Divine Comedy: Paradise | Page 7

those
spirits which so late thou saw'st;
Nor more or fewer years exist; but
all
Make the first circle beauteous, diversely
Partaking of sweet life,
as more or less
Afflation of eternal bliss pervades them.
Here were
they shown thee, not that fate assigns
This for their sphere, but for a
sign to thee
Of that celestial furthest from the height.
Thus needs,
that ye may apprehend, we speak:
Since from things sensible alone ye
learn
That, which digested rightly after turns
To intellectual. For no
other cause
The scripture, condescending graciously
To your
perception, hands and feet to God
Attributes, nor so means: and holy
church
Doth represent with human countenance
Gabriel, and
Michael, and him who made
Tobias whole. Unlike what here thou
seest,
The judgment of Timaeus, who affirms
Each soul restor'd to
its particular star,
Believing it to have been taken thence,
When
nature gave it to inform her mold:
Since to appearance his intention is


E'en what his words declare: or else to shun
Derision, haply thus he
hath disguis'd
His true opinion. If his meaning be,
That to the
influencing of these orbs revert
The honour and the blame in human
acts,
Perchance he doth not wholly miss the truth.
This principle,
not understood aright,
Erewhile perverted well nigh all the world;

So that it fell to fabled names of Jove,
And Mercury, and Mars. That
other doubt,
Which moves thee, is less harmful; for it brings
No
peril of removing thee from me.
"That, to the eye of man, our justice seems
Unjust, is argument for
faith, and not
For heretic declension. To the end
This truth may
stand more clearly in your view,
I will content thee even to thy wish
"If violence be, when that which suffers, nought
Consents to that
which forceth, not for this
These spirits stood exculpate. For the will,

That will not, still survives unquench'd, and doth
As nature doth in
fire, tho' violence
Wrest it a thousand times; for, if it yield
Or more
or less, so far it follows force.
And thus did these, whom they had
power to seek
The hallow'd place again. In them, had will
Been
perfect, such as once upon the bars
Held Laurence firm, or wrought in
Scaevola
To his own hand remorseless, to the path,
Whence they
were drawn, their steps had hasten'd back,
When liberty return'd: but
in too few
Resolve so steadfast dwells. And by these words
If duly
weigh'd, that argument is void,
Which oft might have perplex'd thee
still. But now
Another question thwarts thee, which to solve
Might
try thy patience without better aid.
I have, no doubt, instill'd into thy
mind,
That blessed spirit may not lie; since near
The source of
primal truth it dwells for aye:
And thou might'st after of Piccarda
learn

That Constance held affection to the veil;
So that she seems to
contradict me here.
Not seldom, brother, it hath chanc'd for men
To
do what they had gladly left undone,
Yet to shun peril they have done
amiss:
E'en as Alcmaeon, at his father's suit
Slew his own mother,
so made pitiless
Not to lose pity. On this point bethink thee,
That

force and will are blended in such wise
As not to make the' offence
excusable.
Absolute will agrees not to the wrong,
That inasmuch as
there is fear of woe
From non-compliance, it agrees. Of will
Thus
absolute Piccarda spake, and I
Of th' other; so that both have truly
said."
Such was the flow of that pure rill, that well'd
From forth the fountain
of all truth; and such
The rest, that to my wond'ring thoughts l found.
"O thou of primal love the prime delight!
Goddess! "I straight reply'd,
"whose lively words
Still shed new heat and vigour through my soul!

Affection fails me to requite thy grace
With equal sum of gratitude:
be his
To recompense, who sees and can reward thee.
Well I
discern, that by that truth alone
Enlighten'd, beyond which no truth
may roam,
Our mind can satisfy her thirst to know:
Therein she
resteth, e'en as in his lair
The wild beast, soon as she hath reach'd that
bound,
And she hath power to reach it; else desire
Were given to no
end. And thence doth doubt
Spring, like a shoot, around the stock of
truth;
And it is nature which from height to height
On to the summit
prompts us. This invites,
This doth assure me, lady, rev'rently
To
ask thee of other truth, that yet
Is dark to me. I fain would know, if
man
By other works well done may so supply
The failure of his
vows, that in your scale
They lack not weight." I spake; and on me
straight
Beatrice look'd with eyes that shot forth sparks
Of love
celestial in such copious stream,
That, virtue sinking in me
overpower'd,
I turn'd, and downward bent confus'd my sight.
CANTO V
"If beyond earthly wont, the flame of love
Illume me, so that I
o'ercome thy power
Of vision, marvel not: but learn the cause
In
that perfection of the sight, which soon

As apprehending, hasteneth
on to reach
The good it apprehends. I well discern,
How in thine
intellect already shines
The light eternal, which to view alone
Ne'er

fails to kindle love; and if aught else
Your love seduces, 't is but that
it shows
Some ill-mark'd vestige of that primal beam.
"This would'st thou know,