Page 29 - GALIET EMPATHY and Byron´s Hero IV

Astarte had “gentler power than mine, Pity, and smiles and tears – which
I had not;
And tenderness – but that I had for her; Humility – and that I never had.”
(Manfred, II.2.112-115)
“...the passions, attributes of
Earth and Heaven, from which no power, nor being, Nor breath from the worm upwards is exempt,
Have pierced his heart; and in their consequence Made him a thing – which – I who pity not,
Yet pardon those who pity.”
(First Destiny, Manfred, II.4.62-69)
The notion of sympathy as a form of similitude, agreement, emulation and analogy has been studied by Foucault in Les Mots et Les Choses. Foucault posits that similitude’s three forms have, up to the 17th century, charmed episteme. Agreement 3⁄4 is a similitude “linked to space in the form of ‘that which is nearest.’ Emulation 3⁄4 is a species of convenience not subjected to the law of space and place. Analogy 3⁄4 in Foucault’s sense, is beyond Greek or medieval notions of analogy; rather it superposes convenience and emulation. In sympathy, he says, one does not anticipate a determined road, nor suppose distances nor prescribe concatenations.
•29•