Cause Principle Unity

A general account of bonding
2. The condition of that which can be bound. Nothing is bound unless it is very
suitably predisposed, for that brightness 5 is not communicated to all things
in the same way.
3. The form of that which can be bound. Everything which is bound has an
awareness in some sense, and in the nature of that awareness, one finds a
certain type of knowledge and of appetite, just as a magnet attracts or repels
different kinds of things. Hence, he who wishes to bind ought to focus in
some way on the awareness in that which can be bound. For, indeed, a bond
accompanies the awareness of a thing just like a shadow follows a body.
4. The comparison of things which can be bound. Let us note that humans are
more open to bonding than are animals, and ignorant and stupid men are
very much less suited for heroic bonds than are those who have developed
an illustrious soul. In regard to natural bonds, the common person is much
more susceptible than is the philosopher; as the proverb says, the wise rule
over the stars. In regard to the intermediate type of bonds, it happens that
the greedy person might boast of being temperate, and the lustful person
of being moderate.
5. The distinction of things which can be bound. From what has just been said,
it must be noted that the strength of one bond makes another type of bond
less forceful or more mild. Thus, a German is less agitated by Venus, an
Italian by drunkenness; a Spaniard is more prone to love, a Frenchman to
anger.
6. The seed or incitement of the capacity to be bound. A thing is bound in the
strongest way when part of it is in the bonding agent, or when the bonding
agent controls it by one of its parts. To show this with just one example,
necromancers are confident that they exercise control over entire bodies by
means of the fingernails or the hair of the living, and especially by means
of footprints or parts of clothing. They also evoke the spirits of the dead by
means of their bones or any part of their bodies. Hence, it is not accidental
that special care is taken in burying the dead and in preparing funeral pyres,
and that leaving a body unburied is counted among the most grievous
crimes. Also orators create good will with their art when their listeners and
judges find something of themselves in it.
5 For Bruno’s use of this term, see Part Three, ‘On Cupid’s Bond and on Bonds in General’,
paragraph 1, ‘The definition of a bond’.
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