Thee thus remaining in thy intellect,
Will I inform with such a living light,
That it shall tremble in its aspect to thee.
Within the heaven of the divine repose

Revolves a body, in whose virtue lies
The being of whatever it contains.

The following heaven, that has so many eyes,
Divides this being by essences diverse,
Distinguished from it, and by it contained.
The other spheres, by various differences,

All the distinctions which they have within them
Dispose unto their ends and their effects.
Thus do these organs of the world proceed,

As thou perceivest now, from grade to grade;
Since from above they take, and act beneath.
Observe me well, how through this place I come

Unto the truth thou wishest, that hereafter
Thou mayst alone know how to keep the ford
The power and motion of the holy spheres,

As from the artisan the hammer's craft,
Forth from the blessed motors must proceed.
The heaven, which lights so manifold make fair,

From the Intelligence profound, which turns it,
The image takes, and makes of it a seal.

And even as the soul within your dust

Through members different and accommodated
To faculties diverse expands itself,

So likewise this Intelligence diffuses

Its virtue multiplied among the stars.
Itself revolving on its unity.

Virtue diverse doth a diverse alloyage

Make with the precious body that it quickens,
In which, as life in you, it is combined.
From the glad nature whence it is derived,

The mingled virtue through the body shines,
Even as gladness through the living pupil.
From this proceeds whate'er from light to light

Appeareth different, not from dense and rare: This is the formal principle that produces, According to its goodness, dark and bright."

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CANTO III.

THAT Sun, which erst with love my bosom warmed,
Of beauteous truth had unto me discovered,
By proving and reproving, the sweet aspect.
And, that I might confess myself convinced
And confident, so far as was befitting,
I lifted more erect my head to speak.
But there appeared a vision, which withdrew me
So close to it, in order to be seen,
That my confession I remembered not.
Such as through polished and transparent glass,
Or waters crystalline and undisturbed,
But not so deep as that their bed be lost,
Come back again the outlines of our faces

So feeble, that a pearl on forehead white
Comes not less speedily unto our eyes;
Such saw I many faces prompt to speak,

So that I ran in error opposite

To that which kindled love 'twixt man and fountain.

As soon as I became aware of them,

Esteeming them as mirrored semblances,

To see of whom they were, mine eyes I turned,

And nothing saw, and once more turned them forward
Direct into the light of my sweet Guide,
Who smiling kindled in her holy eyes.

"Marvel thou not," she said to me, "because
I smile at this thy puerile conceit,

Since on the truth it trusts not yet its foot,

But turns thee, as 'tis wont, on emptiness.

True substances are these which thou beholdest, Here relegate for breaking of some vow. Therefore speak with them, listen and believe ;

For the true light, which giveth peace to them, Permits them not to turn from it their feet." And I unto the shade that seemed most wishful

To speak directed me, and I began,

As one whom too great eagerness bewilders :

"O well-created spirit, who in the rays

Of life eternal dost the sweetness taste

Which being untasted ne'er is comprehended,

Grateful 'twill be to me, if thou content me

Both with thy name and with your destiny." Whereat she promptly and with laughing eyes: "Our charity doth never shut the doors

Against a just desire, except as one

Who wills that all her court be like herself.

I was a virgin sister in the world;

And if thy mind doth contemplate me well,

The being more fair will not conceal me from thee,

But thou shalt recognise I am Piccarda,

Who, stationed here among these other blessed,
Myself am blessed in the slowest sphere.

All our affections, that alone inflamed

Are in the pleasure of the Holy Ghost, Rejoice at being of his order formed; And this allotment, which appears so low,

Therefore is given us, because our vows

Have been neglected and in some part void."

Whence I to her: "In your miraculous aspects

There shines I know not what of the divine,

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Which doth transform you from our first conceptions.

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Therefore I was not swift in my remembrance;
But what thou tellest me now aids me so,
That the refiguring is easier to me.

