"If the world could know the heart he hadIn begging bit by bit his livelihood,Though much it laud him, it would laud him more."(VI, 140.)
Justinian's words as to the crucifixion of Christ suggest to Dante this question: Why was man's redemption effected by the death of Christ upon the Cross rather than by some other mode? Investing the argumentative propositions of St. Thomas with poetic beauty, Dante shows that while God might have freely pardoned man withoutexacting any satisfaction, on the hypothesis that He had chosen to restore mankind to His favor and at the same time to require full satisfaction as a condition of pardon and deliverance, there was only one way for the accomplishment of this reconciliation and that was by the atonement of One who was both God and Man. For sin, inasmuch as it is an act against the Infinite Being, requires a satisfaction of infinite value. Man being finite is incapable of adequately making such satisfaction. But the Word was made flesh that by His atonement on the Cross Mercy would be declared and Justice would be satisfied.
"Your nature, when it sinned in its totality in its first seed, from these dignities, even as from Paradise, was parted; nor might they be recovered, if thou look right keenly, by any way save passing one or the other of these fords: either that God, of his sole courtesy, should have remitted; or that man should of himself have given satisfaction for his folly. Man had not power, within his own boundaries, even to render satisfaction, since he might not go in humbleness by after-obedience so deep down as in disobedience he had framed to exalt himself on high; and this is the cause why from the power to render satisfaction by himself man was shut off. Wherefore needs must God with his own ways reinstate man in his unmaimed life, I mean with one way or with both the two. But becausethe doer's deed is the more gracious the more it doth present us of the heart's goodness whence it issued, the divine Goodness which doth stamp the world, deigned to proceed on all his ways to lift you up again; nor between the last night and the first day was, nor shall be, so lofty and august a progress made on one or on the other, for more generous was God in giving of himself to make man able to uplift himself again, than had he only of himself granted remission; and all other modes fell short of justice, except the Son of God had humbled him to become flesh." (VII, 85.)
From Mercury to Venus the ascent has been so rapid that Dante is unaware that he has reached the third Heaven until he sees the greater loveliness of Beatrice represented by her greater radiance. As ascent is made heavenward it will also be found that the spirits are seen not as human faces, as was the case in the Heaven of the Moon, but as lights increasing in intensity and manifesting a movement of greater speed to the accompaniment of diverse music. It is necessary to keep in mind this plan of the poet lest thinking the lovely lights, and lovely sounds and lovely movements are only terms descriptive of physical, though impalpable phenomena, we lose the deep and beautiful symbolism that is the magic secret of the seraphic poesy of the Paradiso. Of the brilliancyand movement of the spirits of the Sphere of Venus—spirits who in this life failed in Christian ideals because of their amours, Dante says, and his description is that of an expert musician distinguishing between the singing of one who sustains the main-theme and that of other voices rising and falling in subordination to the principal melody:
"And as within a flame a spark is seen,And as within a voice discerned,When one is steadfast, and one comes and goes,Within that light beheld I other lampsMove in a circle, speeding more and less,Methinks in a measure of their inward vision.From a cold cloud descended never winds,Or visible or not, so rapidlyThey would not laggard and impeded seemTo any one who had those lights divineSeen come towards us, leaving the gyrationBegun at first in the high Seraphim.And behind those that most in front appearedSounded 'Osanna!' so that never sinceTo hear again was I without desire.Then unto us more nearly one approached,And it alone began: 'We all are readyUnto thy pleasure, that thou joy in us.We turn around with the celestial Princes,One gyre and one gyration and one thirst,To whom thou in the world didst say,"Ye who, intelligent, the third heaven are moving;"And are so full of love, to pleasure theeA little quiet will not be less sweet.'"(VIII, 16.)
The speaker discloses himself to be Charles Martel, once titular King of Hungary, who on the occasion of a nineteen days' visit to Florence, formed an intimate friendship with the poet. For the latter's edification the spirit expounds the problem: Why from the same parents, children grow up different in disposition, talent and career, a problem just as interesting to the twentieth as the thirteenth century. We account for the difference according to the principles of variation, heredity and environment, but to stellar influence intent upon securing the fulfillment of the law of individuality, was the difference attributed by the medieval mind, which regarded the stars and planets not as soulless spheres, but as orbs palpitating with the life of angelic intelligences and radiating their influence upon the people of the earth.
