(104) Morning and Evening are and reach only up from the Earth to the Moon, and take their Original from the Light of the Sun, and this makes Evening and Morning, as also the outward Day, and the outward dark Night, as every one knows.

(22) And since the dawn is an image of the day of birth, and from that point the light which has shone forth at first from the darkness increases, there has also dawned on those involved in darkness a day of the knowledge of truth. In correspondence with the manner of the sun's rising, prayers are made looking towards the sunrise in the east. Whence also the most ancient temples looked towards the west, that people might be taught to turn to the east when facing the images. "Let my prayer be directed before Thee as incense, the uplifting of my hands as the evening sacrifice," say the Psalms.

(1) 'Twas now the hour that turneth back desire In those who sail the sea, and melts the heart, The day they've said to their sweet friends farewell, And the new pilgrim penetrates with love, If he doth hear from far away a bell That seemeth to deplore the dying day, When I began to make of no avail My hearing, and to watch one of the souls Uprisen, that begged attention with its hand. It joined and lifted upward both its palms, Fixing its eyes upon the orient, As if it said to God, "Naught else I care for." "Te lucis ante" so devoutly issued Forth from its mouth, and with such dulcet notes, It made me issue forth from my own mind. And then the others, sweetly and devoutly, Accompanied it through all the hymn entire, Having their eyes on the supernal wheels. Here, Reader, fix thine eyes well on the truth, For now indeed so subtile is the veil, Surely to penetrate within is easy. I saw that army of the gentle-born Thereafterward in silence upward gaze, As if in expectation, pale and humble;

(80) [And in those days the sun shall be seen and he shall journey in the evening †on the extremity of the great chariot† in the west] And shall shine more brightly than accords with the order of light.

(83) And when I had gone forth below and seen the heaven, and the sun rising in the east, and the moon setting in the west, and a few stars, and the whole earth, and everything as †He had known† it in the beginning, then I blessed the Lord of judgement and extolled Him because He had made the sun to go forth from the windows of the east, †and he ascended and rose on the face of the heaven, and set out and kept traversing the path shown unto him.

(2) Thou'lt see me come unto thy darling tree, And crown myself thereafter with those leaves Of which the theme and thou shall make me worthy. So seldom, Father, do we gather them For triumph or of Caesar or of Poet, (The fault and shame of human inclinations,) That the Peneian foliage should bring forth Joy to the joyous Delphic deity, When any one it makes to thirst for it. A little spark is followed by great flame; Perchance with better voices after me Shall prayer be made that Cyrrha may respond! To mortal men by passages diverse Uprises the world's lamp; but by that one Which circles four uniteth with three crosses, With better course and with a better star Conjoined it issues, and the mundane wax Tempers and stamps more after its own fashion. Almost that passage had made morning there And evening here, and there was wholly white That hemisphere, and black the other part, When Beatrice towards the left-hand side I saw turned round, and gazing at the sun; Never did eagle fasten so upon it!

(126) But when the Dawning or Morning Redness shall shine from the East to the West, or from the Rising to the Setting, then already Time will be no more; but the SUN of the Heart of God rises or springs forth, and, *RA. RA. R. P. will be pressed in the Wine-press without the City, and therewith to R. P. [See the Collection of his Letters. Letter 23. v. 12.]

(1) Already had the sun the horizon reached Whose circle of meridian covers o'er Jerusalem with its most lofty point, And night that opposite to him revolves Was issuing forth from Ganges with the Scales That fall from out her hand when she exceedeth; So that the white and the vermilion cheeks Of beautiful Aurora, where I was, By too great age were changing into orange. We still were on the border of the sea, Like people who are thinking of their road, Who go in heart and with the body stay; And lo! as when, upon the approach of morning, Through the gross vapours Mars grows fiery red Down in the West upon the ocean floor, Appeared to me—may I again behold it!— A light along the sea so swiftly coming, Its motion by no flight of wing is equalled; From which when I a little had withdrawn Mine eyes, that I might question my Conductor, Again I saw it brighter grown and larger. Then on each side of it appeared to me I knew not what of white, and underneath it Little by little there came forth another.

(1) HERE now is begun the Description of the astral Birth, and it ought well to be observed, what the first Title of this Book means, which is thus expressed, The Day-Spring or Dawning in the East, or Morning-Redness in the Rising. For here will a very simple Man be able to see and comprehend, or apprehend the Being of God.

(105) But I must once mention, that it is the Dawning or Morning Redness of the Day, as the Door-keeper will have me do. Now observe,

(1) When the Septentrion of the highest heaven (Which never either setting knew or rising, Nor veil of other cloud than that of sin, And which made every one therein aware Of his own duty, as the lower makes Whoever turns the helm to come to port) Motionless halted, the veracious people, That came at first between it and the Griffin, Turned themselves to the car, as to their peace. And one of them, as if by Heaven commissioned, Singing, "Veni, sponsa, de Libano" Shouted three times, and all the others after. Even as the Blessed at the final summons Shall rise up quickened each one from his cavern, Uplifting light the reinvested flesh, So upon that celestial chariot A hundred rose 'ad vocem tanti senis,' Ministers and messengers of life eternal. They all were saying, "Benedictus qui venis," And, scattering flowers above and round about, "Manibus o date lilia plenis." Ere now have I beheld, as day began, The eastern hemisphere all tinged with rose, And the other heaven with fair serene adorned;

(12) The creation of the day and the renewal of the month which they might behold

(17) Therefore beforehand will arise the Dawning of the Day, or Morning Redness, whereby the Day may be known or taken Notice of.