Finding no food on earth. This well I know;
That if there be in Heaven a realm, that shows
In faithful mirror the celestial Justice,
Yours without veil reflects it. Ye discern
The heed, wherewith I do prepare myself
To hearken; ye, the doubt, that urges me
With such inveterate craving." Straight I saw,
Like to a falcon issuing from the hood,

That rears his head, and claps him with his wings,
His beauty and his eagerness bewraying;

So saw I move that stately sign, with praise
Of grace divine inwoven, and high song
Of inexpressive joy. "He," it began,

"Who turn'd His compass on the world's extreme,
And in that space so variously hath wrought,
Both openly and in secret; in such wise
Could not, through all the universe, display
Impression of His glory, that the Word

Of His omniscience should not still remain
In infinite excess. In proof whereof,

He first through pride supplanted, who was sum
Of each created being, waited not

For light celestial; and abortive fell.

Whence needs each lesser nature is but scant
Receptacle unto that Good, which knows
No limit, measured by itself alone.

Therefore your sight, of the omnipresent Mind
A single beam, its origin must own
Surpassing far its utmost potency.

The ken, your world is gifted with, descends
In the everlasting Justice as low down,

As eye doth in the sea; which, though it mark
The bottom from the shore, in the wide main
Discerns it not; and ne'ertheless it is;

But hidden through its deepness. Light is none,
Save that which cometh from the pure serene
Of ne'er disturbed ether: for the rest,
'Tis darkness all; or shadow of the flesh,
Or else its poison. Here confess reveal'd

That covert, which hath hidden from thy search

The living justice, of the which thou madest
Such frequent question; for thou said'st-' A man
Is born on Indus' banks, and none is there
Who speaks of Christ, nor who doth read nor
write;

And all his inclinations and his acts,

As far as human reason sees, are good;
And he offendeth not in word or deed:
But unbaptized he dies, and void of faith.
Where is the justice that condemns him? where
His blame, if he believeth not?'-What then,
And who art thou, that on the stool wouldst sit
To judge at distance of a thousand miles
With the short-sighted vision of a span?
To him, who subtilizes thus with me,
There would assuredly be room for doubt
Even to wonder, did not the safe word
Of Scripture hold supreme authority.

"O animals of clay! O spirits gross! The Primal Will,' that in itself is good,

Hath from itself, the chief Good, ne'er been moved. Justice consists in consonance with it,

Derivable by no created good,

Whose very cause depends upon its beam."

As on her nest the stork, that turns about

Unto her young, whom lately she hath fed,
Whiles they with upward eyes do look on her;
So lifted I my gaze; and, bending so,
The ever-blessed image waved its wings,

Labouring with such deep counsel. Wheeling round
It warbled, and did say: "As are my notes
To thee, who understand'st them not; such is
The eternal judgment unto mortal ken."

Then still abiding in that ensign ranged,
Wherewith the Romans overawed the world,
Those burning splendours of the Holy Spirit
Took up the strain; and thus it spake again:
"None ever hath ascended to this realm,
Who hath not a believer been in Christ,

1 The divine will.

Either before or after the blest limbs

Were nail'd upon the wood. But lo! of those

2

Who call 'Christ, Christ," there shall be many found,
In judgment, further off from Him by far,

Than such to whom His name was never known.
Christians like these the Ethiop3 shall condemn :
When that the two assemblages shall part;
One rich eternally, the other poor.

"What may the Persians say unto your kings,
When they shall see that volume,' in the which
All their dispraise is written, spread to view?
There amidst Albert's works shall that be read,
Which will give speedy motion to the pen,
When Prague shall mourn her desolated realm.
There shall be read the woe, that he' doth work
With his adulterate money on the Seine,
Who by the tusk will perish; there be read
The thirsting pride, that maketh fool alike
The English and Scot, impatient of their bound.
There shall be seen the Spaniard's luxury;"
The delicate living there of the Bohemian,"
Who still to worth has been a willing stranger.
The halter of Jerusalem" shall see

A unit for his virtue; for his vices,

"Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven."-Matt. vii. 21.

8" The Ethiop." "The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it."-Matt. xii. 41.

"That volume." "And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works." -Rev. xx. 12.

5" Albert.' "6

vi. 98.

Purgatory," Canto

6 Prague." The eagle predicts the devastation of Bohemia by Albert, which happened soon after this time, when that Emperor obtained the kingdom for his eldest son Rodolph.