Hence it was held that the Heavens affected the diversity of the characters of childrenwho otherwise would be cut out the exact pattern of their parents. "The begotten nature would ever take a course like its begetters, did not divine provision overrule." (VIII, 136.) The necessity for diversity in man's life is deduced from the fact that in society men are providentially destined for different vocations. "Wherefore is one born Solon (a legislator), another Xerxes (a soldier), another Melchisedech (a priest), and the man who soaring through the welkin lost his son." (Daedalus, the typical mechanician.) But stellar influence always controlled by man's free will is often ignored, especially when we put into the sanctuary one who should be on the battle field and when we gave a throne to him whose right place is in the pulpit.
"And if the world below would fix its mindOn the foundation which is laid by nature,Pursuing that, 't would have the people good.But you into religion wrench asideHim who was born to gird him with the sword,And make a king of him who is for sermons;Therefore your footsteps wander from the road."(VIII, 142.)
The next four spheres being beyond the earth's shadow are for spirits whose virtue was undimmedby human infirmity and whose place in eternal life is consequently one of greater vision and bliss. In the first of these higher spheres, the Sphere of the Sun, the fourth Heaven, Dante sees the spirits of great theologians and others who loved wisdom—great teachers of men. Around him and Beatrice, as their center, twelve of them appear in one circle and twelve in another, while behind those dazzling splendors of spirits are other vivid lights probably representing authors whom the poet had not read or comprehended or symbolizing the men of science, the lovers of wisdom, who in the future by their discoveries would add to our knowledge of truth. As one of the basic truths of Revelation is the mystery of the Blessed Trinity, here in the Heaven of the Doctors the dogma is made prominent by special frequency of reference and symbolism. The Creation, as an act of the Three Divine Persons, is mentioned in lines of exquisite grace:
"Looking into His Son with all the LoveWhich each of them eternally breathes forthThe primal and unutterable PowerWhate'er before the mind or eye revolvesWith so much order made, there can be noneWho thus beholds, without enjoying it."(X, 1.)
Not only by thought, but by dancing, is the same truth expressed: "those burning suns round aboutus whirled themselves three times." (X, 76.) Again in song they proclaim the mystery of the Holy Trinity:
"The One and Two and Three who ever livethAnd reigneth ever in Three and Two and OneNot circumscribed and all circumscribingThree several times was chanted by each oneAmong those spirits, with such melodyThat for all merit it were just reward."(XIV, 27.)
In this Heaven we hear the eulogy of St. Francis of Assisi pronounced by a Dominican and the praises of St. Dominic sung by a Franciscan—consummate art that is an indirect invitation to the two orders of monks upon earth to avoid jealousy and to practice mutual respect. It has been said that these narratives give us the essence of what constitutes true biography, viz., a picture of the spiritual element in man drawn in such words as ever to command the understanding and elicit the respect of the reader of every period. The first speaker is St. Thomas Aquinas, and his reference to the mystical marriage of St. Francis and Lady Poverty will be the better understood if we have before the mind's eye Giotto's painting which hangs over the tomb of the founder of the Franciscans. The figures in the picturesare described by Gardiner (Ten Heavens, p. 113): Christ, standing upon a rock, unites St. Francis to his chosen bride, who is haggard and careworn, clothed in ragged and patched garments, barefooted and girded with a cord. Roses and lilies spring up behind her and encircle her head; she wears the aureole and has wings, though weak; but thorns and briars are around her feet. Hope and Love are her bridesmaids; Hope clothed in green with uplifted hand and Love with flame-colored flowers and holding a burning heart. A dog is barking at the Bride and boys are assaulting her with sticks and stones, but all around are bands of angelic witnesses, their flowing raiment and mighty wings glowing with rainbow hues. In these days when money seems the ideal of thousands, Poverty, whose mystical appeal is so glowingly painted, still speaks to great numbers of men and women who give up material comforts and ease to embrace as monks and nuns the state of voluntary poverty. Let us now hear how St. Thomas recounts the life and work of St. Francis of Assisi:
