Dante's Paradiso: Canto XIII
Of the Wisdom of Solomon. St. Thomas reproaches Dante’s Judgement.
Let him imagine, who would well conceive
What now I saw, and let him while I speak
Retain the image as a steadfast rock,
The fifteen stars, that in their divers regions
The sky enliven with a light so great 5
That it transcends all clusters of the air;
Let him the Wain imagine unto which
Our vault of heaven sufficeth night and day,
So that in turning of its pole it fails not;
Let him the mouth imagine of the horn 10
That in the point beginneth of the axis
Round about which the primal wheel revolves,--
To have fashioned of themselves two signs in heaven,
Like unto that which Minos' daughter made,
The moment when she felt the frost of death; 15
And one to have its rays within the other,
And both to whirl themselves in such a manner
That one should forward go, the other backward;
And he will have some shadowing forth of that
True constellation and the double dance 20
That circled round the point at which I was;
Because it is as much beyond our wont,
As swifter than the motion of the Chiana
Moveth the heaven that all the rest outspeeds.
There sang they neither Bacchus, nor Apollo, 25
But in the divine nature Persons three,
And in one person the divine and human.
The singing and the dance fulfilled their measure,
And unto us those holy lights gave need,
Growing in happiness from care to care. 30
Then broke the silence of those saints concordant
The light in which the admirable life
Of God's own mendicant was told to me,
And said: "Now that one straw is trodden out
Now that its seed is garnered up already, 35
Sweet love invites me to thresh out the other.
Into that bosom, thou believest, whence
Was drawn the rib to form the beauteous cheek
Whose taste to all the world is costing dear,
And into that which, by the lance transfixed, 40
Before and since, such satisfaction made
That it weighs down the balance of all sin,
Whate'er of light it has to human nature
Been lawful to possess was all infused
By the same power that both of them created; 45
And hence at what I said above dost wonder,
When I narrated that no second had
The good which in the fifth light is enclosed.
Now ope thine eyes to what I answer thee,
And thou shalt see thy creed and my discourse 50
Fit in the truth as centre in a circle.
That which can die, and that which dieth not,
Are nothing but the splendour of the idea
Which by his love our Lord brings into being;
Because that living Light, which from its fount 55
Effulgent flows, so that it disunites not
From Him nor from the Love in them intrined,
Through its own goodness reunites its rays
In nine subsistences, as in a mirror,
Itself eternally remaining One. 60
Thence it descends to the last potencies,
Downward from act to act becoming such
That only brief contingencies it makes;
And these contingencies I hold to be
Things generated, which the heaven produces 65
By its own motion, with seed and without.
Neither their wax, nor that which tempers it,
Remains immutable, and hence beneath
The ideal signet more and less shines through;
Therefore it happens, that the selfsame tree 70
After its kind bears worse and better fruit,
And ye are born with characters diverse.
If in perfection tempered were the wax,
And were the heaven in its supremest virtue,
The brilliance of the seal would all appear; 75
But nature gives it evermore deficient,
In the like manner working as the artist,
Who has the skill of art and hand that trembles.
If then the fervent Love, the Vision clear,
Of primal Virtue do dispose and seal, 80
Perfection absolute is there acquired.
Thus was of old the earth created worthy
Of all and every animal perfection;
And thus the Virgin was impregnate made;
So that thine own opinion I commend, 85
That human nature never yet has been,
Nor will be, what it was in those two persons.
Now if no farther forth I should proceed,
'Then in what way was he without a peer?'
Would be the first beginning of thy words. 90
But, that may well appear what now appears not,
Think who he was, and what occasion moved him
To make request, when it was told him, 'Ask.'
I've not so spoken that thou canst not see
Clearly he was a king who asked for wisdom, 95
That he might be sufficiently a king;
'Twas not to know the number in which are
The motors here above, or if 'necesse'
With a contingent e'er 'necesse' make,
'Non si est dare primum motum esse,' 100
Or if in semicircle can be made
Triangle so that it have no right angle.
Whence, if thou notest this and what I said,
A regal prudence is that peerless seeing
In which the shaft of my intention strikes. 105
And if on 'rose' thou turnest thy clear eyes,
Thou'lt see that it has reference alone
To kings who're many, and the good are rare.
With this distinction take thou what I said,
And thus it can consist with thy belief 110
Of the first father and of our Delight.
