Is in the flame of love not yet adult. Verily, inasmuch as at this mark

say.

One gazes long and little is discerned,
Wherefore this mode was worthiest will I
Goodness Divine, which from itself doth spurn
All envy, burning in itself so sparkles
That the eternal beauties it unfolds.
Whate'er from this immediately distils

Has afterwards no end, for ne'er removed
Is its impression when it sets its seal.
Whate'er from this immediately rains down.
Is wholly free, because it is not subject
Unto the influences of novel things.
The more conformed thereto, the more it pleases;
For the blest ardor that irradiates all things
In that most like itself is most vivacious.
With all of these things has advantaged been
The human creature; and if one be wanting,
From his nobility he needs must fall.
'Tis sin alone which doth disfranchise him,
And render him unlike the Good Supreme,
So that he little with its light is blanched,
And to his dignity no more returns,

Unless he fill up where transgression empties
With righteous pains for criminal delights.
Your nature when it sinned so utterly

In its own seed, out of these dignities.
Even as out of Paradise was driven,
Nor could itself recover, if thou notest
With nicest subtilty, by any way,
Except by passing one of these two fords:
Either that God through clemency alone

60

65

70

75

80

85

90

Had pardon granted, or that man himself
Had satisfaction for his folly made.
Fix now thine eye deep into the abyss

Of the eternal counsel, to my speech
As far as may be fastened steadfastly!
Man in his limitations had not power

To satisfy, not having power to sink
In his humility obeying then,

Far as he disobeying thought to rise;

And for this reason man has been from power
Of satisfying by himself excluded.

Therefore it God behoved in his own ways

Man to restore unto his perfect life,

I say in one, or else in both of them.

But since the action of the doer is

So much more grateful, as it more presents

The goodness of the heart from which it issues, Goodness Divine, that doth imprint the world,

Has been contented to proceed by each
And all its ways to lift you up again;
Nor 'twixt the first day and the final night
Such high and such magnificent proceeding
By one or by the other was or shall be ;
For God more bounteous was himself to give
To make man able to uplift himself,
Than if he only of himself had pardoned;
And all the other modes were insufficient
For justice, were it not the Son of God
Himself had humbled to become incarnate.
Now, to fill fully each desire of thine,

Return I to elucidate one place,

In order that thou there mayst see as I do.

Thou sayst: I see the air, I see the fire,

The water, and the earth, and all their mixtures 125 Come to corruption, and short while endure; And these things notwithstanding were created; Therefore if that which I have said were true, They should have been secure against corruption. The Angels, brother, and the land sincere

In which thou art, created may be called Just as they are in their entire existence; But all the elements which thou hast named,

130

And all those things which out of them are made, By a created virtue are informed.

Created was the matter which they have;

Created was the informing influence

Within these stars that round about them go.
The soul of every brute and of the plants
By its potential temperament attracts
The ray and motion of the holy lights;
But your own life immediately inspires
Supreme Beneficence, and enamors it
So with herself, it evermore desires her.
And thou from this mayst argue furthermore
Your resurrection, if thou think again

How human flesh was fashioned at that time
When the first parents both of them were made.”

135

140

145

CANTO VIII

THE world used in its peril to believe
That the fair Cypria delirious love
Rayed out, in the third epicycle turning;
Wherefore not only unto her paid honor
Of sacrifices and of votive cry

The ancient nations in the ancient error,
But both Dione honored they and Cupid,

That as her mother, this one as her son, And said that he had sat in Dido's lap; And they from her, whence I beginning take, Took the denomination of the star

ΤΟ

That woos the sun, now following, now in front.

I was not ware of our ascending to it;

But of our being in it gave full faith

My Lady whom I saw more beauteous grow. And as within a flame a spark is seen,

And as within a voice a voice discerned,

When one is steadfast, and one comes and goes, Within that light beheld I other lamps

Move in a circle, speeding more and less,
Methinks in measure of their inward vision.
From a cold cloud descended never winds,
Or visible or not, so rapidly

They would not laggard and impeded seem
To any one who had those lights divine

Seen come towards us, leaving the gyration
Begun at first in the high Seraphim.

5

15

20

25

And behind those that most in front appeared
Sounded "Osanna!" so that never since
To hear again was I without desire.
Then unto us more nearly one approached,
And it alone began: "We all are ready
Unto thy pleasure, that thou joy in us.
We turn around with the celestial Princes,
One gyre and one gyration and one thirst,
To whom thou in the world of old didst say,
"Ye who, intelligent, the third heaven are moving ;'
And are so full of love, to pleasure thee
A little quiet will not be less sweet."
After these eyes of mine themselves had offered
Unto my Lady reverently, and she

Content and certain of herself had made them, Back to the light they turned, which so great promise Made of itself, and "Say, who art thou? was My voice, imprinted with a great affection.

45

Oh how and how much I beheld it grow
With the new joy that superadded was

Unto its joys, as soon as I had spoken !

Thus changed, it said to me: "The world possessed

me

Short time below; and, if it had been more,

50

Much evil will be which would not have been. My gladness keepeth me concealed from thee, Which rayeth round about me, and doth hide me Like as a creature swathed in its own silk. Much didst thou love me, and thou hadst good reason; For had I been below, I should have shown thee Somewhat beyond the foliage of my love.

That left-hand margin, which doth bathe itself

54