(4) Through thee I Poet was, through thee a Christian; But that thou better see what I design, To colour it will I extend my hand. Already was the world in every part Pregnant with the true creed, disseminated By messengers of the eternal kingdom; And thy assertion, spoken of above, With the new preachers was in unison; Whence I to visit them the custom took. Then they became so holy in my sight, That, when Domitian persecuted them, Not without tears of mine were their laments; And all the while that I on earth remained, Them I befriended, and their upright customs Made me disparage all the other sects. And ere I led the Greeks unto the rivers Of Thebes, in poetry, I was baptized, But out of fear was covertly a Christian, For a long time professing paganism; And this lukewarmness caused me the fourth circle To circuit round more than four centuries. Thou, therefore, who hast raised the covering That hid from me whatever good I speak of, While in ascending we have time to spare,

(9) This ancient text continues—“Come thou to me, glorified and purified; let thy hands [ here the text is obliterated ], shine thou with thine head . Give me my mouth that I may speak with it, and guide me on the glorious roads which are in heaven.”

(2) So, by the flaming of the effulgence holy To which I turned, I recognized therein The wish of speaking to me somewhat farther. And it began: "In this fifth resting-place Upon the tree that liveth by its summit, And aye bears fruit, and never loses leaf, Are blessed spirits that below, ere yet They came to Heaven, were of such great renown That every Muse therewith would affluent be. Therefore look thou upon the cross's horns; He whom I now shall name will there enact What doth within a cloud its own swift fire." I saw athwart the Cross a splendour drawn By naming Joshua, (even as he did it,) Nor noted I the word before the deed; And at the name of the great Maccabee I saw another move itself revolving, And gladness was the whip unto that top. Likewise for Charlemagne and for Orlando, Two of them my regard attentive followed As followeth the eye its falcon flying. William thereafterward, and Renouard, And the Duke Godfrey, did attract my sight Along upon that Cross, and Robert Guiscard.

(48) "Behold, I have revealed to you the name of the Perfect One, the whole will of the Mother of the Holy Angels, that the masculine multitude may be completed here, that there might appear in the aeons, the infinities and those that came to be in the untraceable wealth of the Great Invisible Spirit, that they all might take from his goodness, even the wealth of their rest that has no kingdom over it. I came from First Who Was Sent, that I might reveal to you Him Who Is from the Beginning, because of the arrogance of Arch-Begetter and his angels, since they say about themselves that they are gods. And I came to remove them from their blindness, that I might tell everyone about the God who is above the universe. Therefore, tread upon their graves, humiliate their malicious intent, and break their yoke and arouse my own. I have given you authority over all things as Sons of Light, that you might tread upon their power with your feet."

(1) The natural thirst, that ne'er is satisfied Excepting with the water for whose grace The woman of Samaria besought, Put me in travail, and haste goaded me Along the encumbered path behind my Leader And I was pitying that righteous vengeance; And lo! in the same manner as Luke writeth That Christ appeared to two upon the way From the sepulchral cave already risen, A shade appeared to us, and came behind us, Down gazing on the prostrate multitude, Nor were we ware of it, until it spake, Saying, "My brothers, may God give you peace!" We turned us suddenly, and Virgilius rendered To him the countersign thereto conforming. Thereon began he: "In the blessed council, Thee may the court veracious place in peace, That me doth banish in eternal exile!" "How," said he, and the while we went with speed, "If ye are shades whom God deigns not on high, Who up his stairs so far has guided you?" And said my Teacher: "If thou note the marks Which this one bears, and which the Angel traces Well shalt thou see he with the good must reign.

(5) Circling around it sang, and said: "As are My notes to thee, who dost not comprehend them, Such is the eternal judgment to you mortals." Those lucent splendours of the Holy Spirit Grew quiet then, but still within the standard That made the Romans reverend to the world. It recommenced: "Unto this kingdom never Ascended one who had not faith in Christ, Before or since he to the tree was nailed. But look thou, many crying are, 'Christ, Christ!' Who at the judgment shall be far less near To him than some shall be who knew not Christ. Such Christians shall the Ethiop condemn, When the two companies shall be divided, The one for ever rich, the other poor. What to your kings may not the Persians say, When they that volume opened shall behold In which are written down all their dispraises? There shall be seen, among the deeds of Albert, That which ere long shall set the pen in motion, For which the realm of Prague shall be deserted. There shall be seen the woe that on the Seine He brings by falsifying of the coin, Who by the blow of a wild boar shall die.

(4) And of them was the singing of those lights. Who takes not wings that he may fly up thither, The tidings thence may from the dumb await! As soon as singing thus those burning suns Had round about us whirled themselves three times, Like unto stars neighbouring the steadfast poles, Ladies they seemed, not from the dance released, But who stop short, in silence listening Till they have gathered the new melody. And within one I heard beginning: "When The radiance of grace, by which is kindled True love, and which thereafter grows by loving, Within thee multiplied is so resplendent That it conducts thee upward by that stair, Where without reascending none descends, Who should deny the wine out of his vial Unto thy thirst, in liberty were not Except as water which descends not seaward. Fain wouldst thou know with what plants is enflowered This garland that encircles with delight The Lady fair who makes thee strong for heaven. Of the lambs was I of the holy flock Which Dominic conducteth by a road Where well one fattens if he strayeth not.

