Euclid and the lantern

Use in the book

Ficino offers the night journey to make celestial movement easier to understand. Euclid has a general conception of the whole route, but that conception alone produces no particular step. The lantern reveals a first step; imagination conceives it; appetite selects it; feet execute it. Then the process is repeated. The example separates knowing a general purpose from supplying its determinate, successive realization. Its explanatory work does not depend on turning the story into verified biography.

The celestial analogy is correspondingly specific. Mind and reason formulate the broad undertaking; the lowest motive power brings forward one seed-kind like a lantern; attached imagination considers and desires it and unfolds its effect. Fate belongs to the ordered succession of seeds, while desire belongs to the directing thought. The analogy explains differentiated execution under a general order without reducing every psychic function to imagination or every cause to fate. This Euclid should not be silently identified with the geometer in IV.1.11.

Places to read

1. IV.2.13person, places, night, purpose, lantern, and whole-route conception establish the example
2. IV.2.14the first and second steps distinguish illumination, cognition, choice, and execution
3. IV.2.15–162the sequence is transferred to celestial seed-activation and the relation of fate to desire

Translation in this edition

“Decides” at IV.2.13 renders cogitat in its practical context; the same family also appears as conceiving a particular step. “Appetite chooses” is the text's hunc eligit appetitus, so choice here is not an exclusively intellectual label. “As a lantern” preserves the comparison rather than positing a literal heavenly lamp.

accipere — example and lantern

accipere — example and lantern. Printed forms: accipe; accipitque.

To take or receive; the object determines whether this is figurative or physical. Ficino asks the reader to take an example; in that example Euclid takes a lantern before the journey. Taking the lantern is not assent to a proposition. References: IV.2.13. See Euclid and the lantern.

eligere / peragere

eligere / peragere. Printed forms: eligit; peragit; peragunt.

To select; to carry an act through. Appetite chooses the displayed step while the feet execute it, differentiating desire and bodily performance. References: IV.2.14. See Euclid and the lantern.

Euclides / Megara / Athenae / Socrates

Euclides / Megara / Athenae / Socrates. Printed forms: Athenas; Euclides; Megaris; Socratem.

The traveler, departure city, destination, and teacher in the example. Euclid's night journey to hear Socrates illustrates execution of a general plan; the passage does not identify him with the geometer. References: IV.2.13. See Euclid and the lantern.

iter / passus

iter / passus. Printed forms: iter; passum; passus.

Whole journey; individual step. A general plan of a route does not yield a particular step until a particular cognition marks it out. References: IV.2.13, IV.2.14. See Euclid and the lantern.

laterna

laterna. Printed forms: laterna; laternam.

Lantern. It reveals successive steps in the human example and supplies a comparison for the motive power presenting successive seed-kinds. References: IV.2.13, IV.2.14. See Euclid and the lantern.

praescribere / designare

praescribere / designare. Printed forms: designans; praescribit.

To trace out generally; to mark out particularly. The verbs articulate the transition from a whole-route conception to the next specified act. References: IV.2.13, IV.2.14. See Euclid and the lantern.