Divine Comedy: Paradise | Page 7

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.
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;
God knows what afterward my life became.
This other splendour, which to thee reveals
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.
Paradiso: 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.
To speak thus is adapted to your mind,
Since only through the sense
it apprehendeth
What then it worthy makes of intellect.
On this account the Scripture condescends
Unto your faculties, and
feet and hands
To God attributes, and means something else;

And Holy Church under an aspect