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+The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Divine Comedy, by Dante Aligheri
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
+www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you
+will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before
+using this eBook.
+
+Title: The Divine Comedy
+       Paradise
+
+Author: Dante Aligheri
+
+Translator: Charles Eliot Norton
+
+Release Date: December, 1999 [eBook #1997]
+[Most recently updated: August 19, 2022]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+Produced by: Dianne Bean
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DIVINE COMEDY, PARADISE ***
+
+
+
+
+The Divine Comedy of Dante Aligheri
+
+Translated by Charles Eliot Norton
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CANTO I.
+Proem.—Invocation.—Beatrice and Dante ascend to the Sphere of
+Fire.—Beatrice explains the cause of their ascent.
+
+CANTO II.
+Proem.—Ascent to the Moon.—The cause of Spots on the Moon.—Influence of
+the Heavens.
+
+CANTO III.
+The Heaven of the Moon.—Spirits whose vows had been broken.—Piccarda
+Donati.—The Empress Constance.
+
+CANTO IV.
+Doubts of Dante, respecting the justice of Heaven and the abode of the
+blessed, solved by Beatrice.—Question of Dante as to the possibility of
+reparation for broken vows.
+
+CANTO V.
+The sanctity of vows, and the seriousness with which they are to be
+made or changed.—Ascent to the Heaven of Mercury.—The shade of
+Justinian.
+
+CANTO VI.
+Justinian tells of his own life.—The story of the Roman Eagle.—Spirits
+in the planet Mercury.—Romeo.
+
+CANTO VII.
+Discourse of Beatrice.—The Fall of Man.—The scheme of his Redemption.
+
+CANTO VIII.
+Ascent to the Heaven of Venus.—Spirits of Lovers, Source of the order
+and the varieties in mortal things.
+
+CANTO IX.
+The Heaven of Venus.—Conversation of Dante with Cunizza da Romano,—With
+Folco of Marseilles.—Rahab.—Avarice of the Papal Court.
+
+CANTO X.
+Ascent to the Sun.—Spirits of the wise, and the learned in
+theology.—St. Thomas Aquinas.—He names to Dante those who surround him.
+
+CANTO XI.
+The Vanity of worldly desires,—St. Thomas Aquinas undertakes to solve
+two doubts perplexing Dante.—He narrates the life of St. Francis of
+Assisi.
+
+CANTO XII.
+Second circle of the spirits of wise religious men, doctors of the
+Church and teachers.—St. Bonaventura narrates the life of St. Dominic,
+and tells the names of those who form the circle with him.
+
+CANTO XIII.
+St. Thomas Aquinas speaks again, and explains the relation of the
+wisdom of Solomon to that of Adam and of Christ, and declares the
+vanity of human judgment.
+
+CANTO XIV.
+At the prayer of Beatrice, Solomon tells of the glorified body of the
+blessed after the Last Judgment.—Ascent to the Heaven of Mars.—Souls of
+the Soldiery of Christ in the form of a Cross with the figure of Christ
+thereon.—Hymn of the Spirits.
+
+CANTO XV.
+Dante is welcomed by his ancestor, Cacciaguida.—Cacciaguida tells of
+his family, and of the simple life of Florence in the old days.
+
+CANTO XVI.
+The boast of blood.—Cacciaguida continues his discourse concerning the
+old and the new Florence.
+
+CANTO XVII.
+Dante questions Cacciaguida as to his fortunes.—Cacciaguida replies,
+foretelling the exile of Dante, and the renown of his Poem.
+
+CANTO XVIII.
+The Spirits in the Cross of Mars.—Ascent to the Heaven of
+Jupiter.—Words shaped in light upon the planet by the
+Spirits.—Denunciation of the avarice of the Popes.
+
+CANTO XIX.
+The voice of the Eagle.—It speaks of the mysteries of Divine justice;
+of the necessity of Faith for salvation; of the sins of certain kings.
+
+CANTO XX.
+The Song of the Just.—Princes who have loved righteousness, in the eye
+of the Eagle.—Spirits, once Pagans, in bliss.—Faith and
+Salvation.—Predestination.
+
+CANTO XXI.
+Ascent to the Heaven of Saturn.—Spirits of those who had given
+themselves to devout contemplation.—The Golden Stairway.—St. Peter
+Damian.—Predestination.—The luxury of modern Prelates.
+
+CANTO XXII.
+Beatrice reassures Dante.—St. Benedict appears.—He tells of the
+founding of his Order, and of the falling away of its brethren.
+Beatrice and Dante ascend to the Starry Heaven.—The constellation of
+the Twins.—Sight of the Earth.
+
+CANTO XXIII.
+The Triumph of Christ.
+
+CANTO XXIV.
+St. Peter examines Dante concerning Faith, and approves his answer.
+
+CANTO XXV.
+St. James examines Dante concerning Hope.—St. John appears,with a
+brightness so dazzling as to deprive Dante, for the time, of sight.
+
+CANTO XXVI.
+St. John examines Dante concerning Love.—Dante's sight restored.—Adam
+appears, and answers questions put to him by Dante.
+
+CANTO XXVII.
+Denunciation by St. Peter of his degenerate successors.—Dante gazes
+upon the Earth.—Ascent of Beatrice and Dante to the Crystalline
+Heaven.—Its nature.—Beatrice rebukes the covetousness of mortals.
+
+CANTO XXVIII.
+The Heavenly Hierarchy.
+
+CANTO XXIX.
+Discourse of Beatrice concerning the creation and nature of the
+Angels.—She reproves the presumption and foolishness of preachers.
+
+CANTO XXX.
+Ascent to the Empyrean.—The River of Light.—The celestial Rose.—The
+seat of Henry VII.—The last words of Beatrice.
+
+CANTO XXXI.
+The Rose of Paradise.—St. Bernard.—Prayer to Beatrice.—The glory of the
+Blessed Virgin.
+
+CANTO XXXII.
+St. Bernard describes the order of the Rose, and points out many of the
+Saints.—The children in Paradise.—The angelic festival.—The patricians
+of the Court of Heaven.
+
+CANTO XXXIII.
+Prayer to the Virgin.—The Beatific Vision.—The Ultimate Salvation.
+
+
+
+
+PARADISE
+
+
+
+
+CANTO I.
+
+
+Proem.—Invocation.—Beatrice and Dante ascend to the Sphere of
+Fire.—Beatrice explains the cause of their ascent.
+
+
+The glory of Him who moves everything penetrates through the universe,
+and shines in one part more and in another less. In the heaven that
+receives most of its light I have been, and have seen things which he
+who descends from thereabove neither knows how nor is able to recount;
+because, drawing near to its own desire,[1] our understanding enters so
+deep, that the memory cannot follow. Truly whatever of the Holy Realm I
+could treasure up in my mind shall now be the theme of my song.
+
+[1] The innate desire of the soul is to attain the vision of God.
+
+
+O good Apollo, for this last labor make me such a vessel of thy power
+as thou demandest for the gift of the loved laurel.[1] Thus far one
+summit of Parnassus has been enough for me, but now with both[2] I need
+to enter the remaining, arena. Enter into my breast, and breathe thou
+in such wise as when thou drewest Marsyas from out the sheath of his
+limbs. O divine Power, if thou lend thyself to me so that I may make
+manifest the image of the Blessed Realm imprinted within my head, thou
+shalt see me come to thy chosen tree, and crown myself then with those
+leaves of which the theme and thou will make me worthy. So rarely,
+Father, are they gathered for triumph or of Caesar or of poet (fault
+and shame of the human wills), that the Peneian leaf[3] should bring
+forth joy unto the joyous Delphic deity, whenever it makes any one to
+long for it. Great flame follows a little spark: perhaps after me
+prayer shall be made with better voices, whereto Cyrrha[4] may respond.
+
+[1] So inspire me in this labor that I may deserve the gift of the
+laurel.
+
+
+[2] The Muses were fabled to dwell on one peak of Parnassus, Apollo on
+the other. At the opening of the preceding parts of his poem Dante has
+invoked the Muses only.
+
+
+[3] Daphne, who was changed to the laurel, was the daughter of Peneus.
+
+
+[4] Cyrrha, a city sacred to Apollo, not far from the foot of
+Parnassus, and here used for the name of the god himself.
+
+
+The lamp of the world rises to mortals through different passages, but
+from that which joins four circles with three crosses it issues with
+better course and conjoined with a better star, and it tempers and
+seals the mundane wax more after its own fashion[1] Almost such a
+passage had made morning there and evening here;[2] and there all that
+hemisphere was white, and the other part black, when I saw Beatrice
+turned upon the left side, and looking into the sun: never did eagle so
+fix himself upon it. And even as a second ray is wont to issue from the
+first, and mount upward again, like a pilgrim who wishes to return;
+thus of her action, infused through the eyes into my imagination, mine
+was made, and I fixed my eyes upon the sun beyond our use. Much is
+allowed there which here is not allowed to our faculties, thanks to the
+place made for the human race as its proper, abode.[3] Not long did I
+endure it, nor so little that I did not see it sparkling round about,
+like iron that issues boiling from the fire. And on a sudden,[4] day
+seemed to be added to day, as if He who is able had adorned the heaven
+with another sun.
+
+[1] In the spring the sun rises from a point on the horizon, where the
+four great circles, namely, the horizon, the zodiac, theequator, and
+the equinoctial colure, meet, and, cutting each other, form three
+crosses. The sun is in the sign of Aries, “a better star,” because the
+influence of this constellation was supposed to be benignant, and under
+it the earth reclothes itself. It was the season assigned to the
+Creation, and to the Annunciation.
+
+
+[2] There, in the Earthly Paradise; here, on earth. It is the morning
+of Thursday, April 123. The hours from the mid-day preceding to this
+dawn are undescribed.
+
+
+[3] The Earthly Paradise, made for man in his original excellence.
+
+
+[4] So rapid was his ascent to the sphere of fire, drawn upward by the
+eyes of Beatrice.
+
+
+Beatrice was standing with her eyes wholly fixed on the eternal wheels,
+and on her I fixed my eyes from thereabove removed. Looking at her I
+inwardly became such as Glaucus[1] became on tasting of the herb which
+made him consort in the sea of the other gods. Transhumanizing cannot
+be signified in words; therefore let the example[2] suffice for him to
+whom grace reserves experience. If I was only what of me thou didst the
+last create,[3] O Love that governest the heavens, Thou knowest, who
+with Thy light didst lift me. When the revolution which Thou, being
+desired, makest eternal,[4] made me attent unto itself with the harmony
+which Thou attunest and modulatest, so much of the heaven then seemed
+to me enkindled by the flame of the sun, that rain or river never made
+so broad a lake.
+
+[1] A fisherman changed to a sea-god. The story is in Ovid
+(Metamorphoses, xiii.).
+
+
+[2] Just cited, of Glauens.
+
+
+[3] In the twenty-fifth Canto of Purgatory, Dante has said that when
+the articulation of the brain is perfect God breathes into it a new
+spirit, the living soul; and he means here that, like St. Paul caught
+up into Paradise, he cannot tell “whether in the body or Out of the
+body.” (2 Corinthians, xii. 3).
+
+
+[4] The desire to be united with God is the source of the eternal
+revolution of the heavens. “The Empyrean . . . is the cause of the most
+swift motion of the Primum Mobile. because of the most ardent desire of
+every part of the latter to be conjoined with every part of that most
+divine quiet heaven.”—Convito, 14.
+
+
+The novelty of the sound and the great light kindled in me a desire
+concerning their cause, never before felt with such acuteness.
+Whereupon she, who saw me as I see myself, to quiet my perturbed mind
+opened her mouth, ere I mine to ask, and began, “Thou thyself makest
+thyself dull with false imagining, so that thou seest not what thou
+wouldst see, if thou hadst shaken it off. Thou art not on earth, as
+thou believest; but lightning, flying from its proper site, never ran
+as thou who thereunto[1] returnest.”
+
+[1] To thine own proper site,—Heaven, the true home of the soul.
+
+
+If I was divested of my first doubt by these brief little smiled- out
+words, within a new one was I the more enmeshed. And I said, “Already I
+rested content concerning a great wonder; but now I wonder how I can
+transcend these light bodies.” Whereupon she, after a pitying sigh,
+directed her eyes toward me, with that look which a mother turns on her
+delirious son, and she began, “All things whatsoever have order among
+themselves; and this is the form which makes the universe like to God.
+Here[1] the high creatures[2] see the imprint of the eternal Goodness,
+which is the end for which the aforesaid rule is made. In the order of
+which I speak, all natures are arranged, by diverse lots, more or less
+near to their source;[3] wherefore they are moved to diverse ports
+through the great sea of being, and each one with an instinct given to
+it which may bear it on. This bears the fire upward toward the moon;
+this is the motive force in mortal hearts; this binds together and
+unites the earth. Nor does this bow shoot forth.[4] Only the created
+things which are outside intelligence, but also those which have
+understanding and love. The Providence that adjusts all this, with its
+own light makes forever quiet the heaven[5] within which that revolves
+which hath the greatest speed. And thither now, as to a site decreed,
+the virtue of that cord bears us on which directs to a joyful mark
+whatever it shoots. True is it, that as the form often accords not to
+the intention of the art, because the material is deaf to respond, so
+the creature sometimes deviates from this course; for it has power,
+though thus impelled, to incline in another direction (even as the fire
+of a cloud may be seen to fall[6]), if the first impetus, bent aside by
+false pleasure, turn it earthwards. Thou shouldst not, if I deem
+aright, wonder more at thy ascent, than at a stream if from a high
+mountain it descends to the base. A marvel it would be in thee, if,
+deprived of hindrance, thou hadst sat below, even as quiet in living
+fire on earth would be.”
+
+[1] In this order of the universe.
+
+
+[2] The created beings endowed with souls,—angels and men.
+
+
+[3] The source of their being, God.
+
+
+[4] This instinct directs to their proper end animate as well as
+inanimate things, as the bow shoots the arrow to its mark.
+
+
+[5] The Empyrean, within which the Primum Mobile, the first moving
+heaven, revolves.
+
+
+[6] Contrary to its true nature.
+
+
+Thereon she turned again toward heaven her face.
+
+
+
+
+CANTO II.
+
+
+Proem.—Ascent to the Moon.—The cause of Spots on the Moon.—Influence of
+the Heavens.
+
+
+O ye, who are in a little bark, desirous to listen, following behind my
+craft which singing passes on, turn to see again Your shores; put not
+out upon the deep; for haply losing me, ye would remain astray. The
+water that I sail was never crossed. Minerva inspires, and Apollo
+guides me, and nine Muses point out to me the Bears.
+
+Ye other few, who have lifted tip your necks be. times to the bread of
+the Angels, oil which one here subsists, but never becomes sated of it,
+ye may well put forth your vessel over the salt deep, keeping my wake
+before you on the water which turns smooth again. Those glorious ones
+who passed over to Colchos wondered not as ye shall do, when they saw
+Jason become a ploughman.
+
+The concreate and perpetual thirst for the deiform realm was bearing us
+on swift almost as ye see the heavens. Beatrice was looking upward, and
+I upon her, and perhaps in such time as a quarrel[1] rests, and flies,
+and from the notch is unlocked,[2] I saw myself arrived where a
+wonderful thing drew my sight to itself; and therefore she, from whom
+the working of my mind could not be hid, turned toward me, glad as
+beautiful. “Uplift thy grateful mind to God,” she said to me, “who with
+the first star[3] has conjoined us.”
+
+[1] The bolt for a cross-bow.
+
+
+[2] The inverse order indicates the instantaneousness of the act.
+
+
+[3] The moon.
+
+
+It seemed to me that a cloud had covered us, lucid, dense, solid, and
+polished, like a diamond which the sun had struck. Within itself the
+eternal pearl had received us, even as water receives a ray of light,
+remaining unbroken. If I was body (and here[1] it is not conceivable
+how one dimension brooked another, which needs must be if body enter
+body) the desire ought the more to kindle us to see that Essence, in
+which is seen how our nature and God were united. There will be seen
+that which we hold by faith, not demonstrated, but it will be known of
+itself like the first truth which man believes.[2]
+
+[1] On earth, by mortal faculties.
+
+
+[2] Not demonstrated by argument, but known by direct cognition, like
+the intuitive perception of first principles, per se notu.
+
+
+I replied, “My Lady, devoutly to the utmost that I can, do I thank him
+who from the mortal world has removed me. But tell me what are the
+dusky marks of this body, which there below on earth make people fable
+about Cain?”[1]
+
+[1] Fancying the dark spaces on the surface of the moon to represent
+Cain carrying a thorn-bush for the fire of his sacrifice.
+
+
+She smiled somewhat, and then she said, “If the opinion of mortals errs
+where the key of sense unlocks not, surely the shafts of wonder ought
+not now to pierce thee, since thou seest that the reason following the
+senses has short wings. But tell me what thou thyself thinkest of it.”
+And I, “That which here above appears to us diverse, I believe is
+caused by rare and dense bodies.” And she, “Surely enough thou shalt
+see that thy belief is submerged in error, if then listenest well to
+the argument that I shall make against it. The eighth sphere[1]
+displays to you many lights, which may be noted of different aspects in
+quality and quantity. If rare and dense effected all this,[2] one
+single virtue, more or less or equally distributed, would be in all.
+Different virtues must needs be fruits of formal principles;[3] and by
+thy reckoning, these, all but one, would be destroyed. Further, if
+rarity were the cause of that darkness of which you ask, either this
+planet would be thus deficient of its matter through and through, or
+else as a body distributes the fat and the loan, so this would
+interchange the leaves in its volume. If the first were the case, it
+would be manifest in the eclipses of the sun, by the shining through of
+the light, as when it is poured out upon any other rare body. This is
+not so; therefore we must look at the other, and if it happen that I
+quash this other, thy opinion will be falsified. If it be that this
+rare passes not through,[4] there needs must be a limit, beyond which
+its contrary allows it not to pass further; and thence the ray from
+another body is poured back, just as color returns through a glass
+which hides lead behind itself. Now thou wilt say that the ray shows
+itself dimmer there than in the other parts, by being there reflected
+from further back. From this objection experiment, which is wont to be
+the fountain to the streams of your arts, may deliver thee, if ever
+thou try it. Thou shalt take three mirrors, and set two of them at an
+equal distance from thee, and let the other, further removed, meet
+thine eyes between the first two. Turning toward them, cause a light to
+be placed behind thy back, which may illumine the three mirrors, and
+return to thee thrown back front all. Although the more distant image
+reach thee not so great in quantity, thou wilt then see how it cannot
+but be of equal brightness.
+
+[1] The heaven of the fixed stars.
+
+
+[2] If all this difference were caused merely by difference in rarity
+and density.
+
+
+[3] The stars exert various influences; hence their differences, from
+which the variety of their influence proceeds, must be caused by
+different formal principles or intrinsic causes.
+
+
+[4] Extends not through the whole substance of the moon.
+
+
+“Now, as beneath the blows of the warm rays that which lies under the
+snow remains bare both of the former color[1] and the cold, thee, thus
+remaining in thy intellect, will I inform with light so living that it
+shall tremble in its aspect to thee.[2]
+
+[1] The color of the snow.
+
+
+[2[My argument has removed the error which covered thy mind, and nov I
+will tell thee the true cause of the variety in the surface of the
+moon.
+
+
+“Within the heaven of the divine peace revolves a body, in whose virtue
+lies the being of all that it contains.[1] The following heaven[2]
+which has so many sights, distributes that being through divers
+essences[3] from it distinct, and by it contained. The other spheres,
+by various differences, dispose the distinctions which they have within
+themselves unto their ends and their seeds.[4] These organs of the
+world thus proceed, as thou now seest, from grade to grade; for they
+receivefrom above, and operate below. Observe me well, how I advance
+through this place to the truth which thou desirest, so that hereafter
+thou mayest know to keep the ford alone. The motion and the virtue of
+the holy spheres must needs be inspired by blessed motors, as the work
+of the hammer by the smith. And the heaven, which so many lights make
+beautiful, takes its image from the deep Mind which revolves it, and
+makes thereof a seal. And as the soul within your dust is diffused
+through different members, and conformed to divers potencies, so the
+Intelligence[5] displays its own goodness multiplied through the stars,
+itself circling upon its own unity. Divers virtue makes divers alloy
+with the precious body that it quickens, in which, even as life in you,
+it is bound. Because of the glad nature whence, it flows, the virtue
+mingled through the body shines,[6] as gladness through the living
+pupil. From this,[7] comes whatso seems different between light and
+light, not from dense and rare; this is the formal principle which
+produces, conformed unto its goodness, the dark and the bright.”
+
+[1] Within the motionless sphere of the Empyrean revolves that of the
+Primum Mobile, from whose virtue, communicated to it from the Empyrean,
+all the inferior spheres contained within it derive their special mode
+of being.
+
+
+[2] The heaven of the Fixed Stars.
+
+
+[3] Through the planets, called essences because each has a specific
+mode of being.
+
+
+[4] “The rays of the heavens are the way by which their virtue descends
+to the things below.”—Convito, ii. 7.
+
+
+[5] Which moves the heavens.
+
+
+[6] The brightness of the stars comes from the joy which radiates
+through them.
+
+
+[7] From the divers virtue making divers alloy.
+
+
+
+
+CANTO III.
+
+
+The Heaven of the Moon.—Spirits whose vows had been broken.—Piccarda
+Donati.—The Empress Constance.
+
+
+That sun which first had heated my breast with love, proving and
+refuting, had uncovered to me the sweet aspect of fair truth; and I, in
+order to confess myself corrected and assured so far as was needful,
+raised my head more erect to speak. But a vision appeared which held me
+to itself so close in order to be seen, that of my confession I
+remembered not.
+
+As through transparent and polished glasses, or through clear and
+tranquil waters, not so deep that their bed be lost, the lineaments of
+our faces return so feebly that a pearl on a white brow comes not less
+readily to our eyes, so I saw many faces eager to speak; wherefore I
+ran into the error contrary to that which kindled love between the man
+and the fountain.[1] Suddenly, even as I became aware of them,
+supposing them mirrored semblances, I turned my eyes to see of whom
+they were; and I saw nothing; and I turned them forward again, straight
+into the light of the sweet guide who, smiling, was glowing in her holy
+eyes. “Wonder not because I smile,” she said to me, “at thy puerile
+thought, since thy foot trusts itself not yet upon the truth, but turns
+thee, as it is wont, to emptiness. True substances are these which thou
+seest, here relegated through failure in their vows. Therefore speak
+with them, and hear, and believe; for the veracious light which
+satisfies them allows them not to turn their feet from itself.”
+
+[1] Narcissus conceived the image to be a true face; Dante takes the
+real faces to be mirrored semblances.
+
+
+And I directed me to the shade that seemed most eager to speak, and I
+began, even like a man whom too strong wish confuses, “O well-created
+spirit, who in the rays of life eternal tastest the sweetness, which
+untasted never is understood, it will be gracious to me, if thou
+contentest me with thy name, and with your destiny.” Whereon she
+promptly, and with smiling eyes, “Our charity locks not its door to a
+just wish, more than that which wills that all its court be like
+itself. I was in the world a virgin sister,[1] and if thy mind well
+regards, my being more beautiful will not conceal me from thee; but
+thou wilt recognize that I am Piccarda,[2] who, placed here with these
+other blessed Ones, am blessed in the slowest sphere. Our affections,
+which are inflamed only in the pleasure of the Holy Spirit, rejoice in
+being formed according to His order;[3] and this allotment, which
+appears so low, is forsooth given to us, because our vows were
+neglected or void in some part.” Whereon I to her, In your marvellous
+aspects there shines I know not what divine which transmutes you from
+our first conceptions; therefore I was not swift in remembering; but
+now that which you say to me assists me, so that refiguring is plainer
+to me. But tell me, ye who are happy here, do ye desire a highher
+place, in order to see more, or to make yourselves more friends?” With
+those other shades she first smiled a little; then answered me so glad,
+that she seemed to burn in the first fire of love, “Brother, virtue of
+charity[4] quiets our will, and makes us wish only for that which we
+have, and for aught else makes us not thirsty. Should we desire to be
+higher up, our desires would be discordant with the will of Him who
+assigns us to this place, which thou wilt see is not possible in these
+circles, if to be in charity is here necesse,[5] and if its nature thou
+dost well consider. Nay, it is essential to this blessed existence to
+hold ourselves within the divine will, whereby our very wills are made
+one. So that as we are, from stage to stage throughout this realm, to
+all the realm is pleasing, as to the King who inwills us with His will.
+And His will is our peace; it is that sea whereunto is moving all that
+which It creates and which nature makes.”
+
+[1] A nun, of the order of St. Clare.
+
+
+[2] The sister of Corso Donati and of Forese: see Purgatory, Canto
+XXIII. It may not be without intention that the first blessed spirit
+whom Dante sees in Paradise is a relative of his own wife, Gemma dei
+Donati.
+
+
+[3] Rejoice in whatever grade of bliss is assigned to thern in that
+order of the universe which is the form that makes it like unto God.
+
+
+[4] Charity here means love, the love of God.
+
+
+[5] Of necessity; the Latin word being used for the rhyme's sake.
+“Mansionem Deus haber non potest ubi charitas non est” B. Alberti
+Magni, De adhoerendo Deo, c. xii.
+
+
+Clear was it then to me, how everywhere in Heaven is Paradise, although
+the grace of the Supreme Good rains not there in one measure.
+
+But even as it happen, if one food sates, and for another the appetite
+still remains, that this is asked for, and that declined with thanks;
+so did I, with gesture and with speech, to learn from her, what was the
+web whereof she did not draw the shuttle to the head.[1] “Perfect life
+and high merit in-heaven a lady higher up,” she said to me, “according
+to whose rule, in your world below, there are who vest and veil
+themselves, so that till death they may wake and sleep with that Spouse
+who accepts every vow which love conforms unto His pleasure. A young
+girl, I fled from the world to follow her, and in her garb I shut
+myself, and pledged me to the pathway of her order. Afterward men, more
+used to ill than good, dragged me forth from the sweet cloister;[2] and
+God knows what then my life became. And this other splendor, which
+shows itself to thee at my right side, and which glows with all the
+light of our sphere, that which I say of me understands of herself.[3]
+A sister was she; and in like manner from her head the shadow of the
+sacred veils was taken. But after she too was returned unto the world
+against her liking and against good usage, from the veil of the heart
+she was never unbound.[4] This is the light of the great Constance,[5]
+who from the second wind of Swabia produced the third and the last
+power.”
+
+[1] To learn from her what was the vow which she did not fulfil.
+
+
+[2] According to the old commentators, her brother Corso forced
+Piccarda by violence to leave the convent, in order to make a marriage
+which he desired for her.
+
+
+[3] Her experience was similar to that of Piccarda.
+
+
+[4] She remained a nun at heart.
+
+
+[5] Constance, daughter of the king of Sicily, Roger 1.; married, in
+1186, to the Emperor, Henry VI., the son of Frederick Barbarossa, and
+father of Frederick II, who died in 1250, the last Emperor of his line.
+
+
+Thus she spoke to me, and then began singing “Ave Maria,” and Singing
+vanished, like a heavy thing through deep water. My sight, that
+followed her so far as was possible, after it lost her turned to the
+mark of greater desire, and wholly rendered itself to Beatrice; but she
+so flashed upon my gaze that at first the sight endured it not: and
+this made me more slow in questioning.
+
+
+
+
+CANTO IV.
+
+
+Doubts of Dante, respecting the justice of Heaven and the abode of the
+blessed, solved by Beatrice.—Question of Dante as to the possibility of
+reparation for broken vows.
+
+
+Between two viands, distant and attractive in like measure, a free man
+would die of hunger, before he would bring one of them to his teeth.
+Thus a lamb would stand between two ravenings of fierce wolves, fearing
+equally; thus would stand a dog between two does. Hence if, urged by my
+doubts in like measure, I was silent, I blame not myself; nor, since it
+was necessary, do I commend.
+
+I was silent, but my desire was depicted on my face, and the
+questioning with that far more fervent than by distinct speech.
+Beatrice did what Daniel did, delivering Nebuchadnezzar from anger,
+which had made him unjustly cruel, and said, “I see clearly how one and
+the other desire draws thee, so that thy care so binds itself that it
+breathes not forth. Thou reasonest, 'If the good will endure, by what
+reckoning doth the violence of others lessen for me the measure of
+desert?' Further, it gives thee occasion for doubt, that the souls
+appear to return to the stars, in accordance with the opinion of
+Plato.[1] These are the questions that thrust equally upon thy wish;
+and therefore I will treat first of that which hath the most venom.[2]
+
+[1] Plato, in his Timaeus (41, 42), says that the creator of the
+universe assigned each soul to a star, whence they were to be sown in
+the vessels of time. “ He who lived well during his appointed time was
+to return to the star which was his habitation, and there he would have
+a blessed and suitable existence.” Dante's doubt has arisen from the
+words of Piccarda, which implied that her station was in the sphere of
+the Moon.
+
+
+[2] The conception that the souls after death had their abode in the
+stars would be a definite heresy, and hence far more dangerous than a
+question concerning the justice of Heaven, for such a question might be
+consistent with entire faith in that justice.
+
+
+“Of the Seraphim he who is most in God, Moses, Samuel, and whichever
+John thou wilt take, I say, and even Mary, have not their seats in
+another heaven than those spirits who just now appeared to thee, nor
+have they more or fewer years for their existence; but all make
+beautiful the first circle, and have sweet life in different measure,
+through feeling more or less the eternal breath.[1] They showed
+themselves here, not because this sphere is allotted to them, but to
+afford sign of the celestial condition which is least exalted. To speak
+thus is befitting to your mind, since only by objects of the sense doth
+it apprehend that which it then makes worthy of the understanding. For
+this reason the Scripture condescends to your capacity, and attributes
+feet and hands to God, while meaning otherwise; and Holy Church
+represents to you with human aspect Gabriel and Michael and the other
+who made Tobias whole again.[2] That which Timaeus, reasons of the
+souls is not like this which is seen here, since it seems that he
+thinks as he says. He says that the soul returns to its own star,
+believing it to have been severed thence, when nature gave it as the
+form.[3] And perchance his opinion is of other guise than his words
+sound, and may be of a meaning not to be derided. If he means that the
+honor of their influence and the blame returns to these wheels, perhaps
+his bow hits on some truth. This principle, ill understood, formerly
+turned awry almost the whole world, so that it ran astray in naming
+Jove, Mercury, and Mars.[4]
+
+[1] The abode of all the blessed is the Empyrean,—the first circle,
+counting from above; but there are degrees in blessedness, each spirit
+enjoying according to its capacity; no one is conscious of any lack.
+
+
+[2] The archangel Raphael.
+
+
+[3] The intellectual soul is united with the body as its substantial
+form. That by means of which anything performs its functions (operatur)
+is its form. The soul is that by which the body lives, and hence is its
+form.—Summa Theol., I. lxxvi. 1, 6, 7.
+
+
+[4] The belief in the influence of the stars led men to assign to them
+divine powers, and to name their gods after them.
+
+
+The other dubitation which disturbs thee has less venom, for its malice
+could not lead thee from me elsewhere. That our justice seems unjust in
+the eyes of mortals is argument of faith,[1] and not of heretical
+iniquity. But in order that your perception may surely penetrate unto
+this truth, I will make thee content, as thou desirest. Though there be
+violence when he who suffers nowise consents to him who compels, these
+souls were not by reason of that excused; for will, unless it wills, is
+not quenched,[2] but does as nature does in fire, though violence a
+thousand times may wrest it. Wherefore if it bend much or little, it
+follows the force; and thus these did, having power to return to the
+holy place. If their will had been entire, such as held Lawrence on the
+gridiron, and made Mucius severe unto his hand, it would have urged
+them back, so soon as they were loosed, along the road on which they
+had been dragged; but will so firm is too rare. And by these words, if
+thou hast gathered them up as thou shouldst, is the argument quashed
+that would have given thee annoy yet many times.
+
+[1] Mortals would not trouble themselves concerning the justice of God,
+unless they had faith in it. These perplexities are then arguments or
+proofs of faith; as St. Thomas Aquinas says, “The merit of faith
+consists in believing what one does not see.” But in this case, as
+Beatrice goes on to show, mere human intelligence if Sufficient to see
+that the injustice is only apparent.
+
+
+[2] Violence has no power over the will; the original will may,
+however, by act of will, be changed.
