So that I saw the mad track of Ulysses
Past Gades, and this side, well nigh the shore
Whereon became Europa a sweet burden.
And of this threshing-floor the site to me
Were more unveiled, but the sun was proceeding
Under my feet, a sign and more removed.

My mind enamored, which is dallying

At all times with my Lady, to bring back

To her mine eyes was more than ever ardent. And if or Art or Nature has made bait

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To catch the eyes and so possess the mind,
In human flesh or in its portraiture,
All joined together would appear as naught

To the divine delight which shone upon me
When to her smiling face I turned me round.
The virtue that her look endowed me with
From the fair nest of Leda tore me forth,
And up into the swiftest heaven impelled me.
Its parts exceeding full of life and lofty
Are all so uniform, I cannot say
Which Beatrice selected for my place.
But she, who was aware of my desire,

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Began, the while she smiled so joyously

That God seemed in her countenance to rejoice:
"The nature of that motion, which keeps quiet
The centre, and all the rest about it moves,
From hence begins as from its starting point.
And in this heaven there is no other Where
Than in the Mind Divine, wherein is kindled
The love that turns it, and the power it rains.

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Within a circle light and love embrace it,

Even as this doth the others, and that precinct
He who encircles it alone controls.

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Its motion is not by another meted,
But all the others measured are by this,

As ten is by the half and by the fifth.

And in what manner time in such a pot

May have its roots, and in the rest its leaves,
Now unto thee can manifest be made.

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O covetousness, that mortals dost ingulf

Beneath thee so, that no one hath the power

Of drawing back his eyes from out thy waves! Full fairly blossoms in mankind the will;

But the uninterrupted rain converts
Into abortive wildings the true plums.

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Fidelity and innocence are found

Only in children; afterwards they both

Take flight or e'er the cheeks with down are covered.

One, while he prattles still, observes the fasts,

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Who, when his tongue is loosed, forthwith devours
Whatever food under whatever moon;

Another, while he prattles, loves and listens

Unto his mother, who when speech is perfect
Forthwith desires to see her in her grave.

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Even thus is swarthy made the skin so white
In its first aspect of the daughter fair

Of him who brings the morn, and leaves the night.

Thou, that it may not be a marvel to thee,

Think that on earth there is no one who governs;
Whence goes astray the human family.

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Ere January be unwintered wholly

By the centesimal on earth neglected,
Shall these supernal circles roar so loud
The tempest that has been so long awaited

Shall whirl the poops about where are the prows;
So that the fleet shall run its course direct,
And the true fruit shall follow on the flower."

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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

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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 vapor 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 circumcint,

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.

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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

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The hemisphere of air, when Boreas

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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

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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.

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