V. Discourse of Beatrice on Vows and Compensations. Ascent to the Second Heaven, Mercury: Spirits who for the Love of Fame achieved great Deeds.

       Table of Contents

      "If in the heat of love I flame upon thee

       Beyond the measure that on earth is seen,

       So that the valour of thine eyes I vanquish,

      Marvel thou not thereat; for this proceeds

       From perfect sight, which as it apprehends

       To the good apprehended moves its feet.

      Well I perceive how is already shining

       Into thine intellect the eternal light,

       That only seen enkindles always love;

      And if some other thing your love seduce,

       'Tis nothing but a vestige of the same,

       Ill understood, which there is shining through.

      Thou fain wouldst know if with another service

       For broken vow can such return be made

       As to secure the soul from further claim."

      This Canto thus did Beatrice begin;

       And, as a man who breaks not off his speech,

       Continued thus her holy argument:

      "The greatest gift that in his largess God

       Creating made, and unto his own goodness

       Nearest conformed, and that which he doth prize

      Most highly, is the freedom of the will,

       Wherewith the creatures of intelligence

       Both all and only were and are endowed.

      Now wilt thou see, if thence thou reasonest,

       The high worth of a vow, if it he made

       So that when thou consentest God consents:

      For, closing between God and man the compact,

       A sacrifice is of this treasure made,

       Such as I say, and made by its own act.

      What can be rendered then as compensation?

       Think'st thou to make good use of what thou'st offered,

       With gains ill gotten thou wouldst do good deed.

      Now art thou certain of the greater point;

       But because Holy Church in this dispenses,

       Which seems against the truth which I have shown thee,

      Behoves thee still to sit awhile at table,

       Because the solid food which thou hast taken

       Requireth further aid for thy digestion.

      Open thy mind to that which I reveal,

       And fix it there within; for 'tis not knowledge,

       The having heard without retaining it.

      In the essence of this sacrifice two things

       Convene together; and the one is that

       Of which 'tis made, the other is the agreement.

      This last for evermore is cancelled not

       Unless complied with, and concerning this

       With such precision has above been spoken.

      Therefore it was enjoined upon the Hebrews

       To offer still, though sometimes what was offered

       Might be commuted, as thou ought'st to know.

      The other, which is known to thee as matter,

       May well indeed be such that one errs not

       If it for other matter be exchanged.

      But let none shift the burden on his shoulder

       At his arbitrament, without the turning

       Both of the white and of the yellow key;

      And every permutation deem as foolish,

       If in the substitute the thing relinquished,

       As the four is in six, be not contained.

      Therefore whatever thing has so great weight

       In value that it drags down every balance,

       Cannot be satisfied with other spending.

      Let mortals never take a vow in jest;

       Be faithful and not blind in doing that,

       As Jephthah was in his first offering,

      Whom more beseemed to say, 'I have done wrong,

       Than to do worse by keeping; and as foolish