The Heroic Enthusiasts, Part I (Gli Eroici Furori) · 29 of 63 · tr. L. Williams
Third Dialogue-d
In this disposition, I believe, was the Nolano when he said: 14.
Woe's me!
my fury forces me To union with the bad within, And makes it seem a love supreme and good.
Wearied, my soul cares nought That I opposing counsels entertain, And with the savage tyrant Nourished with want, And made to put myself in exile, More than with liberty contented am.
I spread my sails to the wind, To draw me forth from this detested bliss, And to reclaim me from the cloying hurt.
Tans.
This occurs when spirits are vicious and tinged as with the same hue; since, through conformity, love is excited, enkindled, and confirmed.
Thus the vicious easily concur in acts of the same vice; and I will not refrain from repeating that which I know by experience, for although I may have discovered in a soul vices very much abominated by me—as, for instance, filthy avarice, base greediness for money, ingratitude for favours and courtesies received, or a love of quite vile persons, of which this last most displeases, because it takes away the hope from the lover, that by becoming or making himself more worthy he may become more acceptable—in spite of all this, it is true that I did burn for corporeal beauty.
But how?
I loved against my will; for, were it not so, I should have been more saddened than cheered by troubles and misfortunes.
Cic.
It is a very proper and nice distinction that is made between loving and liking.
Tans.
Truly; because we like many—that is, we desire that they be wise and just; but we love them not because they are unjust and ignorant; many we love because they are beautiful, but we do not like them, because they do not deserve it; and amongst other things of which the lover deems the loved one undeserving, the first is, being loved; and yet, although he cannot abstain from loving, nevertheless he regrets it, and shows his regret like him who said, "Woe is me!
who am compelled by passion to coalesce with evil." In the opposite mood was he, either through some corporeal object in similitude or through a divine subject in reality, when he said: 15.
Although to many pains thou dost subject me, Yet do I thank thee, love, and owe thee much, That thou my breast dost cleave with noble wound, And then dost take my heart and master it.
Thus true it is, that I, on earth, adore A living object, image most beautiful of God.
Let him who will think that my fate is bad That kills in hope and quickens in desire.
My pasture is the high emprise, And though the end desired be not attained, And though my soul in many thoughts is spent, Enough that she enkindle noble fire, Enough that she has lifted me on high, And from the ignoble crowd has severed me.
Here his love is entirely heroic and divine, and as such, I wish it to be understood; although he says that through it he is subject to many pangs, every lover who is separated from the thing loved (to which being joined by affection he would also wish to be actually), being in anguish and pain, he torments himself, not forsooth because he loves, since he feels his love is engaged most worthily and most nobly, but because he feels deprived of that fruition which he would obtain if he arrived at that end to which he tends.
He suffers, not from the desire which animates him, but from the difficulty in the cultivation of it which so tortures him.
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.
The text states that through conformity, love is excited and confirmed, indicating a resonance between similar natures.
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.
The idea that spirits tinged with the same hue excite love through conformity suggests hidden affinities.
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 a compelling passion that transcends rational will ('fury forces me'), aligning with the concept of ecstatic rapture as higher knowledge.
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 explicitly discusses 'fury' and distinguishes heroic divine love from base passion, which is the central theme of Bruno's work.
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 text outlines a progression from loving corporeal beauty to adoring the image of God, reflecting the scala amoris.
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.
The beloved object is described as an image most beautiful of God, reflecting the divine in the human or material realm.
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.
[auto] The speaker expresses anguish and pain due to being deprived of fruition and feeling exiled from the beloved divine object.
The doctrine — central to Eastern Orthodox and Maximian theology — that the human person is progressively transformed into a partaker of the divine nature by grace, not merely justified or united in passing ecstasy.
The lover hopes to become more worthy and acceptable, suggesting a transformation into a divine likeness.