CANTO XXV.

If e'er it happen that the Poem Sacred, [1] To which both heaven and earth have set their hand Till it hath made me meagre many a year, O'ercome the cruelty that bars me out From the fair sheepfold, where a lamb I slumbered, Obnoxious to the wolves that war upon it, With other voice henceforth, with other fleece Will I return as poet, and at my font Baptismal will I take the laurel-crown; [9] Because into the Faith that maketh known All souls to God there entered I, and then Peter for her sake so my brow encircled. Thereafterward towards us moved a light Out of that band whence issued the first-fruits [14] Which of his vicars Christ behind him left, And then, my Lady, full of ecstasy, Said unto me: "Look, look! behold the Baron For whom below Galicia is frequented." [18] In the same way as, when a dove alights Near his companion, both of them pour forth, Circling about and murmuring, their affection, So I beheld one by the other grand Prince glorified to be with welcome greeted, Lauding the food that there above is eaten. But when their gratulations were completed, Silently _coram me_ each one stood still, So incandescent it o'ercame my sight. Smiling thereafterwards, said Beatrice: "Spirit august, by whom the benefactions Of our Basilica have been described, [30] Make Hope reverberate in this altitude; Thou knowest as oft thou dost personify it As Jesus to the three gave greater light,"-- [33] "Lift up thy head, and make thyself assured; [34] For what comes hither from the mortal world Must needs be ripened in our radiance." This exhortation from the second fire [37] Came; and mine eyes I lifted to the hills, [38] 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, [42] 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 [49] 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; [54] Therefore it is conceded him from Egypt To come into Jerusalem to see, [56] Or ever yet his warfare is completed. The other points, that not for knowledge' sake [58] 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, "Hope," said I, "is the certain expectation [67] Of glory in the hereafter, which proceedeth From grace divine and merit precedent. From many stars this light comes unto me; But he instilled it first into my heart, Who was chief singer unto the chief captain. [72] _Hope they in thee_, in the high Theody He says, _all those who recognize thy name_; [74] And who does not, if he my faith possesses? [75] Thou didst instil me, then, with his instilling In the Epistle, so that I am full, And upon others rain again your rain." [78] 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, [89] 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, [92] And his own land is this sweet life of yours. Thy brother, too, far more explicitly, There where he treateth of the robes of white, [95] 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. [99] Thereafterward among them gleamed a light, [100] So that, if Cancer such a crystal had, Winter would have a month of one sole day. [102] And as uprises, goes, and enters the dance A joyous maiden, only to do honor To the new bride, and not from any failing, [105] So saw I the illuminated splendor Approach the two, who in a wheel revolved, [107] As was beseeming to their ardent love. It joined itself there in the song and music; And fixed on them my Lady kept her look, Even as a bride, silent and motionless. "This is the one who lay upon the breast Of him our Pelican; and this is he To the great office from the cross elected." [114] My Lady thus; but therefore none the more Removed her sight from its fixed contemplation, Before or afterward, these words of hers. Even as a man who gazes, and endeavors To see the eclipsing of the sun a little, And who, by seeing, sightless doth become, So I became before that latest fire, [122] While it was said, "Why dost thou daze thyself To see a thing which here has no existence? [124] Earth upon earth my body is, and shall be With all the others there, until our number With the eternal proposition tallies; [127] With the two garments in the blessed cloister [128] Are the two lights alone that have ascended: [129] And this shalt thou take back into your world." [130] And at this utterance the flaming circle Grew quiet, with the dulcet intermingling Of sound that by the trinal breath was made, [133] As to escape from danger or fatigue The oars 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!

[Line 1: This "Divina Commedia," in which human science or Philosophy is symbolized in Virgil, and divine science or Theology in Beatrice.

"_Fiorenza la Bella_," Florence the Fair. In one of his Canzoni, Dante says,--

"O mountain-song of mine, thou goest thy way; Florence my town thou shalt perchance behold, Which bars me from itself, Devoid of love and naked of compassion."]

[Line 9: This allusion to the Church of San Giovanni, "_il mio bel San Giovanni_," as Dante calls it elsewhere, (Inf. xix. 17,) is a fitting prelude to the Canto in which St. John is to appear. Like the "laughing of the grass" in Canto xxx. 77, it is a "foreshadowing preface," _ombrifero prefazio_, of what follows.

See Canto xxiv. 150;

"So, giving me its benediction, singing, Three times encircled me, when I was silent, The apostolic light."]

[Line 14: St. Peter. "That we should be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures." Epistle of St. James, i. 18.]

[Line 18: St. James. Pilgrimages are made to his tomb at Compostella in Galicia.]

[Line 30: The General Epistle of St. James, called the _Epistola Cattolica_, i. 17. "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights." Our Basilica: Paradise: the Church Triumphant.]

[Line 33: 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 favor.]

[Line 34: St. James speaks.]

[Line 37: The three Apostles, luminous above him, overwhelming him with light.]

[Line 38: "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help." Psalm cxxi. 1.]

[Line 42: The most august spirits of the Celestial City.]

[Line 49: Beatrice.]

[Line 54: In God,

"Where everything beholds itself depicted."