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Dante Alighieri (1265–1321). The Divine Comedy.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14.

Paradise

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

Cover’d 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

Sat painted on her cheek; and her fix’d gaze

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 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 will’d,

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 mix’d, 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, unsever’d bond.

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.

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 look’st, began, with such delight,

That they surcease not ever, day nor night,

Their circling. Of that fatal lapse the cause

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 ministeries so high: therefore their views

Were, by enlightening grace and their own merit,

Exalted; so that in their will confirm’d

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

But to receive the grace, which Heaven vouchsafes,

Is meritorious, even as the soul

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,

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, ’tis 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,

Have held unceasingly their view, intent

Upon the glorious vision, from the which

Nought 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,

To whom more guilt and shame are justly due.

Each the known track of sage philosophy

Deserts, and has a bye-way of his own:

So much the restless eagerness to shine,

And love of singularity prevail.

Yet this, offensive as it is, provokes

Heaven’s anger less, than when the Book of God

Is forced to yield to man’s authority,

Or from its straightness warp’d: no reckoning 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.

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

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

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,

‘Go forth and preach impostures to the world,’

But gave them truth to build on; and the sound

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,

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 unstampt 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.

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,

Differing in love and sweet affection.

Look then how lofty and how huge in breadth

The eternal Might, which, broken and dispersed

Over such countless mirrors, yet remains

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