(38) Then shall the kings and the mighty perish And be given into the hands of the righteous and holy.

(18) 1 set you a deep Consideration; behold, how the angelical Thrones and Principalities were in the Beginning beheld [apprehended or aspected] by the Wisdom of God; which Aspect [Manifestation or Idea] the Fiat took to create; and in the angelical Throne the infinite Multiplicity, according to the eternal Wisdom in the Wonders of God. All which was so created in the Fiat of God, according to all the Essences of the eternal gLimbus of God, so that all Angels, in every Throne, gave their Will unto the angelical Throne or Arch-Angel; as it is sufficiently to be known by the Fall of Lucifer; and also may be discerned in the Regions of the kingly Governments of this World; if the Devil did not so destroy the right Union, as is very clearly to be seen. Thus likewise (understand us, I pray thee, thou very precious and noble Mind) this second surpassing excellent Creation is in the Fiat; when God saw and took Notice of our miserable Fall, he did illustrate [or manifest] himself by the holy eternal Virgin of his Wisdom in the eternal Wonders, in i Mercy which always flows out of his Heart, and comprehended with his Speculation [or Manifestation] the Throne; and further illustrated himself in the Throne into many Millions without Number, and established his Covenant with his Oath therein, with his precious Promise of the Woman's Seed.

(2) And tow'rds us there were heard to fly, albeit They were not visible, spirits uttering Unto Love's table courteous invitations, The first voice that passed onward in its flight, "Vinum non habent," said in accents loud, And went reiterating it behind us. And ere it wholly grew inaudible Because of distance, passed another, crying, "I am Orestes!" and it also stayed not. "O," said I, "Father, these, what voices are they?" And even as I asked, behold the third, Saying: "Love those from whom ye have had evil!" And the good Master said: "This circle scourges The sin of envy, and on that account Are drawn from love the lashes of the scourge. The bridle of another sound shall be; I think that thou wilt hear it, as I judge, Before thou comest to the Pass of Pardon. But fix thine eyes athwart the air right steadfast, And people thou wilt see before us sitting, And each one close against the cliff is seated." Then wider than at first mine eyes I opened; I looked before me, and saw shades with mantles Not from the colour of the stone diverse.

(5) Unto the canticle divine responded From every part the court beatified, So that each sight became serener for it. "O holy father, who for me endurest To be below here, leaving the sweet place In which thou sittest by eternal lot, Who is the Angel that with so much joy Into the eyes is looking of our Queen, Enamoured so that he seems made of fire?" Thus I again recourse had to the teaching Of that one who delighted him in Mary As doth the star of morning in the sun. And he to me: "Such gallantry and grace As there can be in Angel and in soul, All is in him; and thus we fain would have it; Because he is the one who bore the palm Down unto Mary, when the Son of God To take our burden on himself decreed. But now come onward with thine eyes, as I Speaking shall go, and note the great patricians Of this most just and merciful of empires. Those two that sit above there most enrapture As being very near unto Augusta, Are as it were the two roots of this Rose.

(4) For the same wish doth lead us to the tree Which led the Christ rejoicing to say 'Eli,' When with his veins he liberated us." And I to him: "Forese, from that day When for a better life thou changedst worlds, Up to this time five years have not rolled round. If sooner were the power exhausted in thee Of sinning more, than thee the hour surprised Of that good sorrow which to God reweds us, How hast thou come up hitherward already? I thought to find thee down there underneath, Where time for time doth restitution make." And he to me: "Thus speedily has led me To drink of the sweet wormwood of these torments, My Nella with her overflowing tears; She with her prayers devout and with her sighs Has drawn me from the coast where one where one awaits, And from the other circles set me free. So much more dear and pleasing is to God My little widow, whom so much I loved, As in good works she is the more alone; For the Barbagia of Sardinia By far more modest in its women is Than the Barbagia I have left her in.

(59) And although the Church in Babel will prattle much here about the Election from the Purpose of God, yet it has as little Knowledge thereof as the Babylonish Tower, whose Top should reach to Heaven, [had] of God. As if it was not possible, that the Love in the Breaking of the Anger does i fully appear, [or shine forth;] and it is for Want of Repentance, that Man suffers himself to be held by the Devil.

