</span><br />
+<span class="i0">And turn your eyes upon these founts</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Which overcome the others one and all.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Should any dare dispute it with me,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">There's one would surely answer him again;</span><br />
+<span class="i0">That in one eye of mine an ocean is contained.</span><br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The sixth blind man is sightless because, through so much weeping, there
+remains no more moisture, not even the crystalline and moisture through
+which, as a diaphanous medium, the visual ray was transmitted, and the
+external light and visible species were introduced, so that the heart
+became compressed because all the moist substance, whose office it is to
+keep united the various parts and opposites, was absorbed, and the
+amorous affection remains without the effect of tears. Therefore the<!-- Page 95 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span>
+organ is destroyed through the victory of the other elements, and it is
+consequently left without sight and without consistency of the parts of
+the body altogether.[AC] He then proposes to the bystanders that which
+you shall hear:</p>
+
+<p>68.</p>
+
+<p><i>The sixth blind man</i>.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Eyes, no longer eyes, fountains no longer founts,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Ye have wept out the waters that did keep</span><br />
+<span class="i0">The body, soul, and spirit joined in one,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">And thou, reflecting crystal, which from without</span><br />
+<span class="i0">So much unto the soul made manifest,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Thou art consumed by the wounded heart.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">So towards the dark and cavernous abyss,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">I, a blind arid man, direct my steps.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Ah, pity me, and do not hesitate</span><br />
+<span class="i0">To help my speedy going. I who</span><br />
+<span class="i0">So many rivers in the dark days spread out,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Finding my only comfort in my tears,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Now that my streams and fountains all are dry,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Towards profound oblivion lead the way.</span><br />
+</div></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">[AC] Water is the first principle of all things; this was the central
+doctrine of his system (Thales). Now, if we may believe Aristotle, this
+thought was suggested to him not so much by contemplating the
+illimitable ocean, out of which, as old cosmogonists taught, all things
+had at first proceeded, as by noticing the obvious fact, that moisture
+is found in all living things, and that if it were absent they would
+cease to be. Thales, no doubt, believed this humour or moisture to be,
+as he said, the essence and principle of all things.&mdash;("Encyclop&aelig;dia
+Metropolitana.")<!-- Page 96 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span></div>
+
+<p>The next one avers that he has lost his sight through the intensity of
+the flame, which, proceeding from the heart, first destroyed the eyes,
+and then dried up all the remaining moisture of the substance of the
+lover, so that being all melted and turned to flame, he is no longer
+himself, because the fire whose property it is to resolve all bodies
+into their atoms, has converted him into impalpable dust, whereas by
+virtue of water alone, the atoms of other bodies thicken, and are welded
+together to make a substantial composition. Yet he is not deprived of
+the sense of the most intense flame. Therefore, in the sistine he would
+have space made for him to pass; for if anybody should be touched by his
+fires he would become such that he would have no more feeling of the
+flames of hell, for their heat would be to him as cold snow.</p>
+
+<p>69.</p>
+
+<p><i>The seventh blind man</i>.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Beauty, which through the eyes rushed to the heart,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">And formed the mighty furnace in my breast,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Absorbing first the visual moisture; then,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Spouting aloft its grasping flashing flame,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Devouring every other fluid,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">To set the dryer element at rest,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Has thus reduced me to a boneless dust,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Which now to its own atoms is resolved,</span><br />
+<!-- Page 97 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span><span class="i0">If anguish infinite your fears should rouse</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Make space, give way, oh peoples!</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Beware of my fierce penetrating fire,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">For if it should invade and touch you, ye</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Would feel and know the fires of hell</span><br />
+<span class="i0">To be like winter's cold.</span><br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The eighth follows, whose blindness is caused by the dart which love has
+caused to penetrate from the eyes to the heart. Hence, he laments not
+only as being blind, but furthermore because he is wounded and burnt so
+fiercely, that he believes no other can be equally so. The sense of it
+is easily expressed in this sonnet:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>70.</p>
+
+<p><i>The eighth blind man</i>.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Vile onslaught, evil struggle, unrighteous palm,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Fine point, devouring fire, strong nerve,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Sharp wound, impious ardour, cruel body,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Dart, fire and tangle of that wayward god</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Who pierced the eyes, inflamed the heart, bound the soul,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Made me at once sightless, a lover, and a slave,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">So that, blind I have at all times, in all ways and places,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">The feeling of my wound, my fire, my noose.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Men, heroes, and gods!</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Who be on earth, or near to Ditis or to Jove,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">I pray ye say, when, how, and where did ye</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Feel ever, hear, or see in any place</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Woes like to these, amongst the oppressed</span><br />
+<!-- Page 98 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span><span class="i0">Amongst the damned, 'mongst lovers?</span><br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Finally comes the last one, who is also mute through not having been
+able, or having dared, to say that which he most desired to say, for
+fear of offending or exciting contempt, and he is deprived of speaking
+of every other thing: therefore, it is not he who speaks, but his guide
+who relates the affair, about which I do not speak, but only bring you
+the sense thereof:</p>
+
+<p>71.</p>
+
+<p><i>The guide of the ninth blind man</i>.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Happy are ye, oh all ye sightless lovers,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">That ye the reason of your pains can tell,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">By virtue of your tears you can be sure</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Of pure and favourable receptions.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Amongst you all, the latent fire of him</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Whose guide I am, rages most fiercely,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Though he is mute for want of boldness</span><br />
+<span class="i0">To make known his sorrows to his deity.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Make way! open ye wide the way,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Be ye benign unto this vacant face,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Oh people full of grievous hindrances,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">The while this harassed weary trunk</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Goes knocking at the doors</span><br />
+<span class="i0">To meet a death less painful, more profound.</span><br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Here are mentioned nine reasons, which are the cause that the human mind
+is blind as regards the Divine object and cannot fix its eyes upon it.
+And of these, the first, allegorized through the first blind<!-- Page 99 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> man, is
+the quality of its own species, which in so far as the degree in which
+he finds himself admits, he aspires certainly higher, than he is able to
+comprehend.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Min.</span> Because no natural desire is vain, we are able to assure
+ourselves of a more excellent state which is suitable to the soul
+outside of this body, in the which it may be possible to unite itself,
+or to approach more nearly, to its object.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Sev.</span> Thou sayest well that no natural impulse or power is
+without strong reason; it is in fact the same rule of nature which
+orders things. So far, it is a thing most true and most certain to
+well-disposed intellects, that the human soul, whatever it may show
+itself while it is in the body, that same, which it makes manifest in
+this state, is the expression of its pilgrim existence in this region;
+because it aspires to the truth and to universal good, and is not
+satisfied with that which comes on account of and to the profit of its
+species.</p>
+
+<p>The second, represented by the second blind man, proceeds from some
+troubled affection, as in the question of Love and Jealousy, the which
+is like a moth, which has the same subject, enemy and father, that is,
+it consumes the cloth or wood from which, it is generated.<!-- Page 100 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Min.</span> This does not seem to me to take place with heroic love.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Sev.</span> True, according to the same reason which is seen in the
+lower kind of love; but I mean according to another reason similar to
+that which happens to those who love truth and goodness, which shows
+itself when they are angry against those who adulterate it, spoil it, or
+corrupt it, or who in other ways would treat it with indignity, as has
+been the case with those who have brought themselves to suffer death and
+pains, and to being ignominiously treated by ignorant peoples and vulgar
+sects.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Min.</span> Certainly no one truly loves the truth and the good who is
+not angry against the multitude; as no one loves in the ordinary way who
+is not jealous and fearful about the thing loved.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Sev.</span> And so he comes to be really blind in many things, and
+according to the common opinion he is quite infatuated and mad.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Min.</span> I have noted a place which says that all those are
+infatuated and mad, who have sense beyond and outside of the general
+sense of other men. But such extravagance is of two kinds, according as
+one goes beyond and ascends up higher than the greater number rise or
+can rise, and these are they who are inspired with Divine enthusiasm; or
+by going down<!-- Page 101 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> lower where those are found who have greater defect of
+sense and of reason than the many, and the ordinary; but in that kind of
+madness, insensibility and blindness, will not be found the jealous
+hero.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Sev.</span> Although he is told that much learning makes him mad, yet
+no one can really abuse him. The third, represented by the third blind
+man, proceeds from this: that Divine Truth according to supernatural
+reasoning, called metaphysics, manifests itself to those few to whom it
+shows itself, and does not proceed with measure of movement and time as
+occurs in the physical sciences, that is, those which are acquired by
+natural light, the which, in discoursing of a thing known to reason by
+means of the senses, proceed to the knowledge of another thing, unknown,
+the which discourse is called argument; but immediately and suddenly,
+according to the method which belongs to such efficiency.[AD] Whence a
+divine has said: "Attenuati sunt oculi mei suspicientes in excelsum." So
+that it does not require a useless lapse of time, fatigue, and study,<!-- Page 102 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span>
+and inquisitorial act to have it, but it is taken in quickly, as the
+solar light, without hesitation, and makes itself present to whoever
+turns himself to it and opens himself to it.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote">[AD] When somewhat of this Perfect Good is discovered and revealed
+within the soul of man, as it were in a glance or flash, the soul
+conceiveth a longing to approach unto the Perfect Goodness.&mdash;("Theologia
+Germanica.")</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Min.</span> Do you mean then, that the student and the philosopher are
+not more apt to receive this light than the ignorant?</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Sev.</span> In a certain way no, and in a certain way yes. There is no
+difference, when the Divine mind through its providence comes to
+communicate itself without disposition of the subject; I mean to say
+when it communicates itself because it seeks and elects its subject; but
+there is a great difference, when it waits and would be sought, and then
+according to its own good will and pleasure it makes itself to be found.
+In this way it does not appear to all, nor can it appear to others, than
+to those who seek it. Hence it is said, "Qui qu&aelig;runt me, invenient me;"
+and again: "Qui sitit, veniat et bibat!"</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Min.</span> It is not to be denied, that the apprehension of the
+second manner is made in Time. (Comes with time?)</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Sev.</span> You do not distinguish between the disposition towards the
+Divine light and the apprehension of the same. Certainly I do not deny
+that it requires time to dispose oneself, discourse,<!-- Page 103 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> study and fatigue;
+but as we say that change takes place in time, and generation in an
+instant, and as we see that with time, the windows are opened, but the
+sun enters in a moment, so does it happen similarly in this case.</p>
+
+<p>The fourth, represented in the following, is not really unworthy, like
+that which results from the habit of believing in the false opinions of
+the vulgar, which are very far removed from the opinions of
+philosophers, and are derived from the study of vulgar philosophies,
+which are by the multitude considered the more true, the more they
+appeal to common sense. And this habit is one of the greatest and
+strongest disadvantages, because as Alcazele and Averroes showed, it is
+like that which happens to those persons who from childhood and youth
+are in the habit of eating poison, and have become such, that it is
+converted into sweet and proper nutriment, and on the other hand, they
+abominate those things which are really good and sweet according to
+common nature; but it is most worthy, because it is founded upon the
+habit of looking at the true light; the which habit cannot come into use
+for the multitude, as we have said. This blindness is heroic, and is of
+such a kind that it can worthily satisfy the present heroic<!-- Page 104 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> blind man,
+who is so far from troubling himself about it that he is able to explain
+every other sight, and he would crave nothing else from the community
+save a free passage and progress in contemplation, for he finds himself
+usually hampered and blocked by obstacles and opposition.</p>
+
+<p>The fifth results from the disproportion of the means of our cognition
+to the knowable; seeing that in order to contemplate Divine things, the
+eyes must be opened by means of images, analogies and other reasonings
+which by the Peripatetics are comprehended under the name of fancies
+(fantasmi); or, by means of Being, to proceed to speculate about
+Essence, by means of its effects and the knowledge of the cause; the
+which means, are so far from ensuring the attainment of such an end,
+that it is easier to believe that the highest and most profound
+cognition of Divine things, is through negation and not through
+affirmation, knowing that the Divine beauty and goodness is not that
+which can or does fall within our conception, but that which is above
+and beyond, incomprehensible; chiefly in that condition called by the
+philosopher speculation of phantoms, and by the theologian, vision
+through analogies, reflections and enigmas, because we see, not the true
+effects and the true species of things,<!-- Page 105 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> or the substance of ideas, but
+the shadows, vestiges and simulacra of them, like those who are inside
+the cave and have from their birth their shoulders turned away from the
+entrance of the light, and their faces towards the end, where they do
+not see that which is in reality, but the shadows of that which is found
+substantially outside the cave. Therefore by the open vision which it
+has lost, and knows it has lost, a spirit similar to or better than that
+of Plato weeps, desiring exit from the cave, whence, not through
+reflexion, but through immediate conversion he may see the light again.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Min.</span> It appears to me that this blind man does not refer to the
+difficulty which proceeds from reflective vision, but to that which is
+caused through the medium between the visual power and the object.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Sev.</span> These two modes, although they are distinct in the
+sensitive cognition, or ocular vision, at the same time are united
+together in the rational or intellectual cognition.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Min.</span> It seems to me that I have heard and read that in every
+vision, the means, or the intermediary is required between the power and
+the object. Because as by means of the light diffused in the air and the
+figure of the thing, which in a certain way proceeds from that which is
+seen, to that which<!-- Page 106 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> sees, the act of seeing is put into effect, so in
+the intellectual region, where shines the sun of the intellect, acting
+between the intelligible species formed as proceeding from the object,
+our intellect comes to comprehend something of the divinity, or
+something inferior to it. Because, as our eye, when we see, does not
+receive the light of the fire and of gold, in substance, but in
+similitude; so the intellect, in whatever state it is found, does not
+receive the divinity substantially, so that there should be
+substantially as many gods as there are intelligences, but in
+similitude; therefore they are not formally gods, but denominatively
+divine, the divinity and Divine beauty being one, exalted above all
+things.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Sev.</span> You say well; but for all your well
+saying, there is no
+need for me to retract, because I have never said the contrary. But I
+must declare and explain. Therefore, first I maintain that the immediate
+vision, so called and understood by us, does not do away with that sort
+of medium which is the intelligible species, nor that which is the
+light; but that which is equal to the thickness and density of the
+crystalline or opaque intermediate body; as happens to him who sees by
+means of the waters more or less turbid, or air foggy and cloudy, who<!-- Page 107 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span>
+would believe he was looking as without a medium when it was conceded to
+him to look through the pure air, light and clear. All which you have
+explained where it says:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"When will the bright spark of the visual ray</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Darting, spring through each veiling obstacle."</span><br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p>But let us return. The sixth, represented in the following, is caused
+only by the imbecility and unreality of the body, which is in continual
+motion, mutation, and change, the operations of which must follow the
+condition of its faculty, the which is a result of the condition of its
+nature and being. How can immobility, reality, entity, truth be
+contained in that which is ever different, and always makes and is made,
+other and otherwise? What truth, what picture can be painted and
+impressed, where the pupils of the eyes are dispersed in water, the
+water into steam, the steam into flame, the flame into air, and this in
+other and other without end: the subject of sense and cognition turns
+for ever upon the wheel of mutation?</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Min.</span> Movement is change, and that which is changeable works and
+operates ever differently, because the conception and affection follow
+the reason and condition of the subject; and he who sees other and other
+different and differently must<!-- Page 108 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> necessarily be blind as regards that
+beauty which is one and alone and is the same unity and entity.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Sev.</span> So it is. The seventh, contained allegorically in the
+sentiment of the seventh blind man, is the result of the fire of the
+affections, whence some become impotent and incapable of comprehending
+the truth, by making the affection precede the intellect. There are
+those who love before they understand: whence it happens that all things
+appear to them according to the colour of their affections, whereas he
+who would understand the truth by means of contemplation, ought to be
+perfectly pure in thought.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Min.</span> In truth, one sees how much diversity there is in
+meditators and inquirers, because some, according to their habits and
+early fundamental discipline, proceed by means of numbers,[AE] others by
+means of images, others by means of order and disorder, others through
+composition and division, others by separation and congregation, others
+by inquiry and doubt, others by discussions and defi<!-- Page 109 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span>nitions, others by
+interpretations and decypherings of voices, words, and dialects, so that
+some are mathematical philosophers, some metaphysicians, others
+logicians, others grammarians; so there are divers contemplators, who
+with different affections set themselves to study and apply the meaning
+of written sentences; whence we find that the same light of truth,
+expressed in the selfsame book, serves with the same words the
+proposition of so numerous, diverse, and contrary sects.[AF]</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p>[AE] Number is, as the great writer (Balzac) thought, an Entity, and, at
+the same time, a Breath emanating from what he termed God, and what we
+call the ALL; the breath which alone could organize the physical
+kosmos.&mdash;("The Secret Doctrine.")</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p>[AF] As the Bible serves as the basis for all the different Protestant
+sects.</p></div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Sev.</span> That is to say, that the affections are very powerful in
+hindering the comprehension of the Truth, notwithstanding that the
+person may not himself perceive it; just as it happens to a stupid
+invalid who does not say that his mouth is bittered but that the food is
+bitter. Now that kind of blindness is expressed by him whose eyes are
+changed and deprived of their natural powers, by that which the heart
+has given and imprinted upon it, powerful not only to change the sense,
+but besides that, all the faculties of the soul as the present image
+shows. According to the meaning of the eighth, the high intelligible
+object has<!-- Page 110 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> blinded the intellect, as the high superposed sensible has
+corrupted the senses. Thus it would happen to him who should see Jove in
+his majesty, he would lose his life and in consequence his senses. As he
+who looks aloft sometimes is overcome by the majesty.[AG] Besides, when
+he comes to penetrate the Divine species, he passes it like a ray.
