e incident is recalled of the pagan Pylades feigning himself
to be Orestes to save the latter from death. The voice saying, "Love
those from whom ye have had evil," is an exhortation to the heroic act
of charity of returning good for evil. In contrast with those counsels
of charity, other voices call out direct warnings against envy.

On this terrace is neither beauty nor art but envy's own color. A livid
hue is the whole landscape. Of this color also are the garments of the
suffering souls. They are depicted one leaning against the other in
mutual love and for mutual support, like beggars sitting at the entrance
of a church to which crowds go for the gaining of an Indulgence.
Pitiable is the scene, for the envious in expiation for their sin,
which entered their soul through its windows, the eyes, are deprived of
sight, their lids being fastened by a wire suture such as is used for
the taming of a hawk. Dante says of them:

"I saw,
Shadows with garments dark as was the rock;
And when we pass'd a little forth, I heard
A crying, 'Blessed Mary! pray for us,
Michael and Peter! all ye saintly host!'
I do not think there walks on earth this day
Man so remorseless, that he had not yearn'd
With pity at the sight that next I saw.
Mine eyes a load of sorrow teem'd, when now
I stood so near them, that their semblance
Came clearly to my view. Of sackcloth vile
Their covering seem'd; and, on his shoulder, one
Did stay another, leaning; and all lean'd
Against the cliff. E'en thus the blind and poor,
Near the confessionals, to crave an alms,
Stand, each his head upon his fellow's sunk;
So most to stir compassion, not by sound
Of words alone, but that which moves not less,
The sight of misery. And as never beam
Of noonday visiteth the eyeless man,
E'en so was heaven a niggard unto these
Of this fair light: for, through the orbs of all,
A thread of wire, impiercing, knits them up,
As for the taming of a haggard hawk."
(Canto, XIII, 42.)

As the poets continue their way over the second terrace Virgil explains
an obscure phrase uttered by Guido del Duca, a soul punished for the sin
of envy. That spirit speaking to Dante reproached mankind for setting
its heart upon material things; "The heavens are calling to you and
wheel around you, displaying unto you their eternal beauties and your
eye gazes only on earth." Envy is consequently engendered because as the
spiri