Sabellius and Arius, too, the band

Of fools, who were as swords to Scripture's sense,
To make its clear looks twist at their command.

Nor let men now with caution due dispense

In judging, as he does who ere the hour
Of ripeness counts the harvest's opulence.

For I have seen, through winter's frost and shower,
The briar appear all stiff and hard to see,
Then on its summit bear its roseate flower;

And I have seen a ship drive fast and free

O'er the wide waves in safety all the way,
And at the harbour's entrance shipwrecked be.

Let not Dame Berta or Ser Martin say,

Seeing one man rob, another sacrifice,

They see the doom of God's great judgment-day;

For one may fall, the other too may rise."

130

135

140

127 The comparison may be either (1) that, like swords, they hacked and mutilated the fair face of truth, or (2) that they reflected that truth, as a sword reflects the features of a man, dimly and distortedly. Of these, (2) seems preferable.

130 A warning like that of C. xix. 97, xx. 133, against haste in judging, partly an echo of 1 Cor. iv. 5, partly of Matt. xiii. 29. The two examples of premature judgment are chosen as against hasty condemnation or hasty praise. We may condemn a character as wild and hard which will afterwards blossom into beauty. We may think that a man has almost finished his voyage across the sea of life, and yet he may at last make shipwreck. Was Dante thinking of himself in the first case, of Celestine V. or Brunetto Latini in the second? We are reminded of the words with which Bunyan ends his Pilgrim's Progress: “I saw that there was a way to Hell from the gates of Heaven as well as from the City of Destruction."

"

139 The two names are taken as among the most common to represent the self-confidence of the ignorant, the "unlearned" of 1 Cor. xiv. 16. "Martin is used in the same way in Conv. 1. 8. Such persons form their judgments from single acts without taking into account the infinite complexity of motives and influence. They see the robber, and condemn; they see the offering, and applaud. They do not take into account that the robber may repent at the last moment; that the offering may be that of a hypocrite, or a self-righteous formalist. The lesson which Dante draws is the old lesson "Judge nothing before the time" (1 Cor. iv. 5): never to despair, however low the sinner may have fallen; not to be high-minded, but fear, knowing that even the grey-haired saint may prove a wanderer from the fold.

CANTO XIV.

The Fifth Heaven, of Mars-The Starry Cross-The Souls of Martyrs and Crusaders.

FROM rim to centre, centre to the rim,

The water moves itself in vessel round,

As struck from out or inside of the brim.
Within my thoughts dropt suddenly, I found

This that I speak of, when the glorious shade
Of great St. Thomas no more uttered sound,
Through the resemblance to my mind conveyed,

'Twixt his discourse and that of Beatrice,
Who after him thus her beginning made:
"This man hath need, nor yet with voice applies

To tell it, no, nor even in his mind,

To reach the root where yet one more truth lies;
Tell if the light wherewith enflowered we find

Your substance will remain with you for aye
As now it is, while endless ages wind;
And if it so remain, then after say,

How, when once more ye visible are made,
It shall not vex your eyesight with its ray."

As now and then, by joy's excess betrayed,

They lift their voice who circling dance along,
And the whole game with greater mirth is played,

Thus at that prayer, so earnest and so strong,

The circles of the blessed showed new joy

In their quick whirling and their wondrous song.

Whoso at thought of dying feels annoy

To live above, be sure he doth not see

The eternal shower of gladness they enjoy.

10

15

20

25

1 The words indicate the minute observer of phænomena (C. ii. 100-105) watching the vibrations of the water in a basin and endeavouring to discover the law which governs them. The voice of Aquinas came from the circumference to the centre; that of Beatrice from the centre to the circumference.

12 Beatrice becomes the interpreter of another question in Dante's mind, as yet not uttered in words, scarcely even formulated in thought. Would the light which now hid form and features from Dante's gaze continue after the Resurrection and for ever? and if so, how could the eyes of the resurrection body look on them without injury? As in other instances, question and answer are both versified from Aquinas (Summ. iii. 85, 1).

19 The rejoicing of the souls in Paradise is likened to the dances, at once vocal and pantomimic, of Italy, in which every varying emotion found expression.

25 The thought seems to rise out of the memory of what his own sorrow had been at the

The ever-living One and Two and Three,

The ever-reigning Three and Two and One,
Boundless Himself, bounds all things else that be—

30

Three times to Him due praise by each was done,
Of those blest spirits, with such melody,
Full guerdon 'twere for all that merit won.
And in the light that shone most gloriously
In the near ring I heard as modest strain
As Gabriel's when to Mary he drew nigh,
Answer: "As long as with us shall remain

The joy of Paradise, so long our love
Such vesture radiant round us shall retain.
Its brightness doth our ardour's measure prove,

The ardour comes from vision, and that grows,
As it has grace its natural strength above.
And when reclothed with flesh our body shows,

Glorious and holy, then our being's bliss
Will be more sweet as it completeness knows;

And so will grow and brighten in us this,

The light the Chief Good gives of His free grace,
The light by which we see Him as He is.

And thus that vision needs must grow apace,

35

40

45

Grow too the ardour kindled by that sight;

Grow too the brightness shed from it through space.

But as a coal that giveth flame and light,

Yet these by its white heat surpasseth so,

That its own aspect still maintains its right,

50

death of Beatrice (Canz. v. vi.) Had he rightly judged, he would have rejoiced instead of lamenting at the death of any whose life gave good grounds for hoping, as hers did, that they were meet for Paradise.

