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.But oftentimes things appear which givefalse material for doubting, by reason of the true occasions which are hidden.Thy demandproves to me that thy belief is that I was avaricious in the other life, perhaps by reason of thatcircle where I was.Know then that avarice was put too far away from me, and thisdisproportion thousands of the moon s revolutions have punished.And if it were not that Imade right my care, when I understood the passage where thou criest, in rage as it were athuman nature:  Why restrainest thou not, O holy hunger of gold, the desire of mortals? I hadfound myself turning in the woful jousts.Then I perceived that the hands could spread theirwings too much to spend, and thus I repented of this as of other sins.How many will arisewith shortened hair, through the ignorance which takes away repentance for this sin whilethey live, and in their last hour! And know that the fault which meets any sin by directopposition, together with it in this world dries its green.Wherefore if I have been among thatfolk who bewail avarice, to purge me, it has befallen me by reason of its contrary.  Then, too,when thou sangest the cruel war of the twofold grief of Jocasta, said the Singer of the Bucolicstrains,  by that string which Clio there with thee touches, it seems that that faith had notyet made thee faithful, without the which good works suffice not.If thus it is, what sun orwhat candles so dispelled thy darkness that thou directedst afterward thy sails behind theFisher? And he to him:  Thou at first leddest me toward Parnassus to drink in its caverns,and next didst light me on the road to God.Thou didst as he who goes by night, who bearsa light behind him, and helps not himself, but after him makes the people wise, when thousaidst:  The world renews itself; Justice returns, and the first age of man; and a new progenydescends from Heaven. Through thee I was a poet, through thee a Christian; but that thoumayest see that which I outline, I will stretch forth my hand to put the colours.Already wasthe whole world teeming with the true belief, sown by the messages of the eternal realm; andthy word above-mentioned was in harmony with the new preachers; wherefore I took thecustom to visit them.At last they came to seem to me so holy, that when Domitianpersecuted them, their plaints were not without tears from me.And whilst there was a stationfor me in that world, I aided them, and their upright fashions made me hold all other sectsof small price.And before that I brought the Greeks to the rivers of Thebes in my poem hadI baptism, but through fear I was a hidden Christian, for a long time making a show ofpaganism; and this lukewarmth made me circle the fourth ring for more than the fourthcentury.Thou, then, who didst lift for me the covering which hid from me so much good asI say, while that we still have surplus of our ascent, tell me where is our ancient Terence,Cæcilius, Plautus, and Varro, if thou knowest; tell me if they are damned, and in whatquarter. They, and Persius, and I, and others enough, answered my Leader,  are with thatGreek, whom the Muses suckled more than ever another, in the first girdle of the blindprison.Many times talk we of the mount which has our nursing-mothers always with it.Euripides is there with us and Antiphon, Simonides, Agathon, and other more Greeks, whoonce adorned their brows with laurel.There may be seen of thy folk Antigone, Deiphile, andArgia, and Ismene, sad as she lived.There is seen she who showed Langia; there is thedaughter of Tiresias, and Thetis, and Deidamia with her sisters.Now both the poets began to hold their peace, intent afresh on looking round, free fromthe ascent and the walls; and already four handmaids of the day were left behind, and thefifth was at the pole of the car, directing ever upward its blazing point, when my Leader:  Ithink that it behoves us to turn our right shoulders to the outer edge, circling the mount aswe are wont to do. Thus usage was there our guidance, and we took the way with less doubtfor the assent of that worthy soul.They were going in front, and I solitary behind, and I was listening to their talk, whichgave me understanding to sing.But soon the pleasant converse was broken by a tree whichwe found in mid-road, with apples sweet and good to smell.And as a fir-tree grows less bydegrees upward, from branch to branch, so that downward; I think in order that no one maygo up [ Pobierz caÅ‚ość w formacie PDF ]