Que l'union a laquelle l'amour pretend est spirituelle
Natural and Voluntary Unions
The author distinguishes between natural unions, which precede love, and voluntary unions, which are both the end and the fruit of love.
Still, we have to be careful: there are natural unions—like likeness, blood kinship, and the bond of a cause with its effect—and others that aren't natural and may be called voluntary. These are voluntary because, even though they fit with nature, they're only formed by our will; such as the union that begins from acts of kindness, which unquestionably join the one who receives them to the one who does them, or the union of conversation and companionship, and others like these. When a union is natural, it produces love, and the love it produces leads us to a new voluntary union that perfects the natural one. So a father and son, a mother and daughter, or two brothers, being naturally united by sharing the same blood, are stirred by that union to love, and by love are drawn into a union of will and spirit that may be called voluntary, since even though its foundation is natural, its action is still deliberate. In these loves produced by natural union, we need look for no other correspondence than that of the union itself, by which nature, going ahead of the will, obliges it to approve, love, and perfect the union nature has already made. As for voluntary unions, they come after love in fact, yet they are still causes of it as its end and sole aim. Just as love tends toward union, so union often stretches and enlarges love. Love makes us seek conversation, and conversation often feeds and increases love; love makes us desire the marriage union, and that union in turn preserves and widens love—so it is true in every sense that love tends toward union.1
The Spiritual Nature of Love
Because the human will is spiritual, the union toward which love aims must also be spiritual, rather than bodily or sensory.
But what kind of union is it aiming for? Haven't you noticed, Theotimus, that the sacred Bride expresses her desire to be united with her Bridegroom through a kiss, and that this kiss represents the spiritual union that happens through the mutual sharing of souls? Of course, it is the human being who loves, but he loves through his will, and so the goal of his love is of the same nature as his will. Since his will is spiritual, the union his love aims for is also spiritual—all the more so because the heart, the seat and source of love, would not only fail to be perfected by union with physical things, but would actually be debased by it. It is not, Theotimus, that there are no passions of a certain kind in us which, like mistletoe that grows on trees as a kind of waste growth and overgrowth, often spring up amid love and around love. Even so, they are neither love nor a part of love; rather, they are its waste products and excesses, which are not only of no use for sustaining or perfecting love, but on the contrary greatly harm it, weaken it, and in the end, if they are not cut away, destroy it completely. Here is the reason.2
The Economy of Attention
The soul's power is finite; therefore, dividing attention among many objects or sensory distractions weakens the intensity of essential love.
The more operations our soul takes on—whether they are of the same kind or different—the less perfectly and vigorously it carries them out. Because it is finite, its power to act is also finite; when it spreads its activity across several operations, each one must receive less of it. So, people who are attentive to many things are less attentive to each of them. You couldn't carefully study the features of a face while simultaneously listening closely to the harmony of fine music; nor could you pay careful attention to both shape and color at the same time. If we are intent on speaking, we can't give our attention to anything else. It's not that I don't know what's said of Caesar, or that I don't believe what so many great figures have affirmed of Origen—that they could fix their attention on several objects at once; still, everyone admits that the more objects they applied themselves to, the weaker their attention became for each one. There is, then, a difference between seeing, hearing, or knowing more and seeing, hearing, or knowing better: for whoever sees better sees less, and whoever sees more does not see as well. It's rare that those who know a great deal know well what they know, because the power and strength of the understanding, spread out over the knowledge of many things, is less strong and vigorous than when it's gathered into the consideration of a single object. So when the soul employs its affective power in various kinds of loving acts, its action, thus divided, must necessarily be less vigorous and less perfect.3 We have three kinds of loving actions: the spiritual, the rational, and the sensual. When love pours its force through all three of these operations, it is without doubt more extended, but less intense; and when it pours out through only one kind of operation, it is more intense, though less extended.4 Don't we see that fire, the symbol of love, forced out through the single mouth of a cannon, makes a prodigious blast—one that would be far smaller if it had openings in two or three places? Since love is an act of our will, whoever wants it to be not only noble and generous but strong, vigorous, and active must keep its power and force within the bounds of spiritual operations; for whoever would apply it to the operations of the sensible or sensitive part of our soul would weaken the intellectual operations by just that much—and it is in those, after all, that essential love consists.5
Ecstasy: Upward and Downward
Ecstasy is a going out of oneself, which can either elevate the soul toward the angelic or debase it toward the beastly.
