THE Eagle speaks. Seated in the pupil of its eye is seen David, surrounded by Hezekiah, Constantine, William II. of Sicily, Trajan, Ripheus. By these instances Dante shows that the Heathen are not precluded from salvation.
WHEN he, who with his universal ray
The world illumines, quits our hemisphere,
And, from each quarter, daylight wears away;
The heaven, erst kindled by his beam alone,
Sudden its lost effulgence doth repair
By many lights illumined but by one.
Such was the scene presented; when the beak
Of that blest sign imperial, and its throngs
Of various leaders, now had ceased to speak:
For all those living souls, in light array'd,
And more transcendent now, began their
Songs that from memory too swiftly fade.
Sweet Love, who deck'st thyself with smiles! how glow'd
Thy rays with fervour in those sparks divine,
Which unto holy thoughts their rapture owed!
Soon as the luminous and precious stones
With which engemm'd I saw the sixth line shine,
Had put to silence the angelic tones,
Methought I heard a stream, whose limpid course
From rock to rock its murmuring waters roll'd,
Showing the abundant richness of its source.
And as along the cithern's neck, the sound
Is tuned and temper'd; or the wind, controll❜d
Through pastoral reed, breathes grateful notes around; So, no delay allow'd to interpose,
Up through the neck, as though it hollow were,
A murmur from the imperial Bird arose :
Then utterance follow'd; and the words that fell
From forth the beak, articulate and clear,
My heart foreboded, and retains full well.
"Behold that part of me which dares the day
In mortal eagles," he began; "and give
All the attention that thy mind can pay :
For, of the flames by which my form is dight,
Those whence mine eye its sparkles doth derive
Surpass the others in excess of light.
This in the midst, like pupil of the eye,
Was he who bore the ark from town to town,
And sang in notes of heaven-taught psalmody.
Now he perceives the merit of his strains
(And love of his Inspirer, by the crown
Which he in guerdon of his song obtains.
Of the five who round my eyelid form a zone,
The one, whom nearest to my beak you see,
Consoled the widow for her murder'd son.
Now knows he by experience of this
Sweet life, and of the opposite, how he
Who walks not after Christ falls short of bliss.
He who comes next in the circumference,
And forms the upper arch, his death delay'd
By tears unfeign'd, and real penitence;
Now knows he that God's Justice changeth not,
Though, through the prayer of piety, be stay'd
The hand that for to day had fix'd the lot.
The next you view (his good intent defeated)
A Greek became with me and with the laws,
That in his room the Pastor might be seated.
Now knoweth he that the ill consequence
Of his good deed no harm upon him draws,
Although the world hath been confounded thence.
He, lower in the arch, was William, who
With many a tear is wish'd for by that land
Which doth the living Charles and Frederick rue.
Now knows he how in heaven a righteous king
Is loved; and this the more to understand,
The brightness of his face a proof may bring.
Who, in the erring world of man below,
Would think the Trojan Ripheus e'er could be
The fifth effulgence of this holy bow?
Full well discerns he now the heavenly Grace,
Which mortals, blindly groping, cannot see,
Although unable all its depth to trace."
E'en as the lark high soaring pours its throat
Awhile, then rests in silence, as though still
It dwelt enamour'd of its last sweet note.
Such was the semblance of that Image blest,
Stamp'd by the Eternal Pleasure, at whose will Are all things with their proper form imprest. And though with reference to my doubt, was I 79 As glass unto the colour o'er it laid,
I could not wait with patience silently;
But, "What are these?" with eagerness inquired;
Whereat the imperial Bird its joy betray'd,
In garb of greater brilliancy attired.
Then nearer, and with eye that glow'd intense,
To me the blessed Eagle made reply,
Lest admiration keep me in suspense :
"These things, I plainly see, thou hast believed,
Because I told thee; but conceal'd they lie-
Not understood by mortals, though received.
Thou art like one who apprehendeth well
A thing by name, but cannot see the why,
Unless another doth the reason tell.
Heaven's kingdom suffereth violence-by love
And lively hope assail'd-whose ardency
the will of the Most High to move :
Hath
Not by the mode that man his fellow sways,
But because God is willing to be sway'd,
And rules but by the kindness he displays.
The first and fifth light of the arch may well
Wonder excite, that with such gems array'd
Should be the region where the Angels dwell.
They left their bodies not as you presume,
Gentiles, but Christians, firm in faith-the one
Before, the other after Jesus' doom.
For know, the one his flesh and bone regain'd
From hell, where saving penitence is none,
And this reward of lively hope obtain'd,-
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