menu_book Chapter 70

chapter seventy of jerusalem to revelations a quartet of spiritual experience by william blake and others this librivox recording is in the public domain recording by tony addison paradiso twenty-five the eighth or starry heaven the twins triumphant spirit st james examines dante on hope if e'er it happen that the sacred poem to which both heaven and earth have so set hand that it hath made me lean for many years o'ercome the fierceness which against me bars the lovely fold where as a lamb i slept though hostile to the wolves that give it war

then with another voice and other fleece a poet i'll return and at the font of mine own baptism take the laurel crown for there i entered first into the faith which makes souls known to god and peter later because of my belief thus wreathed my brow then toward us after this there moved a light out of the sphere from which the first fruit issued which of his vicars christ once left behind and full of joy my lady said to me look look behold the baron for whose sake men go to see galicia down on earth as when a dove alighteth near its mate each by its circling and its cooing shows the other its affection thus i saw one great and glorious prince the other greet and praise the food which sateth them up there but when their mutual gratulation ceased

before me each in silence stopped and flamed so brightly that my face was forced to bow then smiling illustrious life by whom the generous liberality of our basilica was once described let hope resound upon these heavenly heights thou knowest that thou didst stand for it as oft has jesus showed most brightness to the three lift up thy head and reassure thyself for all that cometh from the mortal world uphither must be ripened in our rays this comfort reached me from the second fire hence to the hills i raised mine eyes which erst had bowed them down by their excessive weight sins of his graciousness our emperor wills that thou before thy death shouldst face his counts in his most secret hall

that having seen the truth in this our court thou mayest confirm both in thyself and other souls the hope which rightfully enamours men on earth say what it is and how therewith thy mind is blossoming and whence it came to thee thus further did the second light proceed and that kind soul who to so high a flight had led the feathers of my wings forestalled my answer thus no child of greater hope hath the church militant as in the sun is written which irradiates all our band it therefore hath been granted him to come from egypt to jerusalem and see or ere the period of his warfare thine other two requests made not for knowledge but so that he may carry back with them to what extent this virtue pleases thee

i leave to him for they will not be hard for him nor matter for self-praise to these let him reply and may god's grace assist him even as in that wherein he expert is a pupil readily and willingly answers his teacher that his worth be shown hope is i said a steadfast expectation of future glory which by grace divine and by preceding merit is produced this light from many stars comes down to me but he into my heart instilled at first who was the greatest leader's greatest bard for let them hope in thee that know thy name the latter in his theody declares and if he have my faith who knows it not then thou with his instilling didst so greatly instill that hope in me with thine epistle that filled with it i pour your rain on others

while i was speaking in the living bosom of that great fire a bright effulgence quivered quickly and often like a lightning flash and then it breathed the love wherewith i still warmed to the virtue which once followed me till with the palm i issued from the field would have me give my breath to thee again that dost therein delight and i am pleased to have thee say what promise hope affords thee and i the scriptures both the new and old the goal establish of the souls whom god hath made his friends this points it out to me isaiah says that each in his own land will in a double garment be arrayed and his own land is this sweet life of ours and in a more explicit way thy brother makes this same revelation manifest to us whereof the snow-white robes he treats after these words had ended first was heard above us

let them hope in thee whereto all of the carols made reply and then a light became so brilliant in their midst that if the crab had such a crystal stir winter would have a month of one sole day and as a happy maiden rising goes in honour of the bride to join the dance and not for any failing on her part even so i saw the splendour brighter groom approach the two who in a wheel were turning as if behoved the ardour of their love into the song and music then it entered and on the three my lady kept her gaze silent and motionless as would a bride this is the one who on his breast reclined who is our pelican and from the cross selected was to hold the filial office even thus my lady spoke but no more after did her words withdraw her eyes from fixed attention than before even as is he who gazes at the sun and tries to see it partially eclipsed and who

because of seeing groweth blind such i became before that latest fire till this was said why dost thou blind thyself to see a thing which hath no being here earth is my body on the earth and there will with the others stay until our number shall with the eternal purpose correspond with both their garments in the blessed cloister are those two lights alone which hither rose and this shalt thou take back unto your world stilled was the flaming circle of these words and with them the sweet mixture which was formed out of the music of the threefold breath as from fatigue or danger to escape oars which had stroked the water just before are at a whistle sound all brought to rest ah how disturbed in mind i then became when i turned round to look at beatrice because i could not see her now though close to her i was

