The Heroic Enthusiasts, Part II (Gli Eroici Furori) · 30 of 49 · tr. L. Williams
Third Dialogueb
And more than that, they are equal to the ocean, not because they do pour, but because these two springing streams can pour such, and so much, that compared with them the Nile would appear a tiny stream divided into seven streamlets.[T] [T] Is this an allusion to the seven activities or changes which water goes through to produce form; Water being the formative power which Fire, itself formless and the moving power, animates?—(Tr.) Lib.
Be not surprised at that exaggeration nor at that potency without action!
For you will understand all, after having heard the conclusion of their argument.
Now listen how the heart responds to the proposition of the eyes.
Lao.
I pray you, let me hear.
Lib.
57.
First response of the heart to the eyes .
Eyes, if an immortal flame within me burn, And I no other am than burning fire; If to come near me is to feel the blaze, So that the heavens are fervid with my heat; Why does my blazing flame consume you not, But only contrary effects you feel?
Why saturated and not roasted ye, If not of water but of fire I be?
Believe ye, oh ye blind, That from such ardent burning is derived The double passage, and those living founts Have had their elements from Vulcan?
As force sometimes acquires a power When by its contrary it is opposed.
You see that the heart could not persuade itself that from an opposite cause and beginning, could proceed a force of an opposite effect.
So that it will not allow the possibility of it, except through antiperistasis, which means the strength which an opposite acquires from that which, flying from the other, comes to unite itself, incorporate itself, insphere itself, or concentrate itself towards the individual, through its own virtue, which, the farther it is removed from the dimensions (dimensioni) the more efficacious it becomes.
Lao.
Tell me, how did the eyes respond to the heart?
58.
First response of the eyes to the heart.
Thy passion does confuse thee, on my heart, The path of truth thou hast entirely lost; That which in us is seen—that which is hid— Is seed of oceans.
Neptune, if by fate His kingdom he should lose, would find it here entire.
How does the burning flame from us derive Who of the sea the double parent are?
So senseless thou'rt become!
Dost thou believe the flame will pass And leave the doors all wet behind That thou may'st feel the ardour of the same?
As splendour through a glass, dost thou Believe that it through us will penetrate?
Now I will not begin to philosophize about the identity of opposites which I have studied in the book De Principio ed uno, and I will suppose that which is usually received, that the opposites in the same genus are quite separate (distantissimi), so that the meaning of this response is more easily learned where the eyes call themselves the seed or founts in the virtual potentiality of which is the sea; so that if Neptune should lose all the waters, he could recall them into action by their own potentiality, where they are as in the beginning, medium and material.
But it is not urged as a necessity, when they say it cannot be, that the flame passes over to the heart through their room (stanza e cortile) and courtyard leaving so many waters behind, for two reasons.
Themes
◆Correspondencecosmology
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.
Human faculties (eyes, heart) are mapped directly to cosmic forces (Neptune, Vulcan), reflecting a structural alignment between scales.
The doctrine of the universe as boundless and without center or circumference, populated by innumerable worlds — Bruno's rejection of the closed Aristotelian sphere; the divine and the cosmos as ontologically infinite.
The comparison of streams to the ocean and the mention of 'potency without action' hint at Bruno's doctrine of infinite potentiality.
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.
As part of Eroici Furori, the passage details the passionate drive that fuels the soul's ascent toward wisdom.
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 human eyes and heart are described as containing the virtual potentiality of cosmic elements like the sea and fire.
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 on heroic enthusiasm and explicitly discusses the 'ardour', 'blaze', and 'passion' of the soul as a divine force.