The ancient philosophers recognized that there were two kinds of ecstasy: one that lifted us above ourselves, and the other that cast us down below ourselves—as if they meant that man holds a middle nature between the angels and the beasts, sharing in the angelic nature in his intellectual part and in the beastly nature in his sensitive part; and that even so, by the practice of his life and by continual care for himself, he could remove and dislodge himself from this middle condition—since by applying himself and practicing intellectual acts a great deal, he made himself more like the angels than he was like the beasts; while if he applied himself heavily to sensual acts, he sank from his middle condition and drew near to that of the beasts. And because ecstasy is nothing other than a going out of oneself, whichever way one goes out, one is truly in ecstasy.6 So those who, touched by divine and intellectual delights, let their heart be carried away by the feelings of them, are truly outside themselves—that is, above the condition of their nature—but by a blessed and desirable going out, through which, entering a nobler and higher state, they are as much angels by the operation of their soul as they are human by the substance of their nature, and should be called either human angels or angelic men. Conversely, those lured by sensual pleasures who apply their souls to enjoying them sink from their middle ground to the level of brute beasts. They deserve to be called brutes by their actions just as much as they are human by their nature. It is a wretched state, as they only leave themselves to enter a condition infinitely unworthy of their natural state. Now, the greater the ecstasy—whether it raises us above ourselves or sinks us below ourselves—the more it keeps our soul from coming back to itself and from doing anything contrary to the ecstasy it is in. So, these angelic people, caught up in God and heavenly things, completely lose the use of their senses, movement, and all outward action while the ecstasy lasts. Their soul, in order to focus its power and activity more fully on that divine object, withdraws its energy from all other faculties to turn it entirely in that direction. And in the same way, brutish people, caught up in sensual pleasure—and especially when that pleasure belongs to the common sense—completely lose the use and attention of reason and understanding, because their wretched soul, in order to feel the brutish object more fully and attentively, turns away from spiritual operations so as to sink wholly into bestial and brutish ones and give itself over to them. In this they mystically imitate, some of them Elijah, caught up on high in the fiery chariot among the angels, and others Nebuchadnezzar, brutalized and cast down to the rank of wild beasts.78
The Danger of Sensual Unions
Sensual unions, when pursued at the expense of the spirit, scatter and destroy the purity of intellectual love.
Now I say that when the soul practices love through sensual actions that pull it down below itself, it is impossible for the soul not to weaken, all the more, the exercise of higher love; so much so that, far from true and essential love being helped and preserved by the union toward which sensual love tends, on the contrary it is weakened, scattered, and destroyed by that union. Job's oxen were plowing the ground while the idle donkeys grazed around them, eating the pastures owed to the oxen that were working: while the intellectual part of our soul works at honest and virtuous love toward some object worthy of it, it often happens that the senses and faculties of the lower part tend toward the union proper to them and that serves as their pasture—even though that union is due only to the heart and the spirit, which alone can also produce true and substantial love.9 Elisha, having served Naaman the Syrian, was content simply to have done him that kindness, and for the rest refused his gold, his silver, and the goods he had offered him; but Gehazi, that unfaithful servant, running after him, asked for and took, against his master's will, what Elisha had refused. The intellectual and heartfelt love that is indeed, or ought to be, the master in our soul refuses every kind of bodily and sensual union, and is content with simple goodwill; but the powers of the sensitive part, which are or ought to be the servants of the spirit, ask for, seek, and take what reason has refused, and without taking its leave, press forward wanting to form their abject and servile unions, dishonoring, like Gehazi, the purity of their master's intention—which is the spirit. And the more the soul turns toward such coarse and sensory unions, the more it is diverted from the delicate, intellectual, and heartfelt union. So you can see clearly enough, Theotimus, that these unions concerned with animal gratifications and passions not only do nothing to produce or preserve love, but are greatly harmful to it and weaken it terribly: so when the incestuous Amnon, who was fainting and dying of love for Tamar, had gone as far as sensual and brutal unions, he was so stripped of heartfelt love that he could never again bear to look at her, and he shoved her shamefully outside, violating the right of love as cruelly as he had, with impunity, violated the right of blood.