+Whence say the theologians that the Divine word is more penetrating than
+sharp point of sword or knife. Hence is derived the form and
+impression<!--
+Page 111 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg
+111]</a></span>
+of His own footstep, upon which nothing else can be imprinted and
+sealed. Therefore, that form being there confirmed and the new strange
+one not being able to take its place unless the other yields,
+consequently he can say, that he has no power of taking any other, if
+there is one who replaces it or scatters it through the necessary want
+of proportion. The ninth reason is exemplified, by the ninth who is
+blind through want of confidence, through dejection of spirit, the which
+is caused and brought about also by a great love which He fears to
+offend by His temerity. Whence says the Psalm: "Averte oculos tuos a me,
+quia ipsi me avolare fecere." And so he suppresses his eyes so as not to
+see that which most of all he desires, as he keeps his tongue from
+talking with whom he most wishes to speak, from fear that a defective
+look or word should humiliate him or bring him in some way into
+misfortune. And this generally proceeds from the apprehension of the
+excellence of the object above its potential faculty: whence the most
+profound and divine theologians say, that God is more honoured and loved
+by silence than by words; as one sees more by shutting the eyes to the
+species represented, than by opening them, therefore the negative
+theology of Pythagoras and Dionysius is more celebrated than the
+demonstrative theology of Aristotle and the scholastic doctors.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote">[AG]
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">... Gaze, as thy lips have said,</span><br />
+<span class="i2">On God Eternal, Very God! See me, see what thou prayest!</span><br />
+</div></div>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">O Eyes of God! O Head!</span><br />
+<span class="i2">My strength of soul is fled.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Gone is heart's force, rebuked is mind's desire!</span><br />
+<span class="i2">When I behold Thee so,</span><br />
+<span class="i2">With awful brows a-glow,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">With burning glance, and lips lighted by fire,</span><br />
+<span class="i2">Fierce as those flames which shall</span><br />
+<span class="i2">Consume, at close of all,</span><br />
+<span class="i2">Earth, Heaven!</span><br />
+</div></div>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">God is it I did see,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">This unknown marvel of Thy Form! but fear</span><br />
+<span class="i2">Mingles with joy! Retake,</span><br />
+<span class="i2">Dear Lord! for pity's sake,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Thine earthly shape, which earthly eyes may bear! </span><br />
+
+<span class="i4">&mdash;("The Song Celestial.")</span><br />
+<span class="i4">(Sir Edwin Arnold's translation.)</span><br />
+</div></div>
+</div>
+<p><!-- Page 112 --><span
+class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg
+112]</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Min.</span> Let us go; and we will reason by the way.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Sev.</span> As you please.<!-- Page 113 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><a name="Fifth" id="Fifth"></a><strong>Fifth Dialogue.</strong></p>
+
+<p><i>Interlocutors</i>:</p>
+
+<p class="style3">Laodomia. Giulia.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Lao.</span> Some other time, oh my sister, thou wilt hear what
+happened to those nine blind men, who were at first nine most beautiful
+and amorous youths, who being so inspired by the loveliness of your
+face, and having no hope of receiving the reward of their love, and
+fearing that such despair would reduce them to final ruin, went away
+from the happy Campanian country, and of one accord, those who at first
+were rivals for your beauty, swore not to separate until they had tried
+in all possible ways to find something more beautiful than you or at
+least equal to you; besides which, that they might discover that mercy
+and pity which they could not find in your breast armed with pride; for
+they believed this was the only remedy which could bring them out of
+that cruel captivity. The third day after their solemn departure, as
+they were passing by the Circean mount, it pleased them to<!-- Page 114 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> go and see
+those antiquities, the cave and fane of that goddess. When they were
+come there, the majesty of the solitary place, the high, storm-beaten
+rocks, the murmur of the sea waves which break amongst those caves, and
+many other circumstances of the locality and the season combined, made
+them feel inspired; and one of them I will tell thee, more bold than the
+others, spoke these words: "Oh might it please heaven that in these
+days, as in the past more happy ages, some wise Circe might make herself
+present who, with plants and minerals working her incantations, would be
+able to curb nature. I should believe that she, however proud, would
+surely be pitiful unto our woes. She, solicited by our supplications and
+laments, would condescend either to give a remedy or to concede a
+grateful vengeance for the cruelty of our enemy."</p>
+
+<p>Hardly had he finished uttering these words than there became visible to
+them a palace, which, whoever had knowledge of human things, could
+easily comprehend that it was not the work of man, nor of nature; the
+form and manner of it I will explain to thee another time. Whence,
+filled with great wonder and touched by hope that some propitious deity,
+who must have placed this before them, would explain their condition and
+fortunes, they said<!-- Page 115 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> with one accord they could meet with nothing worse
+than death, which they considered a less evil than to live in so much
+anguish. Therefore they entered, not finding any door that was shut
+against them nor janitor who questioned them. They found themselves in a
+very richly ornamented room, where with royal majesty, (as one may say,
+Apollo was found again by Phaeton;) appears she, who is called his
+daughter, and at whose appearance they saw vanish all the figures of
+many other deities who ministered unto her. Then, received and comforted
+by this gracious face, they advanced, and overcome by the splendour of
+that majesty, they bent their knee to the earth, and altogether, with
+the diversity of tones which their various genius suggested, they laid
+open their vows to the goddess. By her finally, they were treated in
+such a manner that, blind and homeless, with great labour having
+ploughed the seas, passed over rivers, overcome mountains, traversed
+plains for the space of ten years, and at the end of which time having
+arrived under that temperate sky of the British Isles, and come into the
+presence of the lovely, graceful nymphs of Father Thames, they (the
+nine), having made humble obeisance, and the nymphs having received them
+with acts of purest<!-- Page 116 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> courtesy, one, the principal amongst them, who
+later on will be named, with tragic and lamenting accents laid bare the
+common cause in this manner:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Of those, oh gentle Dames, who with closed urn,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Present themselves, whose hearts are pierced</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Not for a fault by nature caused,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">But through a cruel fate,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">That in a living death,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Does hold them fast, we each and all are blind.</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Nine spirits are we, wandering many years,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Longing to know; and many lands</span><br />
+<span class="i0">O'ertravelled, one day were surprised</span><br />
+<span class="i0">By a sore accident,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">To which if you attend,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">You'll say, oh worthy, oh unhappy lovers!</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">An impious Circe, who presumes to boast</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Of having for her sire this glorious sun,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Welcomed us after many wanderings:</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Opened a certain urn,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">With water sprinkled us,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">And to the sprinkling added an enchantment.</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Waiting the finish of this work of hers</span><br />
+<span class="i0">We all were quiet, mute, attent,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Until she said, "Oh ye unhappy ones,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Blind be ye all,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Gather that fruit</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Those get who fix their thoughts on things above."</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Daughter and Mother of horror and darkness and woe</span><br />
+<span class="i0">They cried, who sudden were struck blind,</span><br />
+<!-- Page 117 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span><span class="i0">It pleased you then, so proud and harsh,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">To treat these wretched lovers,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Who put themselves before you,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Ready to consecrate to you their hearts.</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">But when the sudden fury somewhat stayed,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Which this new case had brought on them,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Each one within himself withdrew,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">While rage to grief gave place;</span><br />
+<span class="i0">To her they turned for pity,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">With chosen words companioning their tears.</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Now if it please thee, gracious sorceress,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">If zeal for glory chance to move thy heart,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Or milk of kindness soften it,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Be merciful to us,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">And with thy magic herbs,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Heal up the wound imprinted on our hearts.</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">If wish to succour rules thy beauteous hand,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Make no delay, lest some of us</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Unhappy ones reach death, ere we</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Praising thy act</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Can each one say,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">So much did she torment, yet more did heal.</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Then she replied: Oh curious prying minds,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Take this my other fatal urn,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Which my own hand may not unclose;</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Over the wide expanse of earth,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Wander ye still,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Search for and visit all the various kingdoms.</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Fate hath decreed, it ne'er shall be unclosed</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Till lofty wisdom, noble chastity</span><br />
+<!-- Page 118 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span><span class="i0">And loveliness with these combined,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Shall set their hands to it;</span><br />
+<span class="i0">All other efforts vain,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">To make this fluid open to the sky.</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Then should it chance to sprinkle beauteous hands,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Of those who come anear for remedy,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Its god-like virtues you may prove,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">And turning cruel pain</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Into a sweet content,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Two lovely stars upon the earth you'll see.</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Meanwhile be none of you cast down or sad,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Although long while in deep obscurity</span><br />
+<span class="i0">All that the heavens contain remain concealed,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">For good so great as this,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">No pain, however sharp,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Can be accounted worthy of the cost.</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">That Good to which through blindness you are led,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Should make appear all other-having, vile,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">And every torment be as pleasure held,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Who, hoping to behold</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Graces unique and rare,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">May hold in high disdain all other lights.</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Ah, weary ones! Too long, too long our limbs</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Have wandered o'er the terrene globe,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">So that to us it seems</span><br />
+<span class="i0">As if the shrewd wild beast,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">With false and flattering hopes,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Our bosoms has encumbered with her wiles.</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Wretched henceforth, we see, though late, the witch</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Concerned to keep us all with promises</span><br />
+<p><!-- Page 119 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span></p><span class="i0">(And for our greater hurt), at bay;</span><br />
+<span class="i0">For surely she believes</span><br />
+<span class="i0">No woman can be found</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Beneath the roof of heaven so dowered as she.</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Now that we know that every hope is vain,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">We yield to destiny and are content,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Nor will withdraw from all our strivings sore;</span><br />
+<span class="i0">And staying not our steps,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Though trembling, tired and vexed,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">We languish through the days that yet are ours.</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Oh graceful nymphs, that on the grassy banks</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Of gentle Thames do make your home,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Do not disdain, ye beauteous ones,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">To try, although in vain,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">With those white hands of yours</span><br />
+<span class="i0">To uncover that which in our urn is hid.</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Who knows? perchance it may be on these shores,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Where, with the Nereids, may be seen</span><br />
+<span class="i0">The rapid torrent from below ascend</span><br />
+<span class="i0">And wind again</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Back to its source,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">That heaven has destined there she shall be found.</span><br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p>One of the nymphs took the urn in her hand, and without trying to do
+more offered it to one at a time, but not one was found who dared to be
+the first to try (to open it), but all by common consent, after simply
+looking at it, referred and proposed it with respect and reverence to
+one alone; who, finally,<!-- Page 120 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> not so much to exhibit her own glory as to
+succour those unhappy ones, and while in a sort of doubt, the urn opened
+as it were spontaneously of itself. But what shall I say to you of the
+applause of the nymphs? How can you imagine that I can express the
+extreme joy of the nine blind men, when, hearing that the urn was open,
+they felt themselves sprinkled with the desired waters, they opened
+their eyes and saw the two suns, and felt they had gained a double
+happiness; one, the having recovered the light they had lost, the other
+that of the newly discovered light which alone could show them the image
+of the highest good upon earth. How, I say, can you expect me to
+describe the joy and exulting merriment of voices of spirit and of body
+which they themselves all together could not express? For a time it was
+like seeing so many furious bacchanals, inebriated with that which they
+saw so plainly, until at last, the impetus of their fury being somewhat
+calmed, they put themselves in a row.</p>
+
+<p>73.</p>
+
+<p><i>The first played the guitar and sang the following</i>:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Oh cliffs, oh deeps, oh thorns, oh snags, oh stones,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Oh mounts, oh plains, oh valleys, rivers, seas,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">How dear and sweet you show yourselves,</span><br />
+<!-- Page 121 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span><span class="i0">For by your aid and favour,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">To us the sky's unveiled.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Oh fortunate and well-directed steps,</span><br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p><i>The second with the mandoline played and sang</i>:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Oh fortunate and well-directed steps,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Oh goddess Circe, oh transcendent woes,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">With which ye did afflict us months and years;</span><br />
+<span class="i0">They were the grace of heaven,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">For such an end as this,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">After such weariness and such distress.[AH]</span><br />
+</div></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">[AH] For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us
+a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.&mdash;("St. Paul to the
+Corinthians.")</div>
+
+<p><i>The third with the lyre played and sang</i>:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">After such weariness and such distress;</span><br />
+<span class="i0">If such a port the tempests have prescribed,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Then is there nothing more that we can do,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">But render thanks to heaven,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Who closely veiled our eyes,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">And pierced anon with such a light as this.</span><br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p><i>The fourth with the viola sang</i>:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">And pierced anon with such a light as this;</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Blindness worth more than every other sight,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Pains sweeter far than other pleasures are,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">For to the fairest light</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Thou art thyself a guide,</span><br />
+<!-- Page 122 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span><span class="i0">Show to the soul all lower things are null.</span><br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p><i>The fifth with the Spanish drum sang</i>:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Showing the soul all lower things are null,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Seasoning with hope the high thought of the mind,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Was one who pushed us to the only path,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">And so did show us plain,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">The fairest work of God,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Thus does a fate benign present itself.[AI]</span><br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p>[AI] The lonely sore-footed pilgrims on their way back to their home are
+never sure to the last moment of not losing their way in this limitless
+desert of illusion and matter called Earth-life.&mdash;("The Secret
+Doctrine.")</p>
+
+<p><i>The sixth with a lute sang</i>:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Thus does a fate benign present itself,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Who wills not that to good, good should succeed,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Or pain forerunner be of pain,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">But turning round, the wheel,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Now rising, now depressed,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">As day and night succeed alternately.</span><br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p><i>The seventh with the Irish harp</i>:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">As day and night succeed alternately;</span><br />
+<span class="i0">While the great mantle of the lights of night,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Blanches the chariot of diurnal flames,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">As He who governs all,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">With everlasting laws,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Puts down the high and raises up the low.</span><br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p><i>The eighth with the violin</i>:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Puts down the high and raises up the low,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">He who the infinite machine sustains,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">With swiftness, with the medium or with slow,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Apportioning the turning</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Of this gigantic mass,</span><br />
+<!-- Page 123 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span><span class="i0">The hidden is unveiled and open stands.</span><br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p><i>The ninth with the rebeck</i>:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The hidden is unveiled and open stands,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Therefore deny not, but admit the triumph,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Incomparable end of all the pains</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Of field and mount,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Of pools and streams and seas,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Of cliffs and deeps, of thorns and snags and stones.</span><br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p>After each one in this way, singly, playing his instrument, had sung his
+sistine, they danced altogether in a circle and sang together in praise
+of the one Nymph with the softest accents a song which I am not sure
+whether I can call to memory.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Giu.</span> I pray you, my sister, do not fail to let me hear so much
+of it as you can remember!</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Lao.</span></p>
+
+<p>74.</p>
+
+<p><i>Song of the Illuminati</i>:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"I envy not, oh Jove, the firmament,"</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Said Father Ocean, with the haughty brow:</span><br />
+<span class="i0">"For that I am content</span><br />
+<span class="i0">With that which my own empire gives to me."</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Then answered Jove, "What arrogance is thine.</span><br />
+<span class="i0">What to thy riches have been added now,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Oh god of the mad waves,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">To make thy foolish boasting rise so high?"</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Thou hast," said the sea-god, "in thy command,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">The flaming sky, where is the burning zone,</span><br />
+<!-- Page 124 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span><span class="i0">In which the heavenly host</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Of stars and planets stand within thy sight.[AJ]</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Of these, the world looks most upon the sun,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Which, let me tell you, shineth not so bright,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">As she who makes of me,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">The god most glorious of the mighty whole.</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"And I contain within my bosom vast,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">With other lands, that, where the happy Thames</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Goes gliding gaily on,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Which has of graceful nymphs a lovely throng.</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"There will be found 'mongst those where all are fair,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Will make thee lover more of sea than sky,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Oh Jove, High Thunderer!</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Whose sun shines pale beside the starry night."</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Then answered Jove, "God of the billowy sea!</span><br />
+<span class="i0">That one should ere be found more blest than I</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Fate nevermore permits,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">My treasures with thine own run parallel.</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"The sun is equal to thy chiefest nymph,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">By virtue of the everlasting laws,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">And pauses alternating,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">Amongst my stars she's equal to the sun."</span><br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p>[AJ] Plato says that [Greek: Theos] is derived from the verb [Greek:
+Theein], to move, to run, as the first astronomers who observed the
+motions of the heavenly bodies called the planets [Greek: Theoi], the
+gods.&mdash;("The Secret Doctrine," foot note, p. 2, vol. 1.)</p>
+
+<p>I believe that I have recalled it entirely.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Giu.</span> You can see that no sentence is wanting to<!-- Page 125 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> the perfecting
+of the proposition, nor rhyme to the completion of the stanzas. Now if I
+by the grace of heaven have received beauty, a greater favour I consider
+is mine, in that whatever beauty I may have had it has been in a certain
+way instrumental in causing that Divine and only one to be found. I
+thank the gods, because in that time, when I was so tender (verde), that
+the amorous flames could not be lighted in my breast, by reason of my
+intractability, such simple and innocent cruelty was used in order to
+yield more graces to my lovers than otherwise it would have been
+possible for them to obtain, through any kindness of mine however great.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Lao.</span> As to the souls of those lovers, I assure you that as they
+are not ungrateful to the sorceress Circe for their blindness, grievous
+thoughts, and bitter trials, by means of which they have reached so
+great a good, so they can be no less grateful to thee.[AK]</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Giu.</span> So I desire and hope.</p>
+
+<p>[AK] For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not
+worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in
+us.&mdash;(St. Paul to the Romans.)<br /><br /><br /><br /></p>
+
+<h3>Transcriber's Notes:</h3>
+
+<p><a href="#Page_15">Page 15:</a> The last paragraph had only one
+double quote. I added the closing quote, but am not certain about it.
+The line begins:
+["If the love of glory is dear to thy breast,]. Unchanged.</p>
+
+<p><a href="#Page_78">Page 78:</a> LIC is suspected of being a typo for
+LIB. No other occurences. Unchanged.</p>
+
+<p><a href="#Page_79">Page 79:</a> LAS is suspected to be a typo for
+LAO, as this name occurs only once. Unchanged.</p>
+
+<p><a href="#Page_109">Page 109:</a> The term selfsame occurs only once
+without a hyphen. Unchanged.</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Heroic Enthusiast, Part II (Gli
+Eroici Furori), by Giordano Bruno
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Heroic Enthusiast, Part II (Gli Eroici
+Furori), by Giordano Bruno
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Heroic Enthusiast, Part II (Gli Eroici Furori)
+       An Ethical Poem
+
+Author: Giordano Bruno
+
+Release Date: November 16, 2006 [EBook #19833]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HEROIC ENTHUSIAST ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Sjaani, Ted Garvin and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE
+
+HEROIC ENTHUSIASTS
+
+(_GLI EROICI FURORI_)
+
+=An Ethical Poem=
+
+BY GIORDANO BRUNO
+
+
+=PART THE SECOND=
+
+TRANSLATED BY
+
+L. WILLIAMS
+
+
+
+LONDON
+
+BERNARD QUARITCH
+
+PICCADILLY
+
+1889
+
+
+
+LONDON:
+
+G. NORMAN AND SON, PRINTERS, HART STREET,
+
+COVENT GARDEN.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+The second part of "The Heroic Enthusiasts" which I am now sending to
+the press is on the same subject as the first, namely the struggles of
+the soul in its upward progress towards purification and freedom, and
+the author makes use of lower things to picture and suggest the higher.
+The aim of the Heroic Enthusiast is to get at the Truth and to see the
+Light, and he considers that all the trials and sufferings of this life,
+are the cords which draw the soul upwards, and the spur which quickens
+the mind and purifies the will.
+
+The blindness of the soul may signify the descent into the material
+body, and "visit the various kingdoms" may be an allusion to the soul
+passing through the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms before it
+arrives at man.
+
+It is interesting to note that in the first part of "The Heroic
+Enthusiasts" (page 122), Bruno makes a distinct allusion to the power of
+steam, and in the second part, one might almost think, that in using the
+number nine in connexion with the blind men, he intended a reference to
+electricity, for we read in "The Secret Doctrine," by H.P. Blavatsky,
+"There exists an universal _agent unique_ of all forms and of life, that
+is called Od, Ob, and Aour, active and passive, positive and negative,
+like day and night; it is the first light in creation; and the first
+light of the primordial Elo-him--the A-dam,--male and female, or,
+(scientifically) Electricity and Life. Its universal value is nine, for
+it is the ninth letter of the alphabet and the ninth door of the fifty
+portals or gateways, that lead to the concealed mysteries of being....
+Od is the pure life-giving Light or magnetic fluid."
+
+The notices of the press upon the first half of this work, were for the
+most part such, as to lead me to hope that the appearance of the second
+part will meet with a favourable reception.
+
+When I first began this translation little was known about Giordano
+Bruno except through the valuable works of Sig. Berti and Sig. Levi, and
+since then Mrs. Firth has given us a life of the Nolan, written in
+English, and several able articles in the magazines have been published,
+in one of which, by C.E. Plumptre (_Westminster Review_, August, 1889),
+an interesting parallel is drawn between Shelley and Bruno.
+
+I will close this short notice with a sentence from an article in the
+_Nineteenth Century_, September, 1889, entitled "Criticism as a trade."
+"There is probably no author who does not feel how much he owes to the
+writers who have reviewed his books, whether he has occasion to
+acknowledge it or not. It is humiliating to find how many errors remain
+in writings that seemed comparatively free from them. Everyone who knows
+his subject, and has any modesty, is aware that there are defects in his
+work which his own eye has not seen; and he is more than grateful for
+the correction of every error that is pointed out to him by an honest
+censor." If this is the case with authors who produce original work, it
+may be still more aptly said of translators, especially of those who
+attempt to translate books so full of difficulties as those presented in
+the works of Giordano Bruno.
+
+L. WILLIAMS.
+
+
+
+
+SECOND PART OF
+
+THE
+
+HEROIC ENTHUSIASTS.
+
+
+
+
+=First Dialogue.=
+
+_Interlocutors:_
+
+CESARINO. MARICONDO.
+
+1.
+
+
+CES. It is said that the best and most excellent things are in the world
+when the whole universe responds from every part, perfectly, to those
+things; and this it is said takes place as the planets arrive at Aries,
+being when that one of the eighth sphere again reaches the upper
+invisible firmament, where is also the other Zodiac;[A] and low and evil
+things prevail when the opposite disposition and order supervene, and
+thus through the power of change comes the continual mutation of like
+and unlike, from one opposite to another. The revolution then of the
+great year of the world is that space of time in which, through the most
+diverse customs and effects, and by the most opposite and contrary
+means, it returns to the same again. As we see in particular years such
+as that of the sun, where the beginning of an opposite tendency is the
+end of one year, and the end of this is the beginning of that. Therefore
+now that we have been in the dregs of the sciences, which have brought
+forth the dregs of opinions, which are the cause of the dregs of customs
+and of works, we may certainly expect to return to the better condition.
+
+    [A] Astronomers distinguish between a fixed and intellectual zodiac;
+    and the movable and visible zodiac. According to the former, Aries
+    still stands as the first of the signs; that is to say, the first
+    thirty degrees of the zodiacal circle, reckoning from the
+    equinoctial point in spring, are allotted to Aries in the
+    intellectual zodiac.... Astronomers generally choose to reckon by
+    the fixed and intellectual zodiac.--(Drummond's "Oedipus Judaicus.")
+
+MARICONDO. Know, my brother, that this succession and order of things is
+most true and most certain; but as regards ourselves in all ordinary
+conditions whatever, the present afflicts more than the past, nor can
+these two together console, but only the future, which is always in hope
+and expectation as you may see designated in this figure which is taken
+from the ancient Egyptians, who made a certain statue which is a bust,
+upon which they placed three heads, one of a wolf which looks behind,
+one of a lion with the face turned half round, and the third of a dog
+who looks straight before him; to signify that things of the past
+afflict by means of thoughts, but not so much as things of the present
+which actually torment, while the future ever promises something better;
+therefore behold the wolf that howls, the lion that roars and the dog
+that barks (applause).
+
+CES. What means that legend that is written above?
+
+MAR. See, that above the wolf is Lam, above the lion Modo, above the dog
+Praeterea, which are words signifying the three parts of time.
+
+CES. Now read the tablet.
+
+MAR. I will do so.
+
+41.
+
+    A wolf, a lion, and a dog appear
+    At dawn, at midday, and dark night.
+    That which I spent, retain and for myself procure,
+    So much was given, is given, and may be given;
+    For that which I did, I do, and have to do.
+    In the past, in the present and in the future,
+    I do repent, torment myself and re-assure,
+    For the loss, in suffering and in expectation.
+    With sour, with bitter and with sweet
+    Experience, the fruits, and hope,
+    Threatens, afflict, and comforts me.
+    The age I lived, do live and am to live,
+    Affrights me, shakes me and upholds
+    In absence, presence and in prospect.
+    Much, too much and sufficient
+    Of the past, of now, and of to come,
+    Put me in fear, in anguish and in hope.
+
+CES. This is precisely the humour of a furious lover, though the same
+may be said of nearly all mortals who are seriously affected in any way.
