For which so great on earth has grown

the folly,

That, without proof of any testimony,
To each indulgence they would flock together.
By this Saint Anthony his pig doth fatten,

And many others, who are worse than pigs,
Paying in money without mark of coinage.

But since we have digressed abundantly,

Turn back thine eyes forthwith to the right path,
So that the way be shortened with the time.

This nature doth so multiply itself

In numbers, that there never yet was speech
Nor mortal fancy that can go so far.

And if thou notest that which is revealed

By Daniel, thou wilt see that in his thousands
Number determinate is kept concealed.
The primal light, that all irradiates it,

By modes as many is received therein,
As are the splendours wherewith it is mated.
Hence, inasmuch as on the act conceptive

The affection followeth, of love the sweetness
Therein diversely fervid is or tepid.
The height behold now and the amplitude

Of the eternal power, since it hath made
Itself so many mirrors, where 'tis broken,
One in itself remaining as before."

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CANTO XXX.

PERCHANCE Six thousand miles remote from us
Is glowing the sixth hour, and now this world
Inclines its shadow almost to a level,
When the mid-heaven begins to make itself
So deep to us, that here and there a star
Ceases to shine so far down as this depth,

And as advances bright exceedingly

The handmaid of the sun, the heaven is closed
Light after light to the most beautiful;

Not otherwise the Triumph, which for ever

Plays round about the point that vanquished me,
Seeming enclosed by what itself encloses,

Little by little from my vision faded;

Whereat to turn mine eyes on Beatrice

My seeing nothing and my love constrained me.

If what has hitherto been said of her

Were all concluded in a single praise,
Scant would it be to serve the present turn,
Not only does the beauty I beheld

Transcend ourselves, but truly I believe
Its Maker only may enjoy it all.
Vanquished do I confess me by this passage
More than by problem of his theme was ever
O'ercome the comic or the tragic poet;
For as the sun the sight that trembles most,
Even so the memory of that sweet smile
My mind depriveth of its very self.

From the first day that I beheld her face

In this life, to the moment of this look,

The sequence of my song has ne'er been severed;
But now perforce this sequence must desist
From following her beauty with my verse,
As every artist at his uttermost.

Such as I leave her to a greater fame

Than any of my trumpet, which is bringing
Its arduous matter to a final close,

With voice and gesture of a perfect leader

She recommenced: "We from the greatest body
Have issued to the heaven that is pure light;

Light intellectual replete with love,

Love of true good replete with ecstasy,
Ecstasy that transcendeth every sweetness.
Here shalt thou see the one host and the other
Of Paradise, and one in the same aspects
Which at the final judgment thou shalt see."
Even as a sudden lightning that disperses

The visual spirits, so that it deprives
The eye of impress from the strongest objects
Thus round about me flashed a living light,

And left me swathed around with such a veil
Of its effulgence, that I nothing saw.
"Ever the Love which quieteth this heaven
Welcomes into itself with such salute,
To make the candle ready for its flame."
No sooner had within me these brief words
An entrance found, than I perceived myself
To be uplifted over my own power,

And I with vision new rekindled me,

Such that no light whatever is so pure
But that mine eyes were fortified against it.

And light I saw in fashion of a river

Fulvid with its effulgence, 'twixt two banks
Depicted with an admirable Spring.

Out of this river issued living sparks,

And on all sides sank down into the flowers,
Like unto rubies that are set in gold;

And then, as if inebriate with the odours,

They plunged again into the wondrous torrent,
And as one entered issued forth another.

"The high desire, that now inflames and moves thee
To have intelligence of what thou seest,

Pleaseth me all the more, the more it swells.

But of this water it behoves thee drink

Before so great a thirst in thee be slaked."

Thus said to me the sunshine of mine eyes;

And added: "The river and the topazes

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Going in and out, and the laughing of the herbage,
Are of their truth foreshadowing prefaces;

Not that these things are difficult in themselves,
But the deficiency is on thy side,

For yet thou hast not vision so exalted."

