318 HILDEGARD OFBINGEN
shows itself by its brilliance. Therefore, O human, who are not just a bundle of marrow,
pay attention to scriptural knowledge!
19: ON THEINTELLECT
The intellect is joined to the soul like an arm to the body. For as the arm, joined to
the hand with its fingers, branches out from the body, so the intellect, working with
the other powers of the soul, by which it understands human actions, most certainly
proceeds from the soul. For before all the other powers of the soul it understands what-
ever is in human works, whether good or evil, so that through it, as through a teacher,
everything is understood; for it sifts things as wheat is purified of any foreign matter,
inquiring whether they are useful or useless, lovable or hateful, pertinent to life or
death. Thus, as food without salt is tasteless, the other powers of the soul without intel-
lect are insipid and undiscerning. But the intellect is also to the soul as the shoulder is to
the body, the very core of the other powers of the soul; as the bodily shoulder is strong,
so it understands the divinity and the humanity in God, which is the joint of the arm,
and it has true faith in its work, which is the joint of the hand, with which it chooses
among the various works wisely as if with fingers. But it does not work in the same way
as the other powers of the soul. What does this mean?
20: ON THEWILL
The will activates the work, and the mind receives it, and the reason produces it. But the
intellect understands the work, knowing good and evil, just as the angels, who have
intellect, love good and despise evil. And where the heart is in the body, there the intel-
lect is in the soul, exercising its power in that part of the soul as the will does in another
part. How? Because the will has great power in the soul. How? The soul stands in a cor-
ner of the house, that is, by the prop of the heart, like a man who stands in a corner of
his house, so that looking through the whole house he may command all its contents,
lifting his right arm to point out what is useful in the house and turning to the East. Thus
the soul should do, looking along the streets of the body toward the rising sun. Thus it
puts its will, like a right arm, as the support of the veins and marrow and the movement
of the whole body; for the will does every work, whether it be good or bad.
21: ANALOGY OFFIRE ANDBREAD
For the will is like a fire, baking each deed as if in a furnace. Bread is baked so that peo-
ple may be nourished by it and be able to live. So too the will is the strength of the
whole work, for it starts by kneading it and when it is firm adds the yeast and pounds it
severely; and, thus preparing the work in contemplation as if it were bread, it bakes it in
perfection by the full action of its ardor, and so makes a greater food for humans in the
work they do than in the bread they eat. A person stops eating from time to time, but the
work of his will goes on in him till his soul leaves his body. And in whatever differing
circumstances the work is performed, whether in infancy, youth, adulthood or bent old
age, it always progresses in the will and in the will comes to perfection.