+
+
+“But now another path runs traverse before thine eyes, such that by
+thyself thou wouldst not issue forth therefrom ere thou wert weary. I
+have put it in thy mind for certain, that a soul in bliss cannot lie,
+since it is always near to the Primal Truth; and then thou hast heard
+from Piccarda that Constance retained affection for the veil; so that
+she seems in this to contradict me. Often ere now, brother, has it
+happened that, in order to escape peril, that which it was not meet to
+do has been done against one's liking; even as Alcmaeon (who thereto
+entreated by his father, slew his own mother), not to lose piety,
+pitiless became. On this point, I wish thee to think that the violence
+is mingled with the will, and they so act that the offences cannot be
+excused. Absolute will consents not to the wrong; but the will in so
+far consents thereto, as it fears, if it draw back, to fall into
+greater trouble. Therefore when Piccarda says that, she means it of the
+absolute will; and I of the other so that we both speak truth alike.”
+
+Such was the current of the holy stream which issued from the fount
+whence every truth flows forth; and such it set at rest one and the
+other desire.
+
+“O beloved of the First Lover, O divine one,” said I then, “whose
+speech inundates me, and warms me so that more and more it quickens me,
+my affection is not so profound that it can suffice to render to you
+grace for grace, but may He who sees and can, respond for this. I
+clearly see that our intellect is never satisfied unless the Truth
+illume it, outside of which no truth extends. In that it reposes, as a
+wild beast in his lair, soon as it has reached it: and it can reach it;
+otherwise every desire would be in vain. Because of this,[1] the doubt,
+in likeness of a shoot, springs up at the foot of the truth; and it is
+nature which urges us to the summit from height to height. This[2]
+invites me, this gives me assurance, Lady, with reverence to ask you of
+another truth which is obscure to me. I wish to know if man can make
+satisfaction to you[3] for defective vows with other goods, so that in
+your scales they may not be light?” looked at we with such divine eyes,
+full of the sparks of love, that my power, vanquished, turned its back,
+and almost I lost myself with eyes cast down.
+
+[1] Of this constant desire for truth.
+
+
+[2] This natural impulse.
+
+
+[3] To you, that is, to the court of Heaven.
+
+
+
+
+CANTO V.
+
+
+The sanctity of vows, and the seriousness with which they are to be
+made or changed.—Ascent to the Heaven of Mercury.—The shade of
+Justinian.
+
+
+“If I flame upon thee in the heat of love, beyond the fashion that on
+earth is seen, go that I vanquish the valor of thine eyes, marvel not,
+for it proceeds from perfect vision,[1] which according as it
+apprehends, so moves its feet to the apprehended good. I see clearly
+how already shines in thy intellect the eternal light, which, being
+seen, alone ever enkindles love. And if any other thing seduce your
+love, it is naught but some vestige of that, illrecognized, which
+therein shines through. Thou wishest to know if for a defective vow so
+much can be rendered with other service as may secure the soul from
+suit.”
+
+[1] From the brightness of my eyes illuminated by the divine light.
+
+
+Thus Beatrice began this canto, and even as one who breaks not off his
+speech, she thus continued her holy discourse. “The greatest gift which
+God in His largess bestowed in creating, and the most conformed unto
+His goodness and that which He esteems the most, was the freedom of the
+will, with which all the creatures of intelligence, and they alone,
+were and are endowed. Now will appear to thee, if from this thou
+reasonest, the high worth of the vow, if it be such that God consent
+when thou consentest;[1] for, in closing the compact between God and
+man, sacrifice is made of this treasure, which is such as I say, and it
+is made by its own act. What then can be rendered in compensation? If
+thou thinkest to make good use of that which thou hast offered, with
+illgotten gain thou wouldst do good work.[2]
+
+[1] If the vow be valid through its acceptance by God.
+
+
+[2] The intent to put what had been vowed to another (though good) use,
+affords no excuse for breaking a vow.
+
+
+“Thou art now assured of the greater point; but since Holy Church in
+this gives dispensation, which seems contrary to the truth which I have
+disclosed to thee, it behoves thee still to sit a little at table,
+because the tough food which thou hast taken requires still some aid
+for thy digestion. Open thy mind to that which I reveal to thee, and
+enclose it therewithin; for to have heard without retaining doth not
+make knowledge.
+
+“Two things combine in the essence of this sacrifice; the one is that
+of which it consists, the other is the covenant. This last is never
+cancelled if it be not kept; and concerning this has my preceding
+speech been so precise. On this account it was necessary for the
+Hebrews still to make offering, although some part of the offering
+might be changed, as thou shouldst know.[1] The other, which as the
+matter[2] is known to thee, may truly be such that one errs not if for
+some other matter it be changed. But let not any one shift the load
+upon his shoulder at his own will, without the turning both of the
+white and of the yellow key.[3] And let him deem every permutation
+foolish, if the thing laid down be not included in the thing taken up,
+as four in six.[4] Therefore whatever thing is, through its own worth,
+of such great weight that it can draw down every balance, cannot be
+made good with other spending.
+
+[1] See Leviticus, xxvii., in respect to commutation allowed.
+
+
+[2] That is, as the subject matter of the vow, the thing of which
+sacrifice is made.
+
+
+[3] Without the turning of the keys of St. Peter, that is, without
+clerical dispensation; the key of gold signifying authority, that of
+silver, knowledge. Cf. Purgatory, Canto IX.
+
+
+[4] The matter substituted must exceed in worth that of the original
+vow, but not necessarily in a definite proportion.
+
+
+“Let not mortals take a vow in jest; be faithful, and not squint-eyed
+in doing this, as Jephthah was in his first. offering;[1] to whom it
+better behoved to say, 'I have done ill,' than, by keeping his vow, to
+do worse. And thou mayest find the great leader of the Greeks in like
+manner foolish; wherefore Iphigenia wept for her fair face, and made
+weep for her both the simple and the wise, who heard speak of such like
+observance. Be, ye Christians, more grave in moving; be not like a
+feather on every wind, and think not that every water can wash you. Ye
+have the Old and the New Testament, and the Shepherd of the Church, who
+guides you; let this suffice you for your salvation. If evil
+covetousness cry aught else to you, be ye men, and not silly sheep, so
+that the Jew among you may not laugh at you. Act not like the lamb,
+that leaves the milk of his mother, and, simple and wanton, at its own
+pleasure combats with itself.”
+
+[1] See Judges, xi.
+
+
+Thus Beatrice to me, even as I write; then all desireful turned herself
+again to that region where the world is most alive.[1] Her silence, and
+her transmuted countenance imposed silence on my eager mind, which
+already had new questions in advance. And even as an arrow, that hits
+the mark before the bowstring is quiet, so we ran into the second
+realm.[2] Here I saw my lady so joyous as she entered into the light of
+that heaven, that thereby the planet became more lucent. And if the
+star war, changed and smiled, what did I become, who even by my nature
+am transmutable in every wise!
+
+[1] Looking upward, toward the Empyrean.
+
+
+[2] The Heaven of Mercury, where blessed spirits who have been active
+in the pursuit of honor and fame show themselves.
+
+
+As in a fishpond, which is tranquil and pure, the fish draw to that
+which comes from without in such manner that they deem. it their food,
+so indeed I saw more than a thousand splendors drawing toward. us, and
+in each one was heard,—“Lo, one who shall increase our loves!”[1] And
+as each came to us, the shade was seen full of joy in the bright
+effulgence that issued from it.
+
+[1] By giving us occasion to manifest our love.
+
+
+Think, Reader, if that which is here begun should not proceed, how thou
+wouldst have distressful want of knowing more; and by thyself thou wilt
+see how desirous I was to hear from these of their conditions, as they
+became manifest to mine eyes. “O well-born,[1] to whom Grace concedes
+to see the thrones of the eternal triumph ere the warfare is
+abandoned,[2] with the light which spreads through the whole heaven we
+are enkindled, and therefore if thou desirest to make thyself clear
+concerning us, at thine own pleasure sate thyself.” Thus was said to me
+by one of those pious spirits; and by Beatrice, “Speak, speak securely,
+and trust even as to gods.” “I see clearly, how thou dost nest thyself
+in thine ownlight, and that by thine eyes thou drawest it, because they
+sparkle when thou smilest; but I know not who thou art, nor why thou
+hast, O worthy soul, thy station in the sphere which is veiled to
+mortals by another's rays.”[3] This I said, addressed unto the light
+which first had spoken to me; whereon it became more lucent far than it
+had been. Even as the sun, which, when the heat has consumed the
+tempering of dense vapors, conceals itself by excess of light, so,
+through greater joy, the holy shape bid itself from me within its own
+radiance, and thus close enclosed, it answered me in the fashion that
+the following canto sings.
+
+[1] That is, born to good, to attain blessedness.
+
+
+[2] Ere thy life on earth, as a member of the Church Militant, is
+ended.
+
+
+[3] Mercury is veiled by the Sun.
+
+
+
+
+CANTO VI.
+
+
+Justinian tells of his own life.—The story of the Roman Eagle.—Spirits
+in the planet Mercury.—Romeo.
+
+
+After Constantine turned the Eagle counter to the course of the heavens
+which it had followed behind the ancient who took to wife Lavinia,[1] a
+hundred and a hundred years and more[2] the bird of God held itself on
+the verge of Europe, near to the Mountains[3] from which it first came
+forth, and there governed the world beneath the shadow of the sacred
+wings, from hand to hand, and thus changing, unto mine own arrived.
+Caesar I was,[4] and am Justinian, who, through will of the primal Love
+which I feel, drew out from among the laws what was superfluous and
+vain.[5] And before I was intent on this work, I believed one nature to
+be in Christ, not more,[6] and with such faith was content. But the
+blessed Agapetus, who was the supreme pastor, directed me to the pure
+faith with his words. I believed him; and that which was in his faith I
+now see clearly, even as thou seest every contradiction to be both
+false and true.[7] Soon as with the Church I moved my feet, it pleased
+God, through grace, to inspire me with the high labor, and I gave
+myself wholly to it. And I entrusted my armies to my Belisarius, to
+whom the right hand of Heaven was so joined that it was a sign that I
+should take repose.
+
+[1] Constantine, transferring the seat of Empire from Rome to
+Byzantium, carried the Eagle from West to East, counter to the course
+along which Aeneas had borne it when he went from Troy to found the
+Roman Empire.
+
+
+[2] From A. D. 324, when the transfer was begun, to 527, when Justinian
+became Emperor.
+
+
+[3] Of the Troad, opposite Byzantium.
+
+
+[4] On earth Emperor, but in Heaven earthly dignities exist no longer.
+
+
+[5] The allusion is to Justinian's codification of the Roman Law.
+
+
+[6] The divine nature only. Dante here follows Brunetto Latini (Li
+Tresor, I. ii. 87) in an historical error.
+
+
+[7] Of the two terms of a contradictory proposition one is true, the
+other false.
+
+
+“Now here to the first question my answer comes to the stop; but its
+nature constrains me to add a sequel to it, in order that thou mayst
+see with how much reason[1] move against the ensign sacrosanct, both he
+who appropriates it to himself,[2] and he who opposes himself to it.[3]
+See how great virtue has made it worthy of reverence,” and he began
+from the hour when Pallas[4] died to give it a kingdom. “Thou knowest
+it made in Alba its abode for three hundred years and move, till at the
+end the three fought with the three[4] for its sake still. And thou
+knowest what it did, from the wrong of the Sabine women clown to the
+sorrow of Lucretia, in seven kings, conquering the neighboring peoples
+round about. Thou knowest what it did when borne by the illustrious
+Romans against Brennus, against Pyrrhus, and against the other chiefs
+and allies; whereby Torquatus, and Quinctius who was named from his
+neglected locks, the Decii and the Fabii acquired the fame which
+willingly I embalm. It struck to earth the pride of the Arabs, who,
+following Hannibal, passed the Alpine rocks from which thou, Po,
+glidest. Beneath it, in their youth, Scipio and Pompey triumphed, and
+to that hill beneath which thou wast born, it seemed bitter.[5] Then,
+near the time when all Heaven willed to bring the world to its own
+serene mood, Caesar by the will of Rome took it: and what it did from
+the Var even to the Rhine, the Isere beheld, and the Saone, and the
+Seine beheld, and every valley whence the Rhone is filled. What
+afterward it did when it came forth from Ravenna, and leaped the
+Rubicon, was of such flight that neither tongue nor pen could follow
+it. Toward Spain it wheeled its troop; then toward Dyrrachium, and
+smote Pharsalia so that to the warm Nile the pain was felt. It saw
+again Antandros and Simois, whence it set forth, and there where Hector
+lies; and ill for Ptolemy then it shook itself. Thence it swooped
+flashing down on Juba; then wheeled again unto your west, where it
+heard the Pompeian trumpet. Of what it did with the next
+standard-bearer,[7] Bruttis and Cassius are barking in Hell; and it
+made Modena and Perugia woful. Still does the sad Cleopatra weep
+therefor, who, fleeing before it, took from the asp sudden and black
+death. With him it ran far as the Red Sea shore; with him it set the
+world in peace so great that on Janus his temple was locked up. But
+what the ensign which makes me speak had done before, and after was to
+do, through the mortal realm that is subject to it, becomes in
+appearance little and obscure, if in the hand of the third Caesar[8] it
+be looked at with clear eye, and with pure affection. For the living
+Justice which inspires me granted to it, in the hand of him of whom I
+speak, the glory of doing vengeance for Its own ire[9]—now marvel here
+at that which I unfold to thee,—then with Titus it ran to do vengeance
+for the avenging of the ancient sin.[2] And when the Lombard tooth bit
+the Holy Church, under its wings Charlemagne, conquering, succored her.
+
+[1] Ironical. The meaning is, “how wrongly.”
+
+
+[2] The Ghibelline.
+
+
+[3] The Guelph.
+
+
+[4] Son of Evander, King of Latium, sent by his father to aid Aeneas.
+His death in battle against Turnus led to that of Turnus himself, and
+to the possession of the Latian kingdom by Aeneas.
+
+
+[5] The Horatii and Curiatii.
+
+
+[6] According to popular tradition Fiesole was destroyed by the Romans
+after the defeat of Catiline.
+
+
+[7] Augustus.
+
+
+[8] Tiberius.
+
+
+[9] It was under the authority of Rome that Christ was crucified,
+whereby the sin of Adam. was avenged.
+
+
+[10] Vengeance was taken on the Jews, because although the death of
+Christ was divinely ordained, their crime in it was none the less.
+
+
+“Now canst thou judge of such as those whom I accused above, and of
+their crimes, which are the cause of all your ills. To the public
+ensign one opposes the yellow lilies,[1] and the other appropriates it
+to a party, so that it is hard to see which is most at fault. Let the
+Ghibellines practice, let them practice their art under another ensign,
+for he ever follows it ill who parts justice and it. And let not this
+new Charles[2] strike it down with his Guelphs, but let him fear its
+talons, which from a loftier lion have stripped the fell. Often ere now
+the sons have wept for the sin of the father; and let him not believe
+that for his lilies Goa win change His arms.
+
+[1] The fleur-de-lys of France.
+
+
+[2] Charles II., King of Apulia, son of Charles of Anjou.
+
+
+“This little star is furnished with good spirits who have been active
+in order that honor and fame may follow them. And when the desires thus
+straying mount here, it must needs be that the rays of the true love
+mount upward less living.[1] But in the commeasuring of our wages with
+our desert is part of our joy, because we see them neither less nor
+greater. Hereby the living Justice so sweetens the affection in us,
+that it can never be bent aside to any wrong. Diverse voices make sweet
+notes; thus in our life diverse benches[2] render sweet harmony among
+these wheels.
+
+[1] The desire for fame interferes with, though it may not wholly
+prevent, the true love of God.
+
+
+[2] The different grades of the blessed.
+
+
+“And within the present pearl shines the light of Romeo, whose great
+and beautiful work was ill rewarded. But the Provencals who wrought
+against him are not smiling; and forsooth he goes an ill road who makes
+harm for himself of another's good deed.[1] Four daughters, and each a
+queen, had Raymond Berenger, and Romeo, a humble person and a pilgrim,
+did this[2] for him. And then crooked words moved him to demand a
+reckoning of this just man, who rendered to him seven and five for ten.
+Then he departed, poor and old, and if the world but knew the heart he
+had, while begging his livelihood bit by bit, much as it lauds him it
+would laud him more.”
+
+[1] According to Giovanni Villani (vi. 90), one Romeo, a pilgrim, came
+to the court of Raymond Berenger IV., Count of Provence (who died, in
+1245), and winning the count's favor, served him with such wisdom and
+fidelity that by his means his master's revenues were greatly
+increased, and his four daughters married to four kings,—Margaret, to
+Louis IX. of France, St. Louis; Eleanor, to Henry III. of England;
+Sanzia, to Richard, Earl of Cornwall (brother of Henry III.), elected
+King of the Romans; and Beatrice, to Charles of Anjou (brother of Louis
+IX.), King of Apulia and Sicily. The Provencal nobles, jealous of
+Romeo, procured his dismissal, and he departed, with his mule and his
+pilgrim's staff and scrip, and was never seen more.
+
+
+[2] The making each a queen.
+
+
+
+
+CANTO VII.
+
+
+Discourse of Beatrice.—The Fall of Man.—The scheme of his Redemption.
+
+
+“Osanna sanctus Deus Sabaoth, superillustrans claritate tua felices
+ignes horum malacoth!”[1]—thus, turning to its own melody, this
+substance,[2] upon which a double light is twinned,[3] was seen by me
+to sing. And it and the others moved with their dance, and like
+swiftest sparks veiled themselves to me with sudden distance. I was in
+doubt, and was saying to myself, “Tell her, tell her,” I was saying,
+“tell her, my Lady, who slakes my thirst with her sweet distillings;”
+but that reverence which lords it altogether over me, only by BE and by
+ICE,[4] bowed me again like one who drowses. Little did Beatrice endure
+me thus, and she began, irradiating me with a smile such as would make
+a man in the fire happy, “According to my infallible advisement, how a
+just vengeance could be justly avenged has set thee thinking. But I
+will quickly loose thy mind: and do thou listen, for my words will make
+thee a present of a great doctrine.
+
+[1] “Hosanna! Holy God of Sabaoth, beaming with thy brightness upon the
+blessed fires of these realms.”
+
+
+[2] Substance, as a scholastic term, signifies a being subsisting by
+itself with a quality of its own. “Substantiae nomen significat
+essentiam cui competit sic esse, id est per se esse; quod tamen esse
+non est ipsa ejus essentia.”—Summa Theol. I. iii. 5.
+
+
+[3] The double light of Emperor and compiler of the Laws.
+
+
+[4] Only by the sound of her name.
+
+
+“By not enduring for his own good a curb upon the power which wills,
+that man who was not born,—damning himself, damned all his offspring;
+wherefore the human race lay sick below for many centuries, in great
+error, till it pleased the Word of God to descend where He, by the sole
+act of His eternal love, united with Himself in person the nature which
+had. removed itself from its Maker.
+
+“Now direct thy sight to the discourse which follows. This nature,
+united with its Maker, became sincere and good, as it had been created;
+but by itself it had been banished from Paradise, because it turned
+aside from the way of truth and from its own life. The punishment
+therefore which the cross afforded, if it be measured by the nature
+assumed, none ever so justly stung; and, likewise, none was ever of
+such great wrong, regarding the Person who suffered, with whom this
+nature was united. Therefore from one act issued things diverse; for
+unto God and unto the Jews one death was pleasing: by it earth trembled
+and the heavens were opened. No more henceforth ought it to seem
+perplexing to thee, when it is said that a just vengeance was afterward
+avenged by a just court,
+
+“But I see now thy mind tied up, from thought to thought, within a knot
+the loosing of which is awaited with great desire, Thou sayest, 'I
+discern clearly that which I bear; but it is occult to we why God
+should will only this mode for our redemption.' This decree, brother,
+stands buried to the eyes of every one whose wit is not full grown in
+the flame of love. Truly, inasmuch as on this mark there is much
+gazing, and little is discerned, I will tell why such mode was most
+worthy. The Divine Goodness, which from Itself spurns all rancor,
+burning in Itself so sparkles that It displays the eternal beauties.
+That which distils immediately[1] from It, thereafter has no end, for
+when It seals, Its imprint is not removed. That which from It
+immediately rains down is wholly free, because it is not subject unto
+the power of the new things.[2] It is the most conformed to It, and
+therefore pleases It the most; for the Holy Ardor which irradiates
+every thing is most living in what is most resemblance to Itself. With
+all these things[3] the human creature is advantaged, and if one fail,
+he needs must fall from his nobility. Sin alone is that which
+disfranchises him, and makes him unlike the Supreme Good, so that by
+Its light he is little illumined. And to his dignity he never returns,
+unless, where sin makes void, he fill up for evil pleasures with just
+penalties. Your nature, when it sinned totally in its seed,[4] was
+removed from these dignities, even as from Paradise; nor could they be
+recovered, if thou considerest full subtly, by any way, without passing
+by one of these fords:—either that God alone by His courtesy should
+forgive, or that man by himself should make satisfaction for his folly.
+Fix now thine eye within the abyss of the eternal counsel, fixed as
+closely on my speech as thou art able. Man within his own limits could
+never make satisfaction, through not being able to descend so far with
+humility in subsequent obedience, as disobeying he intended to ascend;
+and this is the reason why man was excluded from power to make
+satisfaction by himself. Therefore it behoved God by His own paths[5]
+to restore man to his entire life, I mean by one, or else by both. But
+because the work of the workman is so much the more pleasing, the more
+it represents of the goodness of the heart whence it issues, the Divine
+Goodness which imprints the world was content to proceed by all Its
+paths to lift you up again; nor between the last night and the first
+day has there been or will there be so lofty and so magnificent a
+procedure either by one or by the other; for God was more liberal in
+giving Himself to make man sufficient to lift himself up again, than if
+only of Himself He had pardoned him. And all the other modes were
+scanty in respect to justice, if the Son of God had not humbled himself
+to become incarnate.
+
+[1] Without the intervention of a second cause.
+
+
+[2] That is, of the heavens, new as compared with the First Cause.
+
+
+[3] That is, with immediate creation, with immortality, with free will,
+with likeness to God, and the love of God for it.
+
+
+[4] Adam.
+
+
+[5] “All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth.”—Psalm xxv. 10.
+Truth may be here interpreted, according to St. Thomas Aquinas, as
+justice.
+
+
+“Now to fill completely every desire of thine, I return to a certain
+place to clear it up, in order that thou mayest see there even, as I
+do. Thou sayest, 'I see the water, I see the fire, the air; and the
+earth, and all their mixtures come to corruption, and endure short
+while, and yet these things were created;' so that, if what I have said
+has been true, they ought to be secure against corruption. The Angels,
+brother, and the sincere[1] country in which thou art, may be called
+created, even as they are, in their entire being; but the elements
+which thou hast named, and those things which are made of them, are
+informed by a created power.[2] The matter of which they consist was
+created; the informing power in these stars which go round about them
+was created. The ray and the motion of the holy lights draw out from
+its potential elements[3] the soul of every brute and of the plants;
+but the Supreme Benignity inspires your life without intermediary, and
+enamors it of Itself so that ever after it desires It. And hence[4]
+thou canst argue further your resurrection, if thou refleetest bow the
+human flesh was made when the first parents were both made.”
+
+[1] Sincere is here used in the sense of incorruptible, or perhaps
+unspoiled,—the quality of the Heavens as contrasted with the Earth.
+
+
+[2] The elements axe informed, that is, receive their specific being
+not immediately from Goa, but mediately through the informing
+Intelligences.
+
+
+[3] Literally, “from the potentiate mingling,” that is, from the matter
+endowed with the potentiality of becoming informed by the vegetative
+and the sensitive soul.
+
+
+[4] From the principle that what proceeds immediately from Goa is
+immortal.
+
+
+
+
+CANTO VIII.
+
+
+Ascent to the Heaven of Venus.—Spirits of Lovers, Source of the order
+and the varieties in mortal things.
+
+
+The world in its peril[1] was wont to believe that the beautiful
+Cypriote[2] revolving in the third epicycle rayed out mad love;
+wherefore the ancient people in their ancient error not only unto her
+did honor with sacrifice and with votive cry, but they honored Dione[3]
+also and Cupid, the one as her mother, the other as her son, and they
+said that he had sat in Dido's lap[4] And from her, from whom I take my
+beginning, they took the name of the star which the sun wooes, now at
+her back now at her front.[5] I was not aware of the ascent to it; but
+of being in it, my Lady, whom I saw become more beautiful, gave me full
+assurance.
+
+[1] In heathen times.
+
+
+[2] Venus, so called from her birth in Cyprus.
+
+
+[3] Dione, daughter of Oceanus and Thetis, mother of Venus.
+
+
+[4] Under the form of Ascanius, as Virgil tells in the first book of
+the Aeneid.
+
+
+[5] According as it is morning or evening star.
+
+
+And even as in a flame a spark is seen, and as voice from voice is
+distinguished when one is steady and the other goes and returns, I saw
+in that light other lamps moving in a circle more and less rapidly, in
+the measure, I believe, of their inward vision. From a cold cloud winds
+never descended, or visible or not, go swift, that they would not seem
+impeded and slow to him who had seen these divine lights coming to us,
+leaving the circling begun first among the high Seraphim. And within
+those who appeared most in front was sounding HOSANNA, so that never
+since have I been without desire of hearing it again. Then one came
+nearer to us, and alone began, “We all are ready to thy pleasure, that
+thou mayest joy in us. With one circle, with one circling, and with one
+thirst,[1] we revolve with the celestial Princes,[2] to whom thou in
+the world once said: 'Ye who intelligent move the third heaven;' and we
+are so full of love that, to please thee, a little quiet will not be
+less sweet to us.”
+
+[1] One circle in space, one circling in eternity, one thirst for the
+vision of God.
+
+
+[2] The third in ascending order of the hierarchy of the Angels,
+corresponding with the heaven of Venus.
+
+
+After my eyes had offered themselves reverently to my Lady, and she had
+of herself made them contented and assured, they turned again to the
+light which had promised so much; and, “Tell who ye are,” was my
+utterance, stamped with great affection. And how much greater alike in
+quantity and quality did I see it become, through the new gladness
+which was added to its gladnesses when I spoke! Become thus, it said to
+me,[1] “The world had me below short while; and had it been longer much
+evil had not been which will be. My joy which rays around me, and hides
+me like a creature swathed in its own silk, holds me concealed from
+thee. Much didst thou love me, and thou hadst good reason; for had I
+stayed below I had showed thee of my love far more than the leaves.
+That left bank which is bathed by the Rhone, after it has mingled with
+the Sorgue, awaited me in due time for its lord;[2] and that born of
+Ansonia[3] which is towned with Bari, with Gaeta, and with Catona,[4]
+whence the Tronto and the Verde disgorge into the sea. Already was
+shining on my brow the crown of that land which the Danube waters after
+it abandons its German banks;[5] and the fair Trinacria[6] (which is
+darkened, not by Typhoeus but by nascent sulphur, on the gulf between
+Pachynus and Pelorus which receives greatest annoy from Eurus[7]) would
+be still awaiting its kings descended through me from Charles and
+Rudolph,[8] if evil rule, which always embitters the subject people,
+had not moved Palermo to shout, 'Die! Die!'[9] And if my brother had
+taken note of this,[10] he would already put to flight the greedy
+poverty of Catalonia, in order that it might not do him harm: for truly
+there is need for him or for some other to look to it, so that on his
+laden bark more load be not put. His own nature, which descended
+niggardly from a liberal one, would have need of such a soldiery as
+should not care to put into a chest.”[11]
+
+[1] It is Charles Martel, son of Charles II. of Naples, who speaks. He
+was born about 1270, and in 1294 he was at Florence for more than
+twenty days, and at this time may have become acquainted with Dante.
+Great honor was done him by the Florentines, and he showed great love
+to them, so that he won favor from everybody, says Villani. He died in
+1295.
+
+
+[2] Charles of Anjou, grandfather of Charles Martel, had received this
+part of Provence as dowry of his wife Beatrice, the youngest daughter
+of Raymond Berenger.
+
+
+[3] A name for Italy, used only by the poets.
+
+
+[4] Bari on the Adriatic, Gaeta on the Mediterranean, and Catons at the
+too of Italy, together with the two rivers named, give roughly the
+boundaries of the Kingdom of Naples.
+
+
+[5] The mother of Charles Martel was sister of Ladislaus IV., King of
+Hungary. He died without offspring, and Charles II. claimed the kingdom
+by right of his wife.
+
+
+[6] Sicily; the gulf darkened by sulphurous fumes is the Bay of
+Calabria, which lies exposed to Eurus, that is, to winds from the
+south-east.
+
+
+[7] The sea between Cape Pachynus, the extreme southeastern point of
+the island, and Cape Pelorus, the extreme northeastern, lies exposed to
+the violence of Eurus or the East wind. Clouds of smoke from Etna
+sometimes darken it. The eruptions of Etna were ascribed by Ovid
+(Metam. v., 346-353) to the struggles of Typhoeus, one of the
+rebellious Giants. Ovid's verses suggested this description.
+
+
+[8] From his father, Charles H., or his grandfather, Charles of Anjou,
+and from the Emperor Rudolph of Hapsburg, who was the father of
+Clemence, Charles Martel's wife.
+
+
+[9] By the insurrection which began at Palermo in 1282,—the famous
+Sicilian Vespers,—the French were driven from the island.
+
+
+[10] This brother was Robert, the third son of Charles II. He had been
+kept as a hostage in Catalonia from 1288 to 1295, and when he became
+King of Naples in 1309 he introduced into his service many Catalonian
+officials. The words of Charles Martel are prophetic of the evils
+wrought by their greed.
+
+
+[11] Officials who would not, by oppression of the subjects, seek their
+private gain.
+
+
+“Because I believe that the deep joy which thy speech, my lord, infuses
+in me is seen by thee there where every good ends and begins[1] even as
+I see it in myself, it is the more grateful to me; and this also I hold
+dear, that thou discernest it, gazing upon God.[2] Thou hast made me
+glad; and in like wise do thou make clear to me (since in speaking thou
+bast moved me to doubt) how bitter can issue from sweet seed.” This I
+to him; and he to me, “If I am able to show to thee a truth, thou wilt
+hold thy face to that which thou askest, as thou dost hold thy back.
+The Good which turns and contents all the realm which thou ascendest,
+makes its providence to be a power in these great bodies.[3] And not
+the natures only are foreseen in the Mind which by itself is perfect,
+but they together with their salvation.[4] For whatsoever this bow
+shoots falls disposed to its foreseen end, even as a thing directed to
+its aim. Were this not so, the heavens through which thou journeyest
+would produce their effects in such wise that they would not be works
+of art but ruins; and that cannot be, if the Intelligences which move
+these stars are not defective, and defective also the prime
+Intelligence which has not made them perfect.[5] Dost thou wish that
+this truth be made still clearer to thee?” And I, “No, truly; because I
+see it to be impossible that Nature should weary in that which is
+needful.”[6] Whereupon he again, “Now say, would it be worse for man on
+earth if he were not a citizen?”[7] “Yes,” answered I, “and here I ask
+not the reason.”[8] “And can he be so, unless he live there below in
+divers manner through divers offices?[9] No; if your master[10] writes
+well of this.” So he went on deducing far as here; then he concluded,
+“Hence it behoves that the roots of your works must be diverse.[11]
+Wherefore one is born Solon, and another Xerxes, another Melchisedech,
+and another he who, flying through the air, lost his son. The revolving
+nature, which is the seal of the mortal wax, performs its art well, but
+does not distinguish one inn from another.[12] Hence it happens that
+Esau differs in seed from Jacob, and Quirinus comes from so mean a
+father that he is ascribed to Mars. The generated nature would always
+make its path like its progenitors, if the divine foresight did not
+conquer. Now that which was behind thee is before thee, but that thou
+mayest know that I have joy in thee, I wish that thou cloak thee with a
+corollary.[13] Nature, if she find fortune discordant with herself,
+like every other seed out of its region, always makes bad result. And
+if the world down there would fix attention on the foundation which
+nature lays, following that, it would have its people good. But ye
+wrest to religion one who shall be born to gird on the sword, and ye
+make a king of one who is for preaching; wherefore your track is out of
+the road.”