+We cannot say that this accords with all conditions in a general way,
+but only with those mortals who were, and who are, wretched. So that to
+him who sought a kingdom and obtained it, belongs the fear of losing the
+same; and to one who has laboured to secure the fruits of love, such as
+the special grace of the beloved, belongs the tooth of jealousy and
+suspicion. Thus, too, with the states of the world; when we find
+ourselves in darkness and in adversity we may surely prophecy light and
+prosperity, and when we are in a state of happiness and discipline,
+doubtless we have to expect the advent of ignorance and distress. As in
+the case of Hermes Trismegistus, who, seeing Egypt in all the splendour
+of the sciences and of occultism, so that he considered that men were
+consorting with gods and spirits and were in consequence most pious, he
+made that prophetic lament to Asclepios, saying that the darkness of new
+religions and cults must follow, and that of the then present things
+nothing would remain but idle tales and matter for condemnation. So the
+Hebrews, when they were slaves in Egypt, and banished to the deserts,
+were comforted by their prophets with the hope of liberty and the
+re-acquisition of their country; when they were in authority and
+tranquillity they were menaced with dispersion and captivity. And as in
+these days there is no evil nor injury to which we are not subject, so
+there is no good nor honour that we may not promise ourselves. Thus does
+it happen to all the other generations and states, the which, if they
+endure and be not destroyed entirely by the force of vicissitude, it is
+inevitable that from evil they come to good, from good to evil, from low
+estate to high, from high to low, out of obscurity into splendour, out
+of splendour into obscurity, for this is the natural order of things;
+outside of which order, if another should be found which destroys or
+corrects it, I should believe it and not dispute it, for I reason with
+none other than a natural spirit.[B]
+
+    [B] As in long-drawn systole and long-drawn diastole, must the
+    period of Faith, alternate with the period of Denial; must the
+    vernal growth, the summer luxuriance of all Opinions, Spiritual
+    Representations and Creations, be followed by, and again follow the
+    autumnal decay, the winter dissolution.--("Sartor Resartus.")
+
+MAR. We know that you are not a theologian but a philosopher, and that
+you treat of philosophy and not of theology.
+
+CES. It is so. But let us see what follows.
+
+
+II.
+
+CES. I see a smoking thurible, supported by an arm, and the legend which
+says: "Illius aram," and then the following:--
+
+42.
+
+    Now who shall say the breath of my desire
+    Of high and holy worship is demeaned
+    If decked in divers forms ornate she come
+    Through vows I offer to the shrine of Fame?
+    And if another work should call, and lead me on,
+    Who would aver that more it might beseem
+    If that, of Heaven so loved and eulogized,
+    Should hold me not in its captivity.
+    Leave, oh leave me, every other wish,
+    Cease, fretting thoughts, and give me peace;
+    Why draw me forth from looking at the sun,
+    From looking at the sun that I so love.
+    You ask in pity, wherefore lookest thou
+    On that, on which to look is thy undoing?
+    Wherefore so captivated by that light?
+    And I will say, because to me this pain
+    Is dearer than all other pleasures are.
+
+MAR. In reference to this I told you that although one should be
+attached to corporeal and external beauty yet he may honourably and
+worthily be so attached; provided that, through this material beauty,
+which is a glittering ray of spiritual form and action, of which it is
+the trace and shadow, he comes to raise himself to the consideration and
+worship of divine beauty, light and majesty; so that, from these visible
+things his heart becomes exalted towards those things which are more
+excellent in themselves and grateful to the purified soul, in so far as
+they are removed from matter and sense. Ah me! he will say, if beauty so
+shadowy, so dim, so fugitive, painted on the surface of bodily matter
+pleases me so much, and moves my affections so much, and stamps upon my
+spirit I know not what of reverence for majesty, captivates me, softly
+binds me, and draws me, so that I find nothing that comes within the
+senses that satisfies me so much,--how will it be with the
+substantially, originally, primitively beautiful? How will it be with my
+soul, the divine intellect, and the law of nature? It is right, then,
+that the contemplation of this vestige of light lead me, through the
+purification of my soul, to the imitation, and to conformity and
+participation in that which is more worthy and higher, into which I am
+transformed and unto which I unite myself: for I am certain that
+nature, which has placed this beauty before my eyes and has gifted me
+with an interior sense, through which I am able to infer a deeper and
+incomparably greater beauty, wills that I be promoted to the altitude
+and eminence of more excellent kinds. Nor do I believe that my true
+divinity, as she shows herself to me in symbols and vestiges, will scorn
+me if in symbols and vestiges I honour her and sacrifice to her; as my
+heart and affections are always so ordered as to look higher. For who
+may he be, that can honour in essence and real substance, if in such
+manner he cannot understand it?
+
+     It is in and through Symbols that man, consciously or
+     unconsciously, lives, works, and has his being. For is not a Symbol
+     ever, to him who has eyes for it, some dimmer or clearer
+     revelation, of the Godlike?--("Sartor Resartus.")
+
+CES. Right well do you demonstrate how, to men of heroic spirit, all
+things turn to good and how they are able to turn captivity into greater
+liberty, and the being vanquished into an occasion for greater victory.
+Well dost thou know that the love of corporeal beauty to those who are
+well disposed, not only does not keep them back from higher enterprises,
+but rather does it lend wings to arrive at these, when the necessity for
+love is converted into a study of the virtuous, through which the lover
+is forced into those conditions in which he is worthy of the thing loved
+and perchance of even a still higher, better and more beautiful thing;
+so that he comes to be either contented to have gained that which he
+desires, or so satisfied with its own beauty, that he can despise that
+of others, which comes to be, by him, vanquished and overcome, so that
+he either remains tranquil, or else he aspires to things more excellent
+and grand. And so will the heroic spirit ever go on trying until it
+becomes raised to the desire of divine beauty itself, without
+similitude, figure, symbol, or kind, if it be possible, and what is more
+one knows that he will reach that height.
+
+MAR. You see, Cesarino, how this enthusiast is justified in his anger
+against those who reproach him with being in captivity to a low beauty,
+to which he dedicates his vows, and attributes these forms, so that he
+is deaf to those voices which call him to nobler enterprises: for these
+low things are derived from those, and are dependent upon them, so that
+through these you may gain access to those, according to their own
+degrees. These, if they be not God, are things divine, are living images
+of Him, in the which, if He sees Himself adored, He is not offended.
+For we have a charge from the supernal spirit which says: Adorate
+sgabellum pedum eius. And in another place a divine messenger says:
+Adorabimus ubi steterunt pedes eius.
+
+CES. God, the divine beauty, and splendour shines and _is_ in all
+things; and therefore it does not appear to me an error to admire Him in
+all things, according to the way in which we have communion with them.
+Error it would surely be if we should give to another the honour due to
+Him alone. But what means the enthusiast when he says, "Leave, leave me,
+every other wish"?
+
+MAR. That he banishes every thought presented to him by different
+objects, which have not the power to move him and which would rob him of
+the sight of the sun which comes to him through that window more than
+through others.
+
+CES. Why, importuned by thoughts, does he continually gaze at that
+splendour which destroys him, and yet does not satisfy him, as it
+torments him ever so fiercely?
+
+MAR. Because all our consolations in this state of controversy are not
+without their discouragements, however vast those consolations may be.
+Just as the fear of a king for the loss of his kingdom, is greater than
+that of a mendicant who is in peril of losing ten farthings; and more
+important is the care of a prince over a republic, than that of a rustic
+over a herd of swine; as perchance the pleasures and delights of the one
+are greater than the pleasures and delights of the other. Therefore the
+loving and aspiring higher, brings with it greater glory and majesty,
+with more care, thought, and pain: I mean in this state, where the one
+opposite is always joined to the other, finding the greatest contrariety
+always in the same genus, and consequently about the same subject,
+although the opposites cannot be together. And thus proportionally in
+the love of the supernal Eros, as the Epicurean poet declares of vulgar
+and animal desire when he says:--
+
+    Fluctuat incertis erroribus ardor amantum,
+    Nec constat, quid primum oculis, manibusque fruantur:
+    Quod petiere, premunt arte, faciuntque dolorem
+    Corporis, et dentes inlidunt saepe labellis,
+    Osculaque adfigunt, quia non est pura voluptas,
+    Et stimuli subsunt, qui instigant laedere id ipsum,
+    Quodcunque est, rabies, unde illa haec germina surgunt.
+    Sed leviter poenas frangit Venus inter amorem,
+    Blandaque refraenat morsus admixta voluptas;
+    Namque in eo spes est, unde est ardoris origo,
+    Restingui quoque posse ab eodem corpore flammam.
+
+Behold, then, with what condiments the skill and art of nature works,
+so that one is wasted with the pleasure of that which destroys him, is
+happy in the midst of torment, and tormented in the midst of all the
+satisfactions. For nothing is produced absolutely from a homoeogeneous
+(pacifico) principle, but all from opposite principles, through the
+victory and dominion of one part of the opposites, and there is no
+pleasure of generation on one side without the pain of corruption on the
+other: and where these things which are generated and corrupted are
+joined together and as it were compose the same subject, the feeling of
+delight and of sadness are found together; so that it comes to be called
+more easily delight than sadness, if it happens that this predominates,
+and solicits the senses with greater force.
+
+
+III.
+
+CES. Now let us take into consideration the following image which is
+that of a phoenix, which burns in the sun, and the smoke from which
+almost obscures the brightness of that by which it is set on fire, and
+here is the motto which says: Neque simile, nec par mar.
+
+43.
+
+MAR.:
+
+    This phoenix set on fire by the bright sun,
+    Which slowly, slowly to extinction goes,
+    The while she, girt with splendour burning lies;
+    Yields to her star antagonistic fief
+    Through that which towards the sky to Heaven ascends.
+    Black smoke, and sombre fog of murky hue
+    Concealing thus his radiance from our eyes,
+    And veiling that which makes her burn and shine.
+    And so my soul, illumined and inflamed
+    By radiance divine, would fain display
+    The brightness of her own effulgent thought;
+    The lofty concept of her song sends forth.
+    In words which do but hide the glorious light,
+    [C]While I dissolve and melt and am destroyed.
+    Ah me! this lowering cloud, this smoky fire of words
+    Abases that which it would elevate.
+
+    [C] But not till the whole personality of the man is dissolved and
+    melted--not until it is held by the divine fragment which has
+    created it, as a mere subject for the grave experiment and
+    experience--not until the whole nature has yielded and become
+    subject unto its higher self, can the bloom open.--("Light on the
+    Path.")
+
+CES. This fellow then says that as this phoenix set on fire by the sun
+and accustomed to light and flame comes to send upwards that smoke which
+obscures him who has rendered her so luminous, so he, the inflamed and
+illuminated enthusiast, through that which he does in praise of such an
+illustrious subject which has warmed his heart and which shines in his
+thought, comes rather to conceal it than to render it light for light,
+sending forth that smoke the effect of the flame, in which the
+substance of himself is resolved.
+
+MAR. I, without weighing and comparing the studies of that fellow,
+repeat what I said to you the other day, that praise is one of the
+greatest oblations that human affection can offer to an object. And
+leaving on one side the proposition of the Divine, tell me, who would
+have known of Achilles, Ulysses, and all the other Greek and Trojan
+chiefs? Who would have heard of all those great soldiers, the wise and
+the heroes of the earth, if they had not been placed amongst the stars
+and deified by the oblation of praise which has lighted the fire on the
+altar of the heart of illustrious poets and other singers, so that
+usually, the sacrificant, the victim and the sanctified deity, all
+mounted to the skies, through the hand and the vow of a worthy and
+lawful priest?
+
+CES. Well sayest thou "of a worthy and lawful priest," for the world is
+at present full of apostate ones, the which, as they are for the most
+part unworthy themselves, sing the praises of other unworthy ones, so
+that, asini asinos fricant. But Providence wills that these, instead of
+rising to the sky, should go together to the shades of Orcus, so that
+naught is the glory of him who extols and of him who is extolled; for
+the one has woven a statue of straw, or carved the trunk of a tree, or
+cast a piece of chalk, and the other, the idol of shame and infamy,
+knows not that there is no need to wait for the keen tooth of the age
+and the scythe of Saturn in order to be put down, for through those
+self-same praises he gets buried alive then and there, while he is being
+praised, saluted, hailed, and presented. Just as it happened in a
+contrary way, so that much-praised Moecenatus, who, if he had had no
+other glory than a soul inclined to protect and favour the Muses, for
+this alone merited, that the genius of so many illustrious poets should
+do him homage, and place him in the number of the most famous heroes who
+have trod this earth. His own studies and his own brightness made him
+prominent and grand, and not the being born of a royal race, and not the
+being grand secretary and councillor of Augustus. That, I say, which
+made him illustrious was the having made himself worthy to fulfil the
+promise of that poet who says:--
+
+    Fortunati ambo, si quid mea carmina possunt,
+    Nulla dies nunquam memori vos eximet aevo,
+    Dum domus Aeneae Capitoli immobile saxum
+    Accolet, imperiumque pater romanus habebit.
+
+MAR. I remember what Seneca says in certain letters where he refers to
+the words of Epicurus to a friend, which are these: "If the love of
+glory is dear to thy breast, these letters of mine will make thee more
+famous and known than all those other things which thou honourest, by
+which thou art honoured, and of which thou mayest boast. The same might
+Homer have said if Achilles or Ulysses had presented themselves before
+him, or Eneas and his offspring before Virgil; as that moral philosopher
+well said; Domenea is more known through the letters of Epicurus, than
+all the magicians, satraps and royalties upon whom depended his title of
+Domenea and the memory of whom was lost in the depths of oblivion.
+Atticus does not survive because he was the son-in-law of Agrippa and
+ancestor of Tiberius, but through the epistles of Tully; Drusus, the
+ancestor of Caesar, would not be found amongst the number of great names
+if Cicero had not inserted it. Many, many years may pass over our heads,
+and in all that time not many geniuses will keep their heads raised.
+
+Now to return to the question of this enthusiast, who, seeing a phoenix
+set on fire by the sun, calls to mind his own cares, and laments that
+like the phoenix he sends, in exchange for the light and heat received,
+a sluggish smoke from the holocaust of his melted substance. Wherefore
+not only can we never discourse about things divine, but we cannot even
+think of them without detracting from, rather than adding to the glory
+of them; so that the best thing to be done with regard to them is, that
+man, in the presence of other men, should rather praise himself for his
+earnestness and courage, than give praise to anything, as complete and
+perfected action; seeing that no such thing can be expected where there
+is progress towards the infinite, where unity and infinity are the same
+thing and cannot be followed by the other number, because there is no
+unity from another unity, nor is there number from another number and
+unity, because they are not the same absolute and infinite. Therefore
+was it well said by a theologian that as the fountain of light far
+exceeds not only our intellects, but also the divine, it is decorous
+that one should not discourse with words, but that with silence alone it
+should be magnified.[D]
+
+    [D] Now, it may be asked, what is the state of a man who followeth
+    the true Light to the utmost of his power? I answer truly, it will
+    never be declared aright, for he who is not such a man, can neither
+    understand nor know it, and he who is, knoweth it indeed; but he
+    cannot utter it, for it is unspeakable.--("Theologia Germanica.")
+
+CES. Not, verily, with such silence as that of the brutes who are in the
+likeness and image of men, but of those whose silence is more exalted
+than all the cries and noise and screams of those who may be heard.[E]
+
+    [E] "Speech is of time, silence is of eternity."--("Sartor
+    Resartus.")
+
+
+IV.
+
+MAR. Let us go on and see what the rest means.
+
+CES. Say, if you have seen and considered it, what is the meaning of
+this fire in the form of a heart with four wings, two of which have eyes
+and the whole is girt with luminous rays and has round about it this
+question: Nitimur incassum?
+
+MAR. I remember well, that it signifies the state of the mind, heart and
+spirit and eyes of the enthusiast, but read the sonnet!
+
+44.
+
+    [F]Splendour divine, to which this mind aspires,
+    The intellect alone cannot unveil.
+    The heart, which those high thoughts would animate,
+    Makes not itself their lord; nor spirit, which
+    Should cease from pleasure for a space,
+    Can ever from those heights withdraw.
+    The eyes which should be closed at night in sleep,
+    Awake remain, open, and full of tears.
+    Ah me, my lights! where are the zeal and art
+    With which to tranquillize the afflicted sense?
+    Tell me my soul; what time and in what place
+    Shall I thy deep transcendent woe assuage?
+    And thou my heart, what solace can I bring
+    As compensation to thy heavy pain?
+    When, oh unquiet and perturbed mind,
+    Wilt thou the soul for debt and dole receive
+    With heart, with spirit and the sorrowing eyes?
+
+    [F] Let no one suppose that we may attain to this true light and
+    perfect knowledge by hearsay, or by reading and study, nor yet by
+    high skill and great learning.--("Theologia Germanica.")
+
+The mind which aspires to the divine splendour flees from the society of
+the crowd and retires from the multitude of subjects, as much as from
+the community of studies, opinions and sentences; seeing that the peril
+of contracting vices and illusions is greater, according to the number
+of persons with whom one is allied. In the public shows, said the moral
+philosopher, by means of pleasure, vices are more easily engendered. If
+one aspires to the supreme splendour, let him retire as much as he can,
+from union and support, into himself (Di sorte che non sia simile a
+molti, per che son molti; e non sia nemico di molti per che son
+dissimili), so that he be not like unto many, because they are many; and
+be not adverse to many, because they are dissimilar; if it be possible,
+let him retain the one and the other; otherwise he will incline to that
+which seems to him best. Let him associate either with those whom he can
+make better or with those through whom he may be made better, through
+brightness which he may impart to those or that he may receive from
+them. Let him be content with one ideal rather than with the inept
+multitude. Nor will he hold that he has gained little, when he has
+become such an one who is wise unto himself, remembering what Democritus
+says: Unus mihi pro populo est, et populus pro uno; and what Epicurus
+said to a companion of his studies, writing to him: "Haec tibi, non
+multis! Satis enim magnum alter alteri theatrum sumus."
+
+The mind, then, which aspires high, leaves, for the first thing, caring
+about the crowd, considering that that divine light despises striving
+and is only to be found where there is intelligence, and yet not every
+intelligence, but that which is amongst the few, the chief, the first
+among the first, the principal one.
+
+CES. How do you mean that the mind aspires high? For example, by looking
+at the stars? At the empyreal heaven above the ether?
+
+MAR. Certainly not! but by plunging into the depths of the mind, for
+which there is no great need to open the eyes to the sky, to raise the
+hands, to direct the steps to the temple, nor sing to the ears of
+statues in order to be the better heard, but to come into the inner self
+believing that, God is near, present and within, more fully than man
+himself,[G] being soul of souls, life of lives, essence of essences: for
+that which you see above or below, or round about, or however you please
+to say it, of the stars, are bodies, are created things, similar to this
+globe on which we are, and in which the divinity is present neither more
+nor less than he is in this globe of ours or in ourselves. This is how,
+then, one must begin to withdraw oneself from the multitude into
+oneself. One ought to arrive at such a point to despise and not to
+overestimate every labour, so that, the more the desires and the vices
+contend with each other inwardly and the vicious enemies dispute
+outwardly, so much the more should one breathe and rise, and with
+spirit, if possible, surmount this steep hill. Here there is no need for
+other arms and shield than the majesty of an unconquered soul and a
+tolerant spirit, which maintains the quality and meaning of that life
+which proceeds from science and is regulated by the art of considering
+attentively things low and high, divine and human, in the which consists
+that highest good, and in reference to this, a moral philosopher wrote
+to Lucillus that one must not linger between Scylla and Charybdis,
+penetrate the wilds of Candavia and the Apennines or lose oneself in the
+sandy plains, because the road is as sure and as blythe as Nature
+herself could make it. "It is not," says he, "gold and silver that makes
+one like God, because these are not treasure to Him; nor vestments, for
+God is naked; nor ostentation and fame, for He shows Himself to few, and
+perhaps not one knows Him, and certainly many, and more than many, have
+a bad opinion of Him. Not all the various conditions of things which we
+usually admire, for not those things of which we desire to have copies,
+make one rich, but the contempt for those things."
+
+    [G] For, in this (degree), God cannot be tasted, felt, seen, because
+    he is more ourselves than ourselves, is not distinct from
+    us.--("Spiritual Torrents.")
+
+CES. Well. But tell me in what manner will this fellow tranquillize the
+senses, assuage the woes of the spirit, compensate the heart and give
+its just debts to the mind, so that with this aspiration of his he come
+not to say: "Nitimur incassum"?
+
+MAR. He will be present in the body in such wise that the best part of
+himself will be absent from it, and will join himself by an indissoluble
+sacrament to divine things, in such a way that he will not feel either
+love or hatred of things mortal. Considering himself as master, and that
+he ought not to be servant and slave to his body, which he would regard
+only as the prison which holds his liberty in confinement, the glue
+which smears his wings, chains which bind fast his hands, stocks which
+fix his feet, veil which hides his view. Let him not be servant,
+captive, ensnared, chained, idle, stolid and blind, for the body which
+he himself abandons cannot tyrannize over him, so that thus, the spirit
+in a certain degree comes before him as the corporeal world, and matter
+is subject to the divinity and to nature. Thus will he become strong
+against fortune, magnanimous towards injuries, intrepid towards poverty,
+disease and persecution.
+
+CES. Well is the heroic enthusiast instructed!
+
+
+V.
+
+CES. Close by is to be seen that which follows. See the wheel of time,
+which moves round its own centre, and there is the legend: "Manens
+moveor." What do you mean by that?
+
+MAR. This means that movement is circular where motion concurs with
+rest, seeing that in orbicular motion upon its own axis and about its
+own centre is understood rest and stability according to right
+movement, or, rest of the whole and movement of the parts; and from the
+parts which move in a circle is understood two different kinds of
+motion, inasmuch as some parts rise to the summit and others from the
+summit descend to the base successively; others reach the medium
+differences, and others the extremes of high and low. And all this seems
+to me suitably expressed in the following:
+
+45.
+
+    That which keeps my heart both open and concealed,
+    Beauty imprints and honesty dispels;
+    Zeal holds me fast; all other care comes to me
+    By that same path whence all care to the soul doth come:
+    Seek I myself from pain to disengage,
+    Hope sustains me then, whoso scourges, tires;--(altrui rigor mi lassa)
+    Love doth exalt and reverence abase me
+    What time I yearn towards the highest good.
+    High thoughts, holy desires, and mind intent
+    Upon the labours and the cunning of the heart
+    Towards the immense divine immortal object,
+    So do, that I be joined, united, fed,
+    That I lament no more; that reason, sense, attend,
+    Discourse and penetrate to other things.
