And around Beatrice three several times
It whirled itself with so divine a song,
My fantasy repeats it not to me;
Therefore the pen skips, and I write it not,
Since our imagination for such folds,

Much more our speech, is of a tint too glaring. "O holy sister mine, who us implorest

With such devotion, by thine ardent love
Thou dost unbind me from that beautiful sphere!"
Thereafter, having stopped, the blessed fire

Unto my Lady did direct its breath,

Which spake in fashion as I here have said. And she "O light eterne of the great man

To whom our Lord delivered up the keys
He carried down of this miraculous joy,
This one examine on points light and grave,

As good beseemeth thee, about the Faith
By means of which thou on the sea didst walk.
If he love well, and hope well, and believe,

From thee 'tis hid not; for thou hast thy sight
There where depicted everything is seen
But since this kingdom has made citizens

By means of the true Faith, to glorify it
'Tis well he have the chance to speak thereof."
As baccalaureate arms himself, and speaks not
Until the master doth propose the question,
To argue it, and not to terminate it,

So did I arm myself with every reason,

While she was speaking, that I might be ready
For such a questioner and such profession.
"Say, thou good Christian; manifest thyself;

What is the Faith?" Whereat I raised my brow
Unto that light wherefrom was this breathed forth.

Then turned I round to Beatrice, and she

Prompt signals made to me that I should pour
The water forth from my internal fountain.
"May grace, that suffers me to make confession,"
Began I, "to the great centurion,

Cause my conceptions all to be explicit !"

And I continued: "As the truthful pen,

Father, of thy dear brother wrote of it,
Who put with thee Rome into the good way,
Faith is the substance of the things we hope for,
And evidence of those that are not seen;
And this appears to me its quiddity."

35

49

43

59

55

60

Then heard I: "Very rightly thou perceivest,
If well thou understandest why he placed it
With substances and then with evidences."
And I thereafterward : 66
The things profound,
That here vouchsafe to me their apparition,
Unto all eyes below are so concealed,
That they exist there only in belief,

Upon the which is founded the high hope,
And hence it takes the nature of a substance.
And it behoveth us from this belief

To reason without having other sight
And hence it has the nature of evidence."
Then heard I: "If whatever is acquired

Below by doctrine were thus understood,
No sophist's subtlety would there find place."
Thus was breathed forth from that enkindled love;
Then added: "Very well has been gone over
Already of this coin the alloy and weight;

But tell me if thou hast it in thy purse?"

And I: "Yes, both so shining and so round,
That in its stamp there is no peradventure."

Thereafter issued from the light profound

That there resplendent was: "This precious jewel,
Upon the which is every virtue founded,

Whence hadst thou it ?" And I: "The large outpouring
Of Holy Spirit, which has been diffused
Upon the ancient parchments and the new,

A syllogism is, which proved it to me

With such acuteness, that, compared therewith,
All demonstration seems to me obtuse."
And then I heard: "The ancient and the new
Postulates, that to thee are so conclusive,

Why dost thou take them for the word divine?"
And I: "The proofs, which show the truth to me,
Are the works subsequent, whereunto Nature
Ne'er heated iron yet, nor anvil beat.”

'Twas answered me: 66

Say, who assureth thee

That those works ever were? the thing itself

That must be proved, nought else to thee affirms it.'

"Were the world to Christianity converted,"

I said, "withouten miracles, this one
Is such, the rest are not its hundredth part;
Because that poor and fasting thou didst enter
Into the field to sow there the good plant,
Which was a vine and has become a thorn!"

This being finished, the high, holy Court

Resounded through the spheres, "One God we praise !"
In melody that there above is chanted.

And then that Baron, who from branch to branch,
Examining, had thus conducted me,

Till the extremest leaves we were approaching,
Again began: "The Grace that dallying

Plays with thine intellect thy mouth has opened,
Up to this point, as it should opened be,
So that I do approve what forth emerged;

But now thou must express what thou believest,
And whence to thy belief it was presented."
"O holy father, spirit who beholdest

What thou believedst so that thou o'ercamest,
Towards the sepulchre, more youthful feet,"
Began I, "thou dost wish me in this place

The form to manifest of my prompt belief,
And likewise thou the cause thereof demandest.

