[1] Psalm xcii. 4. "Delectasti me, Domine, in factura tua, et in
operibus mannuum tuarum exultabo." "For thou, Lord, hast made me
glad through thy work; I will triumph in the works of thy hands."


"The supreme Good, which itself alone is pleasing to itself, made
man good, and for good, and gave this place for earnest to him of
eternal peace. Through his own default he dwelt here little
while; through his own default to tears and to toil he changed
honest laughter and sweet play. In order that the disturbance,
which the exhalations of the water and of the earth (which follow
so far as they can the heat) produce below, might not make any
war on man, this mountain rose so high toward heaven, and is free
from them from the point where it is locked in.[1] Now because
the whole air revolves in circuit with the primal revolution,[2]
if its circle be not broken by some projection, upon this height,
which is wholly disengaged in the living air, this motion
strikes, and makes the wood, since it is dense, resound; and the
plant being struck hath such power that with its virtue it
impregnates the breeze, and this then in its whirling scatters it
around: and the rest of the earth, according as it is fit in
itself, or through its sky, conceives and brings forth divers
trees of divers virtues. It should not seem a marvel then on
earth, this being heard, when some plant, without manifest seed,
there takes hold. And thou must know that the holy plain where
thou art is full of every seed, and has fruit in it which yonder
is not gathered. The water which thou seest rises not from a vein
restored by vapor which the frost condenses, like a stream that
gains and loses breath, but it issues from a fountain constant
and sure, which by the will of God regains as much as, open on
two sides, it pours forth. On this side it descends with virtue
that takes from one the memory of sin; on the other it restores
that of every good deed. Here Lethe, so on the other side Eunoe
it is called; and it works not if first it be not tasted on this
side and on that. To all other savors this is superior.

[1] Above the level of the gate through which Purgatory is
entered, as Statius has already explained (Canto XXI), the vapors
of earth do not rise.

[2] With the movement given to it by the motions of the heavens.


"And, though thy thirst may be fully sated even if I disclose no
more to thee, I will yet give thee a corollary for grace; nor do
I think my speech may be less dear to thee, if beyond promise
it enlarge itself with thee. Those who in ancient time told in
poesy of the Age of Gold, and of its happy state, perchance upon
Parnassus dreamed of this place: here was the root of mankind
innocent; here is always spring, and every fruit; this is the
nectar of which each tells."

I turned me back then wholly to my Poets, and saw that with a
smile they had heard the last sentence; then to the beautiful
Lady I turned my face.


CANTO XXIX. The Earthly Paradise.--Mystic Procession or Triumph
of the Church.

Singing like a lady enamored, she, at the ending of her words,
continued: "Beati, quorum tecta sunt peccata;"[1] and, like
nymphs who were wont to go solitary through the sylvan shades,
this one desiring to see and that to avoid the sun, she moved on
then counter to the stream, going up along the bank, and I at
even pace with her, following her little step with little. Of her
steps and mine were not a hundred, when the banks both like gave
a turn, in such wise that toward the east I faced again. Nor thus
had our way been long, when the lady wholly turned round to me,
saying, "My brother, look and listen." And lo! a sudden lustre
ran from all quarters through the great forest, so that it put me
in suspect of lightning. But because the lightning ceases even as
it comes, and this, hasting, became more and more resplendent, in
my thought I said, "What thing is this?" And a sweet melody ran
through the luminous air; whereupon a righteous zeal caused me to
blame the temerity of Eve, that, there, where time earth and the
heavens were obedient, the woman only, and but just now formed,
did not endure to stay under any veil; under which if she had
devoutly stayed I should have tasted those ineffable delights
before, and for a longer time. While I was going on and such
first fruits of the eternal pleasure, all enrapt, and still
desirous of more joys, in front of us the air under the green
branches became like a blazing fire, and the sweet sound was now
heard as a song.

[1] "Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven."--Psalm
xxxii. 1.


O Virgins sacrosanct, if ever hunger, cold, or vigils I have
endured for you, time occasion spurs me that I claim reward
therefor. Now it behoves that Helicon pour forth for me, and
Urania aid me with her choir to put in verse things difficult to
think.

A little further on, the long tract of space which was still
between us and them presented falsely what seemed seven trees of
gold. But when I had come so near to them that the common object,
which deceives the sense,[1] lost not through distance any of its


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