ii THREE DEGREES OF LOVE 281 



of love is fire, for love converts the object of love into 

 the lover, as fire is of all elements the most active, the 

 most potent to transform others into itself. 1 It is the 

 divine in man that makes him or impels him to love 

 God as He is in reality, and the goal or aim of that love 

 is to take God into himself, to become one with God. 

 No really divine or heroic love can ever rest satisfied in 

 anything but spiritual beauty. For there are three kinds 

 of love, as there are three kinds of Platonic rapture 

 the contemplative, the practical, the idle or voluptuous. 

 One from the perception of corporeal form and beauty 

 rises to the thought of the spiritual and divine ; another 

 enjoys the vision of beauty for itself, and for the grace 

 of the spirit that is reflected in the grace of the body ; 

 while still another enjoys only the material pleasure that 

 beauty provides ; the last is the love of barbarous 

 natures, incapable of raising themselves to love that 

 which is really worthy of love. 2 



To the two higher kinds of love correspond the two Beauty, 

 kinds of beauty sensible and intelligible. That in the 

 body which calls forth love its beauty is a certain 

 spirituality, which consists not in definite dimensions, 

 " nor in determinate colours or forms, but in a certain 

 harmony and consonance of members and colours." 

 Corporeal beauty is not, however, true or permanent 

 beauty, and therefore cannot call forth true or per- 

 manent love. The beauty of bodies is accidental, 

 "shadowy," and like other qualities is absorbed, altered, 

 and decays through the change of the subject-body, for 

 the latter frequently from beautiful becomes ugly, without 

 any change taking place in the soul. Reason, however, 



Per gl' occhi entra il mio nume, et per vedere 

 Nasce, vive, si nutre, ha regno eterno, 

 Fa scorger quant' ha '1 ciel, terr' et inferno. 

 1 Lag. 628. 18. 2 Lag. 639. 



