The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• The Trinity of Love
• Preface
• Paradiso I
• Paradiso Ii
• Paradiso Iii
• Paradiso Iv
• Paradiso V
• Paradiso Vi
• Paradiso Vii
• Paradiso Viii
• Paradiso Ix
• Paradiso X
• Paradiso Xi
• Paradiso Xii
• Paradiso Xiii
• Paradiso Xiv
• Paradiso Xv
• Paradiso Xvi
• Paradiso Xvii
• Paradiso Xviii
• Paradiso Xix
• Paradiso Xx
• Paradiso Xxi
• Paradiso Xxii
• Paradiso Xxiii
• Paradiso Xxiv
• Paradiso Xxv
• Paradiso Xxvi
• Paradiso Xxvii
• Paradiso Xxviii
• Paradiso Xxix
• Paradiso Xxx
• Paradiso Xxxi
• Paradiso Xxxii
• Paradiso Xxxiii

PARADISO II

• O ye who, in a little boat embarked,
• have, fain to listen, followed in the wake
• of this my ship, which, singing, ploughs ahead,
• go back to see your shores again! Start not
• upon the ocean; for, if me ye lost,
• ye might, perhaps, be left behind astray.

• The seas I sail were never crossed before;
• Minerva breathes, Apollo is my guide,
• and all nine Muses point me out the Bears.

• Ye other few, who early raised your necks
• for Angels’ bread, on which one here on earth
• subsists, but with which none are ever sated,
• ye well may start your vessel on the deep
• salt sea, if in the furrow of my ship
• ye stay, ere smooth again the waves become.
• Those glorious ones, who crossed the seas to Colchis,
• were not so much amazed, as ye shall be,
• when Jason turned a ploughman they beheld.

• The innàte and ceaseless thirsting for the Realm
• in God’s own image made, was bearing us
• as swiftly as ye see the heavens revolve.

• On high looked Beatrice, and I on her;
• and in the time, perhaps, an arrow takes
• to light, and fly, and from the notch be freed,
• I saw that I had come to where a marvel
• turned to itself my sight; hence she, from whom
• the working of my mind could not be hid,
• as glad as she was lovely, turned toward me,
• and said: “Direct thy grateful mind to God,
• who with the first star hath united us.”

• Meseemed as if a cloud were covering us,
• as luminous and dense, as hard and polished,
• as is a diamond smitten by the sun.
• Within itself the eternal pearl received us,
• as water, though unbroken it remain,
• receives within itself a ray of light.

• If body I was (nor can one here conceive
• how one dimension could endure another,
• which needs must be, if body enter body),
• the more should we be kindled by the wish
• that Essence to behold, wherein is seen
• how once with God our nature was conjoined.
• Thère will be seen, what here we hold by faith,
• not demonstrated, but will self-known be,
• as is the primal truth which men believe.

• “My Lady,” I replied, “as best I can
• do I devoutly render thanks to Him,
• who from the mortal world hath severed me.

• But tell me what this body’s dark spots are,
• which cause the folk down yonder on the earth
• to tell each other fables about Cain.”

• She smiled a little, then she said: “If mortals’
• opinion therein errs, where key of sense
• unlocketh not, surely the shafts of wonder
• ought not to pierce thee now;
• for thou perceivest
• that short are Reason’s wings, when following sense.
• But tell me what thou think’st thereof thyself.”

• And I: “What seems to us diverse up here,
• is caused, I think, by bodies thin and dense.”

• And she: “Thou ’lt surely see that thy belief
• is sunk in error, if but well thou heed
• the arguments I ’ll now oppose to it.

• The eighth sphere shows you many shining stars,
• which both in quality and magnitude,
• may be observed to differ in their looks.
• If only rarity and density
• caused this, among them all one single virtue
• would more, and less, and equally be shared.
• Virtues that differ needs must be the fruit
• of formal principles, and these, save one,
• would, by thy way of reasoning, be destroyed.
• Again, if thinness caused the dusky spots
• which thou dost ask about, this planet would,
• in portions, through its bulk its matter lack,

• or, as a body what is fat and lean
• distributes, so would this one alternate
• its volume’s leaves. If true the former were,
• ’t would in the sun’s eclipses be revealed,
• because the latter’s light would then shine through,
• as when in other thin things introduced.
• This does not happen; hence the other one
• must be considered now; and should I chance
• to quash it, false will thy opinion prove.

• If, therefore, it be so that this thin part
• extends not through, a limit there must be,
• beyond which what is contrary thereto
• allows it not to pass; the other’s ray
• is, hence, reflected, as color from a glass
• returns, which back of it concealeth lead.
• Thou ’lt now say that the ray seems dimmer there
• than in the other parts it is, because
• from further back reflected. From this retort
• experimenting, which is wont to be
• the fountain of the rivers of your arts,
• can, if thou ever try it, set thee free.
• Thou ’lt take three mirrors; two of them removed
• at equal distance from thee, let the third,
• placed ’tween them, more remotely meet thine eyes.
• Then, turning toward them, let a lamp stand so
• between them, as to shine upon all three,
• and be reflected on thee from them all.

• Though the most distant light will not extend
• so much in quantity, thou ’lt see thereby
• how it must needs with equal brightness shine.
• And now, as at the stroke of burning rays,
• what lies beneath the snow is wholly bared
• of what were previously its cold and color;
• thee, thus remaining in thine intellect,
• will I inform with such a living light,
• that it will quiver when thou seest it.

• Within the heaven of Peace Divine revolves
• a body, subject to whose influence lies
• the being of whatever it contains.
• The next, which hath so many eyes, distributes
• that being ’mong the different essences,
• distinguished from it, and contained by it.
• The other spheres, by various differences,
• dispose to their effects and causes those
• distinctions which within themselves they have.
• These organs of the world so go their way,
• as thou perceivest now, from grade to grade,
• that from above they take, and downward act.
• Give me good heed, as through this argument
• I seek the truth thou wishest, that henceforth
• thou mayst know how to cross the ford alone.
• The holy circles’ influence and motion,
• as from the blacksmith doth the hammer’s art,
• must from the blessèd Motors be inspired;

• and that heaven which so many lights adorn,
• receives its impress from the Mind profound,
• which turneth it, and makes thereof a seal.
• And as the soul which lives within your dust
• unfolds itself through members, which are different,
• and unto different potencies conformed;
• so likewise, multiplied among the stars,
• doth that Intelligence unfold its goodness,
• while on its unity itself revolves.
• Each different power a different alloy makes,
• mixed with the precious body which it quickens,
• and with which it unites, as life in you.
• Because of that glad nature whence it flows,
• the mingled virtue through the body shines,
• as, through a living pupil, joy. From this
• comes what ’tween light and light a difference seems,
• and not from rarity and density;
• this is the formal principle which makes,
• according to its strength, things dark and bright.