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Suited in strict and wondrous harmony."

As when the north blows from his milder cheek
A blast, that scours the sky, forthwith our air,
Cleared of the rack that hung on it before,
Glitters; and, with his beauties all unveiled,
The firmament looks forth serene, and smiles:
Such was my cheer, when Beatrice drove
With clear reply the shadows back, and truth
Was manifested, as a star in heaven.
And when the words were ended, not unlike
To iron in the furnace, every cirque,
Ebullient, shot forth scintillating fires:
And every sparkle shivering to new blaze,
In number did outmillion the account
Reduplicate upon the chequered board.
Then heard I echoing on, from choir to choir,
"Hosanna," to the fixed point, that holds,
And shall forever hold them to their place,
From everlasting, irremovable.

Musing awhile I stood: and she, who saw
My inward meditations, thus began :

"In the first circles, they, whom thou beholdest,

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Are seraphim and cherubim. Thus swift

Follow their hoops, in likeness to the point,

Near as they can, approaching; and they can

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The more, the loftier their vision. Those

That round them fleet, gazing at the Godhead next,

Are thrones; in whom the first trine ends. And all

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Grace and good-will their measure have assigned.
The other trine, that with still opening buds

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In this eternal springtide blossom fair,

Fearless of bruising from the nightly ram,
Breathe up in warbled melodies threefold
Hosannas, blending ever; from the three,

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72. By means of this beautiful figure, Dante 18,446,744,073,709,551,615. The meaning here says Beatrice has cleared his mind from all doubts.

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is that the number of angels is infinite.

95. They can their power to approach God is in proportion to their power to understand him.

108. In the spring the sun is in Aries (Ram), and hence the latter is not seen at night. In autumn, however, the sun is in Libra, and Aries, 180° distant, rises on the horizon after sunset. The meaning here is that spring is eternal.

Transmitted, hierarchy of gods, for aye

Virtues; and powers the third; the next to whom

Rejoicing; dominations first; next them,

Are princedoms and archangels, with glad round

To tread their festal ring; and last, the band
Angelical, disporting in their sphere.

All, as they circle in their orders, look

Aloft; and, downward, with such sway prevail,
That all with mutual impulse tend to God.
These once a mortal view beheld.

In Dionysius, so intensely wrought,

Desire,

From him,

That he, as I have done, ranged them; and named
Their orders, marshalled in his thought.
Dissentient, one refused his sacred read.
But soon as in this heaven his doubting eyes
Were opened, Gregory at his error smiled.
Nor marvel, that a denizen of earth

Should scan such secret truth; for he had learnt
Both this and much beside of these our orbs,
From an eye-witness to heaven's mysteries."

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CANTO XXIX.

ARGUMENT.

Beatrice beholds, in the mirror of divine truth, some doubts which had entered the mind of Dante. These she resolves; and then digresses into a vehement reprehension of certain theologians and preachers in those days, whose ignorance or avarice induced them to substitute their own inventions for the pure word of the Gospel.

No longer, than what time Latona's twins
Covered of Libra and the fleecy star,
Together both, girding the horizon hang;
In even balance, from the zenith poised;
Till from that verge, each, changing hemisphere,
Part the nice level; e'en so brief a space
Did Beatrice's silence hold. A smile

117. The angels look up to the point of divine light, and also down to the orders below them. In the former case they aspire toward God, in the latter they draw those below toward him, so that all tend toward the point.

121. Dionysius and Gregory the Great both wrote concerning the celestial hierarchy. Dante says the latter is wrong and the former right, because he learned it from St. Paul eye-witness). Cf. 2 Cor. xii. 2.

1. Beatrice stopped speaking, and was silent

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for a brief moment, described by Dante as lasting only so long as the sun and moon (Latona's twins), being in opposite signs of the zodiac (Libra and Aries), and so having the same horizon, hang poised, as it were, in the hand of the zenith.

2. Fleecy star = Montone = Ram = Aries. 5. Verge orizzonte = horizon. 6. Part the nice level = si dilibra = break their equilibrium.

9. Point

Sat painted on her cheek; and her fixed gaze
Bent on the point, at which my vision failed:
When thus, her words resuming, she began:
“I speak, nor what thou wouldst inquire, demand;
For I have marked it, where all time and place
Are present. Not for increase to himself

Of good, which may not be increased, but forth
To manifest his glory by its beams;
Inhabiting his own eternity,

Beyond time's limit or what bound soe'er
To circumscribe his being; as he willed,
Into new natures, like unto himself,
Eternal love unfolded: nor before,
As if in dull inaction, torpid, lay,
For, not in process of before or aft,

Upon these waters moved the Spirit of God.

Simple and mixed, both form and substance, forth
To perfect being started, like three darts

Shot from a bow three-corded. And as ray

In crystal, glass, and amber, shines entire,
E'en at the moment of its issuing; thus
Did, from the eternal Sovran, beam entire
His threefold operation, at one act
Produced coeval. Yet, in order, each
Created his due station knew: those highest,
Who pure intelligence were made; mere power,
The lowest; in the midst, bound with strict league,
Intelligence and power, unsevered bond.

God.

