The Divine Comedy — Dante Alighieri

Cahto zxn. PARADISE. 346 Neither in haste nor tardily does sheer The sword of Heaven, except as he may deem, Who waits for it with longing or with fear. But now let others on your vision beam, Ulustrious spirits sure will meet your gaze, ^ If , as I tell, you tum'st you unto them." As pleased to her my vision did I raise, And saw a hundred little spheres, who dress Each other gaily with their mutual rays. I stood like one who in himself does press ^ The point of his desire, and does not dare To question, so he fears all excess. And then the largest and most lustrous there Amongst those Margarites advanced to me, Contentment to my longing wish to bear. ^ Within its flame I heard : ** Didst you but see Like I the loving that does in us bum You would have told your inward fieincy free, But that through waiting to your lofty bourn You mayst not tarry, I will make replies ^ Even to the thoughts you do so close inum. The mountain on whose slope Oassino lies Was peopled of old time upon its height By a race deceived by foul idolatries, And I am he who first bore to that site ^ The name of Him who on the earth educed The truth which leads to so sublime a height. And such a grace upon me was infused That the surrounding townships I withdrew From the impious worship which the world seduced. ^'^ Those other fires were all contemplants too : Men who were kindled with that ardour clear Which makes flowers and holy fruits ensue. Here is Macarius, Eomoaldo here ; Here are my brethren who their feet did rest ^ Within my cloister with firm heart of cheer." And I to him : '' The love you have expressed Speaking with me, and the fair semblant show I see and mark in every ardent breast, Line 87. A casfcle in the Terra di Lavoro, where Saint Benedict fotmd on ancient temple in which the rostics round still worshipped Apollo. He converted the people from idolab^, and built a shrine to St. John where tlie altar of Apollo nad stood. Line 49. Macarius, an Egyptian monk, and Bomoaldo, the founder of the order of Gamaldoli, who died in 1027.

Has made my courage burgeon *iieath its glow, As does the sun the rose when openly It bares its bosom in its fullest blow, Therefore I pray you, father, certify If to so high a grace I may aspire, You, with your shape enshrouded to descry." ^ Whence he : "0 brother, this your high desire Will be fulfilled within the furthest sphere, Where all our wishes are fulfilled entire. Perfect, completed, and mature is there Every desire : within that sphere alone Where aye they were are all things everywhere. Since there nor place nor whirHng poles are known : Even to it our ladder mounts high, Hence so beyond your vision has it flown. Dreaming, the patriarch Jacob did descry Its rounds uprearing, even to that height When laden with that angel company. To climb it now there never more take flight Feet set upon our earth, and hence my rule Is but a waste of leaves on which 'tis writ. The walls which wont to form my convent's school Are grown to caves, and full of musty meal Is changed into a sack each hooded cowl. But does not sin so much against Qod's weal The grossest usury, as that fruit which tends To make the monkish heart so madly reel. What pelf soe'er the Church as her own defends, Belongs to those who ask for God's own sake. Not to relations, nor for far worse ends. The flesh of mortal man is all so weak That good beginnings there give little claim From the oak's birth the acorn crop to seek. Without or gold or silver Peter came, I, Benedict, with fasting and with prayer. His convent humbly did Saint Francis frame. And if you look'st at each commencement fair. And then regardest where they each have gone, You'lt see the white indeed discoloured there. Now of a truth has Jordan backward run. More marvellous was the Eed Sea's flight to view When God so willed, than here his succour won."

Cahto XXn. PARADISE. 347 Thus did he speak to me, and thence withdrew Amongst his comrades, who together closed Then like a whirlwind all of them upflew. Behind them my sweet ladj me disposed *^ With a mute sign to mount aloft that stair. So much her virtue o'er my power imposed. On earth ascending or descending ne'er Was ever motion of such swiftness ta'en That could be equal to my pinion there. *°* So may I, reader, once return again Unto that triumph, for the which I wail My sins and ever smite my breast amain, You would not with such speed the flame assail, And draw you back, as I beheld the sign ^^^ Which follows Taurus and within it sail. glorious stars ! O pregnant light benign Of mighty virtue, from the which I bear My genius all, whatever share be mine With you was bom, and with you sought his lair. The sun, the father of all life 'mongst men. What time I breathed first the Tuscan air, And when was granted me such benison To enter the high sphere in which you wheel Your region was allotted to me then. To you devoutly now the sighs appeal Of my rapt heart fit virtue to acquire For the hard task which claims all its zeal. " You are so near the sum of all desire," Began my Beatrice, " that indeed Clearness and strength your vision should inspire, And therefore ere you farther do proceed G-aze downwards and behold how vast a world Beneath your feet you have already laid, So that your heart, with fullest joy unfurled, ^° Unto the host triumphant may draw near. Which joyous comes, through this ether whirled." My vision I turned back through every sphere. The seven beneath me, and this globe I saw Such that I smiled, so mean did it appear, ^^ And I approve as best that sage's law Which most despises it, and who does dream Of other worlds, I think has least of flaw. Line 110. The constellation of the Gemini, in which sign. Dante makes his entry into the sphere of the fixed stars, as it waa under Uuit constellation that he was bom.