[5] "Since good, the more
Communicated, the more abundant grows."
Milton, Paradise Lost, v. 73.

[6] "True love in this differs from gold and clay,
That to divide is not to take away."--Shelley, Epipsychidion.

[7] The pain of contrition.


As I was about to say "Thou satisfiest me," I saw myself arrived
on the next round,[1] so that my eager eyes made me silent. There
it seemed to me I was of a sudden rapt in an ecstatic vision, and
saw many persons in a temple, and a lady at the entrance, with
the sweet action of a mother, saying, "My son, why hast thou done
thus toward us? Lo, sorrowing, thy father and I were seeking
thee;" and when here she was silent, that which first appeared,
disappeared.

[1] Where the sin of anger is expiated.


Then appeared to me another, with those waters down along her
cheeks which grief distils when it springs from great despite
toward others, and she was saying, "If thou art lord of the city
about whose name was such great strife among the gods, and whence
every science sparkles forth, avenge thyself on those audacious
arms, that have embraced our daughter, O Pisistratus." And the
lord appeared to me, benign and mild, to answer her, with
temperate look, "What shall we do to him who desires ill for us,
if he who loves us is by us condemned?"[1]

[1] Dante translated this story from Valerius Maximus, Facta et
dicta mem., vi. 1.


Then I saw people kindled with fire of wrath, killing a youth
with stones, loudly crying to each other only, "Slay, slay." And
I saw him bowed by death, which now was weighing on him, toward
the ground, but in such great strife he ever made of his eyes
gates for heaven, praying to the high Lord, that He would pardon
his persecutors, with that aspect which unlocks pity.[1]

[1] See Acts, vii. 55-60.


When my mind returned outwardly to the things which outside of it
are true, I recognized my not false errors. My Leader, who could
see me do like a man who looses himself from slumber, said,
"What ails thee, that thou canst not support thyself? but art
come more than a half league veiling thine eyes, and with thy
legs staggering like one whom wine or slumber bends." "O sweet
Father mine, if thou harkenest to me I will tell thee," said I,
"what appeared to me when my legs were thus taken from me." And
he, "If thou hadst a hundred masks upon thy face, thy thoughts
howsoever small would not be hidden from me. That which thou hast
seen was in order that thou excuse not thyself from opening thy
heart to the waters of peace which are poured forth from the
eternal fountain. I did not ask, 'What ails thee?' for the reason
that he does who looks only with the eye which hath no seeing
when the body lies inanimate; but I asked, in order to give vigor
to the foot; thus it behoves to spur the sluggards, slow to use
their wakefulness when it returns."

We were going on through the vesper time, forward intent so far
as the eyes could reach against the bright evening rays; when,
lo, little by little, a smoke came toward us, dark as night; iior
was there place to shelter ourselves from it. This took from us
our eyes and the pure air.



CANTO XVI. Third Ledge the Wrathful.--Marco Lombardo.--His
discourse on Free Will, and the Corruption of the World.


Gloom of hell, or of night deprived of every planet, under a
barren sky, obscured by clouds as much as it can be, never made
so thick a veil to my sight nor to my feeling so harsh of tissue
as that smoke which covered us there; so that my eye endured not
to stay open[1] wherefore my sage and trusty Escort drew to my
side and offered me his shoulder. Even as a blind man goes behind
his guide, in order not to stray, and not to butt against
anything that may hurt or perhaps kill him, I went along, through
the bitter and foul air, listening to my Leader, who was ever
saying, "Take care that thou be not cut off from me."

[1] The gloom and the smoke symbolize the effects of anger on the
soul.


I heard voices, and each appeared to be praying for peace and
mercy to the Lamb of God that taketh sins away. Only "Agnus
Dei[1] were their exordiums: one word there was in all, and one
measure; so that among them seemed entire concord. "Are these
spirits, Master, that I hear?" said I. And he to me, "Thou
apprehendest truly; and they go loosening the knot of anger."
"Now who art thou that cleavest our smoke, and yet dost speak of
us even as if thou didst still divide the time by calends?" [2]
Thus by one voice was said: whereon my Master said, "Reply, and


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