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interrupted thought.

      So that below, not sleeping, people dream,

       Believing they speak truth, and not believing;

       And in the last is greater sin and shame.

      Below you do not journey by one path

       Philosophising; so transporteth you

       Love of appearance and the thought thereof.

      And even this above here is endured

       With less disdain, than when is set aside

       The Holy Writ, or when it is distorted.

      They think not there how much of blood it costs

       To sow it in the world, and how he pleases

       Who in humility keeps close to it.

      Each striveth for appearance, and doth make

       His own inventions; and these treated are

       By preachers, and the Evangel holds its peace.

      One sayeth that the moon did backward turn,

       In the Passion of Christ, and interpose herself

       So that the sunlight reached not down below;

      And lies; for of its own accord the light

       Hid itself; whence to Spaniards and to Indians,

       As to the Jews, did such eclipse respond.

      Florence has not so many Lapi and Bindi

       As fables such as these, that every year

       Are shouted from the pulpit back and forth,

      In such wise that the lambs, who do not know,

       Come back from pasture fed upon the wind,

       And not to see the harm doth not excuse them.

      Christ did not to his first disciples say,

       'Go forth, and to the world preach idle tales,'

       But unto them a true foundation gave;

      And this so loudly sounded from their lips,

       That, in the warfare to enkindle Faith,

       They made of the Evangel shields and lances.

      Now men go forth with jests and drolleries

       To preach, and if but well the people laugh,

       The hood puffs out, and nothing more is asked.

      But in the cowl there nestles such a bird,

       That, if the common people were to see it,

       They would perceive what pardons they confide in,

      For which so great on earth has grown the folly,

       That, without proof of any testimony,

       To each indulgence they would flock together.

      By this Saint Anthony his pig doth fatten,

       And many others, who are worse than pigs,

       Paying in money without mark of coinage.

      But since we have digressed abundantly,

       Turn back thine eyes forthwith to the right path,

       So that the way be shortened with the time.

      This nature doth so multiply itself

       In numbers, that there never yet was speech

       Nor mortal fancy that can go so far.

      And if thou notest that which is revealed

       By Daniel, thou wilt see that in his thousands

       Number determinate is kept concealed.

      The primal light, that all irradiates it,

       By modes as many is received therein,

       As are the splendours wherewith it is mated.

      Hence, inasmuch as on the act conceptive

       The affection followeth, of love the sweetness

       Therein diversely fervid is or tepid.

      The height behold now and the amplitude

       Of the eternal power, since it hath made

       Itself so many mirrors, where 'tis broken,

      One in itself remaining as before."

      XXX. The Tenth Heaven, or Empyrean. The River of Light. The Two Courts of Heaven. The White Rose of Paradise. The great Throne.

       Table of Contents

      Perchance six thousand miles remote from us

       Is glowing the sixth hour, and now this world

       Inclines its shadow almost to a level,

      When the mid-heaven begins to make itself

       So deep to us, that here and there a star

       Ceases to shine so far down as this depth,

      And as advances bright exceedingly

       The handmaid of the sun, the heaven is closed

       Light after light to the most beautiful;

      Not otherwise the Triumph, which for ever

       Plays round about the point that vanquished me,

       Seeming enclosed by what itself encloses,

      Little by little from my vision faded;

       Whereat to turn mine eyes on Beatrice

       My seeing nothing and my love constrained me.

      If what has hitherto been said of her

       Were all concluded in a single praise,

       Scant would it be to serve the present turn.

      Not only does the beauty I beheld

       Transcend ourselves, but truly I believe

       Its Maker only may enjoy it all.

      Vanquished do I confess me by this passage

       More than by problem of his theme was ever

       O'ercome the comic or the tragic poet;

      For as the sun the sight that trembles most,

       Even so the memory of that sweet smile

       My mind depriveth of its very self.

      From the first day that I beheld her face

       In this life, to the moment of this look,

       The sequence of my song has ne'er been severed;

      But now perforce this sequence must desist

       From following her beauty with my verse,

       As every artist at his uttermost.

      Such as I leave her to a greater fame

       Than any of my trumpet, which is bringing

       Its arduous matter to a final close,

      With voice and gesture of a perfect leader

       She recommenced: "We from the greatest body

       Have issued to the heaven that is pure light;

      Light intellectual replete with love,

       Love of true good replete with ecstasy,

       Ecstasy that transcendeth every sweetness.

      Here shalt thou see the one host and the other

       Of Paradise, and one in the same aspects

       Which at the final judgment thou shalt see."

      Even as a sudden lightning that disperses

      

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