VISIO TERTIA, cap. VIII
The Breath of the Spirit and the Stirring of Desire
The outpouring of the Holy Spirit's virtues is likened to a wind that changes the air and a person's humors, so that a faithful soul, receiving this breath, is shaken in desire and its inner storms of thought are transformed.
And again, you see how when any one of the winds stirred up by all the aforementioned qualities is raised in any region of the world, or by the different course of the sun and moon, or by the judgment of God, as was said before, so that with the air disturbed there and tempered to itself, it sends out its own breath — which same air, breathing through the world and by its tempering preserving the things that are in the world, renders a person somewhat changeable in their humors according to that same breath — signifying that when an outpouring of the virtues and most abundant of gifts breathes out wherever the Holy Spirit breathes them out, and through the inspiration of a spirit of fortitude and humility, and of a spirit of the fear of the Lord and of a contrite soul, and through the disposition of divine consideration, it rises up in a faithful person, so that by a right desire of that which is in harmony with it, it assists by an outflowing inspiration that same desire, examining all useful things and leaning back toward them with devotion, it adapts itself to that same inspiration. And in this way that same desire also shakes the heart of that same person, because when that person — whose natural quality agrees with that same breath — draws this air, thus changed, into themselves and sends it out, inasmuch as the soul, receiving it, transmits it to the inner parts of the body, the humors that are in it are also changed, and they often bring to it either infirmity or health, as was shown above; when that person whose good will agrees with this outpouring, by ruminating sifts through this desire set apart from evil, and because the soul writes it out more secretly through itself, the storms of thoughts that flood within it are also changed, so that they now promise adversity, now prosperity.
Humors, Beasts, and the Flux of the Inner Life
A person's humors shift like those of wild beasts, and with them the emotions and thoughts alternate in frequent change.
Because the humors in a person are also stirred—now more sharply, now more gently—according to the temperament of certain animals or wild beasts, and so, following the change or impulse of those same humors, the emotions and thoughts in that very person are varied by frequent alternation.
Read the original Latin
Sed et iterum vides, cum quispiam ventorum omnium praedictarum qualitatum in qualibet plaga mundi, aut diverso cursu solis et lunae, aut judicio Dei, ut praedictum est, excitatur, ita ut illic aere commoto, sibique contemperato, flatum suum emittat, quod idem aer per mundum spirans, et ea quae in mundo sunt temperando conservans, secundum eumdem flatum hominem in humoribus suis aliquantum mutabilem reddit, significans quia cum exspiratio virtutum plurimorum donorum, ubicunque Spiritus sanctus eas exspirat, et per inspirationem spiritus fortitudinis et humilitatis, spiritusque timoris Domini animique contriti, et per dispositionem divinae considerationis in fideli homine exsurgit, ita ut recto desiderio illius quod ipsi concordans est per effluentem inspirationem assistat, idem desiderium quaeque utilia perscrutans, seque ad illa cum devotione reclinans, eidem inspirationi se coaptat. Et sic idem quoque desiderium cor ejusdem hominis concutit, quoniam cum ille scilicet homo cujus naturalis qualitas eidem flatui convenit, aerem hunc sic immutatum in se inducit et emittit, eo quod anima illum suscipiens, ad interiora corporis transmittat, humores qui in ipso sunt etiam immutantur, eique aut infirmitatem, aut sanitatem, ut supra demonstratum est, multoties inducunt, cum ipse cujus voluntas bona exspirationi huic concordat, desiderium hoc a malo separatum ruminando discutit, et quia anima illud per seipsam secretius exscribat, procellae cogitationum quae in ipso inundant etiam immutantur, ita ut ei nunc adversitatem, nunc prosperitatem promittant.
Quia humores in homine etiam secundum modum complexionis quorumdam animalium vel bestiarum nunc acrius, nunc levius moveantur, et quod juxta mutationem vel impulsionem eorumdem humorum affectus et cogitationes, in ipso scilicet homine frequenti alternatione varientur.
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