The Connections of Marsilio Ficino
To many a Christian reader, Marsilio Ficino’s letters may immediately seem to resemble Paul’s letters to the first century churches. Paul writes to fellow Christians, and Ficino writes to fellow thinkers. Paul has a very simple, blunt writing style, and Ficino has the same. Most of all, both authors can fit a wealth of information and meaning into a single passage. Ficino, for example, writes a passage in his letter to Cardinal Riario about the importance of how one treats his senses, his friends, and his mind (Ficino 9). At first glance, the topics seem somewhat unrelated. Upon further scrutiny, however, one sees how well all three topics connect and apply in everyday life. Marsilio Ficino connects senses, relationships, and thoughts to a healthy way of life, giving the Cardinal and future readers a basis for how to live their lives in the service of God and others.
Ficino first addresses a person’s senses, explaining how we are to treat them and how we are to use them. “Just as it pleases you to control your servants outside,” he begins, “take as much care to serve divine laws and to control your servants inside: the senses” (Ficino 9). Ficino is instructing his readers to control their senses, rather than allowing their senses to make decisions for them. Oftentimes a person will find himself choosing based on what he sees or hears, rather than making decisions with his mind. For example, one might overhear some gossip about a person that he knows little about, and he might draw conclusions about that person based on how others talk rather than what he himself has observed. An overuse of the senses as decision-makers leads to great misconceptions about both the world and the people in it. Our senses are servants of our mind and channels for beauty. Filtration and decision should be left to the mind, not the senses.
Accordingly, Ficino also explains how we are to treat our friends and other loved ones. If we are able to temper our senses and use them as they are intended, then we will be more able to understand and love those closest to us. Ficino states, “Remember that your servants are men, equal to you in origin, and that the human species, which is by nature free, ought not to be, indeed cannot be, united by any fear, but only by love” (Ficino 9). Here Ficino speaks specifically about servants, as he did with the senses, but the attentive reader can draw parallels to all relationships in life. Ficino insists that servants, even if they are in a position lower than the master, are nonetheless just as human and just as beautifully created as every other human being. No one has a right to treat any human as lesser than himself. All men have a God-given intelligence and a capacity for sense and understanding that is inherently worthy of love and respect. Thus we are all united by our minds, which are characteristic of our Creator first and foremost. In the end, all of us are friends and siblings because of God’s image that is within us. If we are to treat our earthly servants as heavenly brothers, then why should we ever treat our friends with any semblance of inferiority? How we treat the “least” in this society should set a high bar for how we treat everyone we come into contact with.
Ficino first outlines how we are to handle our senses, then explains how we should treat our fellow men. He unites both with an emphasis on the power of the mind. He begins by establishing that “just as almost all men of power delight in their several possessions, neatly disposed and displayed in their homes, so will you delight in a mind that is ordered by fine language and conduct” (Ficino 9). The more organized and tempered a man’s thoughts are, the more good he is able to do with them. They are more able to cooperate with his senses, and they are more able to assist his friends. Ficino continues by saying that “It will be your art to temper both the desires of the mind and all your actions lest, when all external things are in harmony for you, the mind alone be in discord” (Ficino 9). If one cannot use his mind wisely and command his actions well, then even his well-ordered outside life will eventually fall apart because the world in his head is in such disorder. It’s worthy of note that God is a god of order; if we keep Him in our thoughts and proclaim Him through our actions, then we will find that we are more able to keep our lives well- ordered. “It will also be your schooling,” Ficino finishes, “to make frequent study of the most select writers lest the mind alone be impoverished in the midst of such great riches” (Ficino 9). By combining one’s senses with his thoughts, a man can add to the wisdom that he’s already acquired and filter out any ideas that he finds, upon further scrutiny, to be misrepresented. Many great thinkers have written their thoughts and observations for the use of future generations; we can learn much from utilizing their works. In fact, most philosophy addresses not only one’s internal state but also one’s impact on others. Our senses, our works, and our thoughts all combine to establish a loving and well-led life.
Ficino connects three seemingly disparate concepts—sense, relationships, and mind—into a guide for living well. Our senses should be servants and channels for beauty, not masters, and therefore must defer to the mind. Our friends should be perceived as beautiful creatures and thought of as brothers and sisters. Our mind must be well-ordered, well connected, and filled with love. In a letter to Girolamo Amazzi, Ficino observes that “divine love… seeks to return to the sublime heights of heaven that no fear of earthly ills can ever trouble” (Ficino 175). Love orders every part of our lives, just as our Creator orders every part of our body; indeed, God is love. The same Love that gave us senses to perceive and a mind to understand has given us a spirit to live, and most of all, to have the same Love.
Works Cited
Ficino, Marsilio. Meditations on the Soul: Selected Letters of Marsilio Ficino. Translated by the Language Department of the School of Economic Science, Inner Traditions International, 1996.
Erica, I find your interpretation of my text to be most astounding. When you compared me to Paul, I was moved that you would think that highly of my works. The goal of my book was, indeed, to get people to understand how they should treat their fellow man like Paul’s letter to the early church. One example, along with the examples that you used, was when it comes to how one should actively seek God. The author says, “Therefore let all who desire the taste of the sweetest waters of wisdom thirst for him, the everlasting fountain of all wisdom. All who helped to acquire the virtue of the Soul must most fervently seek wisdom. Thus whoever results to cultivate his soul must also cultivate God,” (Ficino 177). It is in our nature to actively seek God with our entire soul and to do anything else essentially goes against our God-given nature. Again thank you Erica for the honor of comparing me to one of the most influential Christian authors of all time.
ReplyDeleteErica, I find your interpretation of my text to be most astounding. When you compared me to Paul, I was moved that you would think that highly of my works. The goal of my book was, indeed, to get people to understand how they should treat their fellow man like Paul’s letter to the early church. One example, along with the examples that you used, was when it comes to how one should actively seek God. The author says, “Therefore let all who desire the taste of the sweetest waters of wisdom thirst for him, the everlasting fountain of all wisdom. All who helped to acquire the virtue of the Soul must most fervently seek wisdom. Thus whoever results to cultivate his soul must also cultivate God,” (Ficino 177). It is in our nature to actively seek God with our entire soul and to do anything else essentially goes against our God-given nature. Again thank you Erica for the honor of comparing me to one of the most influential Christian authors of all time.
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