Awe

Passages

Every passage tagged with this emotion in the Vela corpus. Search the body text, narrow by source or register, click through to a book’s profile to see how the passage sits with the rest of the work.

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• From My Life on the Road (2015)

  When I was in Salt Lake City in the 1990s, for instance, a new Mormon temple had just been built in a nearby suburb. Since non-Mormons would not be allowed inside once it was dedicated and in use, this was a rare opportunity. With an official guide, I entered its huge white marble foyer and noticed television screens embedded in the walls. My guide explained that each member would have a Temple Recommend Card, like a credit card, and once it was inserted, a screen would display whether he or she had tithed, had attended weekly meetings, and was otherwise in good standing and allowed to enter. Soon all Mormon temples would be automated, he added proudly. As we moved into the temple, we came to private spaces where members would change into the all-white garments worn during worship. Then in the center of a big open space was an enormous stone baptismal pool where, as my guide explained, even the dead, whether or not they had been Mormon in life, could be converted by proxy, thus becoming eligible to enter the first of three levels of Heaven. Finally, he ushered me into a series of elegant Sealing Rooms, each one with rows of gilded chairs facing a movie screen. Here, he explained, children would be “sealed” to their parents for eternity, and also wives to their husbands; otherwise they would not be able to enter Heaven. There were similar Celestial Rooms and Ordinance Rooms for higher levels of secret instruction. When I said I was surprised to see no central space for the congregation to gather, as in a cathedral, church, or mosque, he explained that there was no need; instruction is better done in small groups. Perhaps old Mormon temples had too little space, he added, but these private and automated rooms were the wave of the future. Ever since, when I’ve looked at the beautiful fairy-tale spires of Mormon temples in Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and other great cities of the world, I’ve imagined a honeycomb of isolated spaces inside and a people both united and divided by secrets. This and mysteries in other religions have made me wonder if secrets are the difference between religion and spirituality. In religion, god is a secret hidden within some people and places but not others. In spirituality, god is revealed in all living things. Other secrets are about not belief but safety. I was in college in 1955 when a few brave women founded the Daughters of Bilitis, the first lesbian civil and political rights group in this country. To be public in this way took courage. Homosexuality was still against laws that weren’t always enforced but could be. Even in the 1980s, joyful lesbian bars like Bonnie & Clyde, with the best dancing in Manhattan, might pretend to be bars like any other or pay for police protection.

• From Querelle (1953)

  113 I QUERELLE which nevertheless lends these fragments the power of perfect form. They are the two halves of a fabulous egg, dropped, perhaps, by Leda after she had known the Swan, containing the germ of a power and wealth both natural and supernatural. No joke, no clumsy decorator's puerile fancy called them into being, but a tangible and terrestrial power resting on armed and moral force, despite all the fleurs-de-lis and the . ermine motifs. Had they been flat, they could never have possessed such fecund authority. In the morning, from very early on, they are gilded by the sun. Later on in the day the light slowly glides over the entire front of the building. \Vhen the galley convicts clanked out of the prison in their chains, they stopped in this paved courtyard which stretches down to the Arsenal buildings adj oining the Penfeld quays. Symbolically perhaps, and to render the captivity of the inmates more evident, yet making light of it, this yard is bordered by a row of huge stone posts1 connected to each other by chains, but chains heavier than any anchor chain, so heavy, in fact, tJlat they look soft. In that space, to the crack of bullwhips, the warders used to lick the gangs into shape, yelling their weirdly phrased commands. The sun descended slowly upon the gr anite of that harmonious fa�de, as noble and golden as that of a Venetian palazzo, and then it penetrated into the yard, shining on the cobblestones, the dirty and crushed toes, the bruised ankles of the convicts. Looking ahead, at the Penfeld quays, all was still shrouded in a golden and sonorous mist behind which one could vaguely perceive Recouvrance and its low buildings, and beyond that, quite close by, Le Goulet-the Brest Roads, already busy with boats and tall ships. From dawn on the sea was constructing its O\vn architecture of hulks, masts and rigging, under the still sleep-blurred eyes of the men chained together in pairs. The galley convicts stood shivering in their outfits of gray linen (k nown as ,.faggot"). They were served a weak and tepid broth, in wooden bowls. They were rubbing their eyes, trying to ungum the lashes sealed by the secretions of sleep. Their hands

• From The Divine Comedy (1950)

