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Lull's Book of
Propositions
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3 - Figure S
Like the previous figures, Figure S. in this Art is apprehended by the senses, imagination and intellect.
It is apprehended by the senses as shown in the initial pages displaying two Figures of S. as Figure
S. is divided into two figures, the first of which has the
following sixteen principles written in its circumference signifying the essence of S., namely:
Essential memory, Essential intellect, Essential will, Being, Form, Matter, Conjunction, Simplicity, Composition, Substance, Accident, Virtue, Operation,
Interiority, Exteriority, Motion.
And in the middle of the circle there are four differently colored squares signifying the powers of
the soul and their acts through the alphabet written in the corners
of the four squares contained in this Figure.
B. memory remembering
C. the intellect understanding
D. the will willing
E. the compound act of B.C.D.
F. memory remembering
G. the intellect understanding
H. the will hating
I. the compound act of F.G.H.
K. memory forgetting
L. the intellect ignoring
M. the will loving or hating
N. the compound act of K.L.M.
O. the compound act of B.F.K.
P. the compound act of C.G.L.
Q. the compound act of D.H.M.
R. the compound act of O.P.Q.
The second figure contains six circles, each of the three outer circles displays the sixteen above
principles of S., and the three inner circles display the letters of
the alphabet also found in the first Figure S. This second figure, as the previous figures, should
be made of some metal or other material and contain revolving
circles displaying the above principles and letters, and T. with all the principles of its second figure
in three revolving circles should be viewed together with it, as
with the other figures.
Figure S. is perceived by the imagination that actively imagines the things seen and heard by the senses
in the Figure. And the imagination relays its imaginary
likeness of the sense data to the intellect. And thus the imagination receives particular items that
it relays to the intellect in a universal way.
Figure S. is perceived by the intellect when it receives particular items from the imagination in which
it produces a sequence of likenesses, and then gathers one
universal concept from the many particulars offered by the imagination, after which the intellect strips
itself of the particular imaginary representations it has
received and elevates its activity by producing a likeness of S. which it understands through the line
that connects it to the imagination. And while the intellect
soars in these lofty heights, it particularly understands the essence of the soul, namely essential
memory, essential intelligence and essential will from which it
gathers one universal being that is the act of these essences. And this is because each essence is in
itself and per se a perceptive property, and all three together
produce one being called S., which they do under one common form and one common matter, whereby all
three are perceptive in themselves and gathered into
one substance.
As it understands the rational soul, the intellect describes it with the above principles, namely: essential
memory, essential intellect, essential will, being, form,
matter etc. reduced to the alphabet of the Common Figure. Through this description of the said sixteen
principles, any particular issue involving S. can be
investigated. Subsequently, the intellect descends to the powers of the soul with their acts, where
it understands that B. is a power, and that C. is also a power of
the soul, as well as D. and that E. is the act of the powers through which they perceive objects. And
the same applies to I. N. R.
While the intellect understands things in this way, it rises again to the universal level as it first
grasps its object in the light of the imagination and subsequently in
its own light, like a man who sees by sunlight during the day and by another light, such as fire, at
night. And while the intellect soars in these heights and a
question arises requiring the discovery of some particular item concerning S., it descends and produces
its likenesses in the proportions observed in the course of
its rise to the universal and its descent to the particular, while it retains whatever likenesses it
can from the senses and imagination so as to produce more
likenesses from objects by using T. with its propositions and the propositions of S. in order to better
find and judge the particular issue.
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