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diff --git a/old/1997.txt b/old/1997.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..08b5154 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/1997.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6326 @@ +***The Project Gutenberg Etext of Paradise, by Dante Aligheri*** + +Also see our other translations of Dante's Divine Comedy; also, +you may want to look at our Etext #1000 in the original Italian + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. 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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. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg etext of The Divine Comedy of Dante, +Volume 3, Paradise, translated by Norton. + |