  In its dimness at first and brightness afterwards, there may be a reference to the difficulty that has always been experienced in finding an adequate philosophical basis for the doctrine of the Third Person of the Trinity corresponding to the clearness of the distinction between the conceptions of God in his essence (Father) and God as manifested (Son); whereas to the more strictly theological speculation, or rather to the religious experience, the doctrine of the Holy Spirit (God regarded not as the Creator or the Redeemer, but as the Inspirer) has always had a special vividness. Cf. Canto xii, note 29. 6. Cf. Conv. ii. 15, a passage interesting on many grounds.C A N T O X VThe souls of the warriors of God upon the cross of Mars cease their hymn, that Dante may converse with one of their number, who shoots like a falling star from his place and, approaching Dante with such joy as Anchises showed to Æneas in the Elysian Fields, greets him as his offspring and as the recipient of unique grace, the twice-received (now and at his death) of heaven. Dante, giving heed to him and (now first in this higher sphere) looking on Beatrice, is smitten with twofold marvel. The spirit, after rapturous words beyond the scope of the Poet’s comprehension, gives thanks to God, tells Dante how eager yet how sweet has been his longing for his arrival, foreread in the heavens; confirms his thought that the spirits see all things in God, as the true mathematician sees all numbers in the conception of unity; but bids him none the less speak out his questions, though already known to him, in God, with their appointed answers. Dante, unlike the souls in glory, has no utterance adequate to show forth his thanks. The spirit, in answer to his question, reveals himself as his great-great-grandfather, the father of Alighieri from whom the Poet’s family name is derived. He describes the ancient Florence, confined within the walls to which the Badia was adjacent, and dwells upon the simple ways of her citizens. In such a city was he born, baptized and married. Thence he followed Conrad in his crusade, was knighted, was slain, and arose to the peace of heaven. [image file=image_rsrcA5N.jpg] THE BENIGN WILL-wherein distilleth ever the love that hath the right perfume, as doth, in the grudging will, cupidity— imposed silence on that sweet lyre and stilled the sacred strings, which the right hand of heaven looseneth and stretcheth. How shall those beings unto righteous prayers be deaf, who, to excite in me the will to make my prayer to them, agreed in silence? Right is it he should grieve without a limit, who, for the love of what endureth not, eternally doth strip him of this love. As through the tranquil and pure skies darteth, from time to time, a sudden flame setting a-moving eyes that erst were steady,

• From The Divine Comedy (1950)

  11. The eyes of Beatrice are called “emeralds,” not with reference to their colour, but because of their brightness (shining eyes).12. Cf. Vita Nuova § xxi, the first line of the sonnet: “My lady carries love within her eyes.” This idea occurs elsewhere in Dante’s poems and is a commonplace with his predecessors and contemporaries.13. This passage is to be taken in a purely allegorical sense. “We may read in Revelation now the divine and now the human attributes of Christ; but the human mind is incapable of combining them. As we contemplate Revelation we may see now one and now the other, but not both at once.”14. Cf. the words of Wisdom in Eccles. xxiv. 21: “They that eat me shall yet be hungry, and they that drink me shall yet be thirsty.”15. See the canzone in the third book of the Convito, which runs at follows: “Her aspect shows delight of Paradise, Seen in her eyes and in her smiling face; Love brought them there as to his dwelling-place.” From Dante’s commentary to the words Dico negli occhi e nel suo dolce riso (ib. 8), it seems probable that the second beauty to which the theological virtues are now leading Dante, is the smile of Beatrice; the cardinal virtues having guided him to her eyes.C A N T O X X X I IThe eager gaze with which Dante quenches his ten years’ thirst, is for a moment blinded by the glory on which he looks. When he recovers his full powers of vision he perceives the procession deploying north, toward the noonday sun; and he and Statius take their places by the right wheel of the chariot; and pass on, to the accompaniment of angelic song, through the forest, till Beatrice descends. They approach the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which represents the principle of obedience, and therefore of the Empire, whereas the car from which Beatrice has descended represents the Church; the ideal relations between which two powers are represented by the reverence of the griffin for the tree, the binding of the pole of the chariot to it, and the spring beauty that at once falls on it. Here slumber falls upon the Poet, from which he wakes bewildered, like the apostles after the transfiguration, to find Beatrice bereft of all her glorious escort save the seven nymphs, bearing in their hands the seven tapers. Here, in this deserted Earthly Paradise, which would be thronged with inhabitants had Church and State been true to their mission, Dante beholds an allegorical portrayal of the perverse relations between the two, and of the disasters and corruptions of the Church, of her persecutions, of the heresies that threatened her, of the yet more fatal favour of Christian emperors, of the great schism of Islam, of the foul corruption of the Court of Rome, and the Babylonian captivity of Avignon.

• From My Life on the Road (2015)

  In books we brought along, we read about earlier grave excavations here that revealed a young couple laid out side by side, wearing jewelry and breastplates, their noses shaped in copper to keep them after the fragile cartilage was gone. Their bodies were surrounded by buttons made of copper-covered wood and stone as well as more than a hundred thousand pearls.5 That night we join Deborah’s mother, her eighty-six-year-old grandmother, and teachers and neighbors at a community potluck supper in the school gym. It’s a welcome for us. With the slow-paced humor and warmth I’ve come to cherish, they talk about the history of small-town Ohio, and are delighted that we are interested. Deborah’s grandmother has lived her entire life near Adena mounds that may be even older than the one we just saw. They reminisce about everything from romantic outings in the Great Circle Earthworks to the connection they feel to people they just call “the ancients.” We tell them about the young couple in copper and pearls. All of us light a candle for them. What I don’t tell them is a feeling I don’t understand myself. As a child, I went to Theosophical meetings with my mother, and to a Congregational church where I was christened. I’ve enjoyed many years of Passover seders, rewritten with scholarship and poetry to include women. But not one of them felt as timeless and true as Serpent Woman. II.Coming home from a road trip in the late 1970s, I notice graffiti painted in big white letters over the Queens Midtown Tunnel: WHEELS OVER INDIAN TRAILS . Soon I find myself looking for this graffiti whenever I come home. I wonder, Who climbed so high above the traffic? One of New York’s brash young street artists? Some Marlon Brando–esque guy in love with a culture not his own? A descendant of a tribe that once lived here? I assume this is not a message from a living culture. I don’t yet realize that it is part of a journey that will change how I see the world and the possible. Later when I’m sitting in my favorite place amid the tall outcroppings of igneous rock in Central Park, just a short walk from my apartment, I wonder, Who rested in this same place long ago, before the Dutch and then the English arrived? Whose hand touched this stone, and who looked at the same horizon? This vertical history feels more intimate and sensory than written history. It’s been reaching out all along, I just wasn’t paying attention. —WHEN I WAS YOUNGER and trying to become a writer by interviewing other writers, I got an assignment to profile Saul Bellow, the much-awarded novelist who chronicled Chicago in all its diversity. Since he didn’t want to sit still for an interview, he took me on a day’s tour of this city that was a character in all his writing.

