ight of light." Not only with God, but with His saints is the idea
of visible light intimately associated. The prophet Daniel tells us
that "They that are learned shall shine as the brightness of the
firmament, and they that instruct many unto justice, as stars to all
eternity." (XII, 3.) And it is Christ Himself who says: "Then shall the
just shine as the sun, in the kingdom of their Father." (Matt., XIII,
43.)

In using such a subtle, dazzling element as light so generally and in
such countless varieties throughout his Paradiso, Dante is exposed to
the danger of palling his readers with brightness and making them lose
interest in things glorious and supernal. But the genius of the man
saves the artist. By a conception of matchless beauty he binds the light
of heaven to the human, making the smile in the eye of his beloved
guide, Beatrice, express his own personal heaven, in the light that
enters his mind and the ardor which quickens his heart. As he mounts
with her the stairway of the heavens leading to the Eternal Palace and
his motion is brought about simply by his gazing into her eyes, she
makes known to him by her increasing brightness both his own mounting
knowledge and his ascent nearer the Empyrean.

As Dante represents the increase of light and love deepening and
expanding in him as he rises empyreanward all by the loved smile of his
beloved Beatrice, it is well that we bear in mind the significance of
the symbolism as expounded by the poet in his Banquet. (III, 15.)
Beatrice being Revelation or Wisdom made known to the world, "in her
face appear things that tell of the pleasures of Paradise and ... the
place wherein this appears is in her eyes and her smile. And here it
should be known that the eyes of Wisdom are the two demonstrations by
which is seen the truth most certainly; and her smile is her persuasion
by which is shown forth the interior light of Wisdom under some veil;
and in these two things is felt the highest pleasure of beatitude, which
is the greatest good of Paradise."

Beatrice--Revealed Truth--remains the poet's guide until he comes to
behold the Beatific Vision. Then, no longer needed, she withdraws in
favor of the contemplative St. Bernard as guide, just as Virgil had
withdrawn when he was powerless and when Beatrice was needed.

The question here presents itself: In what does Dante place the
happiness of Heaven? Does he paint such a Heaven that it shows
principally the rectifications o