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The Banquet (Il Convito) by Dante Alighieri
page 63 of 270 (23%)




CHAPTER IX.


Now that it is shown how and whereof Love is born, and the antagonist
that fought with me, I must proceed to open the meaning of that part
in which different thoughts contend within me. I say that, firstly,
one must speak on the part of the Soul, that is, of the former
thought, and then of the other; for this reason, that always that
which the speaker intends most especially to say he ought to reserve
in the background, because that which is said finally, remains most in
the mind of the hearer. Therefore, since I mean to speak further, and
to discourse of that which performs the work of those to whom I speak,
rather than of that which undoes this work, it was reasonable first to
mention and to discourse of the condition of the part which was
undone, and then of that which was generated by the other.

But here arises a doubt, which is not to be passed over without
explanation. It would be possible for any one to say: Since Love is
the effect of these Intelligences, to whom I speak, and that of the
first Love might be the same as that of the new Love, why should their
virtue destroy the one, and produce the other? since it ought to
preserve the first, for the reason that each cause loves its effect,
and ought to protect what it loves. To this question one can easily
reply, that the effect of those Spirits, as has been said, is Love:
and since they could not save it except in those who are subject to
their revolution, they transfer it from that part which is beyond
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