+
+[1] Is seen in the mind of God.
+
+
+[2] My own joy is the dearer in that thou seest that it is more
+grateful to me because known by thee.
+
+
+[3] The providence of God is fulfilled through the influences of the
+Heavens acting upon the natures subject to them.
+
+
+[4] That is, together with the good ends for which they are created and
+ordained.
+
+
+[5] Defect in the subordinate Intelligences would imply defect in God,
+which is impossible.
+
+
+[6] It is impossible that the order of nature should fail, that order
+being the design of God in creation.
+
+
+[7] That is, united with other men in society.
+
+
+[8] Because man is by nature a social animal, and cannot attain his
+true end except as a member of a community.
+
+
+[9] Society cannot exist without diversity in the functions of its
+members.
+
+
+[10] Aristotle, “the master of human reason, who treats of this in many
+places, for instance in his Ethics, i. 7, where he speaks of man as “by
+nature social,” so that his end is accomplished only in society.
+
+
+[11] Human dispositions, the roots of human works, must be diverse in
+order to produce diverse effects.
+
+
+[12] The spheres pour down their various influences without
+discrimination in the choice of the individual upon whom they fall.
+Hence sons may differ in their dispositions from their fathers.
+
+
+[13] This additional statement completes the instruction, as a cloak
+completes the clothing of a body.
+
+
+
+
+CANTO IX.
+
+
+The Heaven of Venus.—Conversation of Dante with Cunizza da Romano,—With
+Folco of Marseilles.—Rahab.—Avarice of the Papal Court.
+
+
+After thy Charles, O beautiful Clemence,[1] had enlightened me, he told
+to me of the treasons which his seed must suffer. But he said, “Be
+silent, and let the years revolve:” so that I can tell nothing, save
+that just lament shall follow on your wrongs.[2]
+
+[1] The widow of Charles Martel.
+
+
+[2] Those who have done the wrong shall justly lament therefor.
+
+
+And now the life of that holy light had turned again unto the Sun which
+fills it, as that Good which suffices for every thing. Ah, souls
+deceived, and creatures impious, who from such Good turn away your
+hearts, directing your foreheads unto vanity!
+
+And lo! another of those splendors made towards me, and in brightening
+outwardly was signifying its will to please me. The eyes of Beatrice,
+which were fixed upon me, as before, made me assured of dear assent to
+my desire. “I pray thee give swift quittance to my wish, blessed
+spirit,” I said, “and afford me proof that what think I can reflect on
+thee.”[1] Whereon the light which was still new[2] to me, from out its
+depth, wherein erst it was singing, proceeded, as one whom doing good
+delights, “In that part[3] of the wicked Italian land, which lies
+between Rialto and the founts of the Brenta and the Piave, rises a
+hill,[4] and mounts not very high, whence a torch descended which made
+a great assault upon that district. From one root both I and it were
+born; Cunizza was I called; and I am refulgent here because the light
+of this star overcame me. But gladly do I pardon to myself the cause of
+my lot, and it gives me no annoy;[5] which perhaps would seem difficult
+to your vulgar. Of this resplendent and dear jewel of our kingdom,[6]
+who is nearest to me, great fame has remained, and ere it die away this
+hundredth year shall yet come round five times. See if man ought to
+make himself excellent, so that the first may leave another life! And
+this the present crowd, which the Tagliameuto and the Adige shut in,[7]
+considers not; nor yet by being scourged doth it repent. But it will
+soon come to pass that at the marsh Padua will discolor the water which
+bathes Vicenza, because her people are stubborn against duty.[8] And
+where the Sile and the Cagnano unite, one lords it, and goes with his
+head high, for catching whom the web is already spun.[9] Feltro will
+yet weep the crime of its impious shepherd, which will be so shameful,
+that, for a like, none ever entered Malta.[10] Too large would be the
+vat which would hold the Ferrarese blood, and weary he who should weigh
+it, ounce by ounce, which this courteous priest will give to show
+himself a partisan;[11] and such gifts will be conformed to the living
+of the country. Above are mirrors, ye call them Thrones,[12] wherefrom
+God shines on us in his judgments, so that these words seem good to
+us.”[13] Here she was silent, and had to me the semblance of being
+turned elsewhither by the wheel in which she set herself as she was
+before.[14]
+
+[1] That thou, gazing on the mind of God, seest therein my thoughts.
+
+
+[2] Still unknown by name.
+
+
+[3] The March of Treviso, lying between Venice (Rialto) and the Alps.
+
+
+[4] The hill on which stood the little stronghold of Romano, the
+birthplace of the tyrant Azzolino, or Ezzolino, whom Dante had seen in
+Hell (Canto XII.) punished for his cruel misdeeds, in the river of
+boiling blood. Cunizza was his sister.
+
+
+[5] The sin which has limited the capacity of bliss, the sin which has
+determined the low grade in Paradise of Cunizza, is forgiven and
+forgotten, and she, like Piccarda, wishes only for that blessedness
+which she has.
+
+
+[6] Folco, or Foulquet, of Marseilles, once a famous singer of songs of
+love, then a bishop. He died in 1213.
+
+
+[7] The people of the region where Cunizza lived.
+
+
+[8] The Paduan Guelphs, resisting the Emperor, to whom they owed duty,
+were defeated more than once, near Vicenza, by Can Grande, during the
+years in which Dante was writing his poem.
+
+
+[9] The Sile and the Cagnano unite at Treviso, whose lord, Ricciardo da
+Camino, was assassinated in 1312.
+
+
+[10] An act of treachery on the part of the Bishop and Lord of Feltro,
+Alessandro Novello, in delivering up Ghibelline exiles from Ferrara, of
+whom thirty were beheaded; a treason so vile that in the tower called
+Malta, where ecclesiastics who committed capital crimes were
+imprisoned, no such crime as his was ever punished.
+
+
+[11] That is, of the Guelphs, by whom the designation of The Party was
+appropriated.
+
+
+[12] The Thrones were, according to St. Gregory, that order of Angels
+through whom God executes his judgments.
+
+
+[13] Because we see reflected from the Thrones the judgment of God
+above to fall on the guilty.
+
+
+[14] See Canto VIII., near the beginning.
+
+
+The next joy, which was already known to me as an illustrious thing,[1]
+became to my sight like a fine ruby whereon the sun should strike.
+Through joy effulgence is gained there on high, even as a smile here;
+but below[2] the shade darkens outwardly, as the mind is sad.
+
+[1] By the words of Cunizza.
+
+
+[2] In Hell.
+
+
+“God sees everything, and thy vision, blessed spirit, is in Him,” said
+I, “so that no wish can steal itself away from thee. Thy voice, then,
+that ever charms the heavens, with the song of those pious fires which
+make a cowl for themselves with their six wings,[1] why does it not
+satisfy my desires? Surely I should not wait for thy request if I
+in-theed myself, as thou thyself in-meest.”[2] “The greatest deep in
+which the water spreads,”[3] began then his words, “except of that sea
+which garlands the earth, between its discordant shores stretches so
+far counter to the sun, that it makes a meridian where first it was
+wont to make the horizon.[4] I was a dweller on the shore of that deep,
+between the Ebro and the Magra,[5] which, for a short way, divides the
+Genoese from the Tuscan. With almost the same sunset and the same
+sunrise sit Buggea and the city whence I was, which once made its
+harbor warm with its own blood.[6] That people to whom my name was
+known called me Folco, and this heaven is imprinted by me, as I was by
+it. For the daughter of Belus,[7] harmful alike to Sichaeus and Creusa,
+burned not more than I, so long as it befitted my hair;[8] nor she of
+Rhodopea who was deluded by Demophoon;[9] nor Alcides when he had
+enclosed Iole in his heart.[10] Yet one repents not here, but smiles,
+not for the fault which returns not to the memory, but for the power
+which ordained and foresaw. Here one gazes upon the art which adorns so
+great a work, and the good is discerned whereby the world above turns
+that below.
+
+[1] The Seraphim, who with their wings cover their faces. See Isaiah,
+vi. 2.
+
+
+[2] If I saw thee inwardly as thou seest me. Dante invents the words he
+uses here, and they are no less unfamiliar in Italian than in English.
+
+
+[3] The Mediterranean.
+
+
+[4] According to the geography of the time the Mediterranean stretched
+from east to west ninety degrees of longitude.
+
+
+[5] Between the Ebro in Spain and the Magra in Italy lies Marseilles,
+under almost the same meridian as Buggea (now Bougie) on the African
+coast.
+
+
+[6] When the fleet of Caesar defeated that of Pompey with its
+contingent of vessels and soldiers of Marseilles, B. C. 49.
+
+
+[7] Dido.
+
+
+[8] Till my hair grew thin and gray.
+
+
+[9] Phyllis, daughter of the king of Thrace, who hung herself when
+deserted by Demophoon, the son of Theseus.
+
+
+[10] The excess of the love of Hercules for Iole led to his death.
+
+
+“But in order that thou mayst bear away satisfied all thy wishes which
+have been born in this sphere, it behoves me to proceed still further.
+Thou wouldst know who is in this light, which beside me here so
+sparkles, as a sunbeam on clear water. Now know that therewithin
+Rahab[1] is at rest, and being joined with our order it is sealed by
+her in the supreme degree. By this heaven in which the shadow that your
+world makes comes to a point[2] she was taken up before any other soul
+at the triumph of Christ. It was well befitting to leave her in some
+heaven, as a palm of the high victory which was won with the two
+hands,[3] because she aided the first glory of Joshua within the Holy
+Land, which little touches the memory of the Pope.
+
+[1] “By faith the harlot Rabab perished not with them that believed
+not.”—Hebrews, xi. 31. See Joshua, ii. 1-21; vi. 17; James, ii. 25.
+
+
+[2] The conical shadow of the earth ended, according to Ptolemy, at the
+heaven of Venus. Philalethes suggests that there may be here an
+allegorical meaning, the shadow of the earth being shown in feebleness
+of will, worldly ambition, and inordinate love, which have allotted the
+souls who appear in these first heavens to the lowest grades in
+Paradise.
+
+
+[3] Nailed to the cross. The glory of Joshua was the winning of the
+Holy Land for the inheritance of the children of Israel.
+
+
+“Thy city, which is plant of him who first turned his back on his
+Maker, and whose envy[1] has been so bewept, produces and scatters the
+accursed flower[2] which has led astray the sheep and the lambs,
+because it has made a wolf of the shepherd. For this the Gospel and the
+great Doctors are deserted, and there is study only of the
+Decretals,[3] as is apparent by their margins. On this the Pope and the
+Cardinals are intent; their thoughts go not to Nazareth, there where
+Gabriel spread his wings. But the Vatican, and the other elect parts of
+Rome, which have been the burial place for the soldiery that followed
+Peter, shall soon be free from this adultery.”[4]
+
+[1] “Through envy of the devil came death into the world.”—Wisdom of
+Solomon, ii. 24.
+
+
+[2] The lily on its florin.
+
+
+[3] The books of the Ecclesiastical Law.
+
+
+[4] By the removal in 1305 of the Papal Court to Avignon.
+
+
+
+
+CANTO X.
+
+
+Ascent to the Sun.—Spirits of the wise, and the learned in
+theology.—St. Thomas Aquinas.—He names to Dante those who surround him.
+
+
+Looking upon His Son with the Love which the one and the other
+eternally breathe forth, the Primal and Ineffable Power made everything
+which revolves through the mind or through space with such order that
+he who contemplates it cannot be without taste of Him.[1] Lift then thy
+sight, Reader, with me to the lofty wheels, straight to that region
+where the one motion strikes on the other;[2] and there begin to gaze
+with delight on the art of that Master who within Himself so loves it
+that His eye never departs from it. See how from that point the oblique
+circle which bears the planets[3] branches off, to satisfy the world
+which calls on them;[4] and if their road had not been bent, much
+virtue in the heavens would be in vain, and well-nigh every potency
+dead here below.[5] And if from the straight line its departure had
+been more or less distant, much of the order of the world, both below
+and above, would be defective. Now do thou remain, Reader, upon thy
+bench,[6] following in thought that which is fore. tasted, if thou
+wouldst be glad far sooner than weary. I have set before thee;
+henceforth feed thee by thyself, for that theme whereof I have been
+made scribe wrests all my care unto itself.
+
+[1] All things, as well the spiritual and invisible objects of the
+intelligence as the corporal and visible objects of sense, were made by
+God the Father, operating through the Son, with the love of the Holy
+Spirit, and made in such order that he who contemplates the creation
+beholds the partial image of the Creator.
+
+
+[2] At the equinox, the season of Dante's journey, the sun in Aries is
+at the intersection of the ecliptic and the equator of the celestial
+sphere, and his apparent motion in his annual revolution cuts the
+apparent diurnal motion of the fixed stars, which is performed in
+circles parallel to the equator.
+
+
+[3] The ecliptic.
+
+
+[4] Which invokes their influence.
+
+
+[5] Because on the obliquity of their path depends the variety of their
+influence.
+
+
+[6] As a scholar.
+
+
+The greatest minister of nature, which imprints the world with the
+power of the heavens, and with its light measures the time for us, in
+conjunction with that region called to mind above, was circling through
+the spirals in which from day to day he earlier presents himself.[1]
+And I was with him; but of the ascent I was not aware, otherwise than
+as a man is aware, before his first thought, of its coming. Beatrice is
+she who thus conducts from good to better so swiftly that her act
+extends not through time.
+
+[1] In that spiral course in which, according to the Ptolemaic system,
+the sun passes from the equator to the tropic of Cancer, rising earlier
+every day.
+
+
+How lucent of itself must that have been which, within the sun where I
+entered, was appareiit not by color but by light! Though I should call
+on genius, art, and use, I could not tell it so that it could ever be
+imagined; but it may be believed, and sight of it longed for. And if
+our fancies are low for such loftiness, it is no marvel, for beyond the
+sun was never eye could go. Such[1] was here the fourth family of the
+High Father, who always satisfies it, showing how He breathes forth,
+and how He begets.[2] And Beatrice began, “Thank, thank thou the Sun of
+the Angels, who to this visible one has raised thee by His grace.”
+Heart of mortal was never so disposed to devotion, and so ready, with
+its own entire pleasure, to give itself to God, as I became at those
+words; and all my love was so set on Him that Beatrice was eclipsed in
+oblivion. It displeased her not; but she so smiled thereat that the
+splendor of her smiling eyes divided upon many things my singly intent
+mind.
+
+[1] So lucent, brighter than the sun.
+
+
+[2] Showing himself in the Holy Spirit and in the Son.
+
+
+I saw many living and surpassing effulgences make a centre of us, and
+make a crown of themselves, more sweet in voice than shining in aspect.
+Thus girt we sometimes see the daughter of Latona, when the air is
+pregnant so that it holds the thread which makes the girdle.[1] In the
+court of Heaven, wherefrom I return, are found many jewels so precious
+and beautiful that they cannot be brought from the kingdom, and of
+these was the song of those lights. Who wings not himself so that he
+may fly up thither, let him await the tidings thence from the dumb.
+
+[1] When the air is so full of vapor that it forms a halo.
+
+
+After those burning suns, thus singing, had circled three times round
+about us, like stars near fixed poles, they seemed to me as ladies not
+loosed from a dance, but who stop silent, listening till they have
+caught the new notes. And within one I heard begin, “Since the ray of
+grace, whereby true love is kindled, and which thereafter grows
+multiplied in loving, so shines on thee that it conducts thee upward by
+that stair upon which, without reascending, no one descends, he who
+should deny to thee the wine of his flask for thy thirst, would not be
+more at liberty than water which descends not to the sea.[1] Thou
+wishest to know with what plants this garland is enflowered, which,
+round about her, gazes with delight upon the, beautiful Lady who
+strengthens thee for heaven. I was of the lambs of the holy flock[2]
+which Dominic leads along the way where one fattens well if he stray
+not.[3] This one who is nearest to me on the right was my brother and
+master; and he was Albert of Cologne,[4] and I Thomas of Aquino. If
+thus of all the rest thou wishest to be informed, come, following my
+speech, with thy sight circling around upon the blessed chaplet. That
+next flaming issues from the smile of Gratian, who so assisted one
+court and the other that it pleases in Paradise.[5] The next, who at
+his side adorns our choir, was that Peter who, like the poor woman,
+offered his treasure to Holy Church.[6] The fifth light, which is most
+beautiful among us,[7] breathes from such love, that all the world
+there below is greedy to know tidings of it.[8] Within it is the lofty
+mind, wherein wisdom so profound was put, that, if the truth is true,
+to see so much no second has arisen.[9] At his side thou seest the
+light of that candle, which, below in the flesh, saw most inwardly the
+angelic nature, and its ministry.[10] In the next little light smiles
+that advocate of the Christian times, with whose discourse Augustine
+provided himself.[11] Now if thou leadest the eye of the mind,
+following my praises, from light to light, thou remainest already
+thirsting for the eighth. Therewithin, through seeing every good, the
+holy soul rejoices which makes the deceit of the world manifest to
+whoso hears him well.[12] The body whence it was hunted out lies below
+in Cieldauro,[13] and from martyrdom and from exile it came unto this
+peace. Beyond thou seest flaming the burning breath of Isidore, of
+Bede, and of Richard who in contemplation was more than man.[14] The
+one from whom thy look returns to me is the light of a spirit to whom
+in grave thoughts death seemed to come slow. It is the eternal light of
+Sigier,[15] who reading in the Street of Straw syllogized truths which
+were hated.”
+
+[1] He would be restrained against his nature, as water prevented from
+flowing down to the sea.
+
+
+[2] Of the Order of St. Dominic.
+
+
+[3] Where one acquires spiritual good, if he be not distracted by the
+allurement of worldly things.
+
+
+[4] The learned Doctor, Albertus Magnus.
+
+
+[5] Gratian was an Italian Benedictine monk, who lived in the 12th
+century, and compiled the famous work known as the Decretum Gratiani,
+composed of texts of Scripture, of the Canons of the Church, of
+Decretals of the Popes, and of extracts from the Fathers, designed to
+show the agreement of the civil and ecclesiastical law,—a work pleasing
+in Paradise because promoting concord between the two authorities.
+
+
+[6] Peter Lombard, a theologian of the 12th century, known as Magister
+Sententiarum, from his compilation of extracts relating to the
+doctrines of the Church, under the title of Sententiarum Libri IV. In
+the proem to his work he says that he desired, “like the poor widow, to
+cast something from his penury into the treasury of the Lord.”
+
+
+[7] Solomon.
+
+
+[8] It was matter of debate whether Solomon was among the blessed or
+the damned.
+
+
+[9] “Lo, I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart; so that
+there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any
+arise like unto thee.”—1 Kings, iii. 12.
+
+
+[10] Dionysius the Areopagite, the disciple of St. Paul (Acts, xvii.
+34), to whom was falsely ascribed a book of great repute, written in
+the fourth century, “ On the Celestial Hierarchy.”
+
+
+[11] Paulus Orosius, who wrote his History against the Pagans, at the
+request of St. Augustine, to defend Christianity from the charge
+brought against it by the Gentiles of being the source of the
+calamities which had befallen the Roman world. His work might be
+regarded as a supplement to St. Augustine's De Civitate Dei.
+
+
+[12] Boethins, statesman and philosopher. whose work, De Consolatione
+Philosophiae, was one of the books held in highest esteem by Dante.
+
+
+[13] Boethius, who was put to death in Pavia, in 524, was buried in the
+church of S. Pietro in Ciel d' Oro—St. Peter's of the Golden Ceiling.
+
+
+[14] Isidore, bishop of Seville, died 636; the Venerable Bede, died
+735; Richard, prior of the Monastery of St. Victor, at Paris, a mystic
+of the 12th century; all eminent theologians.
+
+
+[15] Sigier of Brabant, who lectured, applying logic to questions in
+theology, at Paris, in the 13th century, in the Rue du Fouarre.
+
+
+Then, as a horologe which calls us at the hour when the Bride of God[1]
+rises to sing matins to her Bridegroom that he may love her, in which
+the one part draws and urges the other, sounding ting! ting! with such
+sweet note that the well-disposed spirit swells with love, so saw I the
+glorious wheel move, and render voice to voice in concord and in
+sweetness which cannot be known save there where joy becomes eternal.
+
+[1] The Church.
+
+
+
+
+CANTO XI.
+
+
+The Vanity of worldly desires,—St. Thomas Aquinas undertakes to solve
+two doubts perplexing Dante.—He narrates the life of St. Francis of
+Assisi.
+
+
+O insensate care of mortals, how defective are those syllogisms which
+make thee downward beat thy wings! One was going after the Laws, and
+one after the Aphorisms,[1] and one following the priesthood, and one
+to reign by force or by sophisms, and one to rob, and one to civic
+business; one, involved in pleasure of the flesh, was wearying himself,
+and one was giving himself to idleness, when I, loosed from all these
+things, with Beatrice, was thus gloriously received on high in Heaven.
+
+[1] The Aphorisms of Hippocrates, meaning here, the study of medicine.
+
+
+When each[1] had returned unto that point of the circle at which it was
+at first, it stayed, as a candle in a candlestick. And within that
+light which first had spoken to me I heard, as smiling it began, making
+itself more clear, “Even as I am resplendent with its radiance, so,
+looking into the Eternal Light, I apprehend whence thou drawest the
+occasion of thy thoughts. Thou art perplexed, and hast the wish that my
+speech be bolted again in language so open and so plain that it may be
+level to thy sense, where just now I said, 'where well one fattens,'
+and there where I said, 'the second has not been born;' and here is
+need that one distinguish well.
+
+[1] Each of the lights which had encircled. Beatrice and Dante.
+
+
+“The Providence which governs the world with that counsel, in which
+every created vision is vanquished ere it reach the depth, in order
+that the bride[1] of Him, who with loud cries espoused her with His
+blessed blood, might go toward her beloved, secure in herself and also
+more faithful to Him, ordained two princes in her favor, who on this
+side and that should be to her for guides. The one was all seraphic in
+ardor,[2] the other, through wisdom, was a splendor of cherubic
+light[3] on earth. Of the one I will speak, because both are spoken of
+in praising one, whichever be taken, for unto one end were their works.
+
+[1] The Church.
+
+
+[2] St. Francis of Assisi
+
+
+[3] St. Dominic.
+
+
+“Between the Tupino and the water[1] which descends from the hill
+chosen by the blessed Ubaldo, hangs the fertile slope of a high
+mountain, wherefrom Perugia at Porta Sole[2] feeleth cold and heat,
+while behind it Nocera and Gualdo weep because of their heavy yoke.[3]
+On that slope, where it most breaks its steepness, rose a Sun upon the
+world, as this one sometimes does from the Ganges. Therefore let him
+who talks of that place not say Ascesi,[4] for he would speak short,
+but Orient,[5] if be would speak properly. He was not yet very far from
+his rising when he began to make the earth feel some comfort from his
+great virtue. For, still a youth, he ran to strife[6] with his father
+for a lady such as unto whom, even as unto death, no one unlocks the
+gate of pleasure; and before his spiritual court et coram patre[7] to
+her he had himself united; thereafter from day to day he loved her more
+ardently. She, deprived of her first husband,[8] for one thousand and
+one hundred years and more, despised and obscure, had stood without
+wooing till he came;[9] nor had it availed[10] to hear, that he, who
+caused fear to all the world, found her at the sound of his voice
+secure with Amyclas;[11] nor had it availed to have been constant and
+bold, so that where Mary remained below, she wept with Christ upon the
+cross. But that I may not proceed too obscurely, take henceforth in my
+diffuse speech Francis and Poverty for these lovers. Their concord and
+their glad semblances made love, and wonder, and sweet regard to be the
+cause of holy thoughts;[12] so that the venerable Bernard first bared
+his feet,[13] and ran following such great peace, and, running, it
+seemed to him that he was slow. Oh unknown riches! oh fertile good!
+Egidius bares his feet and Sylvester bares his feet, following the
+bridegroom; so pleasing is the bride. Then that father and that master
+goes on his way with his lady, and with that family which the humble
+cord was now girding.[14] Nor did baseness of heart weigh down his brow
+at being son of Pietro Bernardone,[15] nor at appearing marvellously
+despised; but royally he opened his bard intention to Innocent, and
+received from bim the first seal for his Order.[16] After the poor
+people had increased behind him, whose marvellous life would be better
+sung in glory of the heavens, the holy purpose of this
+archimandrite[17] was adorned with a second crown by the Eternal
+Spirit, through Honorius.[18] And when, through thirst for martyrdom,
+he had preached Christ and the rest who followed him in the proud
+presence of the Sultan,[19] and because he found the people too unripe
+for conversion, and in order not to stay in vain, had returned to the
+fruit of the Italian grass,[20] on the rude rock,[21] between the Tiber
+and the Arno, he took from Christ the last seal,[22] which his limbs
+bore for two years. When it pleased Him, who had allotted him to such
+great good, to draw him up to the reward which he had gained in making
+himself abject, he commended his most dear lady to his brethren as to
+rightful heirs, and commanded them to love her faithfully; and from her
+lap, his illustrious soul willed to depart, returning to its realm, and
+for his body he willed no other bier.[23]
+
+[1] The Chiassi, which flows from the hill chosen for his hermitage by
+St. Ubaldo.
+
+
+[2] The gate of Perugia, which fronts Monte Subasio, on which Assisi
+lies, some fifteen miles to the south.
+
+
+[3] Towns, southeast of Assisi, oppressed by their rulers.
+
+
+[4] So the name Assisi was sometimes spelled, and here with a play on
+ascesi (I have risen).
+
+
+[5] As the sun at the vernal equinox, the sacred season of the Creation
+and the Resurrection, rises in the due east or orient, represented in
+the geographical system of the time by the Ganges, so the place where
+this new Sun of righteousness arose should be called Orient.
+
+
+[6] Devoting himself to poverty against his father's will.
+
+
+[7] Before the Bishop of Assisi, and “in presence of his father,” he
+renounced his worldly possessions.
+
+
+[8] Christ.
+
+
+[9] St. Francis was born in 1182.
+
+
+[10] To procure suitors for her,
+
+
+[11] When Caesar knocked at the door of Amyclas his voice caused no
+alarm, because Poverty made the fisherman secure.—Lucan, Pharsalia, V.
+515 ff.
+
+
+[12] In the hearts of those who behold them.
+
+
+[13] The followers of Francis imitated him in going barefoot.
+
+
+[14] The cord for their only girdle.
+
+
+[15] Perhaps, because his father was neither noble nor famous.
+
+
+[16] In or about 1210 Pope Innocent III. approved the Rule of St.
+Francis.
+
+
+[17] “The head of the fold:” a term of the Greek Church, designating
+the head of one or more monasteries.
+
+
+[18] In 1223, Honorius III. confirmed the sanction of the Order.
+
+
+[19] Probably the Sultan of Egypt, at the time of the Fifth Crusade, in
+1219.
+
+
+[20] To the harvest of good grain in Italy.
+
+
+[21] Mount Alvernia.
+
+
+[22] The Stigmata.
+
+
+[23] St. Francis died in 1226.
+
+
+“Think now of what sort was he,[1] who was a worthy colleague to keep
+the bark of Peter on the deep sea to its right aim; and this was our
+Patriarch:[2] wherefore thou canst see that whoever follows him as he
+commands loads good merchandise. But his flock has become so greedy of
+strange food that. it cannot but be scattered over diverse meadows; and
+as his sheep, remote and vagabond, go farther from him, the emptier of
+milk they return to the fold. Truly there are some of them who fear the
+harm, and keep close to the shepherd; but they are so few that little
+cloth suffices for their cowls. Now if my words are not obscure, if thy
+hearing has been attentive, if thou recallest to mind that which I have
+said, thy wish will be content in part, because thou wilt see the plant
+wherefrom they are hewn,[3] and thou wilt see how the wearer of the
+thong reasons—'Where well one fattens if one does not stray.'
+
+[1] How holy he must have been.
+
+
+[2] St. Dominic.
+
+
+[3] The plant of which the words are splinters or chips; in other
+terms, “thou wilt understand the whole ground of my assertion, and thou
+wilt see what a Dominican, wearer of the leather thong of the Order,
+means, when he says that the flock of Dominic fatten, if they stray not
+from the road on which he leads them.”
+
+
+
+
+CANTO XII.
+
+
+Second circle of the spirits of wise religious men, doctors of the
+Church and teachers.—St. Bonaventura narrates the life of St. Dominic,
+and tells the names of those who form the circle with him.
+
+
+Soon as the blessed flame uttered the last word of its speech the holy
+mill-stone[1] began to rotate, and had not wholly turned in its
+gyration before another enclosed it with a circle, and matched motion
+with motion, song with song; song which in those sweet pipes so
+surpasses our Muses, our Sirens, as a primal splendor that which it
+reflects.[2] As two bows parallel and of like colors are turned across
+a thin cloud when Juno gives the order to her handmaid[3] (the outer
+one born of that within, after the manner of the speech of that
+wandering one[4] whom love consumed, as the sun does vapors), and make
+the people here presageful, because of the covenant which God
+established with Noah concerning the world, that it is nevermore to be
+flooded; so the two garlands of those sempiternal roses turned around
+us, and so the outer responded to the inner. After the dance and the
+other great festivity, alike of the singing and of the flaming, light
+with light joyous and courteous, had become quiet together at an
+instant and with one will (just as the eyes which must needs together
+close and open to the pleasure that moves them), from the heart of one
+of the new lights a voice proceeded, which made me seem as the needle
+to the star in turning me to its place and it began,[5] “The love which
+makes me beautiful draws me to speak of the other leader by whom[6] so
+well has been spoken here of mine. It is fit that where one is the
+other be led in, so that as they served in war with one another,
+together likewise may their glory shine.
+
+[1] The garland of spirits encircling Beatrice and Dante.
+
+
+[2] As an original ray is brighter than one reflected.
+
+
+[3] Iris.
+
+
+[4] Echo.
+
+
+[5] It is St. Bonaventura, the biographer of St. Francis, who speaks.
+He became General of the Order in 1256, and died in 1276.
+
+
+[6] By whom, through one of his brethren.
+
+
+“The army of Christ, which it had cost so dear to arm afresh,[1] was
+moving slow, mistrustful, and scattered, behind the standard,[2] when
+the Emperor who forever reigns provided for the soldiery that was in
+peril, through grace alone, not because it was worthy, and, as has been
+said, succored his Bride with two champions, by whose deed, by whose
+word, the people gone astray were rallied.
+
+[1] The elect, who had lost grace through Adam's sin, were armed afresh
+by the costly sacirifice of the Son of God.
+
+
+[2] The Cross.
+
+
+“In that region where the sweet west wind rises to open the new leaves
+wherewith Europe is seen to reclothe herself, not very far from the
+beating of the waves behind which, over their long course, the sun
+sometimes bides himself to all men, sits the fortunate Callaroga, under
+the protection of the great shield on which the Lion is subject and
+subjugates.[1] Therein was born the amorous lover of the Christian
+faith, the holy athlete, benignant to his own, and to his enemies
+harsh.[2] And when it was created, his mind was so replete with living
+virtue, that in his mother it made her a prophetess.[3] After the
+espousals between him and the faith were completed at the sacred font,
+where they dowered each other with mutual safety, the lady who gave the
+assent for him saw in a dream the marvellous fruit which was to proceed
+from him and from his heirs;[4] and in order that he might be spoken of
+as he was,[5] a spirit went forth from here[6] to name him with the
+possessive of Him whose he wholly was. Dominic[7] he was called; and I
+speak of him as of the husbandman whom Christ elected to his garden to
+assist him. Truly he seemed the messenger and familiar of Christ; for
+the first love that was manifest in him was for the first counsel that
+Christ gave.[8] Oftentimes was he found by his nurse upon the ground
+silent and awake, as though he said, 'I am come for this.' O father of
+him truly Felix! Omother of him truly Joan, if this, being interpreted,
+means as is said![9]
+
+[1] The shield of Castile, on which two lions and two castles are
+quartered, one lion below and one above.
+
+
+[2] St. Dominic, born in 1170.
+
+
+[3] His mother dreamed that she gave birth to a dog, black and white in
+color, with a lighted torch in its mouth, which set the world on fire;
+symbols of the black and white robe of the Order, and of the flaming
+zeal of its brethren. Hence arose a play of words on their name, Domini
+cani, “the dogs of the Lord.”