No less a mark than million. He," who guards
The isle of fire by old Anchises honour'd,
Shall find his avarice there and cowardice;
And better to denote his littleness,

15

The writing must be letters niaim'd, that speak
Much in a narrow space. All there shall know
His uncle1 and his brother's" filthy doings,
Who so renown'd a nation and two crowns
Have bastardized. And they, of Portugal
And Norway, there shall be exposed, with him
Of Ratza," who hath counterfeited ill
The coin of Venice. O blest Hungary! 18
If thou no longer patiently abidest

16

[thee.

Thy ill-entreating: and, O blest Navarre!1o
If with thy mountainous girdle20 thou wouldst arm
In earnest of that day, e'en now are heard
Wailings and groans in Famagosta's streets
And Nicosia's," grudging at their beast,
Who keepeth even footing with the rest."

12 "He." Frederick of Sicily, son of Peter III of Arragon. Purgatory," Canto vii. 117. The isle of fire is Sicily, where was the tomb of Anchises.

13"His uncle." James, King of Majorca and Minorca, brother to Peter III.

14" His brother." James II of Arragon, who died in 1327. See "Purgatory," Canto vii. 117.

15" Of Portugal." In the time of Dante, Dionysius was King of Portugal. He died in 1325, after a reign of nearly forty-six years, and does not seem to have deserved the stigma here fastened on him. Perhaps the rebellious son of Dionysius may be alluded to.

16" Norway." Haquin, King of Norway, is probably meant; who having given refuge to the murderers of Eric VII, King of Denmark, A. D. 1288, commenced a war against his successor,, Eric VIII, which continued for nine years, almost to the utter ruin and destruction of both kingdoms.

17

Of Ratza."
One of the dynasty of the house

of Nemagna, which ruled the Kingdom of Rassia or Ratza, in Sclavonia, from 1161 to 1371, and whose history may be found in Mauro Orbino. Uladislaus appears to have been the sovereign in Dante's time; but the disgraceful forgery, adverted to in the text, is not recorded by the historian.

18" Hungary." The Kingdom of Hungary was about this time disputed by Carobert, son of Charles Martel, and Wenceslaus, Prince of Bohemia, son of Wenceslaus II.

19" Navarre." Navarre was now under the yoke of France. It soon after (in 1328) followed the advice of Dante, and had a monarch of its 20 Mountainous girdle." The Pyrenees.

own.

21

66

Famagosta's streets

And Nicosia's.' Cities in the Kingdom of Cyprus, at that time ruled by Henry VII, a pusillanimous prince. The meaning appears to be, that the complaints made by those cities of their weak and worthless Governor may be regarded as an earnest of his condemnation at the last doom.

CANTO XX

ARGUMENT. The eagle celebrates the praise of certain kings, whose glorified spirits form the eye of the bird. In the pupil is David; and, in the circle round it, Trajan, Hezekiah, Constantine, William II of Sicily, and Ripheus. It explains to our Poet how the souls of those whom he supposed to have had no means of believing in Christ, came to be in Heaven; and concludes with an admonition against presuming to fathom the counsels of God.

W

HEN, disappearing from our hemisphere,

The world's enlightener vanishes, and day
On all sides wasteth; suddenly the sky,
Erewhile irradiate only with his beam,
Is yet again unfolded, putting forth
Innumerable lights wherein one shines.
Of such vicissitude in Heaven I thought;
As the great sign,' that marshaleth the world
And the world's leaders, in the blessed beak
Was silent: for that all those living lights,
Waxing in splendour, burst forth into songs,
Such as from memory glide and fall away.

Sweet Love, that doth apparel thee in smiles!
How lustrous was thy semblance in those sparkles,
Which merely are from holy thoughts inspired.

2

After the precious and bright beaming stones,
That did ingem the sixth light, ceased the chiming
Of their angelic bells; methought I heard
The murmuring of a river, that doth fall
From rock to rock transpicuous, making known
The richness of his spring-head: and as sound
Of cittern, at the fret-board, or of pipe,
Is, at the wind-hole, modulate and tuned;
Thus up the neck, as it were hollow, rose
That murmuring of the eagle; and forthwith
Voice there assumed; and thence along the beak
Issued in form of words, such as my heart
Did look for, on whose tables I inscribed them.
"The part in me, that sees and bears the sun

1 The eagle, the imperial ensign.

2" After."

After the spirits in