The Divine Comedy — Dante Alighieri

p. 105

296 PARADISE. Cahto X. Tliou wouldest know who in this light so near Beside me sparkles thus with flame divine, Like the sun's ray upon a limpid mere. Now know that there within does tranquil shine "* The soul of Eahab, to our order wed, Is sealed her impress in the highest line. Unto this Heaven, the last to which has sped The shadow of your world, ere any soul. From Hell by Christ triumphant was she led. ^^ Well did it fit such trophy to enrol In any Heaven, for the conquest high, Won by His nailed hands to the Cross's dole. Because she favoured the first victory Of Joshua, entering on that holy land, ^^ Which little wins the Papal memory. The city, which by him does planted stand. Who first did turn his back to his Maker's power. And from whose envy every grief has wonned, Produces and spreads wide the accursed flower ^^ Which now has scatters wide both lambs and sheep. And turned to a wolf the shepherd at this hour. For this the Evangelists they no more keep, Nor the great Doctors, the Decretals solely Are studied, as is proved by margins deep. ^^ The Pope and Cardinals these hare studied wholly : Their thoughts to Nazareth ne'er take their flight. Where opened Gabriel his pinions holy. But the Vatican, and every chosen site In Eome, which now a burial-place we see ^*® Of militants who fought good Peter's fight, From such adultery will soon be free." Line 130. The gold florin of Florence stamped with a lily. Line 134. The Decretal8,or Canonical law, deeply studied, as their annotated margins show, for a means of human advancement. Line 139. Alluding either to the death of his pet Pope, Boniface YIII., author of the sixth Decretal, or to the transfer of the holy see to Avignon.

CANTO X. They ascend to the sphere of the sun, the fourth Heaven, where they are surrounded by a garland of twelve blessed spirits. One of these, Thomas Aquinas, names the rest to Dante. Gazing upon the Son he loves so well With love which each breathes forth eternally, The Father, primal and ineffable,

Cakto X. PARADISE. 297 Whatever by the mind or sight we see, Makes with such order that without delight * Uf him who looks on it it cannot be. With me, O reader, then lift up your sight Straight to those lofty spheres unto that part Where on one motion does another smite. And there commence your rapture in the art ^^ Of the great Master, who so loves His work That never from it does His eye depart. Behold how from that point does springing fork The line oblique on which the planets go To satisfy the world which claims their work. ^^ And if their path were not thus twisted so Much virtue in the Heavens would be in vain. And almost every power be dead below. And if or more or less it were to gain From the straight path than now, would greatly fail ^^ In earth and Heaven the world's pre-ordered train. Rest on your bench now, reader, and regale In thought on the feast to which I you invite, Wouldst you no weariness through joyaunce feel. I've placed the food before you, taste aright, Since to itself recalls all my care The matter which I purposed to indite. Of Nature the most powerful minister. Which dowers the world with virtue of the sky. And with His light the time does meting share. Joined to that station, now to memory Recalled, was rolling on His spires in air. So that each day was born more rapidly ; And I was with Him : of my journey there I had known nothing any more than man Whence his first thought had travelled is aware.

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Line 9. Where the general motion of the spheres strikes against the particular motion of each planet, -which repercnssion is sapi>osed, according to Dante's system, to be strongest at the junction of the zodiac and eq^mnoctial line, because each motion is then at its greatest velocity from bemg at the greatest distance from the poles. Sach is Yentnri's ingenious explanation. Line 19.

If the line of the zodiac were less or more oblique than it is the seasons would not be divided so happily as they now are. Line 28. The sun was in the above-mentioned intersection of the zodiac and equinoctial lines after the vernal equinox, when every day it rises earlier. Line 36. I have here adopted Venturi's interpretation. Mr. Gary translates the passage : " Thus a man is aware of his arrival before his first thought on it. The text will bear both meanings, but the last loses an original conception.