(2) I think he thought that I perhaps might think So many voices issued through those trunks From people who concealed themselves from us; Therefore the Master said: "If thou break off Some little spray from any of these trees, The thoughts thou hast will wholly be made vain." Then stretched I forth my hand a little forward, And plucked a branchlet off from a great thorn; And the trunk cried, "Why dost thou mangle me?" After it had become embrowned with blood, It recommenced its cry: "Why dost thou rend me? Hast thou no spirit of pity whatsoever? Men once we were, and now are changed to trees; Indeed, thy hand should be more pitiful, Even if the souls of serpents we had been." As out of a green brand, that is on fire At one of the ends, and from the other drips And hisses with the wind that is escaping; So from that splinter issued forth together Both words and blood; whereat I let the tip Fall, and stood like a man who is afraid. "Had he been able sooner to believe," My Sage made answer, "O thou wounded soul, What only in my verses he has seen,

(5) So he with greater strides departed from us; And on the road remained I with those two, Who were such mighty marshals of the world. And when before us he had gone so far Mine eyes became to him such pursuivants As was my understanding to his words, Appeared to me with laden and living boughs Another apple-tree, and not far distant, From having but just then turned thitherward. People I saw beneath it lift their hands, And cry I know not what towards the leaves, Like little children eager and deluded, Who pray, and he they pray to doth not answer, But, to make very keen their appetite, Holds their desire aloft, and hides it not. Then they departed as if undeceived; And now we came unto the mighty tree Which prayers and tears so manifold refuses. "Pass farther onward without drawing near; The tree of which Eve ate is higher up, And out of that one has this tree been raised." Thus said I know not who among the branches; Whereat Virgilius, Statius, and myself Went crowding forward on the side that rises.

(32) And as the fierce [wrathful] Essence of the Anger of God pressed into Adam, whereby he entered into Death, of which God spoke, saying, If thou eatest of the Tree, thou shalt die the Death, understand the Death in the Flesh, even while they were in the earthly Life, so the sharp Nails must pierce through the Hands and Feet of Christ, and so he must enter into Death; and as there is in the human Essences (before the Light of God) a Cross-Birth, so when the Light of God shines therein, all is turned into a pleasant flourishing Blossom, wherein the sharp Essences are not found or perceived.

(2) Therefore, O Man! consider thyself here in this World, in which thou standest in the Birth, thou art sown as a Seed or Grain, and a Tree grows out of thee; therefore now see in what Ground thou standest, that thou mayest be found to be Timber for the great Building of God in his Love, and not for a Threshold [or Footstool] to be trodden under-foot, or that is fit for nothing but for the Fire, whereof nothing will remain but Dust and Ashes.

(11) The disciple's shadow is from that bough. When the shadows in the disciples cease, For, O fortunate one, how can the shadow move, Unless the tree that casts the shadow move as well? Again, the great Creator, as you know, Thus man passed from one order of nature to another, Of his first souls he has now no remembrance, In order to escape from his present soul full of lusts Though man fell asleep and forgot his previous states, Yet God will not leave him in this self-forgetfulness;

(26) And I went from thence to the middle of the earth, and I saw a blessed place ⌈in which there were trees⌉ with branches abiding and blooming [of a dismembered tree].

(3) And the disciples had not seen Jesus because of the great light in which he was, or which was about him; for their eyes were darkened because of the great light in which he was. But they saw only the light, which shot forth many light-rays. And the light-rays were not like one another, but the light was of divers kind, and it was of divers type, from below upwards, one [ray] more excellent than the other, . . ., in one great immeasurable glory of light; it stretched from under the earth right up to heaven.--And when the disciples saw that light, they fell into great fear and great agitation.

(6) And at the same time, their griddles and pots spoke: "Pain and suffering you have caused us. Our mouths and our faces were blackened with soot; we were always put on the fire and you burned us as though we felt no pain. Now you shall feel it, we shall burn you," said their pots, and they all destroyed their [the wooden men's] faces. The stones of the hearth, which were heaped together, hurled themselves straight from the fire against their heads causing them pain. The desperate ones [the men of wood] ran as quickly as they could; they wanted to climb to the tops of the houses. And the houses fell down and threw them to the ground; they wanted to climb to the treetops, and the trees cast them far away; they wanted to enter the caverns, and the caverns repelled them. So was the ruin of the men who had been created and formed, the men made to be destroyed and annihilated; the mouths and faces of all of them were mangled. And it is said that their descendants are the monkeys which now live in the forests; these are all that remain of them because their flesh was made only of wood by the Creator and the Maker. And therefore the monkey looks like man, and is an example of a generation of men which were created and made but were only wooden figures.

(65) But seeing men now, at the end of this time, do listen and long very much after the root of the tree, through which nature sheweih that the time of the discovery of the tree is at hand, therefore the spirit will shew it to them. And the whole Deity will reveal itself, which is the Dayspring, Dawning, or Morning- redness, and the breakingforth of the great day of God, in which whatsoever is generated from death to the regeneration of life shall be restored and rise again.

