Excerpts from Giordano Bruno's treatises: On Magic and A General Account of Bonding

On Magic

As with any other topic, before we begin our treatise On Magic, it is

necessary to distinguish the various meanings of the term, for there are as

many meanings of ‘magic’ as there are of ‘magician’.

First, the term ‘magician’ means a wise man; for example, the Trismegistes

among the Egyptians, the druids among the Gauls, the gymnosophists

among the Indians, the cabalists among the Hebrews, the magi among the

Persians (who were followers of Zoroaster), the sophists among the Greeks

and the wise men among the Latins.

Second, ‘magician’ refers to someone who does wondrous things merely

by manipulating active and passive powers, as occurs in chemistry, medicine

and such fields; this is commonly called ‘natural magic’.

Third, magic involves circumstances such that the actions of nature or

of a higher intelligence occur in such a way as to excite wonderment by

their appearances; this type of magic is called ‘prestidigitation’.

Fourth, magic refers to what happens as a result of the powers of attraction

and repulsion between things, for example, the pushes, motions and

attractions due to magnets and such things, when all these actions are due

not to active and passive qualities but rather to the spirit or soul existing in

things. This is called ‘natural magic’ in the proper sense.

The fifth meaning includes, in addition to these powers, the use of

words, chants, calculations of numbers and times, images, figures, symbols,

characters, or letters. This is a form of magic which is intermediate between

the natural and the preternatural or the supernatural, and is properly called

‘mathematical magic’, or even more accurately ‘occult philosophy’.

The sixth sense adds to this the exhortation or invocation of the intelligences

and external or higher forces by means of prayers, dedications,

incensings, sacrifices, resolutions and ceremonies directed to the gods,

demons and heroes. Sometimes, this is done for the purpose of contacting

a spirit itself to become its vessel and instrument in order to appear wise,

although this wisdom can be easily removed, together with the spirit, by

means of a drug. This is the magic of the hopeless, who become the vessels

of evil demons, which they seek through their notorious art. On the other

hand, this is sometimes done to command and control lower demons with

the authority of higher demonic spirits, by honouring and entreating the

latter while restricting the former with oaths and petitions. This is

transnatural or metaphysical magic and is properly called ‘theurgy’.

Seventh, magic is the petition or invocation, not of the demons and

heroes themselves, but through them, to call upon the souls of dead

humans, in order to predict and know absent and future events, by taking

their cadavers or parts thereof to some oracle. This type of magic, both in

its subject matter and in its purpose, is called ‘necromancy’. If the body is

not present, but the oracle is beseeched by invoking the spirit residing in

its viscera with very active incantations, then this type of magic is properly

called ‘Pythian’, for, if I may say so, this was the usual meaning of ‘inspired’

at the temple of the Pythian Apollo.

Eighth, sometimes incantations are associated with a person’s physical

parts in any sense; garments, excrement, remnants, footprints and anything

which is believed to have made some contact with the person. In that case,

and if they are used to untie, fasten, or weaken, then this constitutes the

type of magic called ‘wicked’, if it leads to evil. If it leads to good, it is to be

counted among the medicines belonging to a certain method and type of

medical practice. If it leads to final destruction and death, then it is called

‘poisonous magic’.

Ninth, all those who are able, for any reason, to predict distant and

future events are said to be magicians. These are generally called ‘diviners’

because of their purpose. The primary groups of such magicians use either

the four material principles, fire, air, water and earth, and they are thus

called ‘pyromancers’, ‘hydromancers’, and ‘geomancers’, or they use the

three objects of knowledge, the natural, mathematical and divine. There

are also various other types of prophecy. For augerers, soothsayers and

other such people make predictions from an inspection of natural or physical

things. Geomancers make predictions in their own way by inspecting

mathematical objects like numbers, letters and certain lines and figures,

and also from the appearance, light and location of the planets and similar

objects. Still others make predictions by using divine things, like sacred

names, coincidental locations, brief calculations and persevering circumstances.

In our day, these latter people are not called magicians, since, for

us, the word ‘magic’ sounds bad and has an unworthy connotation. So this

is not called magic but ‘prophecy’.

Finally, ‘magic’ and ‘magician’ have a pejorative connotation which has

not been included or examined in the above meanings. In this sense, a

magician is any foolish evil-doer who is endowed with the power of helping

or harming someone by means of a communication with, or even a pact

with, a foul devil. This meaning does not apply to wise men, or indeed to

authors, although some of them have adopted the name ‘hooded magicians’,

for example, the authors of the book De malleo maleficarum (The

Witches’ Hammer). As a result, the name is used today by all writers of this

type, as can be seen in the comments and beliefs of ignorant and foolish

priests.

Therefore, when the word ‘magic’ is used, it should either be taken in

one of the senses distinguished above, or, if it is used without qualifications,

it should be taken in its strongest and most worthy sense as dictated by the

logicians, and especially by Aristotle in Book v of the Topics. So as it is used

by and among philosophers, ‘magician’ then means a wise man who has the

power to act. Nevertheless, the fact remains that the word, when unqualified,

means whatever is signified by common usage. Another common

meaning is found among various groups of priests who frequently speculate

about that foul demon called the devil. Still other meanings are to be

found in the common usages of different peoples and believers.

Given these distinctions, we will deal generally with three types of

magic: the divine, the physical and the mathematical. The first two of these

types of magic necessarily relate to what is good and best. But the third type

includes both good and evil, since the magician may direct it towards either.

Although all three types agree on many principles and actions, in the third

type, wickedness, idolatry, lawlessness and charges of idolatry are found

when error and deception are used to turn things which are intrinsically

good into evil. Here, the mathematical type of magic is not defined by the

usually mentioned fields of mathematics, i. e., geometry, arithmetic, astronomy,

optics, music, etc., but rather by its likeness and relationship to these

disciplines. It is similar to geometry in that it uses figures and symbols, to

music in its chants, to arithmetic in its numbers and manipulations, to

astronomy in its concerns for times and motions, and to optics in making

observations. In general, it is similar to mathematics as a whole, either

because it mediates between divine and natural actions, or because it shares

or lacks something of both. For some things are intermediates because they

participate in both extremes, others because they are excluded from both

extremes, in which case they should not be called intermediates but a third

species which is not between the other two but outside of them. From what

has been said, it is clear how divine and physical magic differ from the third

type.

To turn now to the particulars, magicians take it as axiomatic that, in all

the panorama before our eyes, God acts on the gods; the gods act on the

celestial or astral bodies, which are divine bodies; these act on the spirits

who reside in and control the stars, one of which is the earth; the spirits act

on the elements, the elements on the compounds, the compounds on the

senses; the senses on the soul, and the soul on the whole animal. This is the

descending scale.

By contrast, the ascending scale is from the animal through the soul to

the senses, through the senses to compounds, through compounds to the

elements, through these to spirits, through the spirits in the elements to

those in the stars, through these to the incorporeal gods who have an ethereal

substance or body, through them to the soul of the world or the spirit of the

universe; and through that to the contemplation of the one, most simple,

best, greatest, incorporeal, absolute and self-sufficient being.

Thus, there is a descent from God through the world to animals, and an

ascent from animals through the world to God. He is the highest point of

the scale, pure act and active power, the purest light. At the bottom of the

scale is matter, darkness and pure passive potency, which can become all

things from the bottom, just as He can make all things from the top.

Between the highest and lowest levels, there are intermediaries, the higher

of which have a greater share of light and action and active power, while the

lower levels have a greater share of darkness, potency and passive power.

As a result, all light in lower things, which comes to them from above, is

more powerful in higher things. And also, all darkness in higher things is

stronger in lower things. But the nature and power of light and darkness

are not equal. For light diffuses and penetrates through the lowest and

deepest darkness, but darkness does not touch the purest sphere of light.

Thus, light penetrates and conquers darkness and overflows to infinity,

while darkness does not penetrate or overwhelm or equal the light, but

rather is very weak compared to light.

Parallel to the three types of magic mentioned above, there are three

different worlds to be distinguished: the archetypal, the physical and the

rational. Friendship and strife are located in the archetypal world, fire and

water in the physical world, and light and darkness in the mathematical

world. Light and darkness descend from fire and water, which in turn

descend from peace and strife. Thus, the first world produces the third

world through the second, and the third world is reflected in the first

through the second.

Leaving aside those principles of magic which play on the superstitious

and which, whatever they be, are unworthy of the general public, we will

direct our thoughts only to those things which contribute to wisdom and

which can satisfy better minds. Nevertheless, no type of magic is unworthy

of notice and examination, because every science deals with the good,

as Aristotle says in the introduction to his De anima, and as Thomas and

other more contemplative theologians agree. Nevertheless, all this should

be kept far away from profane and wicked people and from the multitudes.

For nothing is so good that impious and sacrilegious and wicked people

cannot contort its proper benefit into evil.

. . .

In the order of the universe, one can recognize

that there is one spirit which is diffused everywhere and in all things,

and that everywhere and in all things there is a sense of grasping things

which perceives such effects and passions.

Just as our soul produces, originally and in a general way, all vital activities

from the whole body, and even though the whole soul is in the whole body

and in each of its parts, nevertheless, it does not produce every action in the

whole body or in each of its parts. Rather, it causes vision in the eyes, hearing

in the ears and taste in the mouth (but if the eye were located in any

other place, we would see in that place, and if the organs of all the senses

were located in any one place, we would perceive everything in that place).

In the same way, the soul of the world is in the whole world, and is everywhere

so adapted to matter that, at each place, it produces the proper subject

and causes the proper actions. Therefore, although the world soul is

located equally everywhere, it does not act equally everywhere, because

matter is not arranged to be equally disposed to it everywhere. Thus, the

whole soul is in the whole body, in the bones and in the veins and in the

heart; it is no more present in one part than in another, and it is no less present

in one part than in the whole, nor in the whole less than in one part.

Rather, it causes a nerve to be a nerve in one place, a vein to be a vein elsewhere,

blood to be blood, and the heart to be the heart elsewhere. And as

these parts happen to be changed, either by an extrinsic eYcient cause or by

an intrinsic passive principle, then the activity of the soul must also change.

This is the most important and most fundamental of all the principles

which provide an explanation of the marvels found in nature; namely, that

because of the active principle and spirit or universal soul, nothing is so

incomplete, defective or imperfect, or, according to common opinion, so

completely insignificant that it could not become the source of great events.

Indeed, on the contrary, a very large disintegration into such components

must occur for an almost completely new world to be generated from them.

. . .

Leaving aside other arguments, it is clear from these experiences that

every soul and spirit has some degree of continuity with the universal

spirit, which is recognized to be located not only where the individual soul

lives and perceives, but also to be spread out everywhere in its essence and

substance, as many Platonists and Pythagoreans have taught. As a result,

vision grasps the most distant things immediately and without motion,

and, indeed, the eye, or some part thereof, extends immediately to the stars

or immediately from the stars to the eye.

Furthermore, the soul, in its power, is present in some way in the entire

universe, because it apprehends substances which are not included in the

body in which it lives, although they are related to it. Thus, if certain

impediments are excluded, the soul has an immediate and sudden presence

with the most distant things, which are not joined to it by any motion,

which nobody would deny, but rather are directly present in a certain sense.

Experience teaches this also in the case of those whose nose has been cut

off; if they arrange to grow a new nose for themselves from the flesh of some

other animal, and if that animal whose flesh was used dies, then as the body

of that animal rots, so does the borrowed nose. From this, it is clear that the

soul diffuses outside of the body in every aspect of its nature. It also

follows that the soul knows not only the members of its own body, but also

everything for which it has any use, participation, or interaction.

There is no value in the stupid argument, advanced by those who lack

true philosophical principles, that a thing which is touched by something

else does not itself perceive that. Indeed, in one sense, this is true if we are

distinguishing between species or individuals, but it is false if we are distinguishing

one bodily part from another. For example, if someone injures

a finger or pricks one part of the body with a pin, the whole body is immediately

disturbed everywhere and not just in that part where the injury

occurred.

And so, since every soul is in contact with the universal soul, it is not possible

to find in this case the same effects which occur in bodies which do

not mutually penetrate into each other. Rather, for spiritual substances, a

different comparison is needed. For instance, if innumerable lamps are lit,

they all act together as though they were one light, and no one light

impedes or reflects or excludes another. The same thing happens when

many voices are diffused through the same air, or if many visible rays, to

use the common saying, spread out to reveal the same visible whole. All

these rays pass through the same medium, and while some move in straight

lines and others obliquely, they do not interfere with each other. In the same

way, innumerable spirits and souls, when spread out through the same

space, do not interfere with each other such that the diffusion of one would

affect the diffusion of an infinity of others.

This power belongs not only to the soul but also to certain accidents,

like sound, light and vision. The reason is that the whole soul is located

in the whole body and in every part of the body, and that the whole soul

apprehends all things, however diverse and distant, which are around it

outside of its body. This is a sign that the soul is not included in the body

as its first act and substance, and that it is not circumscribed by the body.

Rather, in itself and by itself, it should be understood only as a second act.

This principle is the cause of innumerable marvellous effects, although its

nature and power need to be investigated. This soul and divine substance

cannot be inferior to the accidents which issue from it as its effects, traces

and shadows. I declare that if the voice operates outside the body which

produces it, and enters as a whole into innumerable ears on all sides, then

why cannot the whole substance, which produces the voice which is tied to

certain organs of the body, be located in different places and parts?

Furthermore, it must be noted that occult intelligence is not heard or

understood in all languages. For the voices spoken by humans are not heard

in the same way as the voices of nature. As a result, poetry, especially of the

tragic type (as Plotinus says), has a very great effect on the wavering

thoughts of the soul.

Likewise, not all writings have the same impact as those markings which

signify things by the particular way in which they are drawn and configured.

Thus, when certain symbols are arranged in different ways, they represent

different things: in a circle, the attraction of love; when opposed, the

descent into hate and separation; when brief, defective and broken, they

point to destruction; when knotted, to bondage; when strung out, to dissolution.

