Divine Comedy: Paradise | Page 4

diversely, some more,?Some less approaching to their primal source.?Thus they to different havens are mov'd on?Through the vast sea of being, and each one?With instinct giv'n, that bears it in its course;?This to the lunar sphere directs the fire,?This prompts the hearts of mortal animals,?This the brute earth together knits, and binds.?Nor only creatures, void of intellect,?Are aim'd at by this bow; hut even those,?That have intelligence and love, are pierc'd.?That Providence, who so well orders all,?With her own light makes ever calm the heaven,?In which the substance, that hath greatest speed,?Is turn'd: and thither now, as to our seat?Predestin'd, we are carried by the force?Of that strong cord, that never looses dart,?But at fair aim and glad. Yet is it true,?That as ofttimes but ill accords the form?To the design of art, through sluggishness?Of unreplying matter, so this course?Is sometimes quitted by the creature, who?Hath power, directed thus, to bend elsewhere;?As from a cloud the fire is seen to fall,?From its original impulse warp'd, to earth,?By vicious fondness. Thou no more admire?Thy soaring, (if I rightly deem,) than lapse?Of torrent downwards from a mountain's height.?There would in thee for wonder be more cause,?If, free of hind'rance, thou hadst fix'd thyself?Below, like fire unmoving on the earth."
So said, she turn'd toward the heav'n her face.
CANTO II
All ye, who in small bark have following sail'd,?Eager to listen, on the advent'rous track?Of my proud keel, that singing cuts its way,?Backward return with speed, and your own shores?Revisit, nor put out to open sea,?Where losing me, perchance ye may remain?Bewilder'd in deep maze. The way I pass?Ne'er yet was run: Minerva breathes the gale,?Apollo guides me, and another Nine?To my rapt sight the arctic beams reveal.?Ye other few, who have outstretch'd the neck.?Timely for food of angels, on which here?They live, yet never know satiety,?Through the deep brine ye fearless may put out?Your vessel, marking, well the furrow broad?Before you in the wave, that on both sides?Equal returns. Those, glorious, who pass'd o'er?To Colchos, wonder'd not as ye will do,?When they saw Jason following the plough.
The increate perpetual thirst, that draws?Toward the realm of God's own form, bore us?Swift almost as the heaven ye behold.
Beatrice upward gaz'd, and I on her,?And in such space as on the notch a dart?Is plac'd, then loosen'd flies, I saw myself?Arriv'd, where wond'rous thing engag'd my sight.?Whence she, to whom no work of mine was hid,?Turning to me, with aspect glad as fair,?Bespake me: "Gratefully direct thy mind?To God, through whom to this first star we come."
Me seem'd as if a cloud had cover'd us,?Translucent, solid, firm, and polish'd bright,?Like adamant, which the sun's beam had smit?Within itself the ever-during pearl?Receiv'd us, as the wave a ray of light?Receives, and rests unbroken. If I then?Was of corporeal frame, and it transcend?Our weaker thought, how one dimension thus?Another could endure, which needs must be?If body enter body, how much more?Must the desire inflame us to behold?That essence, which discovers by what means?God and our nature join'd! There will be seen?That which we hold through faith, not shown by proof,?But in itself intelligibly plain,?E'en as the truth that man at first believes.
I answered: "Lady! I with thoughts devout,?Such as I best can frame, give thanks to Him,?Who hath remov'd me from the mortal world.?But tell, I pray thee, whence the gloomy spots?Upon this body, which below on earth?Give rise to talk of Cain in fabling quaint?"
She somewhat smil'd, then spake: "If mortals err?In their opinion, when the key of sense?Unlocks not, surely wonder's weapon keen?Ought not to pierce thee; since thou find'st, the wings?Of reason to pursue the senses' flight?Are short. But what thy own thought is, declare."
Then I: "What various here above appears,?Is caus'd, I deem, by bodies dense or rare."
She then resum'd: "Thou certainly wilt see?In falsehood thy belief o'erwhelm'd, if well?Thou listen to the arguments, which I?Shall bring to face it. The eighth sphere displays?Numberless lights, the which in kind and size?May be remark'd of different aspects;?If rare or dense of that were cause alone,?One single virtue then would be in all,?Alike distributed, or more, or less.?Different virtues needs must be the fruits?Of formal principles, and these, save one,?Will by thy reasoning be destroy'd. Beside,?If rarity were of that dusk the cause,?Which thou inquirest, either in some part?That planet must throughout be void, nor fed?With its own matter; or, as bodies share?Their fat and leanness, in like manner this?Must in its volume change the leaves. The first,?If it were true, had through the sun's eclipse?Been manifested, by transparency?Of light, as through aught rare beside effus'd.?But this is not. Therefore remains to see?The other cause: and if the other fall,?Erroneous so must prove what seem'd to thee.?If not from side to side this rarity?Pass through, there needs must be a limit, whence?Its contrary no further lets it