The Purity of Spiritual Union
True spiritual union is more potent and lasting than bodily union, as it distills the essence of love away from the corruption of base desires.
Basil, rosemary, marjoram, hyssop, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, lemons, and musk, put together and left in their bodily form, do give off a truly pleasant scent from the mixing of their good fragrances; but nowhere near what the water distilled from them does, in which the sweet qualities of all these ingredients, separated from their bodies, blend far more excellently, uniting into one most perfect fragrance that reaches the sense of smell much more deeply than they would if the ingredients' bodies were still joined and united with that fragrance and its water. In the same way, love can certainly be found in the unions of the sensual powers mixed with the unions of the intellectual powers, but never so excellently as when the spirits and hearts alone, separated from every bodily affection and joined together, make pure and spiritual love; for the fragrance of affections blended that way is not only sweeter and better, but more lively, more active, and more solid.10 Many people with coarse, earthbound, and base minds judge the worth of love the way they judge gold coins—thinking the biggest and heaviest are the best. They assume a brutal love is stronger because it's more violent, more solid because it's earthy, and greater because it's more sensory. But love is the opposite: it's like fire, where the more delicate the fuel, the clearer and more beautiful the flame. Nothing puts that flame out faster than burying it under earth. In the same way, the higher and more spiritual the object of love, the livelier and more lasting its actions are; nothing ruins love more than lowering it to base and earthly unions.11 "There is this difference," as Saint Gregory says, "between spiritual pleasures and bodily ones: the bodily ones stir desire before you have them, and disgust once you have them; but the spiritual ones, on the contrary, bring disgust before you have them, and pleasure once you have them." Animal love aims to satisfy itself through union with the thing it loves, but it finds that this union actually destroys the delight by bringing it to an end, leaving the person disgusted. This is why the great Philosopher noted that almost every animal, after its most intense bodily pleasure, is left sad and dull, like a merchant who expected a great profit but finds himself cheated and facing a loss. In contrast, intellectual love finds more contentment in its union than it had hoped for; it perfects its delight and continues to grow, uniting itself more deeply the longer it lasts.12
Read the original Latin
Il faut pourtant prendre garde qu'il y a des unions naturelles, comme celle de ressemblance, consanguinité et de la cause avec son effet, et d'autres, lesquelles, n'estans pas naturelles,peuvent estre dites volontaires, car bien qu'elles soyent selon la nature, elles ne se font neanmoins que par nostre volonté; comme celle qui prend son origine des bienfaitz, qui unissent indubitablement celuy qui les reçoit a celuy qui les fait, celle de la conversation et compaignie, autres semblables. Or, quand l'union est naturelle, elle produit l'amour,et l'amour qu'elle produit nous porte a une nouvelle union volontaire qui perfectionne la naturelle: ainsy le pere et le filz,la mere et la fille, ou deux freres,estans naturellement unis par la communication d'un mesme sang, sont excités par cette union a l'amour,et par l'amour sont portés a une union de volonté et d'esprit qui peut estre dite volontaire, d'autant qu'encor que son fondement soit naturel, son action neanmoins est deliberee; et en ces amours produitz par l'union naturelle, il ne faut point chercher d'autre correspondance que celle de l'union mesme, par laquelle la nature prevenant la volonté, l'oblige d'appreuver,aymer et perffectionner l'union qu'elle a des-ja faitte. Mays quant aux unions volontaires, elles sont posterieures a l'amour en effect, et causes neanmoins d'iceluy comme sa fin et pretention unique: en sorte que, comme l'amour tend a l'union, ainsy l'union estend bien souvent et aggrandit l'amour; car l'amour fait chercher la conversation, et la conversation nourrit souvent et accroist l'amour, l'amour fait desirer l'union nuptiale, et cette union reciproquement conserve et dilate l'amour: si que il est vray en tous sens que l'amour tend a l'union.
