Thought, and not Soul, that which ascended to see that Blessed Spirit,
because it was an especial thought sent on that mission; the Soul is
understood, as is stated in the preceding chapter, as thought in
general, with acquiescence.

Then, when I say, "Now One appears that drives the thought aside," I
touch the root of the other struggle, saying how that previous thought
was wont to be the life of me, even as another appears, which makes
that one cease to be. I say, "drives the thought aside," in order to
show that one to be antagonistic, for naturally the opposing one
drives aside the other, and that which is driven appears to yield
through want of power. And I say that this thought, which newly
appears, is powerful in taking hold of me and in subduing my Soul,
saying that it "masters me with such effectual might" that the heart,
that is, my inner life, trembles so much that my countenance shows it
in some new appearance.

Subsequently I show the power of this new thought by its effect,
saying that it makes me "fix my regard" on a Lady, and speaks to me
words of allurement, that is to say, it reasons before the eyes of my
intelligent affection, in order the better to induce me, promising me
that the sight of her eyes is its salvation. And in order to make this
credible to the Soul experienced in love, it says that it is for no
one to gaze into the eyes of this woman who fears the anguish of
laboured sighs. And it is a beautiful mode of rhetoric when externally
it appears that you disembellish a thing, and yet really embellish it
within. This new thought of love could not induce my mind to consent,
except by discoursing of the virtue of the eyes of this fair Lady so
profoundly.

CHAPTER IX.

Now that it is shown how and whereof Love is born, and the antagonist
that fought with me, I must proceed to open the meaning of that part
in which different thoughts contend within me. I say that, firstly,
one must speak on the part of the Soul, that is, of the former
thought, and then of the other; for this reason, that always that
which the speaker intends most especially to say he ought to reserve
in the background, because that which is said finally, remains most in
the mind of the hearer. Therefore, since I mean to speak further, and
to discourse of that which performs the work of those to whom I speak,
rather than of that which undoes this work, it was reasonable first to
mention and to discourse of the condition