Its brightness is proportioned to the ardour,
The ardour 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 ardour which from that is kindled, Increase the radiance which from this proceeds. But even as a coal that sends forth flame,

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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 splendour weary us,

For strong will be the organs of the body
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,

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.

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Their concord and their joyous semblances,

The love, the wonder, and the sweet regard, They made to be the cause of holy thoughts; So much so that the venerable Bernard

First bared his feet, and after so great peace
Ran, and, in running, thought himself too slow.
O wealth unknown! O veritable good!

Giles bares his feet, and bares his feet Sylvester
Behind the bridegroom, so doth please the bride!

Then goes his way that father and that master,

He and his Lady and that family

Which now was girding on the humble cord; Nor cowardice of heart weighed down his brow At being son of Peter Bernardone,

Nor for appearing marvellously scorned;

But regally his hard determination

To Innocent he opened, and from him
Received the primal seal upon his Order.

After the people mendicant increased

Behind this man, whose admirable life
Better in glory of the heavens were sung,
Incoronated with a second crown

Was through Honorius by the Eternal Spirit
The holy purpose of this Archimandrite.
And when he had, through thirst of martyrdom,
In the proud presence of the Sultan preached
Christ and the others who came after him,
And, finding for conversion too unripe

The folk, and not to tarry there in vain,
Returned to fruit of the Italic grass,

On the rude rock 'twixt Tiber and the Arno

From Christ did he receive the final seal,
Which during two whole years his members bore.

When He, who chose him unto so much good,
Was pleased to draw him up to the reward
That he had merited by being lowly,

Unto his friars, as to the rightful heirs,

His most dear Lady did he recommend,
And bade that they should love her faithfully;

And from her bosom the illustrious soul

Wished to depart, returning to its realm,
And for its body wished no other bier.
Think now what man was he, who was a fit

Companion over the high seas to keep
The bark of Peter to its proper bearings.

And this man was our Patriarch; hence whoever
Doth follow him as he commands can see
That he is laden with good merchandise.
But for new pasturage his flock has grown
So greedy, that it is impossible

They be not scattered over fields diverse;
And in proportion as his sheep remote

And vagabond go farther off from him,
More void of milk return they to the fold.
Verily some there are that fear a hurt,

And keep close to the shepherd; but so few,
That little cloth doth furnish forth their hoods.

Now if my utterance be not indistinct,

If thine own hearing hath attentive been,
If thou recall to mind what I have said,

In part contented shall thy wishes be;

For thou shalt see the plant that's chipped away, And the rebuke that lieth in the words, 'Where well one fattens, if he strayeth not.'"

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130

735

CANTO XII.

SOON as the blessed flame had taken up
The final word to give it utterance,
Began the holy millstone to revolve,
And in its gyre had not turned wholly round,
Before another in a ring enclosed it,

And motion joined to motion, song to song;
Song that as greatly doth transcend our Muses,
Our Sirens, in those dulcet clarions,

As primal splendour that which is reflected.
And as are spanned athwart a tender cloud

Two rainbows parallel and like in colour,
When Juno to her handmaid gives command,

(The one without born of the one within,

Like to the speaking of that vagrant one

Whom love consumed as doth the sun the vapours,)

And make the people here, through covenant

God set with Noah, presageful of the world
That shall no more be covered with a flood,

In such wise of those sempiternal roses

The garlands twain encompassed us about,
And thus the outer to the inner answered.

After the dance, and other grand rejoicings,

Both of the singing, and the flaming forth Effulgence with effulgence blithe and tender, Together, at once, with one accord had stopped,

(Even as the eyes, that, as volition moves them, Must needs together shut and lift themselves,) Out of the heart of one of the new lights

There came a voice, that needle to the star
Made me appear in turning thitherward.
And it began: "The love that makes me fair

Draws me to speak about the other leader,
By whom so well is spoken here of mine.
'Tis right, where one is, to bring in the other,
That, as they were united in their warfare,
Together likewise may their glory shine.
The soldiery of Christ, which it had cost

So dear to arm again, behind the standard
Moved slow and doubtful and in numbers few,

Provided for the host that was in peril,

When the Emperor who reigneth evermore

Through grace alone and not that it was worthy;

And, as was said, he to his Bride brought succour

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With champions twain, at whose deed, at whose word
The straggling people were together drawn.

Within that region where the sweet west wind
Rises to open the new leaves, wherewith
Europe is seen to clothe herself afresh,

Not far off from the beating of the waves,

Behind which in his long career the sun
Sometimes conceals himself from every man,

Is situate the fortunate Calahorra,

Under protection of the mighty shield

In which the Lion subject is and sovereign.
Therein was born the amorous paramour

Of Christian Faith, the athlete consecrate,
Kind to his own and cruel to his foes;
And when it was created was his mind
Replete with such a living energy,

That in his mother her it made prophetic.

Between him and the Faith at holy font,

As soon as the espousals were complete

That issue would from him and from his heirs ;

And that he might be construed as he was,

A spirit from this place went forth to name him
With His possessive whose he wholly was.
Dominic was he called; and him I speak of

Even as of the husbandman whom Christ
Elected to his garden to assist him.
Envoy and servant sooth he seemed of Christ,
For the first love made manifest in him
Was the first counsel that was given by Christ.
Silent and wakeful many a time was he

Discovered by his nurse upon the ground,
As if he would have said, 'For this I came.'

O thou his father, Felix verily !

O thou his mother, verily Joanna,

If this, interpreted, means as is said! Not for the world which people toil for now In following Ostiense and Taddeo,

But through his longing after the true manna,
He in short time became so great a teacher,

That he began to go about the vineyard,
Which fadeth soon, if faithless be the dresser ;
And of the See, (that once was more benignant
Unto the righteous poor, not through itself,
But him who sits there and degenerates,)
Not to dispense or two or three for six,
Not any fortune of first vacancy,
Non decimas quæ sunt pauperum Dei,

He asked for, but against the errant world
Permission to do battle for the seed,

Of which these four and twenty plants surround thee

With office apostolical he moved,

Then with the doctrine and the will together,

And in among the shoots heretical

Like torrent which some lofty vein out-presses;

His impetus with greater fury smote,
Wherever the resistance was the greatest.
Of him were made thereafter divers runnels,
Whereby the garden catholic is watered,
So that more living its plantations stand.
If such the one wheel of the Biga was,

In which the Holy Church itself defended
And in the field its civic battle won,

Truly full manifest should be to thee

The excellence of the other, unto whom
Thomas so courteous was before my coming.