Whence I to her: "In your miraculous aspects There shines I know not what of the divine, Which doth transform from our first concep

tions.

you

Therefore I was not swift in my remembrance;

But what thou tellest me now aids me so,
That the refiguring is easier to me.

But tell me, ye who in this place are happy,
Are you desirous of a higher place,

To see more or to make yourselves more friends? First with those other shades she smiled a little;

Thereafter answered me so full of gladness, She seemed to burn in the first fire of love: "Brother, our will is quieted by virtue.

Of charity, that makes us wish alone

For what we have, nor gives us thirst for more. If to be more exalted we aspired,

Discordant would our aspirations be

Unto the will of Him who here secludes us; Which thou shalt see finds no place in these circles, If being in charity is needful here,

And if thou lookest well into its nature; Nay, 't is essential to this blest existence To keep itself within the will divine, Whereby our very wishes are made one; So that, as we are station above station

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Throughout this realm, to all the realm 't is pleasing,

As to the King, who makes his will our will.
And his will is our peace; this is the sea

To which is moving onward whatsoever
It doth create, and all that nature makes."

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Then it was clear to me how everywhere

In heaven is Paradise, although the grace

Of good supreme there rain not in one measure. 90 But as it comes to pass, if one food sates,

And for another still remains the longing,

We ask for this, and that decline with thanks, E'en thus did I, with gesture and with word,

To learn from her what was the web wherein She did not ply the shuttle to the end. "A perfect life and merit high in-heaven

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A lady o'er us," said she, " by whose rule. Down in your world they vest and veil themselves, That until death they may both watch and sleep Beside that Spouse who every vow accepts Which charity conformeth to his pleasure. To follow her, in girlhood from the world I fled, and in her habit shut myself,

And pledged me to the pathway of her sect. Then men accustomed unto evil more

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Than unto good, from the sweet cloister tore me;
God knows what afterward my life became.

This other splendor, which to thee reveals
Itself on my right side, and is enkindled
With all the illumination of our sphere,
What of myself I say applies to her;

A nun was she, and likewise from her head
Was ta'en the shadow of the sacred wimple.
But when she too was to the world returned

Against her wishes and against good usage, Of the heart's veil she never was divested. Of great Costanza this is the effulgence, Who from the second wind of Suabia

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Brought forth the third and latest puissance." Thus unto me she spake, and then began "Ave Maria" singing, and in singing

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Vanished, as through deep water something heavy. My sight, that followed her as long a time

As it was possible, when it had lost her
Turned round unto the mark of more desire,
And wholly unto Beatrice reverted;

But she such lightnings flashed into mine eyes,
That at the first my sight endured it not;
And this in questioning more backward made me.

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CANTO IV

BETWEEN two viands, equally removed

And tempting, a free man would die of hunger
Ere either he could bring unto his teeth.
So would a lamb between the ravenings

Of two fierce wolves stand fearing both alike;
And so would stand a dog between two does.
Hence, if I held my peace, myself I blame not,
Impelled in equal measure by my doubts,
Since it must be so, nor do I commend.
I held my peace; but my desire was painted

Upon my face, and questioning with that
More fervent far than by articulate speech.
Beatrice did as Daniel had done

Relieving Nebuchadnezzar from the wrath
Which rendered him unjustly merciless,
And said: "Well see I how attracteth thee
One and the other wish, so that thy care
Binds itself so that forth it does not breathe.
Thou arguest, if good will be permanent,
The violence of others, for what reason
Doth it decrease the measure of my merit?
Again for doubting furnish thee occasion

Souls seeming to return unto the stars,
According to the sentiment of Plato.
These are the questions which upon thy wish
Are thrusting equally; and therefore first
Will I treat that which hath the most of gall.

He of the Seraphim most absorbed in God,
Moses, and Samuel, and whichever John
Thou mayst select, I say, and even Mary,
Have not in any other heaven their seats,

Than have those spirits that just appeared to thee,
Nor of existence more or fewer years;
But all make beautiful the primal circle,
And have sweet life in different degrees,
By feeling more or less the eternal breath.
They showed themselves here, not because allotted
This sphere has been to them, but to give sign
Of the celestial which is least exalted.

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To speak thus is adapted to your mind,
Since only through the sense it apprehendeth
What then it worthy makes of intellect.
On this account the Scripture condescends
Unto your faculties, and feet and hands
To God attributes, and means something else; 45
And Holy Church under an aspect human

Gabriel and Michael represents to you,

And the other who made Tobit whole again.

That which Timæus argues of the soul

He

Doth not resemble that which here is seen, Because it seems that as he speaks he thinks. says the soul unto its star returns,

Believing it to have been severed thence
Whenever nature gave it as a form.
Perhaps his doctrine is of other guise

Than the words sound, and possibly may be
With meaning that is not to be derided.
If he doth mean that to these wheels return

Line 48. And him who made Tobias whole again.

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