"He was not yet much distant from his rising,When his good influence 'gan to bless the earth.A dame, to whom one openeth pleasure's gateMore than to death, was 'gainst his father's will,His stripling choice; and he did make her his,Before the spiritual court, by nuptial bonds,And in his father's sight: from day to day,Then loved her more devoutly. She, bereavedOf her first husband, slighted and obscure,Thousand and hundred years and more, remain'dWithout a single suitor, till he came.There concord and glad looks, wonder and love,And sweet regard gave birth to holy thoughts,So much that venerable Bernard firstDid bare his feet, and, in pursuit of peaceSo heavenly, ran, yet deem'd his footing slow.O hidden riches! O prolific good!Egidius bares him next, and next Sylvester,And follow, both, the bridegroom: so the brideCan please them. Thenceforth goes he on his wayThe father and the master, with his spouse,And with that family, whom now the cordGirt humbly: nor did abjectness of heartWeigh down his eyelids, for that he was sonOf Pietro Bernardone, and by menIn wondrous sort despised. But royallyHis hard intention he to InnocentSet forth; and, from him, first received the sealOn his religion. Then, when numerous flock'dThe tribe of lowly ones, that tracedhissteps,Whose marvelous life deservedly were sungIn heights empyreal; through Honorius' handA second crown, to deck their Guardian's virtues,Was by the eternal Spirit inwreathed: and whenHe had, through thirst of martyrdom, stood upIn the proud Soldan's presence, and there preach'dChrist and his followers, but found the raceUnripen'd for conversion; back once moreHe hasted (not to intermit his toil),And reap'd Ausonian lands. On the hard rock,'Twixt Arno and the Tiber, he from ChristTook the last signet, which his limbs two yearsDid carry. Then, the season come that he,Who to such good had destined him, was pleasedTo advance him to the meed, which he had earn'dBy his self-humbling; to his brotherhood,As their just heritage, he gave in chargeHis dearest lady: and enjoin'd their loveAnd faith to her; and, from her bosom, will'dHis goodly spirit should move forth, returningTo its appointed kingdom; nor would haveHis body laid upon another bier."(XI, 55.)
At the conclusion of this discourse the spirits in both circles, arranged like the concentric circles of a double rainbow, express their joy by a gyrating dance and song.
If St. Francis was "a sun upon the world," St. Dominic is shown by the next speaker, St. Bonaventure, to be "a splendor of cherubic delight.""In happy Callaroga was born the passionate lover of the Christian faith, the holy champion, gentle to his own, and without mercy to his enemies. As soon as his soul had been created it was so replete with energy that, within his mother's womb, it made her a prophetess. When the pledges for his baptism had been given at the sacred font, and he and Faith had become one, dowering each other with salvation, the lady who had given assent for him, beheld in her sleep the wonderful fruit which would one day come of him, and of his heirs. He was named Dominic. I speak of him as the husbandman whom Christ chose to assist Him with His garden. Of a truth did he seem Christ's messenger and friend, for the very first inclination which he manifested was to follow the first percept which Christ gave. Not for the world, love of which at present makes men toil, but for love of the true manna, did he, in short while, become a mighty teacher, such that he set about pruning the vineyard of the church, which soon runs wild if the vinedresser be negligent.
"From the Papal chair which, in former days, was more generous to the righteous poor, not because it has grown degenerate in itself, but because of the degeneracy of him who sits upon it, Dominic begged not to be allowed to dispense to the poor only two or three where six was due, norsought the first vacant benefice, the tithes of which belong to God's poor. He begged rather for leave to fight against the erring world in behalf of the seed of true faith, four and twenty plants of which encircle you. Then, armed with doctrine and firm determination, together with the sanction of the Papacy, he issued forth like a torrent from on high, and on heretics his onslaught smote with greatest force where was most resistance. Afterward, from him there burst forth various streams by which the Catholic garden is watered so that the plants in it are becoming vigorous." (XII, 48.)
Transported into the Heaven of Mars Dante is made aware of his ascent thither only by the glow of the ruddy planet, so different from the white sheen of the sun. At once he beholds a spectacle far more marvelous than the circles of dancing lights he has just seen. It fills him with such wonder and bliss that he falls into an ecstasy and only after that does he look into the eyes of Beatrice, now more lovely than ever. What is the new marvel? A starry cross traversing the sphere—a cross, the arms and body of which, each like a Milky Way, are made up of dazzling lights of the souls of those who laid down their lives for the Faith. On the Cross is flashed the blood red image of the Crucified, likewise formed by glowing stars, the souls of Christian warriors.Not stationary do the splendors remain, but through the glittering mass they dart to and fro like motes in a sunbeam that finds its way through a shutter or screen. With eyes amazed the poet now hears such a wondrous melody that he says: "I was so much enamoured therewith that up to this point there had not been anything which bound me with fetters of such delight." (XIV, 128.)
