MAR. You say well. Love then, as he who works chiefly through the
sight, which is the most spiritual of all the senses, and which reaches
swiftly the known ends of the earth, and without stretch of time takes
in the whole horizon of the visible, comes to be quick, furtive, sudden
and instantaneous. Besides which, we must remember what the ancients
say, that Love precedes all the other gods, and therefore it is no use
to imagine that Saturn shows him the way except by following him. Now
must we find out, whether Love appears and makes himself known
externally, whether his home is the soul itself, his bed the heart
itself, and whether he consists of the same composition as our own
substance, the same impulse as our own powers. Finally everything
naturally desires the beautiful and the good, and therefore it is
useless to argue and discuss, because the affection informs and confirms
itself, and in one instant desire joins itself to the desirable, as the
sight to the visible.
XI.
CES. Let us see here, what is the meaning of that burning arrow, around
which is the legend: Cui nova plaga loco? Explain what part does this
seek to wound?
MAR. Read the sonnet which says:--
51.
That all the ears of corn that may be reaped
In burning Apuleia, or sunbrowned Lybia,
With all that they unto the winds entrust,
Or that the rays from the great planet sent,
Should number those sad pains of my glad soul,
Which she from those two burning stars receives
With mournful joy in sweetest agony,
Forbid me Sense and Reason to believe.
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