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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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