Were these, except their wings,1 as I've explain'd:
From him John differs, and with me doth hold.
The space which was between these four, contain'd
A car which at a Griffon's 2 neck was drawn,
By two triumphal wheels on high sustain❜d.
And he stretch'd out above his wings each one,

The midmost and twice three side stripes between, 110
So that of these he cleft and injured none.

So high he raised them that they were not seen:
All golden were the bird-like parts he wore,
White and vermilion elsewhere intervene.
The car which Scipio or Augustus bore,

In Roman triumph, ne'er such pomp assumed ;3
And even the Sun's, compared with it, were poor:
The Sun's-by Jove's high counsel justly doom'd,
What time the Earth preferr'd her urgent claim*-

1 "And every one had four wings."—Ezek. i. 6.

Gryphon (you), an imaginary or symbolical creature, composed of the united forms of the Lion and Eagle; and here a symbol of the Divine and human natures united in the person of Christ. See Deut. xxxii. 11; Rev. v. 5. His wings are so high as to be out of sight: line 112. His Divine character and nature surpass our comprehension. The Car is the symbol of the visible Church, which ought always to follow and be guided by him.

3 Scipio, when he had vanquished Hannibal (See Inferno, xxxi. 115-117, and note) was honoured with a triumph, and received the title of Africanus B.C. 202. Octavius Cæsar had a triumph continued three successive days, for as many victories, B.C. 28, and shortly after received the title of Augustus.

"At Cæsar, triplici invectus Romana triumpho
Moenia."-Eneid. viii. 714.

The prayer of the Earth (too long for quotation) on being scorched by the Sun, when his Phaeton went astray, is given by

Which wandering from its pathway was consumed. 120 Three ladies dancing in a circle came1

At the right wheel; one with such ruddy glow,
She had been scarcely noticed amid flame:
The other was, in flesh and bones, as though
Of one green emerald; like a sudden drift,
The third appear'd to be, of new-fall'n snow.
Now they seem'd led by her in white; now shift
And follow her in red; and to her song
The others time their steps both slow and swift.
At the left wheel four ladies dance along,2

Each clothed in purple, following the lead
Of one of them to whom three eyes belong.
Next that whole group of which I've mention made,
Two aged men in dress dissimilar

I saw, but both in gesture grave and staid.

One seem'd to be some sage familiar

Of great Hippocrates, by Nature meant

For creatures whom she makes her dearest care.3 The other show'd an opposite intent

130

With keen and glittering sword, which to my heart, 140 Across the stream, a pang of terror sent.1

OVID. Metam. ii. 279-300. See also Inferno, xvii. 106, 108, and notes; Purgatorio, iv. 72.

1 The three Evangelical Virtues take the place of honour on the right, and are distinguished by three colours; white being the symbol of Faith, green of Hope, and red of Charity.

2 The four Moral or Cardinal Virtues. The three eyes of Prudence, who takes the lead, may signify her cognizance of the past, the present, and the future.

3

Luke, the beloved physician."-Col. iv. 14; here mentioned as author of Acts of the Apostles, though previously included among the four Evangelists.

St. Paul, who fought the good fight of faith, armed with

3

Then I saw four in humble guise apart; 1
And last of all, alone an old man stray'd,
In vision rapt, with face of heavenly art.2
Like the first four-and-twenty were array'd
The later seven, save that no garlands lay
Around their temples of bright lilies made,
But roses wreathed with vermeil flowers had they.
One would have sworn, to look at them from far,
That flames on all above their eyebrows prey.*
And when in front of me arrived the car,

I heard it thunder; and this worthy band,
As if to their advance they found some bar,
Came with their guiding ensigns to a stand.

150

"the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.”—Eph. vi. 17. See also Heb. iv. 12. He maintained the doctrine that Rulers should not bear the sword of magistracy in vain. The sword is also the supposed instrument of St. Paul's martyrdom. 1 The authors of the epistles, James, Peter, John, and Jude. * St. John, as author of the Apocalypse; though, like St. Luke, mentioned in another capacity before.

3 They all bore the same sacred character.

In allusion, probably, to the "cloven tongues like as of fire" which "sat upon each of them."—Acts ii. 3.

CANTO XXX.

THE ARGUMENT.

One of the celestial company sings Veni, sponsa, de Libano; and a hundred heavenly beings mounted on the Car exclaim, Benedictus qui venis. They scatter lilies and quote VIRGIL'S Æneid. Beatrice appears, her head is covered with a white veil. Dante, without the full certainty of her presence, yet feeling the mysterious influence of her high virtue, turns to address Virgil, but grieves at missing him, he having taken his departure. Beatrice consoles him for the absence of his guide, but indirectly reproves him for not having followed the course of life she had taught him.

WHEN the Septentrion of that primal heaven,1

Which neither setting nor uprising knows,"

1 The golden candelabra and their lights, mentioned in the preceding Canto, symbolical of the Holy Spirit; the stars of that "primal heaven," or empyrean, which guide the soul in her voyage to eternity, as the Northern Wain guides the mariner at sea. Septentrio, or Septem triones, the seven stars forming the constellation Ursa Major, Greater Bear, or Northern Wain, which in our latitude never sets. Triones are ploughing oxen; quasi teriones, from tero, to plough.

24 "Every good gift and every perfect boon cometh down from on high, from the Father of lights with whom is neither parallax nor tropical shadow.”—James i. 17 (WAKEFIELD). Parallax is the difference between the apparent place of a heavenly body as it might be viewed from the earth's surface and from its centre. Tropical variation, or "shadow of turning," may refer to the alternation of light and darkness occasioned by the Earth's diurnal revolution round its axis and its annual one in its orbit.

(Nor other cloud but sin1 could veil the seven, Which did to each his duty there disclose;

Even as below, the Northern Wain at sea,
How he may steer for port the helmsman shows)
No longer moved,-the faithful company

That first between it and the Griffon came,
Turn'd to the Car and rested peacefully. 2

And one of them, like herald in heaven's name,
"Come spouse from Lebanon," full sweetly singing
Cried thrice; and then the rest all did the same.3
As, at the final summons quickly springing,1

10

The rude astronomical instruments at the command of the ancients could enable them to detect the displacement of the moon from parallax, which amounts to twice her diameter; but from the distance of the Sun, his displacement from this cause could not have been observed by them. The Apostle's language refers to the Uncreated Sun, the Source of Being and of every blessing, the Unchangeable, the Beneficent, "who dwelleth in light which not man can approach unto;" and who maketh HIS Sun to rise upon the evil and the good, and sendeth rain upon the just and upon the unjust."

and

"Your iniquities have separated between you and your God, your sins have hid his face from you."—Isaiah lix. 2.

2 The pause of the guiding lights was a signal instantly obeyed by the company that were following, who turned towards the Car and remained at rest.

3 Solomon, in Canticles iv. 8, invites the Bride, here symbolized by the triumphal Car. With him all the others unite in testifying to Christ and his Church.-See John i. 45; 1 Peter i. 10-12.

"The thridde cause that ought to meve a man to contrition, is drede of the day of dome, and of the horrible peines of helle. For as Seint Jerome sayth, At every time that me remembreth of the day of dome, I quake: for when I ete or drinke, or what so I do, ever semeth me that the trompe sowneth in min eres: riseth ye up that ben ded, and cometh to the jugement."-Chaucer, The Persones Tale."