Bent on the point, at which my vision fail'd:
When thus her words resuming she began:

"I speak, nor what thou wouldst inquire demand;
For I have mark'd it, where all time and place
Are present. Not for increase to himself

Of good, which may not be increas'd, 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 will'd,
Into new natures, like unto himself,
Eternal Love unfolded. Nor before,
As if in dull inaction torpid lay.

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For not in process of before or aft

Upon these waters mov'd the Spirit of God.

Simple and mix'd, both form and substance, forth

To perfect being started, like three darts

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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 th' eternal Sovran, beam entire
His threefold operation, at one act

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Produc'd 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, unsever'd bond.

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Long tract of ages by the angels past,

Ere the creating of another world,

Describ'd on Jerome's pages thou hast seen.
But that what I disclose to thee is true,

Those penmen, whom the Holy Spirit mov'd
In many a passage of their sacred book

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Attest; as thou by diligent search shalt find
And reason in some sort discerns the same,
Who scarce would grant the heav'nly 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 allay'd
Thy thirst, which from the triple question rose.

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

The others kept their station: and this task,
Whereon thou lookst, began with such delight,
That they surcease not ever, day nor night,

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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
Were by enlight'ning grace and their own merit
Exalted; so that in their will confirm'd

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

But to receive the grace, which heav'n 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 treasur'd, thou henceforth

This consistory round about mayst scan,

And gaze thy fill. But since thou hast on earth

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Heard vain disputers, reasoners in the schools,
Canvas 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,

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Equivocating, darken and perplex.

"Know thou, that, from the first, these substances,

Rejoicing in the countenance of God,

Have held unceasingly their view, intent

Upon the glorious vision, from the which

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Naught absent is nor hid: where then no change

Of newness with succeesion 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,

To whom more guilt and shame are justly due.

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Each the known track of sage philosophy
Deserts, and has a byway of his own:
So much the restless eagerness to shine
And love of singularity prevail.

Yet this, offensive as it is, provokes

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Heav'n's anger less, than when the book of God

Is forc'd to yield to man's authority,

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Or from its straightness warp'd: no reck'ning made

What blood the sowing of it in the world

Has cost; what favour 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.

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One tells, how at Christ's suffering the wan moon

Bent back her steps, and shadow'd o'er the sun

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With intervenient disk, as she withdrew:
Another, how the light shrouded itself
Within its tabernacle, and left dark

The Spaniard and the Indian, with the Jew.
Such fables Florence in her pulpit hears,
Bandied about more frequent, than the names
Of Bindi and of Lapi in her streets.

The sheep, meanwhile, poor witless ones, return
From pasture, fed with wind: and what avails
For their excuse, they do not see their harm?
Christ said not to his first conventicle,

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'Go forth and preach impostures to the world,'

But gave them truth to build on; and the sound

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Was mighty on their lips; nor needed they,
Beside the gospel, other spear or shield,
To aid them in their warfare for the faith.
The preacher now provides himself with store
Of jests and gibes; and, so there be no lack
Of laughter, while he vents them, his big cowl
Distends, and he has won the meed he sought:
Could but the vulgar catch a glimpse the while
Of that dark bird which nestles in his hood,
They scarce would wait to hear the blessing said.
Which now the dotards hold in such esteem,

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That every counterfeit, who spreads abroad
The hands of holy promise, finds a throng
Of credulous fools beneath. Saint Anthony
Fattens with this his swine, and others worse
Than swine, who diet at his lazy board,
Paying with unstamp'd metal for their fare.
"But (for we far have wander'd) let us seek
The forward path again; so as the way
Be shorten'd with the time. No mortal tongue
Nor thought of man hath ever reach'd so far,
That of these natures he might count the tribes.
What Daniel of their thousands hath reveal'd
With finite number infinite conceals.

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The fountain at whose source these drink their beams,

With light supplies them in as many modes,

As there are splendours, that it shines on each

According to the virtue it conceives,

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Differing in love and sweet affection.

Look then how lofty and how huge in breadth

The' eternal might, which, broken and dispers'd

Over such countless mirrors, yet remains

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Whole in itself and one, as at the first."

CANTO XXX.

NOON's fervid hour perchance six thousand miles

Almost to level on our earth declines;

From hence is distant; and the shadowy cone

When from the midmost of this blue abyss

By turns some star is to our vision lost.

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And straightway as the handmaid of the sun

Puts forth her radiant brow, all, light by light,

Fade, and the spangled firmament shuts in,

E'en to the loveliest of the glittering throng.
Thus vanish'd gradually from my sight

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The triumph, which plays ever round the point,

That overcame me, seeming (for it did)

Engirt by that it girdeth. Wherefore love,

With loss of other object, forc'd me bend

Mine eyes on Beatrice once again.

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If all, that hitherto is told of her,

Were in one praise concluded, 't were too weak

To furnish out this turn. Mine eyes did look

On beauty, such, as I believe in sooth,

Not merely to exceed our human, but,
That save its Maker, none can to the full
Enjoy it. At this point o'erpower'd I fail,
Unequal to my theme, as never bard
Of buskin or of sock hath fail'd before.
For, as the sun doth to the feeblest sight,
E'en so remembrance of that witching smile
Hath dispossest my spirit of itself.

Not from that day, when on this earth I first
Beheld her charms, up to that view of them,
Have I with song applausive ever ceas'd
To follow, but not follow them no more;
My course here bounded, as each artist's is,
When it doth touch the limit of his skill.

She (such as I bequeath her to the bruit
Of louder trump than mine, which hasteneth on,
Urging its arduous matter to the close),
Her words resum'd, in gesture and in voice
Resembling one accustom'd to command:
"Forth from the last corporeal are we come
Into the heav'n, that is unbodied light,
Light intellectual replete with love,
Love of true happiness replete with joy,
Joy, that transcends all sweetness of delight.
Here shalt thou look on either mighty host
Of Paradise; and one in that array,
Which in the final judgment thou shalt see."
As when the lightning, in a sudden spleen
Unfolded, dashes from the blinding eyes
The visive spirits dazzled and bedimm'd;
So, round about me, fulminating streams
Of living radiance play'd, and left me swath'd
And veil'd in dense impenetrable blaze.
Such weal is in the love, that stills this heav'n;
For its own flame the torch this fitting ever!

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