Furthermore, these symbols do not have a fixed and definite

form. Rather, each person, by the dictate of his own inspiration or by the

impulse of his own spirit, determines his own reactions of desiring or

rejecting something. And thus, he characterizes for himself each symbol

according to his own impulse, and as the divine spirit personally exerts certain

powers which are not expressed in any explicit language, speech, or

writing.

Such were the figures, so well designed by the Egyptians, which are

called hieroglyphics or sacred symbols. These were specific images selected

from natural objects and their parts to designate individual things. The

Egyptians used these symbols and sounds to converse with the gods to

accomplish extraordinary results. Later, when Theuth, or someone else,

invented the letters of the type we use today for other purposes, this

resulted in a tremendous loss, first of memory, and then of divine science

and magic.

Like those Egyptians, magicians today formulate images, written symbols

and ceremonies, which consist of certain actions and cults, and

through which they express and make known their wishes with certain signals.

This is the language of the gods which, unlike all other languages

which change a thousand times every day, remains always the same, just as

natural species remain always the same.

For the same reasons, the spirits speak to us through visions and dreams,

but we claim that these are enigmas, because of our unfamiliarity and ignorance

and weak capacities, even though they are the very same sounds and

very same expressions used for representable things. Just as these sounds

elude our grasp, likewise our Latin, Greek and Italian sounds sometimes

fail to be heard and understood by the higher and eternal spirits, which

differ from us in species. Thus, it is no easier for us to be able to communicate

with the spirits than it is for an eagle to converse with a human. Just

as there can be conversation and agreement only by means of gestures

between two groups of humans who do not share a common language, likewise,

there can be communication between us and certain types of spirits

only by the use of certain signs, signals, figures, symbols, gestures and other

ceremonies. The magician, especially when using the kind of magic which

is called ‘theurgy’, can hardly accomplish anything without such sounds

and symbols.

On the communion and interaction of things

From the above, one can understand and explain how interaction occurs

not only between things which, to the senses, are near each other, but also

between things which are far apart. For, as was said above, things are united

by a universal spirit which is present as a whole in the whole world and in

each of its parts. As a result, just as different lights come together in the

same space, likewise, the souls of the universe, whether they be finite or

infinite in number, interact in their powers and activities. However, this

does not happen to bodies, because they are limited and circumscribed by

their surfaces and surroundings, and because they are composed of innumerably

different parts in different bodies and places (if we can speak of

place rather than space.) Therefore, no body can act on another body, and

no matter on other matter, nor can the material parts of one body act on the

parts of another body, but rather, all action comes from quality and form

and ultimately from soul. The soul first changes the dispositions, and then

the dispositions change bodies. Thus, bodies act on distant bodies, on nearby

ones and on their own parts, by means of a certain harmony, joining and

union which comes from form. For, since every body is governed by a soul

or a spirit which connects its parts, and since one soul acts on another

nearby soul in any direction and wherever it is, it follows necessarily that a

soul moves that body, wherever it is, because it is controlled by, and subordinate

to, that soul. Whoever is aware of this indissoluble continuity of

the soul and its necessary connection to a body will possess an important

principle both to control natural things and to understand them better.

From this follows clearly the reason why a void, i. e., a space empty of any

body, does not exist. For no body can leave one place without being

replaced by another. During life, the soul does leave its own body, but it

cannot leave the universal body, nor can it be abandoned by the universal

body, if you prefer to state it that way. For, when it leaves one simple or

complex body, it moves into another simple or complex body, or from one

body left behind, it goes to and enters into another. Thus, it has an indissoluble

connection with universal matter. And since its own nature is to be

a continuous whole everywhere, we realize that it exists together with a

material body everywhere. From this, we conclude that the void does not

exist in the sense of a space with no matter in it, but rather a void is a space

in which different bodies move and succeed each other. It also follows that

the motion of the parts of one body towards the parts of another body is

continuous. Motion occurs through a continuous space which is not interrupted

by any void located between full spaces, unless we wish to say that

a space in which there is no sensible body is a void.

A continuous body is an unobservable body, that is, an airy or ethereal

spirit. It is very active and very powerful and very similar to the soul, and

it is quite different from the dense sluggishness found in observable, composite

substances. The above mentioned powers of unobservable spiritual

bodies are the source of all the powers in observable bodies themselves.

Indications of this are the airy spirit which agitates and embroils all the

seas, and the invincible force of the winds which, even when they are rather

calm and quiet, disturb the earth, break trees and destroy houses. Lucretius

put it well when he said that it is this spiritual body which performs all

actions in observable things. Many philosophers have thought that this

spiritual body is the same thing as the soul, and the poet has said that this

air ‘has the power of fire and the soul’.

Furthermore, fire, which does not consist of dense matter like coal,

which is rather an ignited body, is to be understood as different from air

only accidentally. For true fire is, indeed, a spirit, which is sluggish when

it is located in an ignited body, but it is lively when it is outside of an ignited

body, and it is a form of motion in a flame or in some intermediate state.

This spirit, acting in different ways, forms different bodies and animals.

And although not all composite bodies are animals, it must be noted that

all animals have a soul which is of the same type in all the members of one

genus. However, that soul is not actuated in one and the same way because

of differences in the dispositions of matter and in objective ideals. From

this, it follows that, since there are different and contrary forms, there are

also differences and reasons why some animals congregate with each other,

being attracted and impelled to various places, while others flee from or

pursue each other. All of this is due to the way they are structured.

All things desire to preserve their own existence, and thus they forcibly

and unwillingly resist separation from the place where they exist and persevere.

This force is so strong that the sun or fire attracts water to itself

through airy space only after it has first made the water like air, that is, by

converting it into a vapour. After that has happened, then the substance

which was water is attracted willingly, and by means of the same impulse

of attraction, it tries to adapt itself so that it slowly becomes more and more

like fire, and finally, it becomes fire itself. On the other hand, that most subtle

body which is contained in the spirit in the form of fire changes back

into water by the opposite sequence as it congeals and thickens.

Therefore, the same substance and matter changes from water to vapour,

from vapour to air, and from air to the thinnest and most penetrating ethereal

body. The latter has been called a ‘spirit’ by the Egyptians, Moses and

Dionysius of Apollonia, although they differ because Moses did not

distinguish spirit from soul (according to his words; I do not judge his

meaning), which the others did. The other substance [earth] is dry and

composed of atoms, which are very solid and indissoluble bodies. In themselves,

they are neither continuous nor divisible and, thus, cannot be

changed into any other body. And the substance of water or spirit or air,

which is the same, never changes into the substance of atoms or dry earth,

nor vice versa.

. . .

On the double motion of things and on attraction

There are two kinds of motion, natural and preternatural. Natural motion

comes from an intrinsic principle, while preternatural motion is from an

extrinsic principle; natural motion is in harmony with the nature, structure

and generation of things, preternatural motion is not. The latter is

twofold: violent, which is against nature, and ordered or structured, which

is not contrary to nature. What is commonly called natural motion is found

in all genera or in all the categories, leaving out the distinction between

motion and mutation.

For now, we omit all the other classes of motion and their species and

consider only natural motion in place. One type of this is possessed by natural

things and does not move a thing away from it own proper place; this

is circular motion, or a version thereof. The other type is straight line

motion, which is not naturally possessed by natural things. For example,

air moves in a straight line to fill a void. A stone moves through air, and a

body which is heavier than water moves through water, in a straight line in

order to occupy the place in which it either is at rest or moves naturally.

And as much as it can, a contrary flees from its contrary in a straight line,

for example, fumes, vapour and water from fire (for it goes faster to a

greater distance through a straight line). Likewise, similar and agreeable

things tend towards each other in a straight line, for example, straw to

amber, and iron to a magnet, so that they can rest together or move better

and more easily.

There is also a third type of local motion, which is an inflow and an

outflow found in all natural things when any of their parts are ejected

in various ways and in every direction. For now, we will call this ‘spherical’

motion. For it does not occur either in a straight line, or to or from

or around a centre. Rather, it occurs along an infinity of lines from the

same centre, for while some parts of the body are ejected and emitted

outward from the body’s convex surface and perimeter, others are reciprocally

received and absorbed. Bodies grow and are invigorated when

the inflow of beneficial things is greater than their outflow, and they age

and weaken and become sluggish when the inflow of extraneous things

is greater than the outflow of natural things. This is the reason why corruption

and change occur in things, including all changes or alterations and

disintegrations …

There is no controversy over the evidence for the first two types of

motion, and, as a result, the understanding and classifications of them are

well known. But a more careful consideration of the third type will be

found to be not only needed and helpful, but also necessary. The situation

is especially clear in things which have very strong sensible qualities. For

instance, fire warms in every direction and not just on one side or another.

For, as soon as it is lighted, it sends out its light and flames in every direction.

Likewise, a sound and a voice penetrate equally in all directions, if

they occur in a medium which is open on all sides. In the same way, it is

quite clear that the sense of smell is activated by the continuous emission

of small parts from an odoriferous body. This could not happen unless that

body’s substance were to flow out and emit its parts in all directions. The

same thing happens in the case of reflections and other such observable

occurrences. Innumerable other accidental things are caused by certain

parts flowing out, and sometimes these parts travel an enormous distance

from a very small observable source, as is clear when a small amount of

something emits a smell for many years.

In addition to these observable qualities or powers which are emitted

from bodies spherically, there are other, more spiritual and less heavy ones

which act not only on the body and on the senses, but also on the interior

spirit. The more powerful ones touch the powers of the soul and cause

various effects and passions, as is commonly thought to be true of many

stones, herbs and minerals. This is also clear in fantasies and in cases where

the eye has actively or passively been hit. An example is the basilisk who,

by looking at a man a long way off, can kill him with the sharpness of

its vision.

How a magnet attracts iron, coral attracts blood, etc.

What was said above explains why magnets naturally attract things. There

are two kinds of attraction. The first occurs by agreement, as when parts

move to their proper place and are oriented to that place, and when similar

and harmonious things attract each other. The second type occurs without

agreement, as when contraries come together because the one which

cannot escape is overwhelmed, as when moisture is attracted by fire. This

is clear in the case of a burning object being held above a bowl containing

water, where the water is sucked up by the heat and rises rapidly. The same

thing happens when waterspouts and hurricanes occur at sea, with the

result that sometimes even ships are thrown a great distance upwards by

the waves.

Attraction occurs in three ways. The cause of the first type is clear to the

senses, as is shown in the cases mentioned above. This also happens when

the attraction and absorption of air attract objects contained in the air. This

is, likewise, evident in pipes through which water is sucked, and thus rises

to any level. This happens for the reason given. For if the air in the tube is

attracted, and if there is no other air to take its place, then water or earth or

something else will fill that space. If nothing can replace it, then the air

would be held back and retained by the power of the vacuum, as is clear

when an opening is obstructed by objects being sucked in and swallowed.

Another example occurs when the tongue and lips are held together and

their opening is very tightly compressed around the mediating air, and vice

versa, when one sucks so that there is elicited from the mouth’s pores a

spirit which restores and re-establishes what had been removed from its

proper place or space.

There is another type of attraction which is not perceived by the senses.

This is the case of a magnet attracting iron. The cause of this cannot be

attributed to a vacuum or to any such thing, but only to the outflow of

atoms or parts, which occurs in all bodies. For when atoms of one type

move towards and mutually encounter other atoms of a similar type or of a

congenial and compatible nature, the bodies develop such an attraction and

impulse for each other that the overpowered body moves towards the whole

of the stronger body. For since all the parts experience this attraction, then

so must the whole body also be attracted.

This is illustrated for the senses in the case of two burning lamps. When

the lower one is extinguished, fumes and spirits flow up from it (these are

well disposed to become flames or to be nourishment for fire), and the

upper flame then rapidly descends to re-ignite the lower lamp. This is also

found in the small flames of torches. To avoid being extinguished by moisture

absorbed from the environment, they clearly are attracted to flammable

materials located nearby, and they clearly are attracted to a larger flame

either in a straight line or indirectly by jumping or leaping across.

And thus it happens that the overpowered parts of iron are attracted by

some type of power or quality (although not all activities in such natural,

composite things are due to active and passive qualities); even though this

happens sometimes by necessity, that is not the rule. The fact that this

attraction is caused by the outflow of parts from such bodies also indicates

that when a magnet or amber is rubbed, it attracts iron or straw much more

strongly. For the heat causes more parts to be emitted, since it opens the

pores and rarefies the body.

From this, it is clear that a similar explanation is to be given of how

rhubarb attracts choleric humours from the extremities and surface parts

of animals to their intestines, when it has suYcient power, that is, when it

is not so strong as to be expelled by nature before it acts, nor so weak as only

to move the humours and not attract them.

In magnets and similar things, the attractive force and power is not due

to an active or passive quality, in the commonly-used sense of a kind of action

or passion, as is found in the four elements. A sign of this is that when a

piece of iron touches a magnet, it acquires the same power of attracting

other pieces of iron. This could not happen if this were due to an elementary

quality. For when heat and coldness are accidentally present in a subject,

they quickly disappear when the source of heat is removed. Therefore,

one must explain this in terms of the emission of parts or of a spiritual substance

which flows from the magnet into the iron. It is diYcult to imagine

any other or even a similar cause of these effects. Also from this perspective,

which is fully self-consistent, it is easy to evaluate the various fantasies

and dreams which others have mentioned as the causes of this attraction.

This same explanation and cause accounts for the fact that diamonds are

said to block such an attraction, and similar types of explanation account

for various other things. For the outflow of a specific power can weaken

another power, or actuate and sharpen certain other powers. Thus, it is said

that diamonds confer magnanimity on those who wear them.

. . .

On the bonding of spirits

As was said above, some spirits reside in more subtle matter, others in more

dense matter; some reside in composite bodies, others in more simple bodies;

some in observable bodies, others in unobservable bodies. As a result,

the operations of the soul are sometimes easier, sometimes more difficult,

sometimes weaker, sometimes well adapted, sometimes impossible. Some

spirits operate within one genus, others act more efficaciously in another

genus.

... [Evil demons] freely distort things and play with humans

by counterfeiting illusions of fear, anger, religion and such things. They

understand languages and the sciences, but never make any firm assertions.

And so these hateful demons introduce confusion and doubt into the

human mind and senses.

