The Heroic Enthusiasts, Part II (Gli Eroici Furori) · 24 of 49 · tr. L. Williams
Second Dialogue-d
The long life of Archimedes, of Euclid, of Priscian, of Donato, and others, who were found up to their death occupied with numbers, lines, diction, concordances, writings, dialectics, syllogisms, forms, methods, systems of science, organs, and other preambles, is ordained for the service of youth, so that they may learn to receive the fruits of the mature age of those (sages) and be full of the same even in their green age, so that when they are older they may be fit and ready to arrive without hindrance to higher things.
Ces.
I am not wrong in the proposition I moved just now when I spoke of those who make it their study to appropriate to themselves the place and the fame of the ancients with new works which are neither better nor worse than those already existing, and spend their life in considering how to turn wheat into tares,[M] and find the work of their life in the elaboration of those studies which are suited for children and are generally profitable to no one, not even to themselves.
[M] E spendono la vita su le considerazioni da mettere avanti lana di capra, o l'ombra de l'asino.
Mar.
But enough has been said about those who neither can nor dare to have their mind roused to highest love.
Let us now come to the consideration of the voluntary captivity and of the pleasant yoke under the dominion of the said Diana; that yoke, I say, without which, the soul is impotent to rise to that height from which it fell, and which renders it light and agile, while the noose renders it more active and disengaged.
Ces.
Speak on then!
Mar.
To begin, to continue, and to conclude in order; I consider that all which lives must feed itself and nourish itself in a manner suitable to the way in which it lives.
Therefore, nothing squares with the intellectual nature but the intellectual, as with the body nothing but the corporeal; seeing that nourishment is taken for no other reason, but that it should go to the substance of him who is to be nourished.
As then the body does not transmute into spirit, nor the spirit into body,—for every transmutation takes place, when matter, which was in one form, comes to be in another,[N]—so the spirit and the body are not the same matter; in that that, which was subject to one should come to be subject to the other.
[N] Carlyle says, "For matter, were it never so despicable, is spirit: were it never so honourable, can it be more?"—("Sartor Resartus.") Ces.
Surely, if the soul should be nourished with body, it would carry itself better there, where the fecundity of the material is, (as Jamblichus argues); so that when a large fat body presents itself, we should imagine that it were the habitation of a strong soul, firm, ready and heroic, and we should say: Oh, fat soul, oh, fecund spirit, oh, fine nature, oh, divine intelligence, oh, clear mind, oh, blessed repast, fit to spread before lions, or verily for a banquet for dogs.
On the other hand, an old man shrivelled, weak, of failing strength, would be held to be of little savour and of small account.
But go on.
Mar.
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.
[auto] The text references the 'mind roused to highest love' and the title implies the ecstatic state of furor as higher knowledge.
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 'Heroic Enthusiasts' and explicitly discusses the mind roused to highest love and the yoke under Diana, defining the core concept.
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 mention of the soul falling from a height establishes the condition of exile or separation that necessitates the return.