282 GIORDANO BRUNO PART 



apprehends the more truly beautiful by conversion to that 

 which makes beauty in body, the source of the beauty, 

 and that is the soul, which has so moulded and formed 

 it. Intellect rises still higher, sees that while the soul 

 is incomparably beautiful above the beauty of bodily 

 things, it is not beautiful in_ itself, or primitively, other- 

 wise there could not exist the diversity that is found in 

 souls some being wise, lovable, beautiful, others foolish, 

 hateful, ugly. Hence it must rise to that higher 

 intelligence which of itself is beautiful and of itself is ; 

 good. That is the One, the Supreme Captain, who I 

 when presented to the eyes of the thoughts militant, 

 illuminates them, encourages, strengthens, and leads 

 them to victory in the contempt of every other beauty, 

 and repudiation of every other good. Its presence, 

 therefore, is that which enables us to overcome every 

 difficulty and conquer every force. 1 , The Intelligence 

 which is the truest beauty attainable by us, is not yet 

 Divinity itself, but only the highest " intelligible species," 

 or form, the highest Idea. Divinity itself is the final, 

 the most perfect object of thought and love, not attain- 

 able in our present state, in which God cannot become 

 object to us, except through some image. 2 No image 

 of the Divine, however, even the most inadequate, can 

 be abstracted or otherwise derived by the senses, from 

 corporeal beauty or excellence. Such can be formed 

 only by the intellect, and on such the human intellect 

 feeds, in this lower world, until it be allowed to behold 

 with purer eyes the beauty of divinity itself. In a fine 

 simile Bruno describes how one may come to some 

 mansion, most exquisitely adorned, and as he goes about 

 observing now this, now that, is pleased and happy, 

 filled with delight and noble wonder. But if then he 



1 Lag. 672. 29. 2 646. 2 ff. 