There are also ethereal spirits which are pure and luminous. All agree

that they are hostile to no one and are completely good and friendly to

virtuous men. But the airy spirits are friendly to some, and hostile and

hateful to others.

The aqueous and terrestrial spirits are hostile, or at least are not friendly,

since they are less rational and more fearful. In accordance with the saying,

‘They hate what they fear,’ they deliberately cause injury.

But the spirits of fire, which are more properly called heroes and gods,

are said to be the ministers of God. The cabalists call them Fissim,

Seraphim and Cherubim, and the prophet of the Psalms said, ‘He made

the winds to be his angels, and the flames of fire his ministers.’ Hence,

Basil and Origen rightly argue that the angels are not completely incorporeal,

but are spiritual substances; that is, they are animals with very subtle

bodies, which divine revelation has said are fire and flames of fire.

In every group of spirits there are sovereigns and rulers, ministers, leaders,

governors and ranks, by which the wiser and more powerful dominate

and direct the more ignorant and more uncultured. These roles do not

endure forever, but they are also not as briefly constituted as they are

among humans. For in many ways, the lives of spirits are not comparable

to ours, since the soul’s union with a simple body is much more easily maintained

than it is with bodies like ours, which are composed of contraries.

Their bodies very easily ward off change. Thus, air and water undergo less

change than do composite bodies. Furthermore, they are easily restored.

For example, when air is divided, it is reunited very easily, and portions of

water reunite after they have been separated. Thus, Virgil did not use a

ridiculous poetic figure of speech when he said that Aeneas frightened the

shades when he cut through their abode with his drawn sword.

These various spirits occupy the bodies of humans, animals, stones and

minerals. There is no body which is completely devoid of spirit and intelligence.

Furthermore, no spirit possesses a permanent location for itself.

Rather, spirits fluctuate from one matter to another, and matter fluctuates

from one spirit to another, and from one nature or composition to another.

This is what alteration, mutation, passion and even corruption are: namely,

the separation of certain parts from others, and their recombination with

still others. For death is nothing more than such a disintegration. No spirit

and no body ever perishes; rather, there is only a continual change of

combinations and actualizations.

Parallel to the various actualizations, which arise from the various compositions

of things, there are various loves and hates. As was said, everything

desires to remain in its present state of existence and does not comprehend,

or even think about, any other new state of being. Therefore, there is, in

general, a bonding of reciprocal love of a soul for its own body, and of that

body (in its own way) for its soul. Thus, the diversity of natures and drives

gives rise to a variety of bonds which affect both spirits and bodies. We will

discuss these bonds immediately after we have first defined the analogy

between spirits and composites.

On the analogy of spirits

Porphyry, Plotinus and the other Platonists assign bodies to spirits as follows.

The best and purest spirits, which are also called ‘gods’, have bodies

of fire, which is the purest and simplest substance. The spirits which have

denser elementary bodies exist only by sharing in a more subtle element.

Thus, airy spirits have bodies mixed with air and fire; aqueous spirits have

bodies mixed with air and fire; terrestrial spirits have bodies mixed with

water, air and fire. These substances are invisible because of their thinness.

Furthermore, terrestrial and aqueous spirits sometimes choose to make

themselves visible by means of dense and concrete vapours, and they

appear in the purer regions, where the air is more calm and quiet.

I, myself, have seen them at Mount Libero and at Mount Lauro. And

they have appeared not just to me, but frequently to the local inhabitants

to whom they are sometimes hostile (but only moderately so), by stealing

and hiding the local animals, which they later return in a few days to their

stables.

It is well-known and widely accepted as true that these spirits have

also frequently appeared to workers in gold mines and in other underground

places, for example, in the mountains of Gebenna. These spirits

sometimes harmed them, sometimes helped them and sometimes predicted

events. This same type of spirit is found near Nola in a desolate place

near the temple of Portus, and under a certain cliff at the foot of Mount

Cicada, which was once used as a cemetery for plague victims. I myself,

as well as many others, have personally experienced them while walking

through that place at night. I was bombarded with many stones which violently

exploded at a very short distance from my head and other parts of

my body, and this continued in a threatening manner for some time.

Nevertheless, these stones did not inflict any bodily injuries on me or on

any of the others who reported the same experience. These incidents are

reported by Psellus in his book De daemonibus (On Demons), where he

describes them as refugees from light and as throwers of stones, although

their projectiles are harmless.

The existence of subterranean demons is established not only by the

senses, experience and reason, but also by divine authority in the very wise

Book of Job, which contains a great deal of the most profound philosophy.

When Job curses the day he was born with the words, ‘May the day of my

birth perish’, he adds after a few sentences, ‘Why was light given to one in

misery, and why was life given to those who are bitter of heart?’ ‘Why did

I not perish as soon as I left the womb?’ ‘Why was I not hidden and replaced

after having been aborted?’ ‘For now I would be silently asleep and would

rest in my dreams together with the rulers and princes of the earth, who

have built isolated houses for themselves and have filled them with their silver.’

The point at hand could not have been more clearly stated than in

these words from the mouth of Job himself.

As was said above, different spirits reside in different bodies, and their

ranks are distinguished by a definite order and justice. Origen, Pythagoras

and the Platonists list humans among the demons, including those who are

not good but who could become good or evil as they live out their lives in a

better or worse way. This is why both Christian theologians and the better

philosophers say that life is like a road and a transition, a journey and a

fight. The same judgement applies to other types of beings. Furthermore,

we know that the best things into which a soul or spirit enters are the things

which persevere the longest. That is what we said at the beginning: namely,

all spiritual substances reduce to one, all material substances to three, there

is one soul, one God, one first mind above all things and one soul of the

universe.

Also, it is very probable that all illnesses are due to evil demons, which

are expelled and replaced by their opposites with chants, prayers, meditations

and ecstacies of the soul. And it cannot be denied that, in some

people, there are dominating spirits who have the power to dispel certain

types of illnesses. They say that Cyrus and other Persian kings could cure

diseases of the spleen with the touch of their thumb. And it is well-known

and clearly established that the same is true of the Kings of France, who

cured disorders of the lymph glands with the touch of a thumb. It is also

said that someone who is the seventh son of the same father, and who was

born without the help of a woman, can do the same thing with his saliva.

One can prove that demons are material, and that they are of several

different kinds, by the fact that they have emotions, desires, angers, jealousies

and similar feelings found in humans, and in animals composed of

observable and more dense matter. That is why the slaughtering and sacrifice

of animals were instituted, for these demons are pleased a very great

deal by such ceremonies and their fumes. It must be that these demons are

constituted very much like us, because they also express their affections for

some peoples and nations, while they detest and hate all others.

Some of these demons have names and are famous and more powerful,

while others are more ordinary. The Romans called the latter ‘gods of the

dishes’, i. e., there were no specific offerings and sacrifices made to them.

It is credible that such offerings were not necessary, but rather were pleasing

to them (for they could provide for themselves whatever they needed).

Nevertheless, these offerings were established for them as luxuries, which

they would not have had without human contributions. For although they

are able to know much more than we can, they cannot do and change

as many things as we can, because of their spiritual and more noble and

more reasonable characters. They are delighted by sweet scents and were

adequately paid homage at one time by incense, saffron, moss, amber and

fragrant flowers.

The more noble and more eminent spirits are said to be pleased by

hymns, chants and musical instruments. Above all, these are the gods who,

 by nature, ‘have no need of us, and are neither favourably influenced by our merits, nor touched by our anger’.

Being affected by our good or evil actions pertains only to those spirits who

can ask and receive from us some arrangement whereby they can have a

better and happier life. This does not seem to be at all appropriate for those

spirits who already enjoy a most happy state.

Finally, it must be consciously accepted and firmly asserted that all

things are full of spirits, souls, divine power, and God or divinity, and that

the whole of intelligence and the whole soul is everywhere, although they

do not do everything everywhere. The poet has taken this idea from the

teachings of Pythagoras.

To begin: the heavens, the earth, the water wastes,

the lucent globe of the moon, the sun, the stars,

exist through inward spirit. Their total mass

by mind is permeated: hence their motion.

From mind and spirit comes life – of man, of beast,

of bird, of monsters under the foam-flecked seas.

The same message is contained in the sacred mysteries received by all

people. Thus, in the Psalms and in the Book of Wisdom, it is said, ‘The

spirit of God has filled the whole earth and everything which it contains’,

and elsewhere, ‘I fill the heavens and the earth’.

A material substance differs from the substance of the mind and soul and

sublime spirit as follows. The universal body is contained as a whole in the

whole universe, but the spiritual substance is contained as a whole in each

part. Thus, it exists everywhere as a whole and conveys everywhere an image

of the whole, sometimes more clearly and sometimes more obscurely,

sometimes in one way and sometimes in many ways. Thus, the entire

nature of its form and light is reflected as a whole by all particles of matter,

just as the universal body is reflected by all of matter.

This can clearly be seen in the case of a large mirror which reflects one

image of one thing, but if it has been broken into a thousand pieces, each

one of the pieces still reflects the whole image. Again, when different parts

or bodies of water are separated from the whole or from the universal ocean

by Amphitrite, they have different names and properties; when they later

flow together into one ocean, they have the same name and properties.

Thus, if all the spirits and parts of air were to flow into one ocean, they

would produce one soul, which elsewhere is innumerably multiplied. As a

result, the philosophers say that in the original state of things there was one

matter, one spirit, one light, one soul and one intellect.

Let us now turn our attention to the many bonds between spirits. This

is where the whole teaching of magic is to be found.

* The first bond which ties spirits together is general in character and is

represented metaphorically by the three-headed Cerberus of Trivia, the

doorkeeper of hell. This is the triple power which is needed by one who

binds, i. e., by the magician: namely, physics, mathematics and metaphysics.

The first is the base; the second is the scale; the third is the summit of the

scale. The first explains active and passive principles in general; the second

explains times, places and numbers; the third explains universal principles

and causes. This is a triple cord which is difficult to break.

* The second bond is also triple and is needed in the agent, in the action

and in the thing on which the agent acts. It consists of faith or credibility,

of invocations, of love and of strong emotions in the application of the

active to the passive. The role of the soul is to produce changes in the body

of the composite, and the role of the body is to change the soul materially.

If these bondings do not happen, or especially if they are not present, then

no amount of attention or motion or agitation will produce any results. For

a magician is most fortunate if many believe in him, and if he commands

great persuasion.

* The third bond, which is the source of effectiveness, is the number of the

principles, which are distributed according to the four sectors of the universe

and which are needed for actions which occur in the heavens and in

nature. In addition, there are other principles needed for volitional and

preternatural effects, but they do not have a specific location.

* The fourth bond is the soul of the world, or the spirit of the universe,

which connects and unites everything with everything else. As a result,

everything has access to everything else, as was said above.

* The fifth bond is the souls of the stars and the principles of places, of the

winds and of the elements.

* The souls of demons which preside over times, days, storms and the

elements themselves.

* The souls of men who are tyrants and rulers, and of those who have

acquired some degree of fame and thus have become spirits.

* The divine names and the names of the divine orders.

* Markings and symbols.

* Strong invocations and supplications to make the power of the superior

overcome that of the inferior, for example, to banish evil demons by good

ones, and to banish lower evil demons by higher ones. These demons are

enticed by sacrifices and holocausts; they are frightened by threats, and

they are summoned by the powers of inflowing rays of light.

* By the power of the threefold world: elementary, celestial and intellectual.

* The disposition to ask good things from good people, for example,

chastity, honesty, purification and abstinence.

* The adoption of cults and natural things in which there reside spirits

which are similar to those required for actions.

* The assessment of cults according to their different qualities.

* The force of consecration which comes from perseverance, from prayer

and from rituals.

* A knowledge of feast days and of the days and hours of good and bad

luck.

* A knowledge of the different objects and methods found in religious

observations in regard to the purity of their locations, and in regard to

ablutions, contacts, endings, clothing, incensing and sacrifices.

* The use of active and passive powers, for example, in the first or nearly

first elements, and in stones, metals, plants and animals, in accordance with

fourteen conditions.

* Rings.

*The techniques of enchantment.

In addition to these general bonds, others are listed in sixteen articles in

the teachings of Albert. Some of these are mentioned here, while others

are not.

On the bondings of spirits, and first those arising

from the three conditions of agent, matter, and application

For actions actually to occur in the world, three conditions are required:

(1 ) an active power in the agent; (2 ) a passive power or disposition in a subject

or patient, which is an aptitude in it not to resist or to render the action

impossible (which reduces to one phrase, namely, the potency of matter);

and (• ) an appropriate application, which is subject to the circumstances

of time, place and other conditions.

In the absence of these three conditions, all actions are, simply speaking,

always blocked. For even if a flute player is perfect, he is blocked by a broken

flute, and the application of the former to the latter is useless. Thus, a

lack of power in the matter makes an agent impotent and an application

unfitting. This is what was meant when we said that an absence of these

three conditions, strictly speaking, always blocks an action.

Closer examination may show that the defect is due to only two, or even

only one, of these conditions. But a defect in any one of them should be

understood as meaning a defect in all three, as when the flute player and his

performance are perfect but the flute is defective, or when the player and

the flute are perfect but the performance is interrupted. If the whole

meaning of efficient action is taken to consist in the application, then the

first condition merges with the third, for the agent is nothing other than the

applicator, and to do something is nothing other than to apply something.

Not all things are by nature passive, or active, in relation to all other

things. Rather, as is said in the Physics, every passion is from a contrary,

and every action is on a contrary, or more specifically, on a disposed contrary,

as is stated in the common saying, ‘Active powers act on a properly

disposed patient’. From this, it is clear that water mingles and mixes with

water because of a similarity or awareness or sympathy, such that after they

have united, no device can separate the one from the other.

