VISIO QUINTA, cap. III
The Senses and the Cardinal Regions
The four cardinal directions and the central region of the cosmos are mystically mapped to the five human senses, revealing how the world ministers to body and soul.
And so the one part turned toward the east supplies the middle region with good sap and fruitful greenness, just as the human gaze, directed as it were toward the dawn of light — that gaze which, so to speak, stands at the center of the elements — ministers health to both body and soul. The other part, however, looking toward the west, gives that same region moisture that is sometimes beneficial and sometimes harmful, so that hearing too, like something shaking and piercing the whole human body toward the west, now announces prosperity, now adversity, now the soul's salvation, now despair. The third region, tending toward the south, sends the middle region heat tempered by the cold blast of the winds, and so does the sense of smell: just as vapor rising from warmth pours out a scent drawn from hot and cold blends, and a fragrance coming from the heights above, so it floods the person. But the fourth region, stretching toward the north, brings the aforementioned middle region cold from the north and heat arriving from the east, much like the sense of taste receiving cold things and distinguishing cold from hot, shaking the person with varied flavor and heavenly sweetness. The fifth region, existing in the midst of these, is strengthened by them in firmness and tempered by various infusions, just as the sense of touch, active as it were in the midst of the other senses, is reinforced by them, since all the senses give their strength to it and establish it for growth — as is also shown in the arrangement of the fingers, because through them works are completed that look toward eternal reward.
The Geometry of East and West
The equal, arc-like measures of the eastern and western regions reflect the sun's course, while the southern and northern regions share their dimensions but are uniquely shaped by inner curves.
And as you see, the extent of the eastern region and the extent of the western region are of equal measure, and each has the shape of a stretched arc, because the sun, in rising and setting, occupies equal spans of land in the circuit of its course. This also shows that sight, in this likeness, is the knowledge of good and evil: just as sight, through knowledge of the good, reaches upward toward what is good, so also, through knowledge of evil, it sinks downward toward what is evil — by the former turning itself away from evil, by the latter bending itself away from good. The extent of the southern region and the extent of the northern region, being of one measure, are equal in length and breadth to the previous two regions, except that on their inner edges they appear, so to speak, cut off, because of the curved inner edges of those same earlier regions.
Virtue, Vice, and the Bound Will
The bow-like shapes of the southern and northern regions mirror the opposing paths of smell toward virtue and taste toward vice, illustrating how the soul binds itself cautiously at the onset of either good or evil.
They also take on the shape of an extended bow beyond their own cut-off inner boundaries, because the south holds as much of the earth in heat as the north holds in cold; and in this they also imitate the length and width of east and west, except that the boundaries of those parts directed toward the fifth part are narrowed somewhat by the extension of the eastern and western parts, even though elsewhere they take on the likeness of a circle. So too the sense of smell reaches toward the right through the fragrance of virtues, but taste through the flavor of vices toward the left; under this pretense, as it were a matched pursuit, though an opposite one, they assimilate themselves to their origin — the one adapting itself to good, the other to evil; yet in the end neither of these can have the fullness of its effort at the beginning of its undertaking, because when a person first begins either good or evil, knowingly in that very act he binds himself, since he does not yet dare to entrust himself wholly to it.
Divisions of Body, Soul, and Works
The southern and northern regions each divide into three parts, pointing the contemplative soul toward an understanding of the human body, soul, and works.
That the two divisions of the earth — the southern and the northern — each break into three subdivisions is plain to see for anyone who contemplates it, and how these divisions must be understood in relation to the body, the soul, and the works of the human person.
Read the original Latin
Unde et pars una ad orientem versa mediae parti succum bonum viriditatemque utilem tribuit, quemadmodum et hominis visus, quasi ad ortum claritatis directus, ipsi, qui velut in medio elementorum est, salutem corporis et animae subministrat. Altera autem ad occidentem respiciens, humiditatem interdum bonam, interdum nocivam eidem parti dat, ut etiam auditus totum corpus hominis velut ad occidentem concutiens et penetrans, nunc prospera, nunc adversa, nunc animae salutem, nunc desperationem illi denuntiat. Tertia vero ad austrum vergens, calorem frigido flatu ventorum temperatum ipsi parti immittit, sicut et odoratus, quemadmodum vapor de calore surgens, odorem de calidis et frigidis temperamentis procedentem, odoremque de supernis suspiriis venientem homini infundit. Sed quarta ad septentrionem tendens, frigus a septentrione, et calorem ab oriente venientem, praedictae mediae parti inducit, velut gustus frigida recipiens, frigidaque et calida discernens, diverso sapore supernaque dulcedine hominem concutit. Quinta autem in medio istarum existens, ab ipsis in soliditate confortatur diversisque infusionibus temperatur, quemadmodum et tactus, velut in medio aliorum sensuum vigens, ab eis roboratur, cum omnes ipsi vires tribuunt, et eum ad vegetationem consolidant, ut etiam in dispositione digitorum ostenditur, quia et per ipsos opera ad aeternam remunerationem respicientia perficiuntur. Et ut vides, ambitus partis orientalis ambitusque partis occidentalis aequalis mensurae sunt; formamque extenti arcus uterque habet, quoniam sol oriendo et occidendo aequalia spatia terrarum in circuitu cursus sui occupat. Quod etiam ostendit visum per scientiam boni et mali in hac similitudine esse, videlicet quod sicut visus per scientiam boni ad hoc quod bonum est sursum tendit, ita et per scientiam mali ad hoc quod malum est deorsum descendit; per illam quidem se a malo retorquendo, per istam autem a bono se recurvando. Ambitus quoque partis australis ambitusque partis septentrionalis unius mensurae existentes, longitudini et latitudini priorum duarum partium adaequantur, excepto quod in interioribus finibus suis propter arcuatus interiores fines earumdem priorum duarum partium quasi truncati videntur.
Formam quoque extenti arcus praeter ipsos truncatos interiores fines suos imitantur, quia quantum terrae auster in calore, tantum septentrio in frigore occupat; in hoc etiam longitudinem et latitudinem orientis et occidentis imitantes, praeter quod fines eorum qui ad quintam partem praedictarum partium diriguntur, per extensionem partis orientalis nec non occidentalis aliquantum constringuntur, cum tamen alibi similitudinem circuli imitentur. Sic et odoratus per odorem virtutum tendit ad dexteram, gustus vero per saporem vitiorum ad sinistram; in hoc obtentu velut par studium, quamvis contrarium, habentes, origini suae se assimilant, cum ille bono, hic malo se coaptat; sed tandem neuter istorum in initio incoeptionis suae plenitudinem conatus sui habere potest, quia dum primitus homo sive bonum sive malum incipit, scienter in eodem facto se constringit, quoniam nondum illi se totum committere audet.
Quod duarum partium divisionis terrae, australis scilicet et septentrionalis, in tres unaquaeque subdivisiones distincta contemplanti ista appareant, et quomodo haec secundum corpus, et animam, et opera hominis intelligenda sint.
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