Measure

Use in the book

The arithmetic fragment connects measure with first principles, though its opening gap leaves the precise subject uncertain. Posidonius’s account calls time a measure of speed and slowness. The two settings show why identifying what is measured is essential: numerical intelligibility and temporal comparison are related uses, not identical claims.

Places to read

1. Arith.5aMeasure appears among predicates in a fragmentary account of numerical principles.
2. I.8.42.2Time is defined as a measure of speed and slowness.

Translation in this edition

Use “measure” rather than “measurement” when the word names the standard or means of measuring.

Use in the book

The pulse offers a bodily regulator for measuring successive events. The unusual instruction to measure certain things “with the liquid” contrasts with an inapplicable dry rule: the image resists a single rigid instrument. In the late admonition, number, weight, and measure conclude an account of timely self-command, showing that even good impulses need limits. The term therefore joins precision to appropriateness rather than simply prescribing more calculation.

Places to read

1. I, p. 457, entry 3, ¶3The pulse supplies a regulator for measuring succession.
2. II, p. 513, entry 1, ¶1Some things require a liquid rather than a dry rule.
3. II, p. 903, entry 10, ¶1Measure regulates good sentiments and virtues.
4. I, p. 475, entry 3, ¶1Dance marks the measure or beat of an air.

Translation in this edition

The English translation deliberately retains “the liquid” instead of supplying an unnamed flexible instrument. In the musical sentence it renders battre la mesure as marking the beat, while keeping the comparison’s “in some sense.”

Measuring instruments

French: graphomètre; hygromètre; thermomètre.

The graphometer is the surveying instrument in the contrast between exact measured distances and an intelligible half-hour’s journey; the toises, foot, and inch remain unconverted. Saussure’s hygrometer appears beside Bonnet’s observations and assiduous microscopy in the remark on Geneva’s attention to imperceptible objects; the fragment does not explain its construction. The thermometer then helps ask whether heat exists for an instrument at degrees at which we no longer feel it. These are three different uses of instruments—precision, inquiry, and a test of the perceiver’s limits—not one list asserting the superiority of measurement.

Places to read: I, p. 204–205, entry 8, ¶1; I, p. 123–124, entry 10, ¶1; I, p. 251–252, entry 7, ¶1.

Grain and drop

French: grain; goutte.

The small unit can carry an effect out of proportion to its apparent quantity. A grain of matter is worked into the apparent immensity of the world, while a single drop of the bee’s liquor can suffice in the poetry comparison. In the late account of material forces, hollow grains and a blown bubble again diminish apparent mass. The English translation preserves these units without inventing exact weights or volumes; the comparisons concern scale and power, not calibrated measurement.

Places to read: I, p. 146, entry 9, ¶1; I, p. 357, entry 6, ¶1; II, p. 906, entry 4, ¶1.

Use in the book

The soul measures heaven and can examine another soul without being physically as large as its object. Traherne uses measurement to dramatize intellectual capacity: knowing comprehends without displacing or occupying in the manner of bodies. The surprising case is another soul, equally fathomless, whose powers can nevertheless become objects of understanding.

In the ethical register, God’s love is the measure of the reader’s answering love. Measurement now concerns proportion and likeness rather than quantity. The same vocabulary links great capacity with a correspondingly great obligation: the soul is fitted to receive extensively and called to love on the scale of what it receives.

Places to read

1. I.19The understanding measures heaven and treats great times as objects within its reach.
2. II.71One soul can comprehend the powers and operations of another.
3. I.72Divine love supplies the law and measure of the creature’s response.

In this edition

Measure shifts between comprehending extent and supplying a norm. Neither use requires that spiritual acts be reducible to numerical calculation.

