With light that through the whole of heaven is spread
Kindled are we, and hence if thou desirest
To know of us, at thine own pleasure sate thee."
Thus by some one among those holy spirits

Was spoken, and by Beatrice: "Speak, speak
Securely, and believe them even as Gods."
"Well I perceive how thou dost nest thyself

In thine own light, and drawest it from thine eyes,
Because they coruscate when thou dost smile,
But know not who thou art, nor why thou hast,

Spirit august, thy station in the sphere
That veils itself to men in alien rays."

This said I in direction of the light

Which first had spoken to me; whence it became
By far more lucent than it was before.

Even as the sun, that doth conceal himself

By too much light, when heat has worn away
The tempering influence of the vapours dense,

By greater rapture thus concealed itself

In its own radiance the figure saintly,

And thus close, close enfolded answered me In fashion as the following Canto sings.

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CANTO VI.

"AFTER that Constantine the eagle turned

Against the course of heaven, which it had followed.
Behind the ancient who Lavinia took,

Two hundred years and more the bird of God
In the extreme of Europe held itself,

Near to the mountains whence it issued first;

And under shadow of the sacred plumes

It governed there the world from hand to hand,
And, changing thus, upon mine own alighted.

Cæsar I was, and am Justinian,

Who, by the will of primal Love I feel,

Took from the laws the useless and redundant;

And ere unto the work I was attent,

One nature to exist in Christ, not more,
Believed, and with such faith was I contented.

But blessed Agapetus, he who was

The supreme pastor, to the faith sincere
Pointed me out the way by words of his.

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Him I believed, and what was his assertion
I now see clearly, even as thou seest
Each contradiction to be false and true.
As soon as with the Church I moved my feet,

God in his grace it pleased with this high task
To inspire me, and I gave me wholly to it,

And to my Belisarius I commended

The arms, to which was heaven's right hand so joined
It was a signal that I should repose.

Now here to the first question terminates
My answer; but the character thereof
Constrains me to continue with a sequel,
In order that thou see with how great reason
Men move against the standard sacrosanct,
Both who appropriate and who oppose it.
Behold how great a power has made it worthy

Of reverence, beginning from the hour
When Pallas died to give it sovereignty.
Thou knowest it made in Alba its abode

Three hundred years and upward, till at last
The three to three fought for it yet again.
Thou knowest what it achieved from Sabine wrong
Down to Lucretia's sorrow, in seven kings
O'ercoming round about the neighboring nations;
Thou knowest what it achieved, borne by the Romans
Illustrious against Brennus, against Pyrrhus,
Against the other princes and confederates.
Torquatus thence and Quinctius, who from locks
Unkempt was named, Decii and Fabii,
Received the fame I willingly embalm ;
It struck to earth the pride of the Arabians,

Who, following Hannibal, had passed across
The Alpine ridges, Po, from which thou glidest;
Beneath it triumphed while they yet were young

Pompey and Scipio, and to the hill

Beneath which thou wast born it bitter seemed;
Then, near unto the time when heaven had willed
To bring the whole world to its mood serene,
Did Cæsar by the will of Rome assume it.
What it achieved from Var unto the Rhine,

Isère beheld and Saône, beheld the Seine,
And every valley whence the Rhone is filled;

What it achieved when it had left Ravenna,

And leaped the Rubicon, was such a flight
That neither tongue nor pen could follow it.

Round towards Spain it wheeled its legions; then
Towards Durazzo, and Pharsalia smote
That to the calid Nile was felt the pain.
Antandros and the Simois, whence it started,
It saw again, and there where Hector lies,
And ill for Ptolemy then roused itself.
From thence it came like lightning upon Juba;
Then wheeled itself again into your West,
Where the Pompeian clarion it heard.

