Before a man bit into one of two →
foods equally removed and tempting, he
would die of hunger if his choice were free;
4 so would a lamb stand motionless between
the cravings of two savage wolves, in fear
of both; so would a dog between two deer;
7 thus, I need neither blame nor praise myself
when both my doubts compelled me equally:
what kept me silent was necessity.
10 I did not speak, but in my face were seen
longing and questioning, more ardent than
if spoken words had made them evident.
13 Then Beatrice did just as Daniel did, →
when he appeased Nebuchadnezzar’s anger,
the rage that made the king unjustly fierce.
16 She said: “I see how both desires draw you,
so that your anxiousness to know is self-
entangled and cannot express itself.
19 You reason: ‘If my will to good persists, →
why should the violence of others cause
the measure of my merit to be less?’
22 And you are also led to doubt because
the doctrine Plato taught would find support
by souls’ appearing to return to the stars.
25 These are the questions that, within your will,
press equally for answers; therefore, I
shall treat the most insidious question first.
28 Neither the Seraph closest unto God, →
nor Moses, Samuel, nor either John—
whichever one you will—nor Mary has,
31 I say, their place in any other heaven
than that which houses those souls you just saw,
nor will their blessedness last any longer.
34 But all those souls grace the Empyrean;
and each of them has gentle life—though some
sense the Eternal Spirit more, some less.
37 They showed themselves to you here not because
this is their sphere, but as a sign for you
that in the Empyrean their place is lowest.
40 Such signs are suited to your mind, since from
the senses only can it apprehend
what then becomes fit for the intellect.
43 And this is why the Bible condescends
to human powers, assigning feet and hands
to God, but meaning something else instead.
46 And Gabriel and Michael and the angel
who healed the eyes of Tobit are portrayed
by Holy Church with human visages.
49 That which Timaeus said in reasoning →
of souls does not describe what you have seen,
since it would seem that as he speaks he thinks.
52 He says the soul returns to that same star
from which—so he believes—it had been taken
when nature sent that soul as form to body;
55 but his opinion is, perhaps, to be
taken in other guise than his words speak,
intending something not to be derided.
58 If to these spheres he wanted to attribute
honor and blame for what they influence,
perhaps his arrow reaches something true.
61 This principle, ill-understood, misled
almost all of the world once, so that Jove
and Mercury and Mars gave names to stars.
64 The other doubt that agitates you is
less poisonous; for its insidiousness
is not such as to lead you far from me.
67 To mortal eyes our justice seems unjust;
that this is so, should serve as evidence
for faith—not heresy’s depravity.
70 But that your intellect may penetrate
more carefully into your other query,
I shall—as you desire—explain it clearly.
73 If violence means that the one who suffers →
has not abetted force in any way,
then there is no excuse these souls can claim:
76 for will, if it resists, is never spent,
but acts as nature acts when fire ascends,
though force—a thousand times—tries to compel.
79 So that, when will has yielded much or little,
it has abetted force—as these souls did:
they could have fled back to their holy shelter.
82 Had their will been as whole as that which held
Lawrence fast to the grate and that which made
of Mucius one who judged his own hand, then
85 once freed, they would have willed to find the faith
from which they had been dragged; but it is all
too seldom that a will is so intact.
88 And through these words, if you have grasped their bent, →
you can eliminate the argument
that would have troubled you again—and often.
91 But now another obstacle obstructs →
your sight; you cannot overcome it by
yourself—it is too wearying to try.
94 I’ve set it in your mind as something certain
that souls in blessedness can never lie,
since they are always near the Primal Truth.
97 But from Piccarda you were also able
to hear how Constance kept her love of the veil:
and here Piccarda seems to contradict me.
100 Before this—brother—it has often happened →
that, to flee menace, men unwillingly
did what should not be done; so did Alcmaeon,
103 to meet the wishes of his father, kill
his mother—not to fail in filial
piety, he acted ruthlessly.
106 At that point—I would have you see—the force →
to which one yielded mingles with one’s will;
and no excuse can pardon their joint act.
109 Absolute will does not concur in wrong;
but the contingent will, through fear that its
resistance might bring greater harm, consents.
112 Therefore, Piccarda means the absolute
will when she speaks, and I the relative;
so that the two of us have spoken truth.”
115 Such was the rippling of the holy stream →
issuing from the fountain from which springs
all truth: it set to rest both of my longings.
118 Then I said: “O beloved of the First
Lover, o you—divine—whose speech so floods
and warms me that I feel more and more life,
121 however deep my gratefulness, it can
not match your grace with grace enough; but He
who sees and can—may He grant recompense.
124 I now see well: we cannot satisfy
our mind unless it is enlightened by
the truth beyond whose boundary no truth lies. →
127 Mind, reaching that truth, rests within it as
a beast within its lair; mind can attain
that truth—if not, all our desires were vain.
130 Therefore, our doubting blossoms like a shoot
out from the root of truth; this natural
urge spurs us toward the peak, from height to height.
133 Lady, my knowing why we doubt, invites,
sustains, my reverent asking you about
another truth that is obscure to me.
136 I want to know if, in your eyes, one can
amend for unkept vows with other acts—
good works your balance will not find too scant.”
139 Then Beatrice looked at me with eyes so full
of sparks of love, eyes so divine that my
own force of sight was overcome, took flight,