The Heroic Enthusiasts, Part II (Gli Eroici Furori) · 12 of 49 · tr. L. Williams
First Dialogue-k
Equally, to be heard by the Divine, is precisely to listen to it, and to be favoured by it, is the same as to offer to it; for from the one immoveable and the same, proceed thoughts uncertain and certain, desires ardent and appeased, and reasonings valid and vain, according as the man worthily or unworthily puts them before himself, with the intellect, the affections and actions.
As that same pilot may be said to be the cause of the sinking or of the safety of the ship, according as he is present in it or absent from it; with this difference, that the pilot through his defectiveness or his efficiency ruins or saves the ship; but the Divine potency which is all in all does not proffer or withhold except through assimilation or rejection by oneself.[H] [H] Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.—("St.
Matthew.") VII.
Mar.
It seems to me that the following figure is closely connected and linked with the above; there are two stars in the form of two radiant eyes, with the legend: Mors et vita.
Ces.
Read the sonnet!
Mar.
I will do so: 47.
Writ by the hand of Love may each behold Upon my face the story of my woes.
But thou, so that thy pride no curb may know, And I, unhappy one, eternally might rest, Thou dost torment, by hiding from my view Those lovely lights beneath the beauteous lids.
Therefore the troubled sky's no more serene, Nor hostile baleful shadows fall away.
By thine own beauty, by this love of mine (So great that e'en with this it may compare), Render thyself, oh Goddess, unto pity!
Prolong no more this all-unmeasured woe, Ill-timed reward for such a love as this.
Let not such rigour with such splendour mate If it import thee that I live!
Open, oh lady, the portals of thine eyes, And look on me if thou wouldst give me death!
Here, the face upon which the story of his woes appears is the soul; in so far as it is open to receive those superior gifts, for the which it has a potential aptitude, without the fulness of perfection and act which waits for the dew of heaven.
Thus was it well said: Anima mea sicut terra sine aqua tibi; and again: Os meum operui; and again: Spiritum, quia mandata tua desiderabam.
Then "pride which knows no curb" is said in metaphor and similitude, as God is sometimes said to be jealous, angry, or that He sleeps, and that signifies the difficulty with which He grants so much even as to show his shoulders, which is the making himself known by means of posterior things and effects.
So the lights are covered with the eyelids, the troubled sky of the human mind does not clear itself by the removal of the metaphors and enigmas.
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.
The pilot metaphor illustrates how the Divine causes safety or sinking based on presence and human assimilation.
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.
Thoughts and desires are described as proceeding from the one immoveable source.
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 Bruno's work defining this concept and describes the ardent spiritual desire driving the soul toward divine wisdom.
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 sonnet analysis centers on love as the motive force driving the soul to seek the divine beauty and open its eyes.
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 analysis of the sonnet identifies the human face/soul as a mirror open to receive superior divine gifts.
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 speaker describes themselves as an 'unhappy one' with a soul like 'land without water,' indicating exile from divine fullness.