The Heroic Enthusiasts, Part II (Gli Eroici Furori) · 18 of 49 · tr. L. Williams
First Dialogue-q
Solomon calls it furtive waters.
Samuel named it the whisper of a gentle wind.
The which three significations show with what sweetness, gentleness, and astuteness, in seas, on earth, in sky, does this fellow come and tyrannize over the whole universe.
Ces.
There is no vaster empire, no worse tyranny, no better dominion, no more necessary magistracy, nothing more sweet and dear, no food to be found more hard and bitter, no deity more violent, no god more pleasing, no agent more treacherous and false, no author more regal and faithful, and, in fine, it seems to me that Love is all and does all, of him all may be said, and all may refer itself to him.
Mar.
You say well.
Love then, as he who works chiefly through the sight, which is the most spiritual of all the senses, and which reaches swiftly the known ends of the earth, and without stretch of time takes in the whole horizon of the visible, comes to be quick, furtive, sudden and instantaneous.
Besides which, we must remember what the ancients say, that Love precedes all the other gods, and therefore it is no use to imagine that Saturn shows him the way except by following him.
Now must we find out, whether Love appears and makes himself known externally, whether his home is the soul itself, his bed the heart itself, and whether he consists of the same composition as our own substance, the same impulse as our own powers.
Finally everything naturally desires the beautiful and the good, and therefore it is useless to argue and discuss, because the affection informs and confirms itself, and in one instant desire joins itself to the desirable, as the sight to the visible.
XI.
Ces.
Let us see here, what is the meaning of that burning arrow, around which is the legend: Cui nova plaga loco?
Explain what part does this seek to wound?
Mar.
Read the sonnet which says: — 51.
That all the ears of corn that may be reaped In burning Apuleia, or sunbrowned Lybia, With all that they unto the winds entrust, Or that the rays from the great planet sent, Should number those sad pains of my glad soul, Which she from those two burning stars receives With mournful joy in sweetest agony, Forbid me Sense and Reason to believe.
What would'st thou more, sweet foe?
What wish is that which moves thee still to hurt, Since this my heart of but one wound is made?
So that there lies no part that now may be By thee or others printed, stabbed, or pierced, Turn thee aside, turn otherwhere thy bow, For thou dost waste thy powers, oh beauteous god!
In slaying him who lies already dead.
The meaning of all this is metaphorical, like the rest, and may be understood in the same sense as that.
Here the number of darts which have wounded and do wound the heart, signify the innumerable individuals and species of things, in which shine the splendour of Divine Beauty, according to their degrees, and whence the affection for the good, well proposed and well apprehended warms us.
The which through the causes of potentiality and actuality, of possibility and of effect, crucify and console, give the sense of sweetness and also make the bitter to be felt.
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 suggests that Divine Beauty shines through all individuals and species, reflecting the cosmic structure in every part.
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 description of 'mournful joy in sweetest agony' reflects an ecstatic state.
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.
Love is described as violent, tyrannical, and furtive, aligning with the concept of ecstatic rapture or furor transcending reason.
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.
Love is described as having a 'necessary magistracy' and ordering the whole universe.
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 'The Heroic Enthusiasts' and describes Love as a tyrannical yet sweet force driving the soul through passion and vision.
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 text outlines Love's operation through sight and desire joining the desirable, reflecting Bruno's scala amoris ascent from visible beauty to divine truth.
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.
It questions whether Love's home is the soul itself and if it consists of the same composition as our own substance.
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 text references 'sad pains,' 'wound,' and 'agony' of the soul, implying a longing born of separation from the divine.