Canto XXIV

English Edition, translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

1	O COMPANY elect to the great supper
2	Of the Lamb benedight, who feedeth you
3	So that for ever full is your desire,

4	If by the grace of God this man foretaste
5	Something of that which falleth from your table,
6	Or ever death prescribe to him the time,

7	Direct your mind to his immense desire,
8	And him somewhat bedew j ye drinking are
9	For ever at the fount whence comes his thought.

10	Thus Beatrice; and those souls beatified
11	Transformed themselves to spheres on steadfast poles,
12	Flaming intensely in the guise of comets.

13	And as the wheels in works of horologes
14	Revolve so that the first to the beholder
15	Motionless seems, and the last one to fly,

16	So in like manner did those carols, dancing
17	In different measure, of their affluence
18	Give me the gauge, as they were swift or slow.

19	From that one which I noted of most beauty
20	Beheld I issue forth a fire so happy
21	That none it left there of a greater brightness;

22	And around Beatrice three several times
23	It whirled itself with so divine a song,
24	My fantasy repeats it not to me;

25	Therefore the pen skips, and I write it not,
26	Since our imagination for such folds,
27	Much more our speech, is of a tint too glaring.

28	O holy sister mine, who us implorest
29	With such devotion, by thine ardent love
30	Thou dost unbind me from that beautiful sphere!

31	Thereafter, having stopped, the blessed fire
32	Unto my Lady did direct its breath,
33	Which spake in fashion as I here have said.

34	And she: O light eterne of the great man
35	To whom our Lord delivered up the keys
36	He carried down of this miraculous joy,

37	This one examine on points light and grave,
38	As good beseemeth thee, about the Faith
39	By means of which thou on the sea didst walk.

40	If he love well, and hope well, and believe
41	From thee 'tis hid not; for thou hast thy sight
42	There where depicted everything is seen.

43	But since this kingdom has made citizens
44	By means of the true Faith, to glorify it
45	'Tis well he have the chance to speak thereof.

46	As baccalaureate arms himself, and speaks not
47	Until the master doth propose the question,
48	To argue it, and not to terminate it,

49	So did I arm myself with every reason,
50	While she was speaking, that I might be ready
51	For such a questioner and such profession.

52	Say, thou good Christian; manifest thyself;
53	What is the Faith ? Whereat I raised my brow
54	Unto that light wherefrom was this breathed forth.

55	Then turned I round to Beatrice, and she
56	Prompt signals made to me that I should pour
57	The water forth from my internal fountain.

58	May grace,that suffers me to make confession,
59	Began I,to the great centurion,
60	Cause my conceptions all to be explicit!

61	And I continued: As the truthful pen,
62	Father, of thy dear brother wrote of it,
63	Who put with thee Rome into the good way,

64	Faith is the substance of the things we hope for,
65	And evidence of those that are not seen;
66	And this appears to me its quiddity.

67	Then heard I: Very rightly thou perceivest,
68	If well thou understandest why he placed it
69	With substances and then with evidences.

70	And I thereafterward: The things profound,
71	That here vouchsafe to me their apparition,
72	Unto all eyes below are so concealed,

73	That they exist there only in belief,
74	Upon the which is founded the high hope,
75	And hence it takes the nature of a substance.

76	And it behoveth us from this belief
77	To reason without having other sight,
78	And hence it has the nature of evidence.

79	Then heard I: If whatever is acquired
80	Below by doctrine were thus understood,
81	No sophist's subtlety would there find place.

82	Thus was breathed forth from that enkindled love;
83	Then added: Very well has been gone over
84	Already of this coin the alloy and weight;

85	But tell me if thou hast it in thy purse?
86	And I: Yes, both so shining and so round
87	That in its stamp there is no peradventure.

88	Thereafter issued from the light profound
89	That there resplendent was: This precious jewel,
90	Upon the which is every virtue founded,

91	Whence hadst thou it? And I: The large outpouring
92	Of Holy Spirit, which has been diffused
93	Upon the ancient parchments and the new,

94	A syllogism is, which proved it to me
95	With such acuteness, that, compared therewith,
96	All demonstration seems to me obtuse.

97	And then I heard: The ancient and the new
98	Postulates, that to thee are so conclusive,
99	Why dost thou take them for the word divine?

100	And I: The proofs, which show the truth to me,
101	Are the works subsequent, whereunto Nature
102	Ne'er heated iron yet, nor anvil beat.

103	'Twas answered me: Say, who assureth thee
104	That those works ever were ? the thing itself
105	That must be proved, nought else to thee affirms it.

106	Were the world to Christianity converted,
107	I said, withouten miracles, this one
108	Is such, the rest are not its hundredth part;

109	Because that poor and fasting thou didst enter
110	Into the field to sow there the good plant,
111	Which was a vine and has become a thorn!

112	This being finished, the high, holy Court
113	Resounded through the spheres, One God we praise!
114	In melody that there above is chanted.

115	And then that Baron, who from branch to branch,
116	Examining, had thus conducted me,
117	Till the extremest leaves we were approaching,

118	Again began: The Grace that dallying
119	Plays with thine intellect thy mouth has opened,
120	Up to this point, as it should opened be,

121	So that I do approve what forth emerged;
122	But now thou must express what thou believest,
123	And whence to thy belief it was presented.

124	O holy father, spirit who beholdest
125	What thou believedst so that thou o'ercamest,
126	Towards the sepulchre, more youthful feet,

127	Began I,thou dost wish me in this place
128	The form to manifest of my prompt belief,
129	And likewise thou the cause thereof demandest.

130	And I respond: In one God I believe,
131	Sole and eterne, who moveth all the heavens
132	With love and with desire, himself unmoved;

133	And of such faith not only have I proofs
134	Physical and metaphysical, but gives them
135	Likewise the truth that from this place rains down

136	Through Moses, through the Prophets and the Psalms,
137	Through the Evangel, and through you, who wrote
138	After the fiery Spirit sanctified you;

139	In Persons three eterne believe, and these
140	One essence I believe, so one and trine
141	They bear conjunction both with sunt and est.

142	With the profound condition and divine
143	Which now I touch upon, doth stamp my mind
144	Ofttimes the doctrine evangelical.

145	This the beginning is, this is the spark
146	Which afterwards dilates to vivid flame,
147	And, like a star in heaven, is sparkling in me.

148	Even as a lord who hears what pleaseth him
149	His servant straight embraces, gratulating
150	For the good news as soon as he is silent;

151	So, giving me its benediction, singing,
152	Three times encircled me, when I was silent,
153	The apostolic light, at whose command

154	I spoken had, in speaking I so pleased him.

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Canto XXIV