(5) it out of the æons of the Fate and lead it up into all the æons [above], it giving to every region its apology and the apology of all the regions and the seals to the tyrants of the king, the Adamas. And it giveth the apology of all the rulers of all the regions of the Left,--whose collective apologies and seals I will one day tell you when I shall tell you the expansion of the universe. "And moreover those receivers lead that soul to the Virgin of Light and that soul giveth the Virgin of Light the seals and the glory of the songs of praise. And the Virgin of Light and also the seven other virgins of the Light together prove that soul and find together their signs in it and their seals and their baptisms and their chrism. And the Virgin of Light sealeth that soul and the receivers of the Light baptize that soul and give it the spiritual chrism; and every one of the virgins of the Light sealeth it with her seals. "And moreover the receivers of the Light hand it over to the great Sabaōth, the Good, who is at the gate of the Life in the region of those of the Right, who is called 'Father.' And that soul giveth him the glory of his songs of praise and his seals and his apologies. And Sabaōth, the Great and Good, sealeth it with his seals. And the soul giveth its science and the glory of the songs of praise and the seals to the whole region of those of the Right. They all seal it with their seals; and Melchisedec, the great Receiver of the Light who is in the region of those of the Right, sealeth that soul and all the receivers of Melchisedec seal that soul and lead it into the Treasury of the Light. "And it giveth the glory and the honour and the laud of the songs of praise and. all the seals of all the regions of the Light. And all those of the region of the Treasury of the Light seal it with their seals and it goeth unto the region of the Inheritance."

(2) "And the seven Amēns and the five Trees and the three Amēns will be on my right, being kings in the inheritances of the Light. And the Twin-saviours, that is the Child of the Child, and the nine guards will bide also at my left, being kings in the inheritances of the Light.

(12) And he said, "Whathelp and profit have we from those idols which thou dost worship, And before which thou dost bow thyself ? *

(1) "After that Constantine the eagle turned Against the course of heaven, which it had followed Behind the ancient who Lavinia took, Two hundred years and more the bird of God In the extreme of Europe held itself, Near to the mountains whence it issued first; And under shadow of the sacred plumes It governed there the world from hand to hand, And, changing thus, upon mine own alighted. Caesar I was, and am Justinian, Who, by the will of primal Love I feel, Took from the laws the useless and redundant; And ere unto the work I was attent, One nature to exist in Christ, not more, Believed, and with such faith was I contented. But blessed Agapetus, he who was The supreme pastor, to the faith sincere Pointed me out the way by words of his. Him I believed, and what was his assertion I now see clearly, even as thou seest Each contradiction to be false and true. As soon as with the Church I moved my feet, God in his grace it pleased with this high task To inspire me, and I gave me wholly to it,

(2) Even thus, relieved from the delay of waiting, That murmuring of the eagle mounted up Along its neck, as if it had been hollow. There it became a voice, and issued thence From out its beak, in such a form of words As the heart waited for wherein I wrote them. "The part in me which sees and bears the sun In mortal eagles," it began to me, "Now fixedly must needs be looked upon; For of the fires of which I make my figure, Those whence the eye doth sparkle in my head Of all their orders the supremest are. He who is shining in the midst as pupil Was once the singer of the Holy Spirit, Who bore the ark from city unto city; Now knoweth he the merit of his song, In so far as effect of his own counsel, By the reward which is commensurate. Of five, that make a circle for my brow, He that approacheth nearest to my beak Did the poor widow for her son console; Now knoweth he how dearly it doth cost Not following Christ, by the experience Of this sweet life and of its opposite.

THE holy king of Gods and men I call, Celestial Law, the righteous seal of all; The seal which stamps whate'er the earth contains, Nature's firm basis, and the liquid plains: Stable, and starry, of harmonious frame, Preserving laws eternally the same: Thy all-composing pow'r in heaven appears, Connects its frame, and props the starry spheres; And shakes weak Envy with tremendous sound, Toss'd by thy arm in giddy whirls around. 'Tis thine, the life of mortals to defend, And crown existence with a blessed end; For thy command and alone, of all that lives Order and rule to ev'ry dwelling gives: Ever observant of the upright mind, And of just actions the companion kind; Foe to the lawless, with avenging ire, Their steps involving in destruction dire. Come, bless, abundant pow'r, whom all revere, By all desir'd, with favr'ing mind draw near; Give me thro' life, on thee to fix my fight, And ne'er forsake the equal paths of right. Next: LXIV: To Mars Sacred Texts | Classics « Previous: The Initiations of Orpheus: LXII: To Equity Index Next: The Initiations of Orpheus: LXIV: To Mars » Sacred Texts | Classics

(6) To clamour more than truth they turn their faces, And in this way establish their opinion, Ere art or reason has by them been heard. Thus many ancients with Guittone did, From cry to cry still giving him applause, Until the truth has conquered with most persons. Now, if thou hast such ample privilege 'Tis granted thee to go unto the cloister Wherein is Christ the abbot of the college, To him repeat for me a Paternoster, So far as needful to us of this world, Where power of sinning is no longer ours." Then, to give place perchance to one behind, Whom he had near, he vanished in the fire As fish in water going to the bottom. I moved a little tow'rds him pointed out, And said that to his name my own desire An honourable place was making ready.