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Thou the great leader of the Greeks wilt find,

      Whence wept Iphigenia her fair face,

       And made for her both wise and simple weep,

       Who heard such kind of worship spoken of.'

      Christians, be ye more serious in your movements;

       Be ye not like a feather at each wind,

       And think not every water washes you.

      Ye have the Old and the New Testament,

       And the Pastor of the Church who guideth you

       Let this suffice you unto your salvation.

      If evil appetite cry aught else to you,

       Be ye as men, and not as silly sheep,

       So that the Jew among you may not mock you.

      Be ye not as the lamb that doth abandon

       Its mother's milk, and frolicsome and simple

       Combats at its own pleasure with itself."

      Thus Beatrice to me even as I write it;

       Then all desireful turned herself again

       To that part where the world is most alive.

      Her silence and her change of countenance

       Silence imposed upon my eager mind,

       That had already in advance new questions;

      And as an arrow that upon the mark

       Strikes ere the bowstring quiet hath become,

       So did we speed into the second realm.

      My Lady there so joyful I beheld,

       As into the brightness of that heaven she entered,

       More luminous thereat the planet grew;

      And if the star itself was changed and smiled,

       What became I, who by my nature am

       Exceeding mutable in every guise!

      As, in a fish-pond which is pure and tranquil,

       The fishes draw to that which from without

       Comes in such fashion that their food they deem it;

      So I beheld more than a thousand splendours

       Drawing towards us, and in each was heard:

       "Lo, this is she who shall increase our love."

      And as each one was coming unto us,

       Full of beatitude the shade was seen,

       By the effulgence clear that issued from it.

      Think, Reader, if what here is just beginning

       No farther should proceed, how thou wouldst have

       An agonizing need of knowing more;

      And of thyself thou'lt see how I from these

       Was in desire of hearing their conditions,

       As they unto mine eyes were manifest.

      "O thou well-born, unto whom Grace concedes

       To see the thrones of the eternal triumph,

       Or ever yet the warfare be abandoned

      With light that through the whole of heaven is spread

       Kindled are we, and hence if thou desirest

       To know of us, at thine own pleasure sate thee."

      Thus by some one among those holy spirits

       Was spoken, and by Beatrice: "Speak, speak

       Securely, and believe them even as Gods."

      "Well I perceive how thou dost nest thyself

       In thine own light, and drawest it from thine eyes,

       Because they coruscate when thou dost smile,

      But know not who thou art, nor why thou hast,

       Spirit august, thy station in the sphere

       That veils itself to men in alien rays."

      This said I in direction of the light

       Which first had spoken to me; whence it became

       By far more lucent than it was before.

      Even as the sun, that doth conceal himself

       By too much light, when heat has worn away

       The tempering influence of the vapours dense,

      By greater rapture thus concealed itself

       In its own radiance the figure saintly,

       And thus close, close enfolded answered me

      In fashion as the following Canto sings.

      VI. Justinian. The Roman Eagle. The Empire. Romeo.

       Table of Contents

      "After that Constantine the eagle turned

       Against the course of heaven, which it had followed

       Behind the ancient who Lavinia took,

      Two hundred years and more the bird of God

       In the extreme of Europe held itself,

       Near to the mountains whence it issued first;

      And under shadow of the sacred plumes

       It governed there the world from hand to hand,

       And, changing thus, upon mine own alighted.

      Caesar I was, and am Justinian,

       Who, by the will of primal Love I feel,

       Took from the laws the useless and redundant;

      And ere unto the work I was attent,

       One nature to exist in Christ, not more,

       Believed, and with such faith was I contented.

      But blessed Agapetus, he who was

       The supreme pastor, to the faith sincere

       Pointed me out the way by words of his.

      Him I believed, and what was his assertion

       I now see clearly, even as thou seest

       Each contradiction to be false and true.

      As soon as with the Church I moved my feet,

       God in his grace it pleased with this high task

       To inspire me, and I gave me wholly to it,

      And to my Belisarius I commended

       The arms, to which was heaven's right hand so joined

       It was a signal that I should repose.

      Now here to the first question terminates

       My answer; but the character thereof

       Constrains me to continue with a sequel,

      In order that thou see with how great reason

       Men move against the standard sacrosanct,

       Both who appropriate and who oppose it.

      Behold how great a power has made it worthy

       Of reverence, beginning from the hour

       When Pallas died to give it sovereignty.

      Thou knowest it made in Alba its abode

       Three hundred years and upward, till at last

       The three to three fought for it yet again.

      Thou knowest what it achieved from Sabine wrong

      

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