My buried bones had even yet been found
In Benevento's bridge's head entrench'd,
Under the shelter of the ponderous mound.

Now the wind drives them and the rain has drench'd, 130
Out of the realm, by Verdè1 uttermost,

Where he transported them with torches quench'd.2 Yet by their curse we are not quite so lost

But that Eternal Mercy from on high

Can save, while hope the least green bloom can boast. 'Tis true, if one in contumacy die

Of Holy Church, though he at last repent, Without this rocky bound his feet must ply For thirty times the period he has spent

In his presumption, should not such decree
Through pious prayers be shorten'd in extent.
See now if thou my gladness can renew,

In that to my good Constance thou explain
How thou hast seen me and this barrier too :
For here much help we through survivors gain."

140

1 The ancient Liris, now Garigliano, a river that falls into the Gulf of Gaeta.

2 The extinguished lights form part of the ceremony of excommunication.

CANTO IV.

THE ARGUMENT.

The poets, ascending by a rough path cut through the rock, with difficulty reach a high cliff of the mountain, where Dante sits with Virgil and rests himself, surveying the road over which they had passed; and as he faces the East, wonders to see the Sun shining on his left, which Virgil informs him is in consequence of their being South of the Equator. They hear voices, and see the shades of the indolent, among whom he recognises and converses with Belacqua.

WHENE'ER through feelings of delight or dole,
Which any of our faculties arrest,

One object wholly occupies the soul,
None else, it seems, can share its interest.

And this disproves that error which conceives That soul on soul is kindled in our breast.1 Thus when by sight or hearing one receives Aught that attracts attention powerfully, Time passes faster than the man perceives:

1 Plato and others maintain that man has three souls; the vegetative, the sensitive, and the rational or intellectual. The opinion that two minds co-exist in man, one rational and the other sensitive, was formally condemned by the eighth General Council, held at Constantinople, in 869. Dante had probably in view a passage in the Summa Theologia, Part i., of St. Thomas Aquinas, in which he combats the notion of a triple soul.

For that which listens is one faculty,
Another that which all doth vivify;

10

And this appears bound up while that is free. Experimental proof of this had I,

For while I hear that spirit and admire,

For fifty full degrees the sun on high1
Had climb'd unnoticed, when that band entire
Of Spirits join'd their voices in one tone,
And cried to us, "Here is what you require."
A wider gap is by the country clown

Oft stopp'd, when just of thorns a forkload he
Applies, what time the ripening grapes embrown,
Than was that pathway upward2 by which we
Alone, my leader and I near him, went,
When that battalion left our company.
With feet men reach San Leo, the descent

To Noli walk, or climb Bismantua's height: 5
But here to fly were fittest, such the ascent;
With rapid wings, I mean, and feather'd flight
Of strong desire, by such good guidance led

20

As that which gave me hope and brought me light. 30 Now upwards through the broken rock we sped,

And on us press'd the wall on either side,

While feet and hands craved that steep stony bed. When we had reach'd the plains which opening wide The topmost edge of that high bank transcend,

66

Master, what path shall we now take?" I cried.

1 That is, 3 hours 20 minutes after sunrise, 15 degrees being equal to an hour.

2 See Matt. vii. 14.

3 In Romagna, situated on a steep and isolated rock.

4 A town on the sea-shore, west of Genoa, between Savona and Finale.

5 A steep mountain in the territory of Reggio.

And he to me; "Let not thy steps descend,
the mountain after me come on,

But up
Till haply some sage escort this way wend."

So high the top, 'twas from our sight withdrawn,
And the proud sides a steeper slope display

40

Than line to centre through mid quadrant drawn.1

Then I felt wearied, and began to say,

"O my sweet father, turn thyself; see how I'm left alone, unless for me thou stay."

"My son," said he, "to this next point come thou;" And show'd a ledge, above me somewhat yet,

Which from that side surrounds the mountain's brow.

His words so spurr'd me that o'er every let
Myself I forced, and near him still crept on,

Till on the circling ledge my feet I set.

Here to repose ourselves we both sat down,

50

Turn'd towards the East from whence we had ascended;
For oft with joy a backward glance is thrown.

To the low shores mine eyes I first extended,
Then raised them to the Sun, in wondering mood,
That from the left his beams on us descended.2

1 The ascent was elevated more than 45 degrees above the plane of the horizon.

2 Herodotus relates that Necho, King of Egypt, despatched some vessels, under the conduct of Phenicians, to circumnavigate Africa. Taking their course from the Red Sea, they entered the Southern Ocean, and having consumed two years, in the third they doubled the columns of Hercules and returned to Egypt. The circumstance which the Father of History deemed incredible, will to us afford satisfactory evidence of their veracity: "for they affirmed that having sailed round Lybia, they had the Sun on their right hand."-HEROD. iv. 42. Lucan alludes to the same pheno

menon:

The poet saw how steadily I view'd

With vast astonishment the car of light,

Which 'twixt us and the North its course pursued. 60 And thus he said: "If Jove's twin offspring bright, Castor and Pollux, with yon mirror were,

Whose guiding rays both hemispheres delight,
Thou then wouldst see the ruddy Zodiac there,
Unless it quit the ancient pathway plann'd,1
Revolving nearer still to either Bear.2
How that may be, if thou wouldst understand,
With inward thought imagine Sion's hills
With this high mountain on the earth so stand
That both shall have the same horizon still,

And different hemispheres: thou then wilt see,
How that bright path, which Pháëton so ill1
Knew how to keep, must here on one side be,
When there it on the other doth appear,-
If thou attend thereto discerningly." 5

70

"You Arabians have come into a region unknown to you, Wondering that the shadows of the groves fall not to the left hand."-Pharsal. iii. 247-8.

Between the tropic of Cancer and the Arctic circle, the Sun at noon is invariably seen to the right of him who faces the East. But in the southern hemisphere, where the poets now were, this is reversed.

1 The Ecliptic.

2 "If the Sun were in Gemini, as he is in summer, you would have seen him still nearer to the North Pole than he is at present, being now in Aries.”

3 Like the captive Israelites when they sat by the rivers of Babylon, the poet is never forgetful of Sion!

4 See Inferno, xvii. 106, 108, and notes.

5 66 "If you consider that this mountain and that of Sion are at each other's antipodes, you will perceive that the Sun must be seen in opposite directions by those who view him from these opposite positions."