Then even as the fire doth upward move Which is a motion spiritual, and ne'er rests Until she doth enjoy the thing beloved. Now may apparent be to thee how hidden The truth is from those people, who aver All love is in itself a laudable thing; Because its matter may perchance appear Aye to be good; but yet not each impression Is good, albeit good may be the wax." "Thy words, and my sequacious intellect," 30 35 40 I answered him, "have love revealed to me; But that has made me more impregned with doubt; For if love from without be offered us, And with another foot the soul go not, If right or wrong she go, 't is not her merit." From matter is, and with it is united, Nor shows itself except by its effect, Of the first notions, man is ignorant, Line 54. As life does in a plant by the green leaves. 45 50 55 To make its honey; and this first desire Merit of praise or blame containeth not. Now, that to this all others may be gathered, Innate within you is the power that counsels, And it should keep the threshold of assent. This is the principle, from which is taken Occasion of desert in you, according As good and guilty loves it takes and winnows. Those who, in reasoning, to the bottom went, Were of this innate liberty aware, Therefore bequeathed they Ethics to the world. Supposing, then, that from necessity Springs every love that is within you kindled, Within yourselves the power is to restrain it. The noble virtue Beatrice understands By the free will; and therefore see that thou Bear it in mind, if she should speak of it.” The moon, belated almost unto midnight, Now made the stars appear to us more rare, Had laid aside the burden of my lading; Our backs already had come round to us. 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 And as, of old, Ismenus and Asopus Beside them saw at night the rush and throng, If but the Thebans were in need of Bacchus, So they along that circle curve their step, From what I saw of those approaching us, Who by good-will and righteous love are ridden. Full soon they were upon us, because running Moved onward all that mighty multitude, And two in the advance cried out, lamenting, "Mary in haste unto the mountain ran, And Cæsar, that he might subdue Ilerda, Thrust at Marseilles, and then ran into Spain." Quick! quick! so that the time may not be lost By little love!" forthwith the others cried, "For ardor in well-doing freshens grace!" "O folk, in whom an eager fervor now Supplies perhaps delay and negligence Put by you in well-doing, through lukewarmness, This one who lives, and truly I lie not, Would fain go up, if but the sun relight us; So tell us where the passage nearest is." These were the words of him who was my Guide; And some one of those spirits said: "Come on Behind us, and the opening shalt thou find; So full of longing are we to move onward, That stay we cannot; therefore pardon us, If thou for churlishness our justice take. I was San Zeno's Abbot at Verona, Under the empire of good Barbarossa, Of whom still sorrowing Milan holds discourse; And he has one foot in the grave already, 95 100 105 115 121 And sorry be for having there had power, And worse in mind, and who was evil-born, Said: "Turn thee hitherward; see two of them Come fastening upon slothfulness their teeth." In rear of all they shouted: "Sooner were The people dead to whom the sea was opened, And those who the fatigue did not endure Unto the issue, with Anchises' son, Themselves to life withouten glory offered." Then when from us so separated were Those shades, that they no longer could be seen, Within me a new thought did entrance find, Whence others many and diverse were born; And so I lapsed from one into another, That in a revery mine eyes I closed, And meditation into dream transmuted. 125 130 135 141 145 CANTO XIX IT was the hour when the diurnal heat No more can warm the coldness of the moon, Vanquished by earth, or peradventure Saturn, When geomancers their Fortuna Major See in the orient before the dawn Rise by a path that long remains not dim, There came to me in dreams a stammering woman, Squint in her eyes, and in her feet distorted, With hands dissevered, and of sallow hue. I looked at her; and as the sun restores The frigid members, which the night benumbs, Her tongue, and made her all erect thereafter As love desires it, so in her did color. I drew Ulysses from his wandering way Unto my song, and he who dwells with me Seldom departs, so wholly I content him." Her mouth was not yet closed again, before Appeared a Lady saintly and alert Close at my side to put her to confusion. ΙΟ 15 20 25 |