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