church that dominates her the well-guided[2] city above
Rubaconte,[3] the bold flight of the ascent is broken by the
stairs, which were made in an age when the record and the stave
were secure,[4] in like manner, the bank which falls here very
steeply from the next round is slackened; but on this side and
that the high rock grazes.[5] As we turned our persons thither,
voices sang "Beati pauperes spiritu"[6] in such wise that speech
could not tell it. Ah, how different are these passes from those
of Hell! for here through songs one enters, and there below
through fierce lamentings.

[1] The hill of San Miniato, above Florence.

[2] Ironical.

[3] The upper bridge at Florence across the Arno, named after
Messer Rubaconte di Mandella, podesta of Florence, who laid the
first stone of it in 1237; now called the Ponte alle Grazie,
after a little chapel built upon it in 1471, and dedicated to Our
Lady of Grace.

[4] In the good old time when men were honest. In 1299 one
Messer Niccola Acciaioli, in order to conceal a fraudulent
transaction, had a leaf torn out from the public notorial record;
and about the same time an officer in charge of the revenue from
salt, for the sake of private gain, measured the salt he received
with an honest measure, but that which he sold with a measure
diminished by the removal of a stave.

[5] The stairway is so narrow.

[6] "Blessed are the poor in spirit." As Dante passes from each
round of Purgatory, an angel removes the P which denotes the
special sin there purged away. And the removal is accompanied
with the words of one of the Beatitudes.


Now we were mounting up over the holy stairs, and it seemed to me
I was far more light than I had seemed on the plain before.
Whereon I, "Master, say, what heavy thing has been lifted from
me, so that almost no weariness is felt by me as I go on?" He
answered, "When the P's that almost extinct[1] still remain on
thy countenance shall be, as one is, quite erased, thy feet will
be so conquered by good will that not only they will not feel
fatigue, but it will be delight to them to be urged up." Then I
did like those who are going with something on their head,
unknown by them unless the signs of others make them suspect;
wherefore the hand assists to ascertain, and seeks and finds, and
performs that office which cannot be accomplished by the sight;
and with the fingers of my right hand outspread, I found only six
those letters which he of the keys had encised upon my temples:
looking at which my Leader smiled.

[1] Almost extinct, because, as St. Thomas Aquinas says, "Pride
by which we are chiefly turned from God is the first and the
origin of all sins." He adds, "Pride is said to be the beginning
of every sin, not because every single sin has its source in
pride, but because every kind of sin is born of pride." Summa
Theol., II. 2, quaest. 162, art. 7.



CANTO XIII. Second Ledge the Envious.--Examples of Love.--The
Shades in haircloth, and with sealed eyes.--Sapia of Siena.


We were at the top of the stairway, where the mountain, ascent of
which frees one from ill, is the second time cut back. There a
cornice binds the hill round about, in like manner as the first,
except that its arc bends more quickly. No shadow is there, nor
mark which is apparent [1] so that the bank appears smooth and so
the path, with the livid color of the stone.

[1] No sculptured or engraved scenes.


"If to enquire one waits here for people," said the Poet, "I fear
that perhaps our choice will have too much delay." Then he set
his eyes fixedly upon the sun, made of his right side the centre
for his movement, and turned the left part of himself. "O sweet
light, with confidence in which I enter on the new road, do thou
lead us on it," he said, "as there is need for leading here
within. Thou warmest the world, thou shinest upon it; if other
reason prompt not to the contrary, thy rays ought ever to be
guides."

As far as here on earth is counted for a mile, so far had we now
gone there, in little time because of ready will; and towards us
were heard to fly, not however seen, spirits uttering courteous
invitations to the table of love. The first voice that passed
flying, "Virum non habent,"[1] loudly said, and went on behind
us reiterating it. And before it had become quite inaudible
through distance, another passed by, crying, "I am Orestes," [2]
and also did not stay. "O Father," said I, "what voices are
these?" and even as I was asking, lo! the third, saying, "Love
them from whom ye have had wrong." And the good Master: "This
circle scourges the sin of envy, and therefore from love are
drawn the cords of the scourge. The curb must be of the opposite
sound; I think that thou wilt hear it before thou arrivest at the
pass of pardon.[3] But fix thine eyes very fixedly through the


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