Canto XIII
CANTO XIII
In order to picture the two rings of twenty-four wise souls, Dante asks the reader to imagine the fifteen stars of the first magnitude in Ptolemaic astronomy, the seven stars of the Big Dipper, and the two stars of the mouth of the Little Dipper, arranged like a double Corona Borealis. Yet this image provides only a faint shadow of the reality, which surpasses our imagination as much as the speed of the Primum Mobile does that of the sluggish Chiana River. These spirits do not sing songs to Bacchus or Apollo but hymns to the one God in three Persons and the one Person of Christ in two natures (1–27). When they have concluded their song and dance, St. Thomas addresses the Pilgrim’s second question, namely, how it can be said of the light of Solomon that “none other rising to its sight is found” since both Adam and Christ were created perfect in their human natures (28–48). The Angelic Doctor explains that God creates all things, corruptible and incorruptible, according to the exemplar of His Word and through the love of His Spirit. Descending through the angelic intelligences moving the spheres to the sublunar world, the light of His creative power is received in different degrees of intensity by matters diversely disposed, which accounts for the qualitative differences of members of the same species. The secondary causality of nature is defective, however, like an artist with a trembling hand, so that nothing created through its agency perfectly reflects the Divine Idea. But since the Holy Trinity operated without intermediary in the creation of Adam and the human nature of Christ, Dante is quite correct in believing that human nature attained its highest expression in those two (49–87). Solomon, however, was a young king who did not ask God for the theoretical wisdom to solve abstruse problems of theology, dialectics, physics, or geometry, but for the practical wisdom to govern his people rightly. It is with respect to kingly prudence, then, that Solomon had no equal (88–111). St. Thomas now exhorts Dante to be slow to affirm or deny when he does not see clearly, for not to do so is the mark of a fool, whereas forming rash opinions may lead one astray, as can be seen in the case of philosophers like Parmenides, Melissus, and Bryson, and of theologians like Sabellius and Arius. Nor should one presume to fathom the Divine Counsel when one sees this person committing a sin and that performing an act of virtue, for the latter may yet fall from grace and the former yet rise from sin just as an apparently dead thorn bush may bear a rose and a ship sink in its home port after completing a voyage (112–142).
1 Let him imagine who would comprehend
Aright what now I witnessed—let him bear
Rock-firm this image while I speak—and tend
4 To fifteen stars in diverse quarters where[325]
They quicken heaven with a light so clear
It overcomes thick vapors in the air;
7 Imagine next the Wain for which, all year,[326]
The heaven’s breast suffices eve and morn
So that its turnings never disappear;
10 Imagine too the bell-mouth of the Horn[327]
That starts atop the axle we behold,
Round which the Primum Mobile is borne;
13 Then see this twofold sign above unfold
Just like the constellation made (but twin)
By Minos’ daughter when she felt death’s cold,[328]
16 And see one bear the other’s rays within,
And both revolve so that the first one would
Spin round before the other one would spin.
19 And you would have a shadow, if you could,
Of that true constellation’s double dance,
Which circled round the point at which I stood,
22 For it so far exceeds our mind’s expanse
As every motion of the swiftest sphere
Surpasses the Chiana’s slow advance.[329]
25 No Bacchic songs or paeans did I hear,[330]
But that three Persons in our God are one
And in one Person God and man appear.
28 The measure of the song and dance was run
As all those holy lights attended us,
Rejoicing so, as task on task was done.
31 And then that shining light I heard discuss
The wondrous life of God’s poor beggar let
The hush of souls-made-one be broken thus:
34 “And now that I have threshed one stalk to get
The grain inside the bin,” he told me here,
“Sweet love bids me to thresh another yet.