+
+So that the continual movement of one part supposes and carries with it
+the movement of the whole, in such a way that the attraction of the
+posterior parts is consequent upon the repulsion of the anterior parts;
+thus the movement of the superior parts results of necessity from that
+of the inferior, and from the raising of one opposite power, follows the
+depression of the other opposite. Therefore the heart, which signifies
+all the affections generally, comes to be concealed and open, held by
+zeal, raised by magnificent thoughts, sustained by hope, weakened by
+fear, and in this state and condition will it ever be seen and found.
+
+
+VI.
+
+CES. That is all well. Let us come to that which follows. I see a ship
+floating on the waves; its ropes are attached to the shore and there is
+the legend: Fluctuat in portu. Deliberate about the signification of
+this, and when you are decided about it, explain.
+
+MAR. Both the legend and the figure have a certain connexion with the
+present legend and figure, as may be easily understood, if one considers
+it a little. But let us read the sonnet.
+
+46.
+
+    If I by gods, by heroes and by men
+    Be re-assured, so that I not despair,
+    Nor fear, pain, nor the impediments
+    Of death of body, joy and happiness,
+    Yet must I learn to suffer and to feel.
+    And that I may my pathways clearly see,
+    Let doubts arise, and dolour, and the woe
+    Of vanished hopes, of joy and all delight.
+    But if _he_ should behold, should grant, and should attend
+    My thoughts, my wishes, and my reasoning,
+    Who makes them so uncertain, hot, and vague,
+    Such dear conceits, such acts and speech,
+    Will not be given nor done to him, who stays
+    From birth, through life, to death in sheltered home.
+
+    Non da, non fa, non ha qualunque stassi
+    De l'orto, vita e morte a le magioni.
+
+From what we have considered and said in the preceding discourses one is
+able to understand these sentiments, especially where it is shown that
+the sense of low things is diminished and annulled whenever the superior
+powers are strongly intent upon a more elevated and heroic object. The
+power of contemplation is so great, as is noted by Jamblichus, that it
+happens sometimes, not only that the soul ceases from inferior acts, but
+that it leaves the body entirely. The which I will not understand
+otherwise than in such various ways as are explained in the book of
+thirty seals, wherein are produced so many methods of contraction, of
+which some infamously, others heroically operate, that one learns not to
+fear death, suffers not pain of body, feels not the hindrances of
+pleasures: wherefore the hope, the joy, and the delight of the superior
+spirit are of so intense a kind that they extinguish all those passions
+which may have their origin in doubt, in pain and all kinds of sadness.
+
+CES. But what is that, of which he requests that it consider those
+thoughts which it has rendered so uncertain, fulfil those desires which
+it has made so ardent, and listen to those discourses which it has
+rendered so vague?
+
+MAR. He means the Object, which he beholds when it makes itself present;
+for to see the Divine is to be seen by it, as to see the sun concurs
+with the being seen of the sun. Equally, to be heard by the Divine, is
+precisely to listen to it, and to be favoured by it, is the same as to
+offer to it; for from the one immoveable and the same, proceed thoughts
+uncertain and certain, desires ardent and appeased, and reasonings valid
+and vain, according as the man worthily or unworthily puts them before
+himself, with the intellect, the affections and actions. As that same
+pilot may be said to be the cause of the sinking or of the safety of the
+ship, according as he is present in it or absent from it; with this
+difference, that the pilot through his defectiveness or his efficiency
+ruins or saves the ship; but the Divine potency which is all in all does
+not proffer or withhold except through assimilation or rejection by
+oneself.[H]
+
+    [H] Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock,
+    and it shall be opened unto you.--("St. Matthew.")
+
+
+VII.
+
+MAR. It seems to me that the following figure is closely connected and
+linked with the above; there are two stars in the form of two radiant
+eyes, with the legend: Mors et vita.
+
+CES. Read the sonnet!
+
+MAR. I will do so:
+
+47.
+
+    Writ by the hand of Love may each behold
+    Upon my face the story of my woes.
+    But thou, so that thy pride no curb may know,
+    And I, unhappy one, eternally might rest,
+    Thou dost torment, by hiding from my view
+    Those lovely lights beneath the beauteous lids.
+    Therefore the troubled sky's no more serene,
+    Nor hostile baleful shadows fall away.
+    By thine own beauty, by this love of mine
+    (So great that e'en with this it may compare),
+    Render thyself, oh Goddess, unto pity!
+    Prolong no more this all-unmeasured woe,
+    Ill-timed reward for such a love as this.
+    Let not such rigour with such splendour mate
+    If it import thee that I live!
+    Open, oh lady, the portals of thine eyes,
+    And look on me if thou wouldst give me death!
+
+Here, the face upon which the story of his woes appears is the soul; in
+so far as it is open to receive those superior gifts, for the which it
+has a potential aptitude, without the fulness of perfection and act
+which waits for the dew of heaven. Thus was it well said: Anima mea
+sicut terra sine aqua tibi; and again: Os meum operui; and again:
+Spiritum, quia mandata tua desiderabam. Then "pride which knows no curb"
+is said in metaphor and similitude, as God is sometimes said to be
+jealous, angry, or that He sleeps, and that signifies the difficulty
+with which He grants so much even as to show his shoulders, which is the
+making himself known by means of posterior things and effects. So the
+lights are covered with the eyelids, the troubled sky of the human mind
+does not clear itself by the removal of the metaphors and enigmas.
+Besides which, because he does not believe that all which is not, could
+not be, he prays the divine light, that by its beauty, which ought not
+to be entirely concealed, at least according to the capacity of whoever
+beholds it, and by his love, which, perchance, is equal to so much
+beauty (equal, he means, of the beauty, in so far as he can comprehend
+it) that it surrender itself to pity, that is, that it should do as
+those who are compassionate, and who from being capricious and gloomy
+become gracious and affable and that it prolong not the evil which
+results from that privation, and not allow that its splendour, for which
+it is so much desired, should appear greater than that love by means of
+which it communicates itself, seeing that in it all the perfections are
+not only equal but are also the same. In fine, he begs that it will no
+further sadden by privation, for it can kill with the glance of its eyes
+and can also with those same give him life.
+
+CES. Does he mean that death of lovers, which comes from intense joy,
+called by the Kabalists, mors osculi, which same is eternal life, which
+a man may anticipate in this life and enjoy in eternity?
+
+MAR. He does.
+
+
+VIII.
+
+MAR. It is time to proceed to the consideration of the following design,
+similar to those previously brought forward, and with which it has a
+certain affinity. There is an eagle, which with two wings cleaves the
+sky; but I do not know how much and in what manner it comes to be
+retarded by the weight of a stone which is tied to its leg. There is the
+legend: Scinditur incertum. It is certain that it signifies the
+multitude, number and character (volgo) of the powers of the soul, to
+exemplify which, that verse is taken: Scinditur incertum studia in
+contraria vulgus. The whole of which character (volgo) in general is
+divided into two factions; although subordinate to these, others are not
+wanting, of which some appeal to the high intelligence and splendour of
+rectitude, while others incite and force in a certain manner to the low,
+to the uncleanness of voluptuousness and compliance with natural
+desires. Therefore says the sonnet:
+
+48.
+
+    I would do well--to me 'tis not allowed.
+    With me my sun is not, although I be with him,
+    For being with him, I'm no more with myself:
+    The farther from myself--the nearer unto him;
+    The nearer unto him, the farther from myself.
+    Once to enjoy, doth cost me many tears,
+    And seeking happiness, I meet with woe.
+    For that I look aloft, so blind am I.
+    That I may gain my love, I lose myself.
+    Through bitter joy, and through sweet pain,
+    Weighted with lead, I rise towards the sky.
+    Necessity withholds, goodness conducts me on,
+    Fate sinks me down, and counsel raises me,
+    Desire spurs me, fear keeps me in check.
+    Care kindles and the peril backward draws.
+    Tell me, what power or what subterfuge
+    Can give me peace and bring me from this strife,
+    If one repels, the other draws me on.
+
+The ascension goes on in the soul through the power and appulsion in
+the wings, which are the intellect, or intellectual will upon which she
+naturally depends and through which she fixes her gaze toward God, as to
+the highest good, and primal truth, as to absolute goodness and beauty.
+Thus everything has an impetus towards its beginning retrogressively,
+and progressively towards its end and perfection, as Empedocles well
+said, and from which sentence I think may be inferred that which the
+Nolan said in this octave:
+
+    The sun must turn and reach his starting-point,
+    Each wandering light must go towards its source,
+    That which is earth to earth itself reverts,
+    The rivers from the sea to sea return,
+    And thither, whence desires have life and grow
+    Must they aspire as to revered divinity,
+    So every thought born of my lady fair
+    Comes back perforce to her, my goddess dear.
+
+The intellectual power is never at rest, it is never satisfied with any
+comprehended truth, but ever proceeds on and on towards that truth which
+is not comprehended. So also the will which follows the apprehension, we
+see that it is never satisfied with anything finite. In consequence of
+this, the essence of the soul is always referred to the source of its
+substance and entity. Then as to the natural powers, by means of which
+it is turned to the protection and government of matter, to which it
+allies itself, and by appulsion benefits and communicates of its
+perfection to inferior things, through the likeness which it has to the
+Divine, which in its benignity communicates itself or produces
+infinitely, _i.e._ imparts existence to the universal infinite and to
+the innumerable worlds in it, or, finitely, produces this universe
+alone, subject to our eyes and our common reason. Thus then in the one
+sole essence of the soul are found these two kinds of powers, and as
+they are used for one's own good and for the good of others, it follows
+that they are depicted with a pair of wings, by means of which it is
+potent towards the object of the primal and immaterial potencies, and
+with a heavy stone, through which it is active and efficacious towards
+the objects of the secondary and material potencies. Whence it follows
+that the entire affection of the enthusiast is bifold, divided,
+harassed, and placed in a position to incline itself more easily
+downwards than to force itself upwards: seeing that the soul finds
+itself in a low and hostile country, and reaches the far-off region of
+its more natural home where its powers are the weakest.
+
+CES. Do you think that this difficulty can be overcome?
+
+MAR. Perfectly well; but the beginning is most difficult, and according
+as we make more and more fruitful progress in contemplation we arrive at
+a greater and greater facility. As happens to whoever flys up high, the
+more he rises above the earth the more air he has beneath to uphold him,
+and consequently the less he is affected by gravitation; he may even
+rise so high that he cannot, without the labour of cleaving the air,
+return downwards, although one might imagine it were more easy to cleave
+the air downwards towards the earth than to rise on high towards the
+stars.
+
+CES. So that with progress of this kind a greater and greater facility
+is acquired for mounting on high?
+
+MAR. So it is; therefore well said Tansillo:--
+
+    "The more I feel the air beneath my feet
+    So much the more towards the wind I bend
+    My swiftest pinions
+    And spurn the world and up towards Heaven I go."
+
+As every part of bodies and of their elements, the nearer they come to
+their natural place, the greater the impetus and force with which they
+move, until at last, whether they will or not, they must prevail. That
+which we see then in the parts of bodies and in the bodies themselves we
+ought also to allow of intellectual things towards their proper
+objects, as their proper places, countries, and ends. Whence you may
+easily comprehend the entire significance of the figure, the legend, and
+the verses.
+
+CES. So much so that whatsoever you might add thereto would appear to me
+superfluous.
+
+
+IX.
+
+CES. Let us see what is here represented by those two radiating arrows
+upon a target around which is written: Vicit instans.
+
+MAR. The continual struggle in the soul of the enthusiast, the which, in
+consequence of the long familiarity which it had with matter was hard
+and incapable of being penetrated by the rays of the splendour of the
+Divine intelligence and the species of the Divine goodness; during which
+time, he says that the heart was enamelled with diamond, that is, the
+affection was hard and not capable of being heated and penetrated, and
+it rejected the blows of love which assailed it on innumerable sides.
+That is, it did not feel itself wounded by those wounds of eternal life
+of which the Psalmist speaks when he says: Vulnerasti cor meum, o
+dilecta, vulnerasti cor meum. The which wounds are not from iron or
+other material through the vigour and strength of nerves, but are darts
+of Diana, or of Phoebus, that is, either from the goddess of the
+deserts--of contemplation of truth, that is, from Diana, who is the
+order of the second intelligences, which transfer the splendour received
+from the first and communicate it to the others, who are deprived of a
+more open vision; or else from the principal god Apollo, who with his
+own, and not a borrowed splendour, sends his darts, that is, his rays,
+so many and from such innumerable points, which are all the species of
+things, which are indications of Divine goodness, intelligence, beauty,
+and wisdom, according to the various degrees, from the simple
+comprehension, to the becoming heroic enthusiasts; because the
+adamantine subject does not reflect from its surface the impression of
+the light, but, destroyed and overcome by the heat and light, it becomes
+in substance luminous--all light--so that it is penetrated within the
+affection and conception. This is not immediately, at the beginning of
+generation, when the soul comes forth fresh from the intoxication of
+Lethe, and drenched with the waves of forgetfulness and confusion, so
+that the spirit comes into captivity to the body, and is put into the
+condition of growth; but little by little, it goes on digesting, so as
+to become fitted for the action of the sensitive faculty, until,
+through the rational and discursive faculty, it comes to a purer
+intellectual one, so that it can present itself to the mind, without
+feeling itself befogged by the exhalations of that humour, which,
+through the exercise of contemplation, has been saved from putrefaction
+in the stomach and is duly digested. In this state, the present
+enthusiast shows himself to have remained thirty years, during which
+time he had not reached that purity of conception which would make him a
+suitable habitation for the wandering species, which offering themselves
+to all, equally, knock, ever at the door of the intelligence. At last,
+Love, who in various ways and at different times had assaulted him as it
+were in vain--as the light and heat of the sun are said to be useless to
+those who are in the opaque depths and bowels of the earth--having
+located itself in those sacred lights, that is having shown forth the
+Divine Beauty through two intelligible species the which bound his
+intellect through the reasoning of Truth and warmed his affections
+through the reasoning of Goodness; while the material and sensitive
+desires became superseded, which aforetime used, as it were, to triumph,
+remaining intact, notwithstanding the excellence of the soul. Because
+those lights which made present the illuminating, acting intellect and
+sun of intelligence found easy ingress through his eyes; that of Truth
+(the intellect of Truth?) through the door of the intellectual faculty;
+that of Goodness (intellect of Goodness?) through the door of the
+appetitive faculty, to the heart, that is, the substance of the general
+affection. This was that double ray, which came as from the hand of an
+irate warrior, who showed himself, now, as ready and as bold, as
+aforetime he had appeared weak and negligent.[I]
+
+Then, when he first felt warmed and illuminated in his conception, was
+that victorious point and moment of which it is said: Vicit instans.
+
+    [I] He takes it by assault, without offering battle: the heart is
+    unable to resist him.--("Spiritual Torrents.")
+
+Thus you can understand the sense of the following figure, legend and
+sonnet, which says:--
+
+49.
+
+    I fought with all my strength, 'gainst Love Divine
+    When he assailed with blows from every side
+    This cold, enamelled, adamantine heart,
+    Whence my desires defeated his intent.
+    At last, one day, 'twas as the heavens had willed.
+    Encamped I found him in those holy lights
+    Which, through mine own alone, of all the rest
+    An easy entrance to my heart could find.
+    'Twas then upon me fell that double bolt,
+    Flung as from hand of irate warrior
+    Who had for thirty years besieged in vain.
+    He marked that place and strongly there he held,
+    Planted the trophy there, and evermore
+    He holds my fleet wings in restrainment.
+    Meanwhile since then with more solemnity of preparation
+    The anger and the ire of my sweet enemy
+    Cease not to wound my heart.
+
+Rare moment was that; the end of the beginning and perfection of
+victory; rare were those two species which amongst all others found easy
+entrance, seeing that they contain in themselves the efficacy and the
+virtue of all the others; for what higher and more excellent form can
+present itself than that of the beauty, goodness and truth, which are
+the source of every other truth, beauty, and goodness? "He marked that
+place"--that is, took possession of the affections, noted them, and
+impressed upon them his own character; "and strongly there he held;" he
+confirmed and established them and sanctified them so that he can never
+again lose them; for it is not possible that one should turn to love any
+other thing when once he has conceived in his mind the Divine Beauty,
+and it is as impossible that he can do other than love it, as it is
+impossible that his desires should fall otherwise than towards good, or
+species of good. Therefore his inclination is in the highest degree
+towards the primal good. So again, the wings, which used to be so fleet
+to go downwards with the weight of matter, are kept in restrainment, and
+the sweet augers which are the efficacious assaults of the gracious
+enemy, who has been for so long time kept back, and excluded, a stranger
+and a pilgrim, never cease to wound, soliciting the affections and
+awakening thought. But now, the sole and entire possessor and disposer
+of the soul, for she neither wills nor wishes to will other, nor is she
+pleased, nor will she that any other please her, whence he often says:--
+
+    Dolci ire, guerra dolce, dolci dardi,
+    Dolci mie piaghe, miei dolci dolori!
+
+
+X.
+
+CES. It would seem that we have nothing more to consider upon this
+proposition. Let us see now, how this quiver and bow of Eros display the
+sparks around, and the knot of the string, which hangs down with the
+legend, which is: Subito, clam.
+
+MAR. Well do I remember having seen it expressed in the sonnet. But let
+us read it first.
+
+50.
+
+    Eager to find the much desired food,
+    The eagle towards the sky spreads out his wings
+    And warns of his approach both bird and beast,
+    The third flight bringing him upon the prey.
+    And the fierce lion roaring from his lair
+    Spreads horror all around and mortal fear;
+    And all wild beasts, admonished and forewarned,
+    Fly to the caves and cheat his cruel jaw.
+    The whale, ere he the dumb Protean herd
+    Hungry pursues, sends forth his nuncio,
+    From caves of Thetys spouts his water forth.
+    Lions and eagles of the earth and sky,
+    And whales, lords of the seas, come not with treachery,
+    But the assaults of Love come stealing secretly.
+
+The animal kingdom is divided into three, and is composed of various
+elements: the earth, the water, the air, and there are three
+species--beasts, fishes, and birds. Into three kinds are the principles
+of nature settled and defined, in the air the eagle, on earth the lion,
+in the water the whale; of the which, each one, as it displays more
+strength and command over the others, makes a show of magnanimous
+action, or apparently magnanimous. Therefore it is observed, that the
+lion, before he starts on the hunt trumpets forth his roar, which
+resounds through the whole forest, like to the poetical description of
+the fury-hunter.
+
+    At saeva e speculis tempus dea nacta nocendi,
+    Ardua tecta petit, stabuli et de culmine summo
+    Pastorale canit signum, cornuque recurvo
+    Tartaream intendit vocem, qua protinus omne
+    Contremuit nemus, et silvae intonuere profundae.
+
+The eagle again, before he proceeds to his venery, first rises straight
+from the nest in a perpendicular line upwards, and generally speaking at
+the third time he swoops from above with greater impetus and swiftness
+than if he were flying in a direct line, so that at the time when he is
+gaining the greatest velocity of flight, he is able also to speculate
+upon his success with the prey, and after three inspections he knows
+whether he will succeed or fail.
+
+CES. Can one imagine why, if at the first his prey presents itself
+before his eyes, he does not instantly pounce upon it?
+
+MAR. No; unless it be to see whether anything better, or more easily
+taken, comes to sight. At the same time I do not believe that this is
+always so, but most often it is. But to return. Of the whale it is
+manifest that, being such a huge animal, he cannot divide the waters
+without making his presence known through the repulsion of the waves,
+besides which there are several species of this fish, that when they
+move or breathe, spout forth a windy tempest of water. Thus from these
+three principal species of animals, the inferior kinds have warning to
+enable them to get away, so that they do not conduct themselves as
+deceivers and traitors. But Love, who is stronger and greater and who
+has supreme dominion in heaven, on earth, and in the seas, and who in
+comparison ought perhaps to show greater magnanimity, as he also has
+more power, does nothing of the kind, but assaults and wounds suddenly
+and swiftly.
+
+    Labitur totas furor in medullas,
+    Igne furtivo populante venas,
+    Nec habet latum data plaga frontem;
+    Sed vorat tectas penitas medullas,
+    Virginum ignoto ferit igne pectus.
+
+As you perceive, the tragic poet calls him a furtive fire, an unknown
+flame. Solomon calls it furtive waters. Samuel named it the whisper of a
+gentle wind. The which three significations show with what sweetness,
+gentleness, and astuteness, in seas, on earth, in sky, does this fellow
+come and tyrannize over the whole universe.
+
+CES. There is no vaster empire, no worse tyranny, no better dominion, no
+more necessary magistracy, nothing more sweet and dear, no food to be
+found more hard and bitter, no deity more violent, no god more pleasing,
+no agent more treacherous and false, no author more regal and faithful,
+and, in fine, it seems to me that Love is all and does all, of him all
+may be said, and all may refer itself to him.
+
+MAR. You say well. Love then, as he who works chiefly through the
+sight, which is the most spiritual of all the senses, and which reaches
+swiftly the known ends of the earth, and without stretch of time takes
+in the whole horizon of the visible, comes to be quick, furtive, sudden
+and instantaneous. Besides which, we must remember what the ancients
+say, that Love precedes all the other gods, and therefore it is no use
+to imagine that Saturn shows him the way except by following him. Now
+must we find out, whether Love appears and makes himself known
+externally, whether his home is the soul itself, his bed the heart
+itself, and whether he consists of the same composition as our own
+substance, the same impulse as our own powers. Finally everything
+naturally desires the beautiful and the good, and therefore it is
+useless to argue and discuss, because the affection informs and confirms
+itself, and in one instant desire joins itself to the desirable, as the
+sight to the visible.