• From My Life on the Road (2015)

  We formed a curved line, like a huge living nautilus shell, with women elders at its heart around the fire. I knew from Wilma that their heavy leggings were sewn with small tortoise shells, and each shell was filled with tiny pebbles, so as their feet and rattling shells hit the ground, there was a sound I’d never heard before, yet it was right and familiar. Women elders were keeping the rhythm of life. I knew that Wilma should be dancing with these women elders at the center near the fire. But could she? I sat with her at the outer edge of the firelight as she prepared for a ritual that has survived centuries of land loss, warfare, lethal epidemics, outlawed languages and spiritual practices, and other attempts to take away home, culture, pride, family, and life itself. I watched as Wilma wrapped thick strips of cloth from knee to ankle, covering the steel brace that she could not walk without, adding the weight of tortoise shells and stones by her own choice. She moved out of the dark, past the dancers at the speeding end of the spiral, into the inner circle of women moving around the fire. And then she danced. — IT’S A FEW YEARS LATER, and I know that Wilma still has health problems. Lately, she has had a series of tests for fatigue and back pains. But I assume she will overcome these obstacles because she always has. I have been with her through dialysis because of kidney disease inherited from her father, a kidney transplant, cancer brought on by immune suppressants to maintain the transplant, chemotherapy and a second transplant, then a second bout with cancer. For a long time, we’ve wanted to write a book together. Now we’ve made plans to set aside the month of May 2010 to spread out our notes and research on her kitchen table and start writing about traditional practices in original cultures that modern ones could learn from. She has even less time for writing than I do, so we’re excited about it. Also, if we have one more start-up left in us, it will be a school for organizers. Wilma can pass on her gift for creating independence; I can explain why stories and listening are part of change that comes from the bottom up. Organizers from this and other countries can come to teach and brainstorm solutions to one another’s problems. In March I’m at a conference at my own college, where I always imagine my former self on campus, a little scared and out of place. Yet now I’m about to be seventy-six and planning to live to a hundred. I’m doing work I love, with friends I love. What could be better than that? Then I get an unusual message from Wilma: Can I come now instead of waiting for May? I know what this means.

• From My Life on the Road (2015)

  He says this not with an edge but with a smile. Because I ask, he tells me that the mounds around this country were spiritual centers or astrological observatories or burial sites. Most are pyramids, with openings inside for viewing solstices and equinoxes, but others are flat mounds at global magnetic points where seeds were spread out to make them more fruitful. All were centuries in the making, with digging up and moving tons of earth. Sometimes those basins were turned into lakes or fish hatcheries. Burial mounds tell us the most, because they contain seashells from the Gulf of Mexico, or obsidian from Wyoming, or carved mica from the Carolinas, or even the teeth of Rocky Mountain grizzly bears inlaid with pearls—also bowls and jewelry made of silver and copper from Canada, turtle shells from the Atlantic, carved semiprecious beads from Central America, and textiles from everywhere. They tell how far the ancients traveled or traded. By now I feel like I’m in an alternate reality. He says the mounds were such feats of construction that Europeans didn’t believe people they regarded as savages could have ancestors who created them. One popular theory was that the Egyptians lived here—and then mysteriously left. Another was that the Chinese, the first sailors, had come and gone. I ask if the mound builders were his ancestors. He says they might have been, but with all the mixed heritage in this country, they could be my ancestors, too. Nobody knows what they called themselves—the mounds are named after the places they were found: Adena, Hopewell, and so on. Most of the big mounds were along the Mississippi River. People on this continent then known as Turtle Island had cultures as advanced as any on earth. Suddenly, it seems ridiculous that we just came from a city airport named for Columbus, a terrible navigator who insisted to his dying day that he was in India—which is why people here are called Indians. As the Native women in Houston said, “It could have been worse—he could have thought he was in Turkey.” If you’ve been genocided and left out of history, as they explained, you need a sense of humor to survive. When I tell my host this, he looks at me as if I’m just beginning to get it. Though I’ve been assuming this kind and patient man was sent to pick me up, I realize I don’t know his role. He says mildly that he’s one of the conference organizers. If I hadn’t asked, he would have been content to remain a driver. So much for hierarchy. As we pull into our destination, I ask how he keeps on working, despite ignorance like mine on one hand and all the commercial imitations on the other. “In Indian Country,” he says, “we have a different sense of time.

• From Saint Thomas Aquinas Collection (22 Books) (2016)

  Moreover. All creatures are compared to God, as works of art are compared to the artist, as appears from what we have already said. Hence all nature is the work of the divine art. Now it is not inconsistent with a work of art that the artist make some alteration in his work, even after giving it its first form. Neither, therefore is it contrary to nature if God does something in natural things, other than that which occurs in the ordinary course of nature. Wherefore Augustine says: God the creator and author of all natures, does nothing unnatural: because to each thing, that is natural which is caused by Him from whom is all measure, number and order in nature. CHAPTER CI OF MIRACLESTHESE works that are sometimes done by God outside the usual order assigned to things are wont to be called miracles: because we are astonished (admiramur) at a thing when we see an effect without knowing the cause. And since at times one and the same cause is known to some and unknown to others, it happens that of several who see an effect, some are astonished and some not: thus an astronomer is not astonished when he sees an eclipse of the sun, for he knows the cause; whereas one who is ignorant of this science must needs wonder, since he knows not the cause. Wherefore it is wonderful to the latter but not to the former. Accordingly a thing is wonderful simply, when its cause is hidden simply: and this is what we mean by a miracle: something, to wit, that is wonderful in itself and not only in respect of this person or that. Now God is the cause which is hidden to every man simply: for we have proved above that in this state of life no man can comprehend Him by his intellect. Therefore properly speaking miracles are works done by God outside the order usually observed in things.