Next, let me continue. When the rulers saw him and the woman who was with him erring in ignorance like beasts, they rejoiced greatly. When they learned that an immortal human was not going to pass them by, but that they would even have to fear the woman who had turned into a tree, they were troubled and said, “Is this, perhaps, the true human, who blinded us and taught us about this defiled woman who is like him, that we might be conquered?” Then the seven took counsel. They came to Adam and Eve timidly, and they said to him, “The fruit of every tree created for you in paradise may be eaten, but beware, don’t eat from the tree of knowledge. If you do eat, you will die.” After they gave them a great fright, they withdrew up to their authorities. Then came the one who is wiser than all creatures, who was called the beast. When he saw the likeness of their mother, Eve, he said to her, “What is it that god said to you? ‘Don’t eat from the tree of knowledge’?” She said, “He said not only ‘Don’t eat from it’ but also ‘Don’t touch it, lest you die.’” He said to her, “Don’t be afraid! You certainly shall not die. For he knows that when you eat from it your mind will be sobered and you will become like gods, knowing the difference between evil and good people. For he said this to you because he is jealous, so that you would not eat from it.” Now, Eve believed the words of the instructor. She looked at the tree and saw that it was beautiful and appealing, and she desired it. She took some of its fruit and ate, and she gave to her husband also, and he ate too. Then their minds opened. For when they ate, the light of knowledge shone for them. When they put on shame, they knew that they were naked with regard to knowledge. When they sobered up, they saw that they were naked, and they became enamored of one another. When they saw that their makers had beastly forms, they loathed them. They understood a great deal.

(49) For as the Tree was, so was the Fruit; and though the Tree was not wholly evil [or false,] yet as to the becoming Man, the Tincture (by the Wrestling of the two Regions) became false [or evil.] And besides, afterwards Eve (his Mother) helped him forward very much, because she sought after an earthly Lord and Treader upon the Serpent, and instructed him, [telling him,] that he was the Warrior [or Soldier to overcome] against the Devil, he must do it; and so the Wrath held him captive, and his Offering [or Sacrifice] was not acceptable to God, because (in Wrath) he built upon himself, and so his Prayer reached not the Gate of Heaven, but the Driver took it up, because it proceeded out of Self-Pride, like the proud Pharisee, out of an [evil or] false Mind.

(18) And he came to a well of water, and he said to his young men, " Abide ye here with the ass, and I and the lad shall go (yonder), and when we have worshipped we shall come again to you."

(32) And I came to the Garden of Righteousness, and saw beyond those trees many large trees growing there and of goodly fragrance, large, very beautiful and glorious, and the tree of wisdom whereof they eat and know great wisdom.

(5) Observe ⌈⌈ye⌉⌉ how the trees cover themselves with green leaves and bear fruit: wherefore give ye heed ⌈and know⌉ with regard to all ⌈His works⌉, and recognize how He that liveth for ever hath made them so.

The preceding story is followed by a short anecdote of the infants of the Virgin Mary and the mother of John the Baptist leaping in their mothers' wombs, and in reply to matter of fact cavillers and questioners of this anecdote, the poet says we must look at its spirit and essential basis rather than its outward form. This introduces the story of the tree of life. A certain wise man related that in Hindustan there was a tree of such wonderful virtue that whosoever ate of its fruit lived forever. Hearing this, a king deputed one of his courtiers to go in quest of it. The courtier accordingly proceeded to Hindustan, and traveled all over that country, inquiring of every one he met where this tree was to be found. Some of these persons professed their entire ignorance, others joked him, and others gave him false information; and, finally, he had to return to his country with his mission unaccomplished. He then, as a last resource, betook himself to the sage who had first spoken of the tree, and begged for further information about it, and the sage replied to him as follows:

(60) Now Christians know how they can, by the power of this Tree, press out from their death, through his death, to him into his life, and reign and live with him, wherein they also, with their pressing through with their new birth out from this dead body, can be with him in heaven.

(7) And speaking thus He gazed for long into my eyes, so that I trembled at the look of him. But when He raised His head, I see in Mind the Light, [but] now in Powers no man could number, and Cosmos grown beyond all bounds, and that the Fire was compassed round about by a most mighty Power, and [now] subdued had come unto a stand. And when I saw these things I understood by reason of Man-Shepherd's Word (Logos).

(19) Matthew said to him: "Lord, Savior, how was Man revealed?"

(35) Now if a man likeneth the Son of God to the globe of the sun, as I have often done in the foregoing chapters, that is spoken in the way and manner of natural similitudes; and I was constrained to write so, because of the lack of understanding of the Reader, that so he might raise his sense or thoughts in these natural things, and climb from step to step, from one degree to another, till he might come into the high Mysteries.

(13) They no longer remembered the Heart of Heaven and therefore they fell out of favor. It was merely a trial, an attempt at man. At first they spoke, but their face was without expression; their feet and hands had no strength; they had no blood, nor substance, nor moisture, nor flesh; their cheeks were dry, their feet and hands were dry, and their flesh was yellow. Therefore, they no longer thought of their Creator nor their Maker, nor of those who made them and cared for them. These were the first men who existed in great numbers on the face of the earth.