+
+
+[4] The godmother of Dominic saw in dream a star on the forehead and
+another on the back of the head of the child, signifying the light that
+should stream from him over East and West.
+
+
+[5] That his name might express his nature.
+
+
+[6] From heaven.
+
+
+[7] Dominicus, the possessive of Dominus, “Belonging to the Lord.”
+
+
+[8] “Sell that thou hast and give to the poor.”—Matthew, xix. 21.
+
+
+[9] Felix, signifying “happy,” and Joanna, “full of grace.”
+
+
+“Not for the world,[1] for which men now toil, following him of Ostia
+and Thaddeus,[2] but for the love of the true manna, be became in short
+time a great teacher, such that he set himself to go about the
+vineyard, which quickly fades if the vinedresser is bad; and of the
+Seat[3] which was formerly more benign unto the righteous poor (not
+through itself but through him who sits there and degenerates[4]), he
+asked not to dispense or two or three for six,[5] not the fortune of
+the first vacancy, non decimas, quae sunt pauperum Dei,[6] but leave to
+fight against the errant world for that seed[7] of which four and
+twenty plants are girding thee. Then with doctrine and with will,
+together with the apostolic office,[8] he went forth like a torrent
+which a lofty vein pours out, and on the heretical stocks his onset
+smote with most vigor there where the resistance was the greatest. From
+him proceeded thereafter divers streams wherewith the catholic garden
+is watered, so that its bushes stand more living.
+
+[1] The goods of this world.
+
+
+[2] Henry of Susa, cardinal of Ostia, who wrote a much studied
+commentary on the Decretals, and Thaddeus of Bologna, who, says
+Giovanni Villani, “was the greatest physician in Christendom.” The
+thought is the same as that at the beginning of Canto XI, where Dante
+speaks of “one following the Laws, and one the Aphorisms.”
+
+
+[3] The Papal chair.
+
+
+[4] The grammatical construction is imperfect; the meaning is that the
+change in the temper of the see of Rome is due not to the fault of the
+Church itself, but to that of the Pope.
+
+
+[5] Not for license to compound for unjust acquisitions by de. voting a
+part of them to pious uses.
+
+
+[6] “Not the tithes which belong to God's poor.”
+
+
+[7] The true faith; “the seed is the word of God.”—Luke, viii. 11.
+
+
+[8] The authority conferred on him by Innocent III.
+
+
+If such was one wheel of the chariot on which the Holy Church defended
+itself and vanquished in the field its civil strife,[1] surely the
+excellence of the other should be very plain to thee, concerning which
+Thomas before my coming was so courteous. But the track which the
+highest part of its circumference made is derelict;[2] So that the
+mould is where the crust was.[3] His household, which set forth
+straight with their feet upon his footprints, are so turned round that
+they set the forward foot on that behind;[4] and soon the quality of
+the barvest of this bad culture shall be seen, when the tare will
+complain that the chest is taken from it.[5] Yet I say, he who should
+search our volume leaf by leaf might still find a page where he would
+read, 'I am that which I am wont:' but it will not be from Casale nor
+from Acquasparta,[6] whence such come unto the Written Rule that one
+flies from it, and the other contracts it.
+
+[1] The heresies within its own borders.
+
+
+[2] The track made by St. Francis is deserted.
+
+
+[3] The change of metaphor is sudden; good wine makes a crust, bad wine
+mould in the cask.
+
+
+[4] They go in an opposite direction from that followed by the saint.
+
+
+[5] That it is taken from the chest in the granary to be burned.
+
+
+[6] Frate Ubertino of Casale, the leader of a party of zealots among
+the Franciscans, enforced the Rule of the Order with excessive
+strictness; Matteo, of Acquasparta, general of the Franciscans in 1257,
+relaxed it.
+
+
+“I am the life of Bonaventura of Bagnoregio, who in great offices
+always set sinister[1] care behind me. Illuminato and Augustin are
+here, who were among the first barefoot poor that in the cord made
+themselves friends to God. Hugh of St. Victor[2] is here with them, and
+Peter Mangiadore, and Peter of Spain,[3] who down below shines in
+twelve books; Nathan the prophet, and the Metropolitan Chrysostom,[4]
+and Anselm,[5] and that Donatus[6] who deigned to set his hand to the
+first art; Raban[7] is here, and at my side shines the Calabrian abbot
+Joachim,[8] endowed with prophetic spirit.
+
+[1] Sinister, that is, temporal.
+
+
+[2] Hugh (1097-1141), a noted schoolman, of the famous monastery of St.
+Victor at Paris.
+
+
+[3] Peter Mangiador, or Comestor, “the Eater,” so called as being a
+devourer of books. He himself wrote books famous in their time. He was
+chancellor of the University at Paris, and died in 1198. The Summae
+logicales of Peter of Spain, in twelve books, was long held in high
+repute. He was made Cardinal Bishop of Tusculum in 1273, and was
+elected Pope in 1276, taking the name of John XXI. He was killed in
+May, 1277, by the fall of the ceiling of the chamber in which he was
+sleeping in the Papal palace at Viterbo. He is the only Pope of recent
+times whom Dante meets in Paradise.
+
+
+[4] The famous doctor of the Church, patriarch of Constantinople.
+
+
+[5] Born about 1033 at Aosta in Piedmont, consecrated Arch. bishop of
+Canterbury in 1093, died 1109; magnus et subtilis doctor in theologia.”
+
+
+[6] The compiler of the treatise on grammar (the first of the seven
+arts of the Trivium. and the Quadrivium), which was in use throughout
+the Middle Ages.
+
+
+[7] Rabanus Maurus, Archbishop of Mainz, in the ninth century; a great
+scholar and teacher, “cui similem suo tempore non habuit Ecelesia.”
+
+
+[8] Joachim, Abbot of Flora, whose mystic prophecies had great vogue.
+
+
+“The flaming courtesy of Brother Thomas, and his discreet discourse,
+moved me to celebrate[1] so great a paladin; and with me moved this
+company.”
+
+[1] Literally, “to envy;” hence, perhaps, “to admire,” “to praise,” “to
+celebrate;” but the meaning is doubtful.
+
+
+
+
+CANTO XIII.
+
+
+St. Thomas Aquinas speaks again, and explains the relation of the
+wisdom of Solomon to that of Adam and of Christ, and declares the
+vanity of human judgment.
+
+
+Let him imagine,[1] who desires to understand well that which I now saw
+(and let him retain the image like a firm rock, while I am speaking),
+fifteen stars which in different regions vivify the heaven with
+brightness so great that it overcomes all thickness of the air; let him
+imagine that Wain[2] for which the bosom of our heaven suffices both
+night and day, so that in the turning of its pole it disappears not;
+let him imagine the mouth of that horn[3] which begins at the point of
+the axle on which the primal wheel goes round,—to have made of
+themselves two signs in the heavens, like that which the daughter of
+Minos made, when she felt the frost of death,[4] and one to have its
+rays within the other, and both to revolve in such manner that one
+should go first and the other after; and he will have as it were the
+shadow of the true constellation, and of the double dance, which was
+circling the point where I was; because it is as much beyond our wont
+as the motion of the heaven which outspeeds all the rest is swifter
+than the movement of the Chiana.[5] There was sung riot Bacchus, not
+Paean, but three Persons in a divine nature, and it and the human in
+one Person. The singing and the revolving completed each its measure,
+and those holy lights gave attention to us, making themselves happy
+from care to care.[6]
+
+[1] To form an idea of the brightness of the two circles of spirits,
+let the reader imagine fifteen of the brightest separate stars, joined
+with the seven stars of the Great Bear, and with the two brightest of
+the Lesser Bear, to form two constellations like Ariadne's Crown, and
+to revolve one within the other, one following the movement of the
+other.
+
+
+[2] Charles's Wain, the Great Bear, which never sets.
+
+
+[3] The Lesser Bear may be imagined as having the shape of a horn, of
+which the small end is near the pole of the heavens around which the
+Primum Mobile revolves.
+
+
+[4] When Ariadne died of grief because of her desertion by Theseus, her
+garland was changed into the constellation known as Ariadne's Crown.
+
+
+[5] The Chiana is one of the most sluggish of the streams of Tuscany.
+
+
+[6] Rejoicing in the change from dance and song to tranquillity for the
+sake of giving satisfaction to Dante.
+
+
+Then the light in which the marvellous life of the poor man of God had
+been narrated to me broke the silence among those concordant deities,
+and said, “Since one straw is threshed, since its seed is now garnered,
+sweet love invites me to beat out the other. Thou believest that in the
+breast, wherefrom the rib was drawn to form the beautiful cheek whose
+taste costs dear to all the world, and in that which, pierced. by the
+lance, both after and before made such satisfaction that it overcomes
+the balance of all sin, whatever of light it is allowed to human nature
+to have was all infused. by that Power which made one and the other;
+and therefore thou wonderest at that which I said above, when I told
+that the good which in the fifth light is inclosed had no second. Now
+open thine eyes to that which I answer to thee, and thou wilt see thy
+belief and my speech become in the truth as the centre in a circle.
+
+“That which dies not and that which can die are naught but the splendor
+of that idea which in His love our Lord God brings to birth;[1] for
+that living Light which so proceeds from its Lucent Source that It is
+not disunited from It, nor from the Love which with them is intrined,
+through Its own bounty collects Its radiance, as it were mirrored, in
+nine subsistences, Itself eternally remaining one. Thence It descends
+to the ultimate potentialities, downward from act to act, becoming such
+that finally It makes naught save brief contingencies: and these
+contingencies I understand. to be the generated things which the
+heavens in their motion produce with seed and without.[2] The wax of
+these, and that which moulds it, are not of one mode, and therefore
+under the ideal stamp it shines now more now less;[3] whence it comes
+to pass that one same plant in respect to species bears better or worse
+fruit, and that ye are born with diverse dispositions. If the wax were
+exactly worked,[4] and the heavens were supreme in their power, the
+whole light of the seal would be apparent. But nature always gives it
+defective,[5] working like the artist who has the practice of his art
+and a hand that trembles. Nevertheless if the fervent Love disposes and
+imprints the clear Light of the primal Power, complete perfection is
+acquired here.[6] Thus of old the earth was made worthy of the complete
+perfection of the living being;[7] thus was the Virgin made
+impregnate;[8] so that I commend thy opinion that human nature never
+was, nor will be, what it was in those two persons.
+
+[1] The creation of things eternal and things temporal alike is the
+splendid manifestation of the idea which the triune God, in His love,
+generated. The living light in the Son, emanating from its lucent
+source in the Father, in union with the love of the Holy Spirit, the
+three remaining always one, pours out its radiance through the nine
+orders of the Angelic Hierarchy, who distribute it by means of the
+Heavens of which they axe the Intelligences.
+
+
+[2] Through the various movements and conjunctions of the Heavens, the
+creative light descends to the lowest elements, producing all the
+varieties of contingent things.
+
+
+[3] The material of contingent or temporal things, and the influences
+which shape them, are of various sort, so that the splendor of the
+Divine idea is visible in them in different degree.
+
+
+[4] If the material were always fit to receive the impression.
+
+
+[5] Nature, the second Cause, never transmits the whole of the Creative
+light.
+
+
+[6] If, however, the first Cause acts directly,—the fervent Love
+imprinting the clear Light of the primal Power,—there can be no
+imperfection in the created thing; it answers to the Divine idea.
+
+
+[7] Thus, by the immediate operation of the Creator, the earth of which
+Adam was formed was made the perfect material for the f ormation of the
+creature with a living soul.
+
+
+[8] In like manner, by the direct act of the Creator.
+
+
+“Now, if I should not proceed further, 'Then how was this man without
+peer?' would thy words begin. But, in order that that which is not
+apparent may clearly appear, consider who he was, and the occasion
+which moved him to request, when it was said to him, 'Ask.' I have not
+so spoken that thou canst not clearly see that he was a king, who asked
+for wisdom, in order that he might be a worthy king; not to know the
+number of the motors here on high, or if necesse with a contingent ever
+made necesse;[1] non si est dare primum motum esse,[2] or if in the
+semicircle a triangle can be made so that it should not have one right
+angle.[3] Wherefore if thou notest this and what I said, a kingly
+prudence is that peerless seeing, on which the arrow of ray intention
+strikes.[4] And if thou directest clear eyes to the 'has arisen' thou
+wilt see it has respect only to kings, who are many, and the good are
+few. With this distinction[5] take thou my saying, and thus it can
+stand with that which thou believest of the first father, and of our
+Delight.[6] And let this be ever as lead to thy feet, to make thee move
+slow as a weary man, both to the YES and to the NO which thou seest
+not; for he is very low among the fools who affirms or denies without
+distinction, alike in the one and in the other case: because it
+happens, that oftentimes the current opinion bends in false direction,
+and then the inclination binds the understanding. Far more than vainly
+does he leave the bank, since he returns not such as be sets out, who
+fishes for the truth, and has not the art;[7] and of this are manifest
+proofs to the world Parmenides, Melissus, Bryson,[8] and many others
+who went on and knew not whither. So did Sabellius, and Arius,[9] and
+those fools who were as swords unto the Scriptures in making their
+straight faces crooked. Let not the people still be too secure in
+judgment, like him who reckons up the blades in the field ere they are
+ripe. For I have seen the briar first show itself stiff and wild all
+winter long, then bear the rose upon its top. And I have seen a bark
+ere now ran straight and swift across the sea through all its course,
+to perish at last at entrance of the harbor. Let not dame Bertha and
+master Martin, seeing one rob, and another make offering, believe to
+see them within the Divine counsel:[10] for the one may rise and the
+other may fall.”
+
+[1] If from two premises, one necessary and one contingent, a necessary
+conclusion is to be deduced.
+
+
+[2] “If a prime motion is to be assumed,” that is, a motion not the
+effect of another.
+
+
+[3] He did not ask through idle curiosity to know the number of the
+Angels; nor for the solution of a logical puzzle, nor for that of a
+question in metaphysics, or of a problem in geometry.
+
+
+[4] If thou understandest this comment on my former words, to see so
+much no second has arisen,” my meaning will be clear that his vision
+was unmatched in respect to the wisdom which it behoves a king to
+possess.
+
+
+[5] Thus distinguishing, it is apparent that Solomon is not brought
+into comparison, in respect to perfection of wisdom, with Adam or with
+Christ.
+
+
+[6] Christ.
+
+
+[7] Because he returns not only empty-handed, but with his mind
+perverted.
+
+
+[8] Heathen philosophers who went astray in seeking for the truth.
+
+
+[9] Sabellius denied the Trinity, Arius denied the Consubstantiality of
+the word.
+
+
+[10] To understand the mystery of predestination.
+
+
+
+
+CANTO XIV.
+
+
+At the prayer of Beatrice, Solomon tells of the glorified body of the
+blessed after the Last Judgment.—Ascent to the Heaven of Mars.—Souls of
+the Soldiery of Christ in the form of a Cross with the figure of Christ
+thereon.—Hymn of the Spirits.
+
+
+From the centre to the rim, and so from the rim to the centre, the
+water in a round vessel moves, according as it is struck from without
+or within. This which I say fell suddenly into my mind when the
+glorious life of Thomas became silent, because of the similitude which
+was born of his speech and that of Beatrice, whom after him it pleased
+thus to begin,[1] “This man has need, and he tells it not to you,
+neither with his voice nor as yet in thought, of going to the root of
+another truth. Tell him if the light wherewith your substance blossoms
+will remain with you eternally even as it is now; and if it remain,
+tell how, after you shall be again made visible, it will be possible
+that it hurt not your sight.”[2]
+
+[1] St. Thomas had spoken from his place in the ring which formed a
+circle around Beatrice and Dante; Beatrice now was speaking from the
+centre where she stood.
+
+
+[2] The souls of the blessed are hidden in the light which emanates
+from them; after the resurrection of the body they will become visible,
+but then how will the bodily eyes endure such brightness?
+
+
+As, when urged and drawn by greater pleasure, those who are dancing in
+a ring with one accord lift their voice and gladden their motions, so,
+at that prompt and devout petition, the holy circles showed new joy in
+their turning and in their marvellous melody. Whoso laments because man
+dies here in order to live thereabove, has not seen here the
+refreshment of the eternal rain.
+
+That One and Two and Three which ever lives, and ever reigns in Three
+and Two and One, uncircumscribed, and circumscribing everything, was
+thrice sung by each of those spirits with such a melody that for every
+merit it would be a just reward. And I heard in the divinest light of
+the small circle a modest voice,[1] perhaps such as was that of the
+Angel to Mary, make answer, “As long as the festival of Paradise shall
+be, so long will our love radiate around us such a garment. Its
+brightness follows our ardor, the ardor our vision, and that is great
+in proportion as it receives of grace above its own worth. When the
+glorious and sanctified flesh shall be put on us again, our persons
+will be more pleasing through being all complete; wherefore whatever of
+gratuitous light the Supreme Good gives us will be increased,—light
+which enables us to see him; so that our vision needs must increase,
+our ardor increase which by that is kindled, our radiance increase
+which comes from this. But even as a coal which gives forth flame, and
+by a vivid glow surpasses it, so that it defends its own aspect,[2]
+thus this effulgence, which already encircles us, will be vanquished in
+appearance by the flesh which all this while the earth covers. Nor will
+so great a light be able to fatigue us, for the organs of the body will
+be strong for everything which shall have power to delight us.” So
+sudden and ready both one and the other choir seemed to me in saying
+“Amen,” that truly they showed desire for their dead bodies, perhaps
+not only for themselves, but also for their mothers, for their fathers,
+and for the others who were dear before they became sempiternal flames.
+
+[1] Probably that of Solomon, who in the tenth Canto is said to be “the
+light which is the most beautiful among us.”
+
+
+[2] The coal is seen glowing through the flame.
+
+
+And lo! round about, of a uniform brightness, arose a lustre, outside
+that which was there, like an horizon which is growing bright. And even
+as at rise of early evening new appearances begin in the heavens, so
+that the sight seems and seems not true, it seemed to me that there I
+began to see new subsistences, and a circle forming outside the other
+two circumferences. O true sparkling of the Holy Spirit, how sudden and
+glowing it became to mine eyes, which, vanquished, endured it not! But
+Beatrice showed herself to me so beautiful and smiling that she must be
+left among those sights which have not followed my memory.
+
+Thence my eyes regained power to raise themselves again, and I saw
+myself alone with my Lady transferred to higher salvation.[1]
+
+That I was more uplifted I perceived clearly by the fiery smile of the
+star, which seemed to me ruddier than its wont. With all my heart and
+with that speech which is one in all men,[2] I made to God a holocaust
+such as was befitting to the new grace; and the ardor of the sacrifice
+was not yet exhausted in my breast when I knew that offering had been
+accepted and propitious; for with such great glow and such great
+ruddiness splendors appeared to me within two rays, that I said, “O
+Helios,[3] who dost so array them!”
+
+[1] To a higher grade of blessedness, that of the Fifth Heaven.
+
+
+[2] The unuttered voice of the soul.
+
+
+[3] Whether Dante forms this word from the Hebrew Eli (my God), or
+adopts the Greek {Greek here} (sun), is uncertain.
+
+
+Even as, marked out by less and greater lights, the Galaxy so whitens
+between the poles of the world that it indeed makes the wise to
+doubt,[1] thus, constellated in the depth of Mars, those rays made the
+venerable sign which joinings of quadrants in a circle make. Here my
+memory overcomes my genius, for that Cross was flashing forth Christ,
+so that I know not to find worthy comparison. But be who takes his
+cross and follows Christ will yet excuse me for that which I omit, when
+in that brightness he beholds Christ gleaming.
+
+[1] “Concerning the GaJaxy philosophers have held different
+opinions.”—Convito, 115.
+
+
+From horn to horn[1] and between the top and the base lights were
+moving, brightly scintillating as they met together and in their
+passing by. Thus here[2] are seen, straight and athwart, swift and
+slow, changing appearance, the atoms of bodies, long and short, moving
+through the sunbeam, wherewith sometimes the shade is striped which
+people contrive with skill and art for their protection. And as a viol
+or harp, strung in harmony of many strings, makes a sweet tinkling to
+one by whom the tune is not caught, thus from the lights which there
+appeared to me a melody was gathered through the Cross, which rapt me
+without understanding of the hymn. Truly was I aware that it was of
+holy praise, because there came to me “Arise and conquer!” as unto one
+who understands not, and yet bears. I was so enamoured therewith that
+until then had not been anything which had fettered me with such sweet
+bonds. Perchance my word appears too daring, in setting lower the
+pleasure from the beautiful eyes, gazing into which my desire has
+repose. But he who considers that the living seals[3] of every beauty
+have more effect the higher they are, and that I there had not turned
+round to those eyes, can excuse me for that whereof I accuse myself in
+order to excuse myself, and see that I speak truth; for the holy
+pleasure is not here excluded, because it becomes the purer as it
+mounts.
+
+[1] From arm to arm of the cross.
+
+
+[2] On earth.
+
+
+[3] The Heavens, which are “the seal of mortal wax” (Canto VIII.),
+increase in power as they are respectively nearer the Empyrean, so that
+the joy in each, as it is higher up, is greater than in the heavens
+below. To this time Dante had felt no joy equal to that afforded him by
+this song. But a still greater joy awaited him in the eyes of Beatrice,
+to which, since he entered the Fifth Heaven, he had not turned, but
+which there, as elsewhere, were to afford the supreme delight.
+
+
+
+
+CANTO XV.
+
+
+Dante is welcomed by his ancestor, Cacciaguida.—Cacciaguida tells of
+his family, and of the simple life of Florence in the old days.
+
+
+A benign will, wherein the love which righteously inspires always
+manifests itself, as cupidity does in the evil will, imposed silence on
+that sweet lyre, and quieted the holy strings which the right hand of
+heaven slackens and draws tight. How unto just petitions shall those
+substances be deaf, who, in order to give me wish to pray unto them,
+were concordant in silence? Well is it that be endlessly should grieve
+who, for the love of thing which endures not eternally, despoils him of
+that love.
+
+As, through the tranquil and pure evening skies, a sudden fire shoots
+from time to time, moving the eyes which were at rest, and seems to be
+a star which changes place, except that from the region where it is
+kindled nothing is lost, and it lasts short while, so, from the arm
+which extends on the right, to the foot of that Cross, ran a star of
+the constellation which is resplendent there. Nor from its ribbon did
+the gem depart, but through the radial strip it ran along and seemed
+like fire behind alabaster. Thus did the pious shade of Anchises
+advance (if our greatest Muse merits belief), when in Elysium he
+perceived. his son.[1]
+
+[1] “And he (Anchises), when he saw Aeneas advancing to meet him over
+the grass, stretched forth both hands eagerly, and the tears poured
+down his cheeks, and he cried out, 'Art thou come at length?”—Aeneid,
+vi. 684-7.
+
+
+“O sanguis meus! o superinfusa gratia Dei! sicut tibi, cui bis unquam
+coeli janua reclusa?”[1] Thus that light; whereat I gave heed to it;
+then I turned my sight to my Lady, and on this side and that I was
+wonderstruck; for within her eyes was glowing such a smile, that with
+my own I thought to touch the depth of my grace and of my Paradise.
+
+[1] “O blood of mine! O grace of God poured from above! To whom, as to
+thee, was ever the gate of Heaven twice opened?”
+
+
+Then, gladsome to hear and to see, the spirit joined to his beginning
+things which I understood not, he spoke so profoundly. Nor did he hide
+himself to me by choice, but by necessity, for his conception was set
+above the mark of mortals. And when the bow of his ardent affection was
+so relaxed that his speech descended towards the mark of our
+understanding, the first thing that was understood by me was, “Blessed
+be Thou, Trinal, and One who in my offspring art so courteous.” And he
+went on, “Grateful and long hunger, derived from reading in the great
+vouime where white or dark is never changed,[1] thou hast relieved, my
+son, within this light in which I speak to thee, thanks to Her who
+clothed thee with plumes for the lofty flight. Thou believest that thy
+thought flows to me from that which is first; even as from the unit, if
+that be known, ray out the five and six. And therefore who I am, and
+why I appear to thee more joyous than any other in this glad crowd,
+thou askest me not. Thou believest the truth; for the less and the
+great of this life gaze upon the mirror in which, before thou thinkest,
+thou dost display thy thought. But in order that the sacred Love, in
+which I watch with perpetual sight, and which makes me thirst with
+sweet desire, may be fulfilled the better, let thy voice, secure, bold,
+and glad, utter the wish, utter the desire, to which my answer is
+already decreed.”
+
+[1] In the mind of God, in which there is no change.
+
+
+I turned me to Beatrice, and she heard before I spoke, and smiled to me
+a sign which made the wings to my desire grow: and I began thus: “When
+the first Equality appeared to you, the affection and the intelligence
+became of one weight for each of you; because the Sun which illumined
+and warmed you is of such equality in its heat and in its light that
+all similitudes are defective. But will and discourse in mortals, for
+the reason which is manifest to you, are diversely feathered in their
+wings.[1] Wherefore I, who am mortal, feel myself in this
+inequality,[2] and therefore I give not thanks, save with my heart, for
+thy paternal welcome. Truly I beseech thee, living topaz that dost
+ingem this precious jewel, that thou make me content with thy name?” “O
+leaf of mine, in whom, while only awaiting, I took pleasure, I was thy
+root.” Such a beginning he, answering, made to me. Then he said to me:
+“He from whom thy family is named,[3] and who for a hundred years and
+more has circled the mountain on the first ledge, was my son and was
+thy great-grandsire. Truly it behoves that thou shorten for him his
+long fatigue with thy works. Florence, within the ancient circle
+wherefrom she still takes both tierce and nones,[4] was abiding in
+sober and modest peace. She had not necklace nor coronal, nor dames
+with ornamented shoes, nor girdle which was more to be looked at than
+the person. Not yet did the daughter at her birth cause fear to the
+father, for the time and dowry did not evade measure on this side and
+that.[5] She had not houses void of families;[6] Sardanapalus had not
+yet arrived[7] there to show what can be done in a chamber. Not yet by
+your Uccellatoio was Montemalo surpassed, which, as it has been
+surpassed in its rise, shall be so in its fall.[8] I saw Bellineoin
+Berti[9] go girt with leather and bone,[10] and his dame come from her
+mirror without a painted face. And I saw them of the Nerli, and them of
+the Vecchio,[11] contented with the uncovered skin,[12] and their dames
+with the spindle and the distaff. O fortunate women! Every one was sure
+of her burial place;[13] and as yet no one was deserted in her bed for
+France.[14] One over the cradle kept her careful watch, and,
+comforting, she used the idiom which first amuses fathers and mothers.
+Another, drawing the tresses from her distaff, told tales to her
+household of the Trojans, and of Fiesole, and of Rome.[15] A
+Cianghella,[16] a Lapo Salterello would then have been held as great a
+marvel as Cincinnatus or Cornelia would be now.
+
+[1] But will and the discourse of reason, corresponding to affection
+and intelligence, are unequal in mortals, owing to their imperfection.
+
+
+[2] Which makes it impossible for me to give full expression to my
+gratitude and affection.
+
+
+[3] Alighiero, from whom, it would appear from his station in
+Purgatory, Dante inherited the sin of pride, as well as his name.
+
+
+[4] The bell of the church called the Badia, or Abbey, which stood
+within the old walls of Florence, rang daily the hours for worship, and
+measured the time for the Florentines. Tierce is the first division of
+the canonical hours of the day, from six to nine; nones, the third,
+from twelve to three.
+
+
+[5] They were not married so young as now, nor were such great dowries
+required for them.
+
+
+[6] Palaces too large for their occupants, built for ostentation.
+
+
+[7] The luxury and effeminacy of Sardanapalus were proverbial.
+
+
+[8] Not yet was the view from Montemalo, or Monte Mario, of Rome in its
+splendor surpassed by that of Florence from the height of Uccellatoio;
+and the fall of Florence shall be greater even than that of Rome.
+
+
+[9] Bellincion Berti was “an honorable citizen of Florence,” says
+Giovanni Villani; “a noble soldier,” adds Benvenuto da Imola. He was
+father of the “good Gualdrada.” See Hell, XVI.
+
+
+[10] With a plain leathern belt fastened with a clasp of bone.
+
+
+[11] Two ancient and honored families.
+
+
+[12] Clothed in garments of plain dressed skin not covered with cloth.
+
+
+[13] Not fearing to die in exile.
+
+
+[14] Left by her husband seeking fortune in France, or other for. eign
+lands.
+
+
+[15] These old tales may be read in the first book of Villani's
+Chronicle.
+
+
+[16] “Mulier arrogantissima et intolerabilis . . . multum lubrice
+vixit,” says Benvenuto da Imola, who describes Lapo Salterello as
+temerarius et pravus civis, vir litigiosus et linguosus.”
+
+
+“To such a tranquil, to such a beautiful life of citizens, to such a
+trusty citizenship, to such a sweet inn, Mary, called on with loud
+cries,[1] gave me; and in your ancient Baptistery I became at once a
+Christian and Cacciaguida. Moronto was my brother, and Eliseo; my dame
+came to me from the valley of the Po, and thence was thy surname.
+Afterward I followed the emperor Conrad.[2] and he belted me of his
+soldiery,[3] so much by good deeds did I come into his favor. Following
+him I went against the iniquity of that law[4] whose people usurp your
+right,[5] though fault of the shepherd. There by that base folk was I
+released from the deceitful world, the love of which pollutes many
+souls, and I came from martyrdom to this peace.”
+
+[1] The Virgin, called on in the pains of childbirth.
+
+
+[2] Conrad III. of Suabia. In 1143 he joined in the second Crusade.
+
+
+[3] Made me a belted knight.
+
+
+[4] The law of Mahomet.
+
+
+[5] The Holy Land, by right belonging to the Christians.
+
+
+
+
+CANTO XVI.
+
+
+The boast of blood.—Cacciaguida continues his discourse concerning the
+old and the new Florence.
+
+
+O thou small nobleness of our blood! If thou makest folk glory in thee
+down here, where our affection languishes, it will nevermore be a
+marvel to me; for there, where appetite is not perverted, I mean in
+Heaven, I myself gloried in thee. Truly art thou a cloak which quickly
+shortens, so that, if day by day it be not pieced, Time goeth round
+about it with his shears.
+
+With the YOU,[1] which Rome first tolerated, in which her family least
+perseveres,[2] my words began again. Whereat Beatrice, who was a little
+withdrawn,[3] smiling, seemed like her[4] who coughed at the first
+fault that is written of Guenever. I began, “You are my father, you
+give me all confidence to speak; you lift me so that I am more than I.
+Through so many streams is my mind filled with gladness that it makes
+of itself a joy, in that it can bear this and not burst.[5] Tell me
+then, beloved first source of me, who were your ancestors, and what
+were the years that were numbered in your boyhood. Tell me of the
+sheepfold of St. John,[6] how large it was then, and who were the
+people within it worthy of the highest seats.”
+
+[1] The plural pronoun, used as a mark of respect. This usage was
+introduced in the later Roman Empire.
+
+
+[2] The Romans no longer show respect to those worthy of it.
+
+
+[3] Beatrice stands a little aside, theology having no part in this
+colloquy. She smiles, not reproachfully, at Dante's vainglory.
+
+
+[4] The Dame de Malehault, who coughed at seeing the first kiss given
+by Lancelot to Guenever. The incident is not told in any of the printed
+versions of the Romance of Lancelot, but it has been found by Mr. Paget
+Toynbee in several of the manuscripts.
+
+
+[5] Rejoices that it has capacity to endure such great joy.
+
+
+[6] Florence, whose patron saint was St. John the Baptist.
+
+
+As a coal quickens to flame at the blowing of the winds, so I saw that
+light become resplendent at my blandishments, and as it became more
+beautiful to my eyes, so with voice more dulcet and soft, but not with
+this modern speech, it said to me, “From that clay on which Ave was
+said, unto the birth in which my mother, who. now is sainted, was
+lightened of me with whom she was burdened, this fire had come to its
+Lion[1] five hundred, fifty, and thirty times to reinflame itself
+beneath his paw.[2] My ancestors and I were born in the place where the
+last ward is first found by him who runs in your annual game.[3] Let it
+suffice to hear this of my elders. Who they were, and whence they came
+thither, it is more becoming to leave untold than to recount.
+
+[1]—Mars
+
+As he glow'd like a ruddy shield on the Lion's breast.—Maud, part III.
