From every part a cry there then arose,

So loud that my kind chief to me drew nigh: "Doubt not," he said, "thy guide still with thee goes." All shouted, "Glory be to God on high !"

So by those nearest me I gather'd, whence

I could with more distinctness hear the cry. We stood there in immoveable suspense,

Just like the shepherds who first heard that song,1 140 Until the trembling quite had pass'd from thence. We then pursued our hallow'd path along,

Marking the shadows on the ground that lay,

While their accustom'd plaints employ'd each tongue. No conscious ignorance, until that day,

E'er with such combat roused my wish to know,
Unless in this my memory goes astray,

As then I did in musing undergo.

Neither to ask him, for our speed, I dared,

Nor aught could by myself discern; and so

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Timid and thoughtful on my path I fared.

Apollo and Diana, the Sun and Moon, and to the event celebrated by angels in the hearing of the shepherds at Bethlehem.

1 Luke ii. 8-14.

CANTO XXI.

THE ARGUMENT.

While Dante follows his guide, they are overtaken by the shade of Statius, the Roman poet, who salutes them. He has just been released from Purgatory, and is on his way to Paradise. After mutual inquiries and answers, he explains the quality of the Mountain and the cause of the earthquake. In the course of conversation he mentions the fame he had acquired at Rome, and his high admiration of Virgil's poetry. This leads Dante to introduce him formally to Virgil's personal acquaintance. At this unexpected recognition of the great poet, Statius displays the greatest joy.

THE thirst of nature never satisfied,1

Save by that living water for whose gift
The woman of Samaria once applied,2
Disturb'd, and urged me on with motion swift,
Following along the obstructed path3 my guide,
While for that vengeance my sad sighs I lift.*
And, lo! as Christ-so Luke hath testified-
To two appear'd while they their journey take,
Risen from the grave, who had been crucified;5

1 "The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing."-Eccles. i. 8.

2 "The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw."-John iv. 15.

3 Obstructed by the prostrate and suffering shades.

4 For the vengeance invoked by Hugh Capet; Canto xx. 94.

5 On the journey to Emmaus; Luke xxiv. 13, &c.

So gleam'd a shade that, following in our wake,
Gazed on the crowd that lay beneath his feet.
Him we had not perceived: so he first spake;
"God's peace be yours, whom I as brethren greet."
And Virgil, as we turn'd round suddenly,
Gave him the salutation which was meet;
And said, "In council of the blest, on thee
May the true court bestow a peaceful place,1
Which in eternal exile fixes me.'
'How ?" said he, keeping up with our quick pace,
"If heaven to you admittance will not deign,
Who help'd you, thus far up, your way to trace ?"
My teacher said; "The marks which yet remain,

Stamp'd on him by the angel are in sight,2
And prove that with the good he is to reign.
But still since she who spins by day and night
Hath not for him the distaff yet unwound,
Which Clotho forms for every living wight,3
His soul, by thine and mine a sister own'd,4
Coming above could yet not come alone,
For not like ours her mode of sight is found.5
Hence I forth from hell's ample throat was drawn

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20

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1 66 May the Court of Heaven give thee peace with the blessed." 2 The P's which the angel had traced on his brow.

3 Of the three Parca, the "fatal sisters," the goddesses presiding over the birth and life of mankind, Clotho, the youngest, held a distaff in her hand at the moment of each individual's birth; Lachesis spun out all the actions and events of his life; and Atropos, the eldest, cut the thread of life with her shears.-See Inferno, xxxiii. 126.

4 66 'Sister spirit, come away!"-POPE's Dying Christian.

5 The mode of perception in men being different from that of disembodied spirits.

• Inferno, ii. 52.

To lead him; and his guide beyond am I,
Far as he can be by my teaching shown.1
But tell me, if thou know'st, the reason why
Just now the mountain shook; and all, even to
The mountain's wave-wash'd foot sent up a cry?"
This question ask'd by Virgil so pass'd through
The eye of my desire, that from hope's fount
Alone my thirst far less vehement grew.
"Without the order of the sacred mount

Nothing can happen here:" thus answer'd he; "Nor aught that unaccustom'd we may count. Here 'tis from every alteration free,

Save when its own heaven to itself receives;
No change from other cause with us can be.
No rain, or hail, or snow, the mount perceives,3
Nor dews, nor hoar-frosts reach it; but all these
Below the stair of three short steps it leaves.
Neither thick clouds nor thin it ever sees,

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Nor lightning flash, nor Thaumas' daughter sweet,* 50

1 As far as human reason, or moral philosophy can reach. 2" Cruna," the needle's eye.-See Inferno, xv. 21. Dante says, that the question so coincided with his own wish for information, that the very anticipation of an immediate answer allayed the vehemence of his desire.

3 Canto ix. 76. Lucretius thus describes the upper regions:"The divinity of the Gods appears, and their tranquil dwellings, Neither assailed by winds nor drenched by storm-clouds, Whose top neither the driving snow nor the shining hoar-frost, Ever violates; but the ether is always cloudless

And undisturb'd; and the widely diffused light laugheth,
And Nature supplieth every want, nor doth any thing

The peace of the mind at any time interrupt."

De Rerum Naturæ, iii. 18-24.

4 Iris (the rainbow), the messenger of Juno, was the daughter

That yonder oft o'er many countries flees. With rising vapour dry we never meet

Higher than those three steps of which I spake,
On which St. Peter's vicar plants his feet:1
Below, perchance, it more or less may quake;

But upwards, for some cause unknown to me,
By winds in earth conceal'd 'twill never shake.
It trembles when with conscious purity
A soul is rising, or prepared to rise,
Assisted by that shout of sympathy.
Of that pure state the will alone supplies

The proof, when wholly free to change her dwelling
The soul is rapt and with glad longing hies.
She first will'd good; but passion3 then repelling,
Justice divine, by that same inclination

Which led to sin, to torment is compelling.*

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of Thaumas (from Savμalw, I admire), the son of Oceanus and Term, by Electra, one of the Oceanidæ.-Æneid. ix. 5; OVID. Metam. iv. 479; xiv. 845.

1 The angelic porter of Purgatory is here referred to; Canto ix. 78. But there is also in this passage a moral which glances at the Seven Hills. All under the sway of the triple crown is subject to mutation, tempest, and revolution; but there is a calmer region of truth and purity above it. The birth of the coming age, symbolised by the elevation of the prostrate Statius, was attended by an earthquake. "Yet once more I make not the earth only, but also heaven; and I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come."

2 Winds underground were then supposed to be the cause of earthquakes.

3 "Il talento." Thus the word "talent was formerly used, for disposition, inclination, or feeling. "The nation generally was without any ill talent to the Church."-CLARENDON, Hist. Grand Rebell. vol. i. p. 92.

+ That earthly tendency which was their sin, is now made their punishment.