The Heroic Enthusiasts, Part II (Gli Eroici Furori) · 8 of 49 · tr. L. Williams
First Dialogue-g
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.
John of the Cross's stage of contemplative purgation: a felt absence and aridity of God that strips the soul of attachments to its own consolations en route to deeper union.
The sonnet describes 'deep transcendent woe', 'afflicted sense', and 'sorrowing eyes' as part of the aspirant's state.
Eckhart's Abgeschiedenheit/Gelassenheit — radical letting-go of will, image, and grasping that opens the soul to God; distinct from inner_silence (quietness) and from material renunciation, and adjacent to Sufi tark and Buddhist non-grasping as a practice rather than a metaphysical claim.
The mind flees from the society of the crowd and retires from the multitude to avoid vices and illusions.
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 text is from 'The Heroic Enthusiasts' and explicitly discusses the state of the 'enthusiast' driven by earnestness and courage toward infinite truth.
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.
The text discusses progress towards the infinite where unity and infinity are the same thing, reflecting Bruno's cosmology.
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.
As the text is from Eroici Furori, it embodies the staged ascent via earnestness and courage toward divine splendour.
Eckhart's radical reading of Matthew 5:3 — the saint as one who wants nothing, knows nothing, and has nothing, having emptied even the will and the self with which to receive God; distinct from renunciation_of_wealth (material poverty).
Retiring from the multitude and community of studies suggests a renunciation of worldly accumulation.
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 'unquiet and perturbed mind' and 'heavy pain' reflect the affective wound of distance from the divine splendour.