A double rainbow. Photo taken by Benjamin Rudstrom.
In hierarchy, variety is affirmed by the multiplicity of intermediary degrees, while unity is affirmed by the suavity of the transition between these degrees.
The rainbow is exemplary of this: the colors of which comprise it are arranged in a suave transition. In this we see the wisdom of God, Who created the Universe with magnificent unity, the expression of great force, and at the same time with magnificent variety, the expression of great power.
The Coronation of Joseph II as Holy Roman Emperor in Frankfurt Cathedral, April 3 1764.
Imagine the coronation of an Emperor of the Holy Roman-German Empire.
The moment in which the Emperor receives the crown, all the bells of the capital would ring. Soon after, the bells of the closest cities would also begin to peal and, in following, those of the more distant cities and, finally, those of all the churches in Germany.
For days and days the bells would toll, from bell-tower to bell-tower, announcing that the Emperor had been crowned. Imagine this ringing of bells which extended throughout all parts of Germany: from Baveria to Saxony to Dresden, unto all the German peoples, from those that are typically military, to the good-natured bourgeois of Baveria.
This amplitude of repercussions, throughout various regions, of the news of the Emperor’s coronation gives the impression of something both strong and suave.
Homage of the Frankfurt citizens to Francis I on the occasion of his election as Holy Roman Emperor.
How intense the power of the Emperor! But at the same time, how much sweetness there is in this Empire!
How strength and suavity exist harmonically within it!
Part 1 of the Laws of Unity