Mais a quelle sorte d'union tend-il? N'aves-vous pas remarqué, Théotime, que l'Espouse sacree exprime son souhait d'estre unie avec son Epoux, par le bayser, et que le bayser represente l'union spirituelle qui se fait par la reciproque communication des ames? Certes, c'est l'homme qui ayme, mais il aime par sa volonté, et partant,la fin de son amour est de la nature de sa volonté: mais sa volonté est spirituelle, c'est pourquoy l'union que son amour pretend est aussi spirituelle; d'autant plus que le coeur,siege et source de l'amour, non seulement ne seroit pas perfectionné par l'union qu'il auroit aux choses corporelles,mays en seroit avili. Ce n'est pas, Theotime, qu'il n'y ait quelque sorte de passions en l'homme lesquelles, comme le guy vient sur les arbres par maniere d'excrement et de surcroissance, naissent aussi bien souvent parmi l'amour et autour de l'amour; mais neanmoins elles ne sont pas ni l'amour ni partie de l'amour, ains sont des excremens et superfluités d'iceluy, lesquelles non seulement ne sont pas prouffitables pour maintenir ou perfectionner l'amour, mais au contraire l'endommagent grandement, l'affoiblissent, et en fin finale, si on ne les retranche,le ruinent tout a fait; de quoy voyci la rayson.
A mesure que nostre ame s'employe a plus d'operations, ou de mesme sorte ou de diverse sorte, elle les fait moins parfaitement et vigoureusement; parce que,estans finie,sa vertu d'agir l'est aussi, si que, fournissant son activité a diverses operations, il est force que chacune d'icelles en ayt moins. Ainsy les hommes attentifs a plusieurs choses, le sont moins a chacune d'icelles;on ne sçauroit exactement considerer les traitz d'un visage par la veüe, et a mesme tems exactement escouter l'harmonie d'une excellente musique; ni en un mesme tems estre attentif a la figure et a la couleur; si nous sommes affectionnés a parler nous ne saurions avoir attention a autre chose.
Ce n'est pas que je ne sache ce qu'on dit de Cesar, et que je ne croye ce que tant de grans personnages ont asseuré d'Origene, que leur attention pouvoit a mesme tems s'appliquer a plusieurs objetz; mays pourtant,chacun confesse qu'a mesure qu'ilz s'appliquoyent a plus d'objetz, elle estoit moindre en chacun d'iceux. Il y a donq de la difference entre voir,ouyr, ou sçavoir plus,et voir, ouyr,ou sçavoir mieux: car qui void mieux void moins,et qui void plus ne void pas si bien. Il est rare que ceux qui sçavent beaucoup, sçachent bien ce qu'ilz sçavent, parce que la vertu et force de l'entendement espanchee en la connoissance de plusieurs choses, est moins forte et vigoureuse que quand elle est ramassee a la consideration d'un seul objet. Quand donq l'ame employe sa vertu affective a diverses sortes d'operations amoureuses, il est force que son action ainsy divisee soit moins vigoureuse et parfaite. Nous avons trois sortes d'actions amoureuses: les spirituelles; les raysonnables et les sensuelles; quand l'amour escoule sa force par toutes ces trois operations, il est sans doute plus estendu, mais moins tendu, et quand il ne s'escoule que par une sorte d'operation,il est plus tendu, quoy que moins estendu. Ne voyons-nous pas que le feu,symbole de l'amour, forcé de sortir par la seule bouche du canon, fait un esclat prodigieux, qu'il feroit beaucoup moindre s'il avoit ouverture par deux ou trois endroitz? Puis donq que l'amour est un acte de nostre volonté,qui le veut avoir non seulement noble et genereux, mais fort, vigoureux et actif,il en faut retenir la vertu et la force dans les limites des operations spirituelles; car, qui voudroit l'appliquer aux operations de la partie sensible ou sentitive de nostre ame,il affoiblirait d'autant les operations intellectuelles, esquelles, toutefois consiste l'amour essentiel.
