The Heroic Enthusiasts, Part II (Gli Eroici Furori) · 22 of 49 · tr. L. Williams
Second Dialogue-b
Now why should we force ourselves to corrupt the state of nature which has separated the universe into things major and minor, superior and inferior, illustrious and obscure, worthy and unworthy, not only outside ourselves but also inside in the substance of us, even to that part of us which is said to be immaterial?
So of the intelligences: some are low, others are pre-eminent, some serve and some obey, some command and govern.
I believe, however, that this ought not to be brought forward as an example, so that subjects wishing to be superiors, and the ignoble to equal the noble, the order of things would become perverted and confounded, so that a sort of neutrality would supervene, and a brutal equality, such as is found in certain deserts and uncultured republics.
Do you not see what damage has been done to science through this: i.e.
pedants wishing to be philosophers; to treat of natural things, and mix themselves with and decide about things Divine?
Who does not see how much evil has happened, and does happen, through the mind having been moved through similar facts to exalted affections?
Who is there, of good sense, who cannot see what a fine thing Aristotle made of it, when, being a master of belles lettres at Alexandria, he set himself to oppose and make war against the Pythagorean doctrine, and that of natural philosophy; seeking by means of his logical ratiocination to propose definitions and notions, certain fifth entities and other abortive portions of fantastical cogitations, as principles and substance of things, more anxious about the esteem of the vulgar stupid crowd, which is influenced and governed by sophisms and appearances which are found in the superficies of things rather than by the Truth, which is occult and hidden in the substance of them, and is the substance itself of them?
He roused his mind, not to make himself a mediator, but judge and censor of things which he had never studied, nor well understood.
Thus in our day, that little which Aristotle can bring, is peculiar for its inventive reasoning, its suggestiveness, its metaphysics, and is useful for other pedants, who work with the same "Sursum corda," who institute new dialectics and modes of forming the reason (judgment?) which are as much viler than those of Aristotle, as may be the philosophy of Aristotle is incomparably viler than that of the ancients.
And it has been caused by this, that certain grammarians having grown old in the birching of children, and in anatomizing phrases and words, have sought to rouse the mind to the formation of new logic and metaphysics, judging and sentencing those which they had never studied nor understood: as also these by the approbation of the ignorant multitude, with whose mind they have most affinity, can easily demolish the humanities and ratiocination of Aristotle, as the latter was the executioner of the Divine philosophies of others.
See, then, what it comes to, if all should aspire to the sacred splendour, and yet are occupied about things low and vain.
Mar.
Ride, si sapis, o puella, ride, Pelignus, puto, dixerat poeta; Sed non dixerat omnibus puellis; Et si dixerat omnibus puellis, Non dixit tibi.
Tu puella non es.
Thus the "Sursum corda" is not the measure for all; but for those that have wings.
We see that pedantry has never been held in such esteem for the government of the world as in our times, and it offers as many paths of the true intelligible species and objects of infallible and sole truth as there are individual pedants.
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 asserts that the cosmic order of major and minor is reflected 'not only outside ourselves but also inside in the substance of us.'
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.
[auto] The text explicitly describes a natural order separating the universe into major/minor and intelligences into low/pre-eminent levels.
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 discusses 'exalted affections' and the capacity for spiritual ascent ('wings') that distinguishes the heroic enthusiast.
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.
[auto] The text explicitly states that the universe's separation into major and minor exists 'not only outside ourselves but also inside in the substance of us,' defining the human as a mirror of the cosmos.
Critique of outward religious observance that lacks inner transformation; form without substance.
[auto] It critiques pedants and grammarians who pretend to understand divine things they have never studied or understood for the sake of vulgar esteem.