+The Lion is the sign Leo in the Zodiac, appropriate to Mars by supposed
+conformity of disposition.
+
+
+[2] Five hundred and eighty revolutions of Mars are accomplished in a
+little more than ten hundred and ninety years.
+
+
+[3] The place designated was the boundary of the division of the city
+called that of “the Gate of St. Peter,” where the Corso passes by the
+Mercato Vecchio or Old Market. The races were run along the Corso on
+the 24th June, the festival of St. John the Baptist.
+
+
+“All those able to bear arms who at that time were there, between Mars
+and the Baptist,[1] were the fifth of them who are living. But the
+citizenship, which is now mixed with Campi and with Certaldo and with
+Figghine,[2] was to be seen pure in the lowest artisan. Oh, how much
+better it would be that those folk of whom I speak were neighbors, and
+to have your confine at Galluzzo and at Trespiano,[3] than to have them
+within, and to endure the stench of the churl of Aguglione,[4] and of
+him of Signa, who already has his eye sharp for barratry!
+
+[1] Between the Ponte Vecchio, at the head of which stood the statue of
+Mars, and the Baptistery,—two points marking the circuit of the ancient
+walls.
+
+
+[2] Small towns not far from Florence, from which, as from many others,
+there had been emigration to the thriving city, to the harm of its own
+people.
+
+
+[3] It would have been better to keep these people at a distance, as
+neighbors, and to have narrow bounds for the territory of the city.
+
+
+[4] The churl of Aguglione was, according to Benvenuto da Imola, a
+lawyer named Baldo, “qui fuit magnus canis.” He became one of the
+priors of Florence in 1311. He of Signa is supposed to have been one
+Bonifazio, who, says Buti, “sold his favors and offices.”
+
+
+“If the people which most degenerates in the world[1] had not been as a
+stepdame unto Caesar, but like a mother benignant to her son, there is
+one now a Florentine[2] who changes money and traffics, who would have
+returned to Simifonti, there where his grandsire used to go begging.
+Montemurlo would still belong to its Counts, the Cerchi would be in the
+parish of Acone, and perhaps the Buondelmonti in Valdigreve.[3] The
+confusion of persons has always been the beginning of the harm of the
+city, as in the body the food which is added.[4] And a blind bull falls
+more headlong than the blind lamb; and oftentimes one sword cuts more
+and better than five. If thou regardest Luni and Urbisaglia,[5] how
+they have gone, and how Chiusi and Sinigaglia are going their way after
+them, to hear how families are undone will not appear to thee a strange
+thing or a bard, since cities have their term.[6] Your things all have
+their death even as ye; but it is concealed in some that last long,
+while lives are short. And as the revolution of the heaven of the Moon
+covers and uncovers the shores without a pause, so fortune does with
+Florence. Wherefore what I shall tell of the high Florentines, whose
+fame is hidden by time, should not appear to thee a marvellous thing. I
+saw the Ughi, and I saw the Catellini, Filippi, Greci, Ormanni, and
+Alberichi, even in their decline, illustrious citizens; and I saw, as
+great as they were old, with those of the Sannella, those of the Area,
+and Soldanieri, and Ardinghi, and Bostiebi.[7] Over the gate which at
+present is laden with new felony[8] of such weight that soon there will
+be jettison from the bark,[9] were the Ravignani, from whom the Count
+Guido is descended,[10] and whosoever since has taken the name of the
+high Bellincione. He of the Pressa knew already bow one needs to rule,
+and Galigaio already had in his house the gilded hilt and pummel.[11]
+Great were already the column of the Vair,[12] the Sacchetti, Giuochi,
+Fifanti, and Barucci, and Galli, and they who blush for the bushel.[13]
+The stock from which the Calfucci sprang was already great, and already
+the Sizii. and Arrigucci had been drawn to curule chairs.[14] Oh how
+great did I see those who have been undone by their pride![15] and the
+balls of gold[16] made Florence flourish with all their great deeds. So
+did the fathers of those who always,when your church is vacant, become
+fat, staying in consistory.[17] The overweening race which is as a
+dragon behind him who flies, and to him who shows tooth or purse is
+gentle as a lamb,[18] already was coming up, but from small folk, so
+that it pleased not Ubertin Donato that his father-in-law should
+afterwards make him their relation.[19] Already had Caponsacco
+descended into the market place down from Fiesole, and already was
+Giuda a good citizen, and Infangato.[20] I will tell a thing incredible
+and true: into the little circle one entered by a gate which was named
+for those of the Pear.[21] Every one who bears the beautiful ensign of
+the great baron[22] whose name and whose praise the feast of Thomas
+revives, from him had knighthood and privilege; although to-day he who
+binds it with a border unites himself with the populace.[23] Already
+there were Gualterotti and Importuni; and Borgo[24] would now be more
+quiet, if they had gone hung for new neighbors. The house of which was
+born your weeping,[25] through its just indignation which has slain
+you, and put an end to your glad living, was honored, both itself and
+its consorts. O Buondelmonte, how ill didst thou flee its nuptials
+through the persuasions of another! [26] Many would be glad who now are
+sorrowful, if God had conceded thee to the Ema[27] the first time that
+thou camest to the city. But it behoved that Florence in her last peace
+should offer a victim to that broken stone which guards the bridge.[28]
+
+[1] If the clergy had not quarrelled with the Emperor, bringing about
+factions and disturbances in the world.
+
+
+[2] “I have not discovered who this is,” says Buti.
+
+
+[3] The Conti Guidi had been compelled to sell to the Florentines their
+stronghold of Montemurlo, because they could not defend it from the
+Pistoians. The Cerchi and the Buondelmonti had been forced by the
+Florentine Commune to give up their fortresses and to take up their
+abode in the city, where they became powerful, and where the bitterness
+of intestine discord and party strife had been greatly enhanced by
+their quarrels.
+
+
+[4] Food added to that already in process of digestion.
+
+
+[5] Cities once great, now fallen.
+
+
+[6] Cities longer-lived than families.
+
+
+[7] All once great families, but now extinct, or fallen.
+
+
+[8] Above the gate of St. Peter rose the walls of the abode of the
+Cerchi, the head of the White faction.
+
+
+[9] The casting overboard was the driving out of the leaders of the
+Whites in 1302.
+
+
+[10] The Count Guido married Gualdrada, the daughter of Bellincione
+Berti.
+
+
+[11] Symbols of knighthood; the use of gold in their accoutrements
+being reserved for knights.
+
+
+[12] The family of the Pigli, whose scatcheon was, in heraldic terms,
+gules, a pale, vair; in other words, a red shield divided
+longitudinally by a stripe of the heraldic representation of the fur
+called vair.
+
+
+[13] The Chiaramontesi, one of whom in the old days, being the officer
+in charge of the sale of salt for the Commune, had cheated both the
+Commune and the people by using a false measure. See Purgatory, Canto
+XII.
+
+
+[14] To high civic office.
+
+
+[15] The Uberti, the great family of which Farinata was the most
+renowned member.
+
+
+[16] The Lamberti, who bore golden balls on their shields.
+
+
+[17] The Visdomini, patrons of the Bishopric of Florence, who, after
+the death of a bishop, by deferring the appointment of his successor
+grew fat on the episcopal revenues.
+
+
+[18] The Adimari. Benvenuto da Imola reports that one Boccacino
+Adimari, after Dante's banishment, got possession of his property, and
+always afterward was his bitter enemy.
+
+
+[19] Ubertin Donato married a daughter of Bellincion Berti, and was
+displeased that her sister should afterwards be given to one of the
+Adimari.
+
+
+[20] There seems to be a touch of humor in these three names of “Head
+in bag,” “Judas,” and “Bemired.”
+
+
+[21] The Peruzzi, who bore the pear as a charge upon their scutcheon.
+The incredible thing may have been that the people were so simple and
+free from jealousy as to allow a public gate to bear the name of a
+private family. The “little circle” was the circle of the old walls.
+
+
+[22] Hugh, imperial vicar of Tuscany in the time of Otho II. and Otho
+III. He died on St. Thomas's Day, December 21st, 1006, and was buried
+in the Badia, the foundation of which is ascribed to him; there his
+monument is still to be seen, and there of old, on the anniversary of
+his death, a discourse in his praise was delivered. Several families,
+whose heads were knighted by him, adopted his arms, with some
+distinctive addlition. His scutcheon was paly of four, argent and
+gules.
+
+
+[23] Giano della Bella, the great leader of the Florentine commonalty
+in the latter years of the 13th century. He bore the arms of Hugh with
+a border of gold.
+
+
+[24] The Borgo Sant' Apostolo, the quarter of the city in which these
+families lived, would have been more tranquil if the Buondelmonti had
+not come to take up their abode in it.
+
+
+[25] The Amidei, who were the source of much of the misery of Florence,
+through their long and bitter feud with the Buondelmonti, by which the
+whole city was divided.
+
+
+[26] The quarrel between the Amidei and the Buondelmonti arose from the
+slighting by Buondelmonto dei Buondelmonti of a daughter of the former
+house, to whom he was betrothed, for a daughter of the Donati, induced
+thereto by her mother. This was in 1215.
+
+
+[27] The Ema, a little stream that has to be crossed in coming from
+Montebuono, the home of the Buondelmonti, to Florence.
+
+
+[28] That victim was Buondelmonte himself, slain by the outraged
+Amidei, at the foot of the mutilated statue of Mars, which stood at the
+end of the Ponte Vecchio.
+
+
+“With these families, and with others with them, I saw Florence in such
+repose that she had no occasion why she should weep. With these
+families I saw her people so glorious and so just, that the lily was
+never set reversed upon the staff, nor had it been made blood-red by
+division.”[1]
+
+[1] The banner of Florence had never fallen into the hands of her
+enemies, to be reversed by them in scoff. Of old it had borne a white
+lily in a red field, but in 1250, when the Ghibellines were expelled,
+the Guelphs adopted a red lily in a white field, and this became the
+ensign of the Commune.
+
+
+
+
+CANTO XVII.
+
+
+Dante questions Cacciaguida as to his fortunes.—Cacciaguida replies,
+foretelling the exile of Dante, and the renown of his Poem.
+
+
+As he who still makes fathers chary toward their sons[1] came to
+Clymene, to ascertain concerning that which he had heard against
+himself; such was I, and such was I perceived to be both by Beatrice,
+and by the holy lamp which first for my sake had changed its station.
+Whereon my Lady said to me, “Send forth the flame of thy desire so that
+it may issue sealed well by the internal stamp; not in order that our
+knowledge may increase through thy speech, but that thou accustom
+thyself to tell thy thirst, so that one may give thee drink.”
+
+[1] Phaethon, son of Clymene by Apollo, having been told that Apollo
+was not his father, went to his mother to ascertain the truth.
+
+
+“O dear plant of me, who so upliftest thyself that, even as earthly
+minds see that two obtuse angles are not contained in a triangle, so
+thou, gazing upon the point to which all times are present, seest
+contingent things, ere in themselves they are; while I was conjoined
+with Virgil up over the mountain which cures the souls, and while
+descending in the world of the dead, grave words were said to me of my
+future life; although I feel myself truly four-square against the blows
+of chance. Wherefore my wish would be content by hearing what sort of
+fortune is drawing near me; for arrow foreseen comes more slack.” Thus
+said I unto that same light which before had spoken to me, and as
+Beatrice willed was my wish confessed.
+
+Not with ambiguous terms in which the foolish folk erst were
+entangled,[1] ere yet the Lamb of God which taketh away sins had been
+slain, but with clear words and with distinct speech that paternal
+love, hid and apparent by his own proper smile, made answer:
+“Contingency, which extends not outside the volume of your matter, is
+all depicted in the eternal aspect. Therefrom, however, it takes not
+necessity, more than from the eye in which it is mirrored does a ship
+which descends with the downward current. Thence, even as sweet harmony
+comes to the ear from an organ, comes to my sight the time that is
+preparing for thee. As Hippolytus departed from Athens, by reason of
+his pitiless and perfidious stepmother, so out from Florence thou must
+needs depart. This is willed, this is already sought for, and soon it
+shall be brought to pass, by him I who designs it there where every day
+Christ is bought and sold. The blame will follow the injured party, in
+outcry, as it is wont; but the vengeance will be testimony to the truth
+which dispenses it. Thou shalt leave everything beloved most dearly;
+and this is the arrow which the bow of exile first shoots. Thou shalt
+prove how the bread of others savors of salt, and how the descending
+and the mounting of another's stairs is a hard path. And that which
+will heaviest weigh upon thy shoulders will be the evil and foolish
+company[2] with which into this valley thou shalt fall; which all
+ungrateful, all senseless, and impious will turn against thee; but
+short while after, it, not thou, shall have the forehead red therefor.
+Of its bestiality, its own procedure will give the proof; so that it
+will be seemly for thee to have made thyself a party by thyself.
+
+[1] Not with riddles such as the oracles gave out before they fell
+silent at the coming of Christ.
+
+
+[2] Boniface VIII.
+
+
+[3] The other Florentine exiles of the party of the Whites.
+
+
+“Thy first refuge and first inn shall be the courtesy of the great
+Lombard,[1] who upon the ladder bears the holy bird, who will turn such
+benign regard on thee that, in doing and in asking, between you two,
+that will be first, which between others is the slowest. With him shalt
+thou see one,[2] who was so impressed, at his birth, by this strong
+star, that his deeds will be notable. Not yet are the people aware of
+him, because of his young age; for only nine years have these wheels
+revolved around him. But ere the Gascon cheat the lofty Henry[3] some
+sparkles of his virtue shall appear, in caring not for silver nor for
+toils. His magnificences shall hereafter be so known, that his enemies
+shall not be able to keep their tongues mute about them. Await thou for
+him, and for his benefits; by him shall many people be transformed,
+rich and mendicant changing condition. And thou shalt bear hence
+written of him in thy mind, but thou shalt not tell it;” and he said
+things incredible to those who shall be present. Then he added, “Son,
+these are the glosses on what was said to thee; behold the ambushes
+which are bidden behind few revolutions. Yet would I not that thou bate
+thy neighbors, because thy life hath a future far beyond the punishment
+of their perfidies.”
+
+[[1] Bartolommeo della Scala, lord of Verona, whose armorial bearings
+were the imperial eagle upon a ladder (scala).
+
+
+[2] Can Grande della Scala, the youngest brother of Bartolommeo, and
+finally his successor as lord of Verona.
+
+
+[3] Before Pope Clement V., under whom the Papal seat was established
+at Avignon, shall deceive the Emperor, Henry VIL, by professions of
+support, while secretly promoting opposition to his expedition to Italy
+in 1310.
+
+
+When by its silence that holy soul showed it had finished putting the
+woof into that web which I had given it warped, I began, as he who, in
+doubt, longs for counsel from a person who sees, and uprightly wills,
+and loves: “I see well, my Father, how the time spurs on toward me to
+give me such a blow as is heaviest to him who most deserts himself;
+wherefore it is good that I arm me with foresight, so that if the place
+most dear be taken from me, I should not lose the others by my songs.
+Down through the world of endless bitterness, and over the mountain
+from whose fair summit the eyes of my Lady have lifted me, and
+afterward through the heavens from light to light, I have learned that
+which, if I repeat it, shall be to many a savor keenly sour; and if I
+am a timid friend to the truth I fear to lose life among those who will
+call this time the olden.” The light, in which my treasure which I had
+found there was smiling, first became flashing as a mirror of gold in
+the sunbeam; then it replied, “A conscience dark, either with its own
+or with another's shame, will indeed feel thy speech as harsh; but
+nevertheless, all falsehood laid aside, make thy whole vision manifest,
+and let the scratching be even where the itch is; for if at the first
+taste thy voice shall be molestful, afterwards, when it shall be
+digested, it will leave vital nourishment. This cry of thine shall do
+as the wind, which heaviest strikes the loftiest summits; and that will
+be no little argument of honor. Therefore to thee have been shown
+within these wheels, upon the mountain, and in the woeful valley, only
+the souls which are known of fame. For the mind of him who bears rests
+not, nor confirms its faith, through an example which has its root
+unknown and hidden, nor by other argument which is not apparent.”
+
+
+
+
+CANTO XVIII.
+
+
+The Spirits in the Cross of Mars.—Ascent to the Heaven of
+Jupiter.—Words shaped in light upon the planet by the
+Spirits.—Denunciation of the avarice of the Popes.
+
+
+Now was that blessed mirror enjoying alone its own word,[1] and I was
+tasting mine, tempering the bitter with the sweet. and that Lady who to
+God was leading me said, “Change thy thought; think that I am near to
+Him who lifts the burden of every wrong.” I turned me round at the
+loving sound of my Comfort, and what love I then saw in the holy eyes,
+I here leave it; not only because I distrust my own speech, but because
+of the memory which cannot return so far above itself, unless another
+guide it. Thus much of that moment can I recount, that, again beholding
+her, my affection was free from every other desire.
+
+[1] Its own thoughts in contemplation.
+
+
+While the eternal pleasure, which was raying directly upon Beatrice,
+from her fair face was contenting me with its second aspect,[1]
+vanquishing me with the light of a smile, she said to me, “Turn thee,
+and listen, for not only in my eyes is Paradise.”
+
+[1] Its aspect reflected from the eyes of Beatrice.
+
+
+As sometimes here one sees the affection in the countenance, if it be
+so great that by it the whole soul is occupied, so in the flaming of
+the holy effulgence to which I turned me, I recognized the will in it
+still to speak somewhat with me. It began, “In this fifth threshold of
+the tree, which lives from its top, and always bears fruit, and never
+loses leaf, are blessed spirits, who below, before they came to heaven,
+were of great renown, so that every Muse would be rich with them.
+Therefore gaze upon the arms of the Cross; he, whom I shall name, will
+there do that which within a cloud its own swift fire does.” At the
+naming of Joshua, even as he did it, I saw a light drawn over the
+Cross; nor was the word noted by me before the act. And at the name of
+the lofty Maccabeus[1] I saw another move revolving, and gladness was
+the whip of the top. Thus for Charlemagne and for Roland my attentive
+gaze followed two of them, as the eye follows its falcon as be flies.
+Afterward William, and Renouard,[2] and the duke Godfrey,[3] and Robert
+Guiscard[4] drew my sight over that Cross. Then, moving, and mingling
+among the other lights, the soul which had spoken with me showed me how
+great an artist it was among the singers of heaven.
+
+[1] Judas Maccabeus, who “ was renowned to the utmost part of the
+earth.” See I Maccabees, ii-ix.
+
+
+[2] Two heroes of romance, paladins of Charlemagne.
+
+
+[3] Godfrey of Bouillon, the leader of the first crusade.
+
+
+[4] The founder of the Norman kingdom of Naples.
+
+
+I turned me round to my right side to see my duty signified in Beatrice
+either by speech or by act, and I saw her eyes so clear, so joyous,
+that her semblance surpassed her other and her latest wont. And even
+as, through feeling more delight in doing good, a man from day to day
+becomes aware that his virtue is advancing, so I became aware that my
+circling round together with the heaven had increased its are, seeing
+that miracle more adorned. And such as is the change, in brief passage
+of time, in a pale lady, when her countenance is unlading the load of
+bashfulness, such was there in my eyes, when I had turned, because of
+the whiteness of the temperate sixth star which had received, me within
+itself.[1] I saw, within that torch of Jove, the sparkling of the love
+which was there shape out our speech to my eyes. And as birds, risen
+from the river-bank, as if rejoicing together over their food, make of
+themselves a troop now round, now of some other shape, so within the
+lights[2] holy creatures were singing as they flew, and made of
+themselves now D, now I, now L, in their proper shapes.[3] First,
+singing, they moved to their melody, then becoming one of these
+characters, they stopped a little, and were silent.
+
+[1] The change is from the red light of Mars to the white light of
+Jupiter, a planet called by astrologers the “temperate” star, as lying
+between the heat of Mars and the coldness of Saturn.
+
+
+[2] The sparkles of the love which was there.
+
+
+[3] The first letters of Diligite, as shortly appears.
+
+
+O divine Pegasea,[1] who makest the wits of men glorious, and renderest
+them long-lived, as they, through thee, the cities and the kingdoms,
+illume me with thyself that I may set in relief their shapes, as I have
+conceived them I let thy power appear in these brief verses!
+
+[1] An appellation appropriate to any one of the Muses (whose fountain
+Hippocrene sprang at the stamp of Pegasus); here probably applied to
+Urania, already once invoked by the poet (Purgatory, XXIX.).
+
+
+They showed themselves then in five times seven vowels and consonants;
+and I noted the parts as they seemed spoken to me. Diligite justitiam
+were first verb and noun of all the picture; qui judicatis terram[1]
+were the last. Then in the M of the fifth word they remained arranged,
+so that Jove seemed silver patterned there with gold. And I saw other
+lights descending where the top of the M was, and become quiet there,
+singing, I believe, the Good which moves them to itself. Then, as on
+the striking of burnt logs rise innumerable sparks, wherefrom the
+foolish are wont to draw auguries, there seemed to rise again thence
+more than a thousand lights, and mount, one much and one little,
+according as the Sun which kindles them allotted them; and, each having
+become quiet in its place, I saw the head and the neck of an eagle
+represented by that patterned fire. He who paints there, has none who
+may guide Him, but Himself guides, and by Him is inspired that virtue
+which is form for the nests.[2] The rest of the blessed spirits, which
+at first seemed content to be enlilied[3] on the M, with a slight
+motion followed out the imprint.
+
+[1] “Love righteousness, ye that be judges of the earth.”—Wisdom of
+Solomon, i. 1.
+
+
+[2] The words are obscure; they may mean that a virtue, or instinct,
+similar to that which teaches the bird to build its nest, directed the
+shaping of these letters.
+
+
+[3] Ingigliare, a word invented by Dante, and used only by him. The
+meaning is that these spirits seemed first to form a lily on the M.
+
+
+O sweet star, how great gems and how many showed to me that our justice
+is the effect of that heaven which thou ingemmest! Wherefore I pray the
+Mind, in which thy motion and thy virtue have their source, that It
+regard whence issues the smoke which spoils thy radiance, so that now a
+second time It may be wroth at the buying and selling within the temple
+which was walled with signs and martyrdoms. O soldiery of the Heaven on
+which I gaze, pray ye for those who are on earth all gone astray after
+the bad example! Of old it was the wont to make war with swords, but
+now it is made by taking, now here now there, the bread which the
+piteous Father locks up from none.
+
+But thou that writest only in order to cancel,[1] bethink thee that
+Peter and Paul, who died for the vineyard which thou art laying waste,
+are still alive. Thou mayest indeed say, “I have my desire set so on
+him who willed to live alone, and for a dance was dragged to
+martyrdom[2] that I know not the Fisherman nor Paul.”
+
+[1] The Pope, who writes censures, excommunications, and the like, only
+that he may be paid to cancel thorn.
+
+
+[2] The image of St. John Baptist was on the florin, which was the
+chief object of desire of the Pope.
+
+
+
+
+CANTO XIX.
+
+
+The voice of the Eagle.—It speaks of the mysteries of Divine justice;
+of the necessity of Faith for salvation; of the sins of certain kings.
+
+
+The beautiful image, which in its sweet fruition was making joyful the
+interwoven souls, appeared before me with outspread wings. Each soul
+appeared a little ruby on which a ray of the sun glowed so enkindled
+that it reflected him into My eyes. And that which it now behoves me to
+describe, no voice ever reported, nor ink wrote, nor was it ever
+conceived by the fancy; for I saw, and also heard the beak speaking,
+and uttering with the voice both I and MY, when in conception it was WE
+and OUR.[1]
+
+[1] An image of the concordant will of the Just, and of the unity of
+Justice under the Empire.
+
+
+And it began, “Through being just and pious am I here exalted to that
+glory which lets not itself be conquered by desire; and on earth I left
+my memory such that the evil people there commend it, but continue not
+its story.” Thus a single heat makes itself felt from many embers, even
+as from many loves a single sound issued from that image. Wherefore I
+thereon, “O perpetual flowers of the eternal gladness, which make all
+your odors seem to me as only one, deliver me, by your breath, from the
+great fast which has held me long in hunger, not finding for it any
+food on earth. Well I know that if the Divine Justice makes any realm
+in heaven its mirror, yours does not apprehend it through a veil.[1] Ye
+know how intently I address myself to listen; ye know what is that
+doubt[2] which is so old a fast to me.”
+
+[1] Here, if anywhere, the Divine Justice is reflected.
+
+
+[2] Concerning the Divine justice.
+
+
+As a falcon which, issuing from his hood, moves his head, and claps his
+wings, showing desire, and making himself fine; so I saw this ensign,
+which was woven of praise of the Divine Grace, become, with songs such
+as he knows who thereabove rejoices. Then it began, “He who turned the
+compasses at the verge of the world, and distributed within it so much
+occult and manifest, could not so imprint His Power on all the universe
+that His Word should not remain in infinite excess.[1] And this makes
+certain that the first proud one, who was the top of every creature,
+through not awaiting light, fell immature.[2] And hence it appears,
+that every lesser nature is a scant receptacle for that Good which has
+no end and measures Itself by Itself. Wherefore our vision, which needs
+must be some ray of the Mind with which all things are full, cannot in
+its own nature be so potent that it may not discern its origin to be
+far beyond that which is apparent to it.[3] Therefore the sight which
+your world receives[4] penetrates into the eternal justice as the eye
+into the sea; which, though from the shore it can see the bottom, on
+the ocean sees it not, and nevertheless it is there, but the depth
+conceals it. There is no light but that which comes from the serene
+which is never clouded; nay, there is darkness, either shadow of the
+flesh, or its poison.[5] The hiding place is now open enough to thee,
+which concealed from thee the living Justice concerning which thou
+madest such frequent question;[6] for thou saidest,—'A man is born on
+the bank of the Indus, and no one is there who may speak of Christ, nor
+who may read, nor who may write; and all his wishes and acts are good
+so far as human reason sees, without sin in life or in speech. He dies
+unbaptized, and without faith: where is this Justice which condemns
+him? where is his sin if he does not believe?' Now who art thou, that
+wouldst sit upon a bench to judge a thousand miles away with the short
+vision of a single span? Assuredly, for him who subtilizes with me,[7]
+if the Scripture were not above you, there would be occasion for
+doubting to a marvel. Oh earthly animals! oh gross minds![8]
+
+[1] The Word, that is, the thought or wisdom of God, infinitely exceeds
+the expression of it in the creation.
+
+
+[2] Lucifer fell through pride, fancying himself, though a created
+being, equal to his Creator. Had he awaited the full light of Divine
+grace, he would have recognized his own inferiority.
+
+
+[3] Our vision is not powerful enough to reach the source from which it
+proceeds.
+
+
+[4] It is the gift of God.
+
+
+[5] There is no light but that which proceeds from God, the light of
+Revelation. Lacking this, man is in the darkness of ignorance, which is
+in the shadow of the flesh, or of sin, which is its poison.
+
+
+[6] The hiding place is the depth of the Divine decrees, which man
+cannot penetrate, but the justice of which in his self- confidence he
+undertakes to question.
+
+
+[7] With me, the symbol of justice.
+
+
+[8] The Scriptures teach you that “the judgments of God are
+unsearchable, and His ways past finding out;” why, foolish, do ye
+disregard them?
+
+
+“The primal Will, which of Itself is good, never is moved from Itself,
+which is the Supreme Good. So much is just as is accordant to It; no
+created good draws It to itself, but It, raying forth, is the cause of
+that good.”
+
+As above her nest the stork circles, after she has fed her brood, and
+as he who has been fed looks up at her, such became (and I so raised my
+brows) the blessed image, which moved its wings urged by so many
+counsels. Wheeling it sang, and said, “As are my notes to thee who
+understandest them not, so is the eternal judgment to you mortals.”
+
+After those shining flames of the Holy Spirit became quiet, still in
+the sign which made the Romans reverend to the world, it began again,
+“To this kingdom no one ever ascended, who had not believed in Christ
+either before or after he was nailed to the tree. But behold, many cry
+Christ, Christ, who, at the Judgment, shall be far less near to him,
+than such an one who knew not Christ; and the Ethiop will condemn such
+Christians when the two companies shall be divided, the one forever
+rich, and the other poor. What will the Persians be able to say to your
+kings, when they shall see that volume open in which are written all
+their dispraises?[1] There among the deeds of Albert shall be seen that
+which will soon set the pen in motion, by which the kingdom of Prague
+shall be made desert.[2] There shall be seen the woe which he who shall
+die by the blow of a wild boar is bringing upon the Seine by falsifying
+the coin.[3] There shall be seen the pride that quickens thirst, which
+makes the Scot and the Englishman mad, so that neither can keep within
+his own bounds.[4] The luxury shall be seen, and the effeminate living
+of him of Spain, and of him of Bohemia, who never knew valor, nor
+wished it.[5] The goodness of the Cripple of Jerusalem shall be seen
+marked with a I, while an M shall mark the contrary.[6] The avarice and
+the cowardice shall be seen of him[7] who guards the island of the
+fire, where Anchises ended his long life; and, to give to understand
+how little worth he is, the writing for him shall be in contracted
+letters which shall note much in small space. And to every one shall be
+apparent the foul deeds of his uncle and of his brother[8] who have
+dishonored so famous a nation and two crowns. And he of Portugal,[9]
+and he of Norway[10] shall be known there; and he of Rascia,[11] who,
+to his harm, has seen the coin of Venice. O happy Hungary, if she allow
+herself no longer to be maltreated! and happy Navarre, if she would arm
+herself with the mountains which bind her round![12] And every one must
+believe that now, for earnest of this, Nicosia and Famagosta are
+lamenting and complaining because of their beast which departs not from
+the flank of the others.[13]
+
+[1] The Persians, who know not Christ, will rebuke the sins of kings
+professedly Christians, when the book of life shall be opened at the
+last Judgment.
+
+
+[2] The devastation of Bohemia in 1303, by Albert of Austria (the
+“German Albert” of the sixth canto of Purgatory), will soon set in
+motion the pen of the recording angel.
+
+
+[3] After his terrible defeat at Courtray in 1302, Philip the Fair, to
+provide himself with means, debased. the coin of the realm. He died in
+1314 from the effects of a fall from his horse, oven thrown by a wild
+boar in the forest of Fontainebleau.
+
+
+[4] The wars of Edward I. and Edward II. with the Scotch under Wallace
+and Bruce were carried on with little intermission during the first
+twenty years of the fourteenth century.
+
+
+[5] By “him of Spain,” Ferdinand IV. of Castile (1295-1312) seems to be
+intended; and by “him of Bohemia,” Wenceslaus IV., “whom luxury and
+idleness feed.” (Purgatory, Canto VII.).
+
+
+[6] The virtues of the lame Charles II. of Apulia, titular king of
+Jerusalem, shall be marked with one, but his vices with a thousand.
+
+
+[7] Frederick of Aragon, King of Sicily, too worthless to have his
+deeds written out in full. Dante's scorn of Frederick was enhanced by
+his desertion of the Ghibellines after the death of Henry VII.
+
+
+[8] James, King of Majorca and Minorca, and James, King of Aragon.
+
+
+[9] Denis, King of Portugal, 1279-1325.
+
+
+[10] Perhaps Hakon Haleggr (Longlegs), 1299-1319.
+
+
+[11] Rascia, so called from a Slavonic tribe, which occupied a region
+south of the Danube, embracing a part of the modern Servia and Bosnia.
+The kingdom was established in 1170. One of its kings, Stephen Ouros,
+who died in 1307, imitated the coin of Venice with a debased coinage.
+
+
+[12] If she would make the Pyrenees her defence against France, into
+the hands of whose kings Navarre fell in 1304.
+
+
+[13] The lot of these cities in Cyprus, which are now lamenting under
+the rule of Henry II. of the Lusignani, a beast who goes along with the
+rest, is a pledge in advance of what sort of fate falls to those who do
+not defend themselves.
+
+
+
+
+CANTO XX.
+
+
+The Song of the Just.—Princes who have loved righteousness, in the eye
+of the Eagle.—Spirits, once Pagans, in bliss.—Faith and
+Salvation.—Predestination.
+
+
+When he who illumines all the world, descends from our hemisphere so
+that the day on every side is spent, the heavens which erst by him
+alone are enkindled, suddenly become again conspicuous with many
+lights, on which one is shining.[1] And this act of the heavens came to
+my mind when the ensign of the world and of its leaders became silent
+in its blessed beak; because all those living lights, far more shining,
+began songs which lapse and fall from out my memory.
