CAPUT V. Quomodo imaginatio subserviat rationi, sensualitas affectioni
The Two Handmaids Assigned
Affection takes sense-faculty and reason takes imagination as handmaids, each serving their mistress indispensably for spiritual knowledge and delight.
So each of them took her own handmaid. Affection took the sense-faculty, and reason took the imagination.1 The sense-faculty obeys affection; imagination serves reason. Each handmaid is recognized as so necessary to her mistress that, without them, the whole world would seem to have nothing to offer those mistresses. For without imagination, reason would know nothing; without the sense-faculty, affection would savor nothing. For why is Leah so fiercely stirred toward love of things that pass away, if not because, through the service of her handmaid—that is, the sense-faculty—she takes manifold delight in them? Likewise, since it is written: "For the invisible things of God, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, understood through the things that have been made," from this we can plainly gather that reason would never rise to knowledge of invisible things unless her handmaid—namely, imagination—presented to her the form of visible things.✦ For through the outward form of visible things it rises to knowledge of invisible things whenever, from the former, it draws some likeness toward the latter.
The Ministry of Imagination
Imagination mediates between bodily sense and reason, presenting outer forms inwardly so that reason may contemplate invisible realities.
But it's clear that without imagination reason would not know bodily things, and without knowing them it would not rise to the contemplation of heavenly things. For the sense of the flesh alone looks on visible things, but only the eye of the heart sees the invisible. So the sense of the flesh is wholly outward, while the sense of the heart is wholly inward. Reason cannot go outside, and the bodily sense has no power to enter in to her. For it was not fitting that a delicate, tender, and uniquely beautiful daughter should run about outside through the streets—but neither was it proper for a servant to burst irreverently into his lady's more secret inner rooms.2 So imagination runs back and forth (as the handmaid) between mistress and servant, between reason and sense; and whatever she draws in from outside through the sense of the flesh, she presents within for the service of reason. So imagination always stands by reason, and does not for even a moment withdraw from her service. For even when sense fails, she herself does not stop serving.
The Service of Sensuality
Sensuality constantly ministers to affection, but because affection's vision is dim, it often misleads her into loving what should be despised.
For when I'm in the dark, I see nothing—but I can imagine anything I like there if I want. So imagination is always on hand in everything, and reason can make use of its service anywhere. But sensuality, too, is no less busy and careful about her constant ministry, and she herself is certainly always and everywhere ready to serve her mistress Leah.3 She is the one who regularly seasons the foods of carnal delight, sets them before her, invites her to use them before the hour, and goads her beyond measure.4 For what else is she but sensuality, which inflames the soul's affection with desire for carnal pleasures and intoxicates it with delight in them? She is the one who goes ahead of that hardworking mistress of hers when she goes out, and leads her this way and that.5 For because Leah is bleary-eyed and sees little, she is not ashamed to follow that handmaid's leading by the hand. That is why Leah (that is, the soul's affection) now loves what ought to be despised, now despises what ought to be loved; because while her eye is dim in judging things, she is not ashamed to follow the appetite of the flesh.
The Names of the Handmaids Revealed
Scripture names these two maidservants: Zelpha belongs to Leah and Bala to Rachel.
These are the two maidservants of Jacob's two wives, whom Scripture names Zelpha and Bala — Bala as Rachel's, and Zelpha as Leah's.
Read the original Latin
Accepit ergo utraque illarum ancillam suam. Affectio, sensualitatem; ratio, imaginationem. Obsequitur sensualitas affectioni; imaginatio famulatur rationi. Intantum unaquaeque ancillarum dominae suae necessaria esse cognoscitur, ut sine illis totus mundus nil eis posse conferre videretur. Nam sine imaginatione, ratio nihil sciret; sine sensualitate, affectio nil saperet. Utquid enim Lia circa labentium rerum amorem tam vehementer afficitur, nisi quia in eis, per ancillae suae (hoc est sensualitatis) obsequium, multiformiter delectatur. Item, cum scriptum sit: Quia invisibilia Dei, a creatura mundi per ea, quae facta sunt, intellecta conspiciuntur, inde manifeste colligitur quia ad invisibilium cognitionem nunquam ratio assurgeret, nisi ei ancilla sua, imaginatio videlicet, rerum visibilium formam repraesentaret. Per rerum enim visibilium speciem surgit ad rerum invisibilium cognitionem, quoties ex his ad illam quamdam trahit similitudinem.
Sed constat quia sine imaginatione corporalia nesciret, sine quorum cognitione ad coelestium contemplationem non ascenderet. Visibilia enim solus intuetur sensus carnis, invisibilia vero solus oculus videt cordis. Est ergo sensus carnis totus extrinsecus, sensus vero cordis totus intrinsecus. Ratio foras exire non potest, sensus corporeus ad illam intrare non valet. Non enim decebat filiam delicatam, et teneram, et singulariter formosam foris per plateas discurrere, sed nec servum conveniebat dominae suae penetralia secretoria irreverenter irrumpere. Discurrit ergo imaginatio (utpote ancilla) inter dominam et servum, inter rationem et sensum; et quidquid extrinsecus haurit per sensum carnis, intus repraesentat ad obsequium rationis. Semper ergo imaginatio rationi assistit, nec ad momentum quidem ab ejus famulatu se subtrahit. Nam sensu etiam deficiente, ipsa ministrare non desinit.
Nam in tenebris positus, nihil video, sed quaelibet illic imaginari possum, si volo. Sic semper et in omnibus imaginatio praesto est, et ejus obsequio ubique ratio uti potest. Sed et sensualitas nihilominus satagit et sollicita est circa frequens ministerium, et ipsa utique semper et ubique ad dominae suae Liae parata obsequium. Haec est, quae illi solet carnalium delectationem cibos condire, et apponere, et ad earum usum ante horam invitare, et ultra mensuram provocare. Quae enim alia est quam sensualitas, quae animi affectionem carnalium voluptatum desiderio inflammat, et earum delectatione inebriat. Haec est quae laboriosam illam dominam suam egredientem praecedit, et huc illucque circumducit. Nam quia Lia lippa est et parum videt, illius manuductionem sequi eam non pudet. Hinc est quod Lia (animi videlicet affectio) nunc contemnenda diligit, nunc diligenda contemnit; quia, dum ejus oculus in rerum judicio caligat, carnis appetitum sequi non erubescit.
Haec sunt duarum uxorum Jacob ancillae duae, quas Scriptura nominat Zelpham et Balam, Balam Rachelis, et Zelpham Liae.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Rom.1.20 — For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes have been clearly perceived, being understood through the things that have been made: both his eternal power and divine nature. So they are without excuse.
Notes
- 1 ↩sensualitas is rendered 'sense-faculty' (medieval sensual appetite/sensibility), not modern 'sensuality' as lust.
- 2 ↩In the allegory, the delicate daughter is reason (the lady), and the servant is the bodily sense; imagination will soon be cast as the handmaid who moves between them.
- 3 ↩sensualitas is the lower sense-appetite serving Leah (affectio); not mere 'sensory awareness.'
- 4 ↩Latin has carnalium delectationem cibos; sense is clearly 'foods of carnal delight(s),' whether delectationem is treated as a compressed genitive construction or a lightly awkward source form for delectationum.
- 5 ↩laboriosam dominam points to Leah as the active, toiling affection of the soul, not merely a busy household mistress.
Benjamin Minor (The Twelve Patriarchs / Preparation of the Mind for Contemplation) companion
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