30 An echo of Purg. xi. 1 and Conv. iv. 9. Looking to Dante's constant reference to the services of the Latin Church, the words were probably meant to refer to the Ter-Sanctus, or to the yet more familar Doxology.

34 The light which speaks is identified by C. x. 109 as the soul of Solomon, the author, not only of Proverbs or Ecclesiastes, but also of the Song of Songs, in which the medieval mystics had seen a revelation of the joys of Paradise. Comp. Purg. xxx. 10. Possibly, also, as Butler suggests, Dante may have thought of him, as most mediaval scholars did, as the author of the Book of Wisdom.

37 The answer is that the glory with which the saints are clothed comes from their love, and their love from the beatific vision, and their vision from the grace of God-"supereffluent grace," as Ken would have called it-added to the merit which each had gained by his personal holiness. It will, therefore, be eternal, and, in accordance with the doctrine of H. vi. 106, it will be increased when the soul is clothed again with its spiritual body. And that body will have organs of its own, stronger and more perfect than those of the natural body, and will therefore be able to bear what these shrink from.

So shall the glory that doth round us show

Yield in its radiance to the fleshly frame
Which now the earth hides sepulchred below;
Nor shall we wearied grow with that bright flame,
For all our body's organs will be strong

For every object that delights the same."
So quick and eager in their burst of song,

With loud Amen, seemed each ring of the choirs,
They seemed for their dead bodies much to long ;
Not for themselves alone were their desires,

Perchance, but mothers, fathers, others, dear,
Ere yet they shone among the eternal fires.
And lo! all round, with equal brightness clear,
A glory shone, the former light above,
As when the horizon's glow doth reappear.

And, as when early eve begins to move,

New stars are seen in the bright firmament,
And whether true or false we scarce can prove,

So then new forms of being did present

Themselves to me, and made an outer ring
That far beyond those other circles went.

O Holy Spirit's true illumining!

How sudden on mine eyes its burning light

So poured, that they shrank back in suffering!

But Beatrice then so wondrous bright

With smiles appeared, that with what else was seen,
My mind must leave it as beyond its might.

62 The teaching of Solomon is confirmed by the "Amen" (Dante uses the popular Amme, still common in Tuscany, into which the Hebrew word had glided).

64 The perverse ingenuity of commentators has inferred from the absence of any relations except father and mother that he, for his part, did not desire to meet his wife in Paradise. My own conclusion is just the opposite. The other "dear ones," both here and in C. xvii. 55, seem to me expressly intended to include both her and her children.

70 A third circle gathers round the other two, but we are not told of whom it consists. They are probably brought in, as it were, to complete the triplicity of those who sing the praises of the Trinity in unity (1. 28). Readers of the Christian Year will be reminded by 71 of the lines

This is the last vision in the sphere of the sun. From this-Beatrice increasing in beauty as she rises-they pass to the sphere of Mars, which is recognised, as on earth, by its red light, and Dante offers directly the holocaust of his praise.

Anon mine eyes, restored to vision keen,

Looked up, and now I saw we were transferred,

I and my Lady, to bliss more serene.
Well saw I we a higher clime had neared

By the full glowing smile of that bright star,
Which ruddier than its wont to me appeared.
With all my heart, and with the words that are
The same for all men, I made sacrifice,
Meet for that last new grace so passing rare.
Nor from my breast the glow had ceased to rise
Of that same holocaust, before I knew
That offering had found favour in God's eyes;
For with such brightness and such roseate hue
Splendours I saw in two such radiant lines,
I cried, "O Elios, here thy work I view !"
As, marked by less and greater starry signs,

The Galaxy, the world's great poles between,
Perplexing sages, in its whiteness shines,
Thus constellate in depths of Mars' bright sheen,

Those rays the venerable sign did make,
Which, where four quadrants intersect, is seen.
Here skill and power 'neath memory's burden break,
For on that cross, all flashing, shone the Christ,
So that I know not what fit type to take;
But whoso takes his cross and follows Christ

Will pardon me for what I leave unsaid,

Seeing in that sheen the levin-flash of Christ.

85

90

95

100

105

96 The "Elios" has been the crux of commentators. Did Dante mean it for the Greek Helios (Sun) or for the Hebrew Elion (=the Most High), or was it an echo from the "Eli, Eli," which he found in Matt. xxvii. 46 C. xxvi. 134-136 seems in favour of the last conjecture. He was, as we have seen, fond, as we should say, of "airing" his Hebrew (C. vii. 1-3; H. vii. 1).

The

99 The Milky Way (Met. i. 168) was, with Dante, as with other medieval students of science, one of the problems which he could not solve. In Conv. ii. 15 he enumerates the various thoughts that had gathered round it, from the story of Phaethon, and the Pythagorean view that the sun had once deviated from its course and left its pathway of brightness, to the popular belief which connected it somehow with St. James of Compostella. lights which he saw formed a cross within the circumference of a circle, and he recognised the symbol of the Christ. It is noteworthy that in Conv. ii. 14 he describes a luminous cross as having appeared near Mars in Florence. Possibly this was the comet mentioned by Vill viii. 48 as having appeared in September 1301 (Butl.) Popular superstition looked on it as presaging the coming of Charles of Valois. The cross, it will be noted, was after the Greek pattern, such as that with which early Byzantine and Italian art was familiar in the aureole of our Lord, as distinguishing Him from the saints.

106 He who follows Christ will know His incomparable preciousness, and will, therefore, forgive the poet for not venturing on a comparison. As a rhyme unto itself, Cristo again stands in the original as in the translation. C. xii. 71-75, xix. 104-108, xxxii. 83-87.

VOL. II.

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