Cause Principle Unity

A general account of bonding
and for all occasions. But up to now, this has not happened in nature, which
has spread about many bonds of beauty, happiness, goodness, and the various
contraries of these dispositions, and which widely distributes them
separately according to the numerous types of matter. But it does sometimes
happen that a person is so tied to one object that his awareness of
other things is weakened, overwhelmed and suppressed, either because of
the dullness of the senses which are blind to and neglectful of all other
things, or because one bond is so strong that it weakens and distorts him.
But this is extraordinary and happens rarely and in only a few cases. For
example, there are some whose souls seem to be so carried away by the hope
of eternal life and by a vivid faith and credulousness, and seem to be so separated
from the body in some way, and so strongly bound and controlled
by some object in their fantasies and in their opinions, that they do not
seem to be aware of the most horrible torments. This clearly happened to
the philosopher Anaxarchus, to Andrew 2 the Galilean, to the priest
Lawrence, 3 and to others up to our own day, who were murdered by rulers
and kings for the sake of their religion. This also happened for the sake of
reason to Diogenes the Cynic and to Epicurus, who argued that they could
banish all awareness of pain and pleasure by binding their souls, according
to natural laws and principles, with a contempt of all things and of every
type of opinion … They thought they would attain the highest good available
in this life to the human species by preserving their souls in a state of
heroic pleasure above sorrow, fear, anger and other feelings. They claimed
that, by holding in contempt the ignoble things in this very transitory life,
they could attain a life similar to the gods even while in this mortal body.
They thought that they had actually attained this highest good and sublime
virtue, and that they had shown this to others.
7. What power contributes to a bonding agent. There are those who say that a
bonding agent of greater power binds something else which in turn does not
bind it; if the powers are equal, then there is a reciprocal bond which consists
in a balance of that quality. But it would follow from this opinion that bonding
powers are continually changed and altered as forms, circumstances and
natures are altered, for a young man does not bind the same things which
he bound as a boy, and a woman does not bind the same things which she
bound as a girl. Hence, a bonding power is not simple or reducible to only
one thing, but is composite, variable in nature and composed of contraries.
2 St Andrew the Apostle, brother of Simon Peter. 3 St Laurentius, third-century Christian martyr.
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