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 Canto XXVIII
 
 
 Argument
 
 
      Still in the ninth heaven, our Poet is permitted to behold the divine
 essence; and then sees, in three hierarchies, the nine choirs of angels.
 Beatrice clears some difficulties which occur to him on this occasion.
 
 
 So she, who doth imparadise my soul,
 Had drawn the veil from off our present life,
 And bared the truth of poor mortality:
 When lo! as one who, in a mirror, spies
 The shining of a flambeau at his back,
 Lit sudden ere he deem of its approach,
 And turneth to resolve him, if the glass
 Have told him true, and sees the record faithful
 As note is to its metre; even thus,
 I well remember, did befal to me,
 Looking upon the beauteous eyes, whence love
 Had made the leash to take me. As I turn'd:
 And that which none, who in that volume looks,
 Can miss of, in itself apparent, struck
 My view; a point I saw, that darted light
 So sharp, no lid, unclosing, may bear up
 Against its keenness. The least star we ken
 From hence, had seem'd a moon; set by its side,
 As star by side of star. And so far off,
 Perchance, as is the halo from the light
 Which paints it, when most dense the vapour spreads;
 
 
 There wheel'd about the point a circle of fire,
 More rapid than the motion which surrounds,
 Speediest, the world. Another this enring'd;
 And that a third; the third a fourth, and that
 A fifth encompass'd; which a sixth next bound;
 And over this, a seventh, following, reach'd
 Circumference so ample, that its bow,
 Within the span of Juno's messenger,
 Had scarce been held entire. Beyond a seventh,
 Ensued yet other two. And every one,
 As more in number distant from the first,
 Was tardier in motion: and that glow'd
 With flame most pure, that to the sparkle of truth,
 Was nearest; as partaking most, methinks,
 Of its reality. The guide beloved
 Saw me in anxious thought suspense, and spake:
 "Heaven, and all nature, hangs upon that point.
 The circle thereto most conjoin'd observe;
 And know, that by intenser love its course
 Is, to this swiftness, wing'd." To whom I thus:
 "It were enough; nor should I further seek,
 Had I but witness'd order, in the world
 Appointed, such as in these wheels is seen.
 But in the sensible world such difference is,
 That in each round shows more divinity,
 As each is wider from the centre. Hence,
 If in this wondrous and angelic temple,
 That hath, for confine, only light and love,
 My wish may have completion, I must know,
 Wherefore such disagreement is between
 The exemplar and its copy: for myself,
 Contemplating, I fail to pierce the cause."
 
 
 "It is no marvel, if thy fingers foil'd
 Do leave the knot untied: so hard 'tis grown
 For want of tenting." Thus she said: "But take,"
 She added, "if thou wish thy cure, my words,
 And entertain them subtly. Every orb,
 Corporeal, doth proportion its extent
 Unto the virtue through its parts diffused.
 The greater blessedness preserves the more,
 The greater is the body (if all parts
 Share equally) the more is to preserve.
 Therefore the circle, whose swift course enwheels
 The universal frame, answers to that
 Which is supreme in knowledge and in love.
 Thus by the virtue, not the seeming breadth
 Of substance, measuring, thou shalt see the Heavens,
 Each to the intelligence that ruleth it,
 Greater to more, and smaller unto less,
 Suited in strict and wondrous harmony."
 
 
 As when the north blows from his milder cheek
 A blast, that scours the sky, forthwith our air,
 Clear'd of the rack that hung on it before,
 Glitters; and, with his beauties all unveil'd,
 The firmament looks forth serene, and smiles:
 Such was my cheer, when Beatrice drove
 With clear reply the shadows back, and truth
 Was manifested, as a star in Heaven.
 And when the words were ended, not unlike
 To iron in the furnace, every cirque,
 Ebullient, shot forth scintillating fires:
 And every sparkle shivering to new blaze,
 In number[1] did outmillion the account
 Reduplicate upon the chequer'd board.
 Then heard I echoing on, from choir to choir,
 "Hosanna," to the fixed point, that holds,
 And shall for ever hold them to their place,
 From everlasting, irremovable.
 
 
 [1: "In number." The sparkles exceeded the number which would be
 produced by the sixty - four squares of a chess - board, if for the first we
 reckoned one; for the next, two; for the third, four; and so went on doubling
 to the end of the account.]
 
 
 Musing awhile I stood: and she, who saw
 My inward meditations, thus began:
 "In the first circles, they, whom thou beheld'st
 Are Seraphim and Cherubim. Thus swift
 Follow their hoops, in likeness to the point,
 Near as they can, approaching; and they can
 The more, the loftier their vision. Those
 That round them fleet, gazing the Godhead next,
 Are Thrones; in whom the first trine ends. And all
 
 
 Are blessed, even as their sight descends
 Deeper into the Truth, wherein rest is
 For every mind. Thus happiness hath root
 In seeing, not in loving, which of sight
 Is aftergrowth. And of the seeing such
 The meed, as unto each, in due degree,
 Grace and good - will their measure have assign'd.
 The other trine, that with still opening buds
 In this eternal springtide blossom fair,
 Fearless of bruising from the nightly ram,[2]
 Breathe up in warbled melodies threefold
 Hosannas, blending ever; from the three,
 Transmitted, hierarchy of gods, for aye
 Rejoicing; dominations first; next them,
 Virtues; and powers the third; the next to whom
 Are princedoms and archangels, with glad round
 To tread their festal ring; and last, the band
 Angelical, disporting in their sphere.
 All, as they circle in their orders, look
 Aloft; and, downward, with such sway prevail,
 That all with mutual impulse tend to God.
 These once a mortal view beheld. Desire
 In Dionysius,[3] so intensely wrought,
 That he, as I have done, ranged them; and named,
 Their orders, marshal'd in his thought. From him,
 Dissentient, one refused his sacred read.
 But soon as in this Heaven his doubting eyes
 Were open'd, Gregory[4] at his error smiled.
 Nor marvel, that a denizen of earth
 Should scan such secret truth; for he had learnt[5]
 
 
 [2: Not injured, like spring products, by the influence of autumn,
 when the constellation Aries rises at sunset.]
 
 
 [3: The Areopagite, in his book "De Coelesti Hierarchia."]
 
 
 [4: "Gregory." Gregory the Great.]
 
 
 [5: "He had learnt." Dionysius, he says, had learnt from St. Paul.
 The book above referred to, which goes under his name, was the production of a
 later age. In Bishop Bull's seventh sermon, which treats of the different
 degrees of beatitude in Heaven, there is much that resembles what is said on
 the same subject by our Poet. The learned prelate, however, appears a little
 inconsistent, when, after having blamed Dionysius the Areopagite, "for
 reckoning up exactly the several orders of the angelical hierarchy, as if he
 had seen a muster of the heavenly host before his eyes" (v. i. p. 313), he
 himself speaks more particularly of the several orders in the celestial
 hierarchy than Holy Scripture warrants.]
 
 
 Both this and much beside of these our orbs,
 From an eye - witness to Heaven's mysteries."