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CANTO XXXII.

ARGUMENT.

St. Bernard points out the two divisions of the Rose-viz. the Saints of the Old, and of the New Testament. Among these are seen Adam and Eve-John the Baptist-the Virgin Mary-the Angel Gabriel-St. Peter, &c. &c.

GAZING on her whose Son brought peace to man,

That meditative soul instruction sweet
Poured forth, and thus in holy words began:

"The ancient wound that Mary bound and healed,
She opened, who is sitting at her feet,
In form of perfect loveliness revealed.
Beneath her, ranking in the third degree,
Is Rachel seated further, at the side
Of Beatrice, as thou thyself mayst see.
Sarah, Rebecca, Judith, Ruth, who gave

An ancestress to the sweet Bard that cried, (His sin lamenting) Pity me, and save,' Arranged in various rows thou mayst survey,

As I shall call them by their several names,
While upward through the Rose I make my way.

Lo, sit in different degrees of power,

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Each side the seventh step, the Hebrew Dames,
Dividing every petal of the Flower:

For these are, as it were, a wall between

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The sacred stairs, dividing it in twain,

According as their faith in Christ hath been.

On this side, where the Rose may be perceived

Perfect throughout its leaves, their ranks maintain
Those who on Christ about to come believed:

Where on the other, intervals are made—
The semicircles showing vacancy —

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Are those whose eyes on Christ revealed were stayed.

2. St. Bernard-who is still gazing upon the Virgin Mary. See end of last canto. She, having healed the wound that Eve had inflicted on mankind, is represented with the latter sitting at her feet. 8. In the Purgatorio, (xxvii. 104.) she is the type of Contemplation, and here sits by the side of heavenly Wisdom, as see in Inferno, ii. 102, The Miserere, or 51st Psalm-composed after the murder of Uriah. 19 The Rose is divided into two compartments, consisting of those before, anc those after Christ, i.e. the Saints of the Old and of the New Testament.

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And as on this hand, 'twixt the glorious throne
Of heaven's bright Lady, and the seats that lie
Beneath her, such an ample space is shown;
So also yonder, where St. John appears, —

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Who, always holy, the rough desert bore, And martyrdom and hell for two long years. And underneath him form a severing bound Francis, Augustin, Benedict, and more,

Who downward fill the seats from round to round.

Now contemplate the Providence divine;

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Whence Faith, as viewed on its two several sides,
Shall equally in this fair garden shine.

And know that downward from the lofty throne,
Which in the middle the two parts divides,
No one is there through merit of his own,
But through Another's; and upon conditions;
For all these souls freed from the body were,
Ere upon choice were founded their volitions.
This may you be convinced of (if due pains

You take to mark them, and their accents hear)
Both by their looks, and by their childish strains.
Yet now you doubt, and still your doubts withhold :
But though your bonds are intricate, yet I
Will strive your subtle reasonings to unfold.
Within this peaceful kingdom's wide domain

No room is to be found for casualty,

No dwelling there for hunger, thirst, or pain:
For in this realm is stablished every thing
Under the sanction of eternal laws,
As to the finger answereth a ring;

Therefore the children that herein do press
To life eternal, not without a cause
Inherit excellence or more or less.

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The King who makes this blessed realm to bask
In love and joy, (so that throughout its space
No one for more could e'en desire to ask)

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29. The Virgin Mary.

33. The two years St. Johu the Baptist is said to have been in Hell, i.e. in Limbo, are those which intervened between his death and that of our Saviour, who then liberated him together with other souls. See Inf. iv. 53. 35. Of these three Saints, see x. 120, xi. 50, and xxii. 40. 38. i.e. The Elect of the New Testament

shall equal those of the Old.

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Their souls creating in his glad aspect,

As pleased him best, to each a different grace
Distributes; and let here suffice the effect.