Indeed, pure or unmingled wine also easily mixes with water, and vice

versa, thus forming a mixture. But the parts of the wine contain some

amount of heat and air and spirits, and thus the wine is not completely

sympathetic with the water. As a result, they do not mix at the smallest level

but survive separately to a noticeable degree in a heterogeneous compound,

so that they can be separated again in various ways. The same thing

happens to sea water, which yields fresh water when it is distilled or filtered

through wax containers. This would not happen if the mixture had been

perfect. Furthermore, oil will never mix with water because the parts of oil

cohere and are glued together like lovers, and they neither penetrate nor

are penetrated by the parts of water. Therefore, anyone who studies the

mixing of bodies with each other should give a great deal of attention to the

condition of the parts, for not everything can be mixed with everything

else.

Thus, one must study the arrangement, composition and differences of

the parts, for a whole can be penetrated by a whole in one direction but not

in another. This happens in all things, like stones, wood and even flesh,

which are penetrable, or more penetrable from one side or direction than

another. This is clear when fluids are expelled by pushing along the length

of fibres. And wood is more easily split lengthwise, for wood is more easily

penetrated along its length than its width because the pores located

between the fibres create tubes or passages in that direction.

Furthermore, one must not only examine the character and arrangement

of the parts, but also the condition of the whole structure, for certain

passions are naturally adapted to be received by one subject rather than by

another. For example, a torpedo fish causes a shock to the hand of the fisherman,

but not to the net. And, as the old joke says, the fires of love burn

the heart and the breast, but leave the chest cold and uncooked.

The same thing happens with thunderbolts, which have at times liquified

a steel sword without damaging its scabbard. An astonishing event also

happened in Naples to a very beautiful and noble young girl whose pubic

hair was burned, but nothing else. They also say that when the wood of a

barrel was burned away, the wine remained firm and solid without it. Many

such things have happened because of this ultimate occult power which

resides in the atoms of this kind of fire and which acts in one place but

not in another. The laurel and the eagle are used as insignia by generals

and poets because they are never touched by lightning, and so like them,

generals and poets are friends of Apollo and Jupiter.

What happened to that young girl does not happen to just any human

being. The reason for this is that not all people have the same physical constitution

and temperament and the same quality of spirit, and, as a result,

not all have a soul that can stop the rains and command the winds and the

storms.

•••

Hence, magicians carefully examine both species and individuals in

order to grasp the effects of their power. Being prudent leaders, they recruit

as their soldiers and gather as their military aides not those who are friends

or well-known or highly recommended people, but rather those who are

more favoured by fortune and those who usually are lucky enough to avoid

such dangers. Likewise, by wearing and carrying and otherwise using certain

plants and minerals, they try, as if by means of direct contact, to appropriate

for themselves certain prerogatives of power. And thus, as leaders

protected by laurel crowns, they do not fear the lightning.

Next it should be noted that for specific animals there are poisons, like

hemlock generally is for humans, which usually are consumed as a very

helpful nourishment by other animals, and which readily fatten them.

Likewise, it should be seen that for various species there are different foods,

poisons and antidotes. An important principle of magic and of medicine is

to be able to distinguish the different constitutions and explanations of illnesses

and good health, and the principles of changing or preserving their

forms and dispositions by using external objects. Thus, the chemist knows

that nitric acid acts on hard things, such as iron, silver and bronze, but not

on gold or lead. He also knows that quicksilver absorbs oil very rapidly, but

gold completely rejects and repudiates it. Furthermore, the seeds or juice

of verbena plants are strong enough to break up stones in the bladder yet

seem to do no damage to flesh, bones, membranes and other parts of the

body.

There are those who explain these facts in terms of the pores being wide

or narrow. I would readily grant this in some cases, but not in most cases,

nor in the more important cases which are discussed above, for the reason

why nitric acid penetrates one thing more than another is not that the one

has wider pores. Likewise, the spirit of the verbena plant breaks up stones

but not bones and flesh, even though the latter has larger pores. And what

would they say about diamonds which are not split by fire, the smallest and

most penetrating of bodies, even though they do absorb the blood of a billy

goat?

Therefore, one must maintain the following general principle: not all

things are influenced by everything else, and not all effects happen to everything

in the same way. To give a proper explanation, the reason must be

found in individual effects and cases. The occult forms and differences in

•••

things do not have their own names. They are not observable by means of

vision and touch, and explanations of their specific origins are not to be

found in visual and tactile differences. All we can say about these occult

forms is that they do exist. As a result, we conclude that not even the

demons themselves could talk about them easily, if they were to choose

to discuss them with us, using our words and the meanings which are

signified by our words.

Secondly, the bondings arising from sounds and songs

A second type of bonding is based on the conformity between numbers,

between measures and between times. This is the origin of those rhythms

and songs which have such a very great power. Some people are affected

more by tragedies, others by comic melodies, and others are affected generally

in all cases. Some even react like that barbarian general who, when

he heard musical instruments played very skillfully, said that he preferred

to hear the neighing of his horse. He clearly proved by this that he was a

disgrace and was unworthy of appearing to be human.

By the term ‘songs’ we intend to refer to much more than harmonies,

for as some have experienced, the most powerful songs and poems seem to

contain more discord than harmony. Perhaps such was the condition of the

soul of that subhuman general who was more easily influenced by the sounds

of his horse’s neighing. For just like someone who looks at the sensible harmonies

of vision, the souls of humans and horses and dogs are captured by

different harmonious sounds, and different things are beautiful according

to the condition of each species. As is said in the proverb ‘from an ass to a

lyre’, not all songs are well suited for everyone. And as different harmonies

bind different souls, so also different magicians bind different spirits.

These bonds are tenacious for two reasons. First, they are perceived or

encountered in the soul through hearing, just as the voices of the Marsi and

the Psylli became such powerful voices when they were present in the serpent.

Second, the bonding effect is brought to completion by an occult

murmur which, analogously to the relations between spirits, did not originally

come from the binder to the bound for the purposes of bonding. For

those who are enchanted do not always hear the voice of their enchanters,

and even when they do, they are not sensibly affected immediately.

Further, one should note that the rhythm or characteristics of one sound

can mingle with, and obscure, the rhythm of another sound. As a result, it

is said that when a wolf, or some say a deer, is seen by people who are

bonded to the spirit of that animal, they lose their voices and cannot easily

form words. And they say that when a drum made of sheep skin is located

next to a drum made of wolf skin, the former loses its sound, even though

otherwise it emits strong sounds when forcefully hit. The reason for this is

that the spirit which somehow remains in the dead wolf skin can bond with,

and control, the spirit in the sheep skin, and thus they are subject to the

same antagonism and dominance which are present in the living animals.

I have not personally experienced this. But it is a possibility and is reasonable,

even though this relationship is not always found between living

things and between species. The ass fears the wolf no less than does the

sheep, and is equally frightened by its danger. Nevertheless, a drum made

of the skin of a wolf does not diminish the equally strong beats from a drum

made of the skin of an ass, but rather increases their loudness considerably.

Let us next consider lyres whose strings are made of the tendons of

sheep and wolves, which are always opposed. It is well-known by many that

if two lyres or cithers are constructed in the same way, and if a string of only

one of them is plucked, its sound is not only consonant with the string of

the other, but it will generate the same motion in the other. This, indeed,

is quite understandable. It also happens that, through a certain sound or

gesture or other such thing, the presence of one person affects the soul of

another person, and thus an indissoluble friendship arises. There are those

we dislike without reason as soon as we see them, and also others we love

without cause. This love and hate are sometimes reciprocal and sometimes

not. This happens because of the domination of the one person over the

other in respect to one type of feeling, which in turn is blocked by another

type of feeling in the other person. Thus, we are attracted by a feeling of

love for one type of dog or bird, while they may be struck by fear, and thus

avoid and dislike us.

This type of bonding also includes prayers and petitions, which some

use to solicit both peers and superiors in cases where considerations of justice,

honesty or reason produce no results. Sometimes proposals from fools

and buffoons are so effective that people who are clever try to ensnare the

souls of their superiors by playing such a role rather than by using more

proper means. This happened during the papacy of Julius iii, who rejected

and dismissed those who would pray, beg or cry. But if someone

approached him with humour and wit, after kissing his foot, that person

would be able to get from him whatever he wanted.

We might also consider the art of speaking and its type of spiritual bonding.

This occurs in songs and poems and in whatever orators do to persuade,

to dissuade and to move the emotions. The orators omit the other

parts of this art and try to hide them in the lap of magicians or philosophers

or those versed in politics. But Aristotle has covered most of it in his

Rhetorica ad Alexandrum, where he organizes his considerations under

two headings. He examines first what the speaker needs and finds helpful,

and second what is pleasing and amusing in what he says or binds, by considering

his habits, status, conclusions and practices. But this is not the

place to recall and review all these matters.

Thirdly, the bondings arising from vision

The spirit is also bonded through vision, as has been said frequently above,

when various forms are observed by the eyes. As a result, active and passive

items of interest pass out from the eyes and enter into the eyes. As the

adage says, ‘I do not know whose eyes make lambs tender for me’.

Beautiful sights arouse feelings of love, and contrary sights bring feelings

of disgrace and hate. And the emotions of the soul and spirit bring

something additional to the body itself, which exists under the control of

the soul and the direction of the spirit. There are also other types of feelings

which come through the eyes and immediately affect the body for some

reason: sad expressions in other people make us sad and compassionate and

sorry for obvious reasons.

There are also worse impressions which enter the soul and the body, but

it is not evident how this happens and we are unable to judge the issue.

Nevertheless, they act very powerfully through various things which are in

us, that is, through a multitude of spirits and souls. Although one soul lives

in the whole body, and all the body’s members are controlled by one soul,

still the whole body and the whole soul and the parts of the universe are

vivified by a certain total spirit.

Hence, the explanation of many spiritual feelings must be found in

something else which lives and is conscious in us, and which is affected and

disturbed by things which do not affect or disturb us. And sometimes we

are touched and injured more significantly by those things whose assaults

we are not aware of than we are by things which we do perceive. As a result,

many things which are seen, and forms which are absorbed through the

eyes, do not arouse any consciousness in our direct and external sensory

powers. Nevertheless, they do penetrate more deeply and lethally, so

that the internal spirit is immediately conscious of them, as if it were

a foreign sense or living thing. Thus, it would not be easy to refute some

of the Platonists and all of the Pythagoreans, who believe that one

human person of himself lives in many animals, and when one of these

animals dies, even the most important one, the others survive for a long

time.

Hence, it would obviously be stupid to think that we are affected and

injured only by those visible forms which generate clear awareness in the

senses and the soul. That would not be much different from someone who

thinks that he is injured more or less only by blows of which he is more or

less conscious. However, we experience more discomfort and suffering by

being pricked by a needle or by a thorn irritating the skin than we do by a

sword thrust through from one side of the body to the other, whose effect

is later felt a great deal more, but at the time we are unaware of the injury

caused by its penetration of parts of the body.

So, indeed, there are many things which stealthily pass through the eyes

and capture and continuously intrude upon the spirit up to the point of the

death of the soul, even though they do not cause as much awareness as do

less significant things. For example, seeing certain gestures or emotions or

actions can move us to tears. And the souls of some faint at the sight of the

spilling of another’s blood or in observing the dissection of a cadaver. There

is no other cause of this than a feeling which binds through vision.

Fourthly, the bondings arising from imagination

The role of the imagination is to receive images derived from the senses

and to preserve, combine and divide them. This happens in two ways.

First, it occurs by the free creative choice of the person who imagines, for

example, poets, painters, story writers and all who combine images in some

organized way. Second, it occurs without such deliberate choice. The

latter also happens in two ways: either through some other cause which

chooses and selects, or through an external agent. The latter, again, is

twofold. Sometimes the agent is mediated, as when a man uses sounds or

appearances to bring about stimulations through the eyes or ears. And sometimes

the agent is unmediated, as when a spirit, rational soul or demon

acts on the imagination of someone, asleep or awake, to produce internal

images in such a way that something seems to have been apprehended by

the external senses.

Consequently, some possessed people seem to see certain sights and hear

certain sounds and words which they truly think are caused by external

subjects. Hence, they strongly and persistently assert that what they have

seen and heard is true, when it is their reason which is deceived, and not

their senses, for they do hear what they hear, and they do see what they see.

But the very same thing which they think they see as derived from external

sounds in their ears and from external sights absorbed by their vision

are fantasy images presented to their internal sense. However, they think

that these impressions of the internal sense are the real things. Thus, it happens

that they refuse to be recalled to a healthier point of view by actual

witnesses, whom they prefer to reject in favour of their own imagination,

and who they truly think are deaf and dumb. Medically these matters are

cases of mania and melancholy, and are called ‘the dreams of the wakeful’.

Further, this type of bonding is not due simply to a material principle,

as is believed by certain well-known medical people with an obstinacy

which is most crude and oppressive. Nor is it due simply to demonic or diabolical

efficient causes, as is believed on their part by some theologians.

Rather, both causes co-operate. The material factor is a melancholic

humour, which we call the kitchen or the bathhouse of the Saturnalian

demons. But the eYcient cause and moving spirit is a demon who does not

have a completely immaterial substance, because these demons seem to be

endowed with many animal affections and have definite properties of

denseness. Although they are spiritual substances, nature has given them

a body which is very thin and is not endowed with senses. They belong to

that genus of animal which, as was said, has more species than do living,

composite and sensory animals.

Now, a specific soul comes to a specific seed which has been properly

deposited in a specific place, or conversely, a body makes or produces from

itself, as it were, a specific animal form or living thing. For example, from

one seed the olive is born, from another a dog, from another a human, and

in general one thing or another is suited to be born from a body which is

structured in one way or another. As the poet says, ‘The eggs come more

readily to where the seed is sown’. As a result, like the proper seed being

sown in the proper field, good and evil spirits and the beginnings of consciousness

are born from a proper mixture and combination of specific

hearts or brains or animal spirits, and conversely, improper mixtures produce

disturbances. These results are mutual: certain souls bring certain

bodies into existence, and certain bodies bring certain souls into existence,

in accordance with what are called the substantial and the specific

difference and subsistence.

When two spirits approach and come near to each other, either because

of an accidental combination or because of objects attached to the body,

then the dominance of a raging spirit can be removed safely and methodically.

