62.
_Second response of the eyes to the heart_.
Alas! we poured into the wavy sea,
The strength of our two founts in vain,
For two opposing powers hold it concealed,
Lest it go rolling aimlessly adown.
The strength unmeasured of the burning heart,
Withholds a passage to the lofty streams;
Barring their twofold course unto the sea,
Nature abhors the covered ground.[W]
Now say, afflicted heart, what canst thou bring
To oppose against us with an equal force?
Oh, where is he, will boast himself to be
Exalted by this most unhappy love,
If of thy pain and mine it can be said,
The greater they, the less it may be seen.
[W] Ch'il coperto terren natura aborre.
Both these evils being infinite, like two equally vigorous opposites
they curb and suppress each other: it could not be so if they were both
finite, seeing that a precise equality does not belong to natural
things, nor would it be so if the one were finite, the other infinite;
for of a certainty the one would absorb the other, and they would both
be seen, or, at least one, through the other. Beneath these sentences,
there lies hidden, ethical and natural philosophy, and I leave it to be
searched for, meditated upon and understood, by whosoever will and can.
This alone I will not leave (unsaid) that it is not without reason that
the affection of the heart is said to be the infinite sea by the
apprehension of the eyes.[X] For the object of the mind being infinite,
and no definite object being proposed to the intellect, the will cannot
be satisfied by a finite good, but if besides that, something else is
found, it is desired and sought for; for, as is commonly said, the apex
of the inferior species is the beginning of the superior species,
whether the degrees are taken according to the forms, the which we
cannot consider as being infinite, or according to the modes and reasons
of those, in which way, the highest good being infinite, it would be
supposed to be infinitely communicated, according to the condition of
the things, over which it is diffused. However, there is no definite
species of the universe. I speak according to the figure and mass; there
is no definite species of the intellect; the affections are not a
definite species.
[X] Fire, Flame, Day, Smoke, Night, and so on ... These are all
names of various deities which preside over the Cosmo-psychic
Powers.--("The Secret Doctrine.")
LAO. These two powers of the soul, then, never are nor can be perfect
for the object, if they refer to it infinitely?
LIB. So it would be if this infinite were by negative privation or
privative negation of the end, as it is for a more positive affirmation
of the end, infinite and endless.[Y]
[Y] "The deity is one, because it is infinite. It is triple, because
it is ever manifesting." This manifestation is triple in its
aspects, for it requires, as Aristotle has it, three principles for
every natural body to become objective: privation, form and matter.
Privation meant in the mind of the great philosopher ... the lowest
plane and world of the Anima Mundi.--("The Secret Doctrine.")
LAO. You mean, then, two kinds of affinity; the one privative, the which
may be towards something which is power, as, infinite is darkness, the
end of which is the position of light; the other perfecting, which tends
to the act and perfection, as infinite is the light, the end of which
would be privation and darkness.[Z] In this, then, the intellect
conceives the light, the good, the beautiful, in so far as the horizon
of its capacity extends, and the soul, which drinks of Divine nectar and
the fountain of eternal life in so far as its own vessel allows, and one
sees that the light is beyond the circumference of his horizon, where it
can go and penetrate more and more, and the nectar and fount of living
water is infinitely fruitful, so that it can become ever more and more
intoxicated.
[Z] "Darkness adopted illumination in order to make itself visible."
Darkness in its radical, metaphysical basis, is subjective and
absolute light; while the latter, in all its seeming effulgence and
glory, is merely a mass of shadows, as it can never be eternal, and
is simply an illusion, or Maya.--("The Secret Doctrine.")
LIB. From this it does not follow that there is imperfection in the
object, nor that there is little satisfaction in the potency, but that
the power is included in the object and beatifically absorbed by it.
