Wherefore not only unto her paid honour
  Of sacrifices and of votive cry
  The ancient nations in the ancient error,

But both Dione honoured they and Cupid,
  That as her mother, this one as her son,
  And said that he had sat in Dido's lap;

I was not ware of our ascending to it;
  But of our being in it gave full faith
  My Lady whom I saw more beauteous grow.

And as within a flame a spark is seen,
  And as within a voice a voice discerned,
  When one is steadfast, and one comes and goes, 

From a cold cloud descended never winds,
  Or visible or not, so rapidly
  They would not laggard and impeded seem

To any one who had those lights divine
  Seen come towards us, leaving the gyration
  Begun at first in the high Seraphim.

Then unto us more nearly one approached,
  And it alone began: "We all are ready
  Unto thy pleasure, that thou joy in us.

We turn around with the celestial Princes,
  One gyre and one gyration and one thirst,
  To whom thou in the world of old didst say,

After these eyes of mine themselves had offered
  Unto my Lady reverently, and she
  Content and certain of herself had made them,

Back to the light they turned, which so great promise
  Made of itself, and "Say, who art thou?" was
  My voice, imprinted with a great affection.

Thus changed, it said to me: "The world possessed me
  Short time below; and, if it had been more,
  Much evil will be which would not have been.

My gladness keepeth me concealed from thee,
  Which rayeth round about me, and doth hide me
  Like as a creature swathed in its own silk.

That left-hand margin, which doth bathe itself
  In Rhone, when it is mingled with the Sorgue,
  Me for its lord awaited in due time,

And that horn of Ausonia, which is towned
  With Bari, with Gaeta and Catona,
  Whence Tronto and Verde in the sea disgorge. 

And beautiful Trinacria, that is murky
  'Twixt Pachino and Peloro, (on the gulf
  Which greatest scath from Eurus doth receive,)

Not through Typhoeus, but through nascent sulphur,
  Would have awaited her own monarchs still,
  Through me from Charles descended and from Rudolph, 

And if my brother could but this foresee,
  The greedy poverty of Catalonia
  Straight would he flee, that it might not molest him;

For verily 'tis needful to provide,
  Through him or other, so that on his bark
  Already freighted no more freight be placed.

"Because I do believe the lofty joy
  Thy speech infuses into me, my Lord,
  Where every good thing doth begin and end

Thou seest as I see it, the more grateful
  Is it to me; and this too hold I dear,
  That gazing upon God thou dost discern it.

This I to him; and he to me: "If I
  Can show to thee a truth, to what thou askest
  Thy face thou'lt hold as thou dost hold thy back.

The Good which all the realm thou art ascending
  Turns and contents, maketh its providence
  To be a power within these bodies vast;

For whatsoever thing this bow shoots forth
  Falls foreordained unto an end foreseen,
  Even as a shaft directed to its mark.

If that were not, the heaven which thou dost walk
  Would in such manner its effects produce,
  That they no longer would be arts, but ruins. 

Wilt thou this truth have clearer made to thee?"
  And I: "Not so; for 'tis impossible
  That nature tire, I see, in what is needful."

Whence he again: "Now say, would it be worse
  For men on earth were they not citizens?"
  "Yes," I replied; "and here I ask no reason."

So came he with deductions to this point;
  Then he concluded: "Therefore it behoves
  The roots of your effects to be diverse.

Hence one is Solon born, another Xerxes,
  Another Melchisedec, and another he
  Who, flying through the air, his son did lose.

Thence happens it that Esau differeth
  In seed from Jacob; and Quirinus comes
  From sire so vile that he is given to Mars.

A generated nature its own way
  Would always make like its progenitors,
  If Providence divine were not triumphant. 

Evermore nature, if it fortune find
  Discordant to it, like each other seed
  Out of its region, maketh evil thrift;

And if the world below would fix its mind
  On the foundation which is laid by nature,
  Pursuing that, 'twould have the people good.