And I respond: In one God I believe,

Sole and eterne, who moveth all the heavens
With love and with desire, himself unmoved;

And of such faith not only have I proofs

Physical and metaphysical, but gives thein Likewise the truth that from this place rains down Through Moses, through the Prophets and the Psalms, Through the Evangel, and through you, who wrote After the fiery Spirit sanctified you;

In Persons three eterne believe, and these

One essence I believe, so one and trine
They bear conjunction both with sunt and est.

With the profound condition and divine

Which now I touch upon, doth stamp my mind
Ofttimes the doctrine evangelical.

This the beginning is, this is the spark

Which afterwards dilates to vivid flame,
And, like a star in heaven, is sparkling in me."

Even as a lord who hears what pleaseth him

His servant straight embraces, gratulating
For the good news as soon as he is silent;

So, giving me its benediction, singing,

Three times encircled me, when I was silent,
The apostolic light, at whose command
I spoken had, in speaking I so pleased him.

743

CANTO XXV.

IF e'er it happen that the Poem Sacred,

To which both heaven and earth have set their hand,
So that it many a year hath made me lean,

O'ercome the cruelty that bars me out

From the fair sheepfold, where a lamb I slumbered,
An enemy to the wolves that war upon it,
With other voice forthwith, with other fleece
Poet will I return, and at my font

Baptismal will I take the laurel crown;
Because into the Faith that maketh known

All souls to God there entered I, and then Peter for her sake thus my brow encircled. Thereafterward towards us moved a light

Out of that band whence issued the first-fruits Which of his vicars Christ behind him left, And then my Lady, full of ecstasy,

Said unto me: 66

'Look, look! behold the Baro
For whom below Galicia is frequented."
In the same way as, when a dove alights

Near his companion, both of them pour forth,
Circling about and murmuring, their affection,

So one beheld I by the other grand

Prince glorified to be with welcome greeted,
Lauding the food that there above is eaten.
But when their gratulations were complete,
Silently coram me each one stood still,
So incandescent it o'ercame my sight.
Smiling thereafterwards, said Beatrice:

"Illustrious life, by whom the benefactions
Of our Basilica have been described,
Make Hope resound within this altitude;

Thou knowest as oft thou dost personify it As Jesus to the three gave greater clearness.” "Lift up thy head, and make thyself assured;

For what comes hither from the mortal world
Must needs be ripened in our radiance.”
This comfort came to me from the second fire;
Wherefore mine eyes I lifted to the hills,

Which bent them down before with too great weight.

"Since, through his grace, our Emperor wills that thou
Shouldst find thee face to face, before thy death,
In the most secret chamber, with his Counts,
So that, the truth beholden of this court,

Hope, which below there rightfully enamours,
Thereby thou strengthen in thyself and others,
Say what it is, and how is flowering with it

Thy mind, and say from whence it came to thee."
Thus did the second light again continue.

And the Compassionate, who piloted

The plumage of my wings in such high flight,
Did in reply anticipate me thus:

"No child whatever the Church Militant

Of greater hope possesses, as is written
In that Sun which irradiates all our band;
Therefore it is conceded him from Egypt
To come into Jerusalem to see,
Or ever yet his warfare be completed.
The two remaining points, that not for knowledge
Have been demanded, but that he report
How much this virtue unto thee is pleasing,
To him I leave; for hard he will not find them,

Nor of self-praise; and let him answer them;
And may the grace of God in this assist him!"
As a disciple, who his teacher follows,

Ready and willing, where he is expert,
That his proficiency may be displayed,
Hope," said I, "is the certain expectation
Of future glory, which is the effect
Of grace divine and merit precedent.
From many stars this light comes unto me;

But he instilled it first into my heart

Who was chief singer unto the chief captain.

'Sperent in te,' in the high Theody

He sayeth, those who know thy name;' and who
Knoweth it not, if he my faith possess?

Thou didst instil me, then, with his instilling
In the Epistle, so that I am full,

And upon others rain again your rain."
While I was speaking, in the living bosom

Of that combustion quivered an effulgence,
Sudden and frequent, in the guise of lightning;

Then breathed: "The love wherewith I am inflamed
Towards the virtue still which followed me
Unto the palm and issue of the field,