The names of some of the spirits forming the Stellar Cross are made known to the poet—Joshua and Judas Maccabaeus, the intrepid heroes of the Old Testament, the Christian Knights, Charlemagne and Orlando the Paladin, William of Aquitaine and Rainouart, Godfrey de Bouillon, conqueror of Jerusalem, Robert Guiscard, military executor of Pope Hildebrande.
Darting along the arm of the Stellar Cross and coming to its foot is a splendor who greets Dante with warm affection. This is the spirit of his great-great-grandfather, Cacciaguida, who sings the glory of ancient Florence the better to describe the deterioration of the city in Dante's day and to censure its people for their civil feuds, corruption and opposition to the Imperial Eagle. Then at Dante's request the crusader spirit interprets for his descendant the various predictions made to the latter during his passage through Hell and Purgatory. Evil days will come upon him(it must be remembered that this prophecy by Cacciaguida is supposed to occur a year or two before Dante's exile), he will be exiled from Florence and will become a homeless wanderer.
Let him, however, write his poem and declare his vision, no matter if offense will be taken by the high ones of the earth. He, having a prophet's work to do, must speak with all the boldness of a prophet without fear or dissimulation. The words, while assuring the poet of the sweetness of everlasting fame, bring to his mind, also, the bitterness of the injustice of his exile and suffering, and apparently he harbors the thought of vengeance upon his enemies. Beatrice, however, checks his resentment, assuring him that she, so near to God, will assist him—a most beautiful passage showing the relations between her and the poet, whether the words are taken literally as exhibiting her as his intercessor before the throne of the Most High, or allegorically considered as declaring that Revealed Truth takes from man the desire of vengeance and places his case in the hands of Him who has said: "Vengeance is mine, I will repay." For Dante's spiritual perfection his lovely guide bids him not simply look into her her eyes (allegorically meaning not merely to contemplate theological truth) but follow the example of men sturdy of faith and valiant of deed. The passage here follows:
"Now was alone rejoicing in its wordThat soul beatified, and I was tastingMy own, the bitter tempering with the sweet,And the Lady who to God was leading meSaid: 'Change thy thought; consider that I amNear unto Him who every wrong disburdens.'Unto the loving accents of my comfortI turned me round, and then what love I sawWithin those holy eyes I here relinquishNot only that my language I distrust,But that my mind cannot return so farAbove itself, unless another guide it.Thus much upon that point can I repeat.That, her again beholding, my affectionFrom every other longing was released.While the eternal pleasure, which directRayed upon Beatrice, from her fair faceContented me with its reflected aspect,Conquering me with the radiance of a smileShe said to me, 'Turn thee about and listen;Not in mine eyes alone is Paradise.Here are blessed spirits that below, ere yetThey came to Heaven, were of such great renownThat every Muse therewith would affluent beTherefore look thou upon the cross' horns.'"(XVIII, 4.)
Now rising to Jupiter, where appear the spirits of those who upon earthin a signal manner loved and rightly administered justice, Dante isgain made aware of his uplifting by the increased beauty of Beatrice, by the new light different from that of ruddy Mars, which envelopes him and by the perception of his own increase of virtue and power. Here the poet has recourse to a most ingenious system of symbols to give variety to his descriptions and doctrine, and so to sustain the interest of the reader. Many hundreds of the souls of the just appear as golden lights and so group themselves as to spell against the glowing white background of the light of the planet, the maxim from the Book of Wisdom: "Diligite justitiam qui judicatis terram" (Love justice ye who judge the earth.) Then fade away all the letters except the last one, the M of terram, M, symbol of Monarchy, and that M stands out in general outline somewhat like the Florentine lily, the armorial sign of Florence. And now other golden lights come from the Empyrean and transform the M into the figure of an eagle, the bird of Jove, with outstretched wings. But the marvel is only partly revealed, for soon the Eagle speaks and its voice, though made up of a thousand voices of the Just, comes forth a single sound, like a single heat that comes from many brands or the one odor that is exhaled from many flowers.