37 You think that in the breast from which, as peer,
A rib was drawn to form a fair-cheeked maid
Whose palate was to cost the world so dear,
40 And in that Breast a lance would pierce, which made
Such satisfaction after and before
That on the scales all faults have been outweighed,
43 All that’s allowed as human nature’s store
Of light has been infused by just that Good
Which made the one and other. On that score,
46 You wonder what, above, I understood
In saying that no second good is found
Like that in our fifth light. But if you should[331]
49 Turn open eyes to my reply, you’re bound
To witness that my words will meet your thought
In Truth as in the center of a round.
52 Both that which can and cannot die are naught
But gleams of the Idea in God’s mind,
Which in His Love our Sire begets, unwrought.
55 From its bright Source the living Light is shined
So that It’s never parted from that Blaze
Nor from the Love that is with them ‘intrined’[332]
58 But through Its goodness gathers in Its rays
Nine essences, which in Its glass resplend,[333]
Though It stays one through everlasting days.
61 To the last potencies does light descend,
From act to act, becoming what will breed
But brief contingent beings in the end.
64 By these contingencies I mean indeed
The generated forms the spheres transmit,
In moving round, without or with a seed.
67 The wax of these and that which molded it
Are not alike, so through its stamp, we find,
More light or less will the Ideal emit.
70 And thus it is that trees of one same kind
Bear fruit, some worse, some better, when compared,
And you are born with diverse gifts of mind.
73 But if the wax were perfectly prepared
And heaven’s powers at their height as such,
The light of all the seal would then be bared.
76 Yet Nature is defective in so much
As it will work just like an artist’s hand
That knows its craft but has a trembling touch.
79 But should warm Love dispose clear Vision and,
With the first Power, stamp thereon Its press,
Perfection is acquired beneath Their brand.
82 So was the dust once fit enough to dress
A living creature in perfection due;
So was the Virgin made with child no less.[334]
85 I praise, then, the opinion held by you:
No human nature was or yet shall be
What it was in the person of those two.
88 Did I proceed no further, ‘How could he
Have been without an equal from the rest?’
Your words might well begin. That you may see
91 More clearly what is not yet manifest,
Consider who he was and what a thing,
When told to ask, occasioned his request.
94 I have not spoken so your reasoning
Can’t see he was a king, whom it behooved
To ask for sense to be a worthy king,
97 Not by how many all the spheres are moved,[335]
Nor if necesse ever can enlist
Contingents and necesse still be proved,
100 Nor if a Primus Motus must subsist,
Nor if in semi-circles it is so
That non-right-angled triangles exist.
103 Hence, note these things with what I said and know
That kingly prudence is that peerless view
Towards which the shafts of my intention go.
106 And if to ‘rose’ you turn clear eyes anew,[336]
You’ll see it has the kings alone in sight;
And they are many, though the good are few.
109 With this distinction take my words aright,
And it will stand with your beliefs to date
Of our first father and of our Delight.[337]
112 And let this to your feet be leaden weight
To move you like a weary man, thus slow,
To ‘yes’ or ‘no’ when you do not see straight.
115 Among all fools that man indeed ranks low
Who rushes to affirm or to deny,
No matter which, without distinctions, though.
118 It often happens that you’re led awry
By some too quick opinion at the start,
Which binds your reason by emotion’s tie.
121 It is far worse than vain when they depart
From shore, not coming back as they withdrew,
Who fish for truth but do not have the art.
124 Parmenides, Melissus, Bryson too,[338]
Were open proof of this to humankind,
Like many who set out, though where none knew.
127 Sabellius and Arius, you’ll find,[339]
Were with such fools like swords to Holy Writ
That render Its straight faces disaligned.[340]
130 Nor should the people too securely sit
To judge like one who counts his ears when those
Still need to ripen in the fields a bit.
133 For I have seen through all of winter’s snows
A thorn bush of a rough and rigid cast
That yet upon its top would bear a rose.
136 And I have seen a ship fare straight and fast
Upon the sea through all its course to sink
And perish as it came to port at last.
139 Let not Dame Bertha and Sir Martin think,[341]
On seeing one man steal, one offer all,
They’re reading the Eternal Counsel’s ink,
142 For one may yet arise, the other fall.”