Paradiso
Discourse of Beatrice on Vows and Compensations. Ascent to the Second Heaven, Mercury: Spirits who for the Love of Fame achieved great Deeds. "
If I blaze before you with a love's intensity
beyond what earthly eyes have ever witnessed,
overwhelming the strength of your own sight,
do not wonder at this—
it comes from perfect vision that perceives the good
and moves toward what it has recognized.
I see clearly how eternal light
already shines within your understanding,
that light which, once seen, kindles love forever.
If anything else seduces your heart,
it is only a trace of this same light,
misunderstood, glimmering through the darkness.
You want to know whether some other service
can compensate for a broken vow enough
to shield the soul from judgment's claim.
With these words Beatrice began this canto,
and like someone who never breaks their thought,
she continued her sacred argument:
The greatest gift God made in his abundance,
most closely matching his own goodness,
the thing he treasures above all else,
is freedom of the will—
given to every creature blessed with reason,
to them alone, to all of them.
From this, if you think carefully,
you'll understand the supreme value of a vow
made so that when you consent, God consents.
In sealing this compact between human and divine,
you sacrifice this treasure by your own free act.
What could possibly serve as compensation?
Do you think you can make good use of what you've offered?
You would try to do good with stolen wealth.
Now you understand the greater point.
But since Holy Church grants dispensations
that seem to contradict the truth I've shown you,
you must sit longer at this table—
the solid food you've consumed
needs more help for proper digestion.
Open your mind to what I reveal
and hold it fast within.
Knowledge is not merely hearing without retention.
Two elements come together in a vow's essence:
the subject matter of the promise
and the agreement itself.
The agreement can never be canceled
except through fulfillment. On this point
I have spoken with absolute precision.
This is why the Hebrews were commanded
to make offerings always,
though sometimes what was offered could be changed.
The other element—the subject matter—
may indeed be such that no wrong is done
if it's exchanged for something else.
But let no one shift this burden
by personal judgment alone,
without both the silver and gold keys turning.
Consider any substitution foolish
unless what you give up is contained
in the replacement, as four is contained in six.
Therefore anything so weighty
it tips every scale
cannot be satisfied by other payment.
Let mortals never make vows lightly.
Be faithful, but not blind in keeping them—
don't be like Jephthah with his rash offering,
who should have said "I was wrong"
rather than compound his error by keeping it.
And consider the great Greek commander, equally foolish,
who made Iphigenia weep for her beautiful face
and caused both wise and simple to mourn
when they heard of such worship.
Christians, move with greater seriousness.
Don't be like feathers blown by every wind.
Don't think every water can wash you clean.
You have the Old Testament and the New,
and the Church's shepherd to guide you—
let this suffice for your salvation.
If wicked appetite cries out for more,
be human beings, not mindless sheep,
so that no Jew among you mocks you.
Don't be like the lamb that abandons
its mother's milk to fight playfully
and foolishly with its own shadow.
This is what Beatrice said to me, exactly as I write it.
Then, full of longing, she turned again
toward that region where the world is most alive.
Her silence and the change in her expression
imposed silence on my eager mind,
which already brimmed with new questions.
Like an arrow that strikes its target
before the bowstring has stopped vibrating,
we sped into the second sphere.
There I saw my Lady so joyful
as she entered that heaven's brightness
that the planet itself grew more radiant.
If the star was transformed and smiled,
what became of me, who by my very nature
am supremely changeable in every way?
As fish in a clear, peaceful pond
are drawn toward something from outside
that seems like food to them,
so I saw more than a thousand splendors
moving toward us, and from each one heard:
"Here is she who will increase our love!"
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MERCURY
“moving toward us, and from each one heard: / "Here is she who will increase our love!"”
As each one approached us,
the shade appeared full of blessedness,
revealed by the clear radiance streaming from it.
Think, reader, if what begins here
should go no further, how you would feel
an agonizing need to know more.
You'll understand for yourself how I longed
to hear about their conditions
as soon as they appeared before my eyes.
"O soul born to grace, to whom heaven grants
the sight of eternal triumph's thrones
before you've finished the battle of life,
we are kindled with the light
that spreads through all of heaven—
if you wish to know about us, satisfy yourself."
One of those holy spirits spoke these words,
and Beatrice said: "Speak, speak
with confidence, and trust them as you would gods."
"I see clearly how you nest yourself
in your own light and draw it through your eyes,
for they flash brilliance when you smile.
But I don't know who you are, or why,
august spirit, you hold your station
in this sphere that veils itself from mortals
in another's rays."
I spoke these words toward the light
that had first addressed me,
and it became far brighter than before.
Like the sun that hides itself
in too much light when heat has melted away
the tempering influence of dense vapors,
so the holy figure concealed itself
in its own radiance through greater rapture,
and thus wrapped close within its brightness
answered me in the way
the following canto will sing.