21.
Lofty, profound, and stirring thoughts of mine,
Ye long to sever the maternal ties
Of the afflicted soul, and like to proud
And able bowmen, draw at the mark,
Which is the germ of all your high conceits.
In those steep paths where cruel beasts may be,
Let not heaven leave ye!
Remember to return, and summon back
The heart that tarries with the wild wood nymph;
Arm ye with love,
Warm with the flame of domesticity,
And with strong repression guard thy sight,
That strangers keep thee not companioned with my heart;
At least bring news of that,
Which unto him is such delight and joy.
Here he describes the natural solicitude of the attentive soul on the
subject, of its inclination towards generation, which it has contracted
with matter. She dispatches the armed thoughts, which, solicited and
urged by disagreement with the inferior nature, are sent to recall the
heart. The soul instructs them how they should conduct themselves, so
that, being allured and attracted by the object, they do not become
induced to remain, they also, captive and companions of the heart. She
says, then, they are to arm themselves with love, with that love that is
fired by the domestic flame; that is, the friend of generation, to whom
they are bound, and in whose jurisdiction, ministry, and warfare they
find themselves. Anon she orders them to repress their eyesight and to
close their eyes, so that they may not behold other beauty or goodness
than that which is present, friend and mother; and concludes at last
with this, that if no other reason will cause them to return, they
should at least do so, to give account of the discourse and of the state
of the heart.
CIC. Before you proceed further, I would understand from you what is
that which the soul means when she tells the thoughts to repress the
sight vigorously.
TANS. I will tell thee. All love proceeds from seeing: intelligent love,
from seeing intelligently; sensuous love, from seeing sensuously. Now
this seeing has two meanings: either it means the visual power, that is
the sight, which is the intellect, or truly the sense; or it means the
act of that power, that is, that application which the eye or the
intellect makes to the material or intellectual object. When the
thoughts are counselled to repress the sight, it is not the first, but
the second, mode that is meant, because that is the father of the
subsequent affection of the sensuous or intellectual desire.
CIC. This is what I wished to hear from you. Now, if the act of the
visual power is the cause of the evil or good which proceed from seeing,
whence comes it that in things divine we have more love than knowledge?
TANS. We desire to see, because in some way we perceive the value of
seeing. We are aware that, through the act of seeing, beautiful things
offer themselves to us; and therefore we desire beautiful things.
CIC. We desire the beautiful and the good; but seeing is not beautiful
nor good; rather is it the touchstone or light by which we see, not only
the beautiful and good, but also the evil and bad. Therefore it seems to
me that seeing may be equally beautiful or good, as the thing seen may
be white or black. If, then, the sight, which is an act, is not
beautiful nor good, how can it fall into desire?
TANS. If not for itself, yet certainly for some other reason, it is
desired, seeing that there can be no apprehension of that other without
it.
CIC. What wilt thou say, if that other is not within the knowledge of
the senses nor of the intellect? How, I say, can that be desired which
is not seen, if there is no knowledge whatever of it--if towards it
neither the intellect nor the sense has exercised any act whatever; but,
on the contrary, it is even dubious whether it be intellectual or
sensuous, whether a thing corporeal or incorporeal, whether it be one or
two or more, or of one fashion or of another?
TANS. I answer, that in the sense and the intellect there is one desire
and one impulse to the sensuous in general; because the intellect will
hear the whole truth, so that it may learn all that is beautiful or good
intelligently; the power of the senses will inform itself of all that is
sensuous, so that it may know all that is good and beautiful in the
world of the senses. Hence it follows that not less do we desire to see
things unknown and unseen than those known and seen. And from this it
does not follow that the desire does not proceed from cognition, and
that we desire something that is not known; but I say that it is certain
and sure that we do not desire unknown things. Because, if they be
occult as to particulars, they are not occult as to generals; as in the
entire visual power is found the whole of the visible appositely, and in
the intellect all the intelligible. Therefore, as the inclination to the
act lies in its appropriateness, the result is that both these powers
incline towards the universal action, as to a thing naturally
comprehended as good. The soul, then, did not speak to the deaf or the
blind when she counselled her thoughts to repress the sight, which,
although it may not be the immediate cause of the will, is yet the
primal and principal cause.