I have for certain put into thy mind
That soul beatified could never lie,
For it is ever near the primal Truth,

And then thou from Piccarda might'st have heard
Costanza kept affection for the veil,

So that she seemeth here to contradict me.
Many times, brother, has it come to pass,
That, to escape from peril, with reluctance
That has been done it was not right to do,
E'en as Alcmæon (who, being by his father
Thereto entreated, his own mother slew)
Not to lose pity pitiless became.

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At this point I desire thee to remember

That force with will commingles, and they cause

That the offences cannot be excused.

Will absolute consenteth not to evil;

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But in so far consenteth as it fears,
If it refrain, to fall into more harm.
Hence when Piccarda uses this expression,
She meaneth the will absolute, and I

The other, so that both of us speak truth."

Such was the flowing of the holy river

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That issued from the fount whence springs all truth;

This put to rest my wishes one and all.

"O love of the first lover, O divine,"

Said I forthwith, "whose speech inundates me

And warms me so, it more and more revives me,

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grace;

My own affection is not so profound
As to suffice in rendering grace for

Let Him, who sees and can, thereto respond.

Well I perceive that never sated is

Our intellect unless the Truth illume it,
Beyond which nothing true expands itself.
It rests therein, as wild beast in his lair,
When it attains it; and it can attain it;
If not, then each desire would frustrate be.

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Therefore springs up, in fashion of a shoot,

Doubt at the foot of truth; and this is nature,

Which to the top from height to height impels us

This doth invite me, this assurance give me
With reverence, Lady, to inquire of you
Another truth, which is obscure to me.

I wish to know if man can satisfy you

For broken vows with other good deeds, so That in your balance they will not be light." Beatrice gazed upon me with her eyes

Full of the sparks of love, and so divine, That, overcome my power, I turned my And almost lost myself with eyes downcast.

back

CANTO V.

"IF in the heat of love I flame upon thee

Beyond the measure that on earth is seen,
So that the valor of thine eyes I vanquish,
Marvel thou not thereat; for this proceeds
From perfect sight, which as it apprehends
To the good apprehended moves its feet.
Well I perceive how is already shining
Into thine intellect the eternal light,
That only seen enkindles always love;
And if some other thing your love seduce,
"Tis nothing but a vestige of the same,

Ill understood, which there is shining through.
Thou fain wouldst know if with another service
For broken vow can such return be made
As to secure the soul from further claim."
This Canto thus did Beatrice begin;

And, as a man who breaks not off his speech,
Continued thus her holy argument:

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"The greatest gift that in his largess God

Creating made, and unto his own goodness
Nearest conformed, and that which he doth prize
Most highly, is the freedom of the will,
Wherewith the creatures of intelligence
Both all and only were and are endowed.
Now wilt thou see, if thence thou reasonest,
The high worth of a vow, if it be made
So that when thou consentest God consents;
For, closing between God and man the compact,
A sacrifice is of this treasure made,

Such as I say, and made by its own act.

What can be rendered then as compensation?

Think'st thou to make good use of what thou'st offered, With gains ill gotten thou wouldst do good deed.

Now art thou certain of the greater point;

But because Holy Church in this dispenses,

Which seems against the truth which I have shown thee, Behoves thee still to sit awhile at table,

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Because the solid food which thou hast taken
Requireth further aid for thy digestion.

Open thy mind to that which I reveal,

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And fix it there within; for 'tis not knowledge,
The having heard without retaining it.

In the essence of this sacrifice two things
Convene together; and the one is that

Of which 'tis made, the other is the agreement.
This last forevermore is cancelled not

Unless complied with, and concerning this
With such precision has above been spoken.
Therefore it was enjoined upon the Hebrews

To offer still, though sometimes what was offered
Might be commuted, as thou ought'st to know.
The other, which is known to thee as matter,
May well indeed be such that one errs not
If it for other matter be exchanged.

PARADISO V.

But let none shift the burden on his shoulder
At his arbitrament, without the turning
Both of the white and of the yellow key;
And every permutation deem as foolish,

If in the substitute the thing relinquished,
As the four is in six, be not contained.
Therefore whatever thing has so great weight
In value that it drags down every balance,
Cannot be satisfied with other spending.
Let mortals never take a vow in jest;

Be faithful and not blind in doing that,
As Jephthah was in his first offering,

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Whom more beseemed to say, 'I have done wrong,
Than to do worse by keeping; and as foolish
Thou the great leader of the Greeks wilt find,
Whence wept Iphigenia her fair face,

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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;

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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,

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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 splendors

Drawing towards us, and in each was heard:

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

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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;

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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

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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."

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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,

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