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mself the other arrogates: So that ’t is hard to see which more offends. Be yours, ye Ghibellines, to veil your arts Beneath another standard: ill is this Follow’d of him, who severs it and justice: And let not with his Guelphs the new-crown’d Charles Assail it, but those talons hold in dread, Which from a lion of more lofty port Have rent the easing. Many a time ere now The sons have for the sire’s transgression wail’d; Nor let him trust the fond belief, that heav’n Will truck its armour for his lilied shield.

“This little star is furnish’d with good spirits, Whose mortal lives were busied to that end, That honour and renown might wait on them: And, when desires thus err in their intention, True love must needs ascend with slacker beam. But it is part of our delight, to measure Our wages with the merit; and admire The close proportion. Hence doth heav’nly justice Temper so evenly affection in us, It ne’er can warp to any wrongfulness. Of diverse voices is sweet music made: So in our life the different degrees Render sweet harmony among these wheels.

“Within the pearl, that now encloseth us, Shines Romeo’s light, whose goodly deed and fair Met ill acceptance. But the Provencals, That were his foes, have little cause for mirth. Ill shapes that man his course, who makes his wrong Of other’s worth. Four daughters were there born To Raymond Berenger, and every one Became a queen; and this for him did Romeo, Though of mean state and from a foreign land. Yet envious tongues incited him to ask A reckoning of that just one, who return’d Twelve fold to him for ten. Aged and poor He parted thence: and if the world did know The heart he had, begging his life by morsels, ’T would deem the praise, it yields him, scantly dealt.”

CANTO VII

“Hosanna Sanctus Deus Sabaoth Superillustrans claritate tua Felices ignes horum malahoth!” Thus chanting saw I turn that substance bright With fourfold lustre to its orb again, Revolving; and the rest unto their dance With it mov’d also; and like swiftest sparks, In sudden distance from my sight were veil’d.

Me doubt possess’d, and “Speak,” it whisper’d me, “Speak, speak unto thy lady, that she quench Thy thirst with drops of sweetness.” Yet blank awe, Which lords it o’er me, even at the sound Of Beatrice’s name, did bow me down As one in slumber held. Not long that mood Beatrice suffer’d: she, with such a smile, As might have made one blest amid the flames, Beaming upon me, thus her words began: “Thou in thy thought art pond’ring (as I deem), And what I deem is truth how just revenge Could be with justice punish’d: from which doubt I soon will free thee; so thou mark my words; For they of weighty matter shall possess thee.

“That man, who was unborn, himself condemn’d, And, in himself, all, who since him have liv’d, His offspring: whence, below, the human kind Lay sick in grievous error many an age; Until it pleas’d the Word of God to come Amongst them down, to his own person joining The nature, from its Maker far estrang’d, By the mere act of his eternal love. Contemplate here the wonder I unfold. The nature with its Maker thus conjoin’d, Created first was blameless, pure and good; But through itself alone was driven forth From Paradise, because it had eschew’d The way of truth and life, to evil turn’d. Ne’er then was penalty so just as that Inflicted by the cross, if thou regard The nature in assumption doom’d: ne’er wrong So great, in reference to him, who took Such nature on him, and endur’d the doom. God therefore and the Jews one sentence pleased: So different effects flow’d from one act, And heav’n was open’d, though the earth did quake. Count it not hard henceforth, when thou dost hear That a just vengeance was by righteous court Justly reveng’d. But yet I see thy mind By thought on thought arising sore perplex’d, And with how vehement desire it asks Solution of the maze. What I have heard, Is plain, thou sayst: but wherefore God this way For our redemption chose, eludes my search.

“Brother! no eye of man not perfected, Nor fully ripen’d in the flame of love, May fathom this decree. It is a mark, In sooth, much aim’d at, and but little kenn’d: And I will therefore show thee why such way Was worthiest. The celestial love, that spume All envying in its bounty, in itself With such effulgence blazeth, as sends forth All beauteous things eternal. What distils Immediate thence, no end of being knows, Bearing its seal immutably impress’d. Whatever thence immediate falls, is free, Free wholly, uncontrollable by power Of each thing new: by such conformity More grateful to its author, whose bright beams, Though all partake their shining, yet in those Are liveliest, which resemble him the most. These tokens of pre-eminence on man Largely bestow’d, if any of them fail, He needs must forfeit his nobility, No longer stainless. Sin alone is that, Which doth disfranchise him, and make unlike To the chief good; for that its light in him Is darken’d. And to dignity thus lost Is no return; unless, where guilt makes void, He for ill pleasure pay with equal pain. Your nature, which entirely in its seed Trangress’d, from these distinctions fell, no less Than from its state in Paradise; nor means Found of recovery (search all methods out As strickly as thou may) save one of these, The only fords were left through which to wade, Either that God had of his courtesy Releas’d him merely, or else man himself For his own folly by himself aton’d.

“Fix now thine eye, intently as thou canst, On th’ everlasting counsel, and explore, Instructed by my words, the dread abyss.

“Man in himself had ever lack’d the means Of satisfaction, for he could not stoop Obeying, in humility so low, As high he, disobeying, thought to soar: And for this reason he had vainly tried Out of his own sufficiency to pay The rigid satisfaction. Then behooved That God should by his own ways lead him back Unto the life, from whence he fell, restor’d: By both his ways, I mean, or one alone. But since the deed is ever priz’d the more, The more the doer’s good intent appears, Goodness celestial, whose broad signature Is on the universe, of all its ways To raise ye up, was fain to leave out none, Nor aught so vast or so magnificent, Either for him who gave or who receiv’d Between the last night and the primal day, Was or can be. For God more bounty show’d. Giving himself to make man capable Of his return to life, than had the terms Been mere and unconditional release. And for his justice, every method else Were all too scant, had not the Son of God Humbled himself to put on mortal flesh.

“Now, to fulfil each wish of thine, remains I somewhat further to thy view unfold. That thou mayst see as clearly as myself.

“I see, thou sayst, the air, the fire I see, The earth and water, and all things of them Compounded, to corruption turn, and soon Dissolve. Yet these were also things create, Because, if what were told me, had been true They from corruption had been therefore free.

“The angels, O my