Astounded, to the guardian of his steps Dante turned him, like the child who always runs thither for succour where he trusteth most, and she was like the mother who her son, beholding pale and breathless, with her voice soothes him, and he is cheered. Knowest not thou, thou art in heaven? she says, and knowest not thou, whatever is in heaven is holy, and that nothing there is done but is done zealously and well? Deem now what change in thee the song, and what my smile, had wrought, since thus the shout had power to move thee. In which, couldst thou have understood their prayers, the vengeance were already known to thee, which thou must witness ere thy mortal hour. The sword of heaven is not in haste to smite, nor yet doth linger, save unto his seeming who in desire or fear doth look for it. But elsewhere now I bid thee turn thy view, so shalt thou many a famous spirit behold. His eyes directing, as she willed, he saw a hundred little spheres, that fairer grew by interchange of splendour. He remained as one who, fearful of over-much presuming, abates in him the keenness of desire, nor dares to question, when amid those pearls one largest and most lustrous onward drew, that it might yield contentment to his wish, and from within it these the sounds he heard.
If thou, like me, beheldst the charity that burns amongst us, what thy mind conceives were uttered. But that, ere the lofty bound thou reach, expectance may not weary thee, I will make answer even to the thought which thou hast such respect of. In old days, that mountain, at whose side Cassino rests, was on its height frequented by a race deceived and ill disposed, and I it was who thither carried first the name of Him who brought the soul-subliming truth to man. And such a speeding grace shone over me, that from their impious worship I reclaimed the dwellers round about, who with the world were in delusion lost. These other flames, the spirits of men contemplative, were all enlivened by that warmth whose kindly force gives birth to flowers and fruits of holiness. Here is Macarius, Romoaldo here, and here my brethren, who their steps refrained within the cloisters, and held firm their heart. Dante answering, says the gentle words and kind, and this the cheerful semblance beaming in them all, have raised assurance in him, wakening it full-blossomed in his bosom, as a rose before the sun when the consummate flower has spread to utmost amplitude. Of thee therefore entreat I, father, to declare if I may gain such favour as to gaze upon thine image, by no covering veiled. Brother, he rejoins, in the last sphere expect completion of thy lofty aim, for there on each desire completion waits, and there on mine, where every aim is found perfect, entire, and for fulfilment ripe. There all things are as they have ever been, for space is none to bound, nor pole divides. Our ladder reaches even to that clime, and so at giddy distance mocks thy view. Thither the Patriarch Jacob saw it stretch its topmost round, when it appeared to him with angels laden. But to mount it now none lifts his foot from earth, and hence my rule is left a profitless stain upon the leaves. The walls, for abbey reared, turned into dens, the cowls to sacks choked up with musty meal. Foul usury doth not more lift itself against God's pleasure, than that fruit which makes the hearts of monks so wanton, for whatever is in the church's keeping, all pertains to such as sue for heaven's sweet sake, and not to those who in respect of kindred claim, or on more vile allowance. Mortal flesh is grown so dainty, good beginnings last not from the oak's birth unto the acorn's setting. His convent Peter founded without gold or silver, I with prayers and fasting mine, and Francis his in meek humility. And if thou note the point whence each proceeds, then look what it hath erred to, thou shalt find the white grown murky. Jordan was turned back, and a less wonder, then the refluent sea, may at God's pleasure work amendment here.
So saying, to his assembly back he drew, and they together clustered into one, then all rolled upward like an eddying wind. The sweet dame beckoned Dante to follow them, and by that influence only so prevailed over his nature, that no natural motion, ascending or descending here below, had, as he mounted, with his pennon vied. So, reader, as his hope is to return unto the holy triumph, for the which he ofttimes wails his sins and smites his breast, thou hadst been longer drawing out and thrusting thy finger in the fire, than he was, ere the sign that followeth Taurus he beheld, and entered its precinct. O glorious stars, O light impregnate with exceeding virtue, to whom whatever of genius lifteth him above the vulgar, grateful he refers. With ye the parent of all mortal life arose and set, when he did first inhale the Tuscan air, and afterward, when grace vouchsafed him entrance to the lofty wheel that in its orb impels ye, fate decreed his passage at your clime. To you his soul devoutly sighs, for virtue even now to meet the hard emprise that draws him on. Thou art so near the sum of blessedness, said Beatrice, that behooves thy ken be vigilant and clear. And, to this end, or even thou advance thee further, hence look downward, and contemplate what a world already stretched under our feet there lies, so as thy heart may, in its blithest mood, present itself to the triumphal throng which through the ethereal concave comes rejoicing. He straight obeyed, and with his eye returned through all the seven spheres, and saw this globe so pitiful of semblance, that perforce it moved his smiles, and him in truth he holds for wisest, who esteems it least, whose thoughts elsewhere are fixed, him worthiest call and best. He saw the daughter of Latona shine without the shadow whereof late he deemed that dense and rare were cause. Here he sustained the visage, Hyperion, of thy sun, and marked how near him with their circle round move Maia and Dione, here discerned Jove's tempering 'twixt his sire and son, and hence their changes and their various aspects distinctly scanned. Nor might he not descry of all the seven, how bulky each, how swift, nor of their several distances not learn. This petty area, over the which we stride so fiercely, as along the eternal twins he wound his way, appeared before him all, forth from the havens stretched unto the hills. Then to the beauteous eyes his eyes returned.
