Will be the bad and foolish company

With which into this valley thou shalt fall For all ingrate, all mad and impious

;

Will they become against thee; but soon after They, and not thou, shall have the forehead scarlet.

Of their bestiality their own proceedings

Shall furnish proof; so 't will be well for thee A party to have made thee by thyself. Thine earliest refuge and thine earliest inn Shall be the mighty Lombard's courtesy, Who on the Ladder bears the holy bird, Who such benign regard shall have for thee That 'twixt you twain, in doing and in asking, That shall be first which is with others last. Him shalt thou see, him who was so impressed At his nativity by this strong star,

That notable shall his achievements be. Not yet the people are aware of him

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Through his young age, since only nine years yet Around about him have these wheels revolved. 81 But ere the Gascon cheat the noble Henry, Some sparkles of his virtue shall appear

In caring not for silver nor for toil.

So recognized shall his magnificence
Become hereafter, that his enemies

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Will not have power to keep mute tongues about it.

On him rely, and on his benefits;

By him shall many people be transformed,
Changing condition rich and mendicant;

Line 76. With him shalt thou see one who at his birth
Line 77. Has by this star of strength been so impressed,

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And written in thy mind thou hence shalt bear Of him, but shalt not say it"—and things he said

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Incredible to those who shall be present. Then added: "Son, these are the commentaries On what was said to thee; behold the snares That are concealed behind few revolutions; Yet would I not thy neighbors thou shouldst envy, Because thy life into the future reaches Beyond the punishment of their perfidies." When by its silence showed that sainted soul That it had finished putting in the woof Into that web which I had given it warped, Began I, even as he who yearneth after,

Being in doubt, some counsel from a person Who seeth, and uprightly wills, and loves: "Well see I, father mine, how spurreth on

The time towards me such a blow to deal me As heaviest is to him who most gives way. Therefore with foresight it is well I arm me,

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That, if the dearest place be taken from me, 110

I

may not lose the others by my songs.

Down through the world of infinite bitterness, And o'er the mountain, from whose beauteous summit

The eyes of my own Lady lifted me,

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And afterward through heaven from light to light,
I have learned that which, if I tell again,
Will be to many a savor of strong acid.
And if I am a timid friend to truth,

I fear lest I may lose my life with those

Line 92. Of him, but shalt not say it". -and things said he
Line 117. Will be a savor of strong herbs to many.

Who will hereafter call this time the olden." 120 The light in which was smiling my own treasure Which there I had discovered, flashed at first As in the sunshine doth a golden mirror ; Then made reply: "A conscience overcast Or with its own or with another's shame, Will taste forsooth the tartness of thy word; But ne'ertheless, all falsehood laid aside,

Make manifest thy vision utterly,

And let them scratch wherever is the itch; For if thine utterance shall offensive be

At the first taste, a vital nutriment

"T will leave thereafter, when it is digested. This cry of thine shall do as doth the wind, Which smiteth most the most exalted summits, And that is no slight argument of honor. Therefore are shown to thee within these wheels, Upon the mount and in the dolorous valley, Only the souls that unto fame are known; Because the spirit of the hearer rests not,

Nor doth confirm its faith by an example Which has the root of it unknown and hidden, Or other reason that is not apparent."

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CANTO XVIII.

Now was alone rejoicing in its word
That soul beatified, and I was tasting

My own, the bitter tempering with the sweet,
And the Lady who to God was leading me
Said: "Change thy thought; consider that I am
Near unto Him who every wrong disburdens." 6
Unto the loving accents of my comfort

I turned me round, and then what love I saw Within those holy eyes I here relinquish ; Not only that my language I distrust,

But that my mind cannot return so far Above itself, unless another guide it. Thus much upon that point can I repeat,

That, her again beholding, my affection From every other longing was released. While the eternal pleasure, which direct

Rayed upon Beatrice, from her fair face Contented me with its reflected aspect, Conquering me with the radiance of a smile, She said to me, "Turn thee about and listen; 20 Not in mine eyes alone is Paradise." Even as sometimes here do we behold The affection in the look, if it be such That all the soul is rapt away by it,

So, by the flaming of the effulgence holy

To which I turned, I recognized therein

The wish of speaking to me somewhat farther. And it began: "In this fifth resting-place

Upon the tree that liveth by its top,

And aye bears fruit, and never loseth leaf, Are blessed spirits that below, ere yet

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They came to Heaven, were of such great renown That every Muse therewith would affluent be. Therefore look thou upon the cross's horns;

He whom I now shall name will there enact
What doth within a cloud its own swift fire."

I saw athwart the Cross a splendor drawn
By naming Joshua, even as he did it,

Line 29. Upon the tree that liveth by its summit,
Line 30. And aye bears fruit, and never loses leaf

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Nor noted I the word before the deed;
And at the name of the great Maccabee

I saw another move itself revolving,
And gladness was the whip unto that top.
Likewise for Charlemagne and for Orlando,
Two of them my regard attentive followed
As followeth the eye its falcon flying.
Guglielmo afterward, and Renouard,

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And the Duke Godfrey, did attract my sight Along upon that Cross, and Robert Guiscard. Then, moved and mingled with the other lights, The soul that had addressed me showed how great

An artist 't was among the heavenly singers. To my right side I turned myself around,

My duty to behold in Beatrice

Either by words or gesture signified ; And so translucent I beheld her eyes,

So full of pleasure, that her countenance
Surpassed its other and its latest wont.
And as, by feeling greater delectation,

A man in doing good from day to day
Becomes aware his virtue is increasing,
So I became aware that my gyration
With heaven together had increased its arc,
That miracle beholding more adorned.
And such as is the change, in little lapse

Of time, in a pale woman, when her face
Is from the load of bashfulness unladen,
Such was it in mine eyes, when I had turned,
Caused by the whiteness of the temperate star,
The sixth, which to itself had gathered me.

Line 46. William thereafterward, and Renouard.

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