The Mightiest Architect
The author uses metaphor to situate the greatness and the glory of God very early on by referencing Him as “God the Father, the Mightiest Architect.” He will return to this symbolism later with imagery of the soul as a dwelling in which God can be invited into when humans arrive at the “peace which God established in the high places of the heaven and which the angels.”
The Creation of Man
For God’s creation of man, however, the author turns to a different metaphor to describe the handiwork of the almighty:
“But upon man, at the moment of his creation, God bestowed seeds pregnant with all possibilities”
In so doing, he elegantly avoids complicating the issue of free will which is so important to his thesis. If man was just another floor God the architect added on to His building, how could man establish a will of his own? But if he is a seed which God plants and allows to grow and either thrive or die without a predetermined fate, the complication is avoided.
“Never sit on a bushel''
The distinguishing element which has made the “Oration on the Dignity of Man” such a philosophical touchstone is that the author was one of the first to try to reconcile ancient pagan philosophies with Christian doctrine. For this reason, ancient philosophers heavily populate the text, ranging from Plato to Pythagoras. In order to attempt this reconciliation of Christian and pagan thought, the author often turns to quotes attributed to the ancients, such as this metaphor he engages as an extended reasoning always be conscious of the present and the future rather than just sitting safely on what you know.
"the soul is a winged creature"
Here is another example of taking a metaphor from a pagan philosopher as a means of reconciling all philosophies. In this case, the philosophy is a more mystic type from the east as the figurative description here is attributed by the author—second-hand by way of the Chaldeans—to Zoroaster.
Feet
Feet imagery is utilized by the author in a most dramatic and poetically satisfying metaphorical form in a way that ties the literal to the symbolic. After attesting to the fact that the soul thrives in all physical portions of the body, it is to the feet that he assigns the lowliest portion and not just anatomically:
“The feet, to be sure, of the soul: that is, its most despicable portion by which the soul is held fast to earth as a root to the ground; I mean to say, it alimentary and nutritive faculty where lust ferments and voluptuous softness is fostered.”