+
+[1] One, that is, the sun, supposed to be the source of the light of
+the stars.
+
+
+O sweet love, that cloakest thee with a smile, how ardent didst thou
+appear in those pipes[1] which had the breath alone of holy thoughts!
+
+[1] That is, in those singers.
+
+
+After the precious and lucent stones, wherewith I saw the sixth
+luminary ingemmed, imposed silence on their angelic bells, I seemed to
+hear the murmur of a stream which falls pellucid down from rock to
+rock, showing the abundance of its mountain source. And as the sound
+takes its form at the cithern's neck, and in like manner at the vent of
+the bagpipe the air which enters it, thus, without pause of waiting,
+that murmur of the Eagle rose up through its neck, as if it were
+hollow. There it became voice, and thence it issued through its beak in
+form of words, such as the heart whereon I wrote them was awaiting.
+
+“The part in me which in mortal eagles sees and endures the sun,” it
+began to me, “must now be fixedly looked upon, because of the fires
+whereof I make my shape, those wherewith the eye in my head sparkles
+are the highest of all their grades. He who shineth in the middle, as
+the pupil, was the, singer of the Holy Spirit, who, bore about the ark
+from town to town.[1] Now he knows the merit of his song, so far as it
+was the effect of his own counsel,[2] by the recompense which is equal
+to it. Of the five which make a circle for the brow, be who is nearest
+to my beak consoled the poor widow for her son.[3] Now he knows, by the
+experience of this sweet life and of the opposite, how dear it costs
+not to follow Christ. And he who follows along the top of the are in
+the circumference of which I speak, by true penitence postponed
+death.[4] Now he knows that the eternal judgment is not altered, when
+worthy prayer there below makes to-morrow's what is of to-day. The next
+who follows,[5] under a good intention which bore bad fruit, by ceding
+to the Pastor[6] made himself Greek, together with the laws and me. Now
+he knows how the ill derived from his good action is not hurtful to
+him, although thereby the world may be destroyed. And he whom thou
+seest in the down-bent are was William,[7] whom that land deplores
+which weeps for Charles and Frederick living.[8] Now he knows how
+heaven is enamoured of a just king, and even by the aspect of his
+effulgence makes it seen. Who, down in the erring world, would believe
+that Rhipeus the Trojan[9] was the fifth in this circle of the holy
+lights? Now he knows much of what the world cannot see of the divine
+grace, although his sight cannot discern its depth.”
+
+[1] David. See 2 Samuel, vi.
+
+
+[2] So far as it proceeded from his own free will, open to the
+inspiration of grace.
+
+
+[3] Trajan. See Purgatory, Canto X.
+
+
+[4] King Hezekiah. See 2 Kings, xx.
+
+
+[5] The Emperor Constantine.
+
+
+[6] By his so-called “Donation,” Constantine was believed to have ceded
+Rome to the Pope, and by transferring the seat of empire to
+Constantinople, he made the laws and the eagle Greek.
+
+
+[7] William H., son of Robert Guiscard, King of Sicily and Apulia,
+called “the Good.”
+
+
+[8] Charles H. of Apulia, and Frederick of Aragon, King of Sicily.
+
+
+[9]—Rhipeus,iustissimus unus Qui fuit in Teucris et servantissimus
+aequi.—Aeneid, ii, 426-7.
+
+
+“Rhipeus, the one justest man, and heedfullest of right among the
+Trojans.”
+
+Like as a little lark that in the air expatiates first singing, and
+then is silent, content with the last sweetness which satisfies her,
+such seemed to me the image of the imprint of the Eternal Plea, sure,
+according to whose desire everything becomes that which it is.[1] And
+though I was there, in respect to my doubt,[2] like glass to the color
+which cloaks it; it[3] endured not to await the time in silence, but
+with the force of its own weight urged from my mouth, “What things are
+these?” whereat I saw great festival of sparkling. Thereupon, with its
+eye more enkindled, the blessed ensign answered me , in order not to
+keep me in wondering suspense: “I see that thou believest these things
+because I say them, but thou seest not how; so that, although believed
+in, they are hidden. Thou dost as one who fully apprehends a thing by
+name, but cannot see its quiddity unless another explain it. Regnum
+coelorum[4] suffers violence from fervent love, and from a living hope
+which vanquishes the divine will; not in such wise as man overcomes
+man, but vanquishes it, because it wills to be vanquished, and,
+vanquished, vanquishes with its own benignity. The first life of the
+eyebrow and the fifth make thee marvel, because thou seest the region
+of the Angels painted with them. From their bodies they did not issue
+Gentiles, as thou believest, but Christians, in firm faith, one in the
+Feet that were to suffer, one in the Feet that had suffered.[5] For the
+one from Hell, where there is never return to righteous will, came back
+to his bones; and that was the reward of living hope; of living hope,
+which put its power in prayers made to God to raise him up, so that it
+might be possible his will should be moved.[6] The glorious soul,
+whereof I speak, returning to the flesh, in which it remained short
+while, believed in Him who was able to aid it; and in believing was
+kindled to such fire of true love, that at the second death it was
+worthy to come to this sport. The other, through grace which distils
+from a fount so deep that creature never pushed the eye far as its
+primal wave, there below set all his love on righteousness; wherefore
+from grace to grace God opened his eye to our future redemption, so
+that he believed in it, and thenceforth endured no more the stench of
+paganism, and reproved therefor the perverse folk. More than a thousand
+years before baptizing,[7] those three ladies whom thou sawest at the
+right wheel[8] were to him for baptism. O predestination, how remote is
+thy root from the sight of those who see not the entire First Cause!
+And ye, mortals, keep yourselves restrained in judging; for we who see
+God know not yet all the elect. And unto us such want is sweet, for our
+good is perfected in this good, that what God wills we also will.”
+
+[1] So, seemed the image (that is, the eagle), satiated with its bliss,
+whether in the speech or the silence imposed upon it by the Eternal
+Pleasure, in accordance with which all things fulfil their ends.
+
+
+[2] How Trajan and Rhipeus could be in Paradise, since none but those
+who had believed in Christ were there.
+
+
+[3] My doubt.
+
+
+[4] The kingdom of Heaven.”—Matthew, xi. 12.
+
+
+[5] Rhipeus died before the coming of Christ; Trajan after.
+
+
+[6] According to the legend, St. Gregory the Great prayed that Trajan,
+because of his great worth, might be restored to life long enough for
+his will to return to righteousness, and for him to profess his faith
+in Christ.
+
+
+[7] Before the divine institution of the rite of baptism his faith,
+hope, and charity served him in lieu thereof.
+
+
+[8] Of the Chariot of the Church. See Purgatory, Canto XXIX.
+
+
+Thus, to make my short sight clear, sweet medicine was given to me by
+that divine image. And as a good lutanist makes the vibration of the
+string accompany a good singer, whereby the song acquires more
+pleasantness, so it comes back to my mind that, while it spake, I saw
+the two blessed lights moving their flamelets to the words, just as the
+winking of the eyes concords.
+
+
+
+
+CANTO XXI.
+
+
+Ascent to the Heaven of Saturn.—Spirits of those who had given
+themselves to devout contemplation.—The Golden Stairway.—St. Peter
+Damian.—Predestination.—The luxury of modern Prelates.
+
+
+Now were my eyes fixed again upon the countenance of my Lady, and my
+mind with them, and from every other intent it was withdrawn; and she
+was not smiling, but, “If I should smile,” she began to me, “thou
+wouldst become such as Semele was when she became ashes; for my beauty,
+which along the stairs of the eternal palace is kindled the more, as
+thou hast seen, the higher it ascends, is so resplendent that, if it
+were not tempered, at its effulgence thy mortal power would be as a
+bough shattered by thunder. We are lifted to the seventh splendor which
+beneath the breast of the burning Lion now radiates downward mingled
+with his strength.[1] Fix thy mind behind thine eyes, and make of them
+mirrors for the shape which in this mirror shall be apparent to thee.”
+
+[1] The seventh splendor is Saturn, which was in the sign of the Lion,
+whence its rays fell to earth, mingled with the strong influences of
+the sign.
+
+
+He who should know what was the pasture of my sight in her blessed
+aspect, when I transferred me to another care, would recognize, by
+counterposing one side with the other, how pleasing it was to me to
+obey my celestial escort.
+
+Within the crystal which, circling round the world, bears the name of
+its shining leader, under whom all wickedness lay dead,[1] I saw, of
+the color of gold through which a sunbeam is shining,[2] a stairway
+rising up so high that my eye followed it not. I saw, moreover, so many
+splendors descending, along the steps, that I thought every light which
+appears in heaven was there diffused.
+
+[1] Saturn, in the golden age.
+
+
+[2] As in a painted window.
+
+
+And as, according to their natural custom, the rooks, at the beginning
+of the day, move about together, in order to warm their cold feathers;
+then some go away without return, others wheel round to whence they had
+set forth, and others, circling, make a stay; such fashion it seemed to
+me was here in that sparkling which came together, so soon as it struck
+on a certain step; and that which stopped nearest to us became so
+bright that I said in my thought, “I clearly see the love which thou
+signifiest to me. But she, from whom I await the how and the when of
+speech and of silence, stays still; wherefore I, contrary to desire, do
+well that I ask not.” Whereupon she, who saw my silence, in the sight
+of Him who sees everything, said to me, “Let loose thy warm desire.”
+
+And I began, “My own merit makes me not worthy of thy answer; but for
+her sake who concedes to me the asking, O blessed life, that keepest
+thyself hidden within thine own joy, make known to me the cause which
+has placed thee so near me; and tell why in this wheel the sweet
+symphony of Paradise is silent, which below through the others so
+devoutly sounds.” “Thou hast thy hearing mortal, as thy sight,” it
+replied to me; “therefore no song is here for the same reason that
+Beatrice has no smile. Down along the steps of the holy stairway I have
+thus far descended, only to give thee glad welcome with my speech and
+with the light that mantles me; nor has more love made me to be more
+ready, for as much and more love is burning here above, even as the
+flaming manifests to thee; but the high charity, which makes us ready
+servants to the counsel that governs the world, allots here,[1] even as
+thou observest.” “I see well,” said I, “O sacred lamp, how the free
+will of love suffices in this Court for following the eternal
+Providence. But this is what seems to me hard to discern, why thou
+alone wert predestined to this office among thy consorts.” I had not
+come to the last word before the light made a centre of its middle,
+whirling like a swift milestone. Then the love that was within it
+answered, “A divine light strikes upon me, penetrating through this
+wherein I embosom me: the virtue of which, conjoined with my vision,
+lifts me above myself so far that I see the Supreme Essence from which
+it emanates. Thence comes the joy wherewith I flame, because to my
+vision, in proportion as it is clear, I match the clearness of my
+flame. But that soul in Heaven which is most enlightened,[2] that
+Seraph who has his eye most fixed on God, could not satisfy thy demand;
+because that which thou askest lies so deep within the abyss of the
+eternal statute, that from every created sight it is cut off. And when
+thou retumest to the mortal world, carry this back, so that it may no
+more presume to move its feet toward such a goal. The mind which shines
+here, on earth is smoky; wherefore consider how there below it can do
+that which it cannot do though Heaven assume it.”
+
+[1] Assigns its part to each spirit.
+
+
+[2] With the Divine light.
+
+
+So did its words prescribe to me, that I left the question, and drew me
+back to ask it humbly who it was. “Between the two shores of Italy, and
+not very distant from thy native land, rise rocks so lofty that the
+thunders sound far lower down, and they make a height which is called
+Catria, beneath which a hermitage is consecrated which is wont to be
+devoted to worship only.”[1] Thus it began again to me with its third
+speech, and then, continuing, it said, “Here in the service of God I
+became so steadfast, that, with food of olive juice alone, lightly I
+used to pass the heats and frosts, content in contemplative thoughts.
+That cloister was wont to render in abundance to these heavens; and now
+it is become so empty as needs must soon be revealed. In that place I
+was Peter Damian,[2] and Peter a sinner had I been in the house of Our
+Lady on the Adriatic shore.[3] Little of mortal life was remaining for
+me, when I was sought for and dragged to that hat[4] which ever is
+passed down from bad to worse. Cephas[5] came, and the great vessel of
+the Holy Spirit[6] came, lean and barefoot, taking the food of
+whatsoever inn. Now the modern pastors require one to hold them up on
+this side and that, and one to lead them, so heavy are they, and one to
+support them behind. They cover their palfreys with their mantles, so
+that two beasts go under one skin. O Patience, that endurest so much!”
+At this voice I saw more flamelets from step to step descending and
+revolving, and each revolution made them more beautiful. Round about
+this one they came, and stopped, and uttered a cry of such deep sound
+that here could be none like it, nor did I understand it, the thunder
+so overcame me.
+
+[1] Catria is a high offshoot to the east from the chain of the
+Apennines, between Urbino and Gubbio. Far up on its side lies the
+monastery of Santa Croce di Fouts Avellana, belonging to the order of
+the Camaldulensians.
+
+
+[2] A famous doctor of the Church in the eleventh century. He was for
+many years abbot of the Monastery of Fonte Avellana.
+
+
+[3] These last words are obscure, and have given occasion to much
+discussion, after which they remain no clearer than before. The house
+of Our Lady on the Adriatic shore is supposed to be the monastery of
+Santa Maria in Porto, near Ravenna.
+
+
+[4] He was made cardinal in 1058, and died in 1072.
+
+
+[5] St. Peter. See John, i. 42.
+
+
+[6] St. Paul. “He is a chosen vessel unto me.”—Acts, ix. 15.
+
+
+
+
+CANTO XXII.
+
+
+Beatrice reassures Dante.—St. Benedict appears.—He tells of the
+founding of his Order, and of the falling away of its brethren.
+Beatrice and Dante ascend to the Starry Heaven.—The constellation of
+the Twins.—Sight of the Earth.
+
+
+Oppressed with amazement, I turned me to my Guide, like a little child
+who runs back always thither where he most confides. And she, like a
+mother who quickly succors her pale and breathless son with her voice,
+which is wont to reassure him, said to me, 11 Knowest thou not, that
+thou art in Heaven? and knowest thou not that Heaven is all holy, and
+whatever is done here comes from good zeal? How the song would have
+transformed thee, and I by smiling, thou canst now conceive, since the
+cry has moved thee so much; in which, if thou hadst understood its
+prayers, already would be known to thee the vengeance which thou shalt
+see before thou diest. The sword of here on high cuts not in haste, nor
+slow, save to the seeming of him who, desiring, or fearing, awaits it.
+But turn thee round now toward the others, for many illustrious spirits
+thou shalt see, if, as I say, thou dost lead back thy look.”
+
+As it pleased her I directed my eyes, and saw a hundred little spheres,
+which together were becoming more beautiful with mutual rays. I was
+standing as one who within himself represses the point of his desire,
+and attempts not to ask, he so fears the too-much. And the largest and
+the most luculent of those pearls came forward to make of its own
+accord my wish content. Then within it I heard, “If thou couldst see,
+as I do, the charity which burns among us, thy thoughts would be
+expressed. But that thou through waiting mayst not delay thy high end,
+I will make answer to thee, even to the thought concerning which thou
+art so regardful.
+
+“That mountain[1] on whose slope Cassino is, was of old frequented on
+its summit by the deluded and illdisposed people, and I am be who first
+carried up thither the name of Him who brought to earth the truth which
+so high exalts us: and such grace shone upon me that I drew away the
+surrounding villages from the impious worship which seduced the world.
+These other fires were all contemplative men, kindled by that heat
+which brings to birth holy flowers and fruits. Here is Macarius,[2]
+here is Romuald,[3] here are my brothers, who within the cloisters
+fixed their feet, and held a steadfast heart.” And I to him, “The
+affection which thou displayest in speaking with me, and the good
+semblance which I see and note in all your ardors, have so expanded my
+confidence as the sun does the rose, when she becomes open so much as
+she has power to be. Therefore I pray thee, and do thou, father, assure
+me if I have power to receive so much grace, that I may see thee with
+uncovered shape.” Whereon he, “Brother, thy high desire shall be
+fulfilled in the last sphere, where are fulfilled all others and my
+own. There perfect, mature, and whole is every desire; in that alone is
+every part there where it always was: for it is not in space, and hath
+not poles; and our stairway reaches up to it, wherefore thus from thy
+sight it conceals itself. Far up as there the patriarch Jacob saw it
+stretch its topmost part when it appeared to him so laden with Angels.
+But now no one lifts his feet from earth to ascend it; and my Rule is
+remaining as waste of paper. The walls, which used to be an abbey, have
+become caves; and the cowls are sacks full of bad meal. But heavy usury
+is not gathered in so greatly against the pleasure of God, as that
+fruit which makes the heart of monks so foolish. For whatsoever the
+Church guards is all for the folk that ask it in God's name, not for
+one's kindred, or for another more vile. The flesh of mortals is so
+soft that a good beginning suffices not below from the springing of the
+oak to the forming of the acorn. Peter began without gold and without
+silver, and I with prayers and with fasting, and Francis in humility
+his convent; and if thou lookest at the source of each, and then
+lookest again whither it has run, thou wilt see dark made of the white.
+Truly, Jordan turned back, and the sea fleeing when God willed, were
+more marvellous to behold than succor here.”[4]
+
+[1] Monte Cassino, in the Kingdom of Naples, on which a temple of
+Apollo had stood, was chosen by St. Benedict (480-543) as his abode,
+and became the site of the most famous monastery of his Order.
+
+
+[2] The Egyptian anchorite of the fourth century.
+
+
+[3] The founder of the order of Camaldoli; he died in 1027.
+
+
+[4] Were God now to interpose to correct the evils of the Church, the
+marvel would be less than that of the miracles of old, and therefore
+his interposition may be hoped for.
+
+
+Thus he said to me, and then drew back to his company, and the company
+closed up; then like a whirlwind all gathered itself upward.
+
+The sweet Lady urged me behind them, with only a sign, up over that
+stairway; so did her virtue overcome my nature. But never here below,
+where one mounts and descends naturally, was there motion so rapid that
+it could be compared unto my wing. So may I return, Reader, to that
+devout triumph, for the sake of which I often bewail my sins and beat
+my breast, thou hadst not so quickly drawn out and put thy finger in
+the fire as I saw the sign which follows the Bull,[1] and was within
+it.
+
+[1] The sign of the Gemini, or Twins, in the Heaven of the Fixed Stars.
+
+
+O glorious stars, O light impregnate with great virtue, from which I
+acknowledge all my genius, whatever it may be; with you was born and
+with you was hiding himself he who is father of every mortal life, when
+I first felt the Tuscan air;[1] and then, when the grace was bestowed
+on me of entrance within the lofty wheel which turns you, your region
+was allotted to me. To you my soul now devoutly sighs to acquire virtue
+for the difficult pass which draws her to itself.
+
+[1] At the time of Dante's birth the sun was in the sign of the Twins.
+
+
+“Thou art so near the ultimate salvation,” began Beatrice, “that thou
+oughtest to have thine eyes clear and sharp. And therefore ere thou
+further enterest it, look back downward, and see how great a world I
+have already set beneath thy feet, in order that thy heart, so far as
+it is able, may present itself joyous to the triumphant crowd which
+comes glad through this round aether.” With my sight I returned through
+each and all the seven spheres, and saw this globe such that I smiled
+at its mean semblance; and that counsel I approve as best which holds
+it of least account; and he who thinks of other things may be called
+truly worthy. I saw the daughter of Latona enkindled without that
+shadow which had been the cause why I once believed her rare and dense.
+The aspect of thy son, Hyperion, here I endured, and I saw how Maia and
+Dione[1] move around and near him. Then appeared to me the
+temperateness of Jove, between his father and his son,[2] and then was
+clear to me the variation which they make in their places. And all the
+seven were displayed to me,[[how great they are and how swift they are,
+and how they are in distant houses. While I was revolving with the
+eternal Twins, the little threshing-floor[3] which makes us so fierce
+all appeared to me, from its hills to its harbors.
+
+[1] The mothers of Venus and Mercury, by whose names these planets are
+designated.
+
+
+[2] Saturn and Mars.
+
+
+[3] The inhabited earth.
+
+
+Then I turned back my eyes to the beautiful eyes.
+
+
+
+
+CANTO XXIII.
+
+
+The Triumph of Christ.
+
+
+As the bird, among the beloved leaves, reposing on the nest of her
+sweet brood through the night which hides things from us, who, in order
+to see their longed-for looks and to find the food wherewith she may
+feed them, in which heavy toils are pleasing to her, anticipates the
+time upon the open twig, and with ardent affection awaits the sun,
+fixedly looking till the dawn may break; thus my Lady was standing
+erect and attentive, turned toward the region beneath which the sun
+shows least haste;[1] so that I, seeing her rapt and eager, became such
+as he who in desire should wish for something, and in hope is
+satisfied. But short while was there between one and the other WHEN:
+that of my awaiting, I mean, and of my seeing the heavens become
+brighter and brighter. And Beatrice said, “Behold the hosts of the
+triumph of Christ, and all the fruit harvested by the revolution of
+these spheres.”[2] It seemed to me her face was all aflame, and her
+eyes were so full of joy that I must needs pass it over without
+description.
+
+[1] The meridian.
+
+
+[2] By the beneficent influences of the planets.
+
+
+As in the clear skies at the full moon Trivia[1] smiles among the
+eternal nymphs who paint the heaven through all its depths, I saw,
+above myriads of lights, a Sun that was enkindling each and all of
+them, as ours kindles the supernal shows;[2] and through its living
+light the lucent Substance[3] shone so bright upon my face that I
+sustained it not.
+
+[1] An appellation of Diana, and hence of the moon.
+
+
+[2] According to the belief, referred to at the opening of the
+twentieth Canto, that the sun was the source of the light of the stars.
+
+
+[3] Christ in his glorified body.
+
+
+O Beatrice, sweet guide and dear!
+
+She said to me, “That which overcomes thee is a power from which naught
+defends itself. Here is the Wisdom and the Power that opened the roads
+between heaven and earth, for which there had already been such long
+desire.”
+
+As fire from a cloud unlocks itself by dilating, so that it is not
+contained therein, and against its own nature falls down to earth, so
+my mind, becoming greater amid those feasts, issued from itself; and
+what it became cannot remember.
+
+“Open thine eyes and look at what I am; thou hast seen things such that
+thou art become able to sustain my smile.” I was as one who awakes from
+a forgotten dream and endeavors in vain to bring it back again to
+memory, when I heard this invitation, worthy of such gratitude that it
+is never effaced from the book which records the past. If now all those
+tongues which Polyhymnia and her sisters made most fat with their
+sweetest milk should sound to aid me, one would not come to a
+thousandth of the truth in singing the holy smile and how it made the
+holy face resplendent. And thus in depicting Paradise the consecrated
+poem needs must make a leap, even as one who finds his way cut off. But
+whoso should consider the ponderous theme and the mortal shoulder which
+therewith is laden would not blame it if under this it tremble. It is
+no coasting voyage for a little barque, this which the intrepid prow
+goes cleaving, nor for a pilot who would spare himself.
+
+“Why doth my face so enamour thee that thou turnest not to the fair
+garden which beneath the rays of Christ is blossoming? Here is the
+rose,[1] in which the Divine Word became flesh: here are the lilies[2]
+by whose odor the good way was taken.” Thus Beatrice, and I, who to her
+counsel was wholly prompt, again betook me unto the battle of the
+feeble brows.
+
+[1] The Virgin.
+
+
+[2] The Apostles and Saints. The image is derived from St. Paul (2
+Corinthians, ii. 14): “Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us
+to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge
+by us in every place.” In the Vulgate the words are, “odorem notitiae
+suae manifestat per nos.”
+
+
+As my eyes, covered with a shadow, have ere now seen a meadow of
+flowers in a sunbeam which streamed bright through a rifted cloud, so
+saw I many throngs of splendors flashed-upon from above with burning
+rays, without seeing the source of the gleams. O benignant Power which
+so dost impress them, upwards didst thou exalt thyself to bestow space
+there for my eyes, which were powerless.[1]
+
+[1] The eyes of Dante, powerless to endure the sight of the glorified
+body of Christ, when that is withdrawn on high, are able to look upon
+those whom the light of Christ illumines.
+
+
+The name of the fair flower which I ever invoke both morning and
+evening, wholly constrained my mind to gaze upon the greater fire.[1]
+And when the form and the glory of the living star, which up. there
+surpasses as here below it surpassed, were depicted in both my eyes,
+through the mid heavens a torch, formed in a circle in fashion of a
+crown, descended, and engirt it, and revolved around it. Whatever
+melody sounds sweetest here below, and to itself most draws the soul,
+would seem a cloud which, rent apart, thunders, compared with the sound
+of that lyre wherewith was crowned the beauteous sapphire by which the
+brightest Heaven is ensapphired. “I am angelic Love, and I circle round
+the lofty joy which breathes from the bosom which was the hostelry of
+our desire; and I shall circle, Lady of Heaven, while thou shalt follow
+thy Son and make the supreme sphere more divine because thou enterest
+it.” Thus the circling melody sealed itself up, and all the other
+lights made resound the name of Mary.
+
+[1] The Virgin,—Rosa mistica,—the brightest of all the host that
+remained.
+
+
+The royal mantle[1] of all the volumes[2] of the world, which is most
+fervid and most quickened in the breath of God and in His ways, had its
+inner shore so distant above us that sight of it, there where I was,
+did not yet appear to me. Therefore my eyes had not the power to follow
+the incoronate flame, which mounted upward following her own seed. And
+as a little child which, when it has taken the milk, stretches its arms
+toward its mother, through the spirit that flames up outwardly, each of
+these white splendors stretched upward with its summit, so that the
+deep aflection which they had for Mary was manifest to me. Then they
+remained there in ray sight, singing “Regina coeli “ so sweetly that
+never has the delight departed from me. Oh how great is the plenty that
+is heaped up in those most rich chests which were good laborers in
+sowing here below! Here they live and enjoy the treasure that was
+acquired while weeping in the exile of Babylon, where the gold was left
+aside.[3] Here triumphs, under the high Son of God and of Mary, in his
+victory, both with the ancient and with the new council, he who holds
+the keys of such glory.[4]
+
+[l] The Primum Mobile, the ninth Heaven, which revolves around all the
+others.
+
+
+[2] The revolving spheres.
+
+
+[3] Despising the treasures of the world, in the Babylonish exile of
+this life, they laid up for themselves treasures in Heaven.
+
+
+[4] St. Peter.
+
+
+
+
+CANTO XXIV.
+
+
+St. Peter examines Dante concerning Faith, and approves his answer.
+
+
+“O company elect to the great supper of the blessed Lamb, who feeds you
+so that your desire is always full, since by grace of God this man
+foretastes of that which falls from your table, before death prescribes
+the time for him, give heed to his immense longing, and bedew him a
+little; ye drink ever of the fount whence comes that which he ponders.”
+Thus Beatrice; and those glad souls made themselves spheres upon fixed
+poles, flaming brightly in manner of comets. And as wheels within the
+fittings of clocks revolve, so that to him who gives heed the first
+seems quiet, and the last to fly, so these carols,[1] differently
+dancing, swift and slow, enabled me to estimate their riches.
+
+[1] A carol was a dance with song; here used for the souls who composed
+the carols, the difference in whose speed gave to Dante the gauge of
+their respective blessedness.
+
+
+From that which I noted of greatest beauty, I saw issue a fire so happy
+that it left there none of greater brightness; and three times it
+revolved round Beatrice with a song so divine that my fancy repeats it
+not to me; therefore the pen makes a leap, and I write it not, for our
+imagination, much more our speech, is of too vivid color[1] for such
+folds. “O holy sister mine, who so devoutly prayest to us, by thy
+ardent affection thou unbindest me from that beautiful sphere:” after
+it had stopped, the blessed fire directed to my Lady its breath, which
+spoke thus as I have said. And she, “O light eternal of the great man
+to whom our Lord left the keys, which he bore below, of this marvellous
+joy, test this man on points light and grave, as pleases thee,
+concerning the Faith, through which thou didst walk upon the sea. If he
+loves rightly, and hopes rightly, and believes, it is hidden not from
+thee, for thou hast thy sight there where everything—@is seen depicted.
+But since this realm has made citizens by the true faith, it is well
+that to glorify it speech of it should fall to him.”[2]
+
+[1] The figure is a little obscure; pieghe, “folds,” is a rhyme-word;
+the meaning seems to be that as folds cannot be painted properly with
+bright hues, so our imagination and our speech are not delicate enough
+for conceiving and depicting such exquisite delights.
+
+
+[2] The meaning seems to be,—Thou knowest that he has true faith, but
+because by its means one becomes a citizen of this realm, it is well
+that he should celebrate it.
+
+
+Even as, until the master propounds the question, the bachelor speaks
+not, and arms himself in order to adduce the proof, not to decide it,
+so, while she was speaking, I was arming me with every reason, in order
+to be ready for such a questioner, and for such a profession.
+
+“Say thou, good Christian, declare thyself; Faith,—what is it?” Whereon
+I raised my brow to that light whence this was breathed out. Then I
+turned to Beatrice, and she made prompt signals to me that I should
+pour the water forth from my internal fount. “May the Grace,” began I,
+“which grants to me that I confess myself to the high captain, cause my
+conceptions to be expressed.”[1] And I went on, “As the veracious pen,
+Father, of thy dear brother (who with thee set Rome on the good track)
+wrote of it, Faith is the substance of things hoped for, and evidence
+of things not seen:[2] and this appears to me its essence.” Then I
+heard, “Rightly dost thou think, if thou understandest well why he
+placed it among the substances, and then among the evidences.” And I
+thereon: “The deep things which grant unto me here the sight of
+themselves, are so hidden to eyes below that there their existence is
+in belief alone, upon which the high hope is founded, and therefore it
+takes the designation of substance; and from this belief we needs must
+syllogize, without having other sight, wherefore it receives the
+designation of evidence.”[3] Then I heard, “If whatever is acquired
+below for doctrine, were so understood, the wit of sophist would have
+no place there.” Thus was breathed forth from that enkindled love; then
+it added, “Very well have the alloy and the weight of this coin been
+now run through, but tell me if thou hast it in thy purse?” And I,
+“Yes, I have it so shining and so round that in its stamp nothing is
+uncertain to me.” Then issued from the deep light which was shining
+there, “This precious jewel, whereon every virtue is founded, whence
+came it to thee?” And I, “The abundant rain of the Heavenly Spirit,
+which is diffused over the Old and over the New parchments, is a
+syllogism[4] which has proved it to me so acutely that in comparison
+with it every demonstration seems to me obtuse.” I heard then, “The Old
+and the New proposition[5] which are so conclusive to thee,—why dost
+thou hold them for divine speech?” And I, “The proofs which disclose
+the truth to me are the works[6] that followed, for which nature never
+heated iron, nor beat anvil.” It was replied to me, “Say, what assures
+thee that these works were? The very thing itself which requires to be
+proved, naught else, affirms it to thee.” “If the world were converted
+to Christianity,” said I, “without miracles, this alone is such that
+the others are not the hundredth part; for thou didst enter poor and
+fasting into the field to sow the good plant, which once was a vine and
+now has become a thornbush.”
+
+[1] May it enable me to express clearly my conceptions.
+
+
+[2] Hebrews, xi, 1.
+
+
+[3] The argument is as follows: The things of the spiritual world
+having no visible existence upon earth, the hope of blessedness rests
+only on belief unsupported by material proof; this belief is Faith, and
+since on it alone are the high hopes founded, it is properly called
+their substance, that is, their essential quality. And since all our
+reasoning concerning spiritual things must be drawn not from visible
+things, but from the convictions of Faith, our faith is also properly
+called evidence.
+
+
+[4] The evidence afforded by the Old and the New Testament that they
+are inspired by the Holy Spirit, makes their teachings in regard to
+matters of faith conclusive.
+
+
+[5] The two premises of the syllogism.
+
+
+[6] The miracles.
+
+
+This ended, the high holy Court resounded through the spheres a “We
+praise God,” in the melody which thereabove is sung.
