The Online Library of Liberty

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• Ave Dante
• Preface
• Inferno I
• Inferno Ii
• Inferno Iii
• Inferno Iv
• Inferno V
• Inferno Vi
• Inferno Vii
• Inferno Viii
• Inferno Ix
• Inferno X
• Inferno Xi
• Inferno Xii
• Inferno Xiii
• Inferno Xiv
• Inferno Xv
• Inferno Xvi
• Inferno Xvii
• Inferno Xviii
• Inferno Xix
• Inferno Xx
• Inferno Xxi
• Inferno Xxii
• Inferno Xxiii
• Inferno Xxiv
• Inferno Xxv
• Inferno Xxvi
• Inferno Xxvii
• Inferno Xxviii
• Inferno Xxix
• Inferno Xxx
• Inferno Xxxi
• Inferno Xxxii
• Inferno Xxxiii
• Inferno Xxxiv

INFERNO XI

• Upon the utmost verge of a high bank,
• formed in a circle by great broken rocks,
• we came upon a still more cruel pack;
• and there, by reason of the horrible
• excess of stench the deep abyss exhales,
• for shelter we withdrew behind the lid
• of a large tomb, whereon I saw a scroll
• which said: “Pope Anastasius I contain,
• whom out of the right way Photinus drew.”

• “Our going down from here must be delayed,
• so that our sense may first get used a little
• to this foul blast; we shall not mind it then.”

• The Teacher thus; and I: “Find thou therefor
• some compensation, lest our time be lost.”
• And he to me: “See how I think of this.”

• “My son, within these rocks,” he then began,
• “are three small circles which, from grade to grade,
• are similar to those thou leavest now.
• Full of accursèd spirits are they all;
• but that hereafter sight alone suffice thee,
• hear how, and wherefore they are packed together.

• Of all wrong-doing which in Heaven wins hate
• injustice is the end, and each such end
• aggrieves by either violence or fraud.
• But whereas fraud is man’s peculiar evil,
• God hates it most; therefore the fraudulent
• are down below, and greater pain assails them.

• All the first circle holds the violent;
• but since against three persons force is used,
• its shape divides it into three great rings.
• Both against God, one’s neighbor, and one ’s self
• may force be used; against themselves, I mean,
• and what is theirs, as clearly shown thou ’lt hear.
• By force both death and painful wounds are given
• one ’s neighbor, and thereby his property
• is ruined, burned, and by extortions robbed;
• the first ring, hence, torments in separate troops
• all homicides and those that smite with malice,
• spoilers of property and highway robbers.
• Upon oneself may one lay violent hands,
• and on one ’s goods; hence in the second ring
• must needs repentant be without avail
• whoever of your world deprives himself,
• gambles away and dissipates his means,
• and weepeth there where he should joyful be.
• ’Gainst God may force be used, by wittingly
• denying that He is, by blasphemy,
• and by disprizing Nature and His Goodness;

• and therefore with its mark the lesser ring
• sealeth both Sodom and Cahors, and him
• who, speaking from his heart, despises God.

• And fraud, whereby all consciences are bitten,
• one may employ against a man who trusts him,
• and ’gainst a man who storeth up no trust.
• This latter kind of fraud would seem to kill
• only the bond of love which Nature makes;
• hence in the second circle make their nest
• hypocrisy, and flatteries, and workers
• of magic, coining, theft and simony,
• panders and grafters, and such filth as these.

• In the other way forgotten is the love
• which Nature makes, and that which afterward
• is joined thereto, whence special trust is born;
• hence in the smallest ring, where the universe
• its center hath, and on which Dis is seated,
• whoe’er betrays is spent eternally.”

• “Teacher,” said I, “thine argument proceeds
• most lucidly, and full well classifies
• this deep abyss and those that people it.
• But tell me now: those of the muddy marsh,
• those whom the wind drives, those the rain beats down,
• and those that with such keen tongues meet each other,
• why are n’t they punished in the red-hot town,
• if God be angry with them? and, if not,
• why are they tortured in those several ways?”

• And he to me: “Why doth thine intellect
• wander so far from that which is its wont,
• or doth thy mind intently gaze elsewhere?
• Hast thou no recollection of the words
• with which thine Ethics treats extensively
• the dispositions three which Heaven rejects,
• Incontinence, and Malice, and insane
• Bestiality, and how Incontinence
• offends God least, and hence receives least blame?
• If thou consider this opinion well,
• and then remember who those are above,
• that outside undergo their punishment,
• well shalt thou see why from these wretches here
• they ’re set apart, and why less wrathfully
• Vengeance Divine is hammering on them there.”

• “O Sun that healest every troubled sight,
• thou so contentest me when answering questions,
• that doubt, no less than knowledge, pleases me.
• Return a little further back,” said I,
• “to where thou sayest usury offends
• Goodness Divine, and loose the tangled knot.”

• “Philosophy” said he to me, “points out
• to him that understandeth it, and not
• in one part only, that Nature takes her course
• from the Intellect Divine, and from its Art;
• and if thou note thy Physics carefully,
• after not many pages shalt thou find

• that your art follows that, as best it can,
• as the disciple him who teaches; hence,
• your art is grandchild, as it were, to God.
• From these two things, if thou recall to mind
• the first of Genesis, must people needs
• obtain their livelihood, and progress make.
• And as the usurer takes another course,
• Nature both in herself and in her follower
• he scorneth, since in something else he trusts.

• But follow me now, for I please to go;
• because the Fishes o’er the horizon quiver,
• and wholly over Caurus lies the Wain,
• and one descends the bank much further on.”