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.
First, because such an impediment cannot exist in action, if (equally?)
violent opposition is not put into action;[U] second, because in so far
as the waters are actually in the eyes, they can give passage to the
heat as to the light; for, experience proves that the luminous ray
kindles, by means of reflection, any material that becomes opposed to
it, without heating the glass; and the ray passes through a glass,
crystal or other vase, full of water, and heats an object placed under
it, without heating the thick intervening body. As it is also true that
it causes dry and dusty impressions in the caves of the deep sea.
Therefore by analogy, if not by the same sort of reasons, we may see how
it is possible that, through the lubricant and dark passage of the eyes,
the affection may be kindled and inflamed by that light, the which for
the same reason cannot be in the middle.[V] As the light of the sun,
according to other reasoning, is in the middle air, or again in the
nearer sense, and again in the common sense, or again in the intellect,
notwithstanding that from one mode proceeds the other mode of being.
[U] Prima, per che tal impedimento in atto non puo essere se non
posti in atto tali oltraggiosi ripari. Does this mean that the
opposites which are called into action must be equal in
power?--(Translator.)
If, when fire is ascending again to its proper sphere, it should
meet with obstacles, such as a bit of wood or of straw, it would
resume its former activity, and consume this obstacle or hindrance;
and the greater the resistance, the more its activity would be
increased.... You will observe that the obstacle which the fire
meets with would serve only to increase its velocity, by giving it a
new ardour to overcome all obstacles in joining itself to its
centre.--("Spiritual Torrents," Lady Guion.)
[V] Nel mezzo.
LAO. Are there any more discourses?
LIB. Yes; because both the one and the other are trying to find out in
what way it is that it (the heart) contains so many flames and those
(the eyes) so many waters. The heart then makes the next proposition.
59.
_Second proposition of the heart to the eyes_.
If to the foaming sea the rivers run,
And pour their streams into the sea's dark gulf,
How does the kingdom of the water-gods,
Fed by the double torrent of these eyes,
Increase not; since the earth
Must lose the glorious overflow?
How is it that we do not see the day,
When from the mount Deukalion returns?
Where are the lengthening shores,
Where is the torrent to put out my flame,
Or, failing this, to give it greater power?
Does drop of water ever fall to earth
In such a way as leads me to suppose
It is not as the senses show it?
It asks, what power is this, which is not put into action? If the waters
are so many, why does Neptune not come to tyrannize over the kingdoms of
the other elements? Where are the inundated banks? Where is he who will
give coolness to the ardent fire? Where is the drop of water by which I
may affirm through the eyes that which the senses deny? But the eyes in
the same way ask another question.
60.
_Second proposition of the eyes to the heart_.
If matter changed and turned to fire acquires
The movement of a lighter element,
Rising aloft unto the highest heaven;
Wherefore, ignited by the fire of love,
Swifter than wind, dost thou not rise and flash.
Into the sun and be incorporate there?
Why rather stay a pilgrim here below
Than open through the air and us a way?
No spark of fire from that heart
Goes out through the wide atmosphere.
Body of dust and ashes is not seen,
Nor water-laden smoke ascends on high.
All is contained entire within itself,
And not of flame, is reason, sense, or thought.
LAO. This proposition is neither more nor less conclusive than the
other. But let us come at once to the answers if there be any.