+
+And that Baron who thus from branch to branch, examining, had now drawn
+me on, so that to the last leaves we were approaching, began again:
+“The Grace that dallies with thy mind has opened thy mouth up to this
+point as it should be opened, so that I approve that which has issued
+forth, but now there is need to express what thou believest, and wbence
+it has been offered to thy belief.” “O holy father, spirit who seest
+that which thou so believedst that thou, toward the sepulchre, didst
+outdo younger feet,”[1] began I, “thou wishest that I should declare
+here the form of my ready belief, and also thou inquirest the cause of
+it. And I answer: I believe in one God, sole and eternal, who, unmoved,
+moves all the Heavens with love and with desire; and for such belief
+have I not only proofs physical and metaphysical, but that truth also
+gives it to me which hence rains down through Moses, through Prophets,
+and through Psalms, through the Gospel, and through you who wrote after
+the fiery Spirit made you holy. And I believe in three Eternal Persons,
+and these I believe one essence, so one and so threefold that it will
+admit to be conjoined with ARE and IS. Of the profound divine condition
+on which I touch, the evangelic doctrine ofttimes sets the seal upon my
+mind. This is the beginning; this is the spark which afterwards dilates
+to vivid flame, and like a star in heaven scintillates within me.”
+
+[1] “The other disciple did outrun Peter,” but Peter first “went into
+the sepulchre.” See John, xx. 4-6.
+
+
+Even as a lord who hears what pleases him, thereon, rejoicing in the
+news, embraces his servant, soon as he is silent, thus, blessing me as
+he sang, the apostolic light, at whose command I had spoken, thrice
+encircled me when I was silent; so had I pleased him in my speech.
+
+
+
+
+CANTO XXV.
+
+
+St. James examines Dante concerning Hope.—St. John appears,with a
+brightness so dazzling as to deprive Dante, for the time, of sight.
+
+
+If it ever happen that the sacred poem to which both heaven and earth
+have set their hand, so that it has made me lean for many years, sbould
+overcome the cruelty which bars me out of the fair sheep-fold, where a
+lamb I slept, an enemy to the wolves that give it war, then with other
+voice, with other fleece, Poet will I return, and on the font of my
+baptism will I take the crown; because there I entered into the faith
+which makes the souls known to God, and afterward. Peter, for its sake,
+thus encircled my brow.
+
+Then a light moved toward us from that sphere whence the first-fruit
+which Christ left of His vicars had issued. And my Lady, full of
+gladness, said to me, “Look, look! behold the Baron for whose sake
+Galicia is visited there below.”[1]
+
+[1] It was believed that St. James, the brother of St. John, was buried
+at Compostella, in the Spanish province of Galicia. His shrine was one
+of the chief objects of pilgrimage during the Middle Ages.
+
+
+Even as when the dove alights near his companion, and one, turning and
+cooing, displays its affection to the other, so by the one great Prince
+glorious I saw the other greeted, praising the food which feasts them
+thereabove. But after their gratulation was completed, silent coram
+me,[1] each stopped, so ignited that it overcame my sight. Smiling,
+then Beatrice said, “Illustrious life, by whom the largess of our
+basilica has been written,[2] do thou make Hope resound upon this
+height; thou knowest that thou dost represent it as many times as Jesus
+to the three displayed most brightness.”[3] “Lift up thy head and make
+thyself assured; for that which comes up here from the mortal world
+needs must be ripened in our rays.” This comfort from the second fire
+came to me; whereon I lifted up my eyes unto the mountains which bent
+them down before with too great weight.
+
+[1] “Before me.” Here, as sometimes elsewhere, it is not evident why
+Dante uses Latin words.
+
+
+[2] The reference is to the Epistle of James, which Dante, falling into
+a common error, attributes to St. James the Greater. The special words
+be had in mind may have been: “ God, that giveth to all men liberally,”
+i. 5; and “ Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and
+cometh down from the Father of lights,” i. 17. By “basilica” is meant
+the court or church of heaven.
+
+
+[3] Peter, James, and John, were chosen by their Master to be present
+at the raising of the daughter of Jairus, and to witness his
+Transfiguration. Peter personifying Faith, John personifying Love, it
+was natural to take James as the personification of Hope.
+
+
+“Since, through grace, our Emperor wills that thou, before thy death,
+come face to face with his Counts in the most secret hall, so that,
+having seen the truth of this Court, thou mayest therewith confirm in
+thyself and others the Hope which there below rightly enamours, say
+what it is, and how thy mind is flowering with it, and say whence it
+came to thee;” thus further did the second light proceed. And that
+compassionate one, who guided the feathers of my wings to such high
+flight, thus in the reply anticipated me.[1] “The Church militant has
+not any son with more hope, as is written in the Sun which irradiates
+all our band; therefore it is conceded to him, that from Egypt be
+should come to Jerusalem to see, ere the warfare be at end for him. The
+other two points which are asked not for sake of knowing, but that he
+may report how greatly this virtue is pleasing to thee, to him I leave,
+for they will not be difficult to him, nor of vainglory, and let him
+answer to this, and may the grace of God accord this to him.”
+
+[1] Beatrice answers the question to which the reply, had it been left
+to Dante, might seem to involve self-praise.
+
+
+As a disciple who follows his teacher, prompt and willing, in that
+wherein he is expert, so that his worth may be disclosed: “Hope,” said
+I, “is a sure expectation of future glory, which divine grace produces,
+and preceding merit.[1] From many stars this light comes to me, but be
+instilled it first into my heart who was the supreme singer[2] of the
+supreme Leader. Sperent in te,[3] 'who know thy name,' he says in his
+Theody,[4] and who knows it not, if he has my faith? Thou afterwards
+didst instil it into me with his instillation in thy Epistle, so that I
+am full, and upon others shower down again your rain.”
+
+[1] These words are taken directly from Peter Lombard (Liber
+Sententiarum, iii. 26). Love is the merit which precedes Hope.
+
+
+[2] David.
+
+
+[3] “They will hope in thee.” See Psalm ix. 10.
+
+
+[4] Divine song.
+
+
+While I was speaking, within the living bosom of that burning a flash
+was trembling, sudden and intense, in the manner of lightning. Then it
+breathed, “The love wherewith I still glow toward the virtue which
+followed me far as the palm, and to the issue of the field, wills that
+breathe anew to thee, that thou delight in it; and it is my pleasure,
+that thou tell that which Hope promises to thee.” And I, “The new and
+the old Scriptures set up the sign, and it points this out to me. Of
+the souls whom God hath made his friends, Isaiah says that each shall
+be clothed in his own land with a double garment,[1] and his own land
+is this sweet life. And thy brother, far more explicitly, there where
+he treats of the white robes, makes manifest to us this revelation.”[2]
+
+[1] “Therefore in their land they shall possess the double”—(Isaiah,
+1xi. 7); the double vesture of the glorified natural body and of the
+spiritual body.
+
+
+[2] Revelation, vii.
+
+
+And first, close on the end of these words, “Sperent in te” was heard
+from above us, to which all the carols made answer. Then among them a
+light became so bright that, if the Crab had one such crystal, winter
+would have a month of one sole day.[1] And as a glad maiden rises and
+goes and enters in the dance, only to do honor to the new bride, and
+not for any fault,[2] so saw I the brightened splendor come to the two
+who were turning in a wheel, such as was befitting to their ardent
+love. It set itself there into the song and into the measure, and my
+Lady kept her gaze upon them, even as a bride, silent and motionless.
+“This is he who lay upon the breast of our Pelican,[3] and from upon
+the cross this one was chosen to the great office.”[4] Thus my Lady,
+nor yet moved she her look from its fixed attention after than before
+these words of hers. As is he who gazes and endeavors to see the sun
+eclipsed a little, who through seeing becomes sightless, so did I
+become in respect to that last fire, till it was said, “Why dost thou
+dazzle thyself in order to see a thing which has no place here?[5] On
+earth my body is earth; and it will be there with the others until our
+number corresponds with the eternal purpose.[6] With their two garments
+in the blessed cloister are those two lights alone which ascended:[7]
+and this thou shalt carry back unto your world.”
+
+[1] If Cancer, which rises at sunset in early winter, had a star as
+bright as this, the night would be light as day.
+
+
+[2] Not for vanity, or love of, display.
+
+
+[3] A common type of Christ during the Middle Ages, because of the
+popular belief that the pelican killed its brood, and then revived them
+with its blood.
+
+
+[4] “Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother!”—John, xix. 27.
+
+
+[5] Dante seeks to see whether St. John is present in body as well as
+soul; his curiosity having its source in the words of the Gospel:
+“Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is
+that to thee? . . . Then went this saying abroad among the brethren,
+that that disciple should not die.”—John, xxi. 22, 23.
+
+
+[6] Till the predestined number of the elect is complete.
+
+
+[7] Jesus and Mary, who had been seen to ascend. See Canto XXIII.
+
+
+At this word the flaming gyre became quiet, together with the sweet
+mingling that was made of the sound of the trinal breath, even as, at
+ceasing of fatigue or danger, the oars, erst driven through the water,
+all stop at the sound of a whistle. Ah! how greatly was I disturbed in
+mind, when I turned to see Beatrice, at not being able to see her,
+although I was near her, and in the happy world.
+
+
+
+
+CANTO XXVI.
+
+
+St. John examines Dante concerning Love.—Dante's sight restored.—Adam
+appears, and answers questions put to him by Dante.
+
+
+While I was apprehensive because of my quenched sight, a breath which
+made me attentive issued from the effulgent flame that quenched it,
+saying, “While thou art regaining the sense of sight which thou hast
+consumed on me, it is well that thou make up for it by discourse. Begin
+then, and tell whereto thy soul is aimed, and make thy reckoning that
+sight is in thee bewildered and not dead; because the Lady who conducts
+thee through this divine region has in her look the virtue which the
+band of Ananias had.”[1] I said, “According to her pleasure, or soon or
+late, let the cure come to the eyes which were gates when she entered
+with the fire wherewith I ever burn! The Good which makes this court
+content is Alpha and Omega of whatsoever writing Love reads to me,
+either low or loud.” That same voice which had taken from me fear of
+the sudden dazzling, laid on me the charge to speak further, and said,
+“Surely with a finer sieve it behoves thee to clarify; it behoves thee
+to tell who directed thy bow to such a target.” And I, “By philosophic
+arguments and by authority that hence descends, such love must needs be
+impressed on me; for the good, so far as it is good, in proportion as
+it is understood, kindles love; and so much the greater as the more of
+goodness it includes within itself. Therefore, to the Essence (wherein
+is such supremacy that every good which is found outside of It is
+naught else than a beam of Its own radiance), more than to any other,
+the mind of every one who discerns the truth on which this argument is
+founded must needs be moved in love.[2] Such truth to my intelligence
+he makes plain, who demonstrates to me the first love of all the
+sempiternal substances.[3] The voice of the true Author makes it plain
+who, speaking of Himself, says to Moses, 'I will make thee see all
+goodness.'[4] Thou, too, makest it plain to me, beginning the lofty
+proclamation which there below, above all other trump, declares the
+secret of this place on high.”[5] And I heard, “By human understanding,
+and by authorities concordant with it, thy sovran love looks unto God;
+but say, further, if thou feelest other cords draw thee towards Him, so
+that thou mayest declare with how many teeth this love bites thee.”
+
+[1] Acts ix.
+
+
+[2] The argument is,—Whatever is good kindles love for itself; the
+greater the good the greater the love; God is the supreme good and
+therefore the chief object of love.
+
+
+[3] It is doubtful to whom Dante here refers. The first love of
+immortal creatures is for their own First Cause.
+
+
+[4] “I will make all my goodness pass before thee.”—Exodus, xxxiii, 19.
+
+
+[5] “God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God
+in him.”—1 John, iv. 16.
+
+
+The holy intention of the Eagle of Christ was not latent to me; nay,
+rather I perceived whither he wished to lead my profession; therefore,
+I began again: “All those bitings which can make the heart turn to God
+have been concurrent unto my charity;[1] for the existence of the
+world, and my own existence, the death that He endured that I may live,
+and that which all the faithful hope even as I do, together with the
+aforesaid living knowledge, have drawn me from the sea of perverted
+love, and have set me on the shore of the right. The leaves, wherewith
+all the garden of the Eternal Gardener is enleaved, I love in
+proportion as good is borne unto them from Him.”
+
+[1] Have concurred to inspire me with love of God.
+
+
+Soon as I was silent a most sweet song resounded through the heavens,
+and my Lady said with the rest, “Holy, Holy, Holy.”
+
+And as at a keen light sleep is broken by the spirit of sight, which
+runs to the splendor that goes from coat to coat,[1] and he who awakes
+shrinks from what he sees, so confused is his sudden wakening, until
+his judgment comes to his aid; thus Beatrice chased away every mote
+from my eyes with the radiance of her own, which were resplendent more
+than a thousand miles; so that I then saw better than before; and, as
+it were amazed, I asked about a fourth light which I saw with us. And
+my Lady, “Within those rays the first soul which the First Power ever
+created gazes with joy upon its creator.”
+
+[1] The spirit of the sight runs to meet the light which flashes
+through the successive coats of the eye.
+
+
+As the bough that bends its top at passing of the wind, and then lifts
+itself by its own virtue which raises it, so did I, in amazement, the
+while she was speaking; and then a desire to speak, wherewith I was
+burning, gave me again assurance, and I began, “O Apple, that alone
+wast produced mature, O ancient Father, to whom every bride is daughter
+and daughter-in-law, devoutly as I can, I supplicate thee that thou
+speak to me; thou seest my wish, and in order to hear thee quickly, I
+do not tell it.”
+
+Sometimes an animal, which is covered up, so stirs, that his desire
+must needs become apparent through the corresponding movement which
+that which wraps him makes; and in like manner the first soul made
+evident to me, through its covering, how gladly it came to do me
+pleasure. Then it breathed, “Without its being uttered to me by thee, I
+better discern thy wish, than thou whatever thing is most certain to
+thee; because I see it in the truthful mirror which makes of Itself a
+likeness of other tbings, while nothing makes for It a likeness of
+Itself.[1] Thou wouldst hear how long it is since God placed me in the
+lofty garden where this Lady disposed thee for so long a stairway; and
+how long it was a delight to my eyes; and the proper cause of the great
+wrath; and the idiom which I used and which I made. Now, my son, the
+tasting of the tree was not by itself the cause of so long an exile,
+but only the overpassing of the bound. There whence thy Lady moved
+Virgil, I longed for this assembly during four thousand three hundred
+and two revolutions of the sun; and while I was on earth I saw him
+return to all the lights of his path nine hundred and thirty times. The
+tongue which I spoke was all extinct long before the people of Nimrod
+attempted their unaccomplishable work; for never was any product of the
+reason (because of human liking, which alters, following the heavens)
+durable for ever.[2] A natural action it is for man to speak; but, thus
+or thus, nature then leaves for you to do according as it pleases you.
+Before I descended to the infernal anguish, the Supreme Good, whence
+comes the gladness that swathes me, was on earth called I; EL it was
+called afterwards;[3] and that must needs be,[4] for the custom of
+mortals is as a leaf on a branch, which goes away and another comes. On
+the mountain which rises highest from the wave I was, with pure life
+and sinful, from the first hour to that which, when the sun changes
+quadrant, follows the sixth hour.”[5]
+
+[1] All things are seen in God as if reflected in a mirror; but nothing
+can reflect an image of God. “In the eternal Idea, as in a glass, the
+works of God are more perfectly seen than in themselves. . . . But it
+is impossible for a thing created to represent that which is
+increated.”—John Norton, The Orthodox Evangelist, 1554, p. 332.
+
+
+[2] Speech, a product of human reason, changes according to the
+pleasure of main, which alters from time to time under the influence of
+the heavens.
+
+
+[3] God was known in the primitive language by the sacred and mystical
+symbol I or J, the Hebrew letter Jod; afterwards by the term El: the
+first answering to Jehovah, the second to Elohim.
+
+
+[4] Such change in the name was inevitable, because of the changing
+customs of thought and speech.
+
+
+[5] Adam's stay in the Earthly Paradise on the summit of the mount of
+Purgatory was thus a little more than six hours; the sun changes
+quadrant with every six hours.
+
+
+
+
+CANTO XXVII.
+
+
+Denunciation by St. Peter of his degenerate successors.—Dante gazes
+upon the Earth.—Ascent of Beatrice and Dante to the Crystalline
+Heaven.—Its nature.—Beatrice rebukes the covetousness of mortals.
+
+
+“To the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit be glory,” all
+Paradise began, so that the sweet song was inebriating me. That which I
+was seeing seemed to me a smile of the Universe; for my inebriation was
+entering through the hearing and through the sight. O joy! O ineffable
+gladness! O life entire of love and of peace! O riches secure, without
+longing![1]
+
+[1] Which leave nothing for desire.
+
+
+Before my eyes the four torches were standing enkindled, and that which
+had come first began to make itself more vivid, and in its semblance be
+came such as Jove would become, if be and Mars were birds, and should
+interchange feathers.[1] The Providence which here apportions turn and
+office, had imposed silence on the blessed choir on every side, when I
+heard, “If I change color, marvel not; for, while I speak, thou shalt
+see all these change color. He who on earth usurps my place, my place,
+my place, which is vacant in the presence of the Son of God, has made
+of my burial-place a sewer of blood and of stench, wherewith the
+Perverse One who fell from here above, below there is placated.”
+
+[1] The pure white light becoming red.
+
+
+With that color which, by reason of the opposite sun, paints the cloud
+at evening and at morning, I then saw the whole Heaven overspread. And
+like a modest lady who abides sure of herself, and at the fault of
+another, in bearing of it only, becomes timid, even thus did Beatrice
+change countenance; and such eclipse I believe there was in heaven when
+the Supreme Power suffered.
+
+Then his words proceeded, in a voice so transmuted from itself that his
+countenance was not more changed; “The Bride of Christ was not nurtured
+on my blood, on that of Linus and of Cletus, to be employed for acquist
+of gold; but for acquist of this glad life Sixtus and Pius and Calixtus
+and Urban[1] shed their blood after much weeping. It was not our
+intention that part of the Christian people should sit on the right
+hand of our successors, and part on the other; nor that the keys which
+were conceded to me should become a sign upon a banner which should
+fight against those who are baptized;[2] nor that I should be a figure
+on a seal to venal and mendacious privileges, whereat I often redden
+and flash. In garb of shepherd, rapacious wolves are seen from
+here-above over all the pastures: O defence of God, why dost thou yet
+lie still! To drink our blood Cahorsines and Gascons are making
+ready:[3] O good beginning, to what vile end behoves it that thou fall!
+But the high Providence which with Scipio defended for Rome the glory
+of the world, will succor speedily, as I conceive. And thou, son, who
+because of thy mortal weight wilt again return below, open thy mouth,
+and conceal not that which I conceal not.”
+
+[1] Early Popes martyred for the faith.
+
+
+[2] A reference to the war which Boniface VIII. waged against the
+Colonnesi. See Inferno, Canto XXVII.
+
+
+[3] John XXII., who came to the Papacy in 1316, was a native of Cahors;
+his immediate predecessor, Clement V., 1305-1314, was a Gascon. The
+passage is one of those which shows that this portion of the poem was
+in hand during the last years of Dante's life.
+
+
+[4] In midwinter, when the sun is in Capricorn.
+
+
+Even as our air snows down flakes of frozen vapors, when the horn of
+the Goat of heaven touches the sun,[1] so, upward, I saw the aether
+become adorned, and flaked with the triumphant vapors[2] that had made
+sojourn there with us. My sight was following their semblances, and
+followed, till the intermediate space by its greatness pre. vented it
+from passing further onward. Whereon my Lady, who saw me disengaged
+from upward heeding, said to me, “Cast down thy sight, and look how
+thou hast revolved.”
+
+[1] The spirits.
+
+
+Since the hour when I had first looked, I saw that I had moved through
+the whole are which the first climate makes from its middle to its
+end;[1] so that I saw beyond Cadiz the mad track of Ulysses, and near
+on this side the shore[2] on which Europa became a sweet burden. And
+more of the site of this little threshing-floor would have been
+discovered to me, but the sun was proceeding beneath my feet, a sign
+and more removed.[3]
+
+[1] From Dante's first look downward from the Heavens, at the end of
+Canto XXII, to the present moment, he had moved over the arc which the
+first climate describes from its middle to its end. The old geographers
+divided the earth into seven zones, called climates, by circles
+parallel to the equator. The first climate extended twenty degrees to
+the north of the equator. The sign of the Gemini, in which Dante was
+revolving in the Heaven of the Fixed Stars, is in the zone of the
+Heavens corresponding to the first climate. As each climate extended on
+the habitable hemisphere for one hundred and eighty degrees, the arc
+from its middle to its end would be of ninety degrees, comprised
+between Jerusalem and Cadiz, and the time required for passing through
+it would be six hours, one fourth of the diurnal revolution of the
+Heavens.
+
+
+[2] The shore of Phoenicia, whence Europa was carried off by Jupiter.
+
+
+[3] The Sun in Aries was separated by Taurus from Gemini; hence not all
+of the hemisphere of the earth seen from Gemini was illuminated by the
+sun, which was some three hours in advance.
+
+
+My enamoured mind, that ever dallies with my Lady, was more than ever
+burning to bring back my eyes to her. And if nature has made bait in
+human flesh, or art in its paintings, to catch the eyes in order to
+possess the mind, all united would seem naught compared to the divine
+pleasure which shone upon me when I turned me to her smiling face. And
+the virtue with which the look indulged me, tore me from the fair nest
+of Leda,[1] and impelled me to the swiftest heaven.[2]
+
+[1] From Gemini, the constellation of Castor and Pollux, the twin sons
+of Leda.
+
+
+[2] The Primum Mobile, or Crystalline Heaven.
+
+
+Its parts, most living and lofty, are so uniform that I cannot tell
+which of them Beatrice chose for a place for me. But she, who saw my
+desire, began, smiling so glad that God seemed to rejoice in her
+countenance, “The nature of the world[1] which quiets the centre, and
+moves all the rest around it, begins here as from its, starting-point.
+And this heaven has no other Where than the Divine Mind, in which the
+love that revolves it is kindled, and the virtue which it rains down.
+Light and love enclose it with one circle, even as this does the
+others, and of that cincture He who girds it is the sole
+Intelligence.[2] The motion of this heaven is not marked out by
+another, but the others are measured by this, even as ten by a half and
+by a fifth.[3] And how time can hold its roots in such a flower-pot,
+and in the others its leaves, may now be manifest to thee.
+
+[1] The world of the revolving Heavens.
+
+
+[2] The Angelic Intelligences move the lower Heavens, but of the
+Empyrean God himself is the immediate governor.
+
+
+[3] The reversal of magnitudes makes this image obscure. The motion of
+the Crystalline Heaven, the swiftest of all, determines the slower
+motions of the Heavens below it, and divides them; as five and two
+divide ten. The fixed unit of time is the day which is established by
+the revolution of the Primum Mobile.
+
+
+“O covetousness,[1] which whelms mortals beneath thee, so that no one
+has power to withdraw his eyes from out thy waves! Well. blossoms the
+will in men, but the continual rain converts the true plums into
+wildings. Faith and innocence are found only in children; then both fly
+away ere yet the cheeks are covered. One, so long as he stammers,
+fasts, who afterward, when his tongue is loosed, devours whatever food
+under whatever moon; and one, while stammering, loves his mother and
+listens to her, who, when speech is perfect, desires then to see her
+buried. So the skin of the fair daughter of him who brings morning and
+leaves evening, white in its first aspect, becomes black.[2] Do thou,
+in order that thou make not marvel, reflect that on earth there is no
+one who governs; wherefore the human family is gone astray. But ere
+January be all un-wintered by that hundredth part which is down there
+neglected,[3] these supernal circles shall so roar that the storm which
+is so long awaited shall turn the sterns round to where the prows are,
+so that the fleet shall run straight, and true fruit shall come after
+the flower.”
+
+[1] The connection of the ideas presented in what precedes with this
+denunciation of covetousness, or selfishness, is not at first apparent.
+But the transition is not unnatural, from the consideration of the
+Heaven which pours down Divine influence, to the thought of the
+engrossment of men in the pursuit of their selfish and transitory ends,
+in which they are blinded to heavenly and eternal good.
+
+
+[2] Both the order of the words and the meaning of this sentence axe
+obscure.
+
+
+[3] Before January falls in spring, owing to the lack of correctness in
+the calendar, by which the year is lengthened by about a day in each
+century. It is as if the poet said,—Before a thousand years shall pass;
+meaning,—Within short while.
+
+
+
+
+CANTO XXVIII.
+
+
+The Heavenly Hierarchy.
+
+
+After she who imparadises my mind had disclosed the truth counter to
+the present life of wretched mortals, as he, who is lighted by a candle
+from behind, sees its flame in a mirror before he has it in sight or in
+thought, and turns round to see if the glass tell him the truth, and
+sees that it accords with it as the note with its measure;[1] I thus my
+memory recollects that I did, looking into the beautiful eyes,
+wherewith Love made the cord to ensnare me.[2] And when I turned, and
+mine were touched by that which is apparent in that revolving sphere
+whenever one gazes fixedly on its gyration, I saw a Point which was
+raying out light so keen that the sight on which it blazes must needs
+close because of its intense keenness. And whatso star seems smallest
+here would seem a moon if placed beside it, as star with star is
+placed. Perhaps as near as a halo seems to girdle the light which
+paints it, when the vapor that bears it is most dense, at such distance
+round the Point a circle of fire was whirling so swiftly that it would
+have surpassed that motion which with most speed girds the world; and
+this was by another circumcinct, and that by the third, and the third
+then by the fourth, by the fifth the fourth, and then by the sixth the
+fifth. Thereon the seventh followed, so spread now in compass that the
+messenger of Juno entire[3] would be narrow to contain it. So the
+eighth and the ninth; and each was moving more slowly, according as it
+was in number more distant from the first.[4] And that one had the
+clearest flame from which the Pure Spark was least distant; I believe
+because it partakes more of It. My Lady, who saw me deeply suspense in
+doubt, said, “On that Point Heaven and all nature are dependent. Gaze
+on that circle which is most conjoined to It, and know that its motion
+is so swift because of the burning love whereby it is spurred.” And I
+to her, “If the world were set in the order which I see in those
+wheels, that which is propounded to me would have satisfied me; but in
+the world of sense the revolutions may be seen so much the more divine
+as they are more remote from the centre.[5] Wherefore if my desire is
+to have end in this marvellous and angelic temple, which has for
+confine only love and light, I need yet to hear why the example and the
+exemplar go not in one fashion, because I by myself contemplate this in
+vain.” “If thy fingers are insufficient for such a knot, it is no
+wonder, so hard has it become through not being tried.” Thus my Lady;
+then she said, “Take that which I shall tell thee, if thou wouldest be
+satisfied, and make subtle thy wit about it. The corporeal circles[6]
+are wide and narrow according to the more or less of virtue which is
+spread through all their parts. Greater goodness must make greater
+welfare; the greater body, if it has its parts equally complete,
+contains greater welfare. Hence this one,[7] which sweeps along with
+itself all the rest of the universe, corresponds to the circle[8] which
+loves most, and knows most. Therefore, if thou compassest thy measure
+round the virtue, not round the seeming of the substances which appear
+circular to thee, thou wilt see in each heaven a marvellous agreement
+with its Intelligence, of greater to more and of smaller to less.”[9]
+
+[1] As the note of the song with the measure of the verse.
+
+
+[2] The eyes of Beatrice reflected, as a mirror, the light which shone
+from God.
+
+
+[3] The full circle of Iris, or the rainbow.
+
+
+[4] These circles of fire are the nine orders of Angels.
+
+
+[5] The planetary spheres partake more of the divine nature, and move
+more swiftly, in proportion to their distance from the earth, their
+centre.
+
+
+[6] The planetary spheres.
+
+
+[7] The ninth sphere.
+
+
+[8] Of the angelic hierarchy.
+
+
+[9] The greater heaven corresponds to the angelic circle of the
+Intelligences which love God most and know most of Him; the smaller to
+that of those which love and know least.
+
+
+As the hemisphere of the air remains splendid and serene when Boreas
+blows from that cheek wherewith he is mildest,[1] whereby the mist
+which first troubled it is cleared and dissolved, so that the heaven
+smiles to us with the beauties of all its flock, so I became after my
+Lady had provided me with her clear answer, and, like a star in heaven,
+the truth was seen.
+
+[1] When Boreas blows the north wind more from the west than from the
+east.
+
+
+And after her words had stopped, not otherwise does molten iron throw
+out sparks than the circles sparkled. Every scintillation followed its
+flame,[1] and they were so many that their number, was of more
+thousands than the doubling of the chess. I heard Hosaimah sung from
+choir to choir to the fixed Point that holds them, and will forever
+hold them, at the Ubi[2] in which they have ever been. And she, who saw
+the dubious thoughts within my mind, said, “The first circles have
+shown to thee the Seraphim and the Cherubim. Thus swiftly they follow
+their own bonds,[3] in order to liken themselves to the Point so far as
+they can, and they can so far as they are exalted to see. Those other
+loves, which go round about them, are called Thrones of the divine
+aspect, because they terminated the first triad.[4] And thou shouldst
+know that all have delight in proportion as their vision penetrates
+into the True in which every understanding is at rest. Hence may be
+seen how beatitude is founded on the act which sees, not on that which
+loves, which follows after. And merit, which grace and good will bring
+forth, is the measure of this seeing; thus is the progress from grade
+to grade.
+
+[1] The innumerable sparks each moved in accord with the gyration of
+its flaming circle. The doubling of the chess alludes to the story that
+the inventor of the game asked, as his reward from the King of Persia,
+a grain of wheat for the first square of the board, two for the second,
+and so on to the last or sixty-fourth square. The number reached by
+this process of duplication extends to twenty figures.
+
+
+[2] The WHERE, the appointed place.
+
+
+[3] The course of their respective circles to which they are bound.
+
+
+[4] “Throni elevantur ad hoc quod Deum familiariter in seipsis
+recipiant.”—Summa Theol., I, cviii. 6.
+
+
+“The next triad that thus buds in this sempiternal spring which the
+nightly Aries despoils not,[1] perpetually sing their spring song of
+Hosannah with three melodies, which sound in the three orders of joy
+wherewith it is threefold. In this hierarchy are the three Divinities,
+first Dominations, and then the Virtues; the third order is of Powers.
+Then, in the two penultimate dances, the Principalities and Archangels
+circle; the last is wholly of Angelic sports. These orders are all
+upward gazing, and downward prevail, so that toward God they all are
+drawn, and they all draw. And Dionysius[2] with such great desire set
+himself to contemplate these orders, that he named and divided them, as
+I. But Gregory[3] afterward separated from him; wherefore, so soon as
+he opened his eyes in this Heaven, he smiled at himself. And if a
+mortal proffered on earth so much of secret truth, I would not have
+thee wonder, for he who saw it hereabove[4] disclosed it to him, with
+much else of the truth of these circles.”
+
+[1] At the autumnal equinox, the time of frosts, Aries is the sign in
+which the night rises.
+
+
+[2] The Areopagite. See Canto X.
+
+
+[3] The Pope, St. Gregory, who differs slightly from Dionysius in his
+arrangement of the Heavenly host.
+
+
+[4] St. Paul, supposed to have communicated to his disciple the
+knowledge which he gained when caught up to Heaven. See 2 Cor., xii. 2.
+
+
+
+
+CANTO XXIX.
+
+
+Discourse of Beatrice concerning the creation and nature of the
+Angels.—She reproves the presumption and foolishness of preachers.
+
+
+When both the children of Latona, covered by the Ram and by the Scales,
+together make a zone of the horizon,[1] as long as from the moment the
+zenith holds them in balance, till one and the other, changing their
+hemisphere, are unbalanced from that girdle, soloing, with her
+countenance painted with a smile, was Beatrice silent, looking fixedly
+upon the Point which had overcome me. Then she began: “I speak, and I
+ask not what thou wishest to hear, for I have seen it where every WHERE
+and every WHEN are centred. Not for the gain of good unto Himself,
+which cannot be, but that His splendor might, in resplendence, say,
+Subsisto; in His own eternity, outside of time, outside of every other
+limit, as pleased Him, the Eternal Love disclosed Himself in new loves.
