Steven Schroeder | the beat of the sounding body
...after Leibniz, “principles of nature and of grace...”
ἡ δὲ Μαρία πάντα συνετήρει τὰ ῥήματα ταῦτα συμβάλλουσα ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ αὐτῆς.
and Maria put all these things together and dwelt on them in her heart.
1
why seek the living
among the dead?
what we
dwell on is
a composition
of living beings.
the whole of nature is full of life.
2
every living being is a universe
enfolding all that is
3
every body acts
on every other
body, every body is
a living mirror,
every living being is
the center of the universe
4
the heart of every living
being reflects
everything that is
5
reason depends on
truths that are necessary, and
rational animals know them
when they see them
their souls, called “minds,”
are capable of considering
what is called “me.”
6
living beings arise from
the transformation
of other beings.
7
the first question we
are entitled to ask
is “why is there something
rather than nothing?”
8
it is not possible to find sufficient reason
in the sequence of contingent things.
the final reason – what we mean
when we say “god” – must be outside
9
and what we mean
when we say “justice”
must be perfect conformity to wisdom,
10
all possibles claim existence
in proportion to their perfections
the result of all these claims
must be the actual world,
the most perfect possible,
the body of what we mean
when we say “god”
11
the laws that govern
this actual world
depend on
what is fitting, not
what must be so.
12
every living mirror
represents the universe
according to its point of view,
regulated in a way that is compatible
with all the rest. all is regulated
13
with as much order as is possible
the present is pregnant with the future
the future could be read in the past
the beauty of the universe is
enfolded in every soul
every soul knows everything, but
the weight of the world
overwhelms it.
what we mean when we say
“god” is centered everywhere
with a circumference that is nowhere:
immediately present to all
14
our soul is architectonic, as is
the soul of what we mean
when we say “god”
15
all minds enter into society with god
as members of the city of god
16
reason does not have the power
to learn the future reserved to revelation
but we can be assured by reason
that things have been done
in a manner that exceeds our desires
17
the pleasures of the senses
reduce to intellectual pleasures
known confusedly
music charms us
though its beauty
consists in nothing
but numbers
and the beat of the sounding body
the pleasures sight derives
from proportion
are of the same kind,
and those the other senses produce
will come down to something similar,
something at once undeniable and inexplicable
18
the present love of god
gives us a taste
of future happiness
it gives us perfect confidence
in the good – that the
arc of the universe
is toward justice.
but it is long,
and a cause outside
is always one more thing in medias res
the present is big with the future,
but the future can never be contained
there is always something to desire, and
nothing but nothing is big enough to contain it.
Chicago
2018-2019
video: the beat of the sounding body, in collaboration with Charlie Newman and Regina Schroeder