• From Saint Thomas Aquinas Collection (22 Books) (2016)

  TITUS BOSTRENSIS. (non occ.) But the Saviour is not like to Elias mourning over the son of the widow of Sarepta, (1 Kings 17) nor as Elisha who laid his own body upon the body of the dead, (2 Kings 4) nor as Peter who prayed for Tabitha, (Acts 9:40) but is none other than He who calls those things which be not, as though they were, who can speak to the dead as to the living, (Rom. 4:17) as it follows, And he said, Young man GREGORY OF NYSSA. (ubi sup.) When He said, Young man, He signified that he was in the flower of his age, just ripening into manhood, who but a little while before was the sight of his mother’s eyes, just entering upon the time of marriage, the scion of her race, the branch of succession, the staff of her old age. TITUS BOSTRENSIS. But straightway he arose to whom the command was made. For the Divine power is irresistible; there is no delay, no urgency of prayer, as it follows, And he that was dead sat up, and began to speak, and he gave him to his mother. These are the signs. of a true resurrection, for the lifeless body cannot speak, nor would the mother have carried back to her house her dead and lifeless son. BEDE. But well does the Evangelist testify that the Lord is first moved with compassion for the mother, and then raises her son, that in the one case He might set before us for our imitation an example of piety, in the other He might build up our belief in His wonderful power. Hence it follows. And there came a fear upon all, and they glorified God, &c. CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA. This was a great thing in an insensible and ungrateful people. For in a short time afterward they would neither esteem Him as a prophet, nor allow that He did aught for the public good. But none of those that dwelt in Judæa were ignorant of this miracle, as it follows, And this rumour of him went forth throughout all Judæa. MAXIMUS. (non occ.) But it is worthy of remark, that seven resurrections are related before our Lord’s, of which the first was that of the son of the widow of Sarepta, (1 Kings 17) the second of the Shunamite’s son, (2 Kings 4) the third which was caused by the remains of Elisha, (2 Kings 13) the fourth which took place at Nain, as is here related, the fifth of the ruler of the Synagogue’s daughter, (Mark 5) the sixth of Lazarus, (John 11) the seventh at Christ’s passion, for many bodies of the saints arose. (Mat. 27.) The eighth is that of Christ, who being free from death remained beyond for a sign that the general resurrection which is to come in the eighth age shall not be dissolved by death, but shall abide never to pass away.

• From Saint Thomas Aquinas Collection (22 Books) (2016)

  35. And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him. And when the devil had thrown him in the midst, he came out of him, and hurt him not. 36. And they were all amazed, and spake among themselves, saying, What a word is this! for with authority and power he commandeth the unclean spirits, and they come out. 37. And the fame of him went out into every place of the country round about. AMBROSE. Neither indignation at their treatment, nor displeasure at their wickedness, caused our Lord to abandon Judæa, but unmindful of His injuries, and remembering mercy, at one time by teaching, at another by healing, He softens the hearts of this unbelieving people, as it is said, And he went down to Capernaum. CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA. For although He knew that they were disobedient and hard of heart, He nevertheless visits them, as a good Physician tries to heal those who are suffering from a mortal disease. But He taught them boldly in the synagogues, as Esaias saith, I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth. (Isa. 45:19.) On the sabbath day also He disputed with them, because they were at leisure. They wondered therefore at the mightiness of His teaching, His virtue, and His power, as it follows, And they were astonished at his doctrine, for his word was with power. That is, not soothing, but urging and exciting them to seek salvation. Now the Jews supposed Christ to be one of the saints or prophets. But in order that they might esteem Him higher, He passes beyond the prophetic limits. For he said not, “Thus saith the Lord,” but being the Master of the Law, He uttered things which were above the Law, changing the letter to the truth, and the figures to the spiritual meaning. BEDE. The word of the teacher is with power, when he performs that which he teaches. But he who by his actions belies what he preaches is despised. CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA. But He generally intermingles with His teaching the performance of mighty works. For those whose reason does not incline to knowledge, are roused by the manifestation of miracles. Hence it follows, And there was in the synagogue a man which had a devil.

