The Heroic Enthusiasts, Part I (Gli Eroici Furori) · 24 of 63 · tr. L. Williams
Second Dialogue-d
So that, finding himself thus ascending and descending, he feels within his soul the greatest dissension that is possible to be felt, and he remains in a state of confusion through this rebellion of the senses, which urge him thither where reason restrains, and vice versâ .
This same is thoroughly demonstrated in the following sentences, where the Reason, under the name of "Filenio" asks, and the enthusiast replies under the name of "Shepherd," who labours in the care of the flocks and herds of his thoughts, which he nourishes in the submission to and service of his nymph, which is the affection of that object to which he is captive.
11.
Filenio.
Shepherd!
Shepherd.
What wilt thou?
F.
What doest thou?
S.
I suffer.
F.
Wherefore?
S.
Because neither life has me for his own, nor death.
F.
Who's to blame?
S.
Love.
F.
That rascal?
S.
That rascal.
F.
Where is he?
S.
He holds me tight in my heart's core.
F.
What does he?
S.
Wounds me.
F.
Who?
S.
Me.
F.
Thee?
S.
Yes.
F.
With what?
S.
With the eyes, the gates of heaven and of hell.
F.
Dost hope?
S.
I hope.
F.
For pity?
S.
For pity.
F.
From whom?
S.
From him who racks me night and day.
F.
Has he any?
S.
I know not.
F.
Thou art a fool.
S.
How if such folly be pleasing to my soul?
F.
Does he promise?
S.
No.
F.
Does he deny?
S.
Not at all.
F.
Is he silent?
S.
Yes, for so much purity ( onestà ) robs me of my boldness.
F.
Thou ravest.
S.
How so?
F.
In vain efforts.
S.
His scorn more than my torments do I fear.
Here he says that he craves for love, and he complains of it, yet not because he loves—seeing that to no true lover can love be displeasing; but because he loves unhappily, whilst those beams which are the rays of those lights, and which themselves, according as they are perverse and antagonistic, or really kind and gracious, become the gates which lead towards heaven or towards hell.
In this way he is kept in hope of future and uncertain mercy, but actually in a state of present and certain torment, and although he sees his folly quite clearly, nevertheless he does not care to correct himself in it, or even to feel displeased with it, but rather does he feel satisfied with it, as he shows when he says: Never let me of Love complain, For Love alone can ease my pain.
Here is shown another species of enthusiasm born from the light of reason, which excites fear and suppresses the aforesaid reason in order not to commit any action which might vex or irritate the thing loved.
He says, then, that hope rests in the future, without anything being promised or denied; therefore, he is silent and asks nothing, for fear of offending purity ( l'onestade ).
He does not venture to explain himself and make a proposition, lest he be rejected with repugnance or accepted with reserve; for he thinks the evil that there might be in the one would be over-balanced by the good in the other.
He shows himself, then, ready to suffer for ever his own torment, rather than to open the door to an opportunity through which the thing loved might be perturbed and saddened.
Cic.
Ecstatic, non-rational receptivity to the divine figured as drunkenness — Plato's symposium wine, Rumi's sukr, Eckhart's 'sober drunkenness'; the passive/receptive metaphor for divine encounter, distinct from divine_madness's active possessing rapture.
The state of enthusiasm is described as raving and pleasing folly, akin to an ecstatic intoxication that overrides reason.
Ecstatic irrational rapture — Plato's mania, Bruno's furore — by which the soul transcends ordinary reason and attains direct contact with divine reality; madness reframed as higher knowledge.
[auto] The text describes the enthusiast's state as folly pleasing to the soul and accuses him of raving, aligning with ecstatic irrational rapture.
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 is from The Heroic Enthusiasts and explicitly details the state of enthusiasm and spiritual ardor driving the soul.
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.
[auto] The dialogue depicts love as a torment that leads toward heaven or hell, reflecting the scala amoris ascent central to Bruno's work.
Disciplined inward attention — sitting, focused, or open-awareness practice — as a stand-alone term that umbrellas active_contemplation, inner_silence, and dhyana-style sitting.
The Shepherd's labour in the care of his thoughts represents disciplined inward attention as a spiritual practice.
The felt condition of exile from one's divine origin — Rumi's reed flute torn from its bed, Plotinus's 'we have forgotten,' the Gnostic forgetfulness; the affective wound that complements return_to_source and gives the return its motive.
The Shepherd describes being captive to love, racked night and day, belonging neither to life nor death, indicating a state of exile.