But turn thee round towards the others now, For very illustrious spirits shalt thou see, If thou thy sight directest as I say." As it seemed good to her mine eyes I turned, And saw a hundred spherules that together I stood as one who in himself represses The point of his desire, and ventures not To question, he so feareth the too much. And now the largest and most luculent Among those pearls came forward, that it might Even as myself the charity that burns Among us, thy conceits would be expressed; That mountain on whose slope Cassino stands Was frequented of old upon its summit By a deluded folk and ill-disposed; And I am he who first up thither bore The name of Him who brought upon the earth The truth that so much sublimateth us. And such abundant grace upon me shone That all the neighboring towns I drew away From the impious worship that seduced the world. 45 These other fires, each one of them, were men Contemplative, enkindled by that heat Which maketh holy flowers and fruits spring up. Here is Macarius, here is Romualdus, Here are my brethren, who within the cloisters Their footsteps stayed and kept a steadfast heart." And I to him: "The affection which thou showest Speaking with me, and the good countenance Which I behold and note in all In me have so my confidence dilated your ardors, As the sun doth the rose, when it becomes If I may so much grace receive, that I He thereupon: "Brother, thy high desire In the remotest sphere shall be fulfilled, 50 55 60 65 For it is not in space, nor turns on poles, And unto it our stairway reaches up, Whence thus from out thy sight it steals away. Up to that height the Patriarch Jacob saw it Extending its supernal part, what time. So thronged with angels it appeared to him. His feet from off the earth, and now my Rule The walls that used of old to be an Abbey Are changed to dens of robbers, and the cowls But heavy usury is not taken up So much against God's pleasure as that fruit Is for the folk that ask it in God's name, The flesh of mortals is so very soft, That good beginnings down below suffice not From springing of the oak to bearing acorns. Peter began with neither gold nor silver, And I with orison and abstinence, And Francis with humility his convent. 70 75 80 85 90 And if thou lookest at each one's beginning, And then regardest whither he has run, Thou shalt behold the white changed into brown. In verity the Jordan backward turned, And the sea's fleeing, when God willed, were more 95 A wonder to behold, than succor here." To his own band, and the band closed together; The gentle Lady urged me on behind them. Up o'er that stairway by a single sign, So did her virtue overcome my nature; Nor here below, where one goes up and down By natural law, was motion e'er so swift That it could be compared unto my wing. Reader, as I may unto that devout Triumph return, on whose account I often For my transgressions weep and beat my breast, Thou hadst not thrust thy finger in the fire And drawn it out again, before I saw The sign that follows Taurus, and was in it. O glorious stars, O light impregnated With mighty virtue, from which I acknowledge All of my genius, whatsoe'er it be, 100 105 110 With you was born, and hid himself with you, He who is father of all mortal life, When first I tasted of the Tuscan air And then when grace was freely given to me To enter the high wheel which turns you round, Your region was allotted unto me. To you devoutly at this hour my soul Is sighing, that it virtue may acquire For the stern pass that draws it to itself. "Thou art so near unto the last salvation," Thus Beatrice began, "thou oughtest now And therefore, ere thou enter farther in, Look down once more, and see how vast a world So that thy heart, as jocund as it may, Present itself to the triumphant throng That comes rejoicing through this rounded ether." I with my sight returned through one and all Such that I smiled at its ignoble semblance; And that opinion I approve as best Which doth account it least; and he who thinks Of something else may truly be called just. 115 120 125 130 135 |