Thirty times told the time that he has been
In his presumption, unless such decree

Shorter by means of righteous prayers become.
See now if thou hast power to make me happy,
By making known unto my good Costanza
How thou hast seen me, and this ban beside,

For those on earth can much advance us here."

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CANTO IV.

WHENEVER by delight or else by pain,

That seizes any faculty of ours,

Wholly to that the soul collects itself,
It seemeth that no other power it heeds;

And this against that error is which thinks
One soul above another kindles in us.
And hence, whenever aught is heard or seen

Which keeps the soul intently bent upon
Time passes on, and we perceive it not,

Because one faculty is that which listens,

it,

And other that which the soul keeps entire ;

This is as if in bonds, and that is free.

Of this I had experience positive

In hearing and in gazing at that spirit;

For fifty full degrees uprisen was

The sun, and I had not perceived it, when

We came to where those souls with one accord

Cried out unto us: "Here is what you ask."

A greater opening ofttimes hedges up

With but a little forkful of his thorns

The villager, what time the grape imbrowns, Than was the passage-way through which ascended Only my Leader and myself behind him,

After that company departed from us. One climbs Sanleo and descends in Noli,

And mounts the summit of Bismantova,

With feet alone; but here one needs must fly; With the swift pinions and the plumes I say

Of great desire, conducted after him

Who gave me hope, and made a light for me.
We mounted upward through the rifted rock,

And on each side the border pressed upon us,
And feet and hands the ground beneath required.
When we were come upon the upper rim

Of the high bank, out on the open slope,

"My Master," said I, "what way shall we take?" And he to me: "No step of thine descend;

Still up the mount behind me win thy way,

Till some sage escort shall appear to us.' The summit was so high it vanquished sight,

And the hillside precipitous far more
Than line from middle quadrant to the centre.

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Spent with fatigue was I, when I began :

"O my sweet Father! turn thee and behold How I remain alone, unless thou stay!" "O son," he said, "up yonder drag thyself,"

Pointing me to a terrace somewhat higher,
Which on that side encircles all the hill.
These words of his so spurred me on, that I

Strained every nerve, behind him scrambling up,
Until the circle was beneath my feet.
Thereon ourselves we seated both of us

Turned to the East, from which we had ascended,
For all men are delighted to look back.
To the low shores mine eyes I first directed,

Then to the sun uplifted them, and wondered That on the left hand we were smitten by it. The Poet well perceived that I was wholly

Bewildered at the chariot of the light,

Where 'twixt us and the Aquilon it entered.
Whereon he said to me: "If Castor and Pollux
Were in the company of yonder mirror,

That
up and down conducteth with its light,
Thou wouldst behold the zodiac's jagged wheel
Revolving still more near unto the Bears,
Unless it swerved aside from its old track.

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How that may be wouldst thou have power to think,
Collected in thyself, imagine Zion

Together with this mount on earth to stand,

So that they both one sole horizon have,

And hemispheres diverse; whereby the road Which Phaeton, alas! knew not to drive, Thou 'lt see how of necessity must pass

This on one side, when that upon the other, If thine intelligence right clearly heed." "Truly, my Master,” said I, “never yet

Saw I so clearly as I now discern,

There where my wit appeared incompetent,

That the mid-circle of supernal motion,

Which in some art is the Equator called,
And aye remains between the Sun and Winter,
For reason which thou sayest, departeth hence
Tow'rds the Septentrion, what time the Hebrews
Beheld it tow'rds the region of the heat.
But, if it pleaseth thee, I fain would learn

How far we have to go; for the hill rises
Higher than eyes of mine have power to rise.

And he to me: "This mount is such, that ever
At the beginning down below 't is tiresome,
And aye the more one climbs, the less it hurts.