But tell me, ye who in this place are happy,

Are you desirous of a higher place,

To see more or to make yourselves more friends?"

First with those other shades she smiled a little ;

Thereafter answered me so full of gladness,
She seemed to burn in the first fire of love:

'Brother, our will is quieted by virtue

Of charity, that makes us wish alone

For what we have, nor gives us thirst for more.

If to be more exalted we aspired,

Discordant would our aspirations be

Unto the will of Him who here secludes us; Which thou shalt see finds no place in these circles, If being in charity is needful here,

And if thou lookest well into its nature;

Nay, 'tis essential to this blest existence

To keep itself within the will divine,
'Whereby our very wishes are made one;

So that, as we are station above station

Throughout this realm, to all the realm 'tis pleasing,
As to the King, who makes his will our will.

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And his will is our peace; this is the sea

To which is moving onward whatsoever
It doth create, and all that nature makes."
Then it was clear to me how everywhere

In heaven is Paradise, although the grace
Of good supreme there rain not in one measure.
But as it comes to pass, if one food sates,

And for another still remains the longing,
We ask for this, and that decline with thanks,
E'en thus did I, with gesture and with word,

To learn from her what was the web wherein
She did not ply the shuttle to the end.

"A perfect life and merit high in-heaven

A lady o'er us," said she, "by whose rule
Down in your world they vest and veil themselves,

That until death they may both watch and sleep
Beside that Spouse who every vow accepts
Which charity conformeth to his pleasure.

To follow her, in girlhood from the world
I fled, and in her habit shut myself,

And pledged me to the pathway of her sect.

Then men accustomed unto evil more

Than unto good, from the sweet cloister tore me;

This other splendour, which to thee reveals

God knows what afterward my life became.

Itself on my right side, and is enkindled
With all the illumination of our sphere,

What of myself I say applies to her;

A nun was she, and likewise from her head
Was ta'en the shadow of the sacred wimple.
But when she too was to the world returned

Against her wishes and against good usage,
Of the heart's veil she never was divested.

Of great Costanza this is the effulgence,

Who from the second wind of Suabia

Brought forth the third and latest puissance."

Thus unto me she spake, and then began "Ave Maria" singing, and in singing

Vanished, as through deep water something heavy.

My sight, that followed her as long a time
As it was possible, when it had lost her

Turned round unto the mark of more desire,

And wholly unto Beatrice reverted ;

But she such lightnings flashed into mine eyes,
That at the first my sight endured it not :
And this in questioning more backward made me,

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CANTO IV.

BETWEEN two viands, equally removed

And tempting, a free man would die of hunger
Ere either he could bring unto his teeth.
So would a lamb between the ravenings

Of two fierce wolves stand fearing both alike;
And so would stand a dog between two does.
Hence, if I held my peace, myself I blame not.
Impelled in equal measure by my doubts,

Since it must be so, nor do I commend.
I held my peace; but my desire was painted
Upon my face, and questioning with that
More fervent far than by articulate speech.
Beatrice did as Daniel had done

Relieving Nebuchadnezzar from the wrath
Which rendered him unjustly merciless,
And said: "Well see I how attracteth thee
One and the other wish, so that thy care
Binds itself so that forth it does not breathe.
Thou arguest, if good will be permanent,

The violence of others, for what reason
Doth it decrease the measure of my merit?
Again for doubting furnish thee occasion

Souls seeming to return unto the stars,
According to the sentiment of Plato.
These are the questions which upon thy wish
Are thrusting equally; and therefore first
Will I treat that which hath the most of gall.
He of the Seraphim most absorbed in God,

Moses, and Samuel, and whichever John
Thou mayst select, I say, and even Mary,

Have not in any other heaven their seats.

Than have those spirits that just appeared to thee,
Nor of existence more or fewer years;

But all make beautiful the primal circle,

And have sweet life in different degrees,

By feeling more or less the eternal breath.

They showed themselves here, not because allotted
This sphere has been to them, but to give sign
Of the celestial which is least exalted.

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