removed from the soul.


Ashes or earth dug out dry would be of one color with his
vestment, and from beneath that he drew two keys. One was of gold
and the other was of silver; first with the white and then with
the yellow he so did to the door, that I was content.[1]
"Whenever one of these keys fails, and turns not rightly in the
lock," said he to us, "this passage doth not open. More precious
is one[2] but the other requires much art and wit before it
unlocks, because it is the one that disentangles the knot. From
Peter I hold them; and he told me to err rather in opening than
in keeping shut, if but the people prostrate themselves at my
feet." Then he pushed the valve of the sacred gate, saying,
"Enter, but I give you warning that whoso looks behind returns
outside."[3] And when the pivots of that sacred portal, which are
of metal, sonorous and strong, were turned within their hinges,
Tarpeia roared not so loud nor showed herself so harsh, when the
good Metellus was taken from her, whereby she afterwards remained
lean.[4]

[1] The golden key is typical of the power to open, and the
silver of the knowledge to whom to open.

[2] The gold, more precious because the power of absolution was
purchased by the death of the Saviour.

[3] For he who returns to his sins loses the Divine Grace.

[4] This roaring of the gate may, perhaps, be intended to enforce
the last words of the angel, and may symbolize the voices of his
own sins as the sinner turns his back on them. When Caesar forced
the doors of the temple of Saturn on the Tarpeian rock, in order
to lay hands on the sacred treasure of Rome, he was resisted by
the tribune Metellus.


I turned away attentive to the first tone,[1] and it seemed to me
I heard "Te Deum laudamus"[2] in voices mingled with sweet sound.
That which I heard gave me just such an impression as we are wont
to receive when people stand singing with an organ, and the words
now are, now are not caught.

[1] The first sound within Purgatory.

[2] Words appropriate to the entrance of a sinner that repenteth.



CANTO X. First Ledge: the Proud.--Examples of Humility sculptured
on the Rock.

When we were within the threshold of the gate, which the souls'
wrong love[1] disuses, because it makes the crooked way seem
straight, I heard by its resounding that it was closed again.
And, if I had turned my eyes to it, what excuse would have been
befitting for the fault?

[1] It is Dante's doctrine that love is the motive of every act;
rightly directed, of good deeds; perverted, of evil. See Canto
XVII.


We were ascending through a cloven rock, which moved on one side
and on the other, even as the wave retreats and approaches. "Here
must be used a little art," began my Leader, "in keeping close,
now here, now there to the side which recedes."[1] And this made
our progress so slow that the waning disk of the moon regained
its bed to go to rest, before we had come forth from that
needle's eye. But when we were free and open above, where the
mountain backward withdraws,[2] I weary, and both uncertain of
our way, we stopped upon a level more solitary than roads through
deserts. The space from its edge, where it borders the void, to
the foot of the high bank which rises only, a human body would
measure in three lengths; and as far as my eye could stretch its
wings, now on the left and now on the right side, such did this
cornice seem to me. Thereon our feet had not yet moved when I
perceived that bank round about, which, being perpendicular,
allowed no ascent, to be of white marble and adorned with such
carvings, that not Polycletus merely but Nature would be put to
shame there.

[1] The path was a narrow, steep zigzag, which, as it receded on
one side and the other, afforded the better foothold.

[2] Leaving an open space, the first ledge of Purgatory.


The Angel who came to earth with the announcement of the peace,
wept for for many years, which opened Heaven from its long
interdict, appeared before us here carved in a sweet attitude so
truly that he did not seem an image that is silent. One would
have sworn that he was saying "Ave;" for there was she imaged who
turned the key to open the exalted love. And in her action she
had these words impressed, "Ecce ancilla Dei!"[1] as exactly as a
shape is sealed in wax.

[1] "Behold the handmaid of the Lord!"




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