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 't is 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

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'Tis well he have the chance to speak thereof." 45 As baccalaureate arms himself, and speaks not Until the master doth propose the question, Το 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;

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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,"

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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."
Then heard I: "Very rightly thou perceivest,
If well thou understandest why he placed it
With substances and then with evidences."
And I thereafterward: "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.

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And it behoveth us from this belief

To reason without having other sight,
And hence it hath 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

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85.

That there resplendent was: "This precious jewel,

Line 78. And hence it has the nature of evidence."

Upon the which is every virtue founded,

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Whence hadst thou it?" And I: "The large out

pouring

Of Holy Spirit, that hath been diffused

Upon the ancient parchments and the new, A syllogism is, which proved it to me.

With such acuteness, that, compared therewith, 95 All demonstration seems to me obtuse."

And then I heard: "The ancient and the new

Postulates, that to thee are so conclusive,

ΙΟΙ

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." 'T was answered me: "Say, who assureth thee That those works ever were? the thing itself That must be proved, naught 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

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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,
Line 92. Of Holy Spirit, which has been diffused

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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 them

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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

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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.

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