And this disparity of mortals' doom

Scripture marks clearly in the twins of old

Who struggled when within their mother's womb.
Wherefore, as is the colour of the hair,

So doth the Light divine, as meet we hold,
Assign the wreaths of grace-to each his share.
Hence, not in guerdon of their deeds on earth,
In various degrees of rank they sit,

Differing but as grace differed at their birth.
To hold the faith the parent held before,
Sufficed, with innocence, to make them fit
To obtain salvation in the days of yore.
After the earliest ages had passed by,

The wing of innocence in every male

By circumcision gained fresh purity:

But when the time of grace to man was willed,
Then innocence became of no avail,

Unless the rite of baptism were fulfilled.
Look now upon the face that chiefly Christ
Resembles; since the glory it imparts
May give thee power to see the face of Christ."
I looked, and witnessed such intense delight

Showered down upon her by those Angel hearts, (Gifted with wings to fly around the height) That all the sights which I had seen before

To raise such wonderment could not avail, Nor such a likeness to the Godhead bore. And now that Angel who erewhile descended, And seeing Mary, cried: "Hail, Mary, haii," In front of her his radiant wings extended.

An answer to that minstrelsy divine

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Rang through the courts of heaven; so that each face
With more serenity was seen to shine.

"O Holy Father, who dost deign for me

68.Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith the Lord; yet I lovea Jacob." Malachi i. 2: as referred to by St. Fai, Romans ix. 13, with regard to the preference of the Jews to the Gentiles.

oft he Virgin Mary.

85. The face

To come below from that delightful place,
In which thou sittest everlastingly,
Who is that Angel, whom such joys inspire,

The eyes beholding of our heavenly Queen,-
Enamoured so, that he appears on fire ?"
Him I again thus questioned, upon whom

Mary her beauty was reflecting, e'en
As doth the Sun the morning star illume.
"Delight and confidence," he answered me,
"Great as angelic spirits may attain,
Exist in him, by Heaven's all-wise decree:
For he it was who with the tidings came
To Mary, when the Son of God was fain
To bear the burden of our mortal frame.
But as I go conversing on the way,

Lift up thine eyes, and, casting them around,
The nobles of this pious realm survey.
Those two, who on their thrones above repose-
Most blest, since nearest to Augusta found-
Are the twin roots of this celestial Rose.
He, who is sitting near her on the left,

Is that great Sire, through whose temerity
Mankind were of their happiness bereft.
Upon the right that ancient Priest behold

Of holy Church, to whom the double key

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115

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Of this bright Flower by Christ was given of old.

Beside him sitteth He, who, ere he died,
Was witness unto all Her long distress

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Who through the spear and nails became a bride.
On the other side is seen the Chief, who led
The ungrateful people through the wilderness-
Perverse, rebellious, though with manna fed.
Opposite Peter Anna sits, nor moves

Her eyes while chanting her sweet psalmody,
Through joy to contemplate the child she loves.

And opposite the mighty Sire of men,

Sits Lucia, who thy Lady sent to thee,

When o'er the dangerous brink was sunk thy ken.

106. St. Bernard.

133

127. St. John,-who before he died witnessed the distresses of the Church. See xi. 32. 133. Anna is the mother of the Virgin. 137. Sent by Beatrice to rescue Dante. See Inf. ii. ^

But since the allotted vision soon must cease,
Here pause we-like a skilful tailor, who
Will cut the coat according to the piece.
Towards the First Love direct we now our eyes,
That of his glory thou mayst snatch a view,
As far as given to mortal faculties.
But truly, lest, the while thy wings are strained,
Thinking to make advance, thou retrograde,
Behoves thee that by prayer be grace obtained-
Grace at her hands who can such gift impart;
And my request do thou so warmly aid,
That with my prayer accordant be thy heart:"
This holy supplication then he made.

CANTO XXXIII.

ARGUMENT.

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145

?t. Bernard invokes the Virgin Mary in behalf of Dante's desire to see our Saviour. Favoured with the beatific vision, he describes the Trinity. Christ once beheld, he undergoes such a change, that his own will gives place to the will of God.

"O VIRGIN Mother, daughter of thy Son!

Humblest, yet most exalted of our race,

Forecast of counsel in the Eternal One,

Man's nature thou didst raise to such high station,
That his Creator thought it no disgrace

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To vail His glory in His own creation.

Within thy womb renewed its ancient power
That love, beneath whose vivifying glow

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Put forth its buds in peace this blessed Flower.

Here unto us a mid-day torch thou art

Of Charity; and unto men below
The living streams of Hope thou dost impart.
Lady, to thee such worth and power are given,
That whoso grace desires, and asks not thee,
Desires to fly, without a wing, to heaven.
Thy kindness succoureth not him alone
Who asks thy aid; but oft spontaneously
Runs in advance, and is, unasked for, shown.

151. See commencement of next canto.
1. St. Bernard speaks.

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