From what it wrought with the next standard-bearer
Brutus and Cassius howl in Hell together,
And Modena and Perugia dolent were ;

Still doth the mournful Cleopatra weep

Because thereof, who, fleeing from before it,
Took from the adder sudden and black death.
With him it ran even to the Red Sea shore;

With him it placed the world in so great peace,
That unto Janus was his temple closed.
But what the standard that has made me speak
Achieved before, and after should achieve
Throughout the mortal realm that lies beneath it,
Becometh in appearance mean and dim,

If in the hand of the third Cæsar seen
With eye unclouded and affection pure,
Because the living Justice that inspires me

Granted it, in the hand of him I speak of, The glory of doing vengeance for its wrath. Now here attend to what I answer thee;

Later it ran with Titus to do vengeance
Upon the vengeance of the ancient sin.
And when the tooth of Lombardy had bitten

The Holy Church, then underneath its wings
Did Charlemagne victorious succor her.
Now hast thou power to judge of such as those

Whom I accused above, and of their crimes,
Which are the cause of all your miseries.
To the public standard one the yellow lilies

Opposes, the other claims it for a party,
So that 'tis hard to see which sins the most.
Let, let the Ghibellines ply their handicraft

Beneath some other standard; for this ever
Ill follows he who it and justice parts.
And let not this new Charles e'er strike it down,
He and his Guelfs, but let him fear the talons
That from a nobler lion stripped the fell.

Already oftentimes the sons have wept

The father's crime; and let him not believe
That God will change His scutcheon for the lilies.
This little planet doth adorn itself

With the good spirits that have active been,
That fame and honour might come after them;
And whensoever the desires mount thither,

Thus deviating, must perforce the rays
Of the true love less vividly mount upward.
But in commensuration of our wages

With our desert is portion of our joy,

Because we see them neither less nor greater.

Herein doth living Justice sweeten so

Affection in us, that for evermore
It cannot warp to any iniquity.
Voices diverse make up sweet melodies;

So in this life of ours the seats diverse
Render sweet harmony among these spheres ;

And in the compass of this present pearl

Shineth the sheen of Romeo, of whom
The grand and beauteous work was ill rewarded.
But the Provençals who against him wrought,

They have not laughed, and therefore ill goes he
Who makes his hurt of the good deeds of others.
Four daughters, and each one of them a queen,

Had Raymond Berenger, and this for him. Did Romeo, a poor man and a pilgrim ; And then malicious words incited him

To summon to a reckoning this just man,
Who rendered to him seven and five for ten.
Then he departed poor and stricken in years,

And if the world could know the heart he had,
In begging bit by bit his livelihood,
Though much it laud him, it would laud him more."

CANTO VII.

"OSANNA sanctus Deus Sabaoth,
Superillustrans claritate tua
Felices ignes horum malahoth!"
In this wise, to his melody returning,

This substance, upon which a double light
Doubles itself, was seen by me to sing,

And to their dance this and the others moved,

And in the manner of swift-hurrying sparks
Veiled themselves from me with a sudden distance.
Doubting was I, and saying, "Tell her, tell her,"

Within me," tell her," saying, "tell my Lady,"
Who slakes my thirst with her sweet effluences;
And yet that reverence which doth lord it over

The whole of me only by B and ICE,
Bowed me again like unto one who drowses.
Short while did Beatrice endure me thus ;

And she began, lighting me with a smile Such as would make one happy in the fire: "According to infallible advisement,

After what manner a just vengeance justly
Could be avenged has put thee upon thinking,
But I will speedily thy mind unloose;

And do thou listen, for these words of mine
Of a great doctrine will a present make thee.

By not enduring on the power that wills

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Curb for his good, that man who ne'er was born,
Damning himself damned all his progeny ;

Whereby the human species down below

Lay sick for many centuries in great error,
Till to descend it pleased the Word of God
To where the nature, which from its own Maker
Estranged itself, he joined to him in person
By the sole act of his eternal love.
Now unto what is said direct thy sight;

This nature when united to its Maker,
Such as created, was sincere and good;
But by itself alone was banished forth

From Paradise, because it turned aside Out of the way of truth and of its life. Therefore the penalty the cross held out,

If measured by the nature thus assumed, None ever yet with so great justice stung, And none was ever of so great injustice,

Considering who the Person was that suffered,
Within whom such a nature was contracted.
From one act therefore issued things diverse;

To God and to the Jews one death was pleasing;
Earth trembled at it and the Heaven was opened.

It should no longer now seem difficult

To thee, when it is said that a just vengeance
By a just court was afterward avenged.