Inferno: Canto XI

Upon the edge of a high bank, formed by large broken stones in a circle, we came above a still more cruel throng;

and here, because of the horrible excess of stench which the deep abyss throws out, we approached it under cover

of a great monument, whereon I saw a writing that said: “I hold Pope Anastasius, whom Photinus drew from the straight way.”

“Our descent we must delay, till sense be somewhat used to the dismal blast, and then we shall not heed it.”

Thus the Master; and I said to him: “Find some compensation, that the time may not be lost.” And he: “Thou seest that I intend it.

My Son, within these stones,” he then began to say, “are three circlets in gradation, like those thou leavest.

They all are filled with spirits accurst; but, that the sight of these hereafter may of itself suffice thee, hearken how and wherefore they are pent up.

Of all malice, which gains hatred in Heaven, the end is injury; and every such end, either by force or by fraud, aggrieveth others.

But because fraud is a vice peculiar to man, it more displeases God; and therefore the fraudulent are placed beneath, and more pain assails them.

All the first circle is for the violent; but as violence may be done to three persons, it is formed and distinguished into three rounds.

To God, to one’s self, and to one’s neighbour, may violence be done; I say in them and in their things, as thou shalt hear with evident discourse.

By force, death and painful wounds may be inflicted upon one’s neighbour; and upon his substance, devastations, burnings, and injurious extortions:

wherefore the first round torments all homicides and every one who strikes maliciously, all plunderers and robbers, in different bands.

A man may lay violent hand upon himself, and upon his property: and therefore in the second round must every one repent in vain

who deprives himself of your world, gambles away and dissipates his wealth, and weeps there where he should be joyous.

Violence may be done against the Deity, in the heart denying and blaspheming Him; and disdaining Nature and her bounty:

and hence the smallest round seals with its mark both Sodom and Cahors, and all who speak with disparagement of God in their hearts.

Fraud, which gnaws every conscience, a man may practise upon [one] who confide[s] in him; and upon [him] who repose[s] no confidence.

This latter mode seems only to cut off the bond of love which Nature makes: hence in the second circle nests

hypocrisy, flattery, sorcerers, cheating, theft and simony, pandars, barrators, and like filth.

In the other mode is forgotten that love which Nature makes, and also that which afterwards is added, giving birth to special trust:

hence in the smallest circle, at the centre of the universe and seat of Dis, every traitor is eternally consumed.”

And I: “Master, thy discourse proceeds most clearly, and excellently distinguishes this gulf, and the people that possess it.

But tell me: Those of the fat marsh; those whom the wind leads, and whom the rain beats; and those who meet with tongues so sharp,—

why are they not punished in the red city, if God’s anger be upon them? and if not, why are they in such plight?”

And he [said] to me: “Wherefore errs thy mind so much beyond its wont? or are thy thoughts turned somewhere else?

Rememberest thou not the words wherewith thy Ethics treat of the three dispositions which Heaven wills not,

incontinence, malice, and mad bestiality? and how incontinence less offends God, and receives less blame?

If thou rightly considerest this doctrine, and recallest to thy memory who they are that suffer punishment above, without,

thou easily wilt see why they are separated from these fell spirits, and why, with less anger. Divine Justice strikes them.”

“O Sun! who healest all troubled vision, thou makest so glad when thou resolvest me, that to doubt is not less grateful than to know.

Turn thee yet a little back” [I said], “to where thou sayest that usury offends the Divine Goodness, and unravel the knot.”

He said to me: “Philosophy, to him who hears it, points out, not in one place alone, how Nature takes her course

from the Divine Intellect, and from its art; and if thou note well thy Physics, thou wilt find, not many pages from the first,

that your art, as far as it can, follows her, as the scholar does his master; so that your art is, as it were, the grandchild of the Deity.

By these two, if thou recallest to thy memory Genesis at the beginning, it behoves man to gain his bread and [to prosper].

And because the usurer takes another way, he contemns Nature in herself and in her follower, placing elsewhere his hope.

But follow me now, as it pleases me to go: for the Fishes [are quivering] on the horizon, and all the Wain lies over Caurus, and yonder far onwards we go down the cliff.”