And lead shall this be always to thy feet,
To make thee, like a weary man, move slowly
Both to the Yes and No thou seest not;
For very low among the fools is he 115
Who affirms without distinction, or denies,
As well in one as in the other case;
Because it happens that full often bends
Current opinion in the false direction,
And then the feelings bind the intellect. 120
Far more than uselessly he leaves the shore,
(Since he returneth not the same he went,)
Who fishes for the truth, and has no skill;
And in the world proofs manifest thereof
Parmenides, Melissus, Brissus are, 125
And many who went on and knew not whither;
Thus did Sabellius, Arius, and those fools
Who have been even as swords unto the Scriptures
In rendering distorted their straight faces.
Nor yet shall people be too confident 130
In judging, even as he is who doth count
The corn in field or ever it be ripe.
For I have seen all winter long the thorn
First show itself intractable and fierce,
And after bear the rose upon its top; 135
And I have seen a ship direct and swift
Run o'er the sea throughout its course entire,
To perish at the harbour's mouth at last.
Let not Dame Bertha nor Ser Martin think,
Seeing one steal, another offering make, 140
To see them in the arbitrament divine;
For one may rise, and fall the other may."
NOTES
1 - 1
The Heaven of the Sun continued. Let the reader imagine fifteen of the largest stars, and to these add the seven of Charles's Wain, and the two last stars of the Little Bear, making in all twenty-four, and let him arrange them in two concentric circles, revolving in opposite directions, and he will have the image of what Dante now beheld.
7 - 7
Iliad, XVIII. 487: “The Bear, which they also call by the appellation of the Wain, which there revolves and watches Orion; but it alone is free from the baths of the ocean.”
10 - 10
The constellation of the Little Bear as much resembles a horn as it does a bear. Of this horn the Pole Star forms the smaller end.
14 - 14
Ariadne, whose crown was, at her death, changed by Bacchus into a constellation.
Ovid, Met., VIII., Croxall's Tr.:–
“And bids her crown among the stars be placed,
With an eternal constellation graced.
The golden circlet mounts; and, as if flies,
Its diamonds twinkle in the distant skies;
There, in their pristine form, the gemmy rays
Between Alcides and the dragon blaze.”Chaucer, Legende of good women:–
“And in the sygne of Taurus men may se
The stones of hire corowne shyne clere.”And Spenser, Faerie Queene, VI. x. 13: –
“Looke! how the crowne which Ariadne wore
Upon her yvory forehead that same day
That Theseus her unto his bridale bore,
When the bold Centaures made that bloudy fray
With the fierce Lapithes which did them dismay,
Being now placed in the firmament,
Through the bright heaven doth her beams display,
And is unto the starres an ornament,
Which round about her move in order excellent.”23 - 23
The Chiana empties into the Arno near Arezzo. In Dante's time it was a sluggish stream, stagnating in the marshes of Valdichiana. See Inf. XXIX. Note 46.
24 - 24
The Primum Mobile.
32 - 32
St. Thomas Aquinas, who had related the life of St. Francis.
34 - 34
The first doubt in Dante's mind was in regard to the expression in Canto X. 96,
“Where well one fattens if he strayeth not,” which was explained by Thomas Aquinas in Canto XI. The second, which he now prepares to thresh out, is in Canto X. 114,
“To see so much there never rose a second,” referring to Solomon, as being peerless in knowledge.
37 - 37
Adam.
40 - 40
Christ.
48 - 48
Solomon.
52 - 52
All things are but the thought of God, and by him created in love.
55 - 55
The living Light, the Word, proceeding from the Father, is not separated from Him nor from his Love, the Holy Spirit.
58 - 58
Its rays are centred in the nine choirs of Angels, ruling the nine heavens, here called subsistences, according to the definition of Thomas Aquinas, Sum. Theol., Quaest. xxix. 2: “What exists by itself, and not in anything else, is called subsistence.”
61 - 61
From those nine heavens it descends to the elements, the lowest potencies, till it produces only imperfect and perishable results, or mere contingencies.
64 - 64
These contingencies are animals, plants, and the like, produced by the influences of the planets from seeds, and certain insects and plants, believed of old to be born without seed.
67 - 67
Neither their matter nor the influences of the planets being immutable, the stamp of the divinity is more or less clearly seen in them, and hence the varieties in plants and animals.
