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bath. The rays coming from the moon are those of the sun reflected down to us. Concentrating the sun s
rays in a mirror, you strengthen the calefactory force. Concentrating the moon s rays with a silver basin,
you will see that its concave bottom reflects the refreshing rays through the gathering of dew they contain.
It seems senseless to wash in an empty basin: and yet you find your hands moist, and it is an infallible
remedy for warts.
Monsieur de la Grive, someone said, love is hardly a cure for warts!
No, certainly not, Roberto resumed, by now beyond ar-resting, but I have given examples that come
from base things to remind you that love, too, depends on the powder of cor-puscles alone. Which is a
way of saying that love obeys the same laws that govern both sublunary and celestial bodies, save that, of
these laws it is the most noble manifestation. Love is born of sight, for it is at first sight that love is kindled:
what is love, then, if not an access of the light reflected by the body beheld? Beholding it, my body is
penetrated by the best ele-ment of the beloved body, the aerial, which through the me-atus of the eyes
arrives directly at the heart. And therefore to love at first sight is to drink the spirits of the beloved s
heart. The great Architect of nature, when He composed our body, set internal spirits in it, like sentinels,
so that they could report their discoveries to their general, namely, the imagination, which is the master of
the corporeal family. And if it is struck by some object, the result is the same as when we hear viols
playing, and we carry their melody in our memory and continue to hear it even in sleep. Our imagination
constructs a simulacrum of the object, which delights the lover, if it does not lacerate him because it is, in
fact, no more than a simu-lacrum. From this it follows that when a man is surprised by the sight of the
lovable person, he changes color, flushes or pales according to whether those ministers, the internal
spirits, proceed rapidly or slowly towards the object, to return thence to the imagination. These spirits do
not travel only to the brain, but also straight to the heart along the great conduit that carries from it to the
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brain the vital spirits that there become animal spirits; and along this conduit the imagination also transmits
to the heart some of the atomies it has received from the external object, and these atomies produce the
ebul-lience of the vital spirits that sometimes expands the heart and sometimes brings it to syncope.
You tell us, sir, that love proceeds like a physical move-ment, not differently from the way wine
flowers; but you do not tell us why love, unlike other phenomena of matter, is an elective virtue, which
chooses. For what reason, then, does love make us slaves of one creature and not of another?
This is the very reason why I compared the qualities of love with the principle of the Powder of
Sympathy, namely that atomies which are equal and of the same form attract equal atomies! If I were to
dust the weapon that wounded Pylades with that powder, I would not heal the wound of Orestes. Thus
love unites only two beings who in some way already possess the same nature, unites a noble spirit to a
spirit equally noble, and a vulgar spirit to one equally vulgar as it happens that villeins also love, as do
shepherdesses, and we are so instructed by the admirable story of Monsieur d Urfe. Love reveals a
harmony between two creatures that was ordained since the beginning of time, as Destiny had always
decided that Pyramus and Thisbe would be united in a single mulberry tree.
What of unhappy love?
I do not believe there is truly an unhappy love. There are only loves that have not yet arrived at perfect
fruition, if for some reason the beloved has not received the message coming to her from the eyes of the
lover. And yet the lover knows to such a degree which similarity of nature has been revealed to him that,
because of this knowledge, he is able to wait, even all his life. He knows that the revelation to both, and
their conjunction, can take place even after death, when, the atomies of the two bodies having
evaporated as they dis-solve in the earth, the lovers will be united in some heaven. And perhaps, as a
wounded man, even unaware that someone is scattering the Powder on the weapon that struck him,
enjoys a new health, so countless loving hearts may enjoy a sudden relief of the spirit, unaware that their
happiness is the work of the beloved heart, which in its turn has become loving and has thus set in motion
the unification of the twin atomies.
I must say that all this complex allegory held only up to a certain point, and perhaps the Aristotelian
Machine of Padre Emanuele would have demonstrated its instability. But that evening everyone became
convinced of the kinship between the Powder, which heals a sickness, and love, which can heal but more
often causes sickness.
The story of this speech on the Powder of Sympathy and the Sympathy of Love spread through all of
Paris, for some months and perhaps longer, with results that we will narrate in due course.
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