from the world, to follow her, when young Escap'd; and, in her vesture mantling me, Made promise of the way her sect enjoins. Thereafter men, for ill than good more apt,
Forth snatch'd me from the pleasant cloister's pale. God knows how after that my life was fram'd.
This other splendid shape, which thou beholdst
At my right side, burning with all the light
Of this our orb, what of myself I tell May to herself apply. From her, like me A sister, with like violence were torn
The saintly folds, that shaded her fair brows. E'en when she to the world again was brought In spite of her own will and better wont,
Yet not for that the bosom's inward veil
Did she renounce. This is the luminary
Of mighty Constance, who from that loud blast, Which blew the second over Suabia's realm,
That power produc'd, which was the third and last."
19
She ceas'd from further talk, and then began
"Ave Maria" singing, and with that song
Vanish'd, as heavy substance through deep wave.
Mine eye, that far as it was capable,
Pursued her, when in dimness she was lost, Turn'd to the mark where greater want impell'd, And bent on Beatrice all its gaze.
But she as light'ning beam'd upon my looks: So that the sight sustain'd it not at first. Whence I to question her became less prompt.
CANTO IV
Between two kinds of food, both equally Remote and tempting, first a man might die Of hunger, ere he one could freely choose. E'en so would stand a lamb between the maw Of two fierce wolves, in dread of both alike: E'en so between two deer a dog would stand, Wherefore, if I was silent, fault nor praise
I to myself impute, by equal doubts
Held in suspense, since of necessity
It happen'd. Silent was I, yet desire
Was painted in my looks; and thus I spake
20
My wish more earnestly than language could.
As Daniel, when the haughty king he freed From ire, that spurr'd him on to deeds unjust And violent; so look'd Beatrice then.
"Well I discern," she thus her words address'd, "How contrary desires each way constrain thee, So that thy anxious thought is in itself
Bound up and stifled, nor breathes freely forth.
Thou arguest; if the good intent remain; What reason that another's violence
Should stint the measure of my fair desert?
"Cause too thou findst for doubt, in that it seems,
That spirits to the stars, as Plato deem'd, Return. These are the questions which thy will Urge equally; and therefore I the first
Of that will treat which hath the more of gall. Of seraphim he who is most ensky'd,
Moses and Samuel, and either John,
Choose which thou wilt, nor even Mary's self, Have not in any other heav'n their seats,
Than have those spirits which so late thou saw'st; Nor more or fewer years exist; but all
Make the first circle beauteous, diversely
Partaking of sweet life, as more or less
Afflation of eternal bliss pervades them.
Here were they shown thee, not that fate assigns
21
This for their sphere, but for a sign to thee Of that celestial furthest from the height. Thus needs, that ye may apprehend, we speak: Since from things sensible alone ye learn
That, which digested rightly after turns
To intellectual. For no other cause
The scripture, condescending graciously
To your perception, hands and feet to God Attributes, nor so means: and holy church Doth represent with human countenance Gabriel, and Michael, and him who made Tobias whole. Unlike what here thou seest, The judgment of Timaeus, who affirms Each soul restor'd to its particular star, Believing it to have been taken thence, When nature gave it to inform her mold: Since to appearance his intention is
E'en what his words declare: or else to shun
Derision, haply thus he hath disguis'd
His true opinion. If his meaning be,
That to the influencing of these orbs revert The honour and the blame in human acts, Perchance he doth not wholly miss the truth. This principle, not understood aright, Erewhile perverted well nigh all the world;
So that it fell to fabled names of Jove,
And Mercury, and Mars. That other doubt, Which moves thee, is less harmful; for it brings
No peril of removing thee from me.
22
"That, to the eye of man, our justice seems
Unjust, is argument for faith, and not
For heretic declension. To the end
This truth may stand more clearly in your view, I will content thee even to thy wish
"If violence be, when that which suffers, nought Consents to that which forceth, not for this These spirits stood exculpate. For the will,
That will not, still survives unquench'd, and doth
As nature doth in fire, tho' violence Wrest it a thousand times; for, if it yield Or more or less, so far it follows force.
And thus did these, whom they had power to seek
The hallow'd place again. In them, had will Been perfect, such as once upon the bars Held Laurence firm, or wrought in Scaevola To his own hand remorseless, to the path,
Whence they were drawn, their steps had hasten'd back, When liberty return'd: but in too few
Resolve so steadfast dwells. And by these words
If duly weigh'd, that argument is void,
Which oft might have perplex'd thee still. But now Another question thwarts thee, which to solve Might try thy patience without better aid.
I have, no doubt, instill'd into thy mind,
That blessed spirit may not lie; since near
The source of primal truth it dwells for aye:
23
And thou might'st after of Piccarda learn That Constance held affection to the veil; So that she seems to contradict me here.
Not seldom, brother, it hath chanc'd for men
To do what they had gladly left undone, Yet to shun peril they have done amiss: E'en as Alcmaeon, at his father's suit Slew his own mother, so made pitiless
Not to lose pity. On this point bethink thee, That force and will are blended in such wise As not to make the' offence excusable. Absolute will agrees not to the wrong,
That inasmuch as there is fear of woe From non-compliance, it agrees. Of will Thus absolute Piccarda spake, and I
Of th' other; so that both have truly said."
Such was the flow of that pure rill, that well'd From forth the fountain of all truth; and such The rest, that to my wond'ring thoughts I found.
"O thou of primal love the prime delight! Goddess!" I straight reply'd, "whose lively words Still shed new heat and vigour through my soul! Affection fails me to requite thy grace
With equal sum of gratitude: be his
To recompense, who sees and can reward thee. Well I discern, that by that truth