Man performs many things for the sake of personal gain, health, and riches and, surveying the good which they contain, abandons the love of justice. Because the just subsists in the soul, the profitable will also be in the soul. Where our good resides, there also we have our being. For, where the form of man is, there also is the perfection of man. In soul therefore is the man, not in body. The desire of the good preserves those by whom it is desired. The good is bound in souls according to the just, through the beautiful which is their medium and bond. The good lives in the gods, the beautiful in intellects, the just in souls. Being–life–intellect is the first triune procession from the ineffable Cause of All. Being is superior to life, and life to intellect. What is just is good and vice versa: the beautiful is their medium and bond. What is just is true and vice versa: for, Justice is Truth. The just maintains order and harmony about the whole soul. Justice is the source of beauty to the soul, and is itself beautiful. The just gives empire to reason, and servitude to the irrational nature. The just is at one and the same time perfect, moderate, bounded, and beautiful. Everything just, therefore, is beautiful. Everything beautiful is good and vice-versa. The beautiful is naturally lovely because it calls others to itself and charms those who can behold it. It agitates souls at first sight while retaining a vestige of divine beauty. Let no one say that the good is above beauty. They both live within us, they are rightly desirable, and can be obtained through love.
Reviews with the most likes.
There are no reviews for this book. Add yours and it'll show up right here!