This is done either by incantations, that is, by rhetorical and friendly

and curing persuasions which restore the besieged spirit; or by the expulsion

and evacuation of noxious material with purgative medicines; or

by foods and a happy, sunny atmosphere which are agreeable to human

life, and which introduce better matter for the spirit; or by soothing and

moderating the harmful materials which sometimes enter into the mix.

As a result, the spirit alone does not produce these living animal operations,

nor does the body do this without the spirit. Rather, for these things

to occur, whether they be good or bad, or in accord with or in opposition

to the nature of the species, what is required is both a material principle

and a formal or efficient cause of the needed type. Further, it is reasonable

to say that a simple purgation of humours and a simple diet are adequate

to cure disturbed images and to free the internal senses which are bound

in this way.

However, from this, one cannot accept the conclusion drawn by a most

stupid and dull-witted medical man in his book De occultis naturae miraculis

(On the Hidden Miracles of Nature), which presents more nonsense

than words and sentences can describe. He concludes that spirits are the

same thing as humours because the expulsion and evacuation of humours

also expels and evacuates these spirits with their marvellously independent

and structured powers. In this way, with equal justice, one could say that,

because the excellence of the soul forces it to leave the body and be many

souls in succession, he should think that the soul, itself, is a humour or

excrement. Or if he himself were to decide to abandon his house and country

because a shortage of food and water made him ignorant of medicine

and of the obvious colours and sounds of nature, we should conclude that

he himself belongs to the same species as the things which expelled him.

Since the senses happen to be bound and obligated in all these ways,

magic and medicine must pay very special attention to the workings of

the imagination. For this is the doorway and entrance for all the actions

and passions and feelings of animals. And to that linkage is tied the more

profound power of thought.

Fifthly, the bondings arising from thought

The bondings of the imagination would not be very significant in themselves

if they did not duplicate the powers of thought, for those appearances

which bind and obligate the souls of those who are simple-minded,

stupid, credulous and superstitious, are derided and condemned as empty

shadows by those who have a sober, disciplined and well-bred mind. As a

result, all practitioners of magic, medicine and prophesy produce no

results without a pre-given faith, and unless they act according to the

rules of that faith. (We use the word ‘faith’ here in the more general sense

in which it is used by these people, individually and as a group.)

This faith arises in some people from their pre-given powers, which are

well disposed and organized, and in others, it comes from a disturbance of

their powers. Indeed, great results are produced by those bonds which come

from the words of a man of eloquence, by which a certain disposition arises

and flourishes in the imagination, which is the only entrance for all internal

feelings and is the bond of bonds. This is the point of Hippocrates’ saying,

‘The most effective doctor is the one whom most believe’. The reason for

this is that he binds many people with his eloquence or presence or fame.

This applies not only to medicine but to any type of magic or to any power

identified by a different title, for, in the act of binding, the imagination must

be stimulated or else one can hardly motivate anyone by other means.

In regard to the notion that it is possible for a person to do everything

on his own, the theologians believe, agree and state publicly that it is

impossible to help those who do not believe the minister. The reason for

their lack of power lies in the imagination which they cannot bind. Indeed,

kinsmen reject and laugh at physicians and divines because they know

about their humble origins and education. As the well-known adage states,

‘No one is a prophet in his own land’.

Thus, someone who is less well-known can bind people more easily.

Given a good general impression and a disposition to be believed, he can

somehow use the power of his soul to arrange, disclose and explain things

for them, as if windows which had been closed are opened to receive the

light of the sun. This opens the door to those other impressions which the

art of binding seeks in order to establish further bonds, namely, hope, compassion,

fear, love, hate, indignation, anger, joy, patience, disdain for life,

for death, for fate, and all of the powers which cross over from the soul to

change the body.

There is no need for a more detailed investigation and consideration of

the changes which occur to the types of bondings which follow upon faith

and a good impression, and which were just listed above. Further, it is not

our business at present to examine the more spiritual powers of the soul

which follow next: namely, memory, reason, experience, intellect and mind,

because the acts of these powers do not flow over into the body and change

it. Rather, all physical changes originate from the powers which are prior

to thought and which are its principal and efficient causes.

As a result, all magical powers, active and passive, and their species are

dependent upon magical bondings. As Plotinus has asserted, both the wise

man and the fool can be bound by the natural principles residing in them,

unless the subject also contains some principle which can reject and dismiss

magical influences. For as was said above, not everything enters into

everything else, and not everything mixes with everything else, as, for

example, water and oil do not mix. As Plotinus himself has stated, and as

Porphyry confirms in his Vita Plotini [Life of Plotinus], the evil spells with

which a certain Egyptian tried to bind and injure Plotinus were turned

back against him.  These things are discussed in our De vinculis in genere

[A General Account of Bonding].

A General Account of Bonding

. . .

* Humans are bound in many ways. Of all the things which bind, certainly

more of them bind humans than brute animals, and more of them bind

those who have an active character than those who are dull witted; those

who are well endowed in their faculties and powers are aware of more

details, circumstances and purposes, and thus, they are moved by more

desires.

* How the senses are panderers for the bonding agent. Dull witted people are

bound by lusts, which are aroused infrequently and by natural impulses,

and which are few in number and limited to base nourishments. Such people

are not soothed by eloquent speech, nor are they won over by beauty,

music, painting or by any of the other attractions of nature.

* Why only one bond is not enough. As I am bound by more things, I become

aware of the many things which bind me, for there are many different kinds

of beauty. Thus, I am inflamed and bound in a relationship by one thing in

one way and by other things in other ways. If every relationship were

reduced to one, then perhaps one thing would be welcomed for all purposes

and for all occasions. But up to now, this has not happened in nature, which

has spread about many bonds of beauty, happiness, goodness, and the various

contraries of these dispositions, and which widely distributes them

separately according to the numerous types of matter. But it does sometimes

happen that a person is so tied to one object that his awareness of

other things is weakened, overwhelmed and suppressed, either because of

the dullness of the senses which are blind to and neglectful of all other

things, or because one bond is so strong that it weakens and distorts him.

But this is extraordinary and happens rarely and in only a few cases. For

example, there are some whose souls seem to be so carried away by the hope

of eternal life and by a vivid faith and credulousness, and seem to be so separated

from the body in some way, and so strongly bound and controlled

by some object in their fantasies and in their opinions, that they do not

seem to be aware of the most horrible torments. This clearly happened to

the philosopher Anaxarchus, to Andrew the Galilean, to the priest

Lawrence, and to others up to our own day, who were murdered by rulers

and kings for the sake of their religion. This also happened for the sake of

reason to Diogenes the Cynic and to Epicurus, who argued that they could

banish all awareness of pain and pleasure by binding their souls, according

to natural laws and principles, with a contempt of all things and of every

type of opinion … They thought they would attain the highest good available

in this life to the human species by preserving their souls in a state of

heroic pleasure above sorrow, fear, anger and other feelings. They claimed

that, by holding in contempt the ignoble things in this very transitory life,

they could attain a life similar to the gods even while in this mortal body.

They thought that they had actually attained this highest good and sublime

virtue, and that they had shown this to others.

* What power contributes to a bonding agent. There are those who say that a

bonding agent of greater power binds something else which in turn does not

bind it; if the powers are equal, then there is a reciprocal bond which consists

in a balance of that quality. But it would follow from this opinion that bonding

powers are continually changed and altered as forms, circumstances and

natures are altered, for a young man does not bind the same things which

he bound as a boy, and a woman does not bind the same things which she

bound as a girl. Hence, a bonding power is not simple or reducible to only

one thing, but is composite, variable in nature and composed of contraries.

* What is bound more easily. A person who is more truly human is bound

most strongly by the most worthy things, and he prefers much more to seek

out more worthy things than to possess base things, for certainly, we are

easily irritated by base things and more ardently seek for things which we

do not easily attain.

* That the same thing bonds contraries in the same way. Bonding agents

which pertain to the same type of bonding seem to be confusing, and in a

sense even contradictory, when one considers the contrasting effects and

circumstances of the bonds. Consider, for example, the bonds of physical

love, which seem to be both a fire and snare at the same time, which drive

one to shout and to be silent, to joy and to sorrow, to hope and to desperation,

to fear and to boldness, to anger and to gentleness, to weeping and to

laughter. Hence the verses:

I, who carry high the standard of love,

have frozen hopes and burning desires:

at the same time I tremble and freeze, burn and spark,

I am mute and fill heaven with ardent cries.

From the heart I sparkle and from my eyes I shed water;

I live and I die, laugh and lament.

The waters live and the fire does not die,

for in my eyes I have Thetis and in my heart, Vulcan.

* A bonding agent does not bind different things with the same bond. A thing

is not absolutely beautiful if it binds only playfully; it is not absolutely good

if it binds only usefully; it is not absolutely large if it is limited. Regarding

beauty, notice how monkeys and horses please each other; indeed, not even

ffenus pleases some types of humans and heroes. Regarding goodness,

notice how all things contain contraries, and how different animals find

what is good for them under the seas or on dry land, in mountains or in

fields, in abysses or on summits.

* He who binds. Therefore, he who knows how to bind needs to have an

understanding of all things, or at least of the nature, inclination, habits, uses

and purposes of the particular things that he is to bind.

* No one particular thing can bind everything. What is absolutely beautiful

and good and large and true binds every feeling and every mind absolutely.

It destroys nothing; it contains and seeks out all things; it is desired and

pursued by many because it invigorates with different types of bonds.

Hence, we abundantly acquire many skills, not to be able to act universally

and simply, but rather to do this at one time, and that at another time. Thus,

since no particular thing is absolutely beautiful, good, true, etc., whether it

be above all genera or in any particular genus or species, it follows that

nothing can bind simply at any of these levels. Nevertheless, there is a

desire for the beautiful, good, etc., in all things, for everything seeks to exist

and to be beautiful in every way, at least according as its species and genus

allow. Beauty and goodness are one thing for one species, and another thing

for another; in one thing one contrary dominates, and in another the other

dominates. The total beauty and goodness of one species cannot be attained

except through the whole species for all eternity and in each of its individual

members taken separately. Testimony to this in regard to human beauty

is given by Zeuxis in his painting of Helena, whom he selected from among

the young women of Crotona. Although he has given us a girl who is beautiful

as a whole and in every detail, how could he have ever presented complete

beauty in every way, since the different types of physical beauty in the

female species are innumerable, and only some of them can be found in any

one subject? For beauty, which consists of a special symmetry or of some

other incorporeal aspect of physical nature, occurs in a myriad of forms and

arises from innumerable ordered patterns. Thus, just as the rough surface

of a stone does not meet, fit and adhere to the rough surface of any other

stone, except when their folds and cavities correspond a great deal, likewise

not every quality will reside in any soul. Therefore, different individuals

are bonded by different objects. And even though the same object bonds

both Socrates and Plato, it binds each of them in a different way. Some

things excite the masses, other things affect only a few; some things affect

the male and the manly, other things the female and the feminine.

* The various instruments of the bonding agent. Nature has distinguished,

dispersed and disseminated the objects of beauty, goodness, truth and value

in its own way. And, as a result, different things can bind for various reasons

and for different purposes. For example, a good farmer binds and

becomes admirable for one reason, a cook for another reason, a soldier for

another, and a musician, a painter, a philosopher, a boy, a girl, for different

reasons; one of them walks better, while another speaks better. No one of

these alone possesses all things in all ways. Rather, the one who is found to

be happy and skilful in more ways and at more levels will bind more things,

will rule in more ways and will win out over more people of their own

species.

* The opportunities for the bonding agent. We experience various feelings

at different times and on different occasions, and there is no one measure

common to them all. Likewise, there is no one and simple factor which can

please everyone or satisfy all things, much less does any one thing satisfy

different persons or one person at different times. For example, neither the

same food nor the same quantity or quality of food always satisfies. This

principle applies to all things which bond our appetites.

* The different types of bonding agents. Some things bond by their own

power. Other things bond because of their quantity or because of one of

their parts. Still other things bond because they are aided by something else

to which they are attached or which properly disposes them, as when a

beautiful building arises out of irregularly shaped parts.

* The variable power of the bonding agent. There are many things which

we judge to be beautiful but which nevertheless bind us as good, for example,

a horse, a ship, a house, a statue, a dog or a bird. But a beautiful person

does not bind us in order to be considered good, and a good person does

not bind us in order to be thought to be beautiful. It could happen that

crime and error are joined to the beautiful. Consider a beautiful but poor

woman: the more disturbing she is, the more easily one tends to give her

a gift. There are diverse reasons for diverse things, contrary reasons for

contrary things, and similar reasons for similar things.

* Where the bonding agent is located. Those who have not studied the matter

too deeply, like the Platonists, think that that which binds is the form

of the thing, and crosses over from the thing to the mind, even though it

does not leave the object itself. This is like fire which does not lessen when

it communicates its form, and like an image which is in an object first, then

in the mirror, then in the intervening space, and finally in the eye. But considering

the matter more profoundly, we find that, indeed, it does exist in

the body, and it consists of a certain physical bond, but, like the soul whose

powers reveal its condition, it does not occupy any specific part of the body.

Indeed, even though the amorous effects of love may arise from the eyes or

the mouth or the complexion, nevertheless it is clear that it is not found in

them alone, nor does it arise from them alone. For the eyes, considered separately

and by themselves, do not have the same force when they are not

united with the other parts of the face. The same is true of the mouth, the

nose and the complexion, which are not beautiful when depicted separately

by a painter. As a result, the nature of beauty is indefinite and quite indescribable,

and the same is true of the nature of goodness and cheerfulness.

The complete nature of a bond is to be found not just in the object itself,

but also in another equally important place, i. e., in the one who is bound.

Whether food is greedily consumed or is returned uneaten after a meal,

this makes no difference at all as far as the substance and quality of the food

is concerned. And the bonds of love, which were intense before sexual

intercourse, become relaxed when the seed is ejaculated and the fire

becomes moderated, even though the beautiful object remains the same.

Therefore, the whole nature of a bond cannot be found in the object.

