So from its Lord did the triform effect
Ray forth into its being all together,
Without discrimination of beginning.
Order was con-created and constructed

In substances, and summit of the world
Were those wherein the pure act was produced.
Pure potentiality held the lowest part;

Midway bound potentiality with act

Such bond that it shall never be unbound. Jerome has written unto you of angels

Created a long lapse of centuries

Or ever yet the other world was made;
But written is this truth in many places

By writers of the Holy Ghost, and thou
Shalt see it, if thou lookest well thereat.

And even reason seeth it somewhat,

For it would not concede that for so long

Could be the motors without their perfection.

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Now dost thou know both where and when these

Loves

Created were, and how; so that extinct

In thy desire already are three fires.
Nor could one reach, in counting, unto twenty
So swiftly, as a portion of these angels
Disturbed the subject of your elements.
The rest remained, and they began this art

Which thou discernest, with so great delight
That never from their circling do they cease.
The occasion of the fall was the accursed

Presumption of that One, whom thou hast seen By all the burden of the world constrained. Those whom thou here beholdest modest were

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To recognize themselves as of that goodness Which made them apt for so much understanding; On which account their vision was exalted

By the enlightening grace and their own merit,
So that they have a full and steadfast will.

I would not have thee doubt, but certain be,
'Tis meritorious to receive this grace,
According as the affection opens to it.
Now round about in this consistory

Much mayst thou contemplate, if these my words
Be gathered up, without all further aid.

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But since upon the earth, throughout your schools, 70
They teach that such is the angelic nature

That it doth hear, and recollect, and will,
More will I say, that thou mayst see unmixed
The truth that is confounded there below,
Equivocating in such like prelections.
These substances, since in God's countenance
They jocund were, turned not away their sight
From that wherefrom not anything is hidden;
Hence they have not their vision intercepted

By object new, and hence they do not need
To recollect, through interrupted thought.
So that below, not sleeping, people dream,

Believing they speak truth, and not believing; And in the last is greater sin and shame. Below you do not journey by one path

Philosophizing; so transporteth you

Love of appearance and the thought thereof.

And even this above here is endured

With less disdain, than when is set aside
The Holy Writ, or when it is distorted.

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They think not there how much of blood it costs
To sow it in the world, and how he pleases
Who in humility keeps close to it.
Each striveth for appearance, and doth make
His own inventions; and these treated are

By preachers, and the Evangel holds its peace.
One sayeth that the moon did backward turn,

In the Passion of Christ, and interpose herself So that the sunlight reached not down below; And lies; for of its own accord the light

Hid itself; whence to Spaniards and to Indians,
As to the Jews, did such eclipse respond.
Florence hath not so many Lapi and Bindi
As fables such as these, that every year
Are shouted from the pulpit back and forth,
In such wise that the lambs, who do not know,
Come back from pasture fed upon the wind,
And not to see the harm doth not excuse them.
Christ did not to his first disciples say,

'Go forth, and to the world preach idle tales,'
But unto them a true foundation gave;
And this so loudly sounded from their lips,
That, in the warfare to enkindle Faith,
They made of the Evangel shields and lances.

Now men go forth with jests and drolleries

To preach, and if but well the people laugh, The hood puffs out, and nothing more is asked.

But in the cowl there nestles such a bird,
That, if the common people were to see it,
They would perceive what pardons they confide in,
For which so great on earth has grown the folly,
Line 103. Florence has not so many Lapi and Bindi

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That, without proof of any testimony,
To each indulgence they would flock together.
By this Saint Anthony his pig doth fatten,

And many others, who are worse than pigs,
Paying in money without mark of coinage.
But since we have digressed abundantly,

Turn back thine eyes forthwith to the right path,
So that the way be shortened with the time.
This nature doth so multiply itself

In numbers, that there never yet was speech
Nor mortal fancy that can go so far.

And if thou notest that which is revealed

By Daniel, thou wilt see that in his thousands
Number determinate is kept concealed.
The primal light, that all irradiates it,

By modes as many is received therein,
As are the splendors wherewith it is mated.
Hence, inasmuch as on the act conceptive
The affection followeth, of love the sweetness
Therein diversely fervid is or tepid.

The height behold now and the amplitude
Of the eternal power, since it hath made
Itself so many mirrors, where 't is broken,
One in itself remaining as before."

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J45

CANTO XXX

PERCHANCE six thousand miles remote from us
Is glowing the sixth hour, and now this world
Inclines its shadow almost to a level,
When the mid-heaven begins to make itself

So deep to us, that here and there a star
Ceases to shine so far down as this depth,
And as advances bright exceedingly

The handmaid of the sun, the heaven is closed
Light after light to the most beautiful;
Not otherwise the Triumph, which forever

Plays round about the point that vanquished me,
Seeming enclosed by what itself encloses,

Little by little from my vision faded;

Whereat to turn mine eyes on Beatrice

My seeing nothing and my love constrained me.

If what has hitherto been said of her

Were all concluded in a single praise,
Scant would it be to serve the present turn.

Not only does the beauty I beheld

Transcend ourselves, but truly I believe
Its Maker only may enjoy it all.
Vanquished do I confess me by this passage
More than by problem of his theme was ever
O'ercome the comic or the tragic poet;

For as the sun the sight that trembles most,
Even so the memory of that sweet smile
My mind depriveth of its very self.