LIB. Reclining in the shade of a cypress-tree, the enthusiast finding
his mind free from other thoughts, it happened that the heart and the
eyes spoke together as if they were animals and substances of different
intellects and senses, and they made lament of that which was the
beginning of his torment and which consumed his soul.
LAO. Repeat, if you can recollect, the reasons and the words.
LIB. The heart began the dialogue, which, making itself heard by the
breast, broke into these words:
55.
_First proposition of the heart to the eyes_.
How, eyes of mine, can that so much torment,
Which as an ardent fire from ye derives,
And which this mortal subject so afflicts
With unrelenting burning never spared?
Can ocean floods suffice to mitigate
The ardour of those flames? or slowest star
Within the frozen circle of the north
Offer umbrageous shade?
Ye took me captive, and the self-same hand
Doth hold me and reject me and through you
I in the body am: out of it with the sun.
I am the source of life, yet am I not alive.
I know not what I am, for I belong
Unto this soul; but this soul is not mine.
LAO. Truly the hearing, the seeing, the knowing, is that which kindles
desire, and therefore it is through the operation of the eyes that the
heart becomes inflamed: and the more worthy the object which is present
with them the stronger is the fire, and the more active are the flames.
What then, must that kind be, for which the heart burns in such a way
that the coldest star in the Arctic circle cannot cool it, nor can the
whole body of water of the ocean stop its burning! What must be the
excellence of that object that has made him an enemy to himself, a rebel
to his own soul and content with such hostility and rebellion, although
he be captive to one who despises and will have none of him! But let me
hear whether the eyes made a response, and what they said.
LIB. They, on the other hand, complained of the heart as being the
origin and cause why they shed so many tears, and this was the sum of
their proposition.
56.
_First proposition of the eyes to the heart_.
How, oh my heart, do waters gush from thee
Like to the springs that bathe the Nereids' brows
Which daily in the sun are born and die?
Like to the double fountain of Amphitrite,
Which pours so great a flood across the earth,
That one might say, the sum of it exceeds
That of the stream which Egypt inundates,
Running its sevenfold course unto the sea.
Nature hath given two lights
To this small earth for governance;
But thou, perverter of eternal law,
Hast turned them into everlasting streams.
But Heaven is not content to see her law
Decline before unbridled violence.
LAO. It is certain that the heart, grieved and stung, causes tears to
spring to the eyes, and while these light the flames in this, that other
dims those with moisture. But I am surprised at such exaggeration which
says that the Nereids raising their wet faces to the eastern sun, is
less than these waters (of the eyes). 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.