Chapter 3 No.3

The captain calls his warriors to arms,

And at the trumpet's sound they all

Under one sign and standard come.

But yet for some in vain the call is heard,

Heedless and unprepared, they mind it not.

One foe he kills, and the insane unborn,

He banishes from out the camp in scorn.

And thus the soul, when foiled her high designs,

Would have all those opponents dead or gone;

One object only I regard,

One face alone my mind does fill,

One beauty keeps me fixed and still;

One arrow pierced my heart, and one

The fire with which alone I burn,

And towards one paradise I turn.

This captain is the human will, which dwells in the depths of the soul with the small helm of reason to govern and guide the interior powers against the wave of natural impulses. He, with the sound of the trumpet-that is, by fixed resolve-calls all the warriors or invokes all the powers; called warriors because they are in continual strife and opposition; and their affections, which are all contrary thoughts, some towards one and some towards the other side inclining, and he tries to bring them all under one flag-one settled end and aim. Some are called in vain to put in a ready appearance, and are chiefly those which proceed from the lower instincts, and which obey the reason either not at all, or very little; and forcing himself to prevent their actions and condemn those which cannot be prevented, he shows himself as one who would kill those and banish these, now by the scourge of scorn, now by the sword of anger. One only is the object of his regards, and on this he is intently fixed; one prospect delights and fills his imagination, one beauty pleases, and he rests in that, because the operation of the intelligence is not a work of movement but of quiet; from thence alone he derives that barb which, killing him, constitutes the consummation of perfection. He burns with one fire alone; that is, one affection consumes him.

Cic. Why is love symbolized by fire?

Tans. For many reasons, but at present let this one suffice thee: that as love converts the thing loved into the lover, so amongst the elements fire is active and potent to convert all the others, simple and composite, into itself.

Cic. Go on.

Tans. He knows one paradise-that is, one consummation, because paradise commonly signifies the end; which is again distinguished from that which is absolute in truth and essence from that which is so in appearance and shadow or form. Of the first there can only be one, as there can be only one ultimate and one primal good. Of the second the modes are infinite.