descended. I heard "Adam!" murmured by all:[2] then they circled
a plant despoiled of flowers and of other leafage on every
bough.[3] Its branches, which so much the wider spread the higher
up they are,[4] would be wondered at for height by the Indians in
their woods.

[1] Its pole.

[2] In reproach of him who had in disobedience tasted of the
fruit of this tree.

[3] After the sin of Adam the plant was despoiled of virtue till
the coming of Christ.

[4] The branches of the tree of knowledge spread widest as they
are nearest to the Divine Source of truth.


"Blessed art thou, Griffon, that thou dost not break off with thy
beak of this wood sweet to the taste, since the belly is ill
racked thereby."[1] Thus around the sturdy tree the others cried;
and the animal of two natures: "So is preserved the seed of all
righteousness."[2] And turning to the pole that he had drawn, he
dragged it to the foot of the widowed trunk, and that which was
of it[3] he left bound to it.

[1] "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so
by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous."--Romans,
v. 19.

[2] "That as sin had reigned unto deaths, even so might grace
reign through righteousness unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ,
our Lord."--Id., v. 21.

[3] This pole, the mystic type of the cross of Christ, supposed
to have been made of the wood of this tree.


As our plants, when the great light falls downward mingled with
that which shines behind the celestial Carp,[1] become swollen,
and then renew themselves, each in its own color, ere the sun
yoke his coursers under another star, so disclosing a color less
than of roses and more than of violets, the plant renewed itself,
which first had its boughs so bare.[2] I did not understand the
hymn, and it is not sung here,[3] which that folk then sang, nor
did I hear the melody to the end.

[1] In this spring, when the Sun is in Aries, the sign which
follows that of the Pisces here termed the Carp.

[2] This tree, after the death of Christ, still remains this
symbol of the knowledge of good and of evil, as well as this sign
of obedience to the Divine Will. Its renewal with flowers and
foliage seems to he the image at once of the revelation of Divine
truth through Christ, and of his obedience unto death.

[3] On earth.


If I could portray how the pitiless eyes[1] sank to slumber,
while hearing of Syrinx, the eyes to which too much watching cost
so dear, hike a painter who paints from a model I would depict
how I fell asleep; but whoso would, let him be one who can
picture slumber well.[2] Therefore I pass on to when I awoke, and
say that a splendor rent for me the veil of sleep, and a call,
"Arise, what doest thou?"

[1] The hundred eyes of Argus, who, when watching Io, fell asleep
while listening to the tale of the loves of Pan and Syrinx, and
was then slain by Mercury.

[2] The sleep of Dante may signify the impotency of human reason
to explain the mysteries of redemption.


As, to see some of the flowerets of the apple-tree[1] which makes
the Angels greedy of its fruit,[2] and makes perpetual bridal
feasts in Heaven,[3] Peter and John and James were led,[4] and
being overcome, came to themselves at the word by which greater
slumbers[5] were broken, and saw their band diminished alike by
Moses and Elias, and the raiment of their Master changed, so I
came to myself, and saw that compassionate one standing above me,
who first had been conductress of my steps along the stream; and
all in doubt I said, "Where is Beatrice?" And she, "Behold her
under the new leafage sitting upon its root. Behold the company
that surrounds her; the rest are going on high behind the
griffon, with sweeter song and more profound."[6] And if her
speech was more diffuse I know not, because already in my eyes
was she who from attending to aught else had closed me in. Alone
she was sitting upon the bare ground, like a guard left there of
the chariot which I had seen bound by the biform animal. In a
circle the seven Nymphs were making of themselves an enclosure
for her, with those lights in their hands that are secure from
Aquilo and from Auster.[7]

[1] "As the apple-tree among the trees of the wood, so is my
beloved among the suns."--The Song of Solomon, ii. 3.

[2] The full glory of Christ in Heaven.



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