moisture is found in all living
things, and that if it were absent they would cease to be. Thales,
no doubt, believed this humour or moisture to be, as he said, the
essence and principle of all things.--("Encyclopaedia
Metropolitana.")

The next one avers that he has lost his sight through the intensity of
the flame, which, proceeding from the heart, first destroyed the eyes,
and then dried up all the remaining moisture of the substance of the
lover, so that being all melted and turned to flame, he is no longer
himself, because the fire whose property it is to resolve all bodies
into their atoms, has converted him into impalpable dust, whereas by
virtue of water alone, the atoms of other bodies thicken, and are welded
together to make a substantial composition. Yet he is not deprived of
the sense of the most intense flame. Therefore, in the sistine he would
have space made for him to pass; for if anybody should be touched by his
fires he would become such that he would have no more feeling of the
flames of hell, for their heat would be to him as cold snow.

69.

_The seventh blind man_.

Beauty, which through the eyes rushed to the heart,
And formed the mighty furnace in my breast,
Absorbing first the visual moisture; then,
Spouting aloft its grasping flashing flame,
Devouring every other fluid,
To set the dryer element at rest,
Has thus reduced me to a boneless dust,
Which now to its own atoms is resolved,
If anguish infinite your fears should rouse
Make space, give way, oh peoples!
Beware of my fierce penetrating fire,
For if it should invade and touch you, ye
Would feel and know the fires of hell
To be like winter's cold.

The eighth follows, whose blindness is caused by the dart which love has
caused to penetrate from the eyes to the heart. Hence, he laments not
only as being blind, but furthermore because he is wounded and burnt so
fiercely, that he believes no other can be equally so. The sense of it
is easily expressed in this sonnet:--

70.

_The eighth blind man_.

Vile onslaught, evil struggle, unrighteous palm,
Fine point, devouring fire, strong nerve,
Sharp wound, impious ardour, cruel body,
Dart, fire and tangle of that wayward god
Who pierced the eyes, inflamed the heart, bound the soul,
Made me at once sightless, a lover, and a slave,
So that, blind I have at all times, in all ways and pla