• From The Divine Comedy (1950)

  For what the Church holdeth in her keeping, all pertaineth to the folk that make petition in God’s name; not unto kindred, or other filthier thing. The flesh of mortals is so blandishing8 that down on earth good beginning sufficeth not for all the space from the upspringing of the oak to acorn-bearing. Peter began his gathering without gold or silver, and I mine with prayers and fast, and Francis his in humbleness. And if thou scan the beginning of each one, and scan again whither it hath gone astray, thou shalt see the white turned dusky. But Jordan back returning, and the sea fleeing when God willed, are more wondrous sights than were the rescue here.” So spake he to me, and then gathered him to his assembly; and the assembly drew close; then like a whirlwind was all gathered upward. The sweet Lady thrust me after them, only with a sign, up by that ladder, so did her power overcome my nature; nor ever here below, where we mount and descend by nature’s law, was so swift motion as might compare unto my wing. O reader, by my hopes of turning back to that devout triumph, for the which I many a time bewail my sins, and smite upon my breast, thou hadst not drawn back and plunged thy finger in the flame in so short space as that wherein I saw the sign that followeth the Bull, and was within it. O stars of glory, O light impregnated with mighty power, from which I recognize all, whatsoe’er it be, my genius; with you was rising, and hiding him with you, he who is father of each mortal life, when I first felt the air of Tuscany;9 and then when grace was bestowed on me to enter the lofty wheel that rolleth you, your region was assigned to me. To you devoutly now my soul doth breathe, to gain the power for the hard passage that doth draw her to it. “Thou art so nigh to the supreme weal,” began Beatrice, “that thou shouldst have thine eyes clear and keen. And therefore, ere thou farther wend thereinto, look down and see how great a universe I have already put beneath thy feet; so that thy heart, rejoicing to its utmost, may be presented to the throng triumphant which cometh glad through this sphered ether.” With my sight I turned back through all and every of the seven spheres, and saw this globe such that I smiled at its sorry semblance; and that counsel I approve as best which holdeth it for least; and he whose thoughts are turned elsewhither may be called truly upright. I saw the daughter of Latona kindled without that shade which erst gave me cause to deem her rare and dense.10 The aspect of thy son, Hyperion,11 I there endured, and saw how Maia and Dione12 move about and near him.

• From The Divine Comedy (1950)

  But whoso thinketh of the weighty theme and of the mortal shoulder which hath charged itself therewith, will think no blame if under it it trembleth. It is no voyage for a little bark, that which my daring keel cleaveth as it goeth, nor for a helmsman who doth spare himselt. “Wherefore doth my face so enamour thee that thou turnest thee not to the fair garden which flowereth beneath the rays of Christ? There is the Rose wherein the Word Divine made itself flesh; there are the Lilies at whose odour the good path was taken.” So Beatrice: and I, who to her counsels was all eager, again surrendered me to the conflict of the feeble brows. As under the sun’s ray, which issueth pure through a broken cloud, ere now mine eyes have seen a meadow full of flowers, when themselves covered by the shade; so beheld I many a throng of splendours, glowed on from above by ardent rays, beholding not the source whence came the glowings. O benign power which dost so imprint them! thou hadst thyself uplifted to yield place there for mine eyes that lacked in power. The name of the beauteous flower which I ever invoke, morning and evening, drew all my mind together to look upon the greatest flame. And when on both mine eyes had been depicted the quality and greatness of the living star which conquereth up there, e’en as down here it conquered, from within the heaven descended a torch circle-formed, in fashion of a crown, and girt her and wheeled round her. Whatever melody soundeth sweetest here below, and most doth draw the soul unto itself, would seem a rent cloud thundering, compared unto the sound of that lyre whereby was crowned the beauteous sapphire by which the brightest heaven is ensapphired. “I am the angelic love who circles the lofty gladness that doth breathe from out the womb which was the hostelry of our desire; and I will circle, Lady of heaven, until thou followest thy son, and dost make yet more divine the supreme sphere in that thou enterest it.”5 Thus the circling melody impressed itself, and all the other lights made sound the name of Mary. The royal mantel of all the swathings of the universe which most doth burn and most is quickened in the breath and in the ways of God,6 above us had its inner shore so distant that its appearance, there where I was, not yet appeared to me. Therefore mine eyes had not power to follow the crowned flame as she ascended after her own offspring. And as the infant who toward his mother stretcheth up his arms when he hath had the milk, because his mind flameth forth even into outward gesture; so each one of these glowings up-stretched with its flame, so that the deep love which they had for Mary was made plain to me.

• From The Divine Comedy (1950)

  READER, if ever in the mountains a mist hath caught thee, through which thou sawest not otherwise than moles do through the skin, 1 remember how, when the damp and dense vapours begin to melt away, the sphere of the sun enters feebly through them: and thy fancy will lightly come to see how first I beheld the sun again, that now was at the setting. So, measuring mine with the trusty steps of my Master, I issued forth from such a cloud, to the rays already dead on the low shores. O fantasy, that at times dost so snatch us out of ourselves that we are conscious of naught, even though a thousand trumpets sound about us, who moves thee, if the senses set naught before thee? A light moves thee which takes its form in heaven, of itself, or by a will that sendeth it down. 2 The traces of her impiety, who changed her form into the bird that most delights to sing, 3 appeared in my fancy; and here my mind was so restrained within itself, that from outside came naught which was then received by it. Then fell within my lofty fantasy one crucified, scornful and fierce in mien, and even so was he dying. Round about him were the great Ahasuerus, Esther his wife, and the just Mordecai, who in speech and deed was so sincere. 4 And as this fancy broke of itself, after the fashion of a bubble to which the water fails wherein it was made, there arose in my vision a maiden weeping sorely, and she was saying: “O Queen, wherefore through wrath hast thou willed to be naught? Thou hast slain thee not to lose Lavinia; 5 now me hast thou lost; I am she that mourns, mother, for thy ruin rather than for another’s.” As sleep is broken when on a sudden new light strikes on the closed eyes, and being broken, quivers ere it wholly dies away; so my imagination fell down soon as a light smote on my face, greater far than that which is in our use. I turned me to see where I was, when a voice which removed me from every other intent, said: “Here one ascends”; and it gave my desire to behold who it was that spake, such eagerness as never rests until it sees face to face. But, as at the sun which oppresses our sight, and veils his form by excess, so my virtue there was failing me. “This is a divine spirit, that directs us to the way of ascent without our prayer, and conceals itself with its own light. It doeth unto us as a man doth unto himself; for he who awaits the prayer and sees the need, already sets him unkindly towards denial.

