Nor did more love cause me to be more ready, But the high charity, that makes us servants Prompt to the counsel which controls the world, How love unfettered in this court sufficeth Wherefore predestinate wast thou alone Than of its middle made the light a centre, The supreme essence from which this is drawn. That seraph which his eye on God most fixes, Because so deeply sinks in the abyss Of the eternal statute what thou askest, And to the mortal world, when thou returnest, The mind, that shineth here, on earth doth smoke; That which it cannot though the heaven assume it?" Such limit did its words prescribe to me, The question I relinquished, and restricted "Between two shores of Italy rise cliffs, And not far distant from thy native place, And form a ridge that Catria is called, 'Neath which is consecrate a hermitage Wont to be dedicate to worship only." 105 110 Thus unto me the third speech recommenced, Lightly I passed away the heats and frosts, And Peter the Sinner was I in the house Of Our Lady on the Adriatic shore. Little of mortal life remained to me, When I was called and dragged forth to the hat Came Cephas, and the mighty Vessel came Of the Holy Spirit, meagre and barefooted, Now some one to support them on each side The modern shepherds need, and some to lead them, They cover up their palfreys with their cloaks, So that two beasts go underneath one skin; At this voice saw I many little flames From step to step descending and revolving, Round about this one came they and stood still, Distinguished it, the thunder so o'ercame me. CANTO XXII. OPPRESSED with stupor, I unto my guide Turned like a little child who always runs For refuge there where he confideth most; And she, even as a mother who straightway Gives comfort to her pale and breathless boy With voice whose wont it is to reassure him, Said to me: "Knowest thou not thou art in heaven, And knowest thou not that heaven is holy all, And what is done here cometh from good zeal ? After what wise the singing would have changed thee Already would be known to thee the vengeance The sword above here smiteth not in haste Nor tardily, howe'er it seem to him I stood as one who in himself represses The point of his desire, and ventures not ΤΟ 15 25 And now the largest and most luculent Among those pearls came forward, that it might 30 Within it then I heard: "If thou couldst see To the high end, I will make answer even And I am he who first up thither bore 35 40 The name of Him who brought upon the earth And such abundant grace upon me shone That all the neighbouring towns I drew away From the impious worship that seduced the world. Contemplative, enkindled by that heat Here are my brethren, who within the cloisters In me have so my confidence dilated As the sun doth the rose, when it becomes If I may so much grace receive, that I In the remotest sphere shall be fulfilled, And unto it our stairway reaches up, So thronged with angels it appeared to him. His feet from off the earth, and now my Rule Are changed to dens of robbers, and the cowls But heavy usury is not taken up So much against God's pleasure as that fruit Is for the folk that ask it in God's name, That good beginnings down below suffice not Peter began with neither gold nor silver, Thou shalt behold the white changed into brown. In verity the Jordan backward turned, And the sea's fleeing, when God willed were more Thus unto me he said; and then withdrew To his own band, and the band closed together; The gentle Lady urged me on behind them Up o'er that stairway by a single sign, Triumph return, on whose account I often The sign that follows Taurus, and was in it. O glorious stars, O light impregnated With mighty virtue, from which I acknowledge With you was born, and hid himself with you, To enter the high wheel which turns you round, To you devoutly at this hour my soul Thus Beatrice began, "thou oughtest now And therefore, ere thou enter farther in, Look down once more, and see how vast a world So that thy heart, as jocund as it may, That comes rejoicing through this rounded ether." Present itself to the triumphant throng I with my sight returned through one and all The sevenfold spheres, and I beheld this globe And that opinion I approve as best Which doth account it least ; and he who thinks I saw the daughter of Latona shining Without that shadow, which to me was cause The aspect of thy son, Hyperion, Herc I sustained, and saw how move themselves 130 135 14C |