Free is it here from every permutation;

What from itself heaven in itself receiveth

Can be of this the cause, and naught beside; Because that neither rain, nor hail, nor snow,

Nor dew, nor hoar-frost any higher falls

Than the short, little stairway of three steps. Dense clouds do not appear, nor rarefied,

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Nor corruscation, nor the daughter of Thaumas, 50
That often upon earth her region shifts;

No arid vapor any farther rises

Than to the top of the three steps I spake of, Whereon the Vicar of Peter has his feet. Lower down perchance it trembles less or more,

But, for the wind that in the earth is hidden
I know not how, up here it never trembled.
It trembles here, whenever any soul

Feels itself pure, so that it soars, or moves
To mount aloft, and such a cry attends it.

Of purity the will alone gives proof,

Which, being wholly free to change its convent,
Takes by surprise the soul, and helps it fly.
First it wills well; but the desire permits not,
Which divine justice with the self-same will
There was to sin, upon the torment sets.

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And I, who have been lying in this pain

Five hundred years and more, but just now felt

A free volition for a better seat.

Therefore thou heardst the earthquake, and the pious 70 Spirits along the mountain rendering praise

Unto the Lord, that soon he speed them upwards."

So said he to him; and since we enjoy

As much in drinking as the thirst is great,

I could not say how much it did me good. And the wise Leader: "Now I see the net

That snares you here, and how ye are set free, Why the earth quakes, and wherefore ye rejoice. Now who thou wast be pleased that I may know;

And why so many centuries thou hast here Been lying, let me gather from thy words." "In days when the good Titus, with the aid

Of the supremest King, avenged the wounds
Whence issued forth the blood by Judas sold,

Under the name that most endures and honors,

Was I on earth," that spirit made reply,

"Greatly renowned, but not with faith as yet.

My vocal spirit was so sweet, that Rome

Me, a Thoulousian, drew unto herself,

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Where I deserved to deck my brows with myrtle. 90

Statius the people name me still on earth;

of Thebes, and then of

great Achilles;

second burden.

I sang
But on the way fell with my

The seeds unto my ardor were the sparks

Of that celestial flame which heated me,

Whereby more than a thousand have been fired;
Of the Æneid speak I, which to me

A mother was, and was my nurse in song;
Without this weighed I not a drachma's weight.
And to have lived upon the earth what time
Virgilius lived, I would accept one sun

More than I must ere issuing from my ban."

These words towards me made Virgilius turn

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With looks that in their silence said, "Be silent!"
But
yet the power that wills cannot do all things; 105
For tears and laughter are such pursuivants

Unto the passion from which each springs forth,
In the most truthful least the will they follow.
I only smiled, as one who gives the wink;

Whereat the shade was silent, and it gazed
Into mine eyes, where most expression dwells;
And, "As thou well mayst consummate a labor
So great," it said, "why did thy face just now
Display to me the lightning of a smile?"

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Now am I caught on this side and on that;

One keeps me silent, one to speak conjures me,
Wherefore I sigh, and I am understood.
"Speak," said my Master, "and be not afraid
Of speaking, but speak out, and say to him
What he demands with such solicitude."
Whence I: "Thou peradventure marvellest,
O antique spirit, at the smile I gave;

This

But I will have more wonder seize upon thee.
one, who guides on high these eyes of mine,
Is that Virgilius, from whom thou didst learn
To sing aloud of men and of the Gods.
If other cause thou to my smile imputedst,
Abandon it as false, and trust it was

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Those words which thou hast spoken concerning him." Already he was stooping to embrace

My Teacher's feet; but he said to him: "Brother,
Do not; for shade thou art, and shade beholdest."

And he uprising: "Now canst thou the sum

Of love which warms me to thee comprehend,

When this our vanity I disremember,

Treating a shadow as substantial thing."

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CANTO XXII.

ALREADY was the Angel left behind us,

The Angel who to the sixth round had turned us,

my. face;

Having erased one mark from off
And those who have in justice their desire
Had said to us, “Beati,” in their voices,
With "sitio," and without more ended it.
And I, more light than through the other passes,

Went onward so, that without any labor

I followed upward the swift-footed spirits; When thus Virgilius began: "The love

Kindled by virtue aye another kindles, Provided outwardly its flame appear. Hence from the hour that Juvenal descended Among us into the infernal Limbo,

Who made apparent to me thy affection,

My kindliness towards thee was as great

As ever bound one to an unseen person,

So that these stairs will now seem short to me.

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