with the artist's purpose, because the material is deaf to answer (i.e. is irreceptive, non arrendevole), so from this course (designed by natural instinct) will the creature at times diverge, who although thus impelled (towards the highest Heaven), has power to deviate in another direction, even as from a cloud fire may be seen to fall (which is contrary to the nature of fire)—if the first impulse (i.e. natural instinct) turned aside by false pleasure drives it to Earth. Beatrice then sums up her arguments by saying that it is as natural for the man purged from every sin to ascend to Heaven, as it is for a stream to fall downwards from a mountain height into the valley below. Non dei più ammirar,* se bene estimo, Lo tuo salir, se non come d' un rivo Maraviglia sarebbe in te, se privo D' impedimento giù ti fossi assiso,† 140 *Non dei più ammirar, etc.: Dante had just emerged from his purification by being immersed in the waters of Eunoë," Puro e disposto a salire alle stelle" (Purg. xxxiii, 145). His ascent to Heaven thereafter was to be taken as a matter of course. + giù ti fossi assiso: Casini says that the verb assidersi expresses the idea of preparing oneself to remain perfectly at one's ease in any given spot; and that Beatrice in the words se... giù ti fossi assiso almost might be saying to Dante "if thou hadst failed to quit the place in which thy renewal and perfection was completed." Come a terra quiete in foco vivo: The number of variants here is legion. The most important is that adopted by Scartazzini, Come a terra quïeto fuoco vivo, and that is the one adopted by the vast majority of the Commentators, though the one I have followed is that of Moore, of Witte, Soc. Crusca, Caetani, and an immense superiority of MS. authority. Dr. Moore (Textual Criticism, pp. 440-442) says: "Amidst the very great Thou oughtest no more to marvel, if I rightly judge, Benvenuto says that in truth it was not a cause of wonder, as Beatrice practically said that Dante was now with a swift and easy motion being rapidly variety of readings here-most of them obviously mere blunders, and more or less unintelligible-the following would seem to emerge as most probably the original reading: : 'Come a terra quiete in foco vivo.' Come a terra is preferable to Come in terra, because it accounts for the origin of Come matera, Con matera, Come terra, etc., some of which (with minor variations) appear in a great number of MSS. These may be set aside as blundering reproductions of Comaterra or Comatëra. I think too that it means not on the ground,' but 'on earth,' in contrast with ' in heaven,' where Dante now was (see 1. 91), and where a different set of laws operate, or rather perhaps the same laws freed from all earthly impediments (l. 139, 140): so that, if he did not rise towards God, it would be as strange as absence of motion (quïete) would be in a living flame on earth." After quoting the different readings of the Commentators in the choice between quiete in foco and quieto foco, Dr. Moore sums up by saying: "The reading 'quiete in foco vivo' seems to me to have the advantage of giving a natural antithesis with in te in l. 139, and it is also the reading of the vast majority of MSS. Further it avoids the inelegance of the double epithets quieto and vivo in the reading Come a terra quieto fuoco vivo. . . . The illustration itself, which is obviously suggested by Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, ii, 1, § 2; Phys. ii, 1, and similar passages, is rather a favourite one with Dante. See another passage very like this in Purg. xviii, 28. Par. iv, 77, 78, is a more direct imitation of the Ethics l.c. See also Conv iii, 3 (which however is best illustrated by Par. i, 115), and De Mon. i, 15, ll. 27 and 31. Once more, see Par. xxiii, 40-42:— 'Come foco He had borne up to Heaven, the throne of God. trodden down his sins, and, having been purged from them all, had made his way up the mountain, the top of which touched the sky; here he had been bathed in twofold waters, whereof the one had washed away the memory of former sins, the other had fixed the memory of all good into his soul. He had been freed from Pride and Concupiscence, which two sins are the root of all others, he had been invested with the Seven Virtues; and these in their turn were making him to take his flight up to his heavenly home, where, as the conqueror of the most formidable enemies, he had a right to hope for the glorious triumph predestined for his good deeds. What wonder then that the Divine Poet was in all haste speeding his way upwards to receive his promised reward? END OF CANTO I. CANTO II. THE FIRST HEAVEN-SPHERE OF THE MOON-SPIRITS WHO HAD FAILED IN THEIR VOWS OF CHASTITY. INTRODUCTION—ARRIVAL IN THE HEAVEN OF THE MOON -THE SPOTS OF TWO KINDS UPON THE FACE OF THE MOON-INFLUENCES OF THE HEAVENS. IN the last Canto Dante related in a general way his ascent to Heaven proper. In the present Canto he tells of his mounting to the first of its Spheres, namely, to the Heaven of the Moon. I follow Benvenuto's divisions of the Canto, except that I begin the Third Division three lines before he does. In the First Division, from ver. I to ver. 18, Dante gives his readers his advice to follow certain rules in studying his doctrine. In the Second Division, from ver. 19 to ver. 45, he relates his entrance into the Sphere of the Moon, and describes the substance of the Moon. In the Third Division, from ver. 46 to ver. 105, he touches on certain doubts that entered his mind respecting the spots that appear on the face of the Moon, and he disputes the commonly received opinion (formerly indeed held by himself) on this subject. In the Fourth Division, from ver. 106 to ver. 148, he gives what he believes to be the true explanation of the phenomenon. Division I.-Scartazzini points out the difference between Dante's opening of the Purgatorio, and this his opening of the Paradiso. In the first his comparison is to a little bark (navicella), and is modest. Now however he compares his poetic journey to a great ship (navigio), and the whole Introduction is far more stately (pomposo). His opening of the Convivio contains the same ideas, but they are far more diffidently expressed. This Introduction recalls that of Lucretius, which Tasso has translated word for word, but which Dante only follows in idea. Dante's first words in the Paradiso are meant to warn off readers of limited intelligence from venturing to penetrate into its subtile and perplexing mysteries. Let such as they, if they have read his Inferno and Purgatorio, return to their study of those Cantiche. The Paradiso is only for those of a higher order of intellect. O voi che siete in piccioletta barca,* *in piccioletta barca: Compare Pulci, Morgante Maggiore, Canto xxviii, st. 2:— "Ch' io me n'andrò con l' una e l'altra volta Con la barchetta mia, cantando in rima, In porto;" and ibid. st. 140: "Io me n' andrò colla barchetta mia, Quanto l'acqua comporta un picciol legno." See also Pope's Essay on Man, epistle iv (near the end):"Say, shall my little bark attendant sail, Pursue the triumph, and partake the gale?" Haselfoot happily remarks on this metaphor, that what was in Purgatory "the little vessel" of Dante's genius, is in Paradise |