Three Capetian French scholars
consulting an astrolabe, ca. AD 1200
Your intelligence is always with you,
overseeing your body, even though
you may not be aware of its work.
If you start doing something
against your health, your intelligence
will eventually scold you.
If it had not been so lovingly close by,
and so constantly monitoring,
how could it rebuke?
You and your body's intelligence
are like the beauty and precision
of an astrolabe.
Together, you calculate how near
existence is to the sun.
Your intelligence is marvelously intimate.
It is not in front of you or behind,
or to the left or the right.
Now, my friend, try to describe how near
is the creator of your intelligence.