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 XIII

• Let him imagine, who would understand
• aright what now I saw, (and let him hold
• the image like a steadfast rock, the while
• I speak), the fifteen stars which vivify
• the sky at different points with such clear light,
• that vanquished is all denseness in the air;
• let him imagine next that Wain, whereto
• the bosom of our sky suffices so
• both night and day, that, as its pole revolves,
• it never disappears; and let him then
• imagine furthermore that trumpet’s mouth,
• which at the axle’s point begins, whereon
• the first wheel turns; and that all these had made
• two constellations of themselves, like that
• which Minos’ daughter fashioned when she felt
• the cold of death; and one to have its rays
• within the other, and both to so revolve,
• that one moved forward, and the other back;
• and he will of the actual constellation
• a shadow have, and of the double dance,
• which circled round the place where I then was;

• for it as far surpasses our experience,
• as swifter than the Chiana moves the heaven
• which outspeeds all the others. There they praised
• nor Bacchus nor Apollo, but three Persons
• in one sole nature, the divine, and that,
• in but one Person with the human joined.

• The song and dance completed each its measure;
• whereat those holy lights gave heed to us,
• rejoicing thus to pass from care to care.

• And then the light, wherein the wondrous life
• of God’s dear pauper had been told to me,
• of those harmonious gods the silence broke,
• and said: “Whereas one straw has now been threshed,
• and as its seed hath now been stored away,
• sweet love inviteth me to beat the other.

• Thou think’st that in the breast from which the rib
• was drawn, which went to form the lovely cheek,
• whose palate cost so much to all the world,
• and that in that one which, before and after
• the lance had pierced it, made such satisfaction,
• as to outweigh all sins,
• whatever light
• our human nature is allowed, the whole,
• was by that Power infused, which made them both;
• thou, hence, art marvelling at what above
• I said, when I narrated that the good
• enclosed within the fifth light had no second.

• Ope now thine eyes to what I answer thee;
• and thou ’lt see that my words and thy belief
• grow one in truth, as in a ring its center.

• That which dies not, and that which mortal is,
• are naught but that Idea’s reflected light,
• to which our Sire, by loving, giveth birth;
• for that Bright Light, which from its Lucent Source
• so flows, that It is not divided from Him,
• nor from the Love which with Them is intrined,
• out of Its goodness gathers up Its radiance,
• mirrored, as ’t were, in nine subsistences,
• Itself eternally remaining one.
• Thence to the lowest creatures It descends
• from act to act, and such becomes, that naught
• It makes but brief contingencies; and these
• contingencies I understand to be
• those generated things the moving heavens
• produce by means of seed and without seed.
• Of these the wax, and that which mouldeth it,
• are not of one same kind; hence, underneath
• the ideal stamp, they more or less reflect it;
• it hence results that, after its own kind,
• one selfsame plant bears better fruit and worse;
• and that with different natures ye are born.
• If tempered to perfection were the wax,
• and if the heavens were at their height of power,
• the whole light of the seal would be revealed;

• but Nature, working as an artist doth,
• who hath, though skilled and toward his art disposed,
• a trembling hand, e’er gives it with a flaw.
• Hence, if the Flaming Love dispose and stamp
• the Lucid Vision of the Primal Power,
• complete perfection is therein acquired.
• Thus rendered worthy of an animal’s
• complete perfection was the earth of old;
• thus also was the Virgin rendered pregnant;
• hence thine opinion I as true commend,
• that human nature never was, nor will be,
• such as it once in those two persons was.

• And now, if I no further went, ‘How, then,
• could he be peerless?’ would thy words begin.
• But, that what seems not so may now seem clear,
• think who he was, and what the cause which moved him
• in his request, when ‘Ask’ was said to him.
• I have not spoken so, that thou shouldst not
• see clearly that a king he was, who asked
• wisdom to be a worthy king; and not
• to know the number of the Angels here;
• nor whether from a necessary premise,
• with one contingent, a necessity
• e’er followed as result; nor yet to know
• if a first motion needs must granted be,
• nor whether a triangle could be made,
• with no right angle, in a semicircle.

• Hence, if thou note both what I said and this,
• a royal wisdom is that peerless vision,
• on which the shaft of my intention strikes;
• and if to ‘hath arisen’ thou direct
• clear eyes, thou ’lt see that it refers to kings
• alone, who many are, and few the good.
• With this distinction take thou what I said;
• for it can stand with that which thou believ’st
• of man’s first father, and of our Delight.

• And let this e’er be lead unto thy feet,
• to make thee, like one weary, slowly move
• to both the Yea and Nay thou seest not;
• for very low among the fools is he,
• who affirms without distinction, or denies,
• in one, as in the other, case; because
• it happens that a quickly formed opinion
• is often in a wrong direction turned;
• and then the feelings bind the intellect.
• For worse than vainly leaveth he the shore,
• who fishes for the truth and hath no skill,
• since, such as he set out, he comes not back;
• and in the world are patent proofs of this
• Parmenides, Melissus, Bryson, aye,
• and many who advanced, but knew not whither.
• So did Sabellius, Arius and those fools
• who to the Scriptures were as sword-blades are,
• in making faces crooked, which were straight.

• In judging, let not people be too sure,
• like him who in the field computes the ears,
• or ever they are ripe;
• for I have seen
• a thorn-bush seem all winter stiff and wild,
• and later bear a rose upon its top;
• and once I saw a vessel running straight
• and swiftly o’er the sea through all her course,
• and end by sinking at the harbor’s mouth.

• Let not dame Bertha or sir Martin think,
• on seeing one man rob, and one give alms,
• that they behold them as they seem to God;
• for that one may get up, and this one fall.”