Paradise, Canto XXVIII

After the truth against the present life

Of miserable mortals was unfolded

By her who doth imparadise my mind,

As in a looking-glass a taper's flame

He sees who from behind is lighted by it,

Before he has it in his sight or thought,

And turns him round to see if so the glass

Tell him the truth, and sees that it accords

Therewith as doth a music with its metre,

In similar wise my memory recollecteth

That I did, looking into those fair eyes,

Of which Love made the springes to ensnare me.

And as I turned me round, and mine were touched

By that which is apparent in that volume,

Whenever on its gyre we gaze intent,

A point beheld I, that was raying out

Light so acute, the sight which it enkindles

Must close perforce before such great acuteness.

And whatsoever star seems smallest here

Would seem to be a moon, if placed beside it.

As one star with another star is placed.

Perhaps at such a distance as appears

A halo cincturing the light that paints it,

When densest is the vapour that sustains it,

Thus distant round the point a circle of fire

So swiftly whirled, that it would have surpassed

Whatever motion soonest girds the world;

And this was by another circumcinct,

That by a third, the third then by a fourth,

By a fifth the fourth, and then by a sixth the fifth;

The seventh followed thereupon in width

So ample now, that Juno's messenger

Entire would be too narrow to contain it.

Even so the eighth and ninth; and every one

More slowly moved, according as it was

In number distant farther from the first.

And that one had its flame most crystalline

From which less distant was the stainless spark,

I think because more with its truth imbued.

My Lady, who in my anxiety

Beheld me much perplexed, said: "From that point

Dependent is the heaven and nature all.

Behold that circle most conjoined to it,

And know thou, that its motion is so swift

Through burning love whereby it is spurred on."

And I to her: "If the world were arranged

In the order which I see in yonder wheels,

What's set before me would have satisfied me;

But in the world of sense we can perceive

That evermore the circles are diviner

As they are from the centre more remote

Wherefore if my desire is to be ended

In this miraculous and angelic temple,

That has for confines only love and light,

To hear behoves me still how the example

And the exemplar go not in one fashion,

Since for myself in vain I contemplate it."

"If thine own fingers unto such a knot

Be insufficient, it is no great wonder,

So hard hath it become for want of trying."

My Lady thus; then said she: "Do thou take

What I shall tell thee, if thou wouldst be sated,

And exercise on that thy subtlety.

The circles corporal are wide and narrow

According to the more or less of virtue

Which is distributed through all their parts.

The greater goodness works the greater weal,

The greater weal the greater body holds,

If perfect equally are all its parts.

Therefore this one which sweeps along with it

The universe sublime, doth correspond

Unto the circle which most loves and knows.

On which account, if thou unto the virtue

Apply thy measure, not to the appearance

Of substances that unto thee seem round,

Thou wilt behold a marvellous agreement,

Of more to greater, and of less to smaller,

In every heaven, with its Intelligence."

Even as remaineth splendid and serene

The hemisphere of air, when Boreas

Is blowing from that cheek where he is mildest,

Because is purified and resolved the rack

That erst disturbed it, till the welkin laughs

With all the beauties of its pageantry;

Thus did I likewise, after that my Lady

Had me provided with her clear response,

And like a star in heaven the truth was seen.

And soon as to a stop her words had come,

Not otherwise does iron scintillate

When molten, than those circles scintillated.

Their coruscation all the sparks repeated,

And they so many were, their number makes

More millions than the doubling of the chess.

I heard them sing hosanna choir by choir

To the fixed point which holds them at the 'Ubi,'

And ever will, where they have ever been.

And she, who saw the dubious meditations

Within my mind, "The primal circles," said,

"Have shown thee Seraphim and Cherubim.

Thus rapidly they follow their own bonds,

To be as like the point as most they can,

And can as far as they are high in vision.

Those other Loves, that round about them go,

Thrones of the countenance divine are called,

Because they terminate the primal Triad.

And thou shouldst know that they all have delight

As much as their own vision penetrates

The Truth, in which all intellect finds rest.

From this it may be seen how blessedness

Is founded in the faculty which sees,

And not in that which loves, and follows next;

And of this seeing merit is the measure,

Which is brought forth by grace, and by good will;

Thus on from grade to grade doth it proceed.

The second Triad, which is germinating

In such wise in this sempiternal spring,

That no nocturnal Aries despoils,

Perpetually hosanna warbles forth

With threefold melody, that sounds in three

Orders of joy, with which it is intrined.

The three Divine are in this hierarchy,

First the Dominions, and the Virtues next;

And the third order is that of the Powers.

Then in the dances twain penultimate

The Principalities and Archangels wheel;

The last is wholly of angelic sports.

These orders upward all of them are gazing,

And downward so prevail, that unto God

They all attracted are and all attract.

And Dionysius with so great desire

To contemplate these Orders set himself,

He named them and distinguished them as I do.

But Gregory afterwards dissented from him;

Wherefore, as soon as he unclosed his eyes

Within this heaven, he at himself did smile.

And if so much of secret truth a mortal

Proffered on earth, I would not have thee marvel,

For he who saw it here revealed it to him,

With much more of the truth about these circles."