+Nor before, as if inert, did He lie; for the going forth of God upon
+these waters had proceeded neither before nor after.[2] Form and
+matter, conjoined and simple, came forth to existence which had no
+defect, as three arrows from a three-stringed bow; and as in glass, in
+amber, or in crystal a ray shines so that there is no interval between
+its coining and its complete existence, so the triform effect[3] rayed
+forth from its Lord into its. existence all at once, without
+discrimination of beginning. Order was concreate, and established for
+the substances, and those were top of the world in which pure act was
+produced.[4] Pure potency held the lowest part;[5] in the middle such a
+bond unites potency with act, that it is never unbound.[6] Jerome has
+written to you of the Angels, created a long tract of centuries before
+the rest of the world was made. But this truth[7] is written on many
+pages by the writers of the that Holy Spirit: and thou wilt thyself
+discover it, if thou watchest well for it; and even the reason sees it
+somewhat, for it would not admit that the motors could be so long
+without their perfection.[8] Now thou knowest where and when these
+loves were elected, and how; so that three flames of thy desire are
+already quenched.
+
+[1] When at the spring equinox, the sun being in the sign of Aries or
+the Ram, and the moon in that of Libra or the Scales, opposite to each
+other on the horizon, the one just rising and the other setting, they
+seem as if held for a moment in a balance which hangs from the zenith.
+
+
+[2] In eternity there is no before or after; time had no existence till
+the creation, and has relevancy only to created things.
+
+
+[3] Pure form, pure matter, and form conjoined with matter.
+
+
+[4] The substances created purely active, to exercise action upon
+others, were the angels.
+
+
+[5] The substances purely passive, capable potentially only of
+submitting to the action of others, are the material things without
+intelligence.
+
+
+[6] The substances in which potency and act are united are the
+creatures endowed with bodies and souls.
+
+
+[7] The truth here set forth (contrary to Jerome's assertion), the
+creation of the Angels was contemporaneous with that of the creation of
+the rest of the Universe of which they were the Intelligences.
+
+
+[8] Without scope for their action as movers of the spheres.
+
+
+One would not reach to twenty, in counting, so quickly as a part of the
+Angels disturbed the subject of your elements.[1] The rest remained and
+began this art which thou beboldest, with such great delight that they
+never cease from circling. The origin of the fall was the accursed
+pride of him whom thou hast seen opprest by all the weights of the
+world. Those whom thou seest here were modest in grateful recognition
+of the goodness which had made them ready for intelligence so great;
+wherefore their vision was exalted with illuminant grace and with their
+merit, so that they have full and steadfast will. And I wish that thou
+doubt not, but be certain, that to receive grace is meritorious in
+proportion as the affection is open to it.
+
+[1] The earth.
+
+
+“Henceforth, if my words have been harvested, thou canst contemplate
+sufficiently round about this consistory without other assistance. But
+because on earth it is taught in your schools that the angelic nature
+is such that it understands, and remembers, and wills, I will speak
+further, in order that thou mayest see the truth pure, which there
+below is mixed, through the equivocation in such like teaching. These
+substances, from the time that they were glad in the face of God, have
+not turned their sight from it, from which nothing is concealed.
+Therefore they have not their vision interrupted by a new object, and
+therefore do not need because of divided thought to recollect.[1] So
+that there below men dream when not asleep, believing and not believing
+to speak truth; but in the one is more fault and more shame.[2] Ye
+below go not along one path in philosophizing; so much do the love of
+appearance[3] and the thought of it transport you; and yet this is
+endured hereabove with less indignation than when the divine Scripture
+is set aside, or when it is perverted. Men think not there how much
+blood it costs to sow it in the world, and how much he pleases who
+humbly keeps close to its side. Every one strives for appearance, and
+makes his own inventions, and those are discoursed of by the preachers,
+and the Gospel is silent. One says that the moon turned back at the
+passion of Christ and interposed herself, so that the light of the sun
+reached not down; and others that the light hid itself of its own
+accord, so that this eclipse answered for the Spaniards and for the
+Indians as well as for the Jews. Florence hath not so many Lapi and
+Bindi[4] as there are fables such as these shouted the year long from
+the pulpits, on every side; so that the poor flocks, who have no
+knowledge, return from the pasture fed with wind; and not seeing the
+harm does not excuse them. Christ did not say to his first company,
+'Go, and preach idle stories to the world,' but he gave to them the
+true foundation; and that alone sounded in their cheeks, so that in the
+battle for kindling of the faith they made shield and lance of the
+Gospel. Now men go forth to preach with jests and with buffooneries,
+and provided only there is a good laugh the cowl puffs up, and nothing
+more is required. But such a bird is nesting in the tail of the hood,
+that if the crowd should see it, they would see the pardon in which
+they confide; through which such great folly has grown on earth, that,
+without proof of any testimony, men would flock to every indulgence. On
+this the pig of St. Antony fattens, and others also, who are far more
+pigs, paying with money that has no stamp of coinage.
+
+[1] The angels, looking always upon God, to whom all things are
+present, have no need of memory.
+
+
+[2] Many of the doctrines of men on earth axe like dreams, because they
+have no foundation in truth; and while some honestly believe in them,
+there are others, who, though not believing, still teach these
+doctrines as truth.
+
+
+[3] Of making a good show.
+
+
+[4] Common nicknames in Florence; Lapo is from Jacopo, Bindo from
+Ildebrando.
+
+
+“But because we have digressed enough, turn back thine eyes now toward
+the straight path, so that the way be shortened with the time. This
+nature[1] so extends in number, that never was there speech or mortal
+concept that could go so far. And if thou considerest that which is
+revealed by Daniel thou wilt see that in his thousands[2] a determinate
+number is concealed. The primal light that irradiates it all is
+received in it by as many modes as are the splendors with which the
+light pairs itself.[3] Wherefore, since the affection follows upon the
+act[4] that conceives, in this nature the sweetness of love diversely
+glows and warms. Behold now the height and the breadth of the Eternal
+Goodness, since it has made for itself so many mirrors on which it is
+broken, One in itself remaining as before.”
+
+[1] The Angels.
+
+
+[2] “Thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten
+thousand stood before him.”—Daniel, vii. 10.
+
+
+[3] No two angels are precisely alike in their vision of God.
+
+
+[4] Since love follows on knowledge through vision.
+
+
+
+
+CANTO XXX.
+
+
+Ascent to the Empyrean.—The River of Light.—The celestial Rose.—The
+seat of Henry VII.—The last words of Beatrice.
+
+
+The sixth hour is glowing perhaps six thousand miles distant from us,
+and this world now inclines its shadow almost to a level bed, when the
+mid heaven, deep above us, begins to become such that some one star
+loses its show so far as to this depth;[1] and as the brightest
+handmaid of the sun comes farther on, so the heaven is closed from
+light to light, even to the most beautiful. Not otherwise the Triumph,
+that plays forever round the Point which vanquished me, seeming
+enclosed by that which it encloses, little by little to my sight was
+extinguished;[2] wherefore my seeing nothing, and my love constrained
+me to turn with my eyes to Beatrice. If what has been said of her so
+far as here were all included in a single praise, it would be little to
+furnish out this turn. The beauty which I saw transcends measure not
+only by us, but truly I believe that its Maker alone can enjoy it all.
+
+[1] When it is noon,—the sixth hour,—six thousand miles away from us to
+the east, it is about daybreak where we are; the shadow of the earth
+lies in the plane of vision, and with the growing light the stars one
+after another become invisible at this depth, that is, to one on earth.
+
+
+[2] Losing itself in the light which streams from the Divine point.
+
+
+By this pass I concede myself vanquished more than ever comic or tragic
+poet was overcome by crisis of his theme. For as the sun does to the
+sight which trembles most, even so remembrance of the sweet smile
+deprives my mind of its very self. From the first day that I saw her
+face in this life, even to this look, the following with my song has
+not been interrupted for me, but now needs must my pursuit desist from
+further following her beauty in my verse, as at his utmost every
+artist.
+
+Such, as I leave her to a greater heralding than that of my trumpet,
+which is bringing its arduous theme to a close, with act and voice of a
+trusty leader she began again. “We have issued forth from the greatest
+body[1] to the Heaven[2] which is pure light: light intellectual full
+of love, love of true good, full of joy; joy which transcends every
+sweetness. Here thou shalt see one and the other host of Paradise;[3]
+and the one in those aspects which thou shalt see at the Last
+Judgment.”
+
+[1] The Primum Mobile, the greatest of the material spheres of the
+universe.
+
+
+[2] The Empyrean.
+
+
+[3] The spirits of the redeemed who fought against the temptations of
+the world, and the good angels who fought against the rebellious; and
+here the souls in bliss will be seen in their bodily shapes.
+
+
+As a sudden flash which scatters the spirits of the sight so that it
+deprives the eye of the action of the strongest objects,[1] thus a
+vivid light shone round about me, and left me swathed with such a veil
+of its own effulgence that nothing was visible to me.
+
+ 1] So that the clearest objects produce no effect upon the eye.
+
+“The Love which quieteth this Heaven always welcomes to itself with
+such a salutation, in order to make the candle ready for its flame.” No
+sooner had these brief words come within me than I comprehended that I
+was surmounting above my own power; and I rekindled me with a new
+vision, such that no light is so pure that my eyes had not sustained
+it. And I saw light in form of a river, bright with effulgence, between
+two banks painted with a marvellous spring. Out of this stream were
+issuing living sparks, and on every side were setting themselves in the
+flowers, like rubies which gold encompasses. Then, as if inebriated by
+the odors, they plunged again into the wonderful flood, and as one was
+entering another was issuing forth.
+
+“The high desire which now inflames and urges thee to have knowledge
+concerning that which thou seest, Pleases me the more the more it
+swells, but thou must needs drink of this water before so great a
+thirst, in thee be slaked.” Thus the Sun of my eyes said to me; thereon
+she added, “The stream, and the topazes which enter and issue, and the
+smiling of the herbage, are foreshadowing prefaces of their truth;[1]
+not that these things are in themselves immature,[2] but there is
+defect on thy part who hast not yet vision so lofty.”
+
+[1] The stream, the sparks, the flowers are not such in reality as they
+seem to be; they are but images foreshadowing the truth.
+
+
+[2] The things show themselves as they are, but the eyes cannot yet see
+them correctly.
+
+
+There is no babe who so hastily springs with face toward the milk, if
+he awake much later than his wont, as I did, to make better mirrors yet
+of my eyes, stooping to the wave which flows in order that one may be
+bettered in it. And even as the eaves of my eyelids drank of it, so it
+seemed to me from its length to become round. Then as folk who have
+been under masks, who seem other than before, if they divest themselves
+of the semblance not their own in which they disappeared, thus for me
+the flowers and the sparks were changed into greater festival, so that
+I saw both the Courts of Heaven manifest.
+
+O splendor of God, by means of which I saw the high triumph of the true
+kingdom, give me power to tell how I saw it!
+
+Light is thereabove which makes the Creator visible to that creature
+which has its peace only in seeing Him; and it is extended in a
+circular figure so far that its circumference would be too wide a
+girdle for the sun. Its whole appearance is made of a ray reflected
+from the summit of the First Moving Heaven,[1] which therefrom takes
+its life and potency. And as a hill mirrors itself in water at its
+base, as if to see itself adorned, rich as it is with verdure and with
+flowers, so ranged above the light, round and round about, on more than
+a thousand seats, I saw mirrored all who of us have returned on high.
+And if the lowest row gather within itself so great a light, how vast
+is the spread of this rose in its outermost leaves! My sight lost not
+itself in the breadth and in the height, but took in all the quantity
+and the quality of that joy. There near and far nor add nor take away;
+for where God immediately governs the natural law is of no relevancy.
+
+[1] The Primum Mobile.
+
+
+Into the yellow of the sempiternal rose, which spreads wide, rises in
+steps, and is redolent with odor of praise unto the Sun that makes
+perpetual spring, Beatrice, like one who is silent and wishes to speak,
+drew me, and said, “Behold, how vast is the convent of the white
+stoles![1] See our city, how wide its circuit! See our benches so full
+that few people are now awaited here. On that great seat, on which thou
+holdest thine eye because of the crown which already is set above it,
+ere thou suppest at this wedding feast will sit the soul (which below
+will be imperial) of the high Henry who, to set Italy straight, will
+come ere she is ready.[2] The blind cupidity which bewitches you has
+made you like the little child who dies of hunger, and drives away his
+nurse. And such a one will then be prefect in the divine forum that
+openly or covertly he will not go with him along one road;[3] but short
+while thereafter shall he be endured by God in the holy office; for he
+shall be thrust down for his deserts, there where Simon Magus is, and
+shall make him of Anagna go lower.”
+
+[1] “He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white
+raiment.”—Revelation, iii. 5.
+
+
+[2] Henry VII., Emperor 1308, crowned at Milan 1311, died 1313.
+
+
+[3] The Pope Clement V. ostensibly supported the Emperor Henry VII. in
+his Italian expedition, but secretly manoeuvred against him. He died in
+1314, eight months after the death of Henry. Beatrice here condemns him
+to the third bolgia of the eighth circle of Hell, whither he was to
+follow Boniface VIII.,—him of Anagna,—and push him deeper in the hole
+where the simoniacal Popes were punished, Cf. Hell, XIX.
+
+
+
+
+CANTO XXXI.
+
+
+The Rose of Paradise.—St. Bernard.—Prayer to Beatrice.—The glory of the
+Blessed Virgin.
+
+
+In form then of a pure white rose the holy host was shown to me, which,
+in His own blood, Christ made His bride. But the other,[1] which,
+flying, sees and sings the glory of Him who enamours it, and the
+goodness which made it so great, like a swarm of bees which one while
+are among the flowers and anon return to the place where their work
+gets its savor, were descending into the great flower which is adorned
+with so many leaves, and thence rising up again to where their love
+always abides. Their faces all were of living flame, and their wings of
+gold, and the rest so white that no snow reaches that extreme. When
+they descended into the flower, from bench to bench, they imparted
+somewhat of the peace and of the ardor which they acquired as they
+fanned their sides. Nor did the interposing of such a flying plenitude
+between what was above and the flower impede the sight and the
+splendor; for the divine light penetrates through the universe,
+according as it is worthy, so that naught can be an obstacle to it.
+This secure and joyous realm, thronged with aneient and with modern
+folk, had all its look and love upon one mark.
+
+[1] The angelic host.
+
+
+O Trinal Light, which in a single star, scintillating on their sight,
+so satisfies them, look down here upon our tempest!
+
+If the Barbarians, coming from a region such that every day it is
+covered by Helice,[1] revolving with her son of whom she is fond, when
+they beheld Rome and her arduous work, were wonderstruck, what time
+Lateran rose above mortal things,[2] I, who to the divine from the
+human, to the eternal from the temporal, had come, and from Florence to
+a people just and sane, with what amazement must I have been full!
+Surely what with it and the joy I was well pleased not to hear, and to
+stand mute. And as a pilgrim who is refreshed in the temple of his vow
+in looking round, and hopes now to report how it was, so, journeying
+through the living light, I carried my eyes over the ranks, now up, now
+down, and now circling about. I saw faces persuasive to love,
+beautified by the light of Another and by their own smile, and actions
+ornate with every dignity.
+
+[1] The nymph Callisto or Helice bore to Zeus a son, Arcas; she was
+metamorphosed by Hera into a bear, and then transferred to Heaven by
+Jupiter as the constellation of the Great Bear, while her son was
+changed into the constellation of Aretophylax or Bootes. In the far
+north these constellations remain always above the horizon.
+
+
+[2] When Rome was mistress of the world, and the Lateran the seat of
+imperial or papal power.
+
+
+My look had now comprehended the general form of Paradise as a whole,
+and on no part yet my sight was fixed; and I turned me with
+re-enkindled wish to ask my Lady about things concerning which my mind
+was in suspense. One thing I was meaning, and another answered me; I
+was thinking to see Beatrice, and I saw an old man, robed like the
+people in glory. His eyes and his cheeks were overspread with benignant
+joy, in pious mien such as befits a tender father. And, “Where is she?”
+on a sudden said I. Whereon he, “To terminate thy desire, Beatrice
+urged me from my place, and if thou lookest up to the third circle from
+the highest step, thou wilt again see her upon the throne which her
+merits have allotted to her.” Without answering I lifted up my eyes,
+and saw her as she made for herself a crown, reflecting from herself
+the eternal rays. From that region which thunders highest up no mortal
+eye is so far distant, in whatsoever sea it loses itself the lowest,[1]
+as there from Beatrice was my sight. But this was naught to me, for her
+image did not descend to me blurred by aught between.
+
+[1] From the highest region of the air to the lowest depth of the sea.
+
+
+“O Lady, in whom my hope is strong, and who, for my salvation, didst
+endure to leave thy footprints in Hell, of all those things which I
+have seen, I recognize by thy power and by thy goodness the grace and
+the virtue. Thou hast drawn me from servitude to liberty by all those
+ways, by all the modes whereby thou hadst the power to do this. Guard
+thou in me thine own magnificence so that my soul, which thou hast made
+whole, may, pleasing to thee, be unloosed from the body.” Thus I
+prayed; and she, so distant, smiled, as it seemed, and looked at me;
+then turned to the eternal fountain.
+
+And the holy old man, “In order that thou mayest complete perfectly,”
+he said, “thy journey, whereto prayer and holy love sent me, fly with
+thy eyes through this garden; for seeing it will prepare thy look to
+mount further through the divine radiance. And the Queen of Heaven, for
+whom I burn wholly with love, will grant us every grace, because I am
+her faithful Bernard.”[1]
+
+[1] St. Bernard, to whom, because of his fervent devotion to her, the
+Blessed Virgin had deigned to show herself during his life.
+
+
+As is he who comes perchance from Croatia to see our Veronica,[1] who
+is not satisfied by its ancient fame, but says in thought, while it is
+shown, “My Lord Jesus Christ, true God, now was your semblance like to
+this?” such was I, gazing on the living charity of him who, in this
+world, in contemplation, tasted of that peace.
+
+[1] The likeness of the Saviour miraculously impressed upon the
+kerchief presented to him by a holy woman, on his way to Calvary,
+wherewith to wipe the sweat and dust from his face, and now religiously
+preserved at Rome, and shown at St. Peter's, on certain holydays.
+
+
+“Son of Grace, this glad existence,” began he, “will not be known to
+thee holding thine eyes only below here at the bottom, but look on the
+circles even to the most remote, until thou seest upon her seat the
+Queen to whom this realm is subject and devoted.” I lifted up my eyes;
+and as at morning the eastern parts of the horizon surpass that where
+the sun declines, thus, as if going with my eyes from valley to
+mountain, I saw a part on the extreme verge vanquishing in light all
+the other front. And even as there where the pole which Phaeton guided
+ill is awaited,[1] the flame is brighter, and on this side and that the
+light grows less, so that pacific oriflamme was vivid at the middle,
+and on each side in equal measure the flame slackened. And at that mid
+part I saw more than a thousand jubilant Angels with wings outspread,
+each distinct both in brightness and in act. I saw there, smiling at
+their sports and at their songs, a Beauty[2] which was joy in the eyes
+of all the other saints. And if I had such wealth in speech as in
+imagining, I should. not dare to attempt the least of its
+delightfulness. Bernard, when he saw my eyes fixed and intent upon its
+warm glow, turned his own with such affection to it, that he made mine
+more ardent to gaze anew.
+
+[1] Where the chariot of the sun is about to rise.
+
+
+[2] The Virgin.
+
+
+
+
+CANTO XXXII.
+
+
+St. Bernard describes the order of the Rose, and points out many of the
+Saints.—The children in Paradise.—The angelic festival.—The patricians
+of the Court of Heaven.
+
+
+Fixed in affection upon his Delight, that contemplator freely assumed
+the office of a teacher, and began these holy words: “The wound which
+Mary closed up and anointed, she who is so beautiful at her feet is she
+who opened it and who pierced it. Beneath her, in the order which the
+third seats make, sits Rachel with Beatrice, as thou seest. Sara,
+Rebecca, Judith, and she[1] who was great-grandmother of the singer
+who, through sorrow for his sin, said Miserere mei,[2] thou mayest see
+thus from step to step in gradation downward, as with the name of each
+I go downward through the rose from leaf to leaf. And from the seventh
+row downwards, even as down to it, Hebrew women follow in succession,
+dividing all the tresses of the flower; because these are the wall by
+which the sacred stairways are separated according to the look which
+faith turned on Christ. On this side, where the flower is mature with
+all its leaves, are seated those who believed in Christ about to come.
+On the other side, where the semicircles are broken by empty spaces,
+are those who turned their faces on Christ already come.[3] And as on
+this side the glorious seat of the Lady of Heaven, and the other seats
+below it, make so great a division, thus, opposite, does that of the
+great John, who, ever holy, endured the desert and martyrdom, and then
+Hell for two years;[4] and beneath him Francis and Benedict and
+Augustine and others are allotted thfis to divide, far down as here
+from circle to circle. Now behold the high divine foresight; for one
+and the other aspect of the faith will fill this garden equally. And
+know that downwards from the row which midway cleaves[5] the two
+divisions, they are seated for no merit of their own, but for that of
+others, under certain conditions; for all these are spirits absolved
+ere they had true election. Well canst thou perceive it by their looks,
+and also by their childish voices, if thou lookest well upon them and
+if thou listenest to them. Now thou art perplexed, and in perplexity
+art silent; but I will loose for thee the strong bond in which thy
+subtile thoughts fetter thee.[6] Within the amplitude of this realm a
+casual point can have no place,[7] any more than sadness, or thirst, or
+hunger; for whatever thou seest is established by eternal law, so that
+here the ring answers exactly to the finger. And therefore this
+folk,[8] hastened to true life, is not sine causa more and less
+excellent here among itself. The King through whom this realm reposes
+in such great love and in such great delight that no will is
+venturesome for more, creating all the minds in His own glad aspect,
+diversely endows with grace according to His own pleasure; and here let
+the fact suffice.[9] And this is expressly and clearly noted for you in
+the Holy Scripture in those twins who, while within their mother, had
+their anger roused.[10] Therefore, according to the color of the hair
+of such grace,[11] it behoves the highest light befittingly to crown
+them. Without, then, merit from their modes of Efe, they are placed in
+different grades, differing only in their primary keenness of
+vision.[12] Thus in the fresh centuries the faith of parents alone
+sufficed, together with innocence, to secure salvation. After the first
+ages were, complete, it was needful for males with their innocent
+plumage to acquire virtue through circumcision. But after the time of
+grace had come, without perfect baptism in Christ, such minocence was
+kept there below.
+
+[1] Ruth.
+
+
+[2] “Have mercy upon me.”—Psalm li. 1.
+
+
+[3] The circle of the Rose is divided in two equal parts. In the one
+half, the saints of the Old Dispensation, who believed in Christ about
+to come, are seated. The benches of this half are full. In the other
+half, the benches of which are not yet quite full, sit the redeemed of
+the New Dispensation who have believed on Christ already come. On one
+side the line of division between the semicircles is made by the Hebrew
+women from the Virgin Mary downwards; on the opposite side the line is
+made by St. John Baptist and other saints who had rendered special
+service to Christ and his Church. The lower tiers of seats all round
+are occupied by children elect to bliss.
+
+
+[4] The two years from the death of John to the death of Christ and his
+descent to Hell, to draw from the limbus patrum the souls predestined
+to salvation.
+
+
+[5] Horizontally.
+
+
+[6] The perplexity was, How can there be difference of merit in the
+innocent, assigning them to different seats in Paradise?
+
+
+[7] No least thing can here be matter of chance.
+
+
+[8] This childish folk.
+
+
+[9] Without attempt to account for it, to seek the wherefore of the
+will of God.
+
+
+[10] Jacob and Esau. See Genesis, xxv. 22.
+
+
+[11] The crown of light and the station in Paradise axe allotted
+according to the diversity in the endowment of grace, which is like the
+diversity in the color of the hair of men.
+
+
+[12] In capacity to see God.
+
+
+“Look now upon the face which most resembles Christ, for only its
+brightness can prepare thee to see Christ.”
+
+I saw raining upon her such great joy borne in the holy minds created
+to fly across through that height, that whatsoever I had seen before
+had not rapt me with such great admiration, nor shown to me such
+likeness to God. And that love which had first descended there, in
+front of her spread wide his wings, singing “Ave, Maria, gratia plena.”
+The blessed Court responded to the divine song from all parts, so that
+every countenance became thereby serener.
+
+“O holy Father, who for me submittest to be below here, leaving the
+sweet place in which thou sittest through eternal allotment, who is
+that Angel who with such jubilee looks into the eyes of our Queen, so
+enamoured that he seems of fire?” Thus I again had recourse to the
+teaching of him who was made beautiful by Mary, as the morning star by
+the sun. And he to me, “Confidence and grace as much as there can be in
+Angel and in soul, axe all in him, and so we would have it be, for he
+it is who bore the palm down to Mary, when the Son of God willed to
+load Himself with our burden.
+
+“But come now with thine eyes, as I shall go on speaking, and note the
+great patricians of this most just and pious empire. Those two who sit
+there above, most happy through being nearest to the Empress, are, as
+it were, the two roots of this rose. He who on the left is close to her
+is the Father through whose rash taste the human race tastes so much
+bitterness. On the right thou seest that ancient Father of Holy Church,
+to whom Christ entrusted the keys of this lovely flower. And he who saw
+before his death all the heavy times of the beautiful bride, who was
+won with the lance and with the nails, sits at his side; and alongside
+the other rests that leader, under whom the ingrate, fickle and
+stubborn people lived on manna. Opposite Peter thou seest Anna sitting,
+so content to gaze upon her daughter, that she moves not her eyes while
+singing Hosannah; and opposite the eldest father of a family sits
+Lucia, who moved thy Lady, when thou didst bend thy brow to rush
+downward.
+
+“But because the time flies which holds thee slumbering,[1] here will
+we make a stop, like a good tailor who makes the gown according as he
+has cloth, and we will direct our eyes to the First Love, so that,
+looking towards Him, thou mayst penetrate so far as is possible through
+His effulgence. Truly, lest perchance, moving thy wings, thou go
+backward, believing to advance, it is needful that grace be obtained by
+prayer; grace from her who has the power to aid thee; and do thou
+follow me with thy affection so that thy heart depart not from my
+speech.”
+
+[1] This is the single passage in which Dante implies that his vision
+is of the nature of a dream.
+
+
+And he began this holy supplication.
+
+
+
+
+CANTO XXXIII.
+
+
+Prayer to the Virgin.—The Beatific Vision.—The Ultimate Salvation.
+
+
+“Virgin Mother, daughter of thine own Son, humble and exalted more than
+any creature, fixed term of the eternal counsel, thou art she who didst
+so ennoble human nature that its own Maker disdained not to become His
+own making. Within thy womb was rekindled the Love through whose warmth
+this flower has thus blossomed in the eternal peace. Here thou art to
+us the noonday torch of charity, and below, among mortals, thou art the
+living fount of hope. Lady, thou art so great, and so availest, that
+whoso wishes grace, and has not recourse to thee, wishes his desire to
+fly without wings. Thy benignity not only succors him who asks, but
+oftentimes freely foreruns the asking. In thee mercy, in thee pity, in
+thee magnificence, in thee whatever of goodness is in any creature, are
+united. Now doth this man, who, from the lowest abyss of the universe,
+far even as here, has seen one by one the lives of spirits, supplicate
+thee, through grace, for virtue such that he may be able with his eyes
+to uplift himself higher toward the Ultimate Salvation. And I, who
+never for my own vision burned more than I do for his, proffer to thee
+all my prayers, and pray that they be not scant, that with thy prayers
+thou wouldest dissipate for him every cloud of his mortality, so that
+the Supreme Pleasure may be displayed to him. Further I pray thee,
+Queen, who canst whatso thou wilt, that, after so great a vision, thou
+wouldest preserve his affections sound. May thy guardianship vanquish
+human impulses. Behold Beatrice with all the Blessed for my prayers
+clasp their hands to thee.”[1]
+
+[1] In the Second Nun's Tale Chaucer has rendered, with great beauty,
+the larger part of this prayer.
+
+
+The eyes beloved and revered by God, fixed on the speaker, showed to us
+how pleasing unto her are devout prayers. Then to the Eternal Light
+were they directed, on which it is not to be believed that eye so clear
+is turned by any creature.
+
+And I, who to the end of all desires was approaching, even as I ought,
+ended within myself the ardor of my longing.[1] Bernard was beckoning
+to me, and was smiling, that I should look upward; but I was already,
+of my own accord, such as he wished; for my sight, becoming pure, was
+entering more and more through the radiance of the lofty Light which of
+itself is true.
+
+[1] The ardor of longing ceased, as was natural, in the consummation
+and enjoyment of desire.
+
+
+Thenceforward my vision was greater than our speech, which yields to
+such a sight, and the memory yields to such excess.[1]
+
+[1] Vague words! but ah, how hard to frame
+
+In matter-moulded forms of speech,
+
+Or ev'n for intellect to reach
+
+Thro' memory that which I became.”
+
+—In Memoriam, XCV.
+
+
+As is he who dreaming sees, and after the dream the passion remains
+imprinted, and the rest returns not to the mind, such am I; for my
+vision almost wholly fails, while the sweetness that was born of it yet
+distils within my heart. Thus the snow is by the sun unsealed; thus on
+the wind, in the light leaves, was lost the saying of the Sibyl.
+
+O Supreme Light, that so high upliftest Thyself from mortal
+conceptions, re-lend a little to my mind of what Thou didst appear, and
+make my tongue so powerful that it may be able to leave one single
+spark of Thy glory for the future people; for, by returning somewhat to
+my memory and by sounding a little in these verses, more of Thy victory
+shall be conceived.
+
+I think that by the keenness of the living ray which I endured, I
+should have been bewildered if my eyes had been averted from it. And it
+comes to my mind that for this reason I was the more hardy to sustain
+so much, that I joined my look unto the Infinite Goodness.
+
+O abundant Grace, whereby I presumed to fix my eyes through the Eternal
+Light so far that there I consumed my sight!
+
+In its depth I saw that whatsoever is dispersed through the universe is
+there included, bound with love in one volume; substance and accidents
+and their modes, fused together, as it were, in such wise, that that of
+which I speak is one simple Light. The universal form of this knot[1] I
+believe that I saw, because in saying this I feel that I more at large
+rejoice. One instant only is greater oblivion for me than five and
+twenty centuries to the emprise which made Neptune wonder at the shadow
+of Argo.[2]
+
+[1] This union of substance and accident and their modes; the unity of
+creation in the Creator.
+
+
+[2] The mysteries of God vanish in an instant from memory, but the
+larger joy felt in recording them is proof that they were seen.
+
+
+Thus my mind, wholly rapt, was gazing fixed, motionless, and intent,
+and ever with gazing grew enkindled. In that Light one becomes such
+that it is impossible he should ever consent to turn himself from it
+for other sight; because the Good which is the object of the will is
+all collected in it, and outside of it that is defective which is
+perfect there.
+
+Now will my speech be shorter, even in respect to that which I
+remember, than an infant's who still bathes his tongue at the breast.
+Not because more than one simple semblance was in the Living Light
+wherein I was gazing, which is always such as it was before; but
+through my sight, which was growing strong in me as I looked, one sole
+appearance, as I myself changed, was altering itself to me.
+
+Within the profound and clear subsistence of the lofty Light appeared
+to me three circles of three colors and of one dimension; and one
+appeared reflected by the other, as Iris by Iris,[1] and the third
+appeared fire which from the one and from the other is equally breathed
+forth.
+
+[1] As one arch of the rainbow by the other.
+
+
+O how short is the telling, and how feeble toward my conception! and
+this toward what I saw is such that it suffices not to call it little.
+
+O Light Eternal, that sole dwellest in Thyself, sole understandest
+Thyself, and, by Thyself understood and understanding, lovest and
+smilest on Thyself! That circle, which, thus conceived, appeared in
+Thee as a reflected light, being somewhile regarded by my eyes, seemed
+to me depicted within itself, of its own very color, by our effigy,
+wherefore my sight was wholly set upon it. As is the geometer who
+wholly applies himself to measure the circle, and finds not by thinking
+that principle of which he is in need, such was I at that new sight. I
+wished to see how the image accorded with the circle, and how it has
+its place therein; but my own wings were not for this, had it not been
+that my mind was smitten by a flash in which its wish came.
+
+To my high fantasy here power failed; but now my desire and my will,
+like a wheel which evenly is moved, the Lovee was turning which moves
+the Sun and the other stars.
+
+
+
+
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