• From The Divine Comedy (1950)

  8 Beneath so fair a sky, as I describe, came four and twenty elders, two by two, crowned with flower-de-luce. 9 All were singing: “Blessed thou among the daughters of Adam, and blessed to all eternity be thy beauties.” 10 When the flowers and the other tender herbs opposite to me on the other bank, were free from those chosen people, even as star follows star in the heavens, four creatures came after them, each one crowned with green leaves. Every one was plumed with six wings, the plumes full of eyes; and the eyes of Argus, were they living, would be such. To describe their form, reader, I spill no more rhymes; for other charges bind me so, that herein I cannot be lavish. But read Ezekiel who depicts them as he saw them coming from the cold region, with whirlwind, with cloud, and with fire; and as thou shalt find them in his pages, such were they here, save that in the pinions John is with me, and differs from him. 11 The space within the four of them contained a car triumphal, upon two wheels, 12 which came drawn at the neck of a griffin.

• From The Divine Comedy (1950)

  C A N T O X X X I I The eager gaze with which Dante quenches his ten years’ thirst, is for a moment blinded by the glory on which he looks. When he recovers his full powers of vision he perceives the procession deploying north, toward the noonday sun; and he and Statius take their places by the right wheel of the chariot; and pass on, to the accompaniment of angelic song, through the forest, till Beatrice descends. They approach the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which represents the principle of obedience, and therefore of the Empire, whereas the car from which Beatrice has descended represents the Church; the ideal relations between which two powers are represented by the reverence of the griffin for the tree, the binding of the pole of the chariot to it, and the spring beauty that at once falls on it. Here slumber falls upon the Poet, from which he wakes bewildered, like the apostles after the transfiguration, to find Beatrice bereft of all her glorious escort save the seven nymphs, bearing in their hands the seven tapers. Here, in this deserted Earthly Paradise, which would be thronged with inhabitants had Church and State been true to their mission, Dante beholds an allegorical portrayal of the perverse relations between the two, and of the disasters and corruptions of the Church, of her persecutions, of the heresies that threatened her, of the yet more fatal favour of Christian emperors, of the great schism of Islam, of the foul corruption of the Court of Rome, and the Babylonian captivity of Avignon. SO FIXED and intent were my eyes on satisfying their ten years’ thirst, 1 that all my other senses were quenched; and they on either side had a wall of unconcern, so the holy smile drew them to itself in the toils of old; when perforce my face was turned toward my left by those goddesses, because I heard from them a: “Too fixedly.” 2 And that condition of the sight, which is in eyes but just smitten by the sun, made me remain a while without vision; but after my sight re-formed itself to the lesser (I mean the lesser in respect to the greater object of sense wherefrom perforce I turned me away) I saw the glorious host had wheeled upon the right flank, and was returning with the sun and with the seven flames in its face. As under its shields a troop turns about to retreat, and wheels round with the standard ere it can wholly change front, that soldierly of the heavenly realm, which was in the van, passed all by us ere the car turned its pole. Then to the wheels the ladies returned, and the griffin moved the hallowed burden, so that thereby no plume of it was ruffled.

• From The Golden Ass (Metamorphoses) (2)

  *Invitata Psyche talium locorum oblectatione propius accessit et paulo fidentior intra limen sese facit, mox prolectante studio pulcherrimae visionis rimatur singula et altrinsecus aedium horrea sublimi fabrica perfecta magnisque congesta gazis conspicit ; nec est quicquam quod ibi non est: sed praeter cete- ram tantarum divitiarum admirationem hoc erat praecipue mirificum, quod nullo vinculo, nullo claustro, nullo custode totius orbis thesaurus ille muniebatur. Haec ei summa cum voluptate visenti offert sese vox quaedam corporis sui nuda, et * Quid, inquit * Do- mina, tantis obstupescis opibus? Tua sunt haec omnia. Prohinc cubiculo te refer, et lectulo lassitu- dinem refove, et ex arbitrio lavacrum pete. Nos quarum voces accipis, tuae famulae; sedulo tibi prae- ministrabimus nec corporis curatae tibi regales epulae morabuntur.' 3 * Sensit Psyche divinae providentiae beatitudinem monitusque, voces informes audiens, et prius somno et mox lavacro fatigationem sui diluit, visoque statim proximo semirotundo suggestu, propter instrumentum 202 2 THE GOLDEN ASS, BOOK V ments: every part and angle of the house was so well adorned by the precious stones and inestimable treasure there, and the walls were so solidly built up with great blocks of gold, that glittered and shone in such sort that the chambers, porches, and doors gave out the light of day as it had been the sun. Neither otherwise did the other treasure of the house disagree unto so great a majesty, that verily it seemed in every point a heavenly palace fabricated and builded for Jupiter himself wherein to dwell among men. * Then Psyche, moved with delectation, approached nigh, and taking a bold heart entered into the house led on by the beauty of that sight, and beheld every- thing there with great affection : she saw storehouses wrought exceeding fine, and replenished with abund- ance of riches, and finally, there could nothing be devised which lacked there, but amongst such great store of treasure, this was more marvellous, that there was no closure, bolt, or lock, and no guardian to keep the same. And when with great pleasure she viewed all these things, she heard a voice without any body, that said: *Why do you marvel, lady, at so great riches? Behold all that you see is at your command- ment: wherefore go you into the chamber and repose yourself upon the bed, and desire what bath you will have, and we, whose voices you hear, be your ser- vants, and ready to minister unto you according to your desire: in the mean season, when you have refreshed your body, royal meats and dainty dishes shall be prepared for you.' “Then Psyche perceived the felicity of divine providence, and according to the advertisement of the incorporeal voices she first reposed herself upon the bed, and then refreshed her body in the bath. | ; 203 LUCIUS APULEIUS

