The Heroic Enthusiasts, Part I (Gli Eroici Furori) · 9 of 63 · tr. L. Williams
INTRODUCTION-h
The primal idea of Pythagoras, which Bruno worked out to a more distinct development is this: numbers are the beginning of things; in other words numbers are the cause of the existence of material things; they are not final, but are always changing position and attributes; they are variable and relative.
Beyond and above this mutability there must be the Immutable, the All, the One.
The Infinite must be one, as one is the absolute number; in the original One is contained all the numbers; in the One is contained all the elements of the Universe.
This abstract doctrine required to be elucidated and fixed.
From a hypothesis to concentrate and reduce it to a reality was the great work of Bruno.
One is the perfect number; it is the primitive monad.
As from the One proceeds the infinite series of numbers which again withdraw and are resolved into the One; so from Substance, which is one, proceed the myriads of worlds; from the worlds proceed myriads of living creatures; and from the union of one with the diverse is generated the Universe.
Hence the progression from ascent to descent, from spirit to that which we call matter; from the cause to the origin, and the process of metaphysics, which, from the finite world of sense rises to the intelligent, passing through the intermediate numbers of infinite substance to active being and cosmic reason.
From the absolute One, the sun of the sensible and intellectual world, millions of stars and suns are produced or developed.
Each sun is the centre of as many worlds which are distributed in as many distinct series in an infinite number of concentric centres and systems.
Each system is attracted, repelled, and moved by an infinite, internal passion, or attraction; each turns round its own centre, and moves in a spiral towards the centre of the whole, towards which centre they all tend with infinite passional ardour.
For in this centre resides the sun of suns, the unity of unities, the temple, the altar of the universe, the sacred fire of Vesta, the vital principle of the universe.
That which occurs in the world of stars is reflected in the telluric world; everything has its centre, towards which it is attracted with fervour.
All is thought, passion, and aspiration.
From this unity, which governs variety, from this movement of every world around its sun, of every sun around its centre sun—the sun of suns—which informs all with the rays of the spirit, with the light of thought—is generated that perfect harmony of colours, sounds, forms, which strike the sight and captivate and enthrall the intellect.
That which in the heavens is harmony becomes, in the individual, morality, and in companies of human beings, law.
That which is light in the spheres becomes intelligence and science in the world of the spirit and in humanity.
We must study this harmony that rules the celestial worlds in order to deduce the laws which should govern civil bodies.
In the science of numbers dwells harmony, and therefore it behoves us to identify ourselves with this harmony, because from it is derived the harmonic law which draws men together into companies.
Through the revolution of the worlds through space around their suns, from their order, their constancy and their measure, the mind comprehends the progress and conditions of men, and their duties towards each other.
The Bible, the sacred book of man, is in the heavens; there does man find written the word of God.
Human souls are lights, distinct from the universal soul, which is diffused over all and penetrates everything.
A purifying process guides them from one existence to another, from one form to another, from one world to another.
The Hermetic axiom that the structure of the cosmos is reflected at every scale — 'as above, so below; as within, so without' — making each level a legible map of the others.
[auto] It states that 'That which occurs in the world of stars is reflected in the telluric world.'
The Stoic and Plotinian doctrine that all parts of the cosmos are bound by hidden affinities, so that a movement in one part resonates through the whole; the metaphysical basis for astrology, magic, and divination.
Systems are 'attracted, repelled, and moved by an infinite, internal passion.'
Pronoia — the doctrine that the divine actively orders the unfolding of the cosmos and human affairs toward intelligible ends, against pure chance or blind necessity.
Unity 'governs variety' and laws are deduced to govern civil bodies.
A chain of divine beings or principles flowing downward from a single transcendent source (the One or the Father), each level less perfect than the one above.
[auto] The text explicitly describes a progression from the One to numbers, substance, worlds, and creatures.
Bruno's eroici furori — a passionate, ennobling spiritual ardor that drives the soul toward divine wisdom; distinguished from base or animal passions by its orientation to infinite truth.
[auto] The passage describes movement driven by 'infinite passional ardour' and 'fervour,' central to Bruno's work.
The doctrine of the universe as boundless and without center or circumference, populated by innumerable worlds — Bruno's rejection of the closed Aristotelian sphere; the divine and the cosmos as ontologically infinite.
[auto] The passage describes millions of stars and suns distributed in an infinite number of concentric centres and systems.
Diotima's staged ascent from love of beautiful bodies → beautiful souls → beautiful pursuits → beautiful knowledge → Beauty itself; the canonical scala amoris that grounds Plotinus's On the Beautiful and Bruno's Eroici Furori — distinct from generic spiritual_ascent in that eros is the specific motive force.
The 'infinite passional ardour' driving the soul aligns with the eros-based ascent of Bruno's work.
The human being as a small-scale image of the entire cosmos; the body, soul, and intellect mirroring the structure of the heavens and the divine — distinct from correspondence in that it makes the human the privileged mirror.
[auto] The passage links celestial harmony to individual morality and human law.