The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri (13 inch ebook reader .txt) 📕

more or less of virtue
Which is distributed through all their parts.
The greater goodness works the greater weal,
The greater weal the greater body holds,
If perfect equally are all its parts.
Therefore this one which sweeps along with it1974
The universe sublime, doth correspond
Unto the circle which most loves and knows.
On which account, if thou unto the virtue
Apply thy measure, not to the appearance
Of substances that unto thee seem round,
Thou wilt behold a marvellous agreement,
Of more to greater, and of less to smaller,1975
In every heaven, with its Intelligence.”
Even as remaineth splendid and serene
The hemisphere of air, when Boreas1976
Is blowing from that cheek where he is mildest,
Because is purified and resolved the rack
That erst disturbed it, till the welkin laughs
With all the beauties of its pageantry;
Thus did I likewise, after that my Lady
Had me provided with her clear response,
And like a star in heaven the truth was seen.
And soon as to a stop her words had come,
Not otherwise does iron scintillate
When molten, than those circles scintillated.1977
Their coruscation all the sparks repeated,
And they so many were, their number makes
More millions than the doubling of the chess.1978
I heard them sing hosanna choir by choir
To the fixed point which holds them at the Ubi,1979
And ever will, where they have ever been.
And she, who saw the dubious meditations
Within my mind, “The primal circles,” said,
“Have shown thee Seraphim and Cherubim.1980
Thus rapidly they follow their own bonds,1981
To be as like the point as most they can,
And can as far as they are high in vision.
Those other Loves, that round about them go,
Thrones of the countenance divine are called,1982
Because they terminate the primal Triad.
And thou shouldst know that they all have delight
As much as their own vision penetrates
The Truth, in which all intellect finds rest.
From this it may be seen how blessedness
Is founded in the faculty which sees,1983
And not in that which loves, and follows next;
And of this seeing merit is the measure,
Which is brought forth by grace, and by good will;1984
Thus on from grade to grade doth it proceed.
The second Triad, which is germinating
In such wise in this sempiternal spring,1985
That no nocturnal Aries despoils,
Perpetually hosanna warbles forth
With threefold melody, that sounds in three
Orders of joy, with which it is intrined.
The three Divine are in this hierarchy,
First the Dominions, and the Virtues next;1986
And the third order is that of the Powers.
Then in the dances twain penultimate
The Principalities and Archangels wheel;
The last is wholly of angelic sports.
These orders upward all of them are gazing,
And downward so prevail, that unto God
They all attracted are and all attract.
And Dionysius with so great desire1987
To contemplate these Orders set himself,
He named them and distinguished them as I do.
But Gregory afterwards dissented from him;1988
Wherefore, as soon as he unclosed his eyes
Within this heaven, he at himself did smile.
And if so much of secret truth a mortal
Proffered on earth, I would not have thee marvel,
For he who saw it here revealed it to him,1989
With much more of the truth about these circles.” Canto XXIX

Beatrice’s discourse of the creation of the Angels, and of the fall of Lucifer⁠—Her reproof of the ignorance and avarice of preachers, and the sale of indulgences.

At what time both the children of Latona,1990
Surmounted by the Ram and by the Scales,1991
Together make a zone of the horizon,1992
As long as from the time the zenith holds them
In equipoise, till from that girdle both
Changing their hemisphere disturb the balance,
So long, her face depicted with a smile,
Did Beatrice keep silence while she gazed
Fixedly at the point which had o’ercome me.1993
Then she began: “I say, and I ask not
What thou dost wish to hear, for I have seen it1994
Where centres every When and every Ubi.1995
Not to acquire some good unto himself,
Which is impossible, but that his splendor1996
In its resplendency may say, ‘Subsisto,’
In his eternity outside of time,1997
Outside all other limits, as it pleased him,
Into new Loves the Eternal Love unfolded.1998
Nor as if torpid did he lie before;
For neither after nor before proceeded
The going forth of God upon these waters.1999
Matter and Form unmingled and conjoined2000
Came into being that had no defect,2001
E’en as three arrows from a three-stringed bow.
And as in glass, in amber, or in crystal
A sunbeam flashes so, that from its coming
To its full being is no interval,
So from its Lord did the triform effect
Ray forth into its being all together,
Without discrimination of beginning.
Order was con-created and constructed
In substances, and summit of the world
Were those wherein the pure act was produced.2002
Pure potentiality held the lowest part;2003
Midway bound potentiality with act2004
Such bond that it shall never be unbound.2005
Jerome has written unto you of angels2006
Created a long lapse of centuries
Or ever yet the other world was made;
But written is this truth in many places2007
By writers of the Holy Ghost, and thou2008
Shalt see it, if thou lookest well thereat.
And even reason seeth it somewhat,
For it would not concede that for so long
Could be the motors without their perfection.2009
Now dost thou know both where and when