What a startling spectacle it must have been to the mind of the thirteenth century, used to candles as the ordinary means ofillumination, to have visualized before it the blessed spirits in the light of Heaven, dancing, whirling, circling in perfect harmony and making more formal designs to express their bliss by the rapidity of their rhythmical movements! Even though exquisitely quaint as the picture may appear to us, it has been executed so reverently that criticism has rarely if ever attacked this conception of our poet. With light as his principal material to make known to us the joys of Heaven, he has to paint everything in high light, using no shadows and he solves his artistic problem by the variety of his "splendors" and by the deep symbolism of their action. His nine Heavens are not meant to be a picture true to reality of what the Souls in Heaven are doing. These nine Heavens, as we said before, are only myths to which from the Empyrean come forth the Elect in condescension to Dante's sense-bound faculties, in order to symbolize certain truths. So in this sixth sphere the poet would teach us that the Heaven of Jupiter represents justice on earth and on the screen of this sphere he would put forth by means of the Imperial Eagle the arguments he has already advanced in his Monarchia that the Roman Empire is divine in its origin—that only from such an institution can human justice proceed from civil government. He represents unity coming from the Roman Empire by his showing to us theunison with which all the splendors of the Eagle speak in a voice blended as one sound—clearly also an allegory for the Guelf forces to become an integral part of the Universal Monarchy.
Justice is the quality which this Heaven symbolizes and the Eagle reads in Dante's mind a doubt against the operation of justice and proceeds to dispel it.
"For saidst thou: 'Born a man is on the shoreOf Indus, and is none who there can speakOf Christ, nor who can read, nor who can write;And all his inclinations and his actionsAre good, so far as human reason sees,Without a sin in life or in discourse:He dieth unbaptized and without faith;Where is this justice that condemneth him?Where is his fault, if he do not believe?'"(XIX, 70.)
The question is answered both directly and indirectly. The exclusion of the virtuous pagan from Heaven is assumed to be an act of injustice "but who art thou who wouldst set upon the seat to judge at a thousand miles away with the short sight that carries but a span?" (XIX, 79.) As ourvery idea of justice comes from God all just and all wise, that thought ought to assure us that not even the virtuous heathen will be excluded from Heaven. Faith indeed is required for salvation, but many having faith will be condemned, while many seemingly without it will be admitted into Heaven.
"But look thou, many crying are, 'Christ, Christ'!Who at the judgment will be far less nearTo him than some shall be who knew not Christ.Such Christians shall the Ethiop condemnWhen the two companies shall be divided,The one forever rich, the other poor."(XIX, 106.)
The indirect answer to Dante's objection as to the exclusion of the virtuous heathen from Heaven is given by the poet speaking through the beak of the Eagle and showing in this Heaven as one of the lights of the Eagle itself, the soul of Rhipeus mentioned by Æneas "as above all others the most just among the Trojans and the strictest observer of right." "So now," says Benvenuto, the fourteenth century lecturer on Dante, "our author fitly introduces a pagan infidel in the person of Rhipeus, of whose salvation there would seem the very slightest chance of all; by reason of the time, so many centuries before the advent ofChrist; by reason of the place, for he was of Troy where exceeding pride was then paramount; by reason of the sect, for he was a pagan and gentile, not a Jew. Briefly then our author wishes us to gather from this fiction—this conclusion,—that even such a pagan of whose salvation no one hoped, is capable of salvation."
In the Heaven of Saturn, Beatrice tells the poet that she does not smile out of regard for his human vision not powerful enough to sustain her excess of beauty. The lovely symphonies of Paradise are also silent for the same reason. This in effect is a poetical way of saying that the bliss and glory in Saturn are greater than any beatitude in the lower spheres.