• From The Golden Ass (Metamorphoses) (2)

  et vastis arboribus consitum, videt fontem vitreo latice perlucidum medio luci meditullio. Prope fontis al- lapsum domus regia est, aedificata non humanis manibus sed divinis artibus: iam scies ab introitu primo dei cuiuspiam luculentum et amoenum videre te diversorium. Nam summa laquearia, citro et ebore curiose cavata, subeunt aureae columnae, parietes omnes argenteo caelamine conteguntur, bestiis et id genus pecudibus occurrentibus ob os introeuntium. Mirus prorsum homo, immo semideus vel certe deus, qui magnae artis subtilitate tantum efferavit argentum: enimvero pavimenta ipsa lapide pretioso caesim de- minuto in varia picturae genera discriminantur : vehementer iterum ac saepius beatos illos qui super gemmas et monilia caleant! Iam ceterae partes longe 200 BOOK V “Tuus fair Psyche being sweetly couched amongst the soft and tender herbs, as in a bed of dewy grass and fragrant flowers, and having qualified the troubles and thoughts of her restless mind, was now well reposed : and when she had refreshed herself suffi- ciently with sleep, she rose with a more quiet and pacified mind, and fortuned to espy a pleasant wood environed with great and mighty trees, and likewise arunning river as clear as crystal; in the middest and very heart of the woods, well nigh at the fall of the river, was a princely edifice, wrought and builded, not by the art or hand of man, but by the mighty power of a god: and you would judge at the first entry therein, that it were some pleasant and worthy mansion for the powers of heaven. For the embow- ings above were curiously carven out of citron and ivory, propped and undermined with pillars of gold; the walls covered and seeled with silver; divers sorts of beasts were graven and carved, that seemed to encounter with such as entered in: all things were so curiously and finely wrought, that it seemed either to be the work of some demigod, or God himself, that put all these beasts into silver. The pavement was all of precious stone, divided and cut one from another, whereon was carved divers kinds of pictures, in such sort that blessed and thrice blessed were they which might go upon such a pavement of gems and orna- 201 LUCIUS APULEIUS lateque dispositae domus sine pretio pretiosae totique parietes solidati massis aureis splendore proprio corus- cant, ut diem suum sibi domus faciat licet sole no- lente; sic cubicula, sic porticus, sic ipsae valvae ful- gurant. Nec setius opes ceterae maiestati domus respondent, ut equidem illud recte videatur ad con- versationem humanam magno Iovi fabricatum caeleste palatium.

• From The Divine Comedy (1950)

  I saw Electra with many companions: amongst whom I knew both Hector and Éneas; Cæsar armed, with the falcon eyes. 5 I saw Camilla and Penthesilea on the other hand, and saw the Latian King, sitting with Lavinia his daughter. I saw that Brutus who expelled the Tarquin; Lucretia, Julia, Marcia, and Cornelia; 6 and by himself apart, I saw the Saladin. 7 When I raised my eyelids a little higher, I saw the Master of those that know, 8 sitting amid a philosophic family. All regard him; all do him honour; here I saw Socrates and Plato, who before the rest stand nearest to him; 9 Democritus, who ascribes the world to chance: Diogenes, Anaxagoras, and Thales; Empedocles, Heraclitus, and Zeno; 10 and I saw the good collector of the qualities, Discorides I mean; and saw Orpheus, Tully, Linus, and Seneca the moralist; Euclid the geometer, and Ptolemæus; Hippocrates, Avicenna, and Galen; Averroës, 11 who made the great comment. I may not paint them all in full: for the long theme so chases me, that many times the word comes short of the reality. The company of six diminishes to two; by another road the sage guide leads me, out of the quiet, into the trembling air; and I come to a part where there is naught that shines. 1. Dante follows the legend, probably based on 1 Peter iii. 19, according to which Christ descended to Hell in the year 33 (that is to say, fifty-two years after Virgil’s death) and liberated certain souls. 2. The genius of the inhabitants of the castle in a measure atones for their unbaptized state. 3. It is difficult to believe that these lines should be accepted as a testimony of Dante’s modesty: our poet was distinctly not a modest man. The passage has not yet been satisfactorily explained. 4. The symbolism here is not very obvious. Perhaps the castle stands or Philosophy; the seven walls: the liberal virtues (i.e., Prudence, Justice, Fortitude and Temperance, Wisdom, Knowledge and Understanding); the stream: Eloquence; the seven gates: the liberal arts (Grammar, Logic, Rhetoric, Music, Arithmetic, Geometry and Astronomy). 5. Electra: the daughter of Atlas and mother of Dardanus, the founder of Troy (cf. Æn. viii, and De Mon, ii, 3) Hector and Æneas: the Trojan heroes; Penthesilea, Queen of the Amazons, assisted the Trojans after Hector’s death; Camilla died while opposing the Trojans in Italy (cf. Canto i); Latinus and Lavinia: the father-in-law and wife of Æneas; Caesar is introduced here as a descendant of Æneas (the mythical founder of the Roman Empire). 6. Lucius Junius Brutus brought about the overthrow of Tarquinius Superbus, whose son had dishonoured Collatine’s wife Lucretia (510 B.C.); Julia: the daughter of Julius Caesar and wife of Pompey; Marcia: the wife of Cato of Utica (cf. Purg. i); Cornelia: daughter of Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus Major, and wife of Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, whom she bore two sons, Tiberius and Caius, the famous tribunes (cf. Par. xv). 7. The famous Saladin (1137-1103), who was known throughout Europe during the Middle Ages for his munificence and who became the type of the Eastern potentate. He opposed the Crusaders and was defeated by Richard Cœur de Lion. 8. Aristotle. 9. Plato’s influence in the Middle Ages was not nearly so great as that of Aristotle. 10. Early Greek Philosophers (7th-4th centuries B.C.). 11. Dioscorides (author of a medical work, treating of the qualities of plants), Hippocrates and Galen were Greek physicians; Orpheus and Linus: mythical Greek singers and poets; Tullius is, of course, Cicero, and Seneca, the writer whose ethical works were much read in the Middle Ages; Ptolemy’s astronomical system was generally accepted throughout the Middle Ages and adopted by Dante; Avicenna (980-1037) and Averroës (12th century): Arabian physicians and philosophers, both of whom wrote commentaries on Aristotle (the former one on Galen, too). Averroës’ work was translated into Latin ca. 1250, and enjoyed a great vogue in Europe, where it was largely instrumental in bringing about the revival of Aristotle’s philosophy. For other occupants of this circle see Purgatorio, xxii.

