Thou knowest as oft thou dost personify it
As Jesus to the three* gave greater light."-
"Lift up thy head, and make thyself assured;
For what comes hither from the mortal world
Must needs be ripened in our radiance.”
This exhortation from the second fire +
Came; and mine eyes I lifted to the hills,
Which bent them down before with too great weight.§
"Since through his grace, our Emperor decrees
Thou shouldst confronted be, before thy death,
In the most secret chamber, with his Counts,||
So that, the truth beholding of this court,
Hope, which below there rightly fascinates
In thee, and others may thereby be strengthened;
Say what it is, and how is flowering with it
Thy mind, and say from whence it came to thee;"
Thus did the second light continue still
And the Compassionate, who piloted
The plumage of my wings in such high flight,
In the reply did thus anticipate me;
"No child whatever the Church Militant
Of greater hope possesses, as is written
In that Sun** which irradiates all our band;
Therefore it is conceded him from Egypt
To come into Jerusalem to see,
Or ever yet his warfare is completed.
The other points, that not for knowledge' sake
Have been demanded,‡‡ but that he report
How much this virtue unto thee is pleasing,
To him I leave; for hard he will not find them,
Nor to be boasted of; them let him answer;
And may the Grace of God in this assist him!"
As a disciple, who obeys his teacher,
Ready and willing, where he is expert,
So that his excellence may be revealed,
SS" Hope," said I, "is the certain expectation
Of glory in the hereafter, which proceedeth
From grace divine and merit precedent.
* Peter, James, and John, representing the three theological virtues, Faith, Hope, and Charity, and distinguished above the other Apostles by clearer manifestations of their Master's favour. + St. James speaks.
I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help." Psalm
exxi. 1.
The three Apostles, luminous above him overwhelming him with light.
The most august spirits of the celestial city.
"Where everything beholds itself depicted."
tt To come from earth to heaven.
Say what it is," and "whence it cometh to thee "
$$" Ext spes certa expectatio futura beatitudinis, veniens ex Dei gratia et meritis pracedentibus.'
Petrus Lombardus, Magister Sententiarum.
From many stars this light comes unto me;
But he instilled it first into my heart,
Who was chief singer unto the Chief Captain,
Hope they in thee, in the high Theody
He says, all those who recognise thy name;+
And who does not if he my faith possesses?
Thou didst instil me, then, with his instilling
In the Epistle, so that I am full,
And upon others rain again your rain."‡
While I was speaking, in the living bosom
Of that effulgence quivered a sharp flash,
Sudden and frequent, in the guise of lightning.
Then breathed: "The love wherewith I am inflamed
Towards the virtue still, which followed me
Unto the palm and issue of the field,
Wills that I whisper thee, thou take delight
In her; and grateful to me is thy saying
Whatever things Hope promises to thee."
And I: "The ancient Scriptures and the new
§The mark establish, and this shows it me,
Of all the souls whom God has made His friends,
Isaiah saith, that each one garmented
In his own land shall be with twofold garments,||
And his own land is this delicious life.
Thy brother, too, far more explicitly,
There where he treateth of the robes of white,
This revelation manifests to us."
And first, and near the ending of these words,
Sperent in te from over us was heard,
To which responsive answered all the carols.**
Thereafterward among them gleamed a light,tt
So that, if Cancer such a crystal had,
Winter would have a month of one sole day.‡‡
And as uprises, goes, and enters the dance
A joyous maiden, only to do honour
To the new bride, and not from any failing,§§
So saw I the illuminated splendour
Approach the two, who in a wheel revolved,
The Book of Psalms or songs of God:
"And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee."
Your rain; that is, of David and yourself.
"The mark of the high calling and election sure."
The twofold garments are the glorified spirit and the glorified body.
¶ St. John in the Apocalypse, vii. 9: “A great multitude, which no man could num
clothed with white robes."
Dances and songs commingled; the circling choirs, the celestial choristers.
In winter the constellation Cancer rises at sunset; and if it had one star as bright as
this, it would turn night into day.
Such as vanity, ostentation, or the like.
St. Peter and St. James are joined by St. John.
As was beseeming to their ardent love.
In joined itself there in the song and music;
And fired on them my Lady kept her look,
Even as a bride, slent and motionless.
This is the one who lay upon the breast
* Of Him oar Pelican; and this is he
To the great offset from the cross elected."
Mr Lady thus: bat therefore none the more
Bemoved her sight from its fixed contemplation,
Before or afterward, these words of hers.
Even as a man who gazes, and endeavours
To see the eclipsing of the sun a little,
And wha by seeing, sightless doth become,
So I became before that latest fire.
While it was said. Why dost thou daze thyself
To see a thing which here has no existence?
Earth upon earth my body is and shall be
With all the others there, until our number
"With the eternal proposition tallies;
With the two garments in the blessed cloister
**Are the two lights alone that have ascended:
And this shalt thou take back into your world."
And at this utterance the flaming circle
Grew quiet, with the dulcet intermingling
Of sound that by the trinal breath was made,
As to escape from danger or fatigue
The cars that erst were in the water beaten
Are all suspended at a whistle's sound.
Ah. how much in my mind was I disturbed,
When I turned round to look on Beatrice,
At not beholding her, although I was
Close at her side and in the Happy World.
+ Then saith He to that disciple, "Behold thy mother! and from that hour that disciple took her unto his own house." St. John, xix. 27.
If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?'
Till the predestined number of the elect is complete.
The two garments: the glorified spirit, and the glorified body.
**The two lights: Christ and the Virgin Mary.
# Carry back these tidings
:: The sacred trio of St. Peter, St. James, and St. John.
To noble heart Love doth for shelter fly,
As seeks the bird the forest's leafy shade;
Love was not felt till noble heart beat high,
Nor before love the noble heart was made.
Soon as the sun's broad flame
Was formed, so soon the clear light filled the air;
Yet was not till he came :
So love springs up in noble breasts, and there
Has its appointed space,
As heat in the bright flame finds its allotted place.
Kindles in noble heart the fire of love,
As hidden virtue in the precious stone:
This virtue comes not from the stars above,
Till round it the ennobling sun has shone;
But when his powerful blaze
Has drawn forth what was vile, the stars impart
Strange virtue in their rays:
And thus when Nature doth create the heart
Noble and pure and high,
Like virtue from the star, love comes from woman's eye.
ITALY! Italy! thou who 'rt doomed to wear
The fatal gift of beauty, and possess
The dower funest* of infinite wretchedness,
Written upon thy forehead by despair;
Ah! would that thou wert stronger, or less fair,
That they might fear thee more, or love thee less,
Who in the splendour of thy loveliness
Seem wasting, yet to mortal combat dare!
Then from the Alps I should not see descending
Such torrents of armed men, nor Gallic horde
Drinking the wave of Po, distained with gore,
Nor should I see thee girded with a sword
Not thine, and with the stranger's arm contending,
Victor or vanquished, slave for evermore.
TRANSLATIONS FROM THE FRENCH.
FROM CHARLES, DUKE OF ORLEANS.
GENTLE Spring!-in sunshine clad,
Well dost thou thy power display!
For Winter maketh the light heart sad,
And thou,-thou makest the sad heart gay.
He sees thee, and calls to his gloomy train,
The sleet, and the snow, and the wind, and the rain,
And they shrink away, and they flee in fear,
When thy merry step draws near.
Winter giveth the fields and the trees, so old,
Their beards of icicles and snow;
And the rain, it raineth so fast and cold,
We must cower over the embers low;
And, snugly housed from the wind and weatner,
Mope like birds that are changing feather.
But the storm retires, and the sky grows clear,
When thy merry step draws near.
Winter maketh the sun in the gloomy sky
Wrap him round with a mantle of cloud;
But, Heaven be praised, thy step is nigh;
Thon tearest away the mournful shroud,
And the earth looks bright, and Winter surly,
Who has toiled for nouht both late and early,
Is banihed afar by the new-born year,
When thy merry step draws near.
SWEET babe! true portrait of thy father's face,
Sleep on the bosom, that thy lips have pressed!
Sleep, little one; and closely, gently place
Thy drowsy eyelid on thy mother's breast.
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