in order to possess the mind, all united would seem naught
compared to the divine pleasure which shone upon me when I turned
me to her smiling face. And the virtue with which the look
indulged me, tore me from the fair nest of Leda,[1] and impelled
me to the swiftest heaven.[2]

[1] From Gemini, the constellation of Castor and Pollux, the twin
sons of Leda.

[2] The Primum Mobile, or Crystalline Heaven.


Its parts, most living and lofty, are so uniform that I cannot
tell which of them Beatrice chose for a place for me. But she,
who saw my desire, began, smiling so glad that God seemed to
rejoice in her countenance, "The nature of the world[1] which
quiets the centre, and moves all the rest around it, begins here
as from its, starting-point. And this heaven has no other Where
than the Divine Mind, in which the love that revolves it is
kindled, and the virtue which it rains down. Light and love
enclose it with one circle, even as this does the others, and of
that
cincture He who girds it is the sole Intelligence.[2] The motion
of this
heaven is not marked out by another, but the others are measured
by
this, even as ten by a half and by a fifth.[3] And how time can
hold its roots in such a flower-pot, and in the others its
leaves, may now be manifest to thee.

[1] The world of the revolving Heavens.

[2] The Angelic Intelligences move the lower Heavens, but of the
Empyrean God himself is the immediate governor.

[3] The reversal of magnitudes makes this image obscure. The
motion of the Crystalline Heaven, the swiftest of all, determines
the slower motions of the Heavens below it, and divides them; as
five and two divide ten. The fixed unit of time is the day which
is established by the revolution of the Primum Mobile.


"O covetousness,[1] which whelms mortals beneath thee, so that no
one has power to withdraw his eyes from out thy waves! Well.
blossoms the will in men, but the continual rain converts the
true plums
into wildings. Faith and innocence are found only in children;
then both
fly away ere yet the cheeks are covered. One, so long as he
stammers,
fasts, who afterward, when his tongue is loosed, devours whatever
food
under whatever moon; and one, while stammering, loves his mother
and
listens to her, who, when speech is perfect, desires then to see
her
buried. So the skin of the fair daughter of him who brings
morning and
leaves evening, white in its first aspect, becomes black.[2] Do
thou, in
order that thou make not marvel, reflect that on earth there is
no one
who governs; wherefore the human family is gone astray. But ere
January
be all un-wintered by that hundredth part which is down there
neglected,[3] these supernal circles shall so roar that the storm
which
is so long awaited shall turn the sterns round to where the prows
are, so
that the fleet shall run straight, and true fruit shall come
after the flower."

[1] The connection of the ideas presented in what precedes with
this denunciation of covetousness, or selfishness, is not at
first apparent. But the transition is not unnatural, from the
consideration of the Heaven which pours down Divine influence, to
the thought of the engrossment of men in the pursuit of their
selfish and transitory ends, in which they are blinded to
heavenly and eternal good.

[2] Both the order of the words and the meaning of this sentence
axe obscure.

[3] Before January falls in spring, owing to the lack of
correctness in the calendar, by which the year is lengthened by
about a day in each century. It is as if the poet said,--Before
a thousand years shall pass; meaning,--Within short while.



CANTO XXVIII. The Heavenly Hierarchy.

After she who imparadises my mind had disclosed the truth counter
to the present life of wretched mortals, as he, who is lighted by
a candle from behind, sees its flame in a mirror before he has it
in sight or in thought, and turns round to see if the glass tell
him the truth, and sees that it accords with it as the note with
its measure;[1] I thus my memory recollects that I did, looking
into the beautiful eyes, wherewith Love made the cord to ensnare
me.[2] And when I turned, and mine were touched by that which is


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