and in the happy world paradiso twenty-six the eighth o'er starry heaven the twins st john examines dante on love adam while i was frightened by my loss of vision from the refulgent flaming which had quenched it a breath which caused me to give heed came forth and said till thou regain the sense of sight which thou hast spent by gazing up at me tis well that thou make a ferret by speech therefore begin to speak and say toward what thy soul aspires and also bear in mind that sight in thee is lost but not destroyed because the lady who is leading thee through this divine expanse hath in her luck the power possessed by ananias hand at her own pleasure soon or late i said let the cure reach the eyes which portals were when with that fire she entered wherewithal i ever burn

the good which sates this court is alpha and omega of all scriptures love reads to me in tones or low or loud and that same voice which rid me of the fear the sudden blinding blaze had given me inspired me with a wish to speak again and said thou surely through a finer sieve must pass thy meaning it behooves thee say who towards so great a target turned thy bow and i by philosophic arguments and by authority which from up here descends must such a love need stamp itself on me because the good when understood as such enkindles love and all the greater love the more it holds of goodness in itself hence to that being who so perfect is that every good which lies outside of him is nothing but a beam of his own radiance more than to any other must the mind in love be moved of all who recognise the truth on which this argument is

he to mine understanding shows this truth who demonstrates to me the primal love of all the sempiternal substances the truthful author's voice revealeth it when speaking of himself he saith to moses all goodness shall i have thee see thou too reveals it to me when thou begin'st the loud announcement which o'er other trumps heralds on earth the secrets of this state thereat i heard by human understanding and by authorities thou with concordant the sovereign of thy loves is turned to god but further say if other chords thou feel attract thee toward him so that thou mayst say how many of love's teeth are biting thee not hidden was the purpose of christ's ego nay rather i perceived to what he wished to lead my love's profession to declare

hence all those bitings i began again which possibly could turn one's heart to god have with my love of him concurrent been for both the world's existence and mine own the death which he endured that i might live and that which all the fateful hope as i together with the mentioned living knowledge have drawn me from the sea of wrong desires and set me on the shore of righteous love i love the several leaves wherewith enleaved his o'er the garden of the eternal gardener according to the good he giveth each as soon as i had ceased a most sweet song throughout all heaven resounded and my lady said holy holy holy with the rest and even as at a vivid flash of light one wakes from sleep because one's visual power turns toward the ray which moves from coast to coast and as the one awakened shrinketh back from that which he hath seen so senseless is his sudden waking till reflection helps

thus beatrice drove all motes from mine eyes by the mere radiance of her own whose light shone further than a thousand miles away i therefore saw far better than before then since i was amazed at it i asked about a fourth light i beheld with us my lady then in yonder radiant light the first soul which the first power e'er created is gazing joyfully upon his maker even as a bough which while the wind is passing bends its top down and then uplifts itself by innate strength which raises it again even so did i amazed while she was speaking and then the wish to speak wherewith i burned made me feel reassured and i began o fruit that wast alone produced when ripe o ancient father thou to whom each bride is both a daughter and a daughter-in-law

i beg thee as devoutly as i can to speak to me thou seest my wish hence i that i may quickly hear thee tell it not at times a covered animal so stirs that its own movement needs must be revealed because its covering corresponds to it so likewise did the first of souls display to me through that which covered it how gladly he came to give me pleasure then it breathed without its being told to me by thee better do i perceive what thou desirest than thou perceivest what thou knowest best for i behold it in the truthful mirror which of itself makes other things a likeness though naught makes it a likeness of itself thou fain wouldst hear how long it is since god in that high garden placed me where this lady prepared thee for so long a flight of stairs how long it was a pleasure to mine eyes the real occasion for the mighty wrath

and what the tongue which i both used and made now son the tasting of the tree was not itself the cause of such a banishment but only the transgression of the bound in that place whence thy lady started virgil i hence for this assembly longed for thousand three hundred revolutions of the sun and two and him i saw return again to all his highways like nine hundred times and thirty while i still abode on earth the tongue i spoke had quite extinct become a long time ere the people under nimrod attempted their unfinishable task for never was a product of man's reason apt to endure for human appetite renews itself according to the heavens

that mankind speak a work of nature is but if in this or that way nature then leaves you to do according to your pleasure ere i descended to the grieving place below the highest good from whom proceeds the joy which swathes me was on earth called i l was he called thereafter this must be for human custom is as on a bough a leaf which goeth as another comes upon the mount which highest from the sea ascends i lived in innocence and sin from the first hour until the one which follows after the sun's first quadrant change the sixth paradiso twenty seven the eighth or starry heaven st peter's invective the ninth heaven primum mobile the angelic hierarchies