Here the eyes imprint upon the heart, that is upon the intelligence, and
rouse in the will an infinite torment of love, where there is no pain
because nothing is sought which is not obtained; but it is happiness,
because that which is there sought is always found, and there is no
satiety, inasmuch as there is always appetite, and therefore enjoyment;
in this it is not like the food of the body, the which with satiety
loses enjoyment, has no pleasure before the enjoyment, nor after
enjoyment, but only in the enjoyment itself, and where it passes certain
limits it comes to feel annoyance and disgust. Behold, then, in a
certain analogy, how the highest good ought to be also infinite, in
order that it should not some time turn to evil; as food, which is good
for the body, if it is not limited, may come to be poison. Thus it is
that the water of the ocean does not extinguish that flame, and the
rigour of the Arctic circle does not mitigate that ardour. Therefore it
is bad through (the) one hand, which holds him and rejects him; it holds
him, because it has him for its own; it rejects him because, flying
from him, the higher it makes itself the more he ascends upwards to it;
the more he follows it, the further off it appears, by reason of its
high excellence, according as it is said: Accedit homo ad cor altum, et
exaltabitur Deus. Such blessedness of affection begins in this life, and
in this state it has its mode of being. Hence the heart can say that it
is within with the body, and without with the sun, in so far as the soul
with its twin faculty, puts into operation two functions: the one to
vivify and realize the animal body, the other to contemplate superior
things; so that it is in receptive potentiality from above, as it is in
re-active potentiality below, towards the body. The body is, as it were,
dead, and as it were apart from the soul, the which is its life and its
perfection; and the soul is as it were dead, and a thing apart from the
superior illuminating intelligence, from which the intellect is derived
as to its nature and acts. Therefore, the heart is said to be the
beginning of life, and not to be alive, it is said to belong to the
animating soul, and that this does not belong to it; because it is
inflamed by Divine love, and finally converted into fire, which can set
on fire that which comes near it, seeing that it has contracted into
itself the divinity; it is made god, and consequently in its kind it can
inspire others with love; as the splendour of the sun may be seen and
admired in the moon. And as for that which belongs to the consideration
of the eyes, know, that in the present discourse they have two
functions; one to impress the heart, the other to receive the impression
of the heart; as this also has two functions, one to receive the
impressions from the eyes, the other to impress them. The eyes study the
species and propose them to the heart; the heart desires them, and
presents his desire to the eyes; these conceive the light, diffuse it,
and kindle the fire in the heart, which heated and kindled, sends its
waters (umore) to them, so that they may dispose of them[AA]
(digeriscano). Thus, firstly, cognition moves the affection, and soon
the affection moves the cognition. The eyes, when they move (the heart),
are dry, because they perform the office of a looking-glass, and of a
representer; when they are moved, however, they become troubled and
perturbed, because they perform the office of a diligent executer,
seeing that with the speculating intellect, the beautiful and the good
is first seen, then the will desires it; and later the industrious
intellect procures it, follows it, and seeks it. Tearful eyes signify
the difficulty of separating the thing wished for from, the wisher, the
which in order that it should not pall, nor disgust, presents itself as
an infinite longing (studio) which ever has, and ever seeks; seeing that
the delight of the gods is ascribed to drinking, not to having tasted
ambrosia, and to the continual enjoyment of food and drink, and not in
being satiated and without desire for them. Hence they have satiety as
it were in movement and apprehension, not in quiet and comprehension;
they are not satiated without appetite, nor are they in a state of
desire, without being in a certain way satiated.
[AA] "Deity is an arcane, living (or moving) FIRE, and the eternal
witnesses to this unseen Presence are Light, Heat, Moisture," this
trinity including, and being the cause of every phenomenon in
Nature.--("The Secret Doctrine.")
LAO. Esuries satiata, satietas esuriens.
LIB. Precisely so.
LAO: From this I can comprehend how, without blame, but with great truth
and understanding, it has been said that Divine love weeps with
indescribable groans, because having all it loves all, and loving all
has all.
LIB. But many comments would be necessary if we would understand that
Divine love which is deity itself; and one easily understands Divine
love, so far as it is to be found in its effects and in the inferior
nature. I do not say that which from the divinity is diffused into
things, but that of things which aspires to the divinity.
LAO. Now of this and of other matters we will discourse more at our ease
presently. Let us go.
=Fourth Dialogue=.
_Interlocutors_: