Chapter 2

On this account the Scripture condescends Unto your faculties, and feet and hands To God attributes, and means something else;

And Holy Church under an aspect human Gabriel and Michael represent to you, And him who made Tobias whole again.

That which Timaeus argues of the soul Doth not resemble that which here is seen, Because it seems that as he speaks he thinks.

He says the soul unto its star returns, Believing it to have been severed thence Whenever nature gave it as a form.

Perhaps his doctrine is of other guise Than the words sound, and possibly may be With meaning that is not to be derided.

If he doth mean that to these wheels return The honour of their influence and the blame, Perhaps his bow doth hit upon some truth.

This principle ill understood once warped The whole world nearly, till it went astray Invoking Jove and Mercury and Mars.

The other doubt which doth disquiet thee Less venom has, for its malevolence Could never lead thee otherwhere from me.

That as unjust our justice should appear In eyes of mortals, is an argument Of faith, and not of sin heretical.

But still, that your perception may be able To thoroughly penetrate this verity, As thou desirest, I will satisfy thee.

If it be violence when he who suffers Co-operates not with him who uses force, These souls were not on that account excused;

For will is never quenched unless it will, But operates as nature doth in fire If violence a thousand times distort it.

Hence, if it yieldeth more or less, it seconds The force; and these have done so, having power Of turning back unto the holy place.

If their will had been perfect, like to that Which Lawrence fast upon his gridiron held, And Mutius made severe to his own hand,

It would have urged them back along the road Whence they were dragged, as soon as they were free; But such a solid will is all too rare.

And by these words, if thou hast gathered them As thou shouldst do, the argument is refuted That would have still annoyed thee many times.

But now another passage runs across Before thine eyes, and such that by thyself Thou couldst not thread it ere thou wouldst be weary.

I have for certain put into thy mind That soul beatified could never lie, For it is near the primal Truth,

And then thou from Piccarda might’st have heard Costanza kept affection for the veil, So that she seemeth here to contradict me.

Many times, brother, has it come to pass, That, to escape from peril, with reluctance That has been done it was not right to do,

E’en as Alcmaeon (who, being by his father Thereto entreated, his own mother slew) Not to lose pity pitiless became.

At this point I desire thee to remember That force with will commingles, and they cause That the offences cannot be excused.

Will absolute consenteth not to evil; But in so far consenteth as it fears, If it refrain, to fall into more harm.

Hence when Piccarda uses this expression, She meaneth the will absolute, and I The other, so that both of us speak truth.”

Such was the flowing of the holy river That issued from the fount whence springs all truth; This put to rest my wishes one and all.

“O love of the first lover, O divine,” Said I forthwith, “whose speech inundates me And warms me so, it more and more revives me,

My own affection is not so profound As to suffice in rendering grace for grace; Let Him, who sees and can, thereto respond.

Well I perceive that never sated is Our intellect unless the Truth illume it, Beyond which nothing true expands itself.

It rests therein, as wild beast in his lair, When it attains it; and it can attain it; If not, then each desire would frustrate be.

Therefore springs up, in fashion of a shoot, Doubt at the foot of truth; and this is nature, Which to the top from height to height impels us.

This doth invite me, this assurance give me With reverence, Lady, to inquire of you Another truth, which is obscure to me.

I wish to know if man can satisfy you For broken vows with other good deeds, so That in your balance they will not be light.”

Beatrice gazed upon me with her eyes Full of the sparks of love, and so divine, That, overcome my power, I turned my back

And almost lost myself with eyes downcast.

Paradiso: Canto V

“If in the heat of love I flame upon thee Beyond the measure that on earth is seen, So that the valour of thine eyes I vanquish,

Marvel thou not thereat; for this proceeds From perfect sight, which as it apprehends To the good apprehended moves its feet.

Well I perceive how is already shining Into thine intellect the eternal light, That only seen enkindles always love;

And if some other thing your love seduce, ’Tis nothing but a vestige of the same, Ill understood, which there is shining through.

Thou fain wouldst know if with another service For broken vow can such return be made As to secure the soul from further claim.”

This Canto thus did Beatrice begin; And, as a man who breaks not off his speech, Continued thus her holy argument:

“The greatest gift that in his largess God Creating made, and unto his own goodness Nearest conformed, and that which he doth prize

Most highly, is the freedom of the will, Wherewith the creatures of intelligence Both all and only were and are endowed.

Now wilt thou see, if thence thou reasonest, The high worth of a vow, if it he made So that when thou consentest God consents:

For, closing between God and man the compact, A sacrifice is of this treasure made, Such as I say, and made by its own act.

What can be rendered then as compensation? Think’st thou to make good use of what thou’st offered, With gains ill gotten thou wouldst do good deed.

Now art thou certain of the greater point; But because Holy Church in this dispenses, Which seems against the truth which I have shown thee,

Behoves thee still to sit awhile at table, Because the solid food which thou hast taken Requireth further aid for thy digestion.

Open thy mind to that which I reveal, And fix it there within; for ’tis not knowledge, The having heard without retaining it.

In the essence of this sacrifice two things Convene together; and the one is that Of which ’tis made, the other is the agreement.

This last for evermore is cancelled not Unless complied with, and concerning this With such precision has above been spoken.

Therefore it was enjoined upon the Hebrews To offer still, though sometimes what was offered Might be commuted, as thou ought’st to know.

The other, which is known to thee as matter, May well indeed be such that one errs not If it for other matter be exchanged.

But let none shift the burden on his shoulder At his arbitrament, without the turning Both of the white and of the yellow key;

And every permutation deem as foolish, If in the substitute the thing relinquished, As the four is in six, be not contained.

Therefore whatever thing has so great weight In value that it drags down every balance, Cannot be satisfied with other spending.

Let mortals never take a vow in jest; Be faithful and not blind in doing that, As Jephthah was in his first offering,

Whom more beseemed to say, ‘I have done wrong, Than to do worse by keeping; and as foolish Thou the great leader of the Greeks wilt find,

Whence wept Iphigenia her fair face, And made for her both wise and simple weep, Who heard such kind of worship spoken of.’

Christians, be ye more serious in your movements; Be ye not like a feather at each wind, And think not every water washes you.

Ye have the Old and the New Testament, And the Pastor of the Church who guideth you Let this suffice you unto your salvation.

If evil appetite cry aught else to you, Be ye as men, and not as silly sheep, So that the Jew among you may not mock you.

Be ye not as the lamb that doth abandon Its mother’s milk, and frolicsome and simple Combats at its own pleasure with itself.”

Thus Beatrice to me even as I write it; Then all desireful turned herself again To that part where the world is most alive.

Her silence and her change of countenance Silence imposed upon my eager mind, That had already in advance new questions;

And as an arrow that upon the mark Strikes ere the bowstring quiet hath become, So did we speed into the second realm.

My Lady there so joyful I beheld, As into the brightness of that heaven she entered, More luminous thereat the planet grew;

And if the star itself was changed and smiled, What became I, who by my nature am Exceeding mutable in every guise!

As, in a fish-pond which is pure and tranquil, The fishes draw to that which from without Comes in such fashion that their food they deem it;

So I beheld more than a thousand splendours Drawing towards us, and in each was heard: “Lo, this is she who shall increase our love.”

And as each one was coming unto us, Full of beatitude the shade was seen, By the effulgence clear that issued from it.

Think, Reader, if what here is just beginning No farther should proceed, how thou wouldst have An agonizing need of knowing more;

And of thyself thou’lt see how I from these Was in desire of hearing their conditions, As they unto mine eyes were manifest.

“O thou well-born, unto whom Grace concedes To see the thrones of the eternal triumph, Or ever yet the warfare be abandoned

With light that through the whole of heaven is spread Kindled are we, and hence if thou desirest To know of us, at thine own pleasure sate thee.”

Thus by some one among those holy spirits Was spoken, and by Beatrice: “Speak, speak Securely, and believe them even as Gods.”

“Well I perceive how thou dost nest thyself In thine own light, and drawest it from thine eyes, Because they coruscate when thou dost smile,

But know not who thou art, nor why thou hast, Spirit august, thy station in the sphere That veils itself to men in alien rays.”

This said I in direction of the light Which first had spoken to me; whence it became By far more lucent than it was before.

Even as the sun, that doth conceal himself By too much light, when heat has worn away The tempering influence of the vapours dense,

By greater rapture thus concealed itself In its own radiance the figure saintly, And thus close, close enfolded answered me

In fashion as the following Canto sings.

Paradiso: Canto VI

“After that Constantine the eagle turned Against the course of heaven, which it had followed Behind the ancient who Lavinia took,

Two hundred years and more the bird of God In the extreme of Europe held itself, Near to the mountains whence it issued first;

And under shadow of the sacred plumes It governed there the world from hand to hand, And, changing thus, upon mine own alighted.

Caesar I was, and am Justinian, Who, by the will of primal Love I feel, Took from the laws the useless and redundant;

And ere unto the work I was attent, One nature to exist in Christ, not more, Believed, and with such faith was I contented.

But blessed Agapetus, he who was The supreme pastor, to the faith sincere Pointed me out the way by words of his.

Him I believed, and what was his assertion I now see clearly, even as thou seest Each contradiction to be false and true.

As soon as with the Church I moved my feet, God in his grace it pleased with this high task To inspire me, and I gave me wholly to it,

And to my Belisarius I commended The arms, to which was heaven’s right hand so joined It was a signal that I should repose.

Now here to the first question terminates My answer; but the character thereof Constrains me to continue with a sequel,

In order that thou see with how great reason Men move against the standard sacrosanct, Both who appropriate and who oppose it.

Behold how great a power has made it worthy Of reverence, beginning from the hour When Pallas died to give it sovereignty.

Thou knowest it made in Alba its abode Three hundred years and upward, till at last The three to three fought for it yet again.

Thou knowest what it achieved from Sabine wrong Down to Lucretia’s sorrow, in seven kings O’ercoming round about the neighboring nations;

Thou knowest what it achieved, borne by the Romans Illustrious against Brennus, against Pyrrhus, Against the other princes and confederates.

Torquatus thence and Quinctius, who from locks Unkempt was named, Decii and Fabii, Received the fame I willingly embalm;

It struck to earth the pride of the Arabians, Who, following Hannibal, had passed across The Alpine ridges, Po, from which thou glidest;

Beneath it triumphed while they yet were young Pompey and Scipio, and to the hill Beneath which thou wast born it bitter seemed;

Then, near unto the time when heaven had willed To bring the whole world to its mood serene, Did Caesar by the will of Rome assume it.

What it achieved from Var unto the Rhine, Isere beheld and Saone, beheld the Seine, And every valley whence the Rhone is filled;

What it achieved when it had left Ravenna, And leaped the Rubicon, was such a flight That neither tongue nor pen could follow it.

Round towards Spain it wheeled its legions; then Towards Durazzo, and Pharsalia smote That to the calid Nile was felt the pain.

Antandros and the Simois, whence it started, It saw again, and there where Hector lies, And ill for Ptolemy then roused itself.

From thence it came like lightning upon Juba; Then wheeled itself again into your West, Where the Pompeian clarion it heard.

From what it wrought with the next standard-bearer Brutus and Cassius howl in Hell together, And Modena and Perugia dolent were;

Still doth the mournful Cleopatra weep Because thereof, who, fleeing from before it, Took from the adder sudden and black death.

With him it ran even to the Red Sea shore; With him it placed the world in so great peace, That unto Janus was his temple closed.

But what the standard that has made me speak Achieved before, and after should achieve Throughout the mortal realm that lies beneath it,

Becometh in appearance mean and dim, If in the hand of the third Caesar seen With eye unclouded and affection pure,

Because the living Justice that inspires me Granted it, in the hand of him I speak of, The glory of doing vengeance for its wrath.

Now here attend to what I answer thee; Later it ran with Titus to do vengeance Upon the vengeance of the ancient sin.

And when the tooth of Lombardy had bitten The Holy Church, then underneath its wings Did Charlemagne victorious succor her.

Now hast thou power to judge of such as those Whom I accused above, and of their crimes, Which are the cause of all your miseries.

To the public standard one the yellow lilies Opposes, the other claims it for a party, So that ’tis hard to see which sins the most.

Let, let the Ghibellines ply their handicraft Beneath some other standard; for this ever Ill follows he who it and justice parts.

And let not this new Charles e’er strike it down, He and his Guelfs, but let him fear the talons That from a nobler lion stripped the fell.

Already oftentimes the sons have wept The father’s crime; and let him not believe That God will change His scutcheon for the lilies.

This little planet doth adorn itself With the good spirits that have active been, That fame and honour might come after them;

And whensoever the desires mount thither, Thus deviating, must perforce the rays Of the true love less vividly mount upward.

But in commensuration of our wages With our desert is portion of our joy, Because we see them neither less nor greater.

Herein doth living Justice sweeten so Affection in us, that for evermore It cannot warp to any iniquity.

Voices diverse make up sweet melodies; So in this life of ours the seats diverse Render sweet harmony among these spheres;

And in the compass of this present pearl Shineth the sheen of Romeo, of whom The grand and beauteous work was ill rewarded.

But the Provencals who against him wrought, They have not laughed, and therefore ill goes he Who makes his hurt of the good deeds of others.

Four daughters, and each one of them a queen, Had Raymond Berenger, and this for him Did Romeo, a poor man and a pilgrim;

And then malicious words incited him To summon to a reckoning this just man, Who rendered to him seven and five for ten.

Then he departed poor and stricken in years, And if the world could know the heart he had, In begging bit by bit his livelihood,

Though much it laud him, it would laud him more.”

Paradiso: Canto VII

“Osanna sanctus Deus Sabaoth, Superillustrans claritate tua Felices ignes horum malahoth!”

In this wise, to his melody returning, This substance, upon which a double light Doubles itself, was seen by me to sing,

And to their dance this and the others moved, And in the manner of swift-hurrying sparks Veiled themselves from me with a sudden distance.

