an opposite effect. So
that it will not allow the possibility of it, except through
antiperistasis, which means the strength which an opposite acquires from
that which, flying from the other, comes to unite itself, incorporate
itself, insphere itself, or concentrate itself towards the individual,
through its own virtue, which, the farther it is removed from the
dimensions (dimensioni) the more efficacious it becomes.

LAO. Tell me, how did the eyes respond to the heart?

58.

_First response of the eyes to the heart._

Thy passion does confuse thee, on my heart,
The path of truth thou hast entirely lost;
That which in us is seen--that which is hid--
Is seed of oceans. Neptune, if by fate
His kingdom he should lose, would find it here entire.
How does the burning flame from us derive
Who of the sea the double parent are?
So senseless thou'rt become!
Dost thou believe the flame will pass
And leave the doors all wet behind
That thou may'st feel the ardour of the same?
As splendour through a glass, dost thou
Believe that it through us will penetrate?

Now I will not begin to philosophize about the identity of opposites
which I have studied in the book De Principio ed uno, and I will
suppose that which is usually received, that the opposites in the same
genus are quite separate (distantissimi), so that the meaning of this
response is more easily learned where the eyes call themselves the seed
or founts in the virtual potentiality of which is the sea; so that if
Neptune should lose all the waters, he could recall them into action by
their own potentiality, where they are as in the beginning, medium and
material. But it is not urged as a necessity, when they say it cannot
be, that the flame passes over to the heart through their room (stanza e
cortile) and courtyard leaving so many waters behind, for two reasons.
First, because such an impediment cannot exist in action, if (equally?)
violent opposition is not put into action;[U] second, because in so far
as the waters are actually in the eyes, they can give passage to the
heat as to the light; for, experience proves that the luminous ray
kindles, by means of reflection, any material that becomes opposed to
it, without heating the glass; and the ray passes through a glass,
crystal or other vase, full of water, and heats an object placed under
it, without heating the thick intervening body. As it is also true that
it