Paradiso: Canto VII

"Hosanna, Sanctus Deus Sabaoth,
Superillustrans claritate tud
Felices ignes horum Malahoth."

Thus, turning to his song, appeared to say
That form I saw, upon whose kingly head
Shone, with a twofold lustre, twy-form ray.

It and the others danced in measured tread,
And like to sparks that flit their swift- winged way,'
In sudden distance from me vanished.

I doubted, and within me, " Say it, say,"
I cried, " O say it to my Lady fair.
Who with her sweet dew doth my cravings stay."

But that deep awe, which o'er me sway doth bear,
Whenever I or BE or ICE spell.
Bowed me as one who doth to sleep prepare.

Short while let Beatrice that doubt dwell,
And then began with such a radiant smile,
'Twould make a man i' the fire say, AH was well.

"My mind, which no deception can beguile.
Hath seen that thou o'er doubt how vengeance just
Can justly be avenged, dost brood awhile;

But I that bondage from thy mind will thrust:
And give thou heed, for know these words of mine
Will to thy soul a doctrine high intrust.

Because he would not power of will resign
To curb meant for his good, the man not born.
Damning himself, damned also all his line;

And so man's race lay feeble and forlorn,
For many an age, in grievous error's way,
Till God's Word pleased on earth to make sojourn,

Where man's frail nature, wont so far to stray
From its Creator, in one Person met
With IT, as Love Eternal showed the way.

Now fix thy glance at that before thee set:
This nature, with its own Creator wed,
Was pure and good, as when unfallen yet;

But by itself alone 'twas banished
From Paradise, because itself it tore
From way which would to truth and life have led.

If, therefore, by the nature that it bore
Be measured what the Cross wrought out of pain,
None ever had of righteous vengeance more.

But never was such cruel wrong again,
If we the Person suffering there behold.
Who did that nature with His own sustain.

Thus from one act spring things of diverse mould;
God and the Jews the same death did delight;
Earth quaked, and Heaven its portals did unfold.

It ought not then to seem hard in thy sight.
When it is said that righteous punishment
Was afterwards avenged by judgment right.

But now I see thy mind is straitly pent,
With thought on thought entangled and entwined,
From which to free itself it waits intent.

Thou say'st, 'What I now hear full clear I find,
But why this was God's will is unrevealed.
For our redemption this one way assigned.'

This His decree, my brother, lies concealed
From each man's eyes who doth a spirit own,
O'er which Love's fire no full-grown power doth wield.

Yet truly since at this same mark 'tis known
We may gaze long, with little clearly learned,
I'll tell why such plan was as worthiest shown.

Goodness Divine, which from Itself hath spurned
All envy, burning in Itself doth glow,
So that eternal beauties are discerned.

Whate'er from It doth as immediate flow.
No limit knows, because It knows no change,
Where, as a seal. It doth Its impress show.

Whate'er from It doth as immediate range,
Is wholly free, as subject unto none
Of things endowed with novel power and strange.

More it delights as it is more Its own,
For the blest beams that all irradiate
In that most like them are most vivid known.

In all these blessings doth participate
The human creature, and, if one should fail,
Needs must he fall from that his high estate.

Sin only can to disendow prevail.
And make him unlike to the Good Supreme,
For then but little doth Its light avail:

And ne'er can he his dignity redeem,
Unless, where sin leaves void, he satisfy
With righteous pains for evil's pleasant dream.

Your nature, when it sinned so utterly
In its first seed, was driven from Paradise,
As from the glory of such dignity:

Nor could it be regained, if, subtly wise,
Thou takest note, by any other way
Than that which through or this or that ford lies;

Either that God should put the guilt away
Of His free bounty, or that man for sin
Due satisfaction should in person pay.

Fix now thine eyes the deep abyss within
Of the eternal counsels, with thy might,
Bent the full meaning of my words to win.

Man, in his limitations, ne'er aright
Could satisfy, since ne'er could he descend.
Obeying now, depths answering to the height,

Which he thought, disobeying, to ascend;
And this the reason is why man could ne'er.
Left to himself, make due and full amend.

So was it meet that God the task should bear.
And in His own ways man's whole life renew;
I say, or in the one, or in the pair.

But forasmuch as favour doth accrue
To work from worker, as it doth disclose
Of that heart whence it springs the goodness true,

Goodness Divine, whose seal the whole world shows.
To work Its will, by all and every way,
To raise you up again to true life, chose:

Nor 'twixt the last night and the primal day
Was ever process so sublime and high
Wrought or by this or that, or shall for aye;

For God was far more bounteous in supply,"'
Giving Himself that man himself might raise,
Than if He of Himself had put sin by.

And scant and poor had proved all other ways
For claims of justice, but that God's own Son,
Become incarnate, should Himself abase.

And now to fill thy cravings every one,
I turn again one point to make more clear,
That thou may'st see it e'en as I have done.

Thou say'st, ' I see the fire, I see the air,
The earth and water, and each compound blent,
Last but a while and then corruption share.'

Yet these things God's creative work present;
Therefore, if that which I have said be sure,
Corruption's touch for them were never meant.

The angels, Brother, and this region pure
In which thou art, created we may call,
In their whole being, as they now endure;

But those, the elements thou namest, all,
And those things also which of them are made,
Formed by creative virtue, lower fall.

Created was the matter there displayed;
Created was that virtue which inspires
These stars, which rolling round them are conveyed.

The soul that every plant or brute acquires
Draws, with potential elements combined,"
The light and motion of those holy fires.

But this your life immediate source doth find
In the Supreme Beneficence, and Love
So fills it that It thither draws our mind.

And thus thou may'st with further reasoning prove
Your resurrection, if thou meditate
How human flesh was fashioned from above.

Then, when our two first parents were create."