+
+
+XI.
+
+CES. Let us see here, what is the meaning of that burning arrow, around
+which is the legend: Cui nova plaga loco? Explain what part does this
+seek to wound?
+
+MAR. Read the sonnet which says:--
+
+51.
+
+    That all the ears of corn that may be reaped
+    In burning Apuleia, or sunbrowned Lybia,
+    With all that they unto the winds entrust,
+    Or that the rays from the great planet sent,
+    Should number those sad pains of my glad soul,
+    Which she from those two burning stars receives
+    With mournful joy in sweetest agony,
+    Forbid me Sense and Reason to believe.
+    What would'st thou more, sweet foe?
+    What wish is that which moves thee still to hurt,
+    Since this my heart of but one wound is made?
+    So that there lies no part that now may be
+    By thee or others printed, stabbed, or pierced,
+    Turn thee aside, turn otherwhere thy bow,
+    For thou dost waste thy powers, oh beauteous god!
+    In slaying him who lies already dead.
+
+The meaning of all this is metaphorical, like the rest, and may be
+understood in the same sense as that. Here the number of darts which
+have wounded and do wound the heart, signify the innumerable individuals
+and species of things, in which shine the splendour of Divine Beauty,
+according to their degrees, and whence the affection for the good, well
+proposed and well apprehended warms us. The which through the causes of
+potentiality and actuality, of possibility and of effect, crucify and
+console, give the sense of sweetness and also make the bitter to be
+felt. But where the entire affection is all turned towards God, that is
+towards the Idea of Ideas, from the light of intelligible things, the
+mind becomes exalted to the super-essential unity, and, all love, all
+one, it feels itself no longer solicited by various objects, which
+distract it, but is one sole wound, in the which the whole affection
+concurs and which comes to be one and the same affection. Then there is
+no love or desire of any particular thing, that can urge, nor even
+present itself before the will; for there is nothing more straight than
+the straight, nothing more beautiful than beauty, nothing better than
+goodness, nothing can be found larger than size, nor anything lighter
+than that light which with its presence darkens and obliterates all
+lights.
+
+CES. To the perfect, if it be perfect, there is nothing that can be
+added; therefore the will is not capable of any other desire, when that
+which is of the perfect is present with it, highest and best. Therefore
+I understand the conclusion where he says to Love, "Turn otherwhere thy
+bow," and wherefore should he try to kill him who is already dead, that
+is, he, who has no more life nor sense about other things, so that he
+cannot be stabbed or pierced or become exposed to other species. And
+this lament proceeds from him, who having tasted of the highest unity,
+desires to be in all things severed and withdrawn from the multitude.
+
+MAR. You understand quite well.
+
+
+XII.
+
+CES. Now here is a boy in a boat, which little by little is being
+submerged in the tempestuous waves, and he, languid and tired, has
+abandoned the oars; around it the legend "Fronti nulla, fides." There is
+no doubt that this signifies that he was induced, by the serene aspect
+of the waters, to venture on the treacherous sea, which having suddenly
+become troubled, the boy, in mortal fear, and in his impotence to still
+the tempest, has lost his head, his hope, and the power of his arm. But
+let us see the rest:--
+
+52.
+
+    Oh, gentle boy, that from the shore didst loose
+    The baby bark, and to the slender oar
+    Didst set thy unskilled hand; lured by the sea!
+    Late hast thou seen the evil of thy plight.
+    See there the traitor rolls his fatal waves,
+    The prow of thy frail bark, now sinks, now mounts.
+    The soul borne down with anxious cares
+    Prevaileth not against the swollen floods.
+    Thy oars thou yieldst to thy fierce enemy,
+    Waiting for death with calm collected thought,
+    With eyelids closed, lest thou shouldst see him come.
+    If thee no friendly aid should quickly reach
+    Thou surely must the full result soon feel,
+    Of thy inquisitive temerity.
+    My cruel fate is like unto thine own,
+    For I too, lured, enticed by Love, must feel,
+    The rigour keen of this most treacherous one.
+
+In what manner and why Love is a traitor and deceiver we have just seen;
+but as I see the following without figure or legend, I believe that it
+must have connection with the above. Therefore let us go on and read it.
+
+53.
+
+    Methought to leave the shelter of my port,
+    And from maturer studies rest awhile:
+    When, looking round me to enjoy my ease,
+    Sudden I saw those unrelenting fates.
+    These have inflamed me with so ardent fires.
+    Vainly I strive some safer shores to reach,
+    Vainly from pitying hands invoke some aid,
+    And swift deliverance from my enemies.
+    Weary and hoarse I yield me, impotent,
+    And seek no more to elude my destiny,
+    Or make endeavour to escape my death:
+    Let every other life to me be null,
+    And let not the extremest torment fail,
+    Which my hard fate for me prescribed.
+    Type of my own deep ills,
+    Is that which thou for pastime didst entrust
+    To hostile breast. Oh, careless boy.
+
+Here I would not pretend to understand or determine all that the
+enthusiast means. Yet there is well expressed the strange condition of a
+soul cast down by the knowledge of the difficulty of the operation, the
+amount of the labour, the vastness of the work on one side, and on the
+other the ignorance, want of knowledge of the way, weakness of nerves
+and peril of death. He has no knowledge suitable to the business, he
+does not know where and how to turn, no place of flight or refuge
+presents itself; and he sees that, from every side, the waves threaten,
+with frightful, fatal impetus. Ignoranti portum, nullus suus ventus est.
+Behold him, who has committed himself indeed to fortuitous things, and
+has brought upon himself trouble, prison, ruin, and drowning. See how
+fortune deludes us, and that which we put carefully into her hands, she
+either breaks or lets it fall from her hands, or causes it to be removed
+by the violence of another, or suffocates and poisons, or taints with
+suspicion, fear, and jealousy to the great hurt and ruin of the
+possessor. Fortunae au ulla putatis dona carcere dolis? For strength
+which cannot give proof of itself is dissipated; magnanimity, which
+cannot prevail, is naught, and vain is study without results; he sees
+the effects of the fear of evil, which is worse than evil itself. Peior
+est morte timor ipse mortis. He already suffers, through fear, that
+which he fears to suffer, terror in the limbs, imbecility in the nerves,
+tremors in the body, anxiety of the spirit, and that which has not yet
+appeared becomes present to him, and is certainly worse than whatsoever
+may happen. What can be more stupid than to be in pain about future
+things and absent ones which at present are not felt?
+
+CES. These considerations are on the surface and belong to the external
+of the figure. But the proposition of the heroic enthusiast, I think,
+deals with the imbecility of human nature (ingegno) which, intent on the
+Divine undertaking, finds itself all at once engulphed in the abyss of
+incomprehensible excellence, and the sense and the imagination become
+confused and absorbed, and not knowing how to pass on, nor to go back,
+nor where to turn, vanishes and loses itself as a drop of water vanishes
+in the sea, or as a small spirit, becomes attenuated, losing its own
+substance in the space and immensity of the atmosphere.
+
+MAR. Well. But let us go towards our chamber and talk as we go, for it
+is night.
+
+
+
+
+=Second Dialogue=
+
+
+MARICONDO. Here you see a flaming yoke enveloped in knots round which is
+written: Levius aura; which means that Divine love does not weigh down,
+nor carry his servant captive and enslaved to the lowest depths, but
+raises him, supports him and magnifies him above all liberty whatsoever.
+
+CES. Prithee, let us read the sonnet, so that we may consider the sense
+of it in due order with propriety and brevity.
+
+MAR. It says thus:--
+
+54.
+
+    She who my mind to other love did move,
+    To whom all others vile and vain appear,
+    In whom alone is sovereign beauty seen,
+    And excellence Divine is manifest.
+    She from the forest coming, I beheld,
+    Huntress of myself, beloved Artemis,
+    'Midst beauteous nymphs, with air of nascent bells.
+    Then said I unto Love: See, I am hers.
+    And he to me: Oh, happy lover thou!
+    Delectable companion of thy fate!
+    That she alone of all the numberless,
+    That hold within their bosom life and death,
+    Who most with virtues high the world adorns,
+    Thou didst obtain, through will and destiny,
+    Within the Court of Love.
+    So happy thou in thy captivity
+    Thou enviest not the liberty of man or God.
+
+See how contented he is under that yoke, that marriage which has joined
+him to her whom he saw issuing from the forest, from the desert, from
+the woods, that is, from parts removed from the crowd, and from the
+conversation of the vulgar who have but small enlightenment. Diana, the
+splendour of the intelligible species, and huntress; because with her
+beauty and grace she first wounded him, and then bound him and holds him
+in her power, more contented than otherwise he could possibly have been.
+He speaks of her "amidst beauteous nymphs," that is, the multitude of
+other species, forms and ideas, and "air of bells," that is the genius
+and the spirit which displayed itself at Nola, which lies on the plain
+of the Campanian horizon.[J] He acknowledges her, and she, more than any
+other, is praised by Love, who considers him so fortunate, because
+amongst all those present or absent to mortal eyes, she does more highly
+adorn the world, and makes man glorious and beautiful. Hence he says
+that his mind is raised towards the highest love, and that it learns to
+consider "every other goddess," that is, the care or observation of
+every other kind, as vile and vain.[K] Now, in saying that she has
+roused his mind to high love, he takes occasion to magnify the heart
+through the thoughts, desires and works, as much as possible, and (to
+say) that we ought not to be entertained with low things which are
+beneath our faculties, as happens to those who, through avarice or
+through negligence, or indolence, become in this brief life attached to
+unworthy things.
+
+    [J] Does he allude to the fact that bells were first used in
+    Christian Churches at Nola?--(Tr.)
+
+    [K] The delights which are perceived in things corporeal are vile;
+    for every delight is such that it becomes viler the more it proceeds
+    to external things, and happier, the more it proceeds to things
+    internal.--("Spiritual Torrents.")
+
+CES. There must be artisans, mechanics, agriculturists, servants,
+trotters, ignoble, low, poor, pedants and such like, for otherwise there
+could not be philosophers, meditators, cultivators of souls, masters,
+captains, nobles, illustrious ones, rich, wise, and the rest who may be
+heroes like to gods. Now why should we force ourselves to corrupt the
+state of nature which has separated the universe into things major and
+minor, superior and inferior, illustrious and obscure, worthy and
+unworthy, not only outside ourselves but also inside in the substance of
+us, even to that part of us which is said to be immaterial?
+
+So of the intelligences: some are low, others are pre-eminent, some
+serve and some obey, some command and govern. I believe, however, that
+this ought not to be brought forward as an example, so that subjects
+wishing to be superiors, and the ignoble to equal the noble, the order
+of things would become perverted and confounded, so that a sort of
+neutrality would supervene, and a brutal equality, such as is found in
+certain deserts and uncultured republics. Do you not see what damage has
+been done to science through this: _i.e._ pedants wishing to be
+philosophers; to treat of natural things, and mix themselves with and
+decide about things Divine? Who does not see how much evil has happened,
+and does happen, through the mind having been moved through similar
+facts to exalted affections? Who is there, of good sense, who cannot see
+what a fine thing Aristotle made of it, when, being a master of belles
+lettres at Alexandria, he set himself to oppose and make war against the
+Pythagorean doctrine, and that of natural philosophy; seeking by means
+of his logical ratiocination to propose definitions and notions,
+certain fifth entities and other abortive portions of fantastical
+cogitations, as principles and substance of things, more anxious about
+the esteem of the vulgar stupid crowd, which is influenced and governed
+by sophisms and appearances which are found in the superficies of things
+rather than by the Truth, which is occult and hidden in the substance of
+them, and is the substance itself of them? He roused his mind, not to
+make himself a mediator, but judge and censor of things which he had
+never studied, nor well understood. Thus in our day, that little which
+Aristotle can bring, is peculiar for its inventive reasoning, its
+suggestiveness, its metaphysics, and is useful for other pedants, who
+work with the same "Sursum corda," who institute new dialectics and
+modes of forming the reason (judgment?) which are as much viler than
+those of Aristotle, as may be the philosophy of Aristotle is
+incomparably viler than that of the ancients. And it has been caused by
+this, that certain grammarians having grown old in the birching of
+children, and in anatomizing phrases and words, have sought to rouse the
+mind to the formation of new logic and metaphysics, judging and
+sentencing those which they had never studied nor understood: as also
+these by the approbation of the ignorant multitude, with whose mind
+they have most affinity, can easily demolish the humanities and
+ratiocination of Aristotle, as the latter was the executioner of the
+Divine philosophies of others. See, then, what it comes to, if all
+should aspire to the sacred splendour, and yet are occupied about things
+low and vain.
+
+MAR.
+
+    Ride, si sapis, o puella, ride,
+    Pelignus, puto, dixerat poeta;
+    Sed non dixerat omnibus puellis;
+    Et si dixerat omnibus puellis,
+    Non dixit tibi. Tu puella non es.
+
+Thus the "Sursum corda" is not the measure for all; but for those that
+have wings. We see that pedantry has never been held in such esteem for
+the government of the world as in our times, and it offers as many paths
+of the true intelligible species and objects of infallible and sole
+truth as there are individual pedants. Therefore in this present time it
+is proper that noble spirits equipped with truth and enlightened with
+the Divine intelligence, should arm themselves against dense ignorance
+by climbing up to the high rock and tower of contemplation.[L]
+
+    [L] If meditation be a nobler thing
+        Than action, wherefore, then, great Ke['s]ava!
+        Dost thou impel me to this dreadful fight?
+
+            --("Song Celestial.")
+
+To them it is seemly that they hold every other object as vile and vain.
+Nor should these spend their time in light and vain things; for time
+flies with infinite velocity; the present rushes by with the same
+swiftness with which the future draws near. That which we have lived is
+nothing; that which we live is a point; that which we have to live is
+not yet a point, but may be a point which, together, shall be and shall
+have been. And with all this we crowd our memories with genealogies:
+this one is intent upon the deciphering of writings, that other is
+occupied in multiplying childish sophisms, and we shall see, for
+example, a volume full of: Cor est fons vitae. Nix est alba, ergo cornix
+est fons vitae alba, and one prattles about the noun; was it first, or
+the verb; the other, whether the sea was first or the springs; again,
+another tries to revive obsolete vocabularies which, because they were
+once used and approved by some old writer, must now be exalted to the
+stars. Yet another takes his stand upon the false or the true
+orthography, and so on, with various similar nonsense only worthy of
+contempt. They fast, they become thin and emaciated, they scourge the
+skin, and lengthen the beard, they rot, and in these things they place
+the anchor of their highest good. They despise fortune, and put up
+these as shield and refuge against the strokes of fate. With such-like
+most vile thoughts they think to mount to the stars, to be equal to
+gods, and to understand the good and the beautiful which philosophy
+promises.
+
+CES. A grand thing, indeed, that time, which does not suffice for
+necessary things, however carefully we use it, should come to be chiefly
+consumed about superfluous things, and things vile and shameful.
+
+Is it not rather a thing to laugh at than to praise in Archimedes, that
+at the time when the city was in confusion, everything in ruins, fire
+broken out in his room, enemies there at his back who had it in their
+power to make him lose his brain, his life, his art; that he, meanwhile,
+having abandoned all desire or intention of saving his life, lost it
+while he was inquiring, perhaps, into the proportion of the curve to the
+straight line, of the diameter to the circle, or other similar mathesis,
+as suitable for youth, as it were unsuitable for one who, being old,
+should be intent upon things more worthy of being put as the end of
+human desires?
+
+MAR. In connection with this I like what you said just now, that there
+must be all sorts of persons in the world, and that the number of the
+imperfect, the ugly, the poor, the unworthy and the villanous, should
+be the greater, and, in short, it ought not to be otherwise than as it
+is. The long life of Archimedes, of Euclid, of Priscian, of Donato, and
+others, who were found up to their death occupied with numbers, lines,
+diction, concordances, writings, dialectics, syllogisms, forms, methods,
+systems of science, organs, and other preambles, is ordained for the
+service of youth, so that they may learn to receive the fruits of the
+mature age of those (sages) and be full of the same even in their green
+age, so that when they are older they may be fit and ready to arrive
+without hindrance to higher things.
+
+CES. I am not wrong in the proposition I moved just now when I spoke of
+those who make it their study to appropriate to themselves the place and
+the fame of the ancients with new works which are neither better nor
+worse than those already existing, and spend their life in considering
+how to turn wheat into tares,[M] and find the work of their life in the
+elaboration of those studies which are suited for children and are
+generally profitable to no one, not even to themselves.
+
+    [M] E spendono la vita su le considerazioni da mettere avanti lana
+    di capra, o l'ombra de l'asino.
+
+MAR. But enough has been said about those who neither can nor dare to
+have their mind roused to highest love. Let us now come to the
+consideration of the voluntary captivity and of the pleasant yoke under
+the dominion of the said Diana; that yoke, I say, without which, the
+soul is impotent to rise to that height from which it fell, and which
+renders it light and agile, while the noose renders it more active and
+disengaged.
+
+CES. Speak on then!
+
+MAR. To begin, to continue, and to conclude in order; I consider that
+all which lives must feed itself and nourish itself in a manner suitable
+to the way in which it lives. Therefore, nothing squares with the
+intellectual nature but the intellectual, as with the body nothing but
+the corporeal; seeing that nourishment is taken for no other reason, but
+that it should go to the substance of him who is to be nourished. As
+then the body does not transmute into spirit, nor the spirit into
+body,--for every transmutation takes place, when matter, which was in
+one form, comes to be in another,[N]--so the spirit and the body are not
+the same matter; in that that, which was subject to one should come to
+be subject to the other.
+
+    [N] Carlyle says, "For matter, were it never so despicable, is
+    spirit: were it never so honourable, can it be more?"--("Sartor
+    Resartus.")
+
+CES. Surely, if the soul should be nourished with body, it would carry
+itself better there, where the fecundity of the material is, (as
+Jamblichus argues); so that when a large fat body presents itself, we
+should imagine that it were the habitation of a strong soul, firm, ready
+and heroic, and we should say: Oh, fat soul, oh, fecund spirit, oh, fine
+nature, oh, divine intelligence, oh, clear mind, oh, blessed repast, fit
+to spread before lions, or verily for a banquet for dogs. On the other
+hand, an old man shrivelled, weak, of failing strength, would be held to
+be of little savour and of small account. But go on.
+
+MAR. Now, it must be said that the outcome of the mind is that alone
+which is always by it desired, sought for, and embraced, and that which
+is more enjoyed than anything else, with which it is filled, comforted
+and becomes better,--that is Truth, towards which, in all times, in
+every state, and in whatsoever condition man finds himself, he always
+aspires, and for the which he despises every fatigue, attempts every
+study, makes no account of the body, and hates this life. Therefore
+Truth is an incorporeal thing; and neither physics, metaphysics, nor
+mathematics can be found in the body, because we see that the eternal
+human essence is not in individuals, who are born and die. It (Truth) is
+specific unity, said Plato, not the numerical multitude that holds the
+substance of things. Therefore he called Idea one and many, movable and
+immovable because as incorruptible species it is intelligible and one,
+and as it communicates itself to matter and is subject to movement and
+generation, it is sensible and many. In this second mode it has more of
+non-entity than of entity; seeing that it is one and another and is ever
+running but never diminishes.[O] In the first mode it is an entity, and
+true. See now, the mathematicians take it for granted, that the true
+figures are not to be found in natural bodies, nor can they be there
+through the power either of nature or of art. You know, besides, that
+the truth (reality) of supernatural substances is above matter. We must
+therefore conclude that he who seeks the truth must rise above the
+reason of corporeal things. Besides which it must be considered, that he
+who feeds has a certain natural memory of his food, especially when it
+is most required; it leaves in the mind the likeness and species of it,
+in an elevated manner, according to the elevation and glory of him who
+aims, and of that which is aimed at. Hence it is that everything has,
+innate, the intelligence of those things which belong to the
+conservation of the individual and species, and furthermore its final
+perfection depends upon efforts to seek its food through some kind of
+hunting or chase. Therefore it is necessary that the human soul should
+have the light, the genius, and the instruments suitable for its
+pursuit. And here contemplation comes to aid, and logic, the fittest
+mode for the pursuit of truth, to find it, to distinguish it, and to
+judge of it. So that one goes rambling amongst the wild woods of natural
+things, where there are many objects under shadow and mantle, for it is
+in a thick, dense, and deserted solitude that Truth most often has its
+secret cavernous retreat, all entwined with thorns and covered with
+bosky, rough and umbrageous plants; it is hidden, for the most part, for
+the most excellent and worthy reasons, buried and veiled with utmost
+diligence, just as we hide with the greatest care the greatest
+treasures, so that, sought by a great variety of hunters, of whom some
+are more able and expert, some less, it cannot be discovered without
+great labour.
+
+Pythagoras went seeking for it with his imprints and vestiges impressed
+upon natural objects, which are numbers, the which display its
+progress, reasons, modes and operations in a certain manner, because in
+the number (of) multitude, the number (of) measures, and the number (of)
+moment or weight, the truth and Being are found in all things.[P]
+
+    [O] Atteso che sempre e altro ed altro, e corre eterno per la
+    privazione.
+
+    [P] Number is, as the great writer (Balzac) thought, an Entity, and
+    at the same time, a Breath emanating from what he called God, and
+    what we call the ALL, the breath which alone could organize the
+    physical Kosmos.--("The Secret Doctrine.")
+
+Anaxagoras and Empedocles considered that the omnipotent and
+all-producing divinity fills all things, and with them nothing was so
+small that it did not contain within it the occult in every respect,
+although they were always progressing onwards to where it was
+predominant, and where it found a more magnificent and elevated
+expression.
