The Heroic Enthusiasts, Part II (Gli Eroici Furori)

_The second part of *The Heroic Enthusiasts*, sent to press, treats the same subject as the first: the soul's upward progress toward purification and freedom, the author using lower things to picture higher ones. The Heroic Enthusiast seeks Truth and the Light, treating life's trials as cords drawing the soul upward. The blindness of the soul may signify descent into the material body; visiting "various kingdoms" may allude to passage through mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms. The translator notes Bruno's allusion to steam (page 122) and possible reference to electricity in the number nine connected with the blind men, quoting Blavatsky's *The Secret Doctrine* on the universal agent Od, Ob, and Aour. The translator remarks on press notices, on Berti, Levi, Mrs. Firth's life of the Nolan, and Plumptre's parallel between Shelley and Bruno, closing with a passage from the *Nineteenth Century* on criticism. Signed L. Williams. In the First Dialogue, Cesarino and Maricondo speak. Cesarino describes the great year of the world's revolution and the cycle from good to evil. Maricondo explains that the future consoles, illustrated by an ancient Egyptian statue bearing three heads—wolf, lion, dog—for past, present, future, labelled Lam, Modo, Praeterea, and reads a tablet (41). Cesarino discusses the furious lover, citing Hermes Trismegistus's lament to Asclepios and the Hebrews in Egypt. They consider a smoking thurible with "Illius aram" (42); Maricondo explains rising from corporeal to divine beauty. They discuss a phoenix burning in the sun (43); Maricondo speaks on praise, Mœcenatus, Achilles, and Epicurus. Finally they consider a winged heart with "Nitimur incassum" (44), and the mind aspiring to divine splendour fleeing crowds.

<br> The First Dialogue's later portion opens with the counsel that one aspiring to supreme splendour should retire into himself, being neither like nor adverse to the many, associating with those he can better or by whom he may be bettered, contenting himself with one ideal, citing Democritus and Epicurus. Cesarino asks how the mind aspires high—by looking at the stars? Maricondo answers no: by plunging into the depths of the mind, finding God near and within, since the stars are bodies like this globe. He describes withdrawing from the multitude, needing only an unconquered soul, and cites a moral philosopher writing to Lucillus that neither gold, vestments, nor fame make one like God. Cesarino asks how the senses are tranquillized; Maricondo says the best part joins divine things, treating the body as prison. They then examine successive emblems: the wheel of time ("Manens moveor"), with sonnet 45 on the heart open and concealed; the ship in port ("Fluctuat in portu"), sonnet 46, discussing Jamblichus and the book of thirty seals, the Object seen when present, with the pilot comparison; two eyes as stars ("Mors et vita"), sonnet 47, on the soul's face and mors osculi, which Cesarino names; the eagle weighted by a stone ("Scinditur incertum"), sonnet 48, on the soul's bifold powers, the two wings and stone, citing Empedocles and the Nolan's octave, with Tansillo's verse on rising; two arrows on a target ("Vicit instans"), sonnet 49, on the heart hard as diamond, wounded by darts of Diana or Apollo, the enthusiast thirty years unpurified until Love's double bolt strikes. Maricondo then turns to Eros's quiver and bow ("Subito, clam").

The dialogue begins with a recollection of a sonnet, then reads sonnet 50, describing the eagle, lion, and whale, each of which warns its prey before hunting. Maricondo (Mar.) and Cesarino (Ces.) discuss how the animal kingdom is divided into three species across earth, water, and air, each announcing itself openly, whereas Love assaults suddenly and secretly. Latin passages are cited; the tragic poet calls Love a furtive fire, Solomon calls it furtive waters, Samuel a gentle wind. They discuss Love working through sight, preceding all gods. Cesarino examines the emblem of a burning arrow with the legend "Cui nova plaga loco?" and Maricondo reads sonnet 51, in which the speaker tells Love to turn its bow elsewhere, since his heart bears but one wound. They explain the darts as things reflecting Divine Beauty, and the soul turned wholly to God as one single wound. Cesarino describes an emblem of a boy in a sinking boat with the legend "Fronti nulla fides," and reads sonnet 52, then sonnet 53, treating a soul overwhelmed by the difficulty of the Divine undertaking, with Latin citations on fear and fortune. Maricondo introduces a flaming yoke with "Levius aura," and reads sonnet 54, in which the speaker beholds Diana (Artemis) issuing from the forest and declares himself hers; Love calls him a happy lover. They interpret Diana as intelligible splendour. Cesarino discusses natural hierarchy, criticizing pedants and Aristotle for aspiring beyond their station. Maricondo cites Latin verse on who deserves "Sursum corda," criticizing grammarians and mentioning Archimedes' death. They conclude by turning to the voluntary captivity under Diana's yoke and discuss intellectual versus bodily nourishment.