Les philosophes anciens ont reconnu qu'il y avoit deux sortes d'extases,dont l'une nous portoit au dessus de nous mesmes, et l'autre nous ravaloit au dessous de nous mesmes: comme s'ilz eusssent voulu dire que l'homme estoit d'une nature moyenne entre les Anges et les bestes,participant de la nature angelique en sa partie intellectuelle et de la nature bestiale en sa partie sensitive; et que neanmoins il pouvoit,par l'exercice de sa vie et par un continuel soin de soy mesme, s'oster et deloger de cette moyenne condition; d'autant que, s'appliquant et exerçant beaucoup aux actions intellectuelles, il se rendoit plus semblable aux Anges qu'il ne l'estoit aux bestes; que s'il s'appliquoit beaucoup aux actions sensuelles, il descendoit de sa moyenne condition et s'approchoit de celle des bestes: et parce que l'extase n'est autre chose que la sortie qu'on fait de soy mesme, de quel costé que l'on en sorte on est vrayement en extase. Ceux donques qui, touchés des voluptés divines et intellectuelles, laissent ravir leur coeur aux sentimens d'icelles, sont voirement hors d'eux mesmes,c'est a dire au dessus de la condition de leur nature; mais par une bienheureuse et desirable sortie, par laquelle, entrans en un estat plus noble et relevé, ilz sont autant anges par l'operation de leur ame, comme ilz sont hommes par la substance de leur nature, et doivent estre ditz ou anges humains ou hommes angeliques. Au contraire, ceux qui, allechés des playsirs sensuelz, appliquent leurs ames a la jouissance d'iceux, ilz descendent de leur moyenne condition a la plus basse des bestes brutes,et meritent autant d'estre appellés brutaux par leurs operations comme ilz sont hommes par leur nature: malheureux, en ce qu'ilz ne sont hors d'eux mesmes que pour entrer en une condition infiniment indigne de leur estat naturel.
Or, a mesure que l'extase est plus grande, ou au dessus de nous ou au dessous de nous, plus elle empesche nostre ame de retourner a soy mesme et de faire des operations contraires a l'extase en laquelle elle est. Ainsy ces hommes angeliques qui sont ravis en Dieu et aux choses celestes,perdent tout a fait, tandis que leur extase dure,l'usage et l'attention des sens, le mouvement et toutes actions exterieures, parce que leur ame,pour appliquer sa vertu et activité plus entierement et attentivement a ce divin objet, la retire et ramasse de toutes les autres facultés, pour la contourner de ce costé la. Et de mesme les hommes brutaux, ravis en la volupté sensuelle, et particulierement quand c'est en celle du sens general,perdent tout a fait l'usage et l'attention de la rayson et de l'entendement, parce que leur miserable ame,pour sentir plus entierement et attentivement l'object brutal, se divertit des operations spirtuelles,pour s'enfoncer et convertir du tout aux bestiales et brutales; imitans en cela mystiquement, les uns, Heli,ravi en haut sur le char enflammé entre les Anges, et les autres, Nabuchodonosor, abruti et ravalé au rang des bestes farouches.