73 - 73
If the matter were perfect, and the divine influence at its highest power, the result would likewise be perfect; but by transmission through the planets it becomes more and more deficient, the hand of nature trembles, and imperfection is the result.
79 - 79
But if Love (the Holy Spirit) and the Vision (the Son), proceeding from the Primal Power (the Father), act immediately, then the work is perfect, as in Adam and the human nature of Christ.
89 - 89
Then how was Solomon so peerless, that none like him ever existed?
93 - 93
1 Kings iii. 5: “In Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night: and God said, Ask what I shall give thee..... Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this thy so great a people? And the speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing. And God said unto him, Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long life, neither hast asked riches for thyself, nor hast asked the life of thine enemies, but hast asked for thyself understanding to discern judgment, Behold, I have done according to thy words: lo, I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart; so that there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee.”
98 - 98
The number of the celestial Intelligences, or Regents of the Planets.
99 - 99
Whether from two premises, one of which is necessary, and the other contingent, or only possible, the conclusion drawn will be necessary; which Buti says is a question belonging to “the garrulity of dialectics.”
100 - 100
Whether the existence of a first motion is to be conceded.
102 - 102
That is, a triangle, one side of which shall be the diameter of the circle.
103 - 103
If thou notest, in a word, that Solomon did not ask for wisdom in astrology, nor in dialects, nor in metaphysics, nor in geometry.
104 - 104
The peerless seeing is a reference to Canto X. 114: –
“To see so much there never rose a second.”It will be observed the word “rose” is the Biblical word in the phrase “neither after three shall any arise like unto thee,” as given in note 93.
125 - 125
Parmenides was an Eleatic philosopher, and pupil of Xenophanes. According to Ritter, Hist. Anc. Phil., I. 450, Morrison's Tr., his theory was, that “Being is uncreated and unchangeable, –
'Whole and self-generate, unchangeable, illimitable,
Never was nor yet shall be its birth; All is already
One from eternity.'”And farther on: “It is but a mere human opinion that things are produced and decay, are and are not, and change place and color. The whole has its principle in itself, and is in eternal rest; for powerful necessity holds it within the bonds of its own limits, and encloses it on all sides: being cannot be imperfect; for it is not in want of anything, – for if it were so, it would be in want of all.”
Melissus of Samos was a follower of Parmenides, and maintained substantially the same doctrines.
Brissus was a philosopher of less note. Mention is hardly made of him in the histories of philosophy, except as one of those who pursued that Fata Morgana of mathematicians, the quadrature of the circle.
127 - 127
“Infamous heresiarchs,” exclaims Venturi, “put as an example of innumerable others, who, having erred in the understanding of the Holy Scriptures, persevered in their errors.”
Sabellius was by birth an African, and flourished as Presbyter of Ptolemais, in the third century. He denied the three persons in the Godhead, maintaining that the Son and Holy Ghost were only temporary manifestations of God in creation, redemption, and sanctification, and would finally return to the Father.
Arius was a Presbyter of Alexandria in the fourth century. He believed the Son to be equal in power with the Father, but of a different essence or nature, a doctrine which gave rise to the famous Heterousian and Homoiousian controversy, that distracted the Church for three hundred years.
These doctrines of Sabellius and of Arius are both heretical, when tried by the standard of the Quicunque vult, the authoritative formula of the Catholic faith; “which faith, except every one do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly,” says St. Athanasius, or some one in his name.
128 - 128
These men, say some of the commentators, were as swords that mutilated and distorted the Scriptures. Others, that in them the features of the Scriptures were distorted, as the features of a man reflected in the grooved or concave surface of a sword.
139 - 139
Names used to indicate any common simpletons and gossips.
141 - 141
In writing this line Dante had evidently in mind the beautiful wise words of St. Francis: “What every one is in the eyes of God, that he is, and no more.”
Mr. Wright, in the notes to his translation, here quotes the well-known lines of Burns, Address to the Unco Guid: –
“Then gently scan your brother man,
Still gentler sister woman;
Though they may gang a kennin' wrang,
To step aside is human:
One point must still be greatly dark,
The moving why they do it:
And just as lamely can ye mark
How far perhaps they rue it.
”Who made the heart, 't is He alone
Decidedly can try us;
He knows each chord – its various tone,
Each spring – its various bias.
Then at the balance let's be mute;
We never can adjust it;
What's done we partly may compute,
But know not what's resisted.“