LIB. They, on the other hand, complained of the heart as being the
origin and cause why they shed so many tears, and this was the sum of
their proposition.
56.
_First proposition of the eyes to the heart_.
How, oh my heart, do waters gush from thee
Like to the springs that bathe the Nereids' brows
Which daily in the sun are born and die?
Like to the double fountain of Amphitrite,
Which pours so great a flood across the earth,
That one might say, the sum of it exceeds
That of the stream which Egypt inundates,
Running its sevenfold course unto the sea.
Nature hath given two lights
To this small earth for governance;
But thou, perverter of eternal law,
Hast turned them into everlasting streams.
But Heaven is not content to see her law
Decline before unbridled violence.
LAO. It is certain that the heart, grieved and stung, causes tears to
spring to the eyes, and while these light the flames in this, that other
dims those with moisture. But I am surprised at such exaggeration which
says that the Nereids raising their wet faces to the eastern sun, is
less than these waters (of the eyes). And more than that, they are equal
to the ocean, not because they do pour, but because these two springing
streams can pour such, and so much, that compared with them the Nile
would appear a tiny stream divided into seven streamlets.
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