and reflect: for me
every thinking activity
implies mirrors.
The soul
is a mirror that creates
material things
reflecting the ideas
of the higher reason.
Maybe this is why
I need mirrors
to think.
Only humans comprehend
reflections:
it's the sign of reasoning.
I cannot concentrate
except in the presence of
reflected images,
as if my soul needs
a model to imitate
every time it wants
to employ its
speculative capacity.
It is my image
that I want to multiply,
but not out of narcissism
or megalomania,
as could all too easily
be believed:
on the contrary,
I want to conceal,
in the midst of
so many ghosts of myself,
the true me,
who makes them move.
These lines I am writing
should transmit
a cold luminosity,
as in a mirrored tube,
where a finite number of figures
are broken up and
turned upside down
and multiplied.
From mirror to mirror
the totality of things,
the whole,
the entire universe,
divine wisdom could concentrate
their luminous rays
into a single mirror.
Or perhaps
the knowledge of everything
is buried in the soul,
and a system of mirrors
that would multiply my image
to infinity
and reflect its essence
in a single image
would then reveal to me
the soul of the universe,
which is hidden
in mine.
either by the body or by the soul,
allows Himself to be contemplated
in a mirror
~Porphyry (234-305AD)
