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 VII

• “Hosanna, O Thou Holy God of Hosts,
• that with Thy Clarity dost brighter make
• the happy fires of these celestial realms!”

• As thus to his own song he turned himself,
• by me that substance was seen singing now,
• o’er which a double light two-folds itself;
• and to their dance both that one and the rest
• addressed themselves; and then, like swiftest sparks,
• with sudden distance veiled themselves from me.

• In doubt I was, and to myself kept saying:
• “Tell, tell it to her; tell” I said, “my Lady,
• who with her sweet distillings slakes my thirst!”

• That reverence, though, which masters all of me
• by the mere syllables of be and ìce,
• bowed me like one that ’s overcome by sleep.
• A short while Beatrice endured me thus;
• then, lighting up my face with such a smile,
• as, even in fire, would bless one, she began:

• “As I am unmistakably aware,
• how a just vengeance could have been avenged
• with justice, hath occasioned thee to doubt;

• but I shall quickly liberate thy mind;
• hence listen, for my words will now bestow
• on thee the present of a mighty truth.

• By not accepting for the power that wills
• a helpful curb, the man who was not born,
• damning himself, damned all his progeny;
• wherefore the human race lay sick below
• in serious sin for many centuries,
• until the Word of God was pleased descend
• to where the nature, which had wandered far
• from its Creator, to His Self He joined,
• by the mere act of His Eternal Love.

• Now turn thy sight to what is argued now!
• This nature, thus united to its Maker,
• was, as when first created, pure and good;
• but through its own fault was in banishment
• exiled from Paradise, because it turned
• out of the path of truth and its own life.
• As to the suffering, therefore, which the cross
• afforded, none so justly ever bit,
• if measured by the nature thus assumed;
• and likewise none was ever so unjust,
• considering who the person was that suffered,
• within whom such a nature was conjoined.
• From one act, therefore, issued things diverse;
• for one same death pleased both the Jews, and God;
• it caused the earth to quake, and opened Heaven.

• No longer strange should it appear to thee
• henceforth, when it is said a just revenge
• was by a just court afterward avenged.

• But I perceive that now, from thought to thought,
• thy mind is in a knot tied up, from which
• with great desire it seeks to free itself.
• Thou sayest: ‘What I hear I clearly see;
• but from me hidden is why God should will
• for our redemption just this way alone.’
• Buried, my brother, lieth this decree
• from all men’s eyesight, whose intelligence
• hath not in love’s flame reached maturity.
• However, inasmuch as on this mark
• great is the gazing, and but little seen,
• I ’ll say why this one was the worthiest way.

• Goodness Divine, which spurneth from Itself
• all envy, burning in Itself, so sparkles,
• that Its eternal beauties It displays.
• Whatever from It is immediately
• distilled, hath afterward no end; for when
• It sets Its seal, Its stamp is not removed.
• Whatever from It is immediately
• rained down, is wholly free, for that lies not
• under the power of secondary things.
• Since most like It, it gives It greatest pleasure;
• because the Holy Fire which lighteth all things,
• is brightest in what most resembles It.

• The human creature is by all these things
• advantaged; hence, if one of them be lacking,
• it needs must fall from its nobility.
• Nothing but sin deprives it of its freedom,
• and maketh it unlike the Highest Good,
• hence little is it whitened by Its Light;
• and to its dignity it ne’er returns,
• unless, where sin has emptied, it fill up,
• for evil pleasures, with just penalties.
• When in its seed your nature wholly sinned,
• it was of all these dignities deprived,
• as well as banished far from Paradise;
• nor could they be regained by any path,
• if with due subtlety thou pay attention,
• except by crossing one of these two fords:
• either that of His courtesy alone,
• God should forgive it, or that by itself
• mankind should for its folly make amends.

• Fixed as attentively upon my words
• as thou art able, thrust thou now thine eye
• within the Eternal Counsel’s deep abyss!

• Since finite, man could never make amends,
• because unable in humility,
• by new obedience, to descend as far,
• as, disobeying, he had meant to mount;
• and this the reason is why man was barred
• from making satisfaction by himself.

• It, hence, behooved that God by His own ways
• should reinstate man in his perfect life,
• by one, I mean, or else by both at once.
• But since so much more grateful is the work
• a workman does, the more it represents
• the goodness of the heart from which it comes,
• Goodness Divine, which on the world imprints
• Its seal, was pleased to move by all Its paths
• to raise you up again. Nor hath there been,
• nor will there ever be, by either way,
• between the first of days and last of nights,
• so high and so magnificent a plan;
• for God was far more bountiful in giving
• Himself, to make man fit to raise himself,
• than had He only of Himself forgiven;
• therefore all other means had fallen short
• of Justice, if the Son of God had not
• humbled Himself, incarnate to become.

• But, wholly to fulfill thine every wish,
• I ’ll now go back to clarify one point,
• that thou mayst see as plainly there as I.

• Thou say’st: ‘I see that water, nay, I see
• that fire and air and earth, and all their mixtures
• become corrupt, and but a little while
• endure; and yet created things were these!
• If, therefore, what was said above were true,
• safe from corruption ought these things to be.’

• The Angels, brother, and the perfect world,
• in which thou now art, may be called created,
• such as they are, in their perfected state;
• the elements, however, thou hast named,
• and those things which by means of them are made,
• by a created virtue are informed.
• Created was the matter which they have;
• created was the informing influence
• in all these stars, which round about them move.
• The rays and motion of the holy lights
• draw from pure matter’s potentiality
• the soul of every brute and every plant.
• But without agency doth Kindliness
• Supreme breathe your life forth, and with Itself
• enamors it so greatly, that thereafter
• it always longs for It. And, furthermore,
• thou canst from this infer your resurrection,
• if thou recall how human flesh was made,
• when both of man’s first parents were created.”