This seventh Heaven is the Heaven where appear saints distinguished for contemplation, the principle representatives being St. Peter Damian and St. Benedict. The latter wrote a treatise in which he likened the rule of his order to a ladder having twelve rungs by means of which the mystic might mount to Heaven. The second rung in that ladder is silence. If Dante was familiar with the Benedictine treatise, the significance of silence in Saturn is at once suggested. The figure of a ladder is a very common one in mystical theology, which borrows the conception from the experience of Jacob (Gen. XXVIII, 12). "And he saw in his sleep a ladder standing upon the earth andthe top thereof touching heaven, the angels also of God ascending and descending." To symbolize the truth that Heaven is to be reached through the Church by means of the contemplation of eternal things Dante now shows us the Golden Ladder, down which gleam so many radiant spirits that it seems as if all the stars of Heaven are approaching.
"Colored like gold, on which the sunshine gleams,A stairway I beheld to such a heightUplifted, that mine eye pursued it not.Likewise beheld I down the steps descendingSo many splendors, that I thought each lightThat in the heaven appears was there diffused."(XXI, 28.)
In the Heaven of the Fixed Stars the triumph of Christ gladdens the wondering eyes of the poet:
"Behold the hosts of Christ's triumphal march and all the fruit harvested by the rolling of these spheres."
At these words of Beatrice Dante turns and beholds all the saints seen in the other spheres and many other spirits gathered round the God-man to praise Him for the Redemption and Atonement. Christ here reveals Himself in the form of a gorgeous Sun surrounded by those countless spirits, appearing as lights or flowers.Apparently the poet gets just a momentary glimpse of the glorified humanity of the Saviour. The direct rays of the divine splendor cannot long be endured, so, in condescension to Dante's weakness of vision, a cloudy screen permits the poet to sustain the Vision now irradiating its light on the living, spiritual flowers.
"Saw I, above the myriad of lamps,A sun that one and all of them enkindled,E'en as our own doth the supernal sights,And through the living light transparent shoneThe lucent substance so intensely clearInto my sight, that I sustained it not.'O Beatrice, thou gentle guide and dear!'To me she said: 'What overmasters theeA virtue is from which naught shields itself.There are the wisdom and the omnipotenceThat ope the thoroughfares 'twixt heaven and earthFor which there erst had been so long a yearning.'"(XXIII, 28.)
After Christ withdraws to the Empyrean the poet finds that he has been so much strengthened and enlightened by the Vision that increased power of sight is given to him again to behold the smile of his guide. She says to him:
"Open thine eyes and look at what I amThou has beheld such things, that strong enoughHast thou become to tolerate my smile."(XXIII, 46.)
He continues in ecstasy to gaze upon her surpassing beauty until she bids him look upon the "meadow of flowers," the angels and saints:
"Why doth my face so much enamor thee,That to the garden fair thou turnest not,Which under the rays of Christ is blossoming?There is the Rose in which the Word DivineBecame incarnate; there the lilies areBy whose perfume the good way was discovered."(XXIII, 70.)
The lilies are the apostles, the Rose the Blessed Virgin Mary. "Mary," says Cardinal Newman, "is the most beautiful flower that ever was seen in the spiritual world. She is the Queen of spiritual flowers and therefore she is called Rose, for the rose is fitly called of all flowers that most beautiful." Dante says: "The name of the fair flower that I e'er invoke morning and night utterly enthralled my soul to gaze upon the greater fire." Now with joy the poet sees the coronation by the spirits of Mary, Mystical Rose, and thenhis eyes follow her as she mounts to the Empyrean in the wake of her divine Son while the gleaming saints sing her praises in theRegina Coeli.
The eight Heavens through which the poet has come, have been so many stages of preparation for the final vision of Paradise. His eyes have been gradually gaining strength by gazing upon miracles of light and beauty and by seeing truth embodied in many representative forms to fit him finally to see God in His Essence. Before that consummation, however, one more preparatory vision is necessary. The poet must first see the symbolic image of God. "What!" you may exclaim, "will Dante be audacious enough to attempt to picture the Invisible Himself? Granted that 'he is all wings and pure imagination' can he hope to image the Incomprehensible Being 'who only hath immortality and inhabiteth light inaccessible, whom no man hath seen nor can see?' (I Tim. VI, 16). Will he not defeat his purpose by employing a symbol circumscribing Him who is beyond circumscription?" But the genius of Dante does not fail him in his daring undertaking, and this is the more remarkable because instead of selecting as a symbol something infinitely large, he choses something atomically small. In the ninth Heaven surrounded by the nine orders of pure spirits God is represented "as an indivisible atomic Point radiatinglight and symbolizing the unity of the Divinity as a fitting prelude to the more intimate vision of the Blessed Trinity which will be vouchsafed in the Empyrean." "A Point I saw that darted light so sharp no lid unclosing may bear up against its keenness. On that Point depend the heavens and the whole of nature" (XXXVIII, 16).
