But I am
frightened because he beats me so. And dost thou complain, when
no sign of blow or wound appears? Art thou not mistaken? Nay,
for he has wounded me so deep that he has shot his dart to my
very heart, and has not yet drawn it out again. (13) How has he
pierced thy body with it, when no wound appears without? Tell me
that, for I wish to know. How did he make it enter in? Through
the eye. Through the eye? But he has not put it out? He did
not harm the eye at all, but all the pain is in the heart. Then
tell me, if the dart passed through the eye, how is it that the
eye itself is not injured or put out. If the dart entered
through the eye, why does the heart in the breast complain, when
the eye, which received the first effect, makes no complaint of
it at all? I can readily account for that: the eye is not
concerned with the understanding, nor has it any part in it; but
it is the mirror of the heart, and through this mirror passes,
without doing harm or injury, the flame which sets the heart on
fire. For is not the heart placed in the breast just like a
lighted candle which is set in a lantern? If you take the candle
away no light will shine from the lantern; but so long as the
candle lasts the lantern is not dark at all, and the flame which
shines within does it no harm or injury.
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