Thy presence is enough, oh memory!
These to reanimate in all their strength,
And with imperious sov'reignty they rule
And govern each opposing force.
May I be happy in this governance
And with these bonds, and may that light ne'er cease.

There are times when the inferior powers of the soul--like a vigorous
and hostile army, which finds itself in its own country practised,
expert, and ready--revolt against the foreign adversary, who comes down
from the height of the intelligence to curb the people of the valley and
of the boggy plains, where, through the baneful presence of the enemies
and of such obstacles as deep ditches, advancing they lose themselves,
and would be entirely lost, if there were not a certain conversion
towards the splendour of intellectual things through the act of
contemplation, by means of which they are converted from inferior
degrees to superior ones.

CIC. What degrees are these?

TANS. The degrees of contemplation are like the degrees of light, which
exist not at all in the darkness, slightly in shade, more in colours,
according to their orders, from one opposite which is black to the other
which is white; but more fully do they exist in the splendour diffused
over pure transparent bodies, as in a looking-glass and in the moon, and
still more brightly in the rays diffused by the sun, but principally and
most brilliantly in the sun itself. Now the perceptive and the
affectional powers are ordered in this way; the next following always
has affinity for the next preceding, and by means of conversion to that
which elevates it, it becomes fortified against the inferior, which
lowers it; as the reason, through its conversion to the intellect, is
not seduced or vanquished by knowledge or comprehension or by passionate
affection, but rather, according to the law of the intellect, it is
brought to govern and correct the same. It comes to this, therefore,
that when the rational appetite strives against sensual concupiscence,
if, by the act of conversion, the intellectual light is presented to
the eyes, it causes the above appetite to take up again the lost virtue,
and giving fresh strength to the nerves, it alarms and puts to rout the
enemy.

CIC. In what manner do you mean that such a conversion takes place?

TANS. With three preparatives, which are noted by the contemplative
Plotinus in the book of "Intellectual Beauty;" and, of these, the first
is by proposing to confor