Maintenant je dis que, quand l'ame prattique l'amour par les actions sensuelles et qui la portenty au dessous de soy, il est impossible qu'elle n'affoiblisse d'autant plus l'exercice de l'amour superieur; de sorte que, tant s'en faut que l'amour vray et essentiel soit aydé et conservé par l'union a laquelle l'amour sensuel tend, qu'au contraire il s'affoiblit,se dissipe et perit par icelle Les boeufs de Job labouroyent la terre, tandis que les asnes inutiles paissoyent autour d'eux, mangeans les pasturages deus aux boeufs qui travailloyent: tandis que la partie intellectuelle de nostre ame travaille a l'amour honneste et vertueux, sur quelque objet qui en est digne,il arrive souvent que les sens et facultés de la partie inferieure tendent a l'union qui leur est propre et leur sert de pasture; bien que l'union ne soit deüe qu'au coeur et a l'esprit, qui seul aussi peut produire le vray et substantiel amour.
Helisee, ayant servi Naaman le Syrien, se contenta de l'avoir obligé, refusant au reste son or, son argent et les meubles qu'il luy avoit offert; mais Giesi, cet infidele serviteur, courant apres iceluy, demanda et prit, outre le gré de son maistre, ce qu'il avait refusé: l'amour intellectuel et cordial qui est certes, ou doit estre le maistre en nostre ame, refuse toutes sortes d'unions corporelles et sensuelles, et se contente en la simple bienveillance; mais les puissances de la partie sensitive, qui sont ou doivent estre les servantes de l'esprit, demandent, cherchent et prennent ce qui a esté refusé par la rayson, et, sans prendre permission d'icelle, s'avancent a vouloir faire leurs unions abjectes et serviles, deshonnorans, comme Giesi, la pureté de l'intention de leur maistre qui est l'esprit; et a mesure que l'ame se convertit a telles unions grossieres et sensibles,elle se divertit de l'union delicate, intellectuelle et cordiale.
Vous voyes donques bien, Theotime, que ces unions qui regardent les complaysances et passions animales, non seulement ne servent de rien a la production et conservation de l'amour, mays luy sont grandement nuisibles et l'affoiblissent extremement: aussi quand l'inceste Ammon, qui pasmoit et perissoit d'amour pour Thamar, eut passé jusques aux unions sensuelles et brutales, il fut tellement privé de l'amour cordial, qu'onques plus il ne la peut voir, et la poussa indignement dehors, violant aussi cruellement le droit de l'amour comme il avoit violé impunement celuy du sang.
Le basilique, le romarin, la marjolaine, l'hysope, le clou de girofle, la cannelle, la noix muscade, les citrons et le musc, mis ensemble et demeurans en cors, rendent voirement une odeur bien aggreable par le meslange de leur bonne senteur; mays non pas a beaucoup pres de ce que fait l'eau qui en est distillee, en laquelle les suavités de tous ces ingrediens, separees de leur cors, se meslent beaucoup plus excellemment, s'unissant en une tres parfaite odeur qui penetre bien plus l'odorat qu'elles ne feroient pas,si avec elle et son eau les cors des ingrediens se treuvoyent conjointz et unis. Ainsy l'amour se peut bien treuver es unions des puissances sensuelles meslees avec les unions des puissances intellectuelles, mais non jamais si excellemment comme il fait lhors que les seulz espritz et courages, separés de toutes affections corporelles, jointz ensemble, font l'amour pur et spirituel; car l'odeur des affections ainsy meslees, est non seulement plus suave et meilleure,mays plus vive, plus active et plus solide.
