[1] "A marshal is a ruler of the court and of the army under the
emperor, and should know how to command what ought to be done, as
those two poets knew what it was befitting to do in the world in
respect to moral and civil life."--Buti.

[2] Could no longer follow him distinctly.

[3] In the circling course around the mountain.

[4] Having found vain the hope of reaching the fruit.

[5] The tree of knowledge, in the Earthly Paradise: Canto XXXII.

[6] On the inner side, by the wall of the mountain.

[7] The centaurs.

[8] Judges, vii. 4-7.


Thus keeping close to one of the two borders, we passed by,
hearing of sins of gluttony followed, in sooth, by wretched
gains. Then going at large along the lonely road, full a thousand
steps and more had borne us onward, each of us in meditation
without a word. "Why go ye thus in thought, ye three alone?" said
a sudden voice; whereat I started as do terrified and timid
beasts. I lifted up my head to see who it might be, and never
were glass or metals seen so shining and ruddy in a furnace as
one I saw who said, "If it please you to mount up, here must a
turn be taken; this way he goes who wishes to go for peace." His
aspect had taken my sight from me, wherefore I turned me behind
my teachers like one who goes according as he hears.[1] And as,
harbinger of the dawn, the breeze of May stirs and smells sweet,
all impregnate with the herbage and with the flowers, such a wind
I felt strike upon the middle of my forehead, and clearly felt
the motion of the plumes which made mime perceive the odor of
ambrosia. And I heard said, "Blessed are they whom so much grace
illumines, that the love of taste inspires not in their breasts
too great desire, hungering always so far as is just."[2]

[1] Blinded for the instant by the dazzling brightness of the
angel,Dante drops behind his teachers, to follow them as one
guided by hearing only.

[2] "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after
righteousness."--Matthew, v.6.

Dante has already cited this Beatitude (Canto XXII.), applying it
to those who are purging themselves from the inordinate desire
for riches; he there omits the word "hunger," as here he omits
the "and thirst."



CANTO XXV. Ascent to the Seventh Ledge.--Discourse of Statius on
generation, the infusion of the Soul into the body, and the
corporeal semblance of Souls after death.--The Seventh Ledge: the
Lustful.--The mode of their Purification.


It was the hour in which the ascent allowed no delay; for the
meridian circle had been left by the Sun to the Bull, and by the
Night to the Scorpion;[1] wherefore as the man doth who, whatever
may appear to him, stops not, but goes on his way, if the goad of
necessity prick him, so did we enter through the gap, one before
the other, taking the stairway which by its narrowness unpairs
the climbers.

[1] Taurus follows on Aries, so that the hour indicated is about
2 P.M. The Night here means the part of the Heavens opposite to
the Sun.


And as the little stork that lifts its wing through will to fly,
and dares not abandon the nest, and down it drops, so was I, with
will to ask, kindled and quenched, coming even to the motion that
he makes who proposes to speak. Nor, though our going was swift,
did my sweet Father forbear, but he said, Discharge the bow of
speech which up to the iron thou hast drawn." Then I opened my
mouth confidently, and began, "How can one become thin, where the
need of nourishment is not felt?" "If thou hadst called to mind
how Meleager was consumed by time consuming of a brand this would
not be," he said, " so difficult to thee; and if thou hadst
thought, how at your quivering your image quivers within the
mirror, that which seems hard would seem easy to thee. But that
thou mayst to thy pleasure be inwardly at ease, lo, here is
Statius, and I call on him and pray that he be now the healer of
thy wounds." "If I explain to him the eternal view," replied
Statius, "where thou art present, let it excuse me that to thee I
cannot snake denial."[1]

[1] Here and elsewhere Statius seems to represent allegorically
human philosophy enlightened by Christian teaching, dealing with
questions of knowledge, not of faith.


Then he began, "If, son, thy mind regards and receives my words,
they will be. for thee a light unto the 'how,' which thou
askest.[1] The perfect blood which is never drunk by the thirsty
veins, but remains like the food which thou removest from time


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