glory to father son and holy ghost all paradise in such a way began that its sweet song intoxicated me what i was seeing seemed to me a smile as of the universe for through both sight and hearing my intoxication entered o joy o gladness inexpressible o life by love and peace completely filled o wealth no longer longed for but assured before mine eyes the torches four remained on fire and that which was the first to come began to grow more luminous and such in its appearance it became as jove would come to be if he and mars were birds and interchanged the plumage of their wings the providence which thereabove assigns both turn and office silence had imposed upon the blessed choir on every side when if i change my colour marvel not i heard him say for even while i am speaking thou shalt behold all these change colour too

he who on earth usurps my place my place which in the sight of god's own son is vacant of my burial-ground hath made a sewer of blood and stench whereby the pervert who fell from hence is there below appeased the whole of heaven i then beheld or spread with that same hue which colours clouds both morn and evening when the sun lies opposite and as a modest lady who feels sure of her own self but at another's fault on merely hearing of it timid grows so beatrice changed her appearance then and such as hers i think was heaven's eclipse what time the sovereign power suffered pain thereat his words proceeded in a voice so changed from what had been its wont itself that his appearance had no further change the bride of christ was not by my blood fed nor by the blood of linus nor by that of cletus to be used for gain of gold but for the winning of this happy life both sextus pious urban and calixtus after much lamentation shed their blood

"'Twas not our purpose that upon the right of our successors one part of the folk of Christ should sit, and on the left another, nor that the keys bestowed in trust on me should on a banner come to be an emblem, and a warfare wage on those that were baptized, Nor I become an image on a seal For privileges venal and deceptive Which often make me blush and flame with rust Rapacious wolves disguised in shepherd's clothes

Are seen in all the pastures from up here Vengeance of God, why art thou quiet still? Men of Cahors and Gascon's Even now prepare to drink our blood O good beginning, to what while ending thou art doomed to fall.

But that high providence which save for Rome, through Scipio's help, the glory of the world, will quickly succour her as I conceive, and thou, my son, who for thy mortal weight, art to return below, hope on thy mouth, and hide not that which I do not conceal. even as our atmosphere lets fall great flakes of frozen vapour when the horn of heaven she-goat is in conjunction with the sun, so I beheld the sky grow beautiful and upward flaked with those triumphant flames which for a while had sojourned with us there.

My sight was following their forms, and followed, till the midspace, by reason of its vastness, prevented it from passing further on. Thereath the lady, who had seen that freed I was from gazing up, said, Lower now thine eyes, and see how far thou hast revolved. I saw that, since the hour when I had first looked downward, I had moved through all the arc, the first of climates makes from mid to end, past Caddis, hence Ulysses' insane track I saw, and nearly to the seashore where Europa made herself so sweet a load. and of this little threshing-floor much more would have been shown me but the sun was circling beneath my feet a sign or more removed and my enamoured mind which in my lady always takes pleasure more than ever now was burning to restore mine eyes to her and if or art or nature e'er made baits in human flesh or in its painted forms to catch men's eyes and capture thus their minds they altogether would seem naught compared to that divine delight which on me shone

when to a smiling face i turned around the virtue therefore which that look vouchsafed removed me from fair leader's lovely nest and urged me on into the swiftest heaven its nearest and its most exalted parts are all so uniform i cannot tell which beatrice selected as my place but she who saw my wish began to speak and smiled so happily that god appeared to be rejoicing in her countenance the nature of the world which quiet holds the centre and around it moves the rest beginneth here as from its starting point and this heaven hath no other wear than in the mind divine where kindled is the love which turns it and the power itself rains down one circles light and love encircle it as if the other heavens and he alone this precinct understands who girdeth it

its motion is not measured by another but all the others are by this as ten is measured by its half and by its fifth and now how time in such a flower-port can have its hidden roots and in the rest its leaves hereafter can be manifest to thee o thou cupidity that neath thyself dost sink all mortal so that none avails out of thy waters to withdraw his eyes the will in human beings blossoms well but constant rains turn into blighted fruit the genuine plum and faith and innocence are found in children only but take flight before their cheeks are covered up with hair while still a pettler one observeth fasts who later when his tongue is free devours under whatever moon whatever food and one who while still lisping loves and hearkens to his mother

later on when speaking well would see her in her grave thus in the primal sight becometh black the white face of the lovely child of him who brings the morn and leaves the eventide and that thou marvel not at this recall that there is none on earth who rules and hence the human family goes thus astray and yet ere january's month become wholly unwintered through the hundredth part neglected there below these upper spheres shall roar so that the storm so long foreseen will turn the sterns to where the prows are now so that the fleet will run its course aright and good fruit follow on the blossom's flower chapter seventy