* The predispositions of the bonding agent. The bonding agent is said to be

predisposed to bonding in three ways: by its order; by its measure; and by

its type. The order is the interrelation of its parts; the measure is its quantity;

and its type is designated by its shapes, its outlines and its colours. For

example, in a bonding of sounds the order consists of a rising and falling

through high, low and intermediate notes; the measure is the use of thirds,

fourths, fifths, sixths, etc., and the progression of tones and semitones; the

type is the harmony, softness and clarity. In all things which are predisposed

to bonding, whether they be simple or composite, all three of these

factors are present in a proportional way.

* The diversity of predispositions. Regarding the bonds themselves, there

is another predisposition: the signs and vestiges which reveal how well

developed the soul is. These move the soul to seek out only the enjoyment

of another soul, to which it becomes attached and united. And also because

of this predisposition, when there is a suitable ordering of the body and of

its parts and of the garments which clothe it, the soul is then bound to reach

out for the enjoyment of the body. When this predisposition is present in

both the soul and the body, it impels each more strongly to the enjoyment

of the other, or each is attracted by the other principle. Furthermore, there

are some people who are so bound by the soul that they also desire the very

same body which contains the soul. There are even a few people who are

so focused on the soul that they look down upon certain features of the

body unless they are predisposed by the soul. Thus, the famous story is told

about Socrates, who required that an attractive young boy first speak out

before he would declare his love for him.

*The condition of the bonding agent. Flatterers give high praise to ordinary

virtues, downplay faults, excuse errors, transform evil deeds into virtues,

and act very cautiously so as not to reveal their art of flattery. As a result,

they bind to themselves people who are not very clever, for to be loved and

honoured is the most pleasing and delightful thing for anyone, and to be

able to bind someone requires a certain higher type of virtue.

*How the bonding agent is bound. He who binds experiences joy and a certain

sense of glory, and this is greater and stronger insofar as the one who

is bound is more noble, more worthy and more excellent. The strength of

the bond by which he who binds is himself bound by the one who is bound

is located in this sense of joy and glory. In praising the vanquished, the victors

extol their own victory, and sometimes they even deceive themselves

more than others, both in their desires and in the other public consequences

of bonding. On the other hand, someone must be of a worthless

character if they are so unpleasant as not to reciprocate in spirit with someone

who loves them, when that person is honourable and distinguished, or

with someone who is bound in spirit to them in some other way.

* The types of bonding agents. There is one type of bonding in which we

wish to become worthy, beautiful and good; there is another type in which

we desire to take command of what is good, beautiful and worthy. The first

type of bonding derives from an object which we lack, the second, from an

object which we already have. These two types bind both what is good and

what is thought to be good, although this bond always occurs in some proportional

or suitable way. Also, fantasy and opinion bind more things than

does reason, for the former are indeed stronger than the latter. To be sure,

there are many who love without a reason, although there is some cause

which motivates their love, and, as a result, they are bound but do not know

what binds them.

*The blindness of the bonding agent. The explanation of bonds is, for the

most part, hidden, even from the wise, for what use is it to appeal to analogies,

similarities, family traits and other such meaningless words when we

see a person who hates nothing more than another person who is his genial

companion, while at the same time and without reason, he also loves that

person more than anything else? A general explanation is useless in a case

like this, because such an account does not distinguish between things

which belong to the same genus or species, for example, between female

and female, or male and female, as well as between other human conditions

like being old or young. And what would you say about the love of things

known only by hearsay, which is usually called ‘devotion’? Are not humans

bonded to higher and immaterial things, as well as to imaginary things, and

especially to things beyond experience? I will pass over here any discussion

of the specific types of binding powers, and especially of the power to bind

through incantations. It is not true, as some have said, that the power of

bonding is derived from what is good rather than from an opinion about

what is good; nor is it derived from a known rather than from a hidden

cause. We have already spoken above about the different types and species

of goods.

*The diligence of the bonding agent. Just as dull people are bound more

easily by a shrewd flatterer than by a true friend, likewise, bonds and bonding

powers are established and maintained in skillful ways. For example, a

timid man recommends against joining the army; a strongly godless person

recommends against becoming a priest; a cruel person recommends against

caring for others. Things move more easily towards that to which they are

inclined, just as someone who wishes to pick up something cylindrical

attends to surfaces which are round rather than flat or angular.

*The weapons of the bonding agent. The bonding agent has three types of

tools. The first type is located within him and is two-fold: those which are

essential or natural, i. e., those which belong to the nature of his species;

and those which are accidental and acquired, which follow from the nature

of his species, for example, sagacity, wisdom and art. The second type is

located in his environment, for example, chance, good fortune, opportunity,

encounters and arranged meetings. The third type is located above

him, for example, fate, nature and the favour of the gods.

*The vicissitudes of the bonding agent. The kind of proportionality which

we regularly experience in eating and in sexual intercourse is found in every

act of bonding. For we are not attracted and bonded by these desires

and loves at all times, or in the same way, or in the same degree, or with the

same variations of time. The reason is that our physical constitution and

all of its consequences fluctuate and change with time. Therefore, the

moment for bonding must be predicted ahead of time, with careful and

antecedent deliberation, and the opportunity must be quickly seized when

it presents itself, such that he who can bind will act and bind as soon as

possible.

*The eyes of the bonding agent. Bonds are so subtle, and that which is

bound is so barely sensible in its depths, that it is possible to examine them

only fleetingly and superficially. They change from moment to moment

and are related to the bonding agent like Thetis fleeing from the embraces

of Peleus. It is necessary to study the sequence of the changes and how the

power of a subsequent form is influenced by its predecessor, for although

matter is indeterminate in relation to innumerable forms, still its present

form is not equally distant from all the others. Rather, only one of those

forms is the immediate successor, others follow after many or a few intermediaries,

and one is located the furthest away of all. Thus, just as the form

of blood immediately follows the form of chyle, so do the bonds of anger

follow the bonds of indignation, and the bonds of sadness follow the bonds

of anger, as yellow bile easily becomes dark. Hence, after having carefully

observed the disposition and the present qualities influencing Thetis,

Peleus planned and prepared ahead of time the bond to win her over before

she might change into some other form, knowing full well that a snake and

a lion and a wild boar are captured in different ways.

*The enticements of the bonding agent. A bonding agent does not easily

bind someone who can be bound, just as a military commander does not

easily capture a well-protected fortress unless entry is provided by an internal

traitor, or by some arrangement with a collaborator, or by surrender or

by some sort of a compliant oYcial. Thus, in her own realm, ffenus does

not bind and does not easily capture the fortress when goblets are empty,

when the spirit is disturbed and when anxiety is aflame. But the fortress is

handed over when the goblets overflow, and the soul is at rest, the mind is

quiet and the body is at leisure. Having closely observed the changes of

these guards and custodians, one must suddenly act with boldness, attack

with force, use all resources and never hesitate. This same course of action

must be followed in other acts of binding.

*The steps in bonding. A bonding agent does not unite a soul to himself

unless he has captured it; it is not captured unless it has been bound; he

does not bind it unless he has joined himself to it; he is not joined to it

unless he has approached it; he has not approached it unless he has moved;

he does not move unless he is attracted; he is not attracted until after he has

been inclined towards or turned away; he is not inclined towards unless he

desires or wants; he does not desire unless he knows; he does not know

unless the object contained in a species or an image is presented to the eyes

or to the ears or to the gaze of an internal sense. Bonds are brought to completion

by knowledge in general, and they are woven together by feelings

in general. I say ‘knowledge in general’ because it is sometimes not known

which sense has captured the object, and I say ‘feelings in general’ because

sometimes that is not easy to define.

* The gates through which the bonding agent attacks. There are three gates

through which the hunter of souls ventures to bind: vision, hearing, and

mind or imagination. If it happens that someone passes through all three

of these gates, he binds most powerfully and ties dowm most tightly.

He who enters through the gate of hearing is armed with his voice and

with speech, the son of the voice. He who enters through the gate of vision

is armed with suitable forms, gestures, motions and figures. He who enters

through the gate of the imagination, mind and reason is armed with

customs and the arts. After that, the first thing that happens is the entrance,

then the joining, then the bonding, and fourthly the attraction. The

one who is bound encounters the bonding agent through all the senses, up

to the point that a perfect bond has been made such that the former is

totally immersed, and desires to be totally immersed, in the latter. And

thus, a bond of mutual desire is established. Parallel to this, there are,

indeed, also unpleasant bonds, which we will discuss later when we talk

about natural bonds. For example, the toad attracts the weasel with a

hidden power in its breathing; the cock overwhelms the lion with its voice;

the mullet, by its touch, stops a ship; in his fantasy, the fanatic devours

the demon; and a melancholic and unstable humour acts like a magnet on

evil spirits.

In conclusion, there are thirty topics which relate to the general theme

of the bonding agent, namely:

* Types

* Effects

* Art

* Rank

* Steps

* Multitude

* Talent

* Power

* Coincidence of contraries

* Diversity

* Mediation

* Partiality and concurrence of circumstances

* Instruments

* Opportunity

* Differences

* Variable powers

* Location

* Predisposition

* Diversity of predispositions

*Condition

*Reaction

* Distinction

*Blindness or ignorance

*Diligence

*Weapons

*Vicissitudes

*Eyes

*Enticements

*Sequences

* Gates

On what can be bound in general

* Types of things which can be bound. There are four things which rotate

around God, or universal nature, or the universal good, or absolute beauty.

They rotate in such a way that they cannot abandon that centre, otherwise

they would be annihilated, and in such a way that they can be separated

from that centre only by the distance of each of their circumferences from

its proper centre. These four things, I say, move in a circle around their

bonding agent in such a way that they maintain the same order forever.

According to the Platonists, they are mind, soul, nature and matter. Mind,

in itself, is stable; soul, in itself, is mobile; nature is partly stable and partly

mobile; and matter, as a whole, is both mobile and stable.

* The condition of that which can be bound. Nothing is bound unless it is very

suitably predisposed, for that brightness is not communicated to all things

in the same way.

* The form of that which can be bound. Everything which is bound has an

awareness in some sense, and in the nature of that awareness, one finds a

certain type of knowledge and of appetite, just as a magnet attracts or repels

different kinds of things. Hence, he who wishes to bind ought to focus in

some way on the awareness in that which can be bound. For, indeed, a bond

accompanies the awareness of a thing just like a shadow follows a body.

* The comparison of things which can be bound. Let us note that humans are

more open to bonding than are animals, and ignorant and stupid men are

very much less suited for heroic bonds than are those who have developed

an illustrious soul. In regard to natural bonds, the common person is much

more susceptible than is the philosopher; as the proverb says, the wise rule

over the stars. In regard to the intermediate type of bonds, it happens that

the greedy person might boast of being temperate, and the lustful person

of being moderate.

* The distinction of things which can be bound. From what has just been said,

it must be noted that the strength of one bond makes another type of bond

less forceful or more mild. Thus, a German is less agitated by Venus, an

Italian by drunkenness; a Spaniard is more prone to love, a Frenchman to

anger.

* The seed or incitement of the capacity to be bound. A thing is bound in the

strongest way when part of it is in the bonding agent, or when the bonding

agent controls it by one of its parts. To show this with just one example,

necromancers are confident that they exercise control over entire bodies by

means of the fingernails or the hair of the living, and especially by means

of footprints or parts of clothing. They also evoke the spirits of the dead by

means of their bones or any part of their bodies. Hence, it is not accidental

that special care is taken in burying the dead and in preparing funeral pyres,

and that leaving a body unburied is counted among the most grievous

crimes. Also orators create good will with their art when their listeners and

judges find something of themselves in it.

. . .

The soul and the spirit are subject to various changes in their

bodies and in the motions of their bodies (for although each substance is

quite stable and eternal because of its simplicity, still it acquires a desire

from its privation, an impulse from its desire, a motion from its impulse,

and a breaking of bonds from its motion). As a consequence, no bonds are

eternal. Rather, things alternate between bondage and freedom, between

being bonded and escaping from a bond, or they transfer from one type of

bond to another. This is a natural occurrence, and it precedes, accompanies

and follows the eternal condition of all things. Thus, nature binds with

its variety and motion, and art, which emulates nature, multiplies, varies,

diversifies, orders and arranges bonds in a successive series. But complete

stability is opposed to the nature of things, just as we are sometimes more

inclined to condemn it, and yet at other times we rather desire it, for it is

quite natural to desire to break from bonds, while just a little while ago we

were open to being tied to them by our own voluntary and spontaneous

inclinations.

* The indefiniteness of what can be bound. Insofar as that which can be

bound is composed of more parts, to the same degree it is less limited to

specific bonds. Thus, human pleasure is less limited to only one time or

individual or sex than are the pleasures of animals. All horses would have

an equal chance to mate with one mare, but this is often not true of all men

and one woman. This separation and indeterminateness between humans

and animals is also found between a true human and a brutal human,

between a more sensitive, and also more feeling, person and a more dull

person. And what we have said about one type of bond must also be applied

to all other genera and species of bonds.

* The foundation of the capacity to be bound. The primary reason why each

thing is capable of being bound is partly because there is something in it

which strives to preserve itself as it presently is, and partly because it strives

to be completely developed in itself according to its circumstances. In general,

this is self-love. Hence, if one could extinguish self-love in an object,

it would be subject to any and every type of bonding and separation. On

the other hand, when self-love flourishes, all things are easily attracted to

the types of bonds natural to them.

* The relation of things that can be bound. Consider the friendship and the

enmity among animals, their sympathy and hostility, their similarity and

diversity, and the circumstances of such things. Then arrange in an order

and in an analogy all the particularities and the separate individuals in the

human species, then all of the individuals and all the species of the other

animals, and finally the species of all other things. You now have collected

before you in a convenient order the diversity of bonds.

* The material diversity of things that can be bound. Although everything

that can be bound is composite in some way, still one thing can be said to

be simple and another many-sided or complex, and one thing can be more

simple while another has more parts. Consequently, some things are bound

purely and others impurely, and some bonds are pure while others are

impure. Thus some pleasures and pains are pure, some are impure, and

some are mixed. For example, Epicurus taught that the pleasures of Venus

are impure, because they are accompanied by pain and by an insatiable

desire (by which the whole body tries to transform itself into another whole

body), and this results in a sorrowful exhaustion. If there are things whose

principles never fail (perhaps the stars and the great living souls or gods of

the world, in whom there is no fatigue and in whom the influx and outflux

of substance is always exactly the same), then they would be bound by

themselves to each other in the most happy way.