• From The Divine Comedy (1950)

  C A N T O X V It is three o’clock in the afternoon, and the Poets, (having circled nigh a fourth part of the mountain and reached its northern slope) are facing the westering sun, when the dazzling light of the angel guardian of the circle warns them that they have approached the next ascent. They are welcomed to a stair far less steep than those they have already surmounted, and hear the blessing of the merciful, together with songs of lofty encouragement, chanted behind them as they mount. Dante’s mind goes back to words in which Guido del Duca, while confessing his own envious disposition on earth, had reproached mankind for fixing their hearts on the things which exclude partnership; and now he questions Virgil as to the meaning of this saying. Virgil answers first briefly, and then in full detail, that the more of any material thing one man has, the less of it there is for others; whereas the more peace or knowledge or love one man has, the more there is for all the others. Hence envy disturbs men’s hearts only because they are fixed on material instead of spiritual things. If this exposition does not satisfy him, let him await further light from Beatrice, and meanwhile let him make all speed upon his journey. On this they reach the third terrace—that of the wrathful–whereon Dante in ecstatic vision beholds examples of meekness and patience. Waking, half-bewildered, from his trance, he is called to himself by Virgil, and the two walk toward the evening sun, till a dark cloud of smoke rolling towards them, plunges them into the blackness of more than night. AS MUCH as between the end of the third hour and the beginning of the day appears of the sphere which ever sports after the fashion of a child, so much appeared now to be left of the sun’s course towards evening; it was vespers there, and here midnight. 1 And the rays were smiting on the middle of our noses, for the mount was so far circled by us, that we now were going straight to the west, 2 when I felt my brow weighed down by the splendour far more than before, and amazement to me were the unknown things; wherefore I raised my hands towards the tup of my eyes, and made me the shade which dulls the excess of light. As when a ray of light leaps from the water or from the mirror to the opposite direction, ascending at an angle similar to that at which it descends, and departs as far from the line of the falling stone in an equal space, even as experiment and science shows, so I seemed to be smitten by reflected light in front of me, wherefore mine eyes were swift to flee.

• From The Golden Ass (Metamorphoses) (2)

  inextricabiliter contorta retractas licia, et Fortunae tempestates mitigas, et stellarum noxios meatus cohibes. Te superi colunt, observant inferi, tu rotas orbem, luminas solem, regis mundum, caleas Tartarum. Tibi respondent sidera, redeunt tempora, gaudent numina, serviunt elementa : tuo nutu spirant flamina, nutriunt nubila, germinant semina, crescunt germina. Tuam maiestatem perhorrescunt aves caelo meantes, ferae montibus errantes, serpentes solo latentes, beluae ponto natantes. At ego referendis laudibus tuis exilis ingenio et adhibendis sacrificiis tenuis patrimonio: nec mihi vocis ubertas ad dicenda quae de tua maiestate sentio sufficit, nec ora mille linguae- que totidem vel indefessi sermonis aeterna series. Ergo quod solum potest, religiosus quidem sed pauper alioquin, efficere curabo: divinos tuos vultus numen- que sanctissimum intra pectoris mei secreta conditum perpetuo custodiens imaginabor.” Ad istum modum deprecato summo numine, com- plexus Mithram sacerdotem et meum iam parentem, colloque eius multis osculis inhaerens veniam postula- bam, quod eum condigne tantis beneficiis munerari nequirem. Diu denique gratiarum gerendarum ser- mone prolixo commoratus, tandem digredior, et recta patrium Larem revisurus meum post aliquam multum temporis, contendo; paucisque post diebus, deae potentis instinctu, raptim constrictis sarcinulis, nave conscensa Romam versus profectionem dirigo ; tutus- que prosperitate ventorum ferentium Augusti portum 584 | THE GOLDEN ASS, BOOK XI