Use in the book

Ficino's comparative vocabulary presupposes an ultimate measure of value. He asks why soul is judged better than body and answers that it is nearer supreme goodness. If there were no highest good, only an endless ascent, body and soul would each be infinitely distant from the supposed summit; no ideal measure would remain by which the one could be preferred. His inference depends on comparing levels of perfection by their relation to a highest good. Degrees also organize power and perfection. A finite effective power is bounded to certain degrees through a recipient or limiting cause, while pure divine power is not. Conversely, finite imitations of the infinite exemplar never exhaust all degrees or modes of likeness. The word group thus serves two connected purposes: comparing beings within a hierarchy and explaining why the first source exceeds any finite ranking. “Nearness” here describes likeness and perfection rather than a distance through physical space.

Further passage references. II.3.3–6234; II.3.9; II.4.1–52345; II.10.5.

Places to read

1. II.3.4Soul’s superiority to body is framed through nearness to supreme goodness
2. II.3.5An endless deferred summit would remove the ideal measure for ranking
3. II.4.1Power considered as power includes no fixed number of degrees
4. II.10.5Further modes of finite likeness leave the infinite exemplar inexhausted

Translation in this edition

At II.3.5 “ideal standard and measure” renders ratio mensuraque idealis. The passage’s comparison of infinite intervals belongs to Ficino’s metaphysical argument, not a modern theory of numerical infinities. “Degree” in II.42345678 names conceivable efficacy rather than an empirically assigned unit.

crescere / decrescere / minuere

crescere / decrescere / minuere. Printed forms: crescere; crescit; decrescere; minuatur; minuitur.

To increase, decrease, or diminish. Ascending perfection increases; descending power weakens; mixture would diminish the purity of supreme necessity. References: II.3.3, II.7.13. See Measure and degree.

decrementum / remissio

decrementum / remissio. Printed forms: decremento; decrescat; remissione; remissioni.

Quantitative decrease and diminution of intensity. Quality undergoes both, bodily substantial form is said to escape remission but not decrease, and incorporeal substance escapes both. References: I.3.15. See Measure and degree.

gradus / gradatim

gradus / gradatim. Printed forms: gradatim; gradibus; gradus.

Degree or rank; stepwise progression. Degrees distinguish perfections and causal levels, whereas stepwise enumeration is denied of divine cognition. References: II.3.1, II.3.9, II.4.3, II.10.10. See Measure and degree.

gradus / mensura / proportio

gradus / mensura / proportio. Printed forms: gradibus; gradu; gradus; graduum; mensuram; proportionem.

Degree / measure / proportion. Different degrees of heat depend on recipients; measured routes fit a proposed end, distinguishing amount from intelligent ordering. References: II.11.8, II.11.25, II.13.7. See Measure and degree.

intendo / remitto

intendo / remitto. Printed forms: intenditur; remittatur; remittitur.

To intensify and to diminish in intensity. Heat can become stronger or weaker; this alteration differs from the quantitative decrease separately discussed in the ascent. References: I.3.15, I.4.1. See Measure and degree.

intervallum / mensura

intervallum / mensura. Printed forms: intervallis; intervallum; mensuraque.

Interval, measure, or standard of comparison. Rank requires an ideal standard; the universal order includes proportions and intervals between unequal parts. References: II.3.4, II.3.5, II.9.21. See Measure and degree.

plus et minus

plus et minus. Printed forms: magis; maiora; minora; minusve.

More and less in a stated respect. The appetite argument distinguishes larger or more numerous things from better ones; comparative vocabulary does not alone specify quantity, intensity or value. References: I.2.14, I.4.1. See Measure and degree.

potissimum / summopere / penitus / prorsus / late

potissimum / summopere / penitus / prorsus / late. Printed forms: amplissimam; latissime; plurimum; prorsus; summopere.

Intensive or comparative qualifiers of scope and completeness. They strengthen particular claims about knowledge, goodness, and light without by themselves identifying a distinct metaphysical power. References: II.6.10, II.6.11, II.6.13, II.7.4. See Measure and degree.

remissior / vehemens

remissior / vehemens. Printed forms: remissior; vehemens; vehementior.

Weaker in intensity, more forceful and forceful. Intensity is contrasted with rapidity and instantaneous completion in the threefold action argument; a stronger action is not automatically faster in every respect. References: I.2.4. See Measure and degree.