LITMIR.BIZ

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gauge, as they were swift or slow.

      From that one which I noted of most beauty

       Beheld I issue forth a fire so happy

       That none it left there of a greater brightness;

      And around Beatrice three several times

       It whirled itself with so divine a song,

       My fantasy repeats it not to me;

      Therefore the pen skips, and I write it not,

       Since our imagination for such folds,

       Much more our speech, is of a tint too glaring.

      "O holy sister mine, who us implorest

       With such devotion, by thine ardent love

       Thou dost unbind me from that beautiful sphere!"

      Thereafter, having stopped, the blessed fire

       Unto my Lady did direct its breath,

       Which spake in fashion as I here have said.

      And she: "O light eterne of the great man

       To whom our Lord delivered up the keys

       He carried down of this miraculous joy,

      This one examine on points light and grave,

       As good beseemeth thee, about the Faith

       By means of which thou on the sea didst walk.

      If he love well, and hope well, and believe,

       From thee 'tis hid not; for thou hast thy sight

       There where depicted everything is seen.

      But since this kingdom has made citizens

       By means of the true Faith, to glorify it

       'Tis well he have the chance to speak thereof."

      As baccalaureate arms himself, and speaks not

       Until the master doth propose the question,

       To argue it, and not to terminate it,

      So did I arm myself with every reason,

       While she was speaking, that I might be ready

       For such a questioner and such profession.

      "Say, thou good Christian; manifest thyself;

       What is the Faith?" Whereat I raised my brow

       Unto that light wherefrom was this breathed forth.

      Then turned I round to Beatrice, and she

       Prompt signals made to me that I should pour

       The water forth from my internal fountain.

      "May grace, that suffers me to make confession,"

       Began I, "to the great centurion,

       Cause my conceptions all to be explicit!"

      And I continued: "As the truthful pen,

       Father, of thy dear brother wrote of it,

       Who put with thee Rome into the good way,

      Faith is the substance of the things we hope for,

       And evidence of those that are not seen;

       And this appears to me its quiddity."

      Then heard I: "Very rightly thou perceivest,

       If well thou understandest why he placed it

       With substances and then with evidences."

      And I thereafterward: "The things profound,

       That here vouchsafe to me their apparition,

       Unto all eyes below are so concealed,

      That they exist there only in belief,

       Upon the which is founded the high hope,

       And hence it takes the nature of a substance.

      And it behoveth us from this belief

       To reason without having other sight,

       And hence it has the nature of evidence."

      Then heard I: "If whatever is acquired

       Below by doctrine were thus understood,

       No sophist's subtlety would there find place."

      Thus was breathed forth from that enkindled love;

       Then added: "Very well has been gone over

       Already of this coin the alloy and weight;

      But tell me if thou hast it in thy purse?"

       And I: "Yes, both so shining and so round

       That in its stamp there is no peradventure."

      Thereafter issued from the light profound

       That there resplendent was: "This precious jewel,

       Upon the which is every virtue founded,

      Whence hadst thou it?" And I: "The large outpouring

       Of Holy Spirit, which has been diffused

       Upon the ancient parchments and the new,

      A syllogism is, which proved it to me

       With such acuteness, that, compared therewith,

       All demonstration seems to me obtuse."

      And then I heard: "The ancient and the new

       Postulates, that to thee are so conclusive,

       Why dost thou take them for the word divine?"

      And I: "The proofs, which show the truth to me,

       Are the works subsequent, whereunto Nature

       Ne'er heated iron yet, nor anvil beat."

      'Twas answered me: "Say, who assureth thee

       That those works ever were? the thing itself

       That must be proved, nought else to thee affirms it."

      "Were the world to Christianity converted,"

       I said, "withouten miracles, this one

       Is such, the rest are not its hundredth part;

      Because that poor and fasting thou didst enter

       Into the field to sow there the good plant,

       Which was a vine and has become a thorn!"

      This being finished, the high, holy Court

       Resounded through the spheres, "One God we praise!"

       In melody that there above is chanted.

      And then that Baron, who from branch to branch,

       Examining, had thus conducted me,

       Till the extremest leaves we were approaching,

      Again began: "The Grace that dallying

       Plays with thine intellect thy mouth has opened,

       Up to this point, as it should opened be,

      So that I do approve what forth emerged;

       But now thou must express what thou believest,

       And whence to thy belief it was presented."

      "O holy father, spirit who beholdest

       What thou believedst so that thou o'ercamest,

       Towards the sepulchre, more youthful feet,"

      Began I, "thou dost wish me in this place

       The form to manifest of my prompt belief,

       And likewise thou the cause thereof demandest.

      And I respond: In one God I believe,

       Sole and eterne, who moveth all the heavens

       With love and with desire, himself unmoved;

      And

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