Therefore, he who desires to bind in a socially effective way must take

into account the diverse composition or structure of things, and must consider,

evaluate and decide differently when dealing with heroes, or with

ordinary people, or with those who are more like brutes.

* The degrees of things that can be bound. Children are less bound by their

natural feelings, because their nature is absorbed in growth and is disturbed

by great changes, and all their nutrition is given over to growth and

the structuring of the individual. But they clearly begin to be open to being

bound in the fourteenth year, for even though at that age they are still

involved in growth, their rate of growth is not as fast and as great as when

they were children. And in the stable period of adulthood, men have a

greater strength in their semen and, as a result, seem to be more subject to

being bound. Furthermore, adolescents and young men seem to be more

sexually excited for the reason that they are on fire for a long time because

of the novelty of this pleasure; because the passages through which the

semen passes are narrower, the wetness gushes forth with a more delightful

pleasure. And as a result of the sexual itch which arises from this pressure,

they are more delighted and liberated. But bonds are more difficult

in older men, whose powers are half dead, whose organs and passages are

spent, and whose semen is not abundant. Precisely the same thing is found

proportionally in the other emotions which have an analogy or contrast or

dependence on the passion of love.

* The temperaments of things that can be bound. Because of their temperament,

those who are melancholy are more bound to indignation, sadness,

pleasure and love, for since they are more impressionable, they also have a

stronger sense of pleasure. They are also more prone to contemplation and

to speculation, and in general are moved and agitated more often and more

strongly by their emotions. Hence, in regard to the affairs of Venus, they

regard pleasure as an end in itself rather than as a means to propagate the

species. Next to them are people who are choleric, in comparison to which

the sanguine are less agitated. Those who are phlegmatic are less lustful

than the others, but are more greedy. Nevertheless, the fact remains that

everyone has his role in obeying nature. The melancholy are bound by a

greater force of imagination; the sanguine by a greater ability to emit sperm

and by their hot temper; the phlegmatic by their greater abundance of

fluids; and the caloric by their being more strongly and more sharply

agitated and stimulated by a hot spirit.

* The signs of things that can be bound. Physiognomy also has its part to

play in these considerations. There are people who have slender and sinewy

tibias, and who are similar to goats and to satyrs in having a wide concave

nose, deep breathing and a languid face. Such people love more intensely

and pursue sexual license more strongly. At the same time, they are easily

appeased and do not have any emotion for a long time.

* The duration of things that can be bound. With respect to bonds, old men

are more stable but less suitable; young men are more unstable but more

suitable; but middle aged men are bound suitably, skilfully and in a stable

manner.

*The reaction of things that can be bound. Mutual agreeableness gives rise

to mutual bonds. Thus, there are bonds in jokes, in wit and in theatrical

performances. In these ways, even those who are ugly and deformed can

bind those who have feelings for them. Let us add that we have often tried

to think about what it would be like to have a huge and lustful body, since

the following imaginary verses were composed to be cast as a spell upon a

young boy or girl:

I confess that I lack a beautiful form;

Yet God prefers me as more excellent,

As does a girl who is steady and not silly.

In a proportional way, there are bonds by which those who are ugly bind

because of their reputation for courage, vigour, eloquence, ingenuity and

other such things, for from one type of power they can cause bonds of

another type. It is not a rare occurrence that the more ugly Amazons bind

in the act of love because of their reputation for their strength or their use

of eloquence.

*The heterogeneity of things that can be bound. Furthermore, there are

species which are bound to a different species through love, hate, admiration,

piety, compassion and other such feelings. For example, there are

some famous cases of such bonding, like Lesbia with her sparrow, Corinna

with her small dog, Cyparissus with his doe, and Arion with his dolphin.

In general, the seeds of all species are attracted to other species. I will

remain silent about the sympathy between a man and a lion, and I will pass

over what I know about the astonishing intimacy between a boy and a

snake.

* The changing of things that can be bound. It is not difficult to change that

which can be bound from one type of bond to its contrary, since the bonding

agent is also changeable. And it makes no difference whether this occurs

actually or only in thought. Even though I was once bound in thought by

a teaching, the bonds of contempt and indignation may come later when

that opinion has been studied in a better light. And the bonds arising from

the fires of youth and beauty are relaxed and soothed in time when they do

not agree with the bonds derived from customs and skill.

. . .

*The substance of that which can be bound. There are two causes of the act

of bonding, and they are the same as the two causes of the essence of that

which, as such, can be bound: namely, knowledge of some kind and desire

of some kind. If something has no desire at all, then it cannot be bound

spiritually in any way at all. Furthermore, if something has no knowledge

and desire, then it cannot bind anything either socially or through magic. I

will not speak of the other types of bonds because I would not want to say

anything unsuitable to those of limited vision, who are numerous.

*The completeness of that which can be bound. Something is perfectly

bound if it is bound in all its powers and components. Hence, he who binds

should count these items carefully so that, in wishing to bind as completely

as possible, he can tie up many or all of them. He should have no doubt or

confusion about the different types and powers of nourishment and

enticement which affect the soul and the spirit.

*The connection of things that can be bound. It is not possible for a bonding

agent to bind something to himself unless the former is also bound to

the latter, for bonds adhere to, and are inserted into, that which is bound;

the bonding agent, which may accidentally be bound to another object,

must be truly bound to the object which it binds to itself. However, the

bonding agent has an advantage over that which is bound, for he is master

over the bonds, and because he is not affected and influenced in the same

way. This notion is supported by the fact that a procurer binds but is not

bound, but she who is loved is not bound by her lover unless he is bound

by her in the same act of love. Furthermore, a spiritual and mysterious type

of bond occasionally also occurs in which she who is loved is bound by her

lover, but she neither knows nor loves him. This is the type and level of love

in which Eros was brought to tears and unhappiness by Anteros. But at the

social level, no one binds unless he is also bound by the same or a similar

type of bond either to someone, or at least with someone, whom he desires

to bind.

* The truth of that which can be bound. For that which can be bound to be

truly bound, a real bond is not required, that is, a bond which is found in

things. An apparent bond is enough, for the imagination of what is not true

can truly bind, and by means of such an imagination, that which can be

bound can be truly bound; even if there were no hell, the thought and

imagination of hell without a basis in truth would still really produce a true

hell, for fantasy has its own type of truth. It can truly act, and can truly

and most powerfully entangle in it that which can be bound, and thus the

torments of hell are as eternal as the eternity of thought and faith. As long

as the soul, even when stripped of the body, retains these same characteristics,

it maintains its unhappy state for ages, and perhaps even more so

because of its pleasures and drinking and lack of self-control. The common

philosophers did not understand this, and they most stupidly used this

teaching to condemn the most ignorant of people. We will not make a big

issue of this, except to say the following: when we were children and inexperienced,

we were flooded with the arguments of these philosophers, just

as much as the old and the experienced, themselves, had been flooded with

the same arguments. Nevertheless, we forgive these elders for these views,

just as much as we think that we should be forgiven, since we were just

children.

On cupid’s bond and on bonds in general

We have claimed in our treatise De naturali magia that all bonds are either

reduced to the bond of love, depend on the bond of love or are based on the

bond of love. An examination of our thirty topics of discussion will easily

show that love is the foundation of all feelings, for he who loves nothing has

no reason to fear, to hope, to praise, to be proud, to dare, to condemn, to

accuse, to excuse, to be humble, to be competitive, to be angered or to be

affected in other ways of this sort. Hence, in this section, which we have

entitled ‘On Cupid’s Bond’, we have the opportunity to deal with a topic

which is very familiar and with considerations and speculations which

range very widely. This examination should not be considered to be far

removed from public affairs just because it is more important and more

wonderful than the field of public affairs.

* The definition of a bond. According to the Pythagoreans and the

Platonists, the bond of beauty is said to be a brightness, a beam of light and

a certain motion, or at least its shadow and image and trace. It has spread

out first into the mind, which it adorns with the order of things; second

into the soul, which it brings to completion with the sequence of things;

third into nature, which it diversifies and sustains with its seeds; and fourth

into matter, which it supplies with forms. According to them this beam of

light is clearest in the mind, clear in the soul, obscure in nature and most

obscure in the material substrate of natural things. It is not a bodily mass,

and it has no bulk. Nor can it rotate around a mass and through the whole

of space, for not just large things, but also small ones, are seen to be beautiful.

In the same species, large things are deformed and small things are

beautiful, but the opposite also occurs, and it often happens that beauty is

lost when something remains the same in quantity, and is preserved when

that quantity is changed. The most beautiful baby or child is pleasing but

does not bind until he is an adolescent of a certain age. Then he has some

size, and this is true even if his form and figure and complexion have not

changed at all. From this we conclude that social types of bonding require

a degree of size on which the form and the power of the bond depends. It

refers, I think, to gestures, words, clothing, habits, sense of humour, and

the other signs of human feelings.

* The origin of a bond. Some Platonists define a bond as arising from a certain

proportionality of parts accompanied by a certain pleasantness of

colouring. But to those who consider the matter more fully, it is at least as

clear that it is not just composite things and things consisting of parts that

bind, but that colour alone and sound alone also bind. Furthermore, nothing

slips away and ages faster than beauty, and nothing changes more slowly

than the form and figure which shine forth from the composition of parts.

Hence, it seems that the bond of beauty must be sought elsewhere than in

the figure and in the proportionality of parts. Indeed, sometimes love

passes away after the flowering of the object loved, but the same beauty and

figure still remain. As a result, the nature of a bond consists chiefly in a certain

mutual orientation between a captor and a captive. Indeed, it sometimes

happens that even though we have no grounds to complain reasonably

about a girl’s beauty, or in a social setting to criticize someone’s

conversation, speech, habits or actions in general, still they do not please

us. On the other hand, something, or even many things, may displease us

in someone, yet we still love that person. And, indeed, it would be rather

stupid to identify colour as a bond without distinguishing between colour

and the things associated with colour. For does colour in itself bind when

a brighter colour is displeasing and rejected by an old man, while a duller

colour binds and captures a young man? And also if, in a social setting, an

adolescent were to give a serious speech about grave matters of state, then

no matter how brilliant the speaker’s oratory, a man of more mature judgement

would become indignant because of the speaker’s arrogance.

Likewise, if an old man were to give a speech full of charming, flattering

and flowering words, this would invite contempt, would sometimes provoke

laughter and would provide an occasion for mockery. Thus, in regard

to the body, to words and to behaviour, one thing is fitting for a married

woman, another for a virgin; one thing for a girl, another for a boy; one

thing for a mature adult, another for an old man; one thing for a soldier,

another for a Roman citizen.

* The indeterminateness of a bond. I believe that it is not as difficult to make

and to break bonds as it is to identify a bond in the concrete circumstances

in which bonds are referred to the case at hand rather than to nature or to

art. For example, a bond which originates from the body has no specific

location in the body. Consider the eyes and cheeks and mouth by which a

lover feels that he is bound. When these same things are attributed to

another subject in the same proportions, it sometimes happens that they

do not bind in a similar way, and thus the bonds of Cupid are dissolved or

prevented. Why is it that sometimes, when we are consumed by love for a

body which we have seen, the bonds of Cupid vanish when we become

acquainted with that individual’s speech and personality? And thus, you

should understand bonds in the same way in a social setting.

* The composition of a bond. The bond of Cupid is inferior to the bonds by

which appropriate composite things bind us, and we are in no way forcefully

captured by simple and absolute things. There are those who strongly reject

these latter bonds. They think that God has no beauty in Himself, since his

nature is simple and He does not display any level of composition. However,

it is a matter of faith that God is both the author and the goal of all beauty

and of every bond. Thus, because of the weakness of their minds, these

thinkers have not distinguished between beauty in itself and what is beautiful

to us. Likewise, at the practical level, they do not discern and distinguish

between what is beautiful and reasonable to all men on the one hand,

and what is a matter of custom, practice and opportunity for particular

people on the other hand. As a result, they err in their attempts to bind.

* The number of bonds. To put the matter generally and firmly, bonds are

the form, the habits and the motions of a body, the consonance of voice and

speech, the harmony of customs and the chance meetings of sympathy by

which men are bound to men, animals to animals and even animals to men.

Thus, it is clear that the sight of a snake raises a mortal fear in a child, and

the sight of a wolf terrifies a lamb, because of a natural prompting and not

because of any previous experience or acquaintance, while the sight of a

cow or a sheep causes playfulness and enjoyment. There are also various

aromas by which men and spirits are bound in various ways. I have known

men who were so terribly horrified by the smell of musk, which is sweet for

everyone else, that they have even fallen down because their spirit was so

disturbed. And I have known one person who was extraordinarily delighted

by holding under his nose a bug crushed by his fingers. Thus, different

things are bonded in different ways, and not only contrary but even diverse

things are bonded to each other. Furthermore, at the social level, it is clear

that Germans and Italians do not have the same language, or the same

habits of caring for and clothing the body, or the same grace and elegance

in their customs. Nevertheless, an individual Italian may diverge from his

national norm and be more like a German; vice versa, a German may be

more like an Italian. This causes a complication and requires great prudence

in binding at the social level, especially when the bonds are cast not

over a group but over an individual. Indeed, it is easier to bind many rather

than only one. A hunter has a greater chance of hitting a bird with an arrow

shot into a group of birds than he would have of hitting a particular bird

with a more accurate aim.

* The gates of bonds. The senses are the entrances through which bonds are

cast. And vision is the most important of them all. The others are more

suitable for different objects and powers: touch is bound by the softness of

the flesh, hearing by the harmony of sound, smell by the sweetness of

breath, soul by the elegance of customs and intellect by the clarity of proofs.

Different bonds enter through different windows; they have different

effects in different people, and they please because of different desires in

different people, for, indeed, a bond does not arise equally from all things,

nor have an effect equally in all things.

* The types of bonds. We know that there are as many types of bonds as there

are types and varieties of beauty. Also, these varieties do not seem to be

smaller than the primary varieties of things, that is, the different species.

