Part 56

And at that centre, with their wings expanded, More than a thousand jubilant Angels saw I, Each differing in effulgence and in kind.

I saw there at their sports and at their songs A beauty smiling, which the gladness was Within the eyes of all the other saints;

And if I had in speaking as much wealth As in imagining, I should not dare To attempt the smallest part of its delight.

Bernard, as soon as he beheld mine eyes Fixed and intent upon its fervid fervour, His own with such affection turned to her

That it made mine more ardent to behold.

Paradiso: Canto XXXII

Absorbed in his delight, that contemplator Assumed the willing office of a teacher, And gave beginning to these holy words:

“The wound that Mary closed up and anointed, She at her feet who is so beautiful, She is the one who opened it and pierced it.

Within that order which the third seats make Is seated Rachel, lower than the other, With Beatrice, in manner as thou seest.

Sarah, Rebecca, Judith, and her who was Ancestress of the Singer, who for dole Of the misdeed said, ‘Miserere mei,’

Canst thou behold from seat to seat descending Down in gradation, as with each one’s name I through the Rose go down from leaf to leaf.

And downward from the seventh row, even as Above the same, succeed the Hebrew women, Dividing all the tresses of the flower;

Because, according to the view which Faith In Christ had taken, these are the partition By which the sacred stairways are divided.

Upon this side, where perfect is the flower With each one of its petals, seated are Those who believed in Christ who was to come.

Upon the other side, where intersected With vacant spaces are the semicircles, Are those who looked to Christ already come.

And as, upon this side, the glorious seat Of the Lady of Heaven, and the other seats Below it, such a great division make,

So opposite doth that of the great John, Who, ever holy, desert and martyrdom Endured, and afterwards two years in Hell.

And under him thus to divide were chosen Francis, and Benedict, and Augustine, And down to us the rest from round to round.

Behold now the high providence divine; For one and other aspect of the Faith In equal measure shall this garden fill.

And know that downward from that rank which cleaves Midway the sequence of the two divisions, Not by their proper merit are they seated;

But by another’s under fixed conditions; For these are spirits one and all assoiled Before they any true election had.

Well canst thou recognise it in their faces, And also in their voices puerile, If thou regard them well and hearken to them.

Now doubtest thou, and doubting thou art silent; But I will loosen for thee the strong bond In which thy subtile fancies hold thee fast.

Within the amplitude of this domain No casual point can possibly find place, No more than sadness can, or thirst, or hunger;

For by eternal law has been established Whatever thou beholdest, so that closely The ring is fitted to the finger here.

And therefore are these people, festinate Unto true life, not ‘sine causa’ here More and less excellent among themselves.

The King, by means of whom this realm reposes In so great love and in so great delight That no will ventureth to ask for more,

In his own joyous aspect every mind Creating, at his pleasure dowers with grace Diversely; and let here the effect suffice.