+
+The Chaldeans sought for Truth by means of subtraction, not knowing how
+to affirm anything about it; and proceeded without these dogs of
+demonstrations and syllogisms, but solely forcing themselves to
+penetrate by removing and digging and clearing away by means of
+negations of every kind and discourses both open and secret.
+
+Plato went twisting and turning and tearing to pieces and placing
+embankments so that the volatile and fugacious species should be as it
+were caught in a net and held behind the hedges of definitions, and he
+considered that superior things were, by participation, and according to
+similitude, reflected in those inferior, and these in those according to
+their greater dignity and excellence, and that the truth was in both the
+one and the other, according to a certain analogy, order and scale, in
+which the lowest of the superior order agrees with the highest of the
+inferior order. So that progress was from the lowest of nature to the
+highest, as from evil to good, from darkness to light, from the simple
+power to the simple action.
+
+Aristotle boasts of being able to arrive at the desired booty by means
+of the imprints of tracks and vestiges, while he believes the effects
+will lead to the cause, although he, above all others who have occupied
+themselves with this sort of chase, has most deviated from the path, so
+as to be able hardly to distinguish the footsteps. Theologians there
+are, who, nourished in certain sects, seek the truth of nature in all
+her specific natural forms in which they see the eternal essence, the
+specific substantial perpetuator of the eternal generation and mutation
+of things, which are called after their founders and builders and above
+them all presides the form of forms,[Q] the fountain of light, very
+truth of very truth, God of gods, through whom all is full of divinity,
+truth, entity, goodness. This truth is sought as a thing inaccessible,
+as an object not to be objectized, incomprehensible. But yet, to no one
+does it seem possible to see the sun, the universal Apollo, the absolute
+light through supreme and most excellent species; but only its shadow,
+its Diana, the world, the universe, nature, which is in things, light
+which is in the opacity of matter, that is to say, so far as it shines
+in darkness.
+
+    [Q] A discerning of the Infinite in the Finite.--("Sartor
+    Resartus.")
+
+Many then wander amongst the aforesaid paths of this deserted wood, very
+few are those who find the fountain of Diana. Many are content to hunt
+for wild beasts and things less elevated, and the greater number do not
+understand why, having spread their nets to the wind, they find their
+hands full of flies. Rare, I say, are the Actaeons to whom fate has
+granted the power of contemplating the nude Diana and who, entranced
+with the beautiful disposition of the body of nature, and led by those
+two lights, the twin splendour of Divine goodness and beauty become
+transformed into stags; for they are no longer hunters, but that which
+is hunted. For the ultimate and final end of this sport, is to arrive at
+the acquisition of that fugitive and wild body, so that the thief
+becomes the thing stolen, the hunter becomes the thing hunted; in all
+other kinds of sport, for special things, the hunter possesses himself
+of those things, absorbing them with the mouth of his own intelligence;
+but in that Divine and universal one, he comes to understand to such an
+extent, that he becomes of necessity included, absorbed, united. Whence,
+from common, ordinary, civil, and popular, he becomes wild, like a stag,
+an inhabitant of the woods; he lives god-like under that grandeur of the
+forest; he lives in the simple chambers of the cavernous mountains,
+whence he beholds the great rivers; he vegetates intact and pure from
+ordinary greed, where the speech of the Divine converses more freely, to
+which so many men have aspired who longed to taste the Divine life while
+upon earth, and who with one voice have said: Ecce elongavi fugiens, et
+mansi in solitudine. Thus the dogs--thoughts of Divine things--devour
+Actaeon, making him dead to the vulgar and the crowd, loosened from the
+knots of perturbation of the senses, free from the fleshly prison of
+matter, whence they no longer see their Diana as through a hole or a
+window, but having thrown down the walls to the earth, the eye opens to
+the view of the whole horizon.[R] So that he sees all as one; he sees no
+more by distinctions and numbers, which, according to the different
+senses, as through various cracks, cause to be seen and understood in
+confusion.
+
+    [R] For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to
+    face.--("St. Paul to the Corinthians.")
+
+He sees Amphitrite, the source of all numbers, of all species, of all
+reasons, which is the monad, the real essence of the being of all, and
+if he does not see it in its essence, in absolute light, he sees it in
+its seed, which is like unto it, which is its image; for from the monad,
+which is the divinity, proceeds this monad which is nature, the
+universe, the world, where it is beheld and reflected, as the sun is in
+the moon by means of which it is illuminated;[S] he finding himself in
+the hemisphere of intellectual substances. This is that Diana, that one
+who is the same entity, that entity which is comprehensible nature, in
+which burns the sun and the splendour of the higher nature, according to
+which, unity is both the generated and the generating, the producer and
+produced. Thus you can of yourself determine the mode, the dignity, and
+the success, which are most worthy of the hunter and the hunted.
+Therefore the enthusiast boasts of being the prey of Diana, to whom he
+rendered himself, and of whom he considers himself the accepted consort,
+and happy as a captive and a subject. Why, he envies no man (for there
+is none that can have more) or any other god that can have that species
+which is impossible to be obtained by an inferior nature, and therefore
+is not worthy to be desired, nor can one hunger after it.
+
+    [S] There is no potentiality for creation, or self-consciousness, in
+    a pure Spirit on this our plane, unless its too homogeneous,
+    perfect, because Divine, nature is, so to say, mixed with, and
+    strengthened by, an essence already differentiated. It is only the
+    lower line of the Triangle--representing the first triad that
+    emanates from the Universal Monad--that can furnish this needed
+    consciousness on the plane of differentiated Nature.--("The Secret
+    Doctrine.")
+
+CES. I have well understood all that you have said, and you have more
+than satisfied me. Now it is time to return home.
+
+MAR. Well.
+
+
+
+
+=Third Dialogue=.
+
+_Interlocutors_:
+
+LIBERIO. LAODONIO.
+
+
+LIB. Reclining in the shade of a cypress-tree, the enthusiast finding
+his mind free from other thoughts, it happened that the heart and the
+eyes spoke together as if they were animals and substances of different
+intellects and senses, and they made lament of that which was the
+beginning of his torment and which consumed his soul.
+
+LAO. Repeat, if you can recollect, the reasons and the words.
+
+LIB. The heart began the dialogue, which, making itself heard by the
+breast, broke into these words:
+
+55.
+
+_First proposition of the heart to the eyes_.
+
+    How, eyes of mine, can that so much torment,
+    Which as an ardent fire from ye derives,
+    And which this mortal subject so afflicts
+    With unrelenting burning never spared?
+    Can ocean floods suffice to mitigate
+    The ardour of those flames? or slowest star
+    Within the frozen circle of the north
+    Offer umbrageous shade?
+    Ye took me captive, and the self-same hand
+    Doth hold me and reject me and through you
+    I in the body am: out of it with the sun.
+    I am the source of life, yet am I not alive.
+    I know not what I am, for I belong
+    Unto this soul; but this soul is not mine.
+
+LAO. Truly the hearing, the seeing, the knowing, is that which kindles
+desire, and therefore it is through the operation of the eyes that the
+heart becomes inflamed: and the more worthy the object which is present
+with them the stronger is the fire, and the more active are the flames.
+What then, must that kind be, for which the heart burns in such a way
+that the coldest star in the Arctic circle cannot cool it, nor can the
+whole body of water of the ocean stop its burning! What must be the
+excellence of that object that has made him an enemy to himself, a rebel
+to his own soul and content with such hostility and rebellion, although
+he be captive to one who despises and will have none of him! But let me
+hear whether the eyes made a response, and what they said.
+
+LIB. They, on the other hand, complained of the heart as being the
+origin and cause why they shed so many tears, and this was the sum of
+their proposition.
+
+56.
+
+_First proposition of the eyes to the heart_.
+
+    How, oh my heart, do waters gush from thee
+    Like to the springs that bathe the Nereids' brows
+    Which daily in the sun are born and die?
+    Like to the double fountain of Amphitrite,
+    Which pours so great a flood across the earth,
+    That one might say, the sum of it exceeds
+    That of the stream which Egypt inundates,
+    Running its sevenfold course unto the sea.
+    Nature hath given two lights
+    To this small earth for governance;
+    But thou, perverter of eternal law,
+    Hast turned them into everlasting streams.
+    But Heaven is not content to see her law
+    Decline before unbridled violence.
+
+LAO. It is certain that the heart, grieved and stung, causes tears to
+spring to the eyes, and while these light the flames in this, that other
+dims those with moisture. But I am surprised at such exaggeration which
+says that the Nereids raising their wet faces to the eastern sun, is
+less than these waters (of the eyes). And more than that, they are equal
+to the ocean, not because they do pour, but because these two springing
+streams can pour such, and so much, that compared with them the Nile
+would appear a tiny stream divided into seven streamlets.[T]
+
+    [T] Is this an allusion to the seven activities or changes which
+    water goes through to produce form; Water being the formative power
+    which Fire, itself formless and the moving power, animates?--(Tr.)
+
+LIB. Be not surprised at that exaggeration nor at that potency without
+action! For you will understand all, after having heard the conclusion
+of their argument. Now listen how the heart responds to the proposition
+of the eyes.
+
+LAO. I pray you, let me hear.
+
+LIB.
+
+57.
+
+_First response of the heart to the eyes_.
+
+    Eyes, if an immortal flame within me burn,
+    And I no other am than burning fire;
+    If to come near me is to feel the blaze,
+    So that the heavens are fervid with my heat;
+    Why does my blazing flame consume you not,
+    But only contrary effects you feel?
+    Why saturated and not roasted ye,
+    If not of water but of fire I be?
+    Believe ye, oh ye blind,
+    That from such ardent burning is derived
+    The double passage, and those living founts
+    Have had their elements from Vulcan?
+    As force sometimes acquires a power
+    When by its contrary it is opposed.
+
+You see that the heart could not persuade itself that from an opposite
+cause and beginning, could proceed a force of an opposite effect. So
+that it will not allow the possibility of it, except through
+antiperistasis, which means the strength which an opposite acquires from
+that which, flying from the other, comes to unite itself, incorporate
+itself, insphere itself, or concentrate itself towards the individual,
+through its own virtue, which, the farther it is removed from the
+dimensions (dimensioni) the more efficacious it becomes.
+
+LAO. Tell me, how did the eyes respond to the heart?
+
+58.
+
+_First response of the eyes to the heart._
+
+    Thy passion does confuse thee, on my heart,
+    The path of truth thou hast entirely lost;
+    That which in us is seen--that which is hid--
+    Is seed of oceans. Neptune, if by fate
+    His kingdom he should lose, would find it here entire.
+    How does the burning flame from us derive
+    Who of the sea the double parent are?
+    So senseless thou'rt become!
+    Dost thou believe the flame will pass
+    And leave the doors all wet behind
+    That thou may'st feel the ardour of the same?
+    As splendour through a glass, dost thou
+    Believe that it through us will penetrate?
+
+Now I will not begin to philosophize about the identity of opposites
+which I have studied in the book De Principio ed uno, and I will
+suppose that which is usually received, that the opposites in the same
+genus are quite separate (distantissimi), so that the meaning of this
+response is more easily learned where the eyes call themselves the seed
+or founts in the virtual potentiality of which is the sea; so that if
+Neptune should lose all the waters, he could recall them into action by
+their own potentiality, where they are as in the beginning, medium and
+material. But it is not urged as a necessity, when they say it cannot
+be, that the flame passes over to the heart through their room (stanza e
+cortile) and courtyard leaving so many waters behind, for two reasons.
+First, because such an impediment cannot exist in action, if (equally?)
+violent opposition is not put into action;[U] second, because in so far
+as the waters are actually in the eyes, they can give passage to the
+heat as to the light; for, experience proves that the luminous ray
+kindles, by means of reflection, any material that becomes opposed to
+it, without heating the glass; and the ray passes through a glass,
+crystal or other vase, full of water, and heats an object placed under
+it, without heating the thick intervening body. As it is also true that
+it causes dry and dusty impressions in the caves of the deep sea.
+Therefore by analogy, if not by the same sort of reasons, we may see how
+it is possible that, through the lubricant and dark passage of the eyes,
+the affection may be kindled and inflamed by that light, the which for
+the same reason cannot be in the middle.[V] As the light of the sun,
+according to other reasoning, is in the middle air, or again in the
+nearer sense, and again in the common sense, or again in the intellect,
+notwithstanding that from one mode proceeds the other mode of being.
+
+    [U] Prima, per che tal impedimento in atto non puo essere se non
+    posti in atto tali oltraggiosi ripari. Does this mean that the
+    opposites which are called into action must be equal in
+    power?--(Translator.)
+
+    If, when fire is ascending again to its proper sphere, it should
+    meet with obstacles, such as a bit of wood or of straw, it would
+    resume its former activity, and consume this obstacle or hindrance;
+    and the greater the resistance, the more its activity would be
+    increased.... You will observe that the obstacle which the fire
+    meets with would serve only to increase its velocity, by giving it a
+    new ardour to overcome all obstacles in joining itself to its
+    centre.--("Spiritual Torrents," Lady Guion.)
+
+    [V] Nel mezzo.
+
+LAO. Are there any more discourses?
+
+LIB. Yes; because both the one and the other are trying to find out in
+what way it is that it (the heart) contains so many flames and those
+(the eyes) so many waters. The heart then makes the next proposition.
+
+59.
+
+_Second proposition of the heart to the eyes_.
+
+    If to the foaming sea the rivers run,
+    And pour their streams into the sea's dark gulf,
+    How does the kingdom of the water-gods,
+    Fed by the double torrent of these eyes,
+    Increase not; since the earth
+    Must lose the glorious overflow?
+    How is it that we do not see the day,
+    When from the mount Deukalion returns?
+    Where are the lengthening shores,
+    Where is the torrent to put out my flame,
+    Or, failing this, to give it greater power?
+    Does drop of water ever fall to earth
+    In such a way as leads me to suppose
+    It is not as the senses show it?
+
+It asks, what power is this, which is not put into action? If the waters
+are so many, why does Neptune not come to tyrannize over the kingdoms of
+the other elements? Where are the inundated banks? Where is he who will
+give coolness to the ardent fire? Where is the drop of water by which I
+may affirm through the eyes that which the senses deny? But the eyes in
+the same way ask another question.
+
+60.
+
+_Second proposition of the eyes to the heart_.
+
+    If matter changed and turned to fire acquires
+    The movement of a lighter element,
+    Rising aloft unto the highest heaven;
+    Wherefore, ignited by the fire of love,
+    Swifter than wind, dost thou not rise and flash.
+    Into the sun and be incorporate there?
+    Why rather stay a pilgrim here below
+    Than open through the air and us a way?
+    No spark of fire from that heart
+    Goes out through the wide atmosphere.
+    Body of dust and ashes is not seen,
+    Nor water-laden smoke ascends on high.
+    All is contained entire within itself,
+    And not of flame, is reason, sense, or thought.
+
+LAO. This proposition is neither more nor less conclusive than the
+other. But let us come at once to the answers if there be any.
+
+LIC. There are some certainly and full of sap. Listen.
+
+61.
+
+_Second response of the heart to the eyes_.
+
+    He is a fool, who that alone believes,
+    Which to the sense appears, who reason scorns.
+    My flame could never wing its way above.
+    The conflagration infinite remains unseen.
+    Between the eyes their waters are contained,
+    One infinite encroaches not upon another.
+    Nature wills not that all should perish.
+    If so much fire's enough for so much sphere,
+    Say, say, oh eyes,
+    What shall we do? how act
+    In order to make known, or I, or you,
+    For its deliverance, the sad plight of the soul?
+    If one and other of us both be hid,
+    How can we move the beauteous god to pity?
+
+LAS. If it is not true it is very well imagined: if it is not so, it is
+yet a very good excuse the one for the other; because where there are
+two forces, of the which one is not greater than the other, the
+operation of both must cease, for one resists as much as the other
+insists, and one assails while the other defends. If therefore the sea
+is infinite and the force of tears in the eyes is immense, it never can
+be made apparent by speech, nor the impetus of the fire concealed in the
+heart break forth, nor can they (the eyes) send forth the twin torrent
+to the sea if the heart shelters them with equal tenacity. Therefore the
+beautiful deity cannot be expected to be pitiful towards the afflicted
+soul because of the exhibition of tears which distil from the eyes, or
+speech which breaks forth from the breast.
+
+LIB. Now note the answer of the eyes to this proposition:--
+
+62.
+
+_Second response of the eyes to the heart_.
+
+    Alas! we poured into the wavy sea,
+    The strength of our two founts in vain,
+    For two opposing powers hold it concealed,
+    Lest it go rolling aimlessly adown.
+    The strength unmeasured of the burning heart,
+    Withholds a passage to the lofty streams;
+    Barring their twofold course unto the sea,
+    Nature abhors the covered ground.[W]
+    Now say, afflicted heart, what canst thou bring
+    To oppose against us with an equal force?
+    Oh, where is he, will boast himself to be
+    Exalted by this most unhappy love,
+    If of thy pain and mine it can be said,
+    The greater they, the less it may be seen.
+
+[W] Ch'il coperto terren natura aborre.
+
+Both these evils being infinite, like two equally vigorous opposites
+they curb and suppress each other: it could not be so if they were both
+finite, seeing that a precise equality does not belong to natural
+things, nor would it be so if the one were finite, the other infinite;
+for of a certainty the one would absorb the other, and they would both
+be seen, or, at least one, through the other. Beneath these sentences,
+there lies hidden, ethical and natural philosophy, and I leave it to be
+searched for, meditated upon and understood, by whosoever will and can.
+This alone I will not leave (unsaid) that it is not without reason that
+the affection of the heart is said to be the infinite sea by the
+apprehension of the eyes.[X] For the object of the mind being infinite,
+and no definite object being proposed to the intellect, the will cannot
+be satisfied by a finite good, but if besides that, something else is
+found, it is desired and sought for; for, as is commonly said, the apex
+of the inferior species is the beginning of the superior species,
+whether the degrees are taken according to the forms, the which we
+cannot consider as being infinite, or according to the modes and reasons
+of those, in which way, the highest good being infinite, it would be
+supposed to be infinitely communicated, according to the condition of
+the things, over which it is diffused. However, there is no definite
+species of the universe. I speak according to the figure and mass; there
+is no definite species of the intellect; the affections are not a
+definite species.
+
+    [X] Fire, Flame, Day, Smoke, Night, and so on ... These are all
+    names of various deities which preside over the Cosmo-psychic
+    Powers.--("The Secret Doctrine.")
+
+LAO. These two powers of the soul, then, never are nor can be perfect
+for the object, if they refer to it infinitely?
+
+LIB. So it would be if this infinite were by negative privation or
+privative negation of the end, as it is for a more positive affirmation
+of the end, infinite and endless.[Y]
+
+    [Y] "The deity is one, because it is infinite. It is triple, because
+    it is ever manifesting." This manifestation is triple in its
+    aspects, for it requires, as Aristotle has it, three principles for
+    every natural body to become objective: privation, form and matter.
+    Privation meant in the mind of the great philosopher ... the lowest
+    plane and world of the Anima Mundi.--("The Secret Doctrine.")
+
+LAO. You mean, then, two kinds of affinity; the one privative, the which
+may be towards something which is power, as, infinite is darkness, the
+end of which is the position of light; the other perfecting, which tends
+to the act and perfection, as infinite is the light, the end of which
+would be privation and darkness.[Z] In this, then, the intellect
+conceives the light, the good, the beautiful, in so far as the horizon
+of its capacity extends, and the soul, which drinks of Divine nectar and
+the fountain of eternal life in so far as its own vessel allows, and one
+sees that the light is beyond the circumference of his horizon, where it
+can go and penetrate more and more, and the nectar and fount of living
+water is infinitely fruitful, so that it can become ever more and more
+intoxicated.
+
+    [Z] "Darkness adopted illumination in order to make itself visible."
+    Darkness in its radical, metaphysical basis, is subjective and
+    absolute light; while the latter, in all its seeming effulgence and
+    glory, is merely a mass of shadows, as it can never be eternal, and
+    is simply an illusion, or Maya.--("The Secret Doctrine.")
+
+LIB. From this it does not follow that there is imperfection in the
+object, nor that there is little satisfaction in the potency, but that
+the power is included in the object and beatifically absorbed by it.