There is no babe that leaps so suddenly

With face towards the milk, if he awake
Much later than his usual custom is,

As I did, that I might make better mirrors

Still of mine eyes, down stooping to the wave Which flows that we therein be better made. And even as the penthouse of mine eyelids

Drank of it, it forthwith appeared to me

Out of its length to be transformed to round.

Then as a folk who have been under masks

Seem other than before, if they divest

The semblance not their own they disappeared in, Thus into greater pomp were changed for me

The flowerets and the sparks, so that I saw Both of the Courts of Heaven made manifest. O splendour of God! by means of which I saw The lofty triumph of the realm veracious, Give me the power to say how it I saw ! There is a light above, which visible

Makes the Creator unto every creature,
Who only in beholding Him has peace,
And it expands itself in circular form

To such extent, that its circumference
Would be too large a girdle for the sun.

The semblance of it is all made of rays

Reflected from the top of Primal Motion,
Which takes therefrom vitality and power
And as a hill in water at its base

Mirrors itself, as if to see its beauty
When affluent most in verdure and in flowers,
So, ranged aloft all round about the light,

Mirrored I saw in more ranks than a thousand
All who above there have from us returned

And if the lowest row collect within it

So great a light, how vast the amplitude
Is of this Rose in its extremest leaves !
My vision in the vastness and the height
Lost not itself, but comprehended all
The quantity and quality of that gladness.

There near and far nor add nor take away;

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For there where God immediately doth govern,
The natural law in naught is relevant.

Into the yellow of the Rose Eternal

That spreads, and multiplies, and breathes an odour
Of praise unto the ever-vernal Sun,

As one who silent is and fain would speak,
Me Beatrice drew on, and said:

"Behold

Of the white stoles how vast the convent is!

Behold how vast the circuit of our city!

Behold our seats so filled to overflowing,
That here henceforward are few people wanting!
On that great throne whereon thine eyes are fixed
For the crown's sake already placed upon it,
Before thou suppest at this wedding feast

Shall sit the soul (that is to be Augustus

On earth) of noble Henry, who shall come
To redress Italy ere she be ready.

Blind covetousness, that casts its spell upon you,
Has made you like unto the little child,
Who dies of hunger and drives off the nurse.

And in the sacred forum then shall be

A Prefect such, that openly or covert
On the same road he will not walk with him.

But long of God he will not be endured

In holy office; he shall be thrust down Where Simon Magus is for his deserts, And make him of Alagna lower go!"

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CANTO XXXI.

IN fashion then as of a snow-white rose

Displayed itself to me the saintly host,

Whom Christ in his own blood had made his bride,
But the other host, that flying sees and sings
The glory of Him who doth enamour it,
And the goodness that created it sc noble,
Even as a swarm of bees, that sinks in flowers
One moment, and the next returns again
To where its labour is to sweetness turned,
Sank into the great flower, that is adorned

With leaves so many, and thence reascended
To where its love abideth evermore.

Their faces had they all of living flame,

And wings of gold, and all the rest so white
No snow unto that limit doth attain.

From bench to bench, into the flower descending,

They carried something of the peace and ardour
Which by the fanning of their flanks they won.

Nor did the interposing 'twixt the flower

And what was o'er it of such plenitude

Of flying shapes impede the sight and splendour;

Because the light divine so penetrates

The universe, according to its merit,
That naught can be an obstacle against it.

This realm secure and full of gladsomeness,

Crowded with ancient people and with modern,
Unto one mark had all its look and love.

O Trinal Light, that in a single star

Sparkling upon their sight so satisfies them, Look down upon our tempest here below! If the barbarians, coming from some region.

That every day by Helice is covered,
Revolving with her son whom she delights in,
Beholding Rome and all her noble works,

Were wonder-struck, what time the Lateran
Above all mortal things was eminent,—
I who to the divine had from the human,
From time unto eternity, had come,
From Florence to a people just and sane,