Not for our pace, though rapid it might be, My father sweet forbore, but said: "Let fly And I began: "How can one meagre grow There where the need of nutriment applies not?' "If thou wouldst call to mind how Meleager Was wasted by the wasting of a brand, This would not," said he, "be to thee so sour; And wouldst thou think how at each tremulous motion Trembles within a mirror your own image; 20 25 That which seems hard would mellow seem to thee. But that thou mayst content thee in thy wish Responded Statius, "where thou present art, Thy mind doth contemplate and doth receive, Into the thirsty veins, and which remaineth Which to be changed to them goes through the veins. Takes in the heart for all the human members Virtue informative, as being that Again digest, descends it where 'tis better Silent to be than say; and then drops thence Upon another's blood in natural vase. There one together with the other mingles, By reason of the perfect place it springs from ; And being conjoined, begins to operate, What for its matter it had made consistent. The active virtue, being made a soul As of a plant, (in so far different, This on the way is, that arrived already,) Then works so much, that now it moves and feels The virtue from the generator's heart, Where nature is intent on all the members. But how from animal it man becomes Thou dost not see as yet; this is a point So far, that in his doctrine separate He made the soul from possible intellect, Into its substance, and becomes one soul, Behold the sun's heat, which becometh wine, It separates from the flesh, and virtually The other faculties are voiceless all; The memory, the intelligence, and the will Without a pause it falleth of itself In marvellous way on one shore or the other; Soon as the place there circumscribeth it, The virtue informative rays round about, And even as the air, when full of rain, By alien rays that are therein reflected, Which followeth the fire where'er it shifts, Thence is it that we form the tears and sighs, According as impress us our desires And other affections, so the shade is shaped, Had we arrived, and to the right hand turned, And one by one; and I did fear the fire Of the great burning chanted then I heard, Wherefore I looked, to my own steps and theirs Aloud they shouted, "Virum non cognosco;" Diana ran, and drove forth Helice They shouted, and the husbands who were chaste, And I believe that them this mode suffices, CANTO XXVI. WHILE on the brink thus one before the other We went upon our way, oft the good Master Said: "Take thou heed! suffice it that I warn thee." On the right shoulder smote me now the sun, 5 And with my shadow did I make the flame Appear more red; and even to such a sign Shades saw I many, as they went, give heed. This was the cause that gave them a beginning To speak of me; and to themselves began they To say: "That seems not a factitious body!" Then towards me, as far as they could come, Came certain of them, always with regard Not to step forth where they would not be burned. "O thou who goest, not from being slower But reverent perhaps, behind the others, Answer me, who in thirst and fire am burning. Nor to me only is thine answer needful; For all of these have greater thirst for it A wall unto the sun, as if thou hadst not There came a people face to face with these, There see I hastening upon either side Each of the shades, and kissing one another Muzzle to muzzle one ant meets another No sooner is the friendly greeting ended, Or ever the first footstep passes onward, Might fly in part, and part towards the sands, One folk is going, and the other coming, And weeping they return to their first songs, And to the cry that most befitteth them; And close to me approached, even as before, The very same who had entreated me, Attent to listen in their countenance. ΙΟ 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 I, who their inclination twice had seen, Began: "O souls secure in the possession, My members upon earth, but here are with me I go up here to be no longer blind; A Lady is above, who wins this grace, Whereby the mortal through your world I bring. But as your greatest longing satisfied May soon become, so that the Heaven may house you Tell me, that I again in books may write it, Who are you, and what is that multitude The mountaineer, and staring round is dumb, But when they of their stupor were disburdened, He recommenced who first had questioned us, Themselves reproving, even as thou hast heard, But because we observed not human law, In our opprobrium by us is read, When we part company, the name of her Now knowest thou our acts, and what our crime was ; Thy wish to know me shall in sooth be granted; The same that in the sadness of Lycurgus Two sons became, their mother re-beholding, |