On the appropriateness of this symbol Ozanam makes this interesting comment: "God reveals Himself as necessarily indivisible and consequently incapable of having ascribed to Him the abstraction of quantity and quality by which we know creatures: indefinable, because every definition is an analysis which decomposes the subject defined; incomparable because there are no terms to institute a comparison; so that one may say, giving the words an oblique meaning, that He is infinitely little, that He is nothing. But on the other hand, that which is without extension, moves without resistance; that which is not to be grasped, cannot be contained; that which can be enclosed within no limits, either actual or logical is by that very fact limitless. The infinitely little is then also the infinitely great and we may say that it is all." The indivisible atomic Point of intensest light as a symbol of God is indeed a sublime conception of faith and genius that appeals equally to the child, the philosopher and the mystic.
The supreme thing still necessary for the consummationof Dante's pilgrimage is the Beatific Vision of God. That occurs in the Empyrean where symbol gives way to reality, where the Elect are seen no longer in forms veiled in light but in the glorified semblance of their earthly bodies, where contemplation gives direct vision of God in His essence. How will the poet, while still in the flesh, endure this vision of the Infinite, Incomprehensible Eternal God? Prepared as he has been by the experiences of the nine Heavens, he has still further need of supernatural assistance. That is now given to him by means of a flash wrapping him in a garment of light, which blinds him and then illuminates his sight and intellect and enables him to see a more complete foreshadowing of truth dissolving into Divine Wisdom.
The spectacle he now beholds, perhaps suggested to the poet by the passage from the Apocalypse (XXII, 1). "And he showed me a river of water of life, clear as crystal proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb,"—the spectacle which now presents itself is that of a river of light flowing between two banks of flowers and vivid with darting sparks. The river represents illuminating grace, the sparks angels, the flowers saints. This river of light wherein are reflected the Elect, as verdure and flowers on a hillside are mirrored in a limpid stream at itsfoot, is poetically represented as having the effect of a sacrament. It bestows grace and that grace calledlumen gloriae, light of glory, endowing the soul with a faculty beyond its natural needs or merits, so disposes the soul that it becomes deiform and is rendered capable of immediate intuition of the Divine Essence.
"There is a light above, which visibleMakes the Creator unto every creatureWho only in beholding Him, has peace."(XXX, 100.)
Beatrice tells Dante that he must drink his fill of the stupendous splendor by gazing intently on the river of pure light, so that he may be able to contemplate the whole unveiled glory and then see God directly.
As Dante gazes on the illuminating stream it undergoes a marvelous transformation, taking the form of a Rose the center of which is a sea of radiance.
"And even as the penthouse of mine eyelidsDrank of it, it forthwith appeared to meOut of its length to be transformed to round.Then as a folk who have been under masksSeem other than before, if they divestThe semblance not their own they disappeared in,Thus into greater pomp were changed for meThe flowerets and the sparks, so that I sawBoth of the Courts of Heaven made manifest."(XXX, 87.)
The two courts of Heaven, angels and saints, are made manifest in the Rose which spreads out like a vast amphitheatre the lowest circle of which is wider than the circumference of the sun. Above the center of the Rose as the Point of light, is God in all His glory and love, adored in blissful raptures by the saints who form the petals of the heavenly flower. Angels with faces aflame, in white garments and with golden wings fly down to the petals as bees to flowers, bringing God's blessings to the saints and fly back to God as bees to their hive, carrying the adoration of the Elect.
Beatrice leads the poet into the center of the Heavenly Rose.
"Into the yellow of the Rose EternalThat spreads, and multiplies, and breathes an odorOf praise unto the ever-vernal Sun,As one who silent is and fain would speak,Me Beatrice drew on, and said: 'BeholdOf the white stoles how vast the convent is!Behold how vast the circuit of our city!Behold our seats so filled to overflowing,That here henceforward are few people wanting!'"(XXX, 124.)