Doubting was I, and saying, “Tell her, tell her,” Within me, “tell her,” saying, “tell my Lady,” Who slakes my thirst with her sweet effluences;

And yet that reverence which doth lord it over The whole of me only by B and ICE, Bowed me again like unto one who drowses.

Short while did Beatrice endure me thus; And she began, lighting me with a smile Such as would make one happy in the fire:

“According to infallible advisement, After what manner a just vengeance justly Could be avenged has put thee upon thinking,

But I will speedily thy mind unloose; And do thou listen, for these words of mine Of a great doctrine will a present make thee.

By not enduring on the power that wills Curb for his good, that man who ne’er was born, Damning himself damned all his progeny;

Whereby the human species down below Lay sick for many centuries in great error, Till to descend it pleased the Word of God

To where the nature, which from its own Maker Estranged itself, he joined to him in person By the sole act of his eternal love.

Now unto what is said direct thy sight; This nature when united to its Maker, Such as created, was sincere and good;

But by itself alone was banished forth From Paradise, because it turned aside Out of the way of truth and of its life.

Therefore the penalty the cross held out, If measured by the nature thus assumed, None ever yet with so great justice stung,

And none was ever of so great injustice, Considering who the Person was that suffered, Within whom such a nature was contracted.

From one act therefore issued things diverse; To God and to the Jews one death was pleasing; Earth trembled at it and the Heaven was opened.

It should no longer now seem difficult To thee, when it is said that a just vengeance By a just court was afterward avenged.

But now do I behold thy mind entangled From thought to thought within a knot, from which With great desire it waits to free itself.

Thou sayest, ‘Well discern I what I hear; But it is hidden from me why God willed For our redemption only this one mode.’

Buried remaineth, brother, this decree Unto the eyes of every one whose nature Is in the flame of love not yet adult.

Verily, inasmuch as at this mark One gazes long and little is discerned, Wherefore this mode was worthiest will I say.

Goodness Divine, which from itself doth spurn All envy, burning in itself so sparkles That the eternal beauties it unfolds.

Whate’er from this immediately distils Has afterwards no end, for ne’er removed Is its impression when it sets its seal.

Whate’er from this immediately rains down Is wholly free, because it is not subject Unto the influences of novel things.

The more conformed thereto, the more it pleases; For the blest ardour that irradiates all things In that most like itself is most vivacious.

With all of these things has advantaged been The human creature; and if one be wanting, From his nobility he needs must fall.

’Tis sin alone which doth disfranchise him, And render him unlike the Good Supreme, So that he little with its light is blanched,

And to his dignity no more returns, Unless he fill up where transgression empties With righteous pains for criminal delights.

Your nature when it sinned so utterly In its own seed, out of these dignities Even as out of Paradise was driven,

Nor could itself recover, if thou notest With nicest subtilty, by any way, Except by passing one of these two fords:

Either that God through clemency alone Had pardon granted, or that man himself Had satisfaction for his folly made.

Fix now thine eye deep into the abyss Of the eternal counsel, to my speech As far as may be fastened steadfastly!

Man in his limitations had not power To satisfy, not having power to sink In his humility obeying then,

Far as he disobeying thought to rise; And for this reason man has been from power Of satisfying by himself excluded.

Therefore it God behoved in his own ways Man to restore unto his perfect life, I say in one, or else in both of them.

But since the action of the doer is So much more grateful, as it more presents The goodness of the heart from which it issues,

Goodness Divine, that doth imprint the world, Has been contented to proceed by each And all its ways to lift you up again;

Nor ’twixt the first day and the final night Such high and such magnificent proceeding By one or by the other was or shall be;

For God more bounteous was himself to give To make man able to uplift himself, Than if he only of himself had pardoned;

And all the other modes were insufficient For justice, were it not the Son of God Himself had humbled to become incarnate.

Now, to fill fully each desire of thine, Return I to elucidate one place, In order that thou there mayst see as I do.

Thou sayst: ‘I see the air, I see the fire, The water, and the earth, and all their mixtures Come to corruption, and short while endure;

And these things notwithstanding were created;’ Therefore if that which I have said were true, They should have been secure against corruption.

The Angels, brother, and the land sincere In which thou art, created may be called Just as they are in their entire existence;

But all the elements which thou hast named, And all those things which out of them are made, By a created virtue are informed.

Created was the matter which they have; Created was the informing influence Within these stars that round about them go.

The soul of every brute and of the plants By its potential temperament attracts The ray and motion of the holy lights;

But your own life immediately inspires Supreme Beneficence, and enamours it So with herself, it evermore desires her.

And thou from this mayst argue furthermore Your resurrection, if thou think again How human flesh was fashioned at that time

When the first parents both of them were made.”

Paradiso: Canto VIII