Il est vray que plusieurs, ayant l'esprit grossier, terrestre et vil, estimant la valeur de l'amour comme celle des pieces d'or, desquelles les plus grosses et pesantes sont les meilleures et plus recevables; car ainsy leur est-il advis que l'amour brutal soit plus fort, parce qu'il est plus violent et turbulent; plus solide, parce qu'il est grossier et terrestre; plus grand, parce qu'il est plus sensibe et farouche: mais au contraire, l'amour est comme le feu, duquel plus la matiere est delicate, aussi les flammes en sont plus claires et belles, et lesquelles on ne sçauroit mieux esteindre qu'en les deprimant et couvrant de terre; car de mesme, plus le sujet de l'amour est relevé et spirituel,plus ses actions sont vives, subsistantes et permanentes, et ne sçauroit-on mieux ruiner l'amour que de l'abbaisser aux unions viles et terrestres. " Il y a cette difference, " comme dit saint Gregoire, " entre les plaisirs spirituels et les corporels: que les corporels donnent du desir avant qu'on les ayt, et du desgout quand on les a; mais les spirituels, au contraire,donnent du desgout avant qu'on les ayt, et du plaisir quand on les a. " Si que l'amour animal, qui pretend par l'union qu'il fait a la chose aymee de combler et perfectionner sa complaisance, treuvant qu'au contraire il la detruit en la terminant, demeure grandement desgousté de telle union: qui a fait dire au grand Philosophe, que presque tout animal, apres la jouissance de son plus ardent et pressant playsir corporel, demeuroit triste, morne et estonné, comme un marchand qui, ayant pensé gaigner beaucoup, se treuve trompé et engagé dans une rude perte; ou au contraire, l'amour intellectuel treuvant en l'union qu'il fait a son objet plus de contentement qu'il n'avoit esperé, y perfectionnant sa complaisance, il la continue en s'unissant et s'unit tous-jours plus en la continuant.
Notes
- 1 ↩"union nuptiale" rendered as "marriage union" (nuptial bond), not as mystical bridal imagery, given the human examples of conversation and company in this sentence; later bridal-mystical use may differ.
- 2 ↩Early modern French 'guy' is mistletoe; 'excrement' here means a waste outgrowth or cast-off surplus, not feces. Rendered as waste growth / waste products to keep the botanical analogy and Sales's moral force.
- 3 ↩vertu affective = the soul's loving/affective power (faculty of affection), not mere emotion.
- 4 ↩Sales's contrast estendu/tendu is rendered extended/intense (spread out vs. tautly concentrated). 'Tendu' is not merely emotional tension but concentrated force.
- 5 ↩amour essentiel = essential love (love in its proper intellectual/volitional form), contrasted with sensitive/sensual operations of the soul.
- 6 ↩partie sensitive: the scholastic sensitive faculty (sensory/animal powers of the soul), not mere 'sensitivity' of feeling; rendered as 'sensitive part' to keep the technical contrast with the intellectual part.
- 7 ↩"sens general" is rendered as "common sense" in the scholastic sense (sensus communis), the interior faculty that unifies sense impressions—not everyday practical judgment.
- 8 ↩Source reading "spirtuelles" treated as "spirituelles" (spiritual).
- 9 ↩Source reading «portenty» treated as «portent» (lead/draw); early-modern orthography normalized in sense only (prattique, affoiblisse, aydé, asnes, deus, deüe, etc.).
- 10 ↩Early modern French courages here means the heart as the seat of affection and resolve, not modern 'courage' as bravery; paired with espritz (spirits/minds).
- 11 ↩Source reading «sensibe» treated as «sensible» (sensory / felt through the senses).
- 12 ↩«le grand Philosophe» is the traditional scholastic title for Aristotle (cf. the post-coital sadness maxim).
Treatise on the Love of God companion
A daily portion of stillness
Chosen Portion delivers one short contemplative reading and a guided moment of silence each day — the ascent, one step at a time.
Chosen Portion is the paced doorway into this collection: it portions the dense mystical treatises into one daily reading plus guided silence, exactly as the 14-day plan teaches.
- Daily bite-sized excerpts from the contemplative classics, never a wall of text
- A built-in timed stillness practice that grows from 2 minutes to 10
- Gentle progression through the tradition — the app remembers where you are on the ascent