(5) Then they meditated on the udgîtha (Om) as the ear, but the Asuras pierced it with evil. Therefore we hear both what should be heard and what should not be heard. For the car is pierced by evil.

(3) Then they meditated on the udgîtha (Om) as speech, but the Asuras pierced it with evil. Therefore we speak both truth and falsehood. For speech is pierced by evil.

(54) This signifieth now, that the sound [voice of God] went forth from the heart of God, and encompassed the whole place or extent of this world; but when it [the place] was found to be evil, then the sound returned again into its own place.

(3) Oh ye gods who give ear to the words; ye foremost ones, ye who are in the train of Osiris; hush ye up, gods, that which a god speaketh with a god who is giving ear to a case of Divine Law!

(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.

(13) Now when these evil, devilish spirits (understand the centre of the genitrix) moved or boiled in God's Salitter, and made havock, or spoiled all therein, then there was nothing but stinging, burning, murdering, robbing, and a mere opposite or contrary will.

(4) Then they meditated on the udgîtha (Om) as the eye, but the Asuras pierced it with evil. Therefore we see both what is sightly and unsightly. For the eye is pierced by evil.

(23) Their eyes and ears are open and the snare is in front, Yet they fly into the snare with their own wings! Comparison of the divine decrees to something that is hidden, yet whose effects are seen. Behold that king's son clad in rags, With bare head and fallen into distress; Consumed by lusts and riotous living, Having sold all his clothes and substance; Having lost house and home, utterly disgraced, If he sees a pious man he cries, "O sir, Aid me, for the love of God;

(21) That He may bind him on the horns of a dilemma; For he says, 'Shall I do this or its reverse?' Also from God comes the preference of one alternative; 'Tis from God's impulsion that man chooses one of the two. If you desire sanity in this embarrassment, Take the cotton of evil suggestions from the mind's ear, That the heavenly voice from above may enter it, That you may understand that riddle of His, Then the mind's ear becomes the sensorium of inspiration; For what is this Divine voice but the inward voice?

(16) We ought not to surrender our ears to all who speak and write rashly. For cups also, which are taken hold of by many by the ears, are dirtied, and lose the ears; and besides, when they fall they are broken. In the same way also, those, who have polluted the pure hearing of faith by many trifles, at last becoming deaf to the truth, become useless and fall to the earth. It is not, then, without reason that we commanded boys to kiss their relations, holding them by the ears; indicating this, that the feeling of love is engendered by hearing. And "God," who is known to those who love, "is love," as "God," who by instruction is communicated to the faithful, "is faithful; " and we must be allied to Him by divine love: so that by like we may see like, hearing the word of truth guilelessly and purely, as children who obey us. And this was what he, whoever he was, indicated who wrote on the entrance to the temple at Epidaurus the inscription: "Pure he must be who goes within The incense-perfumed fane."

(6) Then they meditated on the udgîtha (Om) as the mind, but the Asuras pierced it with evil. Therefore we conceive both what should be conceived and what should not be conceived. For the mind is pierced by evil.

(10) In the Outer Circle, round about these Knowledge-Holders, innumerable bands of ddkinTs — ddkinTs of the eight places of cremation, ddkinTs of the four classes, ddkinTs of the three abodes, ddkinTs of the thirty holy-places and of the twenty-four places of pilgrimage — heroes, heroines, celestial warriors, and faith-protecting deities, male and female, each bedecked with the six bone-ornaments, having drums and thigh-bone trumpets, skull-timbrels, banners of gigantic human[-like] hides, human-hide canopies, human-hide bannerettes, fumes of human-fat incense, and innumerable [other] kinds of musical instruments, filling [with music] the whole world-systems and causing them to vibrate, to quake and tremble with sounds so mighty as to daze one's brain, and dancing various measures, will come to receive the faithful and punish the unfaithful.

(2) As unto those who are too reverential, Speaking in presence of superiors, Who drag no living utterance to their teeth, It me befell, that without perfect sound Began I: "My necessity, Madonna, You know, and that which thereunto is good." And she to me: "Of fear and bashfulness Henceforward I will have thee strip thyself, So that thou speak no more as one who dreams. Know that the vessel which the serpent broke Was, and is not; but let him who is guilty Think that God's vengeance does not fear a sop. Without an heir shall not for ever be The Eagle that left his plumes upon the car, Whence it became a monster, then a prey; For verily I see, and hence narrate it, The stars already near to bring the time, From every hindrance safe, and every bar, Within which a Five-hundred, Ten, and Five, One sent from God, shall slay the thievish woman And that same giant who is sinning with her. And peradventure my dark utterance, Like Themis and the Sphinx, may less persuade thee, Since, in their mode, it clouds the intellect;

(25) Would, then, that these heretics would learn and be set right by these notes, and turn to the sovereign God! But if, like the deaf serpents, they listen not to the song called new, though very old, may they be chastised by God, and undergo paternal admonitions previous to the Judgment, till they become ashamed and repent, but not rush through headlong unbelief, and precipitate themselves into judgment.

(51) "From hence, in the creation, good and evil are existed: I exhort the Reader to conceive our very deep sense aright, and not mistake or go astray here, but to read our other writings, where these things are sufficiently explained."] Of the great Sin, and contrary or opposite Will; and of the eternal Enmity against God of King Lucifer, together with his whole Host or Army.

(17) And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: for this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them, and their sins should be forgiven them.

(1) Darkness of hell, and of a night deprived Of every planet under a poor sky, As much as may be tenebrous with cloud, Ne'er made unto my sight so thick a veil, As did that smoke which there enveloped us, Nor to the feeling of so rough a texture; For not an eye it suffered to stay open; Whereat mine escort, faithful and sagacious, Drew near to me and offered me his shoulder. E'en as a blind man goes behind his guide, Lest he should wander, or should strike against Aught that may harm or peradventure kill him, So went I through the bitter and foul air, Listening unto my Leader, who said only, "Look that from me thou be not separated." Voices I heard, and every one appeared To supplicate for peace and misericord The Lamb of God who takes away our sins. Still "Agnus Dei" their exordium was; One word there was in all, and metre one, So that all harmony appeared among them. "Master," I said, "are spirits those I hear?" And he to me: "Thou apprehendest truly, And they the knot of anger go unloosing."

(5) My dear Mind, thou supposest thou art very sound, but thou art so beaten, that thou feelest thy Disease no more. Art thou not very near unto Death, how then canst thou account thyself to be sound? O my dear Soul, boast not of thy Soundness, thou liest fettered in heavy Bonds, yea in a very dark Dungeon; thou swimmest in a deep Water, which rises up to thy very Lips, and thou must continually expect Death. Besides, the Hunter is behind thee with a great Company of thy worst Enemies, whereby he draws thee continually down by his Chains into the horrible Deep, into the Abyss of Hell, and his Crew thrust thee on behind thee, and run upon thee on all Sides, yelling and hunting, as if they had the Hind they hunt after.

(23) Also when the Heathens should hear, that God would send this People, which he had brought out of Egypt with great Wonders [or Miracles,] among them to destroy them, that they should turn to God and depart from Covetousness, and enter into The Stars order their Government, Brotherly Love, therefore he gave them a long Time of Respite; as also to Israel (whom he fed from Heaven) for an Example, that one People should be an Example to the other, that there is and only evil, and seeing they did live in the Father' fierce Anger, therefore the Anger and Severity of God lusted also to devour them, because they continually kindled P it.

(40) And I heard the fourth voice fending off the Satans and forbidding them to come before the Lord of Spirits to accuse them who dwell on the earth.