+Here the eyes imprint upon the heart, that is upon the intelligence, and
+rouse in the will an infinite torment of love, where there is no pain
+because nothing is sought which is not obtained; but it is happiness,
+because that which is there sought is always found, and there is no
+satiety, inasmuch as there is always appetite, and therefore enjoyment;
+in this it is not like the food of the body, the which with satiety
+loses enjoyment, has no pleasure before the enjoyment, nor after
+enjoyment, but only in the enjoyment itself, and where it passes certain
+limits it comes to feel annoyance and disgust. Behold, then, in a
+certain analogy, how the highest good ought to be also infinite, in
+order that it should not some time turn to evil; as food, which is good
+for the body, if it is not limited, may come to be poison. Thus it is
+that the water of the ocean does not extinguish that flame, and the
+rigour of the Arctic circle does not mitigate that ardour. Therefore it
+is bad through (the) one hand, which holds him and rejects him; it holds
+him, because it has him for its own; it rejects him because, flying
+from him, the higher it makes itself the more he ascends upwards to it;
+the more he follows it, the further off it appears, by reason of its
+high excellence, according as it is said: Accedit homo ad cor altum, et
+exaltabitur Deus. Such blessedness of affection begins in this life, and
+in this state it has its mode of being. Hence the heart can say that it
+is within with the body, and without with the sun, in so far as the soul
+with its twin faculty, puts into operation two functions: the one to
+vivify and realize the animal body, the other to contemplate superior
+things; so that it is in receptive potentiality from above, as it is in
+re-active potentiality below, towards the body. The body is, as it were,
+dead, and as it were apart from the soul, the which is its life and its
+perfection; and the soul is as it were dead, and a thing apart from the
+superior illuminating intelligence, from which the intellect is derived
+as to its nature and acts. Therefore, the heart is said to be the
+beginning of life, and not to be alive, it is said to belong to the
+animating soul, and that this does not belong to it; because it is
+inflamed by Divine love, and finally converted into fire, which can set
+on fire that which comes near it, seeing that it has contracted into
+itself the divinity; it is made god, and consequently in its kind it can
+inspire others with love; as the splendour of the sun may be seen and
+admired in the moon. And as for that which belongs to the consideration
+of the eyes, know, that in the present discourse they have two
+functions; one to impress the heart, the other to receive the impression
+of the heart; as this also has two functions, one to receive the
+impressions from the eyes, the other to impress them. The eyes study the
+species and propose them to the heart; the heart desires them, and
+presents his desire to the eyes; these conceive the light, diffuse it,
+and kindle the fire in the heart, which heated and kindled, sends its
+waters (umore) to them, so that they may dispose of them[AA]
+(digeriscano). Thus, firstly, cognition moves the affection, and soon
+the affection moves the cognition. The eyes, when they move (the heart),
+are dry, because they perform the office of a looking-glass, and of a
+representer; when they are moved, however, they become troubled and
+perturbed, because they perform the office of a diligent executer,
+seeing that with the speculating intellect, the beautiful and the good
+is first seen, then the will desires it; and later the industrious
+intellect procures it, follows it, and seeks it. Tearful eyes signify
+the difficulty of separating the thing wished for from, the wisher, the
+which in order that it should not pall, nor disgust, presents itself as
+an infinite longing (studio) which ever has, and ever seeks; seeing that
+the delight of the gods is ascribed to drinking, not to having tasted
+ambrosia, and to the continual enjoyment of food and drink, and not in
+being satiated and without desire for them. Hence they have satiety as
+it were in movement and apprehension, not in quiet and comprehension;
+they are not satiated without appetite, nor are they in a state of
+desire, without being in a certain way satiated.
+
+    [AA] "Deity is an arcane, living (or moving) FIRE, and the eternal
+    witnesses to this unseen Presence are Light, Heat, Moisture," this
+    trinity including, and being the cause of every phenomenon in
+    Nature.--("The Secret Doctrine.")
+
+LAO. Esuries satiata, satietas esuriens.
+
+LIB. Precisely so.
+
+LAO: From this I can comprehend how, without blame, but with great truth
+and understanding, it has been said that Divine love weeps with
+indescribable groans, because having all it loves all, and loving all
+has all.
+
+LIB. But many comments would be necessary if we would understand that
+Divine love which is deity itself; and one easily understands Divine
+love, so far as it is to be found in its effects and in the inferior
+nature. I do not say that which from the divinity is diffused into
+things, but that of things which aspires to the divinity.
+
+LAO. Now of this and of other matters we will discourse more at our ease
+presently. Let us go.
+
+
+
+
+=Fourth Dialogue=.
+
+_Interlocutors_:
+
+SEVERINO. MINUTOLO.
+
+
+SEV. You will see the origin of the nine blind men, who state nine
+reasons and special causes of their blindness, and yet they all agree in
+one general reason and one common enthusiasm.[AB]
+
+    [AB] May one suggest an analogy between the nine months of
+    gestation, during which time the foetus goes through various stages
+    and conditions to complete the "individual cycle of evolution," and
+    the nine blind men who, at the end of their probation, are brought
+    to see the light--to be born--illuminated?--("Translator.")
+
+MIN. Begin with the first!
+
+SEV. The first of these, notwithstanding that he is blind by nature, yet
+he laments, saying to the others that he cannot persuade himself that
+nature has been less courteous to them than to him; seeing that although
+they do not (now) see, yet they have enjoyed sight, and have had
+experience of that sense, and of the value of that faculty, of which
+they have been deprived, while he came into the world as a mole, to be
+seen and not to see, to long for the sight of that which he never had
+seen.
+
+MIN. Many have fallen in love through report alone.
+
+SEV. They have, says he, the happiness of retaining that Divine image
+present in the mind, so that, although blind, they have in imagination
+that which he cannot have. Then in the sistine he turns to his guide and
+begs him to lead him to some precipice, so that he may no longer endure
+this contempt and persecution of nature. He says then:
+
+63.
+
+_The first blind man_.
+
+    Ye now afflicted are, who erst were glad,
+    For ye have lost the light that once was yours,
+    Yet happy, for ye have the twin lights known.
+    These eyes ne'er lighted were, and ne'er were quenched;
+    But a more grievous destiny is mine
+    Which calls for heavier lamentation.
+    Who will deny that nature upon me
+    Has frowned more harshly than on you?
+    Conduct me to the precipice, my guide,
+    And give me peace, for there will I a cure
+    For this my dolour and affliction find;
+    For to be seen, yet not to see the light,
+    Like an incapable and sightless mole,
+    Is to be useless and a burden on the earth.
+
+Now follows the other, who, bitten by the serpent of jealousy, became
+affected in the organ of sight. He wanders without any guide, unless he
+has jealousy for his escort. He begs some of the bystanders, that seeing
+there is no remedy for his misfortune, they should have pity upon him,
+so that he should no longer feel it; that he might become as unmanifest
+to himself as he is to the light, and that they bury him together with
+his own misfortune. He says then:
+
+64.
+
+_The second blind man_.
+
+    Alecta has torn from out her dreadful hair,
+    The infernal worm that with a cruel bite,
+    Has fiercely fastened on my soul,
+    And of my senses, torn the chief away,
+    Leaving the intellect without its guide.
+    In vain the soul some consolation seeks.
+    That spiteful, rabid, rancorous jealousy
+    Makes me go stumbling along the way.
+    If neither magic spell nor sacred plant,
+    Nor virtue hid in the enchanter's stone,
+    Will yield me the deliverance that I ask:
+    Let one of you, my friends, be pitiful,
+    And put me out, as are put out my eyes,
+    That they and I together be entombed.
+
+The other follows, who says that he became blind through having been
+suddenly brought out of the darkness into a great light: accustomed to
+behold ordinary beauties, a celestial beauty was suddenly presented
+before his eyes--a sun-god--in this manner his sight became dull and the
+twin lights which shine at the prow of the soul were put out: for the
+eyes are like two beacons, which guide the ship, and this would happen
+to one brought up in Cimmerian obscurity if he fixed his eyes suddenly
+upon the sun. In the sistine he begs for free passage to Hades, because
+darkness alone is suitable to a dark condition. He says:
+
+65.
+
+_The third blind man_.
+
+    If sudden on the sight, the star of day
+    Should shed his beams on one in darkness reared,
+    Nurtured beneath the black Cimmerian sky,
+    Far from the radiance of the glorious sun,
+    The double light, the beacon of the soul
+    He quenches: then as a foe he hides.
+    Thus were my eyes made dull, inept,
+    Used only, wonted beauties to behold.
+    Conduct me to the land where darkness reigns!
+    Wherefore being dead, speak I amidst the folk?
+    A chip of Hell, why do I mix and move
+    Amongst the living, wherefore do I drink
+    The hated air, since all my pain
+    Is due to having seen the highest good?
+
+The fourth blind man comes forward, not blind for the same reason as the
+former one. For as that one was blinded through the sudden aspect of
+the light, this one is so, from having too frequently beheld it, or
+through having fixed his eyes too much upon it, so that he has lost the
+sense of all other light, but he does not consider himself to be blind
+through looking at that one which has blinded him: and the same may be
+said of the sense of sight as of the sense of hearing, that those whose
+ears are accustomed to great noises, do not hear the lesser, as is well
+known of those who live near the cataracts of the great river Nile which
+fall precipitously down to the plain.
+
+MIN. Thus, all those who have accustomed the body and the soul to things
+more difficult and great, are not apt to feel annoyed by smaller
+difficulties. So that fellow ought not to be discontented about his
+blindness.
+
+SEV. Certainly not. But one says, voluntarily blind, of one who desires
+that every other thing be hidden because it annoys him to be diverted
+from looking at that which alone he wishes to behold. Meanwhile he prays
+the passers-by to prevent his coming to mischief in any encounter, while
+he goes so absorbed and captivated by one principal object.
+
+MIN. Repeat his words!
+
+SEV. He says:
+
+66
+
+_The fourth blind man_.
+
+    Headlong from on high, to the abyss,
+    The cataract of the Nile falls down and dulls the senses
+    Of the joyless folk to every other sound,
+    So stood I too, with spirit all intent
+    Upon the living light, that lights the world;
+    Dead henceforth to all the lesser splendours,
+    While that light shines, let every other thing
+    Be to the voluntary blind concealed.
+    I pray you save me stumbling 'mongst the stones,
+    Make me aware of the wild beast,
+    Show me whether up or down I go;
+    So that the miserable bones fall not,
+    Into a low and cavernous place,
+    While I, without a guide, am stepping on.
+
+To the blind man that follows, it happens that having wept so much, his
+eyes are become dim, so that he is not able to extend the visual ray, so
+as to distinguish visible objects, nor can he see the light, which in
+spite of himself, through so many sorrows, he at one time was able to
+see. Besides which he considers that his blindness is not from
+constitution, but from habit, and is peculiar to himself, because the
+luminous fire which kindles the soul in the pupil, was for too long a
+time and with too much force, repressed and restrained by a contrary
+humour, so that although he might cease from weeping, he cannot be
+persuaded that this would result in the longed-for vision. You will hear
+what he says to the throng in order that they should enable him to
+proceed on his way:
+
+67.
+
+_The fifth blind man_.
+
+    Eyes of mine, with waters ever full,
+    When will the bright spark of the visual ray,
+    Darting, spring through each veiling obstacle,
+    That I may see again those holy lights
+    That were the alpha of my darling pain?
+    Ah, woe! I fear me it is quite extinct,
+    So long oppressed and conquered by its opposite.
+    Let the blind man pass on!
+    And turn your eyes upon these founts
+    Which overcome the others one and all.
+    Should any dare dispute it with me,
+    There's one would surely answer him again;
+    That in one eye of mine an ocean is contained.
+
+The sixth blind man is sightless because, through so much weeping, there
+remains no more moisture, not even the crystalline and moisture through
+which, as a diaphanous medium, the visual ray was transmitted, and the
+external light and visible species were introduced, so that the heart
+became compressed because all the moist substance, whose office it is to
+keep united the various parts and opposites, was absorbed, and the
+amorous affection remains without the effect of tears. Therefore the
+organ is destroyed through the victory of the other elements, and it is
+consequently left without sight and without consistency of the parts of
+the body altogether.[AC] He then proposes to the bystanders that which
+you shall hear:
+
+68.
+
+_The sixth blind man_.
+
+    Eyes, no longer eyes, fountains no longer founts,
+    Ye have wept out the waters that did keep
+    The body, soul, and spirit joined in one,
+    And thou, reflecting crystal, which from without
+    So much unto the soul made manifest,
+    Thou art consumed by the wounded heart.
+    So towards the dark and cavernous abyss,
+    I, a blind arid man, direct my steps.
+    Ah, pity me, and do not hesitate
+    To help my speedy going. I who
+    So many rivers in the dark days spread out,
+    Finding my only comfort in my tears,
+    Now that my streams and fountains all are dry,
+    Towards profound oblivion lead the way.
+
+    [AC] Water is the first principle of all things; this was the
+    central doctrine of his system (Thales). Now, if we may believe
+    Aristotle, this thought was suggested to him not so much by
+    contemplating the illimitable ocean, out of which, as old
+    cosmogonists taught, all things had at first proceeded, as by
+    noticing the obvious fact, that moisture is found in all living
+    things, and that if it were absent they would cease to be. Thales,
+    no doubt, believed this humour or moisture to be, as he said, the
+    essence and principle of all things.--("Encyclopaedia
+    Metropolitana.")
+
+The next one avers that he has lost his sight through the intensity of
+the flame, which, proceeding from the heart, first destroyed the eyes,
+and then dried up all the remaining moisture of the substance of the
+lover, so that being all melted and turned to flame, he is no longer
+himself, because the fire whose property it is to resolve all bodies
+into their atoms, has converted him into impalpable dust, whereas by
+virtue of water alone, the atoms of other bodies thicken, and are welded
+together to make a substantial composition. Yet he is not deprived of
+the sense of the most intense flame. Therefore, in the sistine he would
+have space made for him to pass; for if anybody should be touched by his
+fires he would become such that he would have no more feeling of the
+flames of hell, for their heat would be to him as cold snow.
+
+69.
+
+_The seventh blind man_.
+
+    Beauty, which through the eyes rushed to the heart,
+    And formed the mighty furnace in my breast,
+    Absorbing first the visual moisture; then,
+    Spouting aloft its grasping flashing flame,
+    Devouring every other fluid,
+    To set the dryer element at rest,
+    Has thus reduced me to a boneless dust,
+    Which now to its own atoms is resolved,
+    If anguish infinite your fears should rouse
+    Make space, give way, oh peoples!
+    Beware of my fierce penetrating fire,
+    For if it should invade and touch you, ye
+    Would feel and know the fires of hell
+    To be like winter's cold.
+
+The eighth follows, whose blindness is caused by the dart which love has
+caused to penetrate from the eyes to the heart. Hence, he laments not
+only as being blind, but furthermore because he is wounded and burnt so
+fiercely, that he believes no other can be equally so. The sense of it
+is easily expressed in this sonnet:--
+
+70.
+
+_The eighth blind man_.
+
+    Vile onslaught, evil struggle, unrighteous palm,
+    Fine point, devouring fire, strong nerve,
+    Sharp wound, impious ardour, cruel body,
+    Dart, fire and tangle of that wayward god
+    Who pierced the eyes, inflamed the heart, bound the soul,
+    Made me at once sightless, a lover, and a slave,
+    So that, blind I have at all times, in all ways and places,
+    The feeling of my wound, my fire, my noose.
+    Men, heroes, and gods!
+    Who be on earth, or near to Ditis or to Jove,
+    I pray ye say, when, how, and where did ye
+    Feel ever, hear, or see in any place
+    Woes like to these, amongst the oppressed
+    Amongst the damned, 'mongst lovers?
+
+Finally comes the last one, who is also mute through not having been
+able, or having dared, to say that which he most desired to say, for
+fear of offending or exciting contempt, and he is deprived of speaking
+of every other thing: therefore, it is not he who speaks, but his guide
+who relates the affair, about which I do not speak, but only bring you
+the sense thereof:
+
+71.
+
+_The guide of the ninth blind man_.
+
+    Happy are ye, oh all ye sightless lovers,
+    That ye the reason of your pains can tell,
+    By virtue of your tears you can be sure
+    Of pure and favourable receptions.
+    Amongst you all, the latent fire of him
+    Whose guide I am, rages most fiercely,
+    Though he is mute for want of boldness
+    To make known his sorrows to his deity.
+    Make way! open ye wide the way,
+    Be ye benign unto this vacant face,
+    Oh people full of grievous hindrances,
+    The while this harassed weary trunk
+    Goes knocking at the doors
+    To meet a death less painful, more profound.
+
+Here are mentioned nine reasons, which are the cause that the human mind
+is blind as regards the Divine object and cannot fix its eyes upon it.
+And of these, the first, allegorized through the first blind man, is
+the quality of its own species, which in so far as the degree in which
+he finds himself admits, he aspires certainly higher, than he is able to
+comprehend.
+
+MIN. Because no natural desire is vain, we are able to assure ourselves
+of a more excellent state which is suitable to the soul outside of this
+body, in the which it may be possible to unite itself, or to approach
+more nearly, to its object.
+
+SEV. Thou sayest well that no natural impulse or power is without strong
+reason; it is in fact the same rule of nature which orders things. So
+far, it is a thing most true and most certain to well-disposed
+intellects, that the human soul, whatever it may show itself while it is
+in the body, that same, which it makes manifest in this state, is the
+expression of its pilgrim existence in this region; because it aspires
+to the truth and to universal good, and is not satisfied with that which
+comes on account of and to the profit of its species.
+
+The second, represented by the second blind man, proceeds from some
+troubled affection, as in the question of Love and Jealousy, the which
+is like a moth, which has the same subject, enemy and father, that is,
+it consumes the cloth or wood from which, it is generated.
+
+MIN. This does not seem to me to take place with heroic love.
+
+SEV. True, according to the same reason which is seen in the lower kind
+of love; but I mean according to another reason similar to that which
+happens to those who love truth and goodness, which shows itself when
+they are angry against those who adulterate it, spoil it, or corrupt it,
+or who in other ways would treat it with indignity, as has been the case
+with those who have brought themselves to suffer death and pains, and to
+being ignominiously treated by ignorant peoples and vulgar sects.
+
+MIN. Certainly no one truly loves the truth and the good who is not
+angry against the multitude; as no one loves in the ordinary way who is
+not jealous and fearful about the thing loved.
+
+SEV. And so he comes to be really blind in many things, and according to
+the common opinion he is quite infatuated and mad.
+
+MIN. I have noted a place which says that all those are infatuated and
+mad, who have sense beyond and outside of the general sense of other
+men. But such extravagance is of two kinds, according as one goes beyond
+and ascends up higher than the greater number rise or can rise, and
+these are they who are inspired with Divine enthusiasm; or by going
+down lower where those are found who have greater defect of sense and
+of reason than the many, and the ordinary; but in that kind of madness,
+insensibility and blindness, will not be found the jealous hero.
+
+SEV. Although he is told that much learning makes him mad, yet no one
+can really abuse him. The third, represented by the third blind man,
+proceeds from this: that Divine Truth according to supernatural
+reasoning, called metaphysics, manifests itself to those few to whom it
+shows itself, and does not proceed with measure of movement and time as
+occurs in the physical sciences, that is, those which are acquired by
+natural light, the which, in discoursing of a thing known to reason by
+means of the senses, proceed to the knowledge of another thing, unknown,
+the which discourse is called argument; but immediately and suddenly,
+according to the method which belongs to such efficiency.[AD] Whence a
+divine has said: "Attenuati sunt oculi mei suspicientes in excelsum." So
+that it does not require a useless lapse of time, fatigue, and study,
+and inquisitorial act to have it, but it is taken in quickly, as the
+solar light, without hesitation, and makes itself present to whoever
+turns himself to it and opens himself to it.
+
+    [AD] When somewhat of this Perfect Good is discovered and revealed
+    within the soul of man, as it were in a glance or flash, the soul
+    conceiveth a longing to approach unto the Perfect
+    Goodness.--("Theologia Germanica.")
+
+MIN. Do you mean then, that the student and the philosopher are not more
+apt to receive this light than the ignorant?
+
+SEV. In a certain way no, and in a certain way yes. There is no
+difference, when the Divine mind through its providence comes to
+communicate itself without disposition of the subject; I mean to say
+when it communicates itself because it seeks and elects its subject; but
+there is a great difference, when it waits and would be sought, and then
+according to its own good will and pleasure it makes itself to be found.
+In this way it does not appear to all, nor can it appear to others, than
+to those who seek it. Hence it is said, "Qui quaerunt me, invenient me;"
+and again: "Qui sitit, veniat et bibat!"
+
+MIN. It is not to be denied, that the apprehension of the second manner
+is made in Time. (Comes with time?)
+
+SEV. You do not distinguish between the disposition towards the Divine
+light and the apprehension of the same. Certainly I do not deny that it
+requires time to dispose oneself, discourse, study and fatigue; but as
+we say that change takes place in time, and generation in an instant,
+and as we see that with time, the windows are opened, but the sun enters
+in a moment, so does it happen similarly in this case.
+
+The fourth, represented in the following, is not really unworthy, like
+that which results from the habit of believing in the false opinions of
+the vulgar, which are very far removed from the opinions of
+philosophers, and are derived from the study of vulgar philosophies,
+which are by the multitude considered the more true, the more they
+appeal to common sense. And this habit is one of the greatest and
+strongest disadvantages, because as Alcazele and Averroes showed, it is
+like that which happens to those persons who from childhood and youth
+are in the habit of eating poison, and have become such, that it is
+converted into sweet and proper nutriment, and on the other hand, they
+abominate those things which are really good and sweet according to
+common nature; but it is most worthy, because it is founded upon the
+habit of looking at the true light; the which habit cannot come into use
+for the multitude, as we have said. This blindness is heroic, and is of
+such a kind that it can worthily satisfy the present heroic blind man,
+who is so far from troubling himself about it that he is able to explain
+every other sight, and he would crave nothing else from the community
+save a free passage and progress in contemplation, for he finds himself
+usually hampered and blocked by obstacles and opposition.
+
+The fifth results from the disproportion of the means of our cognition
+to the knowable; seeing that in order to contemplate Divine things, the
+eyes must be opened by means of images, analogies and other reasonings
+which by the Peripatetics are comprehended under the name of fancies
+(fantasmi); or, by means of Being, to proceed to speculate about
+Essence, by means of its effects and the knowledge of the cause; the
+which means, are so far from ensuring the attainment of such an end,
+that it is easier to believe that the highest and most profound
+cognition of Divine things, is through negation and not through
+affirmation, knowing that the Divine beauty and goodness is not that
+which can or does fall within our conception, but that which is above
+and beyond, incomprehensible; chiefly in that condition called by the
+philosopher speculation of phantoms, and by the theologian, vision
+through analogies, reflections and enigmas, because we see, not the true
+effects and the true species of things, or the substance of ideas, but
+the shadows, vestiges and simulacra of them, like those who are inside
+the cave and have from their birth their shoulders turned away from the
+entrance of the light, and their faces towards the end, where they do
+not see that which is in reality, but the shadows of that which is found
+substantially outside the cave. Therefore by the open vision which it
+has lost, and knows it has lost, a spirit similar to or better than that
+of Plato weeps, desiring exit from the cave, whence, not through
+reflexion, but through immediate conversion he may see the light again.
