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the desire should be enkindled in us

       That essence to behold, wherein is seen

       How God and our own nature were united.

      There will be seen what we receive by faith,

       Not demonstrated, but self-evident

       In guise of the first truth that man believes.

      I made reply: "Madonna, as devoutly

       As most I can do I give thanks to Him

       Who has removed me from the mortal world.

      But tell me what the dusky spots may be

       Upon this body, which below on earth

       Make people tell that fabulous tale of Cain?"

      Somewhat she smiled; and then, "If the opinion

       Of mortals be erroneous," she said,

       "Where'er the key of sense doth not unlock,

      Certes, the shafts of wonder should not pierce thee

       Now, forasmuch as, following the senses,

       Thou seest that the reason has short wings.

      But tell me what thou think'st of it thyself."

       And I: "What seems to us up here diverse,

       Is caused, I think, by bodies rare and dense."

      And she: "Right truly shalt thou see immersed

       In error thy belief, if well thou hearest

       The argument that I shall make against it.

      Lights many the eighth sphere displays to you

       Which in their quality and quantity

       May noted be of aspects different.

      If this were caused by rare and dense alone,

       One only virtue would there be in all

       Or more or less diffused, or equally.

      Virtues diverse must be perforce the fruits

       Of formal principles; and these, save one,

       Of course would by thy reasoning be destroyed.

      Besides, if rarity were of this dimness

       The cause thou askest, either through and through

       This planet thus attenuate were of matter,

      Or else, as in a body is apportioned

       The fat and lean, so in like manner this

       Would in its volume interchange the leaves.

      Were it the former, in the sun's eclipse

       It would be manifest by the shining through

       Of light, as through aught tenuous interfused.

      This is not so; hence we must scan the other,

       And if it chance the other I demolish,

       Then falsified will thy opinion be.

      But if this rarity go not through and through,

       There needs must be a limit, beyond which

       Its contrary prevents the further passing,

      And thence the foreign radiance is reflected,

       Even as a colour cometh back from glass,

       The which behind itself concealeth lead.

      Now thou wilt say the sunbeam shows itself

       More dimly there than in the other parts,

       By being there reflected farther back.

      From this reply experiment will free thee

       If e'er thou try it, which is wont to be

       The fountain to the rivers of your arts.

      Three mirrors shalt thou take, and two remove

       Alike from thee, the other more remote

       Between the former two shall meet thine eyes.

      Turned towards these, cause that behind thy back

       Be placed a light, illuming the three mirrors

       And coming back to thee by all reflected.

      Though in its quantity be not so ample

       The image most remote, there shalt thou see

       How it perforce is equally resplendent.

      Now, as beneath the touches of warm rays

       Naked the subject of the snow remains

       Both of its former colour and its cold,

      Thee thus remaining in thy intellect,

       Will I inform with such a living light,

       That it shall tremble in its aspect to thee.

      Within the heaven of the divine repose

       Revolves a body, in whose virtue lies

       The being of whatever it contains.

      The following heaven, that has so many eyes,

       Divides this being by essences diverse,

       Distinguished from it, and by it contained.

      The other spheres, by various differences,

       All the distinctions which they have within them

       Dispose unto their ends and their effects.

      Thus do these organs of the world proceed,

       As thou perceivest now, from grade to grade;

       Since from above they take, and act beneath.

      Observe me well, how through this place I come

       Unto the truth thou wishest, that hereafter

       Thou mayst alone know how to keep the ford

      The power and motion of the holy spheres,

       As from the artisan the hammer's craft,

       Forth from the blessed motors must proceed.

      The heaven, which lights so manifold make fair,

       From the Intelligence profound, which turns it,

       The image takes, and makes of it a seal.

      And even as the soul within your dust

       Through members different and accommodated

       To faculties diverse expands itself,

      So likewise this Intelligence diffuses

       Its virtue multiplied among the stars.

       Itself revolving on its unity.

      Virtue diverse doth a diverse alloyage

       Make with the precious body that it quickens,

       In which, as life in you, it is combined.

      From the glad nature whence it is derived,

       The mingled virtue through the body shines,

       Even as gladness through the living pupil.

      From this proceeds whate'er from light to light

       Appeareth different, not from dense and rare:

       This is the formal principle that produces,

      According to its goodness, dark and bright."

      III. Piccarda Donati and the Empress Constance.

       Table of Contents

      That Sun, which erst with love my bosom warmed,

       Of beauteous truth had unto me discovered,

       By proving and

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