On Divine Frenzy (1489)
Letter of Marsilio Ficino
. . . [M]y dearest Peregrino, when I consider your age and those things which come from you every
day, I not only rejoice but much marvel at such great gifts in a friend. I do not know which of the ancients
whose memory we respect, not to mention men of our own time, achieved so much at your age. This I
ascribe not just to study and technique, but much more to divine frenzy. Without this, say Democritus and
Plato, no man has ever been great. The powerful emotion and burning desire which your writings express
prove … that you are inspired and inwardly possessed by that frenzy; and this power, which is manifested in
external movements, the ancient philosophers maintained, was the most potent proof that the divine force
dwelt in our souls.
But since I have mentioned this frenzy, I shall relate the opinion of our Plato …; so that you may
easily understand what it is …. I am sure that this description will not only please you, but also be of the very
greatest use to you. Plato considers …that our soul, before it descended into bodies, dwelt in the abodes of
heaven where, as Socrates says … it was nourished and rejoiced in the contemplation of truth.
Those philosophers I have just mentioned had learnt from Mercurius Trismegistus, the wisest of all
the Egyptians, that God is the supreme source and light within whom shine the models of all things, which
they call ideas. Thus, they believed … that the soul, in steadfastly contemplating the eternal mind of God,
also beholds with greater clarity the natures of all things. So, according to Plato, the soul saw justice itself,
wisdom, harmony, and the marvelous beauty of the divine nature. And sometimes he calls all these natures
‘ideas’, sometimes ‘divine essences’, and sometimes ‘first natures which exist in the eternal mind of God’.
The minds of men, while they are there, are well nourished with perfect knowledge. But souls are depressed
into bodies through thinking about and desiring earthly things. Then those who were previously fed on
ambrosia and nectar, that is the perfect knowledge and bliss of God, in their descent are said to drink
continuously of the river Lethe, that is forgetfulness of the divine. They do not fly back to heaven, whence
they fell by weight of their earthly thoughts, until they begin to contemplate once more those divine natures
which they have forgotten. The divine philosopher considers we achieve this through two virtues, one
relating to moral conduct and the other to contemplation; one he names with a common term ‘justice’, and
the other ‘wisdom’. For this reason, he says, souls fly back to heaven on two wings, meaning, as I understand
it, these virtues; and likewise Socrates teaches … that we acquire these by the two parts of philosophy;
namely the active and the contemplative. Hence, he says … that only the mind of a philosopher regains
wings. On recovery of these wings, the soul is separated from the body by their power. Filled with God, it
strives with all its might to reach the heavens, and thither it is drawn. Plato calls this drawing away and
striving ‘divine frenzy’, and he divides it into four parts. He thinks that men never remember the divine
unless they are stirred by its shadows or images, as they may be described, which are perceived by the bodily
senses.
Paul and Dionysius, the wisest of the Christian theologians, affirm that the invisible things of God
are understood from what has been made and is to be seen here, but Plato says that the wisdom of men is the
image of divine wisdom. He thinks that the harmony which we make with musical instruments and voices is
the image of divine harmony, and that the symmetry and comeliness that arise from the perfect union of the
parts and members of the body are an image of divine beauty.
But we do indeed perceive the reflection of divine beauty with our eyes and mark the resonance of
divine harmony with our ears - those bodily senses which Plato considers the most perceptive of all. Thus
when the soul has received through the physical senses those images which are within material objects, we
remember what we knew before when we existed outside the prison of the body. The soul is fired by this
memory and, shaking its wings, by degrees purges itself from contact with the body and its filth and becomes
wholly possessed by divine frenzy. From the two senses I have just mentioned two kinds of frenzy are
aroused. Regaining the memory of the true and divine beauty by the appearance of beauty that the eyes
perceive, we desire the former with a secret and unutterable ardor of the mind. This Plato calls ‘divine love’,
which he defines as the desire to return again to the contemplation of divine beauty; a desire arising from the
sight of its physical likeness. Moreover, it is necessary for him who is so moved not only to desire that
supernal beauty but also wholly to delight in its appearance which is revealed to his eyes. For Nature has so
ordained that he who seeks anything should also delight in its image; but Plato holds it the mark of a dull
mind and corrupt state if a man desires no more than the shadows of that beauty nor looks for anything
beyond the form his eyes can see. For he believes that such a man is afflicted with the kind of love that is the
companion of wantonness and lust. And he defines as irrational and heedless the love of that pleasure in
physical form which is enjoyed by the senses.
Oration on the Dignity of Man (1486)
Pico della Mirandola
At last, the best of artisans [God] ordained that that creature to whom He had been able to give
nothing proper to himself should have joint possession of whatever had been peculiar to every other creature.
He therefore took man as a creature of indeterminate nature, and assigning him a place in the middle of the
world, addressed him thus: "Neither a fixed abode nor a form that is thine alone nor any function peculiar to
yourself have we given you, Adam, to the end that according to your longing and according to your judgment
you may have and possess what abode, what form, and what functions you yourself shall desire. The nature
of all other beings is limited and constrained within the bounds of laws prescribed by Us. You, constrained
by no limits, in accordance with my own free will, in whose hand We have placed you, shall ordain for
yourself the limits of your nature. We have set you at the world's center that, you mayest from there more
easily observe whatever is in the world. We have made you neither of heaven nor of earth, neither mortal nor
immortal, so that with freedom of choice and with honor, as though the maker and molder of yourself, you
may fashion yourself in whatever shape you shall prefer. You shall have the power to degenerate into the
lower forms of life, which are brutish. You shall have the power, out of your soul's judgment, to be reborn
into the higher forms, which are divine.”
O supreme generosity of God the Father, O highest and most marvelous felicity of man! To him it is
granted to have whatever he chooses, to be whatever he wills. Beasts as soon as they are born bring with
them from their mother's womb all they will ever possess. Spiritual beings, either from the beginning or soon
thereafter, become what they are to be for ever and ever. On man when he came into life the Father conferred
the seeds of all kinds and the germs of every way of life. Whatever seeds each man cultivates will grow to
maturity and bear in him their own fruit. If they be vegetative, he wilt be like a plant. If sensitive, he will
become brutish. If rational, he will grow into a heavenly being. If intellectual, he will be an angel and the son
of God.
2