TANS. The more excellent the meaning the less obvious is it, and you
will see that it is unequalled, unique, and not strained. You are to
consider that the sun, although with regard to the various regions of
the earth he is for each one different as to time, place, and degree,
yet in respect of the whole globe as such, he always and in every place
accomplishes everything, for in whatever part of the ecliptic he is to
be found, he makes winter, summer, autumn, and spring, and makes the
whole globe of the earth to receive within itself the aforesaid four
seasons; for never is it hot at one side unless it is cold on the other;
when it is to us very hot in the tropic of Cancer it is very cold in the
tropic of Capricorn; so that for the same reason it is winter in that
part when it is summer in this, and to those who are in the middle, it
is temperate according to the aspect, vernal or autumnal. So the earth
always feels the rains, the winds, the heat, the cold; nor would it be
damp here if it were not dry in another part, and the sun would not warm
it on this side if it had not already left off warming it on the other.
CIC. Even before you have finished, I understand what you would say. You
mean that as the sun gives all the impressions to the earth, and this
receives them whole and entire, so the Object of the enthusiast, with
its active splendour, makes him the passive subject of tears, which are
the waters, of ardours, which are the fires, and of sighs, which are
certain vapours, which partake of both, which leave the fire, and go to
the waters, or leave the waters and go to the fire.
TANS. This is well explained below.
26.
When as the sun towards Capricorn declines,
Then do the rains enrich the streams,
As towards the line he goes, or thence returns,
More felt is each Æolian messenger,
Warming the more with every lengthening day
What time towards burning Cancer he remounts.
And equal to this heat, this cold, this zeal
Are these my tears, my sighs, the ardour that I feel.
My constant sighs, my never waning flames
Are only equal to my tears.
My floods and flames howe'er intense they be,
Are never more so than my sighs;
I burn with fervid heat,
And, firmly fixed, I ever sigh and weep.
CIC. This does not so much declare the meaning of the coat of arms, as
the preceding discourse did, but it rather supplements or accompanies
that discourse.
TANS. Say, rather, that the figure is latent in the first part, and the
legend is well explained in the second; as both the one and the other
are very properly signified in the type of the sun and of the earth.