And therefore are these people, festinate

Unto true life, not sine causa here

More and less excellent among themselves.
The King, by means of whom this realm reposes
In so great love and in so great delight
That no will ventureth to ask for more,
In his own joyous aspect every mind

Creating, at his pleasure dowers with grace
Diversely; and let here the effect suffice.
And this is clearly and expressly noted
For you in Holy Scripture, in those twins
Who in their mother had their anger roused.
According to the color of the hair,

Therefore, with such a grace the light supreme
Consenteth that they worthily be crowned.

Without, then, any merit of their deeds,
Stationed are they in different gradations,
Differing only in their first acuteness.
'Tis true that in the early centuries,

With innocence, to work out their salvation
Sufficient was the faith of parents only.

After the earlier ages were completed,

Behoved it that the males by circumcision Unto their innocent wings should virtue add; But after that the time of grace

had come

Without the baptism absolute of Christ,
Such innocence below there was retained.
Look now into the face that unto Christ,

Hath most resemblance; for its brightness only
Is able to prepare thee to see Christ."

-On her did I behold so great a gladness

Rain down, borne onward in the holy minds

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Created through that altitude to fly,
That whatsoever I had seen before

Did not suspend me in such admiration,
Nor show me such similitude of God.
And the same Love that first descended there,
"Ave Maria, gratia plena," singing,

In front of her his wings expanded wide
Unto the canticle divine responded

From every part the court beatified,
So that each sight became serener for it.
"O holy father, who for me endurest

To be below here, leaving the sweet place
In which thou sittest by eternal lot,
Who is the Angel that with so much joy

Into the eyes is looking of our Queen,
Enamored so that he seems made of fire?"
Thus I again recourse had to the teaching.
Of that one who delighted him in Mary,
As doth the star of morning in the sun.
And he to me: "Such gallantry and grace

As there can be in Angel and in soul,

All is in him; and thus we fain would have it; Because he is the one who bore the palm

Down unto Mary, when the Son of God To take our burden on himself decreed. But now come onward with thine eyes, as I

Speaking shall go, and note the great patricians Of this most just and merciful of empires. Those two that sit above there most enraptured, As being very near unto Augusta,

Are as it were the two roots of this Rose. He who upon the left is near her placed

The father is, by whose audacious taste
The human species so much bitter tastes.
Upon the right thou seest that ancient father
Of Holy Church, into whose keeping Christ
The keys committed of this lovely flower.
And he who all the evil days beheld,

Before his death, of her the beauteous bride
Who with the spear and with the nails was won,
Beside him sits, and by the other rests

That leader under whom on manna lived The people ingrate, fickle, and stiff-necked. Opposite Peter seest thou Anna seated,

So well content to look upon her daughter, Her eyes she moves not while she sings Hosanna. And opposite the eldest household father

Lucia sits, she who thy Lady moved

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When to rush downward thou didst bend thy brows. But since the moments of thy vision fly,

Here will we make full stop, as a good tailor
Who makes the gown according to his cloth,
And unto the first Love will turn our eyes,
That looking upon Him thou penetrate
As far as possible through his effulgence.
Truly, lest peradventure thou recede,

Moving thy wings believing to advance,

By prayer behoves it that grace be obtained; Grace from that one who has the power to aid thee; And thou shalt follow me with thy affection

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That from my words thy heart turn not aside." 150 And he began this holy orison.

CANTO XXXIII

"THOU Virgin Mother, daughter of thy Son,
Humble and high beyond all other creature,
The limit fixed of the eternal counsel,
Thou art the one who such nobility

To human nature gave, that its Creator
Did not disdain to make himself its creature.
Within thy womb rekindled was the love,

By heat of which in the eternal peace
After such wise this flower has germinated.
Here unto us thou art a noonday torch

Of charity, and below there among mortals
Thou art the living fountain-head of hope.
Lady, thou art so great, and so prevailing,

That he who wishes grace, nor runs to thee,
His aspirations without wings would fly.
Not only thy benignity gives succor

To him who asketh it, but oftentimes
Forerunneth of its own accord the asking.
In thee compassion is, in thee is pity,
In thee magnificence; in thee unites
Whate'er of goodness is in any creature.

Now doth this man, who from the lowest depth
Of the universe as far as here has seen
One after one the spiritual lives,

Supplicate thee through grace for so much power
That with his eyes he may uplift himself
Higher towards the uttermost salvation.

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And I, who never burned for my own seeing
More than I do for his, all of my prayers

Proffer to thee, and pray they come not short,
That thou wouldst scatter from him every cloud
Of his mortality so with thy prayers,

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That the Chief Pleasure be to him displayed.
Still farther do I pray thee, Queen, who canst
Whate'er thou wilt, that sound thou mayst preserve
After so great a vision his affections.

Let thy protection conquer human movements;
See Beatrice and all the blessed ones

My prayers to second clasp their hands to thee!"

The eyes beloved and revered of God,

Fastened upon the speaker, showed to us How grateful unto her are prayers devout; Then unto the Eternal Light they turned,

On which it is not credible could be By any creature bent an eye so clear. And I, who to the end of all desires

Was now approaching, even as I ought,
The ardor of desire within me ended.
Bernard was beckoning unto me, and smiling,
That I should upward look; but I already
Was of my own accord such as he wished;
Because my sight, becoming purified,

Was entering more and more into the ray
Of the High Light which of itself is true.
From that time forward what I saw was greater
Than our discourse, that to such vision yields,
And yields the memory unto such excess.
Even as he is who seeth in a dream,
And after dreaming the imprinted passion

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