Madest thee a joyful burden; and yet more
Of this dim spot had seen, but that the sun',
A constellation off and more, had ta'en
His progress in the zodiac underneath.

Then by the spirit, that doth never leave
Its amorous dalliance with my lady's looks,
Back with redoubled ardour were mine eyes
Led unto her and from her radiant smiles,
Whenas I turn'd me, pleasure so divine
Did lighten on me, that whatever bait
Or art or nature in the human flesh,

:

Or in its limn'd resemblance, can combine
Through greedy eyes to take the soul withal,
Were, to her beauty, nothing. Its boon influence
From the fair nest of Leda2 rapt me forth,
And wafted on into the swiftest heaven.

What place for entrance Beatrice chose,
I may not say; so uniform was all,

:

Liveliest and loftiest. She my secret wish
Divined; and, with such gladness, that God's love
Seem'd from her visage shining, thus began:
Here is the goal, whence motion on his race
Starts motionless the centre, and the rest
All moved around. Except the soul divine,
Place in this heaven is none; the soul divine,
Wherein the love, which ruleth o'er its orb,
Is kindled, and the virtue, that it sheds :
One circle, light and love, enclasping it,
As this doth clasp the others; and to Him,
Who draws the bound, its limit only known.
Measured itself by none, it doth divide
Motion to all, counted unto them forth,

As by the fifth or half ye count forth ten. [seest:
The vase, wherein time's roots3 are plunged, thou

1 The sun.] Dante was in the constellation Gemini, and the sun in Aries. There was, therefore, part of those two constellations, and the whole of Taurus, between them.

2 The fair nest of Leda.] "From the Gemini ;" thus called, because Leda was the mother of the twins, Castor and Pollux. 3 Time's roots.] "Here," says Beatrice," are the roots, from whence time springs: for the parts, into which it is divided, the other heavens must be considered." And she then breaks out into an exclamation on the degeneracy of human nature, which does not lift itself to the contemplation of divine things. Thus in the Quadriregio, lib. ii. cap. vi. Il tempo, e'l ciel, che sopra noi è volto, E una cosa, e non voltando il cielo, Ciò che da tempo pende saria tolto.

Look elsewhere for the leaves. O mortal lust!
That canst not lift thy head above the waves
Which whelm and sink thee down. The will in man
Bears goodly blossoms; but its ruddy promise
Is, by the dripping of perpetual rain,
Made mere abortion: faith and innocence
Are met with but in babes; each taking leave,
Ere cheeks with down are sprinkled: he, that fasts
While yet a stammerer, with his tongue let loose
Gluts every food alike in every moon:
One, yet a babbler, loves and listens to
His mother; but no sooner hath free use
Of speech, than he doth wish her in her grave.
So suddenly doth the fair child of him1,
Whose welcome is the morn and eve his parting,
To negro blackness change her virgin white.

Thou, to abate thy wonder, note, that none 2 Bears rule in earth; and its frail family

Are therefore wanderers. Yet before the date3,
When, through the hundredth in his reckoning
Pale January must be shoved aside
[dropt,
From winter's calendar, these heavenly spheres
Shall roar so loud, that fortune shall be fain

Time, and the heaven that turneth o'er our heads,
Are but as one; and if the heaven turn'd not,
That, which depends on time, were done away.

1 The fair child of him.] There is something very similar in our Author's Treatise de Monarchiâ, lib. i. p. 104. "Humanum genus filius est cœli quod est perfectissimum in omni opere suo. Generat enim homo hominem et sol juxta secundum in Naturali Auditu." This, therefore, is intended for a philosophical truth, and not for a figure, as when Pindar calls the day" "child of the sun:" Αμέραν παῖδ' Αλίου.

Ol. ii. 59.

2 None.] Because, as has been before said, the shepherds are become wolves.

3 Before the date.] "Before many ages are past; before those fractions, which are dropt in the reckoning of every year, shall amount to so large a portion of time, that January shall be no more a winter month." By this periphrasis is meant" in a short time;" as we say familiarly, such a thing will happen before a thousand years are over, when we mean, it will happen soon. Thus Petrarch:

Ben sa ch' il prova, e fiati cosa piana

Anzi mill' anni.

Trionfo d' Amore, cap. i. 4 Fortune shall be fain.] The commentators, in general, suppose, that our Poet here augurs that great reform, which he vainly hoped would follow on the arrival of the Emperor Henry VII. in Italy. Lombardi refers the prognostication

To turn the poop, where she hath now the prow; So that the fleet run onward and true fruit, Expected long, shall crown at last the bloom."

:

CANTO XXVIII.

ARGUMENT.

Still in the ninth heaven, our Poet is permitted to behold the divine essence; and then sees, in three hierarchies, the nine choirs of angels. Beatrice clears some difficulties which occur to him on this occasion.

So she, who doth imparadise my soul,
Had drawn the veil from off our present life,
And bared the truth of poor mortality:
When lo! as one who, in a mirror, spies
The shining of a flambeau at his back,
Lit sudden ere he deem of its approach,
And turneth to resolve him, if the glass
Have told him true, and sees the record faithful
As note is to its metre; even thus,

I well remember, did befal to me,

Looking upon the beauteous eyes, whence love
Had made the leash to take me.