Furthermore, within each species there are different individuals who are

bound by different things in different ways. Thus, the hungry are bonded

to food, the thirsty to drink, he who is full of semen to Venus; one person

to a sensory object and another to an intellectual object; one person to a natural

object and another to an artificial one; a mathematician is bonded to

abstractions and a man of action to concrete things; a hermit satisfies himself

by a desire for what is absent and a member of a family by what is present.

Different things are bonded by different things in every species, and

the same bonds do not of themselves carry the same power when they originate

from different sources. Bonds arise when music is played by a boy

or an adolescent, but less so if by a girl or a man. Strength in a man is binding

because of his great size, but not in a woman. A girl binds through

simplicity and honesty, but if an adult has the same influence, bonds are

broken and he is more and more displeasing.

* The measurement of bonds. At the social level, orators, court officials and

those who know how to get things done bond more effectively if they

secretly conceal their skills when they act, for he who speaks with too much

eloquence, or who displays a knowledge too full of trivia, will not be well

received. Those who dress too rigidly and too precisely are displeasing, and

so is curled hair, and eyes, gestures and motions which always follow a precise

format, while he who keeps himself far removed from such things is

not displeasing. Public speaking of this type is generally thought to be too

affected and too florid. This is due to laziness and to a lack of talent and of

good judgement, for to conceal an art while using it is no small part of the

art. Thus, he who eloquently displays his knowledge at all times on every

topic is not very wise, just as one who has rings and jewels on all of his fingers

is not well adorned, and one who arrives loaded down with many

different necklaces is not well dressed. From this we should especially realize

that a bright light extinguishes a bright light, and that without darkness,

light does not shine, gleam, glitter and please, for an ornament is nothing

when it does not complement that which it adorns and shapes. Thus, art is

not separated from nature, nor is culture foreign to simplicity.

* The description of a bond. For Plato, a bond is a type of beauty or agreement

of forms; for Socrates, it is the excelling charm of the soul; for Timaeus, the

tyranny of the soul; for Plotinus, the private law of nature; for Theophrastus,

a secret deception; for Solomon, a hidden fire and furtive waters; for

Theocritus, a precious destruction; for Carneades, an agitated ruler; and

for me, ‘a joyful sorrow, and sorrowful joy’. From what we have said in the

preface to this part of this treatise, these other descriptions of feelings and

other types of bonds have an analogy to our notion of feelings and bonds.

* The distribution of bonds. Perfect things are bonded to perfect things;

noble things and nobility are bonded to noble things; and things which are

imperfect and defective are bonded to things which are imperfect and

defective. As a result, it was said above that part of what is in that which is

to be bound must be present in the bonding agent. A completely chaste girl,

in whom there are no seeds of excitement, is not bound to sensory pleasure

by any star or by any artifice if she has not been touched or embraced, that

is, (I say) she has not submitted herself to the hand of a bonding agent, and

his hand has not reached out to her. I will say nothing about an immature

girl, for in all actions there must be some seed, but not all seeds are fruitful

everywhere. And whose attempt to entice someone who is ill, or old, or frigid

or castrated would not be frustrated (the opposite would apply to those

who would not make the attempt)? In regard to social bonds, a proportional

judgement is quite easy to make.

* The degrees of bonds. Things in the universe are so ordered that they

constitute one definite co-ordination in which there can occur a transition

from all things to all things in one continuous flow. Some of these things

are immediately related to others, for example, the natural propagation of

individuals of the same species, and in these cases the bonds are blood

related, familiar and easy. Other things are interrelated through various

intermediaries, and all of these intermediaries must be crossed over and

penetrated so that bonds are stretched across from the bonding agent to

that which is bound. Thus, by their generosity to things and by their goodwill

in sharing with these intermediaries, spirits influence inferior, and even

the lowest, things and bind them to themselves. On the other hand, lower

things are raised up with a certain reverence through a natural or rational

sequence so that, through the free consent of higher things, they can bind

to themselves superior things located far above them. And just as there are

various species of things and differences between them, they also have various

times, places, intermediaries, pathways, instruments and functions. It

is very easy to see this and to understand it for all types of bonds and things

that can be bound.

* The size of a bond. In all things there is a divine force, that is, love, the

father himself, the source, the Amphitrite of bonds. Thus, Orpheus and

Mercury were not wrong when they called this the great demon, for this

bond is indeed the entire substance, constitution, and (if I may say so) the

hypostasis of things. We come to know this greatest and most important

bond when we turn our eyes to the order of the universe. By this bond,

higher things take care of lower ones, lower things are turned toward higher

ones, equal things associate with each other and lastly, the perfection of the

universe is revealed in the knowledge of its form.

* The principal effect of a bond. If there were only one love, and thus only

one bond, all things would be one. But there are many different characteristics

in different things. Hence, the same thing binds different things in

different ways. As a result, Cupid is said to be both above and below, both

the newest and the oldest, both blind and most observant. Cupid made all

things in such a way that, for the preservation of their species, they remain

firm in their powers or in themselves and are not separated from themselves.

But then, in regard to the changes which occur in individual things,

he arranged it so that they would be separated from themselves in a certain

sense when the lover eagerly desires to be completely transported into the

loved one; and also that they would be unrestrained, opened up and thrown

wide open when the lover desires to embrace and to devour the loved one

completely. Thus it happens that the bond by which things wish to be

where they are and not to lose what they have also causes them to wish to

be everywhere and to have what they do not possess. This is due to a sense

of complacency with what is possessed, to a desire and an appetite for what

is absent but possessable, and to a love for all things. A particular and finite

good and truth is not suYcient for an individual appetite and intellect,

which have as their objects what is universally good and universally true.

From this it follows that a finite potency in some definite material body

simultaneously experiences the effects both of being drawn together and of

being pulled apart, dispersed and scattered by the same bond. This general

characteristic of a bond is to be found in each individual type of bond.

* The quality of a bond. In itself, a bond is neither beautiful nor good.

Rather, it is the means by which things as a whole, and each individual

thing, pursue what is beautiful and good. It connects that which receives

with that which is received, that which gives with that which is given, that

which can be bound with a bonding agent, that which is desired with the

one who desires. Indeed, that which desires the beautiful and the good

lacks these qualities insofar as it desires them. Thus, to that degree it is

neither beautiful nor good. Hence, one of the Peripatetics was wrong in his

statement about matter when he concluded that matter is ugly and evil,

because the desire for the good and beautiful is itself evidence that matter

lacks these properties. Aristotle said more carefully that matter is not ‘ugly’

or ‘evil’ as such.  Rather, the actual truth is that that which, like matter,

tends and moves equally towards goodness and evil, ugliness and beauty, is

in itself neither ugly nor beautiful, neither evil nor good. If matter were

evil, it would be contrary to its nature to desire the good; the same would

be true if it were naturally ugly. And if it were evil by analogy, then it would

also analogously possess a contrary which does not desire, but, rather,

excludes and rejects, the other contary. The more profound philosophers

understand this as we have declared elsewhere. That is, matter itself, in its

bosom, is the beginning of all forms, such that all things originate and are

produced from it; it is not a pure negation, as if all things originated from

the outside as foreigners; indeed, outside of the bosom of matter there are

no forms; rather, all forms are both latent within it and are derived from it.

Consequently for anyone who considers bonds at the social level and in

their full meaning, it should be clear that in every material thing or part of

matter, in every individual or particular thing, all seeds are contained

within and lie hidden there, and, as a result, the inclinations of all bonds

can be actuated by a skilful effort. In one of our ‘Thirty Small Signs’, we

have explained in general how such an inclination and its transformation

take place.

* The generality or universality of a bond. From what has just been said, it

follows that the love by which we love, and the tendency by which all things

desire, are intermediaries between good and evil, between the ugly and the

beautiful (not themselves being ugly or beautiful). And so they are good

and beautiful because of a sort of sharing and participation, for the bond of

love has a nature which is both active and passive. And by this, things act,

or are acted upon, or both, as they desire to be ordered, joined, united and

completed, insofar as it is within the nature of each thing to be occupied

with order, joining, union and completion. Without this bond there is

nothing, just as without nature there is nothing. Because of this, therefore,

love is not a sign of imperfection when it is considered in matter and in the

chaos before things were produced. For indeed, anything which is considered

in the chaos and in brute matter, and is also said to be love, is

simultaneously said to be a perfection. And whatever is said to be imperfect,

disordered and not to be, is understood not to be love. Thus, it is established

that love is everywhere a perfection, and this bond of love gives

witness everywhere to perfection. When an imperfect thing desires to be

perfected, this, indeed, takes place in something which is imperfect, but

not because it is imperfect. Rather, this happens because of a participation

in a perfection and in a divine light and in an object having a more eminent

nature, which it desires more strongly inasmuch as the object is more vivacious.

That which is more perfect burns with greater love for the highest

good than does that which is imperfect. Therefore, that principle is most

perfect which wishes to become all things, and which is not oriented to any

particular form but to a universal form and universal perfection. And this

is universal matter, without which there is no form, in whose power, desire

and disposition all forms are located, and which receives all forms in the

development of its parts, even though it cannot receive two forms at the

same time. Hence, matter is in a sense divine, just as a form, which is either

a form of matter or nothing, is also in a sense divine. There is nothing outside

of matter or without matter, otherwise the power to make and the

power to be made would be one and the same thing, and would be

grounded in one undivided principle, because the power to make anything

and the power of anything to be made would be either present or absent

together. There is only one potency taken absolutely and in itself (whatever

it may be in particulars, in composites and when taken accidentally, a

question which dominated the thinking and the minds of the Peripatetics

and their monkish followers). I have said this in many places in my De

infinito et universo and more precisely in my De principio et uno, where I

conclude that it is not a foolish opinion which was defended by David of

Dinant and by Avicebron in his Fons vitae, who cited the Arabs who also

ventured to assert that God is matter.

* The comparison of bonds. The most important of all bonds is the bond of

Venus and of love in general, and that which is primarily and most powerfully

the opposite of love’s unity and evenness is the bond of hate. Indeed,

to the degree that we love one of two opposites and contraries of any type,

then to that same degree we hate and reject the other. These two feelings,

or rather, in the last analysis, this one feeling of love (whose substance

includes hate) dominates all things, is lord over all things, and elevates,

arranges, rules and moderates all things. This bond dissolves all the other

bonds. For example, female animals who are restrained by the bond of

Venus do not get along well with other females, and males do not tolerate

rival male suitors. They neglect food and drink and even life itself, not giving

up even when conquered. Rather, the more they are worn out, the more

they press on, fearing neither storms nor the cold. Because of this argument,

Aristippus decided that the highest good is bodily, and especially

sexual, pleasure, but he held before his eyes a rather animalistic view of man

as a result of his own conclusion. But still, it is true that the more skilful

and clever bonding agent, who uses things which the one to be bound or

tied loves and hates, expands his pathway to the bonds of the other feelings.

For indeed, love is the bond of bonds.

* The time and place of bonds. Even though the best seed is sown, the generation

of new things does not occur always and everywhere. Likewise,

bonds are not effective always and everywhere in capturing an object, but

only at the proper time and with the appropriate disposition of the object.

* The distinction of bonds. There are no purely natural or purely voluntary

bonds (in the sense in which people commonly distinguish between the

natural and the voluntary). The will acts with the participation of the intellect,

while the intellect is not limited by the will but acts everywhere, except

where nothing exists. We have proven this in other places, and thus it

would be useless to discuss the matter further here. According to our

understanding, there are three different types of bonds: the natural, the

rational and the voluntary (even though all things are based on one natural

foundation). Consequently, to some degree we cannot set boundaries

between one type of bond and another. Thus, the laws of prudence do not

prohibit love, but love beyond reason. And the deceivers of the foolish prescribe

without reason limits to reason, and condemn the laws of nature.

And the most corrupt say that nature is corrupt, because humans are not

raised above nature like heroes but are degraded like beasts as against

nature and are beneath all dignity.

* The development and stages of a bond. According to the Platonists, the

construction of the bond of Cupid occurs as follows. First, some type of

beauty or goodness, or some such thing, is brought into the external senses.

Second, it is taken on to the centre of the senses, that is, to the common

sense; then, third, into the imagination; and fourth, into the memory. Then

the soul, by its own power, desires first that it be moved, redirected and

captured; second, once redirected and captured, it is enlightened by a ray

of the beautiful or the good or the true; third, once enlightened and illuminated,

it is inflamed by sensory desire; fourth, once inflamed, it desires

to be united to the thing loved; fifth, once united, it is absorbed and incorporated;

sixth, once incorporated, it then loses its previous form and in a

sense abandons itself and takes on an alien quality; seventh, it, itself, is

transformed by the qualities of the object through which it has moved and

has thus been affected. The Platonists call the responses to the initial

motions Cupid’s preparation; the redirecting, Cupid’s birth; the illumination,

Cupid’s nourishment; the inflaming, Cupid’s growth; the union,

Cupid’s attack; the incorporation, Cupid’s domination; and the transformation,

Cupid’s victory or completion.

*The foundation of the stages of bonds. You can now see how this scale is

based on its individual stages. Cupid’s birth issues first from the body’s

nourishment, sensitivity and sexual expression, and second from the soul

or spirit because of its charm, or playfulness, or contemplation, which is

worthy of a better name, in which beauty is joined with pleasantness.

Cupid’s food, which prevents the newborn from expiring, is the knowledge

of what is beautiful. Cupid’s growth is due to a lingering reflection on the

knowledge of what is beautiful. Cupid’s attack consists in the fact that the

soul slides and spreads from one part to all parts of the beloved so that it

can inflame the whole. Cupid’s domination is grounded in the action by

which the soul of the lover, having abandoned his own body, lives and acts

in the other. Cupid’s transformation occurs when the lover, having died to

himself, lives another life in such a way that he lives there as in his own

house rather than in someone else’s house. Thus, it is said that Jupiter was

transformed into a bull, Apollo into a shepherd, Saturn into a horse and

the other gods into other forms. Likewise, the soul is transformed by the

motion or disturbance of its feelings from one form and type of bond to

another.