The Divine Comedy by Dante, Illustrated, Paradise, Complete. Dante Alighieri

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       She then resum'd: "Thou certainly wilt see

       In falsehood thy belief o'erwhelm'd, if well

       Thou listen to the arguments, which I

       Shall bring to face it. The eighth sphere displays

       Numberless lights, the which in kind and size

       May be remark'd of different aspects;

       If rare or dense of that were cause alone,

       One single virtue then would be in all,

       Alike distributed, or more, or less.

       Different virtues needs must be the fruits

       Of formal principles, and these, save one,

       Will by thy reasoning be destroy'd. Beside,

       If rarity were of that dusk the cause,

       Which thou inquirest, either in some part

       That planet must throughout be void, nor fed

       With its own matter; or, as bodies share

       Their fat and leanness, in like manner this

       Must in its volume change the leaves. The first,

       If it were true, had through the sun's eclipse

       Been manifested, by transparency

       Of light, as through aught rare beside effus'd.

       But this is not. Therefore remains to see

       The other cause: and if the other fall,

       Erroneous so must prove what seem'd to thee.

       If not from side to side this rarity

       Pass through, there needs must be a limit, whence

       Its contrary no further lets it pass.

       And hence the beam, that from without proceeds,

       Must be pour'd back, as colour comes, through glass

       Reflected, which behind it lead conceals.

       Now wilt thou say, that there of murkier hue

       Than in the other part the ray is shown,

       By being thence refracted farther back.

       From this perplexity will free thee soon

       Experience, if thereof thou trial make,

       The fountain whence your arts derive their streame.

       Three mirrors shalt thou take, and two remove

       From thee alike, and more remote the third.

       Betwixt the former pair, shall meet thine eyes;

       Then turn'd toward them, cause behind thy back

       A light to stand, that on the three shall shine,

       And thus reflected come to thee from all.

       Though that beheld most distant do not stretch

       A space so ample, yet in brightness thou

       Will own it equaling the rest. But now,

       As under snow the ground, if the warm ray

       Smites it, remains dismantled of the hue

       And cold, that cover'd it before, so thee,

       Dismantled in thy mind, I will inform

       With light so lively, that the tremulous beam

       Shall quiver where it falls. Within the heaven,

       Where peace divine inhabits, circles round

       A body, in whose virtue dies the being

       Of all that it contains. The following heaven,

       That hath so many lights, this being divides,

       Through different essences, from it distinct,

       And yet contain'd within it. The other orbs

       Their separate distinctions variously

       Dispose, for their own seed and produce apt.

       Thus do these organs of the world proceed,

       As thou beholdest now, from step to step,

       Their influences from above deriving,

       And thence transmitting downwards. Mark me well,

       How through this passage to the truth I ford,

       The truth thou lov'st, that thou henceforth СКАЧАТЬ