+
+MIN. It appears to me that this blind man does not refer to the
+difficulty which proceeds from reflective vision, but to that which is
+caused through the medium between the visual power and the object.
+
+SEV. These two modes, although they are distinct in the sensitive
+cognition, or ocular vision, at the same time are united together in the
+rational or intellectual cognition.
+
+MIN. It seems to me that I have heard and read that in every vision, the
+means, or the intermediary is required between the power and the object.
+Because as by means of the light diffused in the air and the figure of
+the thing, which in a certain way proceeds from that which is seen, to
+that which sees, the act of seeing is put into effect, so in the
+intellectual region, where shines the sun of the intellect, acting
+between the intelligible species formed as proceeding from the object,
+our intellect comes to comprehend something of the divinity, or
+something inferior to it. Because, as our eye, when we see, does not
+receive the light of the fire and of gold, in substance, but in
+similitude; so the intellect, in whatever state it is found, does not
+receive the divinity substantially, so that there should be
+substantially as many gods as there are intelligences, but in
+similitude; therefore they are not formally gods, but denominatively
+divine, the divinity and Divine beauty being one, exalted above all
+things.
+
+SEV. You say well; but for all your well saying, there is no need for me
+to retract, because I have never said the contrary. But I must declare
+and explain. Therefore, first I maintain that the immediate vision, so
+called and understood by us, does not do away with that sort of medium
+which is the intelligible species, nor that which is the light; but that
+which is equal to the thickness and density of the crystalline or opaque
+intermediate body; as happens to him who sees by means of the waters
+more or less turbid, or air foggy and cloudy, who would believe he was
+looking as without a medium when it was conceded to him to look through
+the pure air, light and clear. All which you have explained where it
+says:
+
+    "When will the bright spark of the visual ray
+    Darting, spring through each veiling obstacle."
+
+But let us return. The sixth, represented in the following, is caused
+only by the imbecility and unreality of the body, which is in continual
+motion, mutation, and change, the operations of which must follow the
+condition of its faculty, the which is a result of the condition of its
+nature and being. How can immobility, reality, entity, truth be
+contained in that which is ever different, and always makes and is made,
+other and otherwise? What truth, what picture can be painted and
+impressed, where the pupils of the eyes are dispersed in water, the
+water into steam, the steam into flame, the flame into air, and this in
+other and other without end: the subject of sense and cognition turns
+for ever upon the wheel of mutation?
+
+MIN. Movement is change, and that which is changeable works and operates
+ever differently, because the conception and affection follow the reason
+and condition of the subject; and he who sees other and other different
+and differently must necessarily be blind as regards that beauty which
+is one and alone and is the same unity and entity.
+
+SEV. So it is. The seventh, contained allegorically in the sentiment of
+the seventh blind man, is the result of the fire of the affections,
+whence some become impotent and incapable of comprehending the truth, by
+making the affection precede the intellect. There are those who love
+before they understand: whence it happens that all things appear to them
+according to the colour of their affections, whereas he who would
+understand the truth by means of contemplation, ought to be perfectly
+pure in thought.
+
+MIN. In truth, one sees how much diversity there is in meditators and
+inquirers, because some, according to their habits and early fundamental
+discipline, proceed by means of numbers,[AE] others by means of images,
+others by means of order and disorder, others through composition and
+division, others by separation and congregation, others by inquiry and
+doubt, others by discussions and definitions, others by interpretations
+and decypherings of voices, words, and dialects, so that some are
+mathematical philosophers, some metaphysicians, others logicians, others
+grammarians; so there are divers contemplators, who with different
+affections set themselves to study and apply the meaning of written
+sentences; whence we find that the same light of truth, expressed in the
+selfsame book, serves with the same words the proposition of so
+numerous, diverse, and contrary sects.[AF]
+
+    [AE] Number is, as the great writer (Balzac) thought, an Entity,
+    and, at the same time, a Breath emanating from what he termed God,
+    and what we call the ALL; the breath which alone could organize the
+    physical kosmos.--("The Secret Doctrine.")
+
+    [AF] As the Bible serves as the basis for all the different
+    Protestant sects.
+
+SEV. That is to say, that the affections are very powerful in hindering
+the comprehension of the Truth, notwithstanding that the person may not
+himself perceive it; just as it happens to a stupid invalid who does not
+say that his mouth is bittered but that the food is bitter. Now that
+kind of blindness is expressed by him whose eyes are changed and
+deprived of their natural powers, by that which the heart has given and
+imprinted upon it, powerful not only to change the sense, but besides
+that, all the faculties of the soul as the present image shows.
+According to the meaning of the eighth, the high intelligible object
+has blinded the intellect, as the high superposed sensible has
+corrupted the senses. Thus it would happen to him who should see Jove in
+his majesty, he would lose his life and in consequence his senses. As he
+who looks aloft sometimes is overcome by the majesty.[AG] Besides, when
+he comes to penetrate the Divine species, he passes it like a ray.
+Whence say the theologians that the Divine word is more penetrating than
+sharp point of sword or knife. Hence is derived the form and impression
+of His own footstep, upon which nothing else can be imprinted and
+sealed. Therefore, that form being there confirmed and the new strange
+one not being able to take its place unless the other yields,
+consequently he can say, that he has no power of taking any other, if
+there is one who replaces it or scatters it through the necessary want
+of proportion. The ninth reason is exemplified, by the ninth who is
+blind through want of confidence, through dejection of spirit, the which
+is caused and brought about also by a great love which He fears to
+offend by His temerity. Whence says the Psalm: "Averte oculos tuos a me,
+quia ipsi me avolare fecere." And so he suppresses his eyes so as not to
+see that which most of all he desires, as he keeps his tongue from
+talking with whom he most wishes to speak, from fear that a defective
+look or word should humiliate him or bring him in some way into
+misfortune. And this generally proceeds from the apprehension of the
+excellence of the object above its potential faculty: whence the most
+profound and divine theologians say, that God is more honoured and loved
+by silence than by words; as one sees more by shutting the eyes to the
+species represented, than by opening them, therefore the negative
+theology of Pythagoras and Dionysius is more celebrated than the
+demonstrative theology of Aristotle and the scholastic doctors.
+
+[AG]
+
+      ... Gaze, as thy lips have said,
+      On God Eternal, Very God! See me, see what thou prayest!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+      O Eyes of God! O Head!
+      My strength of soul is fled.
+    Gone is heart's force, rebuked is mind's desire!
+      When I behold Thee so,
+      With awful brows a-glow,
+    With burning glance, and lips lighted by fire,
+      Fierce as those flames which shall
+      Consume, at close of all,
+      Earth, Heaven!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+      God is it I did see,
+    This unknown marvel of Thy Form! but fear
+      Mingles with joy! Retake,
+      Dear Lord! for pity's sake,
+    Thine earthly shape, which earthly eyes may bear!
+                              --("The Song Celestial.")
+                      (Sir Edwin Arnold's translation.)
+
+MIN. Let us go; and we will reason by the way.
+
+SEV. As you please.
+
+
+
+
+=Fifth Dialogue=.
+
+_Interlocutors_:
+
+LAODOMIA. GIULIA.
+
+
+LAO. Some other time, oh my sister, thou wilt hear what happened to
+those nine blind men, who were at first nine most beautiful and amorous
+youths, who being so inspired by the loveliness of your face, and having
+no hope of receiving the reward of their love, and fearing that such
+despair would reduce them to final ruin, went away from the happy
+Campanian country, and of one accord, those who at first were rivals for
+your beauty, swore not to separate until they had tried in all possible
+ways to find something more beautiful than you or at least equal to you;
+besides which, that they might discover that mercy and pity which they
+could not find in your breast armed with pride; for they believed this
+was the only remedy which could bring them out of that cruel captivity.
+The third day after their solemn departure, as they were passing by the
+Circean mount, it pleased them to go and see those antiquities, the
+cave and fane of that goddess. When they were come there, the majesty of
+the solitary place, the high, storm-beaten rocks, the murmur of the sea
+waves which break amongst those caves, and many other circumstances of
+the locality and the season combined, made them feel inspired; and one
+of them I will tell thee, more bold than the others, spoke these words:
+"Oh might it please heaven that in these days, as in the past more happy
+ages, some wise Circe might make herself present who, with plants and
+minerals working her incantations, would be able to curb nature. I
+should believe that she, however proud, would surely be pitiful unto our
+woes. She, solicited by our supplications and laments, would condescend
+either to give a remedy or to concede a grateful vengeance for the
+cruelty of our enemy."
+
+Hardly had he finished uttering these words than there became visible to
+them a palace, which, whoever had knowledge of human things, could
+easily comprehend that it was not the work of man, nor of nature; the
+form and manner of it I will explain to thee another time. Whence,
+filled with great wonder and touched by hope that some propitious deity,
+who must have placed this before them, would explain their condition and
+fortunes, they said with one accord they could meet with nothing worse
+than death, which they considered a less evil than to live in so much
+anguish. Therefore they entered, not finding any door that was shut
+against them nor janitor who questioned them. They found themselves in a
+very richly ornamented room, where with royal majesty, (as one may say,
+Apollo was found again by Phaeton;) appears she, who is called his
+daughter, and at whose appearance they saw vanish all the figures of
+many other deities who ministered unto her. Then, received and comforted
+by this gracious face, they advanced, and overcome by the splendour of
+that majesty, they bent their knee to the earth, and altogether, with
+the diversity of tones which their various genius suggested, they laid
+open their vows to the goddess. By her finally, they were treated in
+such a manner that, blind and homeless, with great labour having
+ploughed the seas, passed over rivers, overcome mountains, traversed
+plains for the space of ten years, and at the end of which time having
+arrived under that temperate sky of the British Isles, and come into the
+presence of the lovely, graceful nymphs of Father Thames, they (the
+nine), having made humble obeisance, and the nymphs having received them
+with acts of purest courtesy, one, the principal amongst them, who
+later on will be named, with tragic and lamenting accents laid bare the
+common cause in this manner:
+
+    Of those, oh gentle Dames, who with closed urn,
+    Present themselves, whose hearts are pierced
+    Not for a fault by nature caused,
+    But through a cruel fate,
+    That in a living death,
+    Does hold them fast, we each and all are blind.
+
+    Nine spirits are we, wandering many years,
+    Longing to know; and many lands
+    O'ertravelled, one day were surprised
+    By a sore accident,
+    To which if you attend,
+    You'll say, oh worthy, oh unhappy lovers!
+
+    An impious Circe, who presumes to boast
+    Of having for her sire this glorious sun,
+    Welcomed us after many wanderings:
+    Opened a certain urn,
+    With water sprinkled us,
+    And to the sprinkling added an enchantment.
+
+    Waiting the finish of this work of hers
+    We all were quiet, mute, attent,
+    Until she said, "Oh ye unhappy ones,
+    Blind be ye all,
+    Gather that fruit
+    Those get who fix their thoughts on things above."
+
+    Daughter and Mother of horror and darkness and woe
+    They cried, who sudden were struck blind,
+    It pleased you then, so proud and harsh,
+    To treat these wretched lovers,
+    Who put themselves before you,
+    Ready to consecrate to you their hearts.
+
+    But when the sudden fury somewhat stayed,
+    Which this new case had brought on them,
+    Each one within himself withdrew,
+    While rage to grief gave place;
+    To her they turned for pity,
+    With chosen words companioning their tears.
+
+    Now if it please thee, gracious sorceress,
+    If zeal for glory chance to move thy heart,
+    Or milk of kindness soften it,
+    Be merciful to us,
+    And with thy magic herbs,
+    Heal up the wound imprinted on our hearts.
+
+    If wish to succour rules thy beauteous hand,
+    Make no delay, lest some of us
+    Unhappy ones reach death, ere we
+    Praising thy act
+    Can each one say,
+    So much did she torment, yet more did heal.
+
+    Then she replied: Oh curious prying minds,
+    Take this my other fatal urn,
+    Which my own hand may not unclose;
+    Over the wide expanse of earth,
+    Wander ye still,
+    Search for and visit all the various kingdoms.
+
+    Fate hath decreed, it ne'er shall be unclosed
+    Till lofty wisdom, noble chastity
+    And loveliness with these combined,
+    Shall set their hands to it;
+    All other efforts vain,
+    To make this fluid open to the sky.
+
+    Then should it chance to sprinkle beauteous hands,
+    Of those who come anear for remedy,
+    Its god-like virtues you may prove,
+    And turning cruel pain
+    Into a sweet content,
+    Two lovely stars upon the earth you'll see.
+
+    Meanwhile be none of you cast down or sad,
+    Although long while in deep obscurity
+    All that the heavens contain remain concealed,
+    For good so great as this,
+    No pain, however sharp,
+    Can be accounted worthy of the cost.
+
+    That Good to which through blindness you are led,
+    Should make appear all other-having, vile,
+    And every torment be as pleasure held,
+    Who, hoping to behold
+    Graces unique and rare,
+    May hold in high disdain all other lights.
+
+    Ah, weary ones! Too long, too long our limbs
+    Have wandered o'er the terrene globe,
+    So that to us it seems
+    As if the shrewd wild beast,
+    With false and flattering hopes,
+    Our bosoms has encumbered with her wiles.
+
+    Wretched henceforth, we see, though late, the witch
+    Concerned to keep us all with promises
+    (And for our greater hurt), at bay;
+    For surely she believes
+    No woman can be found
+    Beneath the roof of heaven so dowered as she.
+
+    Now that we know that every hope is vain,
+    We yield to destiny and are content,
+    Nor will withdraw from all our strivings sore;
+    And staying not our steps,
+    Though trembling, tired and vexed,
+    We languish through the days that yet are ours.
+
+    Oh graceful nymphs, that on the grassy banks
+    Of gentle Thames do make your home,
+    Do not disdain, ye beauteous ones,
+    To try, although in vain,
+    With those white hands of yours
+    To uncover that which in our urn is hid.
+
+    Who knows? perchance it may be on these shores,
+    Where, with the Nereids, may be seen
+    The rapid torrent from below ascend
+    And wind again
+    Back to its source,
+    That heaven has destined there she shall be found.
+
+One of the nymphs took the urn in her hand, and without trying to do
+more offered it to one at a time, but not one was found who dared to be
+the first to try (to open it), but all by common consent, after simply
+looking at it, referred and proposed it with respect and reverence to
+one alone; who, finally, not so much to exhibit her own glory as to
+succour those unhappy ones, and while in a sort of doubt, the urn opened
+as it were spontaneously of itself. But what shall I say to you of the
+applause of the nymphs? How can you imagine that I can express the
+extreme joy of the nine blind men, when, hearing that the urn was open,
+they felt themselves sprinkled with the desired waters, they opened
+their eyes and saw the two suns, and felt they had gained a double
+happiness; one, the having recovered the light they had lost, the other
+that of the newly discovered light which alone could show them the image
+of the highest good upon earth. How, I say, can you expect me to
+describe the joy and exulting merriment of voices of spirit and of body
+which they themselves all together could not express? For a time it was
+like seeing so many furious bacchanals, inebriated with that which they
+saw so plainly, until at last, the impetus of their fury being somewhat
+calmed, they put themselves in a row.
+
+73.
+
+_The first played the guitar and sang the following_:
+
+    Oh cliffs, oh deeps, oh thorns, oh snags, oh stones,
+    Oh mounts, oh plains, oh valleys, rivers, seas,
+    How dear and sweet you show yourselves,
+    For by your aid and favour,
+    To us the sky's unveiled.
+    Oh fortunate and well-directed steps,
+
+_The second with the mandoline played and sang_:
+
+    Oh fortunate and well-directed steps,
+    Oh goddess Circe, oh transcendent woes,
+    With which ye did afflict us months and years;
+    They were the grace of heaven,
+    For such an end as this,
+    After such weariness and such distress.[AH]
+
+[AH] For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us
+a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.--("St. Paul to the
+Corinthians.")
+
+_The third with the lyre played and sang_:
+
+    After such weariness and such distress;
+    If such a port the tempests have prescribed,
+    Then is there nothing more that we can do,
+    But render thanks to heaven,
+    Who closely veiled our eyes,
+    And pierced anon with such a light as this.
+
+_The fourth with the viola sang_:
+
+    And pierced anon with such a light as this;
+    Blindness worth more than every other sight,
+    Pains sweeter far than other pleasures are,
+    For to the fairest light
+    Thou art thyself a guide,
+    Show to the soul all lower things are null.
+
+_The fifth with the Spanish drum sang_:
+
+    Showing the soul all lower things are null,
+    Seasoning with hope the high thought of the mind,
+    Was one who pushed us to the only path,
+    And so did show us plain,
+    The fairest work of God,
+    Thus does a fate benign present itself.[AI]
+
+[AI] The lonely sore-footed pilgrims on their way back to their home are
+never sure to the last moment of not losing their way in this limitless
+desert of illusion and matter called Earth-life.--("The Secret
+Doctrine.")
+
+_The sixth with a lute sang_:
+
+    Thus does a fate benign present itself,
+    Who wills not that to good, good should succeed,
+    Or pain forerunner be of pain,
+    But turning round, the wheel,
+    Now rising, now depressed,
+    As day and night succeed alternately.
+
+_The seventh with the Irish harp_:
+
+    As day and night succeed alternately;
+    While the great mantle of the lights of night,
+    Blanches the chariot of diurnal flames,
+    As He who governs all,
+    With everlasting laws,
+    Puts down the high and raises up the low.
+
+_The eighth with the violin_:
+
+    Puts down the high and raises up the low,
+    He who the infinite machine sustains,
+    With swiftness, with the medium or with slow,
+    Apportioning the turning
+    Of this gigantic mass,
+    The hidden is unveiled and open stands.
+
+_The ninth with the rebeck_:
+
+    The hidden is unveiled and open stands,
+    Therefore deny not, but admit the triumph,
+    Incomparable end of all the pains
+    Of field and mount,
+    Of pools and streams and seas,
+    Of cliffs and deeps, of thorns and snags and stones.
+
+After each one in this way, singly, playing his instrument, had sung his
+sistine, they danced altogether in a circle and sang together in praise
+of the one Nymph with the softest accents a song which I am not sure
+whether I can call to memory.
+
+GIU. I pray you, my sister, do not fail to let me hear so much of it as
+you can remember!
+
+LAO.
+
+74.
+
+_Song of the Illuminati_:
+
+    "I envy not, oh Jove, the firmament,"
+    Said Father Ocean, with the haughty brow:
+    "For that I am content
+    With that which my own empire gives to me."
+
+    Then answered Jove, "What arrogance is thine.
+    What to thy riches have been added now,
+    Oh god of the mad waves,
+    To make thy foolish boasting rise so high?"
+
+    "Thou hast," said the sea-god, "in thy command,
+    The flaming sky, where is the burning zone,
+    In which the heavenly host
+    Of stars and planets stand within thy sight.[AJ]
+
+    "Of these, the world looks most upon the sun,
+    Which, let me tell you, shineth not so bright,
+    As she who makes of me,
+    The god most glorious of the mighty whole.
+
+    "And I contain within my bosom vast,
+    With other lands, that, where the happy Thames
+    Goes gliding gaily on,
+    Which has of graceful nymphs a lovely throng.
+
+    "There will be found 'mongst those where all are fair,
+    Will make thee lover more of sea than sky,
+    Oh Jove, High Thunderer!
+    Whose sun shines pale beside the starry night."
+
+    Then answered Jove, "God of the billowy sea!
+    That one should ere be found more blest than I
+    Fate nevermore permits,
+    My treasures with thine own run parallel.
+
+    "The sun is equal to thy chiefest nymph,
+    By virtue of the everlasting laws,
+    And pauses alternating,
+    Amongst my stars she's equal to the sun."
+
+[AJ] Plato says that [Greek: Theos] is derived from the verb [Greek:
+Theein], to move, to run, as the first astronomers who observed the
+motions of the heavenly bodies called the planets [Greek: Theoi], the
+gods.--("The Secret Doctrine," foot note, p. 2, vol. 1.)
+
+I believe that I have recalled it entirely.
+
+GIU. You can see that no sentence is wanting to the perfecting of the
+proposition, nor rhyme to the completion of the stanzas. Now if I by the
+grace of heaven have received beauty, a greater favour I consider is
+mine, in that whatever beauty I may have had it has been in a certain
+way instrumental in causing that Divine and only one to be found. I
+thank the gods, because in that time, when I was so tender (verde), that
+the amorous flames could not be lighted in my breast, by reason of my
+intractability, such simple and innocent cruelty was used in order to
+yield more graces to my lovers than otherwise it would have been
+possible for them to obtain, through any kindness of mine however great.
+
+LAO. As to the souls of those lovers, I assure you that as they are not
+ungrateful to the sorceress Circe for their blindness, grievous
+thoughts, and bitter trials, by means of which they have reached so
+great a good, so they can be no less grateful to thee.[AK]
+
+GIU. So I desire and hope.
+
+[AK] For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not
+worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in
+us.--(St. Paul to the Romans.)
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+Page 15: The last paragraph has only one double quote. I think the
+line quoted is a single sentence, but I'm not sure. The line begins:
+["If the love of glory is dear to thy breast,]. Unchanged.
+
+Page 78: LIC is suspected of being a typo for LIB. No other occurences.
+Unchanged.
+
+Page 79: LAS is suspected to be a typo for LAO, as this name occurs
+only once. Unchanged.
+
+Page 109: The term selfsame occurs only once without a hyphen.
+Unchanged.
+
+Footnote L: Ke['s]ava could not be represented with a latin-1 character.
+The ['s] is an s with an acute accent above.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Heroic Enthusiast, Part II (Gli
+Eroici Furori), by Giordano Bruno
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