Part 124

He says the soul unto its star returns, Believing it to have been severed thence Whenever nature gave it as a form.

Perhaps his doctrine is of other guise Than the words sound, and possibly may be With meaning that is not to be derided.

If he doth mean that to these wheels return The honour of their influence and the blame, Perhaps his bow doth hit upon some truth.

This principle ill understood once warped The whole world nearly, till it went astray Invoking Jove and Mercury and Mars.

The other doubt which doth disquiet thee Less venom has, for its malevolence Could never lead thee otherwhere from me.

That as unjust our justice should appear In eyes of mortals, is an argument Of faith, and not of sin heretical.

But still, that your perception may be able To thoroughly penetrate this verity, As thou desirest, I will satisfy thee.

If it be violence when he who suffers Co-operates not with him who uses force, These souls were not on that account excused;

For will is never quenched unless it will, But operates as nature doth in fire If violence a thousand times distort it.

Hence, if it yieldeth more or less, it seconds The force; and these have done so, having power Of turning back unto the holy place.

If their will had been perfect, like to that Which Lawrence fast upon his gridiron held, And Mutius made severe to his own hand,

It would have urged them back along the road Whence they were dragged, as soon as they were free; But such a solid will is all too rare.

And by these words, if thou hast gathered them As thou shouldst do, the argument is refuted That would have still annoyed thee many times.

But now another passage runs across Before thine eyes, and such that by thyself Thou couldst not thread it ere thou wouldst be weary.

I have for certain put into thy mind That soul beatified could never lie, For it is near the primal Truth,

And then thou from Piccarda might’st have heard Costanza kept affection for the veil, So that she seemeth here to contradict me.

Many times, brother, has it come to pass, That, to escape from peril, with reluctance That has been done it was not right to do,

E’en as Alcmaeon (who, being by his father Thereto entreated, his own mother slew) Not to lose pity pitiless became.

At this point I desire thee to remember That force with will commingles, and they cause That the offences cannot be excused.

Will absolute consenteth not to evil; But in so far consenteth as it fears, If it refrain, to fall into more harm.

Hence when Piccarda uses this expression, She meaneth the will absolute, and I The other, so that both of us speak truth.”

Such was the flowing of the holy river That issued from the fount whence springs all truth; This put to rest my wishes one and all.

“O love of the first lover, O divine,” Said I forthwith, “whose speech inundates me And warms me so, it more and more revives me,

My own affection is not so profound As to suffice in rendering grace for grace; Let Him, who sees and can, thereto respond.

Well I perceive that never sated is Our intellect unless the Truth illume it, Beyond which nothing true expands itself.

It rests therein, as wild beast in his lair, When it attains it; and it can attain it; If not, then each desire would frustrate be.

Therefore springs up, in fashion of a shoot, Doubt at the foot of truth; and this is nature, Which to the top from height to height impels us.

This doth invite me, this assurance give me With reverence, Lady, to inquire of you Another truth, which is obscure to me.