While Dante gazes on the supernatural spectacle Beatrice slips away to take her place the third seat below the throne of the Blessed Virgin. As his guide she has led him to the highest Heaven and has instructed him in all that concerns God and His attributes. Her mission as Revelation or Divine Science being finished, she withdraws and sends St. Bernard to bring the poet into intimate union with the Godhead.
"The general form of Paradise alreadyMy glance had comprehended as a whole,In no part hitherto remaining fixed,And round I turned me with rekindled wishMy lady to interrogate of thingsConcerning which my mind was in suspense.One thing I meant, another answered me;I thought I should see Beatrice, and sawAn Old Man habited like the glorious people.O'er flowing was he in his eyes and cheeksWith joy benign, in attitude of pityAs to a tender father is becoming.And 'She, where is she?' instantly I said;Whence he: 'To put an end to thy desire,Me Beatrice hath sent from mine own place.And if thou lookest up to the third roundOf the first rank, again shalt thou behold herUpon the throne her merits have assigned her.'Without reply I lifted up mine eyes,And saw her, as she made herself a crownReflecting from herself the eternal rays.Not from that region which the highest thundersIs any mortal eye so far removed,In whatsoever sea it deepest sinks,As there from Beatrice my sight; but thisWas nothing unto me; because her imageDescended not to me by medium blurred."(XXXI, 52.)
St. Bernard, the mystic, celebrating the Blessed Virgin's praises in a marvelous outburst of song, unsurpassed for lyrical beauty, beseeches her intercession that Dante may see God face to face.
"Now doth this man, who from the lowest depthOf the universe as far as here has seenOne after one the spiritual lives,Supplicate thee through grace for so much powerThat with his eyes he may uplift himselfHigher towards the uttermost salvation.And I, who never burned for my own seeingMore than I do for his, all of my prayersProffer to thee, and pray they come not short,That thou wouldst scatter from him every cloudOf his mortality so with thy prayers,That the Chief Pleasure be to him displayed.Still farther do I pray thee, Queen, who canstWhate'er thou wilt, that sound thou mayst preserveAfter so great a vision his affections.Let thy protection conquer human movements;See Beatrice and all the blessed onesMy prayers to second clasp their hands to thee!The eyes beloved and revered of God,Fastened upon the speaker, showed to usHow grateful unto her are prayers devout;Then unto the Eternal Light they turned,On which it is not credible could beBy any creature bent an eye so clear."(XXXIII, 22.)
The prayer is granted. "My vision becoming undimmed, more and more entered the beam of light which in itself is Truth." (XXXIII, 52.) The veil is removed. He gazes into the limitless depths of the Divinity. He enjoys the Beatific Vision.
First he sees by immediate intuition the Divine Essence in its creative power, the examplar of all substances, modes and accidents united in harmony and love; then he beholds the Creator Himselfand all the divine perfections and all the eternal plans of God. Clear to the poet now is the truth of the mystery of the Blessed Trinity unveiled in circles of light like rainbows of green, white and red of equal circumference, the Second being as it were the splendor of the First and the Third emanating from the two others. Unravelled also is the mystery of the two natures human and divine, in the divine person of Christ seen in human form in the second luminous circle. But the Vision is so far above the poet's memory to retain or his speech to express that he cannot find words to make intelligible the splendor he beholds or the rapture he experiences.
"Oh grace abounding, wherein I presumed to fix my look on the eternal light so long that I consumed my sight thereon! Within its depths I saw ingathered, bound by love in one volume, the scattered leaves of all the universe; substance and accidents and their relations, as though together fused, after such fashion that what I tell of is one simple flame.
"In the profound and shining being of the deep light appeared to me three circles, of three colours and one magnitude; one by the second as Iris by Iris seemed reflected, and the third seemed a fire breathed equally from one and from the other. Oh, but how scant the utterance, and how faint, to my conceit! and it, to what I saw, is such thatit sufficeth not to call it little. O light eternal who only in thyself abidest, only thyself dost understand, and to thyself, self-understood, self-understanding, turnest love and smiling! That circling which appeared in thee to be conceived as a reflected light, by mine eyes scanned some little, in itself, of its own colour, seemed to be painted with our effigy, and thereat my sight was all committed to it.
"To the high fantasy here power failed; but already my desire and will were rolled—even as a wheel that moveth equally—by the Love that moves the sun and the other stars." (XXXIII, 82.)