As I turn'd;

And that which none, who in that volume1 looks,

Can miss of, in itself apparent, struck

My view; a point I saw, that darted light
So sharp, no lid, unclosing, may bear up

Against its keenness. The least star we ken
From hence, had seem'd a moon; set by its side,
As star by side of star. And so far off,
Perchance, as is the halo from the light

Which paints it, when most dense the vapour spreads;
There wheel'd about the point a circle of fire,
More rapid than the motion which surrounds,
Speediest, the world. Another this enring'd;
And that a third; the third a fourth, and that
A fifth encompass'd; which a sixth next bound;
And over this, a seventh, following, reach'd
Circumference so ample, that its bow,

to Can Grande della Scala: and when we consider that this Canto was not finished till after the death of Henry, as appears from the mention that is made of John XXII. it cannot be denied but the conjecture is probable. Troya (Veltro Allegorico, p. 186) suggests Matteo Visconti, or Castruccio Castracani, as the expected reformer.

1 That volume.] The ninth heaven; as Vellutello, I think, rightly interprets it.

Within the span of Juno's messenger,

Had scarce been held entire. Beyond the seventh,
Ensued yet other two. And every one,

As more in number distant from the first,
Was tardier in motion: and that glow'd
With flame most pure, that to the sparkle of truth,
Was nearest; as partaking most, methinks,
Of its reality. The guide beloved

Saw me in anxious thought suspense, and spake :
"Heaven, and all nature, hangs upon that point'.
The circle thereto most conjoin'd observe;
And know, that by intenser love its course
Is, to this swiftness, wing'd." To whom I thus:
"It were enough; nor should I further seek,
Had I but witness'd order, in the world
Appointed, such as in these wheels is seen.
But in the sensible world such difference2 is,
That in each round shows more divinity,
As each is wider from the centre. Hence,
If in this wondrous and angelic temple,
That hath, for confine, only light and love,
My wish may have completion, I must know,
Wherefore such disagreement is between
The exemplar and its copy: for myself,
Contemplating, I fail to pierce the cause."
"It is no marvel, if thy fingers foil'd

1 Heaven, and all nature, hangs upon that point.] in TOIαÚTNS ἄρα ἀρχῆς ἤρτηται ὁ οὐρανὸς καὶ ἡ φύσις. Aristot. Metaph. lib. xii. c. 7. "From that beginning depend heaven and

nature."

2 Such difference.] The material world and the intelligential (the copy and the pattern) appear to Dante to differ in this respect, that the orbits of the latter are more swift, the nearer they are to the centre, whereas the contrary is the case with the orbits of the former. The seeming contradiction is thus accounted for by Beatrice. In the material world, the more ample the body is, the greater is the good, of which it is capable; supposing all the parts to be equally perfect. But in the intelligential world, the circles are more excellent and powerful, the more they approximate to the central point, which is God. Thus the first circle, that of the seraphim, corresponds to the ninth sphere, or primum mobile; the second, that of the cherubim, to the eighth sphere, or heaven of fixed stars; the third, or circle of thrones, to the seventh sphere, or planet of Saturn; and in like manner throughout the two other trines of circles and spheres. In orbs

Of circuit inexpressible they stood,
Orb within orb.

Milton, P. L. b. v. 596

Do leave the knot untied: so hard 't is grown

For want of tenting." Thus she said: "But take,"
She added, "if thou wish thy cure, my words,
And entertain them subtly. Every orb,
Corporeal, doth proportion its extent
Unto the virtue through its parts diffused.
The greater blessedness preserves the more.
The greater is the body (if all parts
Share equally) the more is to preserve.

Therefore the circle, whose swift course enwheels
The universal frame, answers to that

Which is supreme in knowledge and in love.
Thus by the virtue, not the seeming breadth
Of substance, measuring, thou shalt see the heavens,
Each to the intelligence that ruleth it,
Greater to more, and smaller unto less,
Suited in strict and wondrous harmony."

As when the north1 blows from his milder cheek
A blast, that scours the sky, forthwith our air,
Clear'd of the rack that hung on it before,
Glitters; and, with his beauties all unveil'd,
The firmament looks forth serene, and smiles :
Such was my cheer, when Beatrice drove
With clear reply the shadows back, and truth
Was manifested, as a star in heaven.
And when the words were ended, not unlike
To iron in the furnace, every cirque,
Ebullient, shot forth scintillating fires:
And every sparkle shivering to new blaze,
In number2 did outmillion the account
Reduplicate upon the chequer'd board.
Then heard I echoing on, from choir to choir,
"Hosanna," to the fixed point, that holds,
And shall for ever hold them to their place,
From everlasting, irremovable.

Musing awhile I stood: and she, who saw My inward meditations, thus began:

"In the first circles, they, whom thou beheld'st, Are seraphim and cherubim. Thus swift

1 The north.] By "ond' è più leno," some understand that point from whence "the wind is mildest;" others, that "in which there is most force." The former interpretation is probably right.

2 In number.] The sparkles exceeded the number which would be produced by the sixty-four squares of a chessboard, if for the first we reckoned one; for the next, two; for the third, four; and so went on doubling to the end of the account.