Towards me turning, blithe as beautiful,

Said unto me: "Fix gratefully thy mind On God, who unto the first star has brought us." It seemed to me a cloud encompassed us,

Luminous, dense, consolidate and bright As adamant on which the sun is striking. Into itself did the eternal pearl

Receive us, even as water doth receive A ray of light, remaining still unbroken. If I was body (and we here conceive not

How one dimension tolerates another, Which needs must be if body enter body), More the desire should be enkindled in us

That essence to behold, wherein is seen How God and our own nature were united. There will be seen what we receive by faith, Not demonstrated, but self-evident

In guise of the first truth that man believes.

I made reply: "Madonna, as devoutly

As most I can do I give thanks to Him

Who has removed me from the mortal world.

But tell me what the dusky spots may be
Upon this body, which below on earth

Make people tell that fabulous tale of Cain?"
Somewhat she smiled; and then, " If the opinion
Of mortals be erroneous," she said,

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"Where'er the key of sense doth not unlock,
Certes, the shafts of wonder should not pierce thee 55
Now, forasmuch as, following the senses,
Thou seest that the reason hath short wings.
But tell me what thou think'st of it thyself."
Line 57. Thou seest that the reason has short wings.

And I: "What seems to us up here diverse,
Is caused, I think, by bodies rare and dense."
And she "Right truly shalt thou see immersed
In error thy belief, if well thou hearest
The argument that I shall make against it.
Lights many the eighth sphere displays to you
Which in their quality and quantity

May noted be of aspects different.

If this were caused by rare and dense alone,
One only virtue would there be in all
Or more or less diffused, or equally.
Virtues diverse must be perforce the fruits

Of formal principles; and these, save one,
Of course would by thy reasoning be destroyed.
Besides, if rarity were of this dimness

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The cause thou askest, either through and through This planet thus attenuate were of matter,

Or else, as in a body is apportioned

The fat and lean, so in like manner this
Would in its volume interchange the leaves.
Were it the former, in the sun's eclipse

It would be manifest by the shining through
Of light, as through aught tenuous interfused.
This is not so; hence we must scan the other,
And if it chance the other I demolish,
Then falsified will thy opinion be.

But if this rarity go not through and through,
There needs must be a limit, beyond which
Its contrary prevents the further passing,
And thence the foreign radiance is reflected,
Even as a color cometh back from glass,
The which behind itself concealeth lead.

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Now thou wilt say the sunbeam shows itself
More dimly there than in the other parts,
By being there reflected farther back.
From this reply experiment will free thee
If e'er thou try it, which is wont to be
The fountain to the rivers of
your arts.
Three mirrors shalt thou take, and two remove
Alike from thee, the other more remote
Between the former two shall meet thine eyes.
Turned towards these, cause that behind thy back
Be placed a light, illuming the three mirrors
And coming back to thee by all reflected.
Though in its quantity be not so ample
The image most remote, there shalt thou see
How it perforce is equally resplendent.
Now, as beneath the touches of warm rays

Naked the subject of the snow remains
Both of its former color and its cold,
Thee, thus remaining in thine intellect,
Will I inform with such a living light,
That it shall tremble in its aspect to thee.

Within the heaven of the divine repose

Revolves a body, in whose virtue lies /
The being of whatever it contains.
The following heaven, that hath so many eyes,
Divides this being by essences diverse,
Distinguished from it, and by it contained.
The other spheres, by various differences,

All the distinctions which they have within them
Dispose unto their ends and their effects.
Thus do these organs of the world proceed,

Line 115. The following heaven, that has so many eyes,

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As thou perceivest now, from grade to grade; Since from above they take, and act beneath. Observe me well, how through this place I come Unto the truth thou wishest, that hereafter Thou mayst alone know how to keep the ford. The power and motion of the holy spheres, As from the artisan the hammer's craft, Forth from the blessed motors must proceed. The heaven, which lights so manifold make fair, From the Intelligence profound, which turns it, The image takes, and makes of it a seal. And even as the soul within your dust Through members different and accommodated To faculties diverse expands itself,

So likewise this Intelligence diffuses

Its virtue multiplied among the stars,
Itself revolving on its unity.

Virtue diverse doth a diverse alloyage

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Make with the precious body that it quickens, 140 In which, as life in you, it is combined.

From the glad nature whence it is derived,

The mingled virtue through the body shines, Even as gladness through the living pupil. From this proceeds whate'er from light to light Appeareth different, not from dense and rare : This is the formal principle that produces, According to its goodness, dark and bright.”

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CANTO III

THAT Sun, which erst with love my bosom warmed,
Of beauteous truth had unto me discovered,
By proving and reproving, the sweet aspect;
And, that I might confess myself convinced
And confident, so far as was befitting,
I lifted more erect my head to speak.

But there appeared a vision, which withdrew me
So close to it, in order to be seen,

That my confession I remembered not.
Such as through polished and transparent glass,
Or waters crystalline and undisturbed,
But not so deep as that their bed be lost,
Come back again the outlines of our faces

So feeble, that a pearl on forehead white
Comes not less speedily unto our eyes;
Such saw I many faces prompt to speak,

So that I ran in error opposite

IO

15

To that which kindled love 'twixt man and fountain.

As soon as I became aware of them,

Esteeming them as mirrored semblances,

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To see of whom they were, mine eyes I turned, And nothing saw, and once more turned them for

ward

Direct into the light of my sweet Guide,
Who smiling kindled in her holy eyes.
"Marvel thou not," she said to me, "because
I smile at this thy puerile conceit,

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