The Heroic Enthusiasts, Part II (Gli Eroici Furori) · 23 of 49 · tr. L. Williams
Second Dialogue-c
Therefore in this present time it is proper that noble spirits equipped with truth and enlightened with the Divine intelligence, should arm themselves against dense ignorance by climbing up to the high rock and tower of contemplation.[L] [L] If meditation be a nobler thing Than action, wherefore, then, great Keśava!
Dost thou impel me to this dreadful fight?
—("Song Celestial.") To them it is seemly that they hold every other object as vile and vain.
Nor should these spend their time in light and vain things; for time flies with infinite velocity; the present rushes by with the same swiftness with which the future draws near.
That which we have lived is nothing; that which we live is a point; that which we have to live is not yet a point, but may be a point which, together, shall be and shall have been.
And with all this we crowd our memories with genealogies: this one is intent upon the deciphering of writings, that other is occupied in multiplying childish sophisms, and we shall see, for example, a volume full of: Cor est fons vitae.
Nix est alba, ergo cornix est fons vitae alba, and one prattles about the noun; was it first, or the verb; the other, whether the sea was first or the springs; again, another tries to revive obsolete vocabularies which, because they were once used and approved by some old writer, must now be exalted to the stars.
Yet another takes his stand upon the false or the true orthography, and so on, with various similar nonsense only worthy of contempt.
They fast, they become thin and emaciated, they scourge the skin, and lengthen the beard, they rot, and in these things they place the anchor of their highest good.
They despise fortune, and put up these as shield and refuge against the strokes of fate.
With such-like most vile thoughts they think to mount to the stars, to be equal to gods, and to understand the good and the beautiful which philosophy promises.
Ces.
A grand thing, indeed, that time, which does not suffice for necessary things, however carefully we use it, should come to be chiefly consumed about superfluous things, and things vile and shameful.
Is it not rather a thing to laugh at than to praise in Archimedes, that at the time when the city was in confusion, everything in ruins, fire broken out in his room, enemies there at his back who had it in their power to make him lose his brain, his life, his art; that he, meanwhile, having abandoned all desire or intention of saving his life, lost it while he was inquiring, perhaps, into the proportion of the curve to the straight line, of the diameter to the circle, or other similar mathesis, as suitable for youth, as it were unsuitable for one who, being old, should be intent upon things more worthy of being put as the end of human desires?
Mar.
In connection with this I like what you said just now, that there must be all sorts of persons in the world, and that the number of the imperfect, the ugly, the poor, the unworthy and the villanous, should be the greater, and, in short, it ought not to be otherwise than as it is.
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, explicitly calling for 'noble spirits' to arm themselves with truth and climb the tower of contemplation.
Disciplined inward attention — sitting, focused, or open-awareness practice — as a stand-alone term that umbrellas active_contemplation, inner_silence, and dhyana-style sitting.
The text explicitly quotes a comparison regarding the nobility of meditation versus action.
Critique of outward religious observance that lacks inner transformation; form without substance.
[auto] The text extensively critiques those who fast, scourge themselves, or engage in sophisms without true enlightenment, labeling such outward observance as vile.
A staged journey of the soul upward through heavenly realms or levels of being toward the divine source.
[auto] The passage explicitly describes the path of the noble spirit as 'climbing up to the high rock and tower of contemplation' to mount to the stars.