Think who he was, and what occasion moved

him

To make request, when it was told him, ' Ask.'
I've not so spoken that thou canst not see

Clearly he was a king who asked for wisdom,
That he might be sufficiently a king;

'T was not to know the number in which are

The motors here above, or if necesse With a contingent e'er necesse make, Non si est dare primum motum esse,

Or if in semicircle can be made

Triangle so that it have no right angle.
Whence, if thou notest this and what I said,
A regal prudence is that peerless seeing
In which the shaft of my intention strikes.
And if on 'rose' thou turnest thy clear eyes,
Thou 'lt see that it hath reference alone
To kings who 're many, and the good are rare.
With this distinction take thou what I said,

And thus it can consist with thy belief
Of the first father and of our Delight.
And lead shall this be always to thy feet,

To make thee, like a weary man, move slowly
Both to the Yes and No thou seest not;

For very low among the fools is he

Who affirms without distinction, or denies,
As well in one as in the other case;
Because it happens that full often bends

Current opinion in the false direction,
And then the feelings bind the intellect.
Far more than uselessly he leaves the shore
(Since he returneth not the same he went)

Who fishes for the truth, and hath no skill; And in the world proofs manifest thereof

Parmenides, Melissus, Brissus are,

And many who went on and knew not whither; Thus did Sabellius, Arius, and those fools

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Who have been even as swords unto the Scriptures
In rendering distorted their straight faces.
Nor yet shall people be too confident

In judging, even as he is who doth count
The corn in field or ever it be ripe.
For I have seen all winter long the thorn

First show itself intractable and fierce,
And after bear the rose upon its top;
And I have seen a ship direct and swift
Run o'er the sea throughout its course entire,
To perish at the harbor's mouth at last.

Let not Dame Bertha nor Ser Martin think,
Seeing one steal, another offering make,
To see them in the arbitrament divine;
For one may rise, and fall the other may."

Line 123. Who fishes for the truth, and has no skill;

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CANTO XIV

FROM centre unto rim, from rim to centre,
In a round vase the water moves itself,
As from without 't is struck or from within.
Into my mind upon a sudden dropped

What I am saying, at the moment when
Silent became the glorious life of Thomas,
Because of the resemblance that was born
Of his discourse and that of Beatrice,

Whom, after him, it pleased thus to begin :
"This man has need (and does not tell you so,
Nor with the voice, nor even in his thought)
Of going to the root of one truth more.
Declare unto him if the light wherewith
Blossoms your substance shall remain with
Eternally the same that it is now;
And if it do remain, say in what manner,
After ye are again made visible,

It can be that it injure not your sight."
As by a greater gladness urged and drawn

you

They who are dancing in a ring sometimes.
Uplift their voices and their motions quicken;
So, at that orison devout and prompt,

The holy circles a new joy displayed
In their revolving and their wondrous song.
Whoso lamenteth him that here we die

That we may live above, hath never there
Seen the refreshment of the eternal rain.

IO

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The One and Two and Three who ever liveth,
And reigneth ever in Three and Two and One,
Not circumscribed and all things circumscribing,
Three several times was chanted by each one
Among those spirits, with such melody.
That for all merit it were just reward;
And, in the lustre most divine of all

The lesser ring, I heard a modest voice,
Such as perhaps the Angel's was to Mary,
Answer: "As long as the festivity

Of Paradise shall be, so long our love
Shall radiate round about us such a vesture.
Its brightness is proportioned to the ardor,
The ardor to the vision; and the vision
Equals what grace it has above its worth.
When, glorious and sanctified, our flesh

Is reassumed, then shall our persons be
More pleasing by their being all complete;
For will increase whate'er bestows on us

Of light gratuitous the Good Supreme,
Light which enables us to look on Him;
Therefore the vision must perforce increase,
Increase the ardor which from that is kindled,
Increase the radiance which from this proceeds.
But even as a coal that sends forth flame,

And by its vivid whiteness overpowers it
So that its own appearance it maintains,
Thus the effulgence that surrounds us now

Shall be o'erpowered in aspect by the flesh, Which still to-day the earth doth cover up; Nor can so great a splendor weary us,

For strong will be the organs of the body

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To everything which hath the power to please us.' So sudden and alert appeared to me

Both one and the other choir to say Amen,

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That well they showed desire for their dead bodies; Nor sole for them perhaps, but for the mothers,

The fathers, and the rest who had been dear
Or ever they became eternal flames.
And lo! all round about of equal brightness
Arose a lustre over what was there,
Like an horizon that is clearing up.
And as at rise of early eve begin

Along the welkin new appearances,
So that the sight seems real and unreal,
It seemed to me that new subsistences

Began there to be seen, and make a circle
Outside the other two circumferences.

O very sparkling of the Holy Spirit,

How sudden and incandescent it became Unto mine eyes, that vanquished bore it not! But Beatrice so beautiful and smiling

Appeared to me, that with the other sights
That followed not my memory I must leave her.
Then to uplift themselves mine eyes resumed
The power, and I beheld myself translated
To higher salvation with my Lady only.
Well was I ware that I was more uplifted

By the enkindled smiling of the star,
That seemed to me more ruddy than its wont.
With all my heart, and in that dialect

Which is the same in all, such holocaust
To God I made as the new grace beseemed;
And not yet from my bosom was exhausted

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