The Heroic Enthusiasts, Part II (Gli Eroici Furori) · 36 of 49 · tr. L. Williams
Fourth Dialogue-a
.
Interlocutors : Severing.
Minutolo.
Sev.
You will see the origin of the nine blind men, who state nine reasons and special causes of their blindness, and yet they all agree in one general reason and one common enthusiasm.[AB] [AB] May one suggest an analogy between the nine months of gestation, during which time the foetus goes through various stages and conditions to complete the "individual cycle of evolution," and the nine blind men who, at the end of their probation, are brought to see the light—to be born—illuminated?—("Translator.") Min.
Begin with the first!
Sev.
The first of these, notwithstanding that he is blind by nature, yet he laments, saying to the others that he cannot persuade himself that nature has been less courteous to them than to him; seeing that although they do not (now) see, yet they have enjoyed sight, and have had experience of that sense, and of the value of that faculty, of which they have been deprived, while he came into the world as a mole, to be seen and not to see, to long for the sight of that which he never had seen.
Min.
Many have fallen in love through report alone.
Sev.
They have, says he, the happiness of retaining that Divine image present in the mind, so that, although blind, they have in imagination that which he cannot have.
Then in the sistine he turns to his guide and begs him to lead him to some precipice, so that he may no longer endure this contempt and persecution of nature.
He says then: 63.
The first blind man .
Ye now afflicted are, who erst were glad, For ye have lost the light that once was yours, Yet happy, for ye have the twin lights known.
These eyes ne'er lighted were, and ne'er were quenched; But a more grievous destiny is mine Which calls for heavier lamentation.
Who will deny that nature upon me Has frowned more harshly than on you?
Conduct me to the precipice, my guide, And give me peace, for there will I a cure For this my dolour and affliction find; For to be seen, yet not to see the light, Like an incapable and sightless mole, Is to be useless and a burden on the earth.
Now follows the other, who, bitten by the serpent of jealousy, became affected in the organ of sight.
He wanders without any guide, unless he has jealousy for his escort.
He begs some of the bystanders, that seeing there is no remedy for his misfortune, they should have pity upon him, so that he should no longer feel it; that he might become as unmanifest to himself as he is to the light, and that they bury him together with his own misfortune.
He says then: 64.
The second blind man .
Alecta has torn from out her dreadful hair, The infernal worm that with a cruel bite, Has fiercely fastened on my soul, And of my senses, torn the chief away, Leaving the intellect without its guide.
In vain the soul some consolation seeks.
That spiteful, rabid, rancorous jealousy Makes me go stumbling along the way.
If neither magic spell nor sacred plant, Nor virtue hid in the enchanter's stone, Will yield me the deliverance that I ask: Let one of you, my friends, be pitiful, And put me out, as are put out my eyes, That they and I together be entombed.
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 term 'enthusiasm' is used to describe the common drive of the blind men, aligning with the concept of divine madness or furor.
Augustinian and Plotinian doctrine that evil has no positive being of its own but is a lack, distortion, or absence of the good — denying ontological dualism while preserving moral seriousness.
Blindness is described as a lack of sight or a deprivation rather than a positive entity.
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 Gli Eroici Furori and explicitly mentions 'one common enthusiasm,' which defines the work's central theme of spiritual ardor.
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 Bruno's Eroici Furori, the passage reflects the eros-driven journey from ignorance to divine wisdom through stages.
The soul's journey back to its divine origin, reversing the fall into matter through stages of purification or illumination.
[auto] The translator's note describes the blind men completing an 'individual cycle of evolution' to be 'born—illuminated,' indicating a return to origin.
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 first blind man's lamentation expresses the profound suffering caused by being cut off from the experience of light.