The Divine Comedy by Dante, Illustrated, Paradise, Complete. Dante Alighieri

cord, that never looses dart,

       But at fair aim and glad. Yet is it true,

       That as ofttimes but ill accords the form

       To the design of art, through sluggishness

       Of unreplying matter, so this course

       Is sometimes quitted by the creature, who

       Hath power, directed thus, to bend elsewhere;

       As from a cloud the fire is seen to fall,

       From its original impulse warp'd, to earth,

       By vicious fondness. Thou no more admire

       Thy soaring, (if I rightly deem,) than lapse

       Of torrent downwards from a mountain's height.

       There would in thee for wonder be more cause,

       If, free of hind'rance, thou hadst fix'd thyself

       Below, like fire unmoving on the earth."

       So said, she turn'd toward the heav'n her face.

CANTO II

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       All ye, who in small bark have following sail'd,

       Eager to listen, on the advent'rous track

       Of my proud keel, that singing cuts its way,

       Backward return with speed, and your own shores

       Revisit, nor put out to open sea,

       Where losing me, perchance ye may remain

       Bewilder'd in deep maze. The way I pass

       Ne'er yet was run: Minerva breathes the gale,

       Apollo guides me, and another Nine

       To my rapt sight the arctic beams reveal.

       Ye other few, who have outstretch'd the neck.

       Timely for food of angels, on which here

       They live, yet never know satiety,

       Through the deep brine ye fearless may put out

       Your vessel, marking, well the furrow broad

       Before you in the wave, that on both sides

       Equal returns. Those, glorious, who pass'd o'er

       To Colchos, wonder'd not as ye will do,

       When they saw Jason following the plough.

       The increate perpetual thirst, that draws

       Toward the realm of God's own form, bore us

       Swift almost as the heaven ye behold.

       Beatrice upward gaz'd, and I on her,

       And in such space as on the notch a dart

       Is plac'd, then loosen'd flies, I saw myself

       Arriv'd, where wond'rous thing engag'd my sight.

       Whence she, to whom no work of mine was hid,

       Turning to me, with aspect glad as fair,

       Bespake me: "Gratefully direct thy mind

       To God, through whom to this first star we come."

       Me seem'd as if a cloud had cover'd us,

       Translucent, solid, firm, and polish'd bright,

       Like adamant, which the sun's beam had smit

       Within itself the ever-during pearl

       Receiv'd us, as the wave a ray of light

       Receives, and rests unbroken. If I then

       Was of corporeal frame, and it transcend

       Our weaker thought, how one dimension thus

       Another could endure, which needs must be

       If body enter body, how much more

       Must the desire inflame us to behold

       That essence, which discovers by what means

       God and our nature join'd! There will be seen

       That which we hold through faith, not shown by proof,

       But in itself intelligibly plain,

       E'en as the truth that man at first believes.

       I answered: "Lady! I with thoughts devout,

       Such as I best can frame, give thanks to Him,

       Who hath remov'd me from the mortal world.

       But tell, I pray thee, whence the gloomy spots

       Upon this body, which below on earth

       Give rise to talk of Cain in fabling quaint?"

       She somewhat smil'd, then spake: "If mortals err

       In their opinion, when the key of sense

       Unlocks not, surely wonder's weapon keen

       Ought not to pierce thee; since thou find'st, the wings

       Of reason to pursue the senses' flight

       Are short. But what thy own thought is, declare."

       Then I: "What various here above appears,

       Is caus'd, I deem, by bodies dense or rare."

       She then resum'd: "Thou certainly wilt see

       In falsehood thy belief o'erwhelm'd, if well

       Thou listen to the arguments, which I

       Shall bring to face it. The eighth sphere displays

       Numberless lights, the which in kind and size

       May be remark'd of different aspects;

       If rare or dense of that were cause alone,

       One single virtue then would be in all,

       Alike distributed, or more, or less.

       Different virtues needs must be the fruits

       Of formal principles, and these, save one,

       Will by thy reasoning be destroy'd. Beside,

       If rarity were of that dusk the cause,

       Which thou inquirest, either in some part

       That planet must throughout be void, nor fed

       With its own matter; or, as bodies share

       Their fat and leanness, in like manner this

       Must in its volume change the leaves. The first,

       If it were true, had through the sun's eclipse

       Been manifested, by transparency

       Of light, as through aught rare beside effus'd.

       But this is not. Therefore remains to see

       The other cause: and if the other fall,

       Erroneous so must prove what seem'd to thee.

       If not from side to side this rarity

       Pass through, there needs must be a limit, whence

       Its contrary no further lets it pass.

       And hence the beam, that from without proceeds,

       Must be pour'd back, as colour comes, through glass

       Reflected, which behind it lead conceals.

       Now wilt thou say, that there of murkier hue

       Than in the other part the ray is shown,

       By being thence refracted farther back.

       From this perplexity will free thee soon

       Experience, if thereof thou trial make,