II. Dante's desire to know how the universe was created is known to Beatrice without his telling her, for she has seen it in the mind of God.

13. The meaning here is, that God did not, to give himself pleasure, create the universe; but this latter is an emanation of his eternal love and goodness.

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17. Time and space begin only with the crea- from, so no distinction of time can be made in tion.

19. New natures = nuovi amori = new loves, i.e. the different kinds of created things.

20. Nor can we say that before the creation God was inactive, for since time only began then, there can be no such things as before or after.

the creation of angels, nature, and man.

31. At the instant of their creation they had their various stations and functions assigned them.

32. Those highest == the angels, in the Empyrean.

33. Mere power = pura potenzia = passive 23. "And the spirit of God moved upon the matter, subject to the influence of the heavens. face of the waters." Gen. i. 2.

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34. Lowest on earth, below the moon.
In the midst between the Empyrean and

the earth.

35. The heavens, both passive and active, moved by the angels (intelligences) and themselves exerting influence. Cf. Par. ii. 120 ff.

Long tract of ages by the angels past,
Ere the creating of another world,
Described on Jerome's pages thou hast seen.
But that what I disclose to thee is true;
Those penmen, whom the Holy Spirit moved
In many a passage of their sacred book,
Attest; as thou by diligent search shalt find:
And reason, in some sort, discerns the same,
Who scarce would grant the heavenly ministers,
Of their perfection void, so long a space.

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Thus when and where these spirits of love were made,

Thou know'st, and how: and, knowing, hast allayed

Thy thirst, which from the triple question rose.

Ere one had reckoned twenty, e'en so soon,
Part of the angels fell: and, in their fall,
Confusion to your elements ensued.

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The others kept their station: and this task,

Whereon thou look'st, began, with such delight,

That they surcease not ever, day nor night,

Their circling. Of that fatal lapse the cause

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Was the curst pride of him, whom thou hast seen

Pent with the world's incumbrance. Those, whom here

Thou seest, were lowly to confess themselves

Of his free bounty, who had made them apt

For ministries so high: therefore their views

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Were, by enlightening grace and their own merit,
Exalted; so that in their will confirmed

They stand, nor fear to fall. For do not doubt,

But to receive the grace, which Heaven vouchsafes,
Is meritorious, even as the soul

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With prompt affection welcometh the guest.
Now, without further help, if with good heed
My words thy mind have treasured, thou henceforth
This consistory round about mayst scan,

36. St. Jerome had said that the angels were created long before the universe. Beatrice says this is not true, as is proved by many passages of the Bible, i.e. Ecclesiasticus xviii. 1, and Gen. i. 1.

40. "But holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." 2 Peter i. 21. 43. As elsewhere, Dante says here that reason and revelation both show us the truth. The function of the angels is to revolve the heavens; hence it is not reasonable to suppose the former to be created without their perfection, i.e. the function of revolving the heavens.

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immediately after the creation, in the time necessary to count twenty. Cf. Convito, ii. 6.

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51. 'Turbò il suggetto dei vostri elementi," "Disturbed the (earth which is) subject to the elements."

52. Task to revolve about the divine point.

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55. Lapse revolt.
56. Lucifer.

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And gaze thy fill. But, since thou hast on earth
Heard vain disputers, reasoners in the schools,
Canvass the angelic nature, and dispute
Its powers of apprehension, memory, choice;
Therefore, 't is well thou take from me the truth,
Pure and without disguise; which they below,
Equivocating, darken and perplex.

“Know thou, that, from the first, these substances, Rejoicing in the countenance of God,

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Have held unceasingly their view, intent
Upon the glorious vision, from the which

Naught absent is nor hid: where then no change
Of newness, with succession, interrupts,
Remembrance, there, needs none to gather up
Divided thought and images remote.

"So that men, thus at variance with the truth,
Dream, though their eyes be open; reckless some
Of error; others well aware they err,

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What blood the sowing of it in the world
Has cost; what favor for himself he wins,

Who meekly clings to it. The aim of all
Is how to shine: e'en they, whose office is
To preach the gospel, let the gospel sleep,
And pass their own inventions off instead.
One tells, how at Christ's suffering the wan moon
Bent back her steps, and shadowed o'er the sun

70. Men taught that the angels had understanding, will, and memory. Beatrice says this is false, for as the angels gaze and have always gazed into the mirror of God's mind, they see all things past, present, and future, and hence have no need of memory.

87. This false teaching is done by two classes of men: those who believe their errors to be the truth, and those who do not believe what they teach. The latter are most guilty and reprehensible.

89. Beatrice takes occasion to rebuke the vanity of preachers and theologians, who, led by love of applause, and eager to appear brilliant and ingenious, "wrest the Scriptures" to their own uses. Many sensational preachers of

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our own day might ponder on these words with profit.

96. They forget the sacredness of the Bible spread abroad through the world by the blood of the martyrs.

103. To illustrate this vain ingenuity of exegesis, Beatrice brings up the passage, Matt. xxvii. 45: "Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour." One interpreter says the moon moved back on her path in order to interpose herself between the sun and earth; another says the light darkened of itself. Beatrice takes sides with neither of these, but says that all such efforts are vain and useless it is sufficient to know the fact stated by Scripture.

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