Part 23

Because that living Light, which from its fount Effulgent flows, so that it disunites not From Him nor from the Love in them intrined,

Through its own goodness reunites its rays In nine subsistences, as in a mirror, Itself eternally remaining One.

Thence it descends to the last potencies, Downward from act to act becoming such That only brief contingencies it makes;

And these contingencies I hold to be Things generated, which the heaven produces By its own motion, with seed and without.

Neither their wax, nor that which tempers it, Remains immutable, and hence beneath The ideal signet more and less shines through;

Therefore it happens, that the selfsame tree After its kind bears worse and better fruit, And ye are born with characters diverse.

If in perfection tempered were the wax, And were the heaven in its supremest virtue, The brilliance of the seal would all appear;

But nature gives it evermore deficient, In the like manner working as the artist, Who has the skill of art and hand that trembles.

If then the fervent Love, the Vision clear, Of primal Virtue do dispose and seal, Perfection absolute is there acquired.

Thus was of old the earth created worthy Of all and every animal perfection; And thus the Virgin was impregnate made;

So that thine own opinion I commend, That human nature never yet has been, Nor will be, what it was in those two persons.

Now if no farther forth I should proceed, ‘Then in what way was he without a peer?’ Would be the first beginning of thy words.

But, that may well appear what now appears not, Think who he was, and what occasion moved him To make request, when it was told him, ‘Ask.’

I’ve not so spoken that thou canst not see Clearly he was a king who asked for wisdom, That he might be sufficiently a king;

’Twas not to know the number in which are The motors here above, or if ‘necesse’ With a contingent e’er ‘necesse’ make,

‘Non si est dare primum motum esse,’ Or if in semicircle can be made Triangle so that it have no right angle.

Whence, if thou notest this and what I said, A regal prudence is that peerless seeing In which the shaft of my intention strikes.

And if on ‘rose’ thou turnest thy clear eyes, Thou’lt see that it has reference alone To kings who’re many, and the good are rare.

With this distinction take thou what I said, And thus it can consist with thy belief Of the first father and of our Delight.

And lead shall this be always to thy feet, To make thee, like a weary man, move slowly Both to the Yes and No thou seest not;

For very low among the fools is he Who affirms without distinction, or denies, As well in one as in the other case;

Because it happens that full often bends Current opinion in the false direction, And then the feelings bind the intellect.

Far more than uselessly he leaves the shore, (Since he returneth not the same he went,) Who fishes for the truth, and has no skill;

And in the world proofs manifest thereof Parmenides, Melissus, Brissus are, And many who went on and knew not whither;

Thus did Sabellius, Arius, and those fools Who have been even as swords unto the Scriptures In rendering distorted their straight faces.

Nor yet shall people be too confident In judging, even as he is who doth count The corn in field or ever it be ripe.

For I have seen all winter long the thorn First show itself intractable and fierce, And after bear the rose upon its top;

And I have seen a ship direct and swift Run o’er the sea throughout its course entire, To perish at the harbour’s mouth at last.