Cause Principle Unity

A general account of bonding
beauty or goodness, or some such thing, is brought into the external senses.
Second, it is taken on to the centre of the senses, that is, to the common
sense; then, third, into the imagination; and fourth, into the memory. Then
the soul, by its own power, desires first that it be moved, redirected and
captured; second, once redirected and captured, it is enlightened by a ray
of the beautiful or the good or the true; third, once enlightened and illuminated,
it is inflamed by sensory desire; fourth, once inflamed, it desires
to be united to the thing loved; fifth, once united, it is absorbed and incorporated;
sixth, once incorporated, it then loses its previous form and in a
sense abandons itself and takes on an alien quality; seventh, it, itself, is
transformed by the qualities of the object through which it has moved and
has thus been affected. The Platonists call the responses to the initial
motions Cupid’s preparation; the redirecting, Cupid’s birth; the illumination,
Cupid’s nourishment; the inflaming, Cupid’s growth; the union,
Cupid’s attack; the incorporation, Cupid’s domination; and the transformation,
Cupid’s victory or completion.
20. The foundation of the stages of bonds. You can now see how this scale is
based on its individual stages. Cupid’s birth issues first from the body’s
nourishment, sensitivity and sexual expression, and second from the soul
or spirit because of its charm, or playfulness, or contemplation, which is
worthy of a better name, in which beauty is joined with pleasantness.
Cupid’s food, which prevents the newborn from expiring, is the knowledge
of what is beautiful. Cupid’s growth is due to a lingering reflection on the
knowledge of what is beautiful. Cupid’s attack consists in the fact that the
soul slides and spreads from one part to all parts of the beloved so that it
can inflame the whole. Cupid’s domination is grounded in the action by
which the soul of the lover, having abandoned his own body, lives and acts
in the other. Cupid’s transformation occurs when the lover, having died to
himself, lives another life in such a way that he lives there as in his own
house rather than in someone else’s house. Thus, it is said that Jupiter was
transformed into a bull, Apollo into a shepherd, Saturn into a horse and
the other gods into other forms. Likewise, the soul is transformed by the
motion or disturbance of its feelings from one form and type of bond to
another.
21. The condition of bonds. There are some external things which bind, for
example, gifts, acts of deference, honours and favours. But these truly bind
when they are not given in such a way as to earn a favour in return. And
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