Here is the summary of the input span (Second Dialogue – Third Dialogue). ---The text states that the outcome of the mind is Truth, always desired and sought, for which man despises fatigue and hates life. Truth is declared incorporeal, found neither in physics, metaphysics, nor mathematics within the body. Plato is cited: Truth is specific unity, not numerical multitude, and he called Idea one and many, movable and immovable. Mathematicians hold that true figures are not in natural bodies. One who seeks truth must rise above corporeal reason. The soul needs light, genius, and instruments; contemplation and logic aid the pursuit. Truth hides in dense woods and cavernous retreats. Pythagoras sought it through numbers; the Chaldeans through subtraction and negation; Plato through definitions and analogy; Aristotle through effects leading to cause, deviating most. Theologians seek eternal essence, above whom presides the form of forms, God of gods. Truth is sought as inaccessible; none sees the sun (Apollo) directly, only its shadow, Diana. Few find the fountain of Diana. Rare Actæons contemplate the nude Diana, become transformed into stags, becoming the hunted; dogs (thoughts of Divine things) devour Actæon. He sees Amphitrite, the monad. The enthusiast boasts of being Diana's prey. Cesarino and Maricondo close, deciding to return home. In the Third Dialogue, Liberio tells Laodonio how the enthusiast's heart and eyes disputed. The heart makes its first proposition to the eyes about burning torment; the eyes respond complaining of shed tears. Successive propositions and responses alternate—heart to eyes, eyes to heart—concerning flames and waters, both being infinite opposites that conceal each other. Laodonio and Liberio discuss antiperistasis, opposites, and infinite affection.

The text describes how the eyes imprint upon the heart and rouse in the will an infinite torment of love that is happiness without satiety, comparing it to bodily food, which loses enjoyment with satiety. It states the highest good must be infinite lest it turn to evil, that ocean water does not extinguish the flame, and that the object holds and rejects the pursuer. It describes the soul's twin faculties, the body as dead apart from soul, the heart inflamed by Divine love and made god. It explains the eyes' two functions and the heart's, tears signifying difficulty, and satiety in movement. Lao and Lib discuss Divine love that weeps, then agree to continue later and depart. A new dialogue between Severino (Sev) and Minutolo (Min) introduces nine blind men, each stating a cause of blindness. Sev describes each in turn, and each recites a sonnet: the first blind by nature; the second bitten by jealousy's serpent from Alecto; the third blinded by sudden light after Cimmerian darkness; the fourth blind from gazing too long, like those near the Nile's cataracts; the fifth whose eyes dimmed from weeping; the sixth dried of all moisture; the seventh consumed by flame into dust; the eighth pierced by love's dart; and the ninth, mute, whose guide speaks for him. Sev then explains four of the nine reasons the human mind is blind to the Divine object. Min responds throughout, discussing natural desire, jealousy and love of truth, madness of those with extraordinary sense, metaphysical truth received suddenly like sunlight, and the habit of false vulgar opinions versus the heroic habit of beholding true light.

Severino continues enumerating causes of the blind men's blindness. The fifth results from the disproportion between the means of cognition and the knowable, using the image of those in a cave who see only shadows; a spirit like Plato's weeps for the lost open vision. Minutolo and Severino discuss the medium between the visual power and object, distinguishing sensitive and intellectual cognition, and how the intellect receives divinity in similitude, not substance. The sixth cause is the instability of the body in continual mutation. The seventh is the fire of the affections in those who love before understanding; Minutolo lists diverse contemplators and sects. The eighth: the high intelligible object blinds the intellect, as one seeing Jove would lose life. The ninth: blindness through want of confidence and dejection, citing the Psalm and the negative theology of Pythagoras and Dionysius above Aristotle's. Minutolo and Severino depart. In the Fifth Dialogue, Laodomia tells Giulia of the nine blind men, once beautiful youths enamoured of Giulia's face, who swore to seek something more beautiful. At the Circean mount they wish for Circe; a palace appears, and the goddess (Circe, called Apollo's daughter) sprinkles them with an urn's water and blinds them. After ten years' wandering they reach the nymphs of the Thames. One recounts their story in verse; Circe gave them a second urn to be opened only by wisdom, chastity, and loveliness combined. A nymph offers the urn; one alone opens it spontaneously, and the men, sprinkled, regain sight and see two suns. Each of the nine plays an instrument and sings a linked stanza. Together they sing the Song of the Illuminati, a dialogue between Father Ocean and Jove praising the Thames nymph. Giulia and Laodomia close with mutual thanks.