thence
Whenever nature gave it as a form.

Perhaps his doctrine is of other guise
Than the words sound, and possibly may be
With meaning that is not to be derided.

If he doth mean that to these wheels return
The honor of their influence and the blame,
Perhaps his bow doth hit upon some truth.

O glorious stars, O light impregnated
With mighty virtue, from which I acknowledge
All my genius, whatso'er it be.

_Idem, canto's IV and XXII._]

[Footnote 2: primer cielo, segundo. Belief in a series of heavenly
spheres, such as Dante describes, has characterized most mystical
philosophies.]

V

Por una escala[1] misteriosa vio bajar las almas a la tierra; vio
bajar muchas, y subir pocas.[2] Cada una de aquellas almas inocentes
iba acompanada de un arcangel purisimo que le cubria con la sombra de
sus alas. Los que tornaban solos, tornaban en silencio y con lagrimas
en los ojos; los que no, subian cantando como suben las alondras en
las mananas de Abril?[3]

[Footnote 1: escala. Dante mentions a similar stairway in canto XXII
of the _Paradiso_, and intimates that the vision of it is disclosed
only to true mystics.

He thereupon: "Brother, thy high desire
In the remotest sphere shall be fulfilled,
Where are fulfilled all others and my own.

There perfect is, and ripened, and complete,
Every desire; within that one alone
Is every part where it has always been;

For it is not in space, nor turns on poles,
And unto it our stairway reaches up,
thus from out thy sight it steals away.

Up to that height the Patriarch Jacob saw it
Extending its supernal part, whst time
So thronged with angels it appeared to him.

But to ascend it now no one uplifts
His feet from off the earth...."

_Longfellow's translation_.]

[Footnote 2: pocas. Because, in comparison with the number of souls
born into earthly bodies, but few escape the snares of evil and rise
again to their original state of innocence.]

[Footnote 3: Though the idea is somewhat different, there is a
certain parallelism in the picture evoked by the closing verses of
Rossetti's poem "The Blessed Damozel." The Damozel is represented as
waiting for her lover on the ramparts of heaven.

She gazed and listened and then said,
Less sad of speech than mild,--