Cause Principle Unity

A general account of bonding
Mercury were not wrong when they called this the great demon, for this
bond is indeed the entire substance, constitution, and (if I may say so) the
hypostasis of things. We come to know this greatest and most important
bond when we turn our eyes to the order of the universe. By this bond,
higher things take care of lower ones, lower things are turned toward higher
ones, equal things associate with each other and lastly, the perfection of the
universe is revealed in the knowledge of its form.
13. The principal effect of a bond. If there were only one love, and thus only
one bond, all things would be one. But there are many different characteristics
in different things. Hence, the same thing binds different things in
different ways. As a result, Cupid is said to be both above and below, both
the newest and the oldest, both blind and most observant. Cupid made all
things in such a way that, for the preservation of their species, they remain
firm in their powers or in themselves and are not separated from themselves.
But then, in regard to the changes which occur in individual things,
he arranged it so that they would be separated from themselves in a certain
sense when the lover eagerly desires to be completely transported into the
loved one; and also that they would be unrestrained, opened up and thrown
wide open when the lover desires to embrace and to devour the loved one
completely. Thus it happens that the bond by which things wish to be
where they are and not to lose what they have also causes them to wish to
be everywhere and to have what they do not possess. This is due to a sense
of complacency with what is possessed, to a desire and an appetite for what
is absent but possessable, and to a love for all things. A particular and finite
good and truth is not sufficient for an individual appetite and intellect,
which have as their objects what is universally good and universally true.
From this it follows that a finite potency in some definite material body
simultaneously experiences the effects both of being drawn together and of
being pulled apart, dispersed and scattered by the same bond. This general
characteristic of a bond is to be found in each individual type of bond.
14. The quality of a bond. In itself, a bond is neither beautiful nor good.
Rather, it is the means by which things as a whole, and each individual
thing, pursue what is beautiful and good. It connects that which receives
with that which is received, that which gives with that which is given, that
which can be bound with a bonding agent, that which is desired with the
one who desires. Indeed, that which desires the beautiful and the good
171