THE DIVINE COMEDY: Inferno, Purgatorio & Paradiso (3 Classic Translations in One Edition). Dante Alighieri

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       Which is not felt except it work, nor prov'd

       But through effect, as vegetable life

       By the green leaf. From whence his intellect

       Deduced its primal notices of things,

       Man therefore knows not, or his appetites

       Their first affections; such in you, as zeal

       In bees to gather honey; at the first,

       Volition, meriting nor blame nor praise.

       But o'er each lower faculty supreme,

       That as she list are summon'd to her bar,

       Ye have that virtue in you, whose just voice

       Uttereth counsel, and whose word should keep

       The threshold of assent. Here is the source,

       Whence cause of merit in you is deriv'd,

       E'en as the affections good or ill she takes,

       Or severs, winnow'd as the chaff. Those men

       Who reas'ning went to depth profoundest, mark'd

       That innate freedom, and were thence induc'd

       To leave their moral teaching to the world.

       Grant then, that from necessity arise

       All love that glows within you; to dismiss

       Or harbour it, the pow'r is in yourselves.

       Remember, Beatrice, in her style,

       Denominates free choice by eminence

       The noble virtue, if in talk with thee

       She touch upon that theme." The moon, well nigh

       To midnight hour belated, made the stars

       Appear to wink and fade; and her broad disk

       Seem'd like a crag on fire, as up the vault

       That course she journey'd, which the sun then warms,

       When they of Rome behold him at his set.

       Betwixt Sardinia and the Corsic isle.

       And now the weight, that hung upon my thought,

       Was lighten'd by the aid of that clear spirit,

       Who raiseth Andes above Mantua's name.

       I therefore, when my questions had obtain'd

       Solution plain and ample, stood as one

       Musing in dreary slumber; but not long

       Slumber'd; for suddenly a multitude,