Paradiso -- Canto XIII
The Wise, Aquinas on King Solomon
Imagine, if you really want to grasp
What I now saw — and hold on to the image
Firm as a rock while I am speaking here —
Fifteen stars which in the different quarters
5 Liven up the sky with such sharp brightness
That they pierce all the thickness in the air;
Imagine that Great Bear which on the breast
Of heaven rests all night and day, so that
It does not vanish with the turning pole;
10 Imagine also the mouth of that Horn
Which starts at one end of the axle star
Around which the first wheeling daily rotates;
Imagine all these patterning out two signs
In heaven, like the constellation of King Minos’ daughter
15 Formed when she felt the chill of death upon her,
One circle with its rays inside the other,
And both so spinning round the center that
One should turn first and after that the other:
Then you will glimpse some shadow of the real
20 Constellation and the double dance
Revolving on the spot where I was standing.
For it’s as far from our experience
As the motion of the highest swiftest heaven
Outspeeds the sluggish flow of the Chiana.
25 They sang no Paean there nor hymn to Bacchus,
But to Three Persons in the Godhead’s nature,
And God and human nature in one Person.
The song and circling ran to their full measure,
And then those holy lights attended to us,
30 Happy to pass from caring to new care.
Then the light in which the wondrous life
Of the poor man of God was told to me
Shattered the silence of these souls in concord,
And said, "Since one sheaf has been beaten out,
35 And all its grain is garnered at this time,
Sweet love now bids me to thresh out the other.
"You believe that, in the breast from which
The rib was pulled to shape her lovely cheek
Whose palate all the world has paid for dearly,
40 "And in the breast which, pierced so by the lance,
Before and after made such satisfaction
That it outweighs all evil in the scale,
"In both, all of the light that human nature
May possess has been infused in full
45 By that Power that formed one breast and the other.
"You ponder, therefore, what I have said above
When I told how the excellence enclosed
Within the fifth light never had a second.
"Now open your eyes wide to what I answer
50 And you will see your thinking and my speaking
Become in truth the center of a circle.
"Those things that die and those that cannot die
Are but the splendor of the one Idea
Which in his love our Father has begotten;
55 "For the same living Light which so streams from
The lucent Source that it is never parted
From it or from the Love which makes them Three
"Through its own goodness focuses its rays
In nine existences like nine reflections,
60 Itself eternally remaining One.
"From there to the remotest potencies
Light falls from act to act until it comes
To make now only brief contingencies.
"By these contingencies I understand
65 The generated things produced by seeds
Or, if without seeds, by the moving heavens.
"The wax of these things and what molds the wax
Are not the same, and so the ideal stamp
Shines through it more or less transparently.
70 "So it happens that trees of the same species
Bear better or worse fruit, and that by birth
Human beings have diverse endowments.
"If the wax were molded to perfection,
And were the heavens at the height of power,
75 The light through the whole seal would be apparent,
"But nature always gives imperfectly,
Working in the same way as the artist
Whose hand shakes in the practice of his art.
"But if warm Love disposes and imprints
80 The clear-cut vision of the primal Power,
Complete perfection is accomplished there.
"So clay was once made suitable to form
The full perfection of a living man,
So was the virgin made to be with child.
85 "I give approval, then, to your opinion
That human nature never was nor shall be
As perfect as it was in those two persons.
"Now if I went no further than this point,
You might well start to ask, ‘How is it then
90 This other one is said to have no equal?’
"But to make plain what still is not apparent,
Consider who he was and what moved him
To his request when God said, ‘Choose your gift.’
"I’ve spoken like this so you’ll plainly see
95 He was a king who chose the gift of wisdom
In order to be worthy of his kingship
"And not to know the number of the moving
Angels here above, nor if necessity
With a condition ever proved necessity,
100 "Nor if there is prime motion, nor if one can
Construct a triangle in a semicircle
So that it has no right angle inside.
"It follows, if you note what I have said,
That kingly prudence is the matchless vision
105 At which my arrow of intention strikes.
"And if you turn your sharp-eyed sight to ‘rose,’
You will see it refers only to kings,
Of whom there are many, but the good are rare.
"Take my words on him with this distinction
110 And they are in accord with your belief
Regarding the first father and our Beloved.
"And let my words be lead weights to your feet,
To slow you, like a weary man, from hastening
To the yes or no of what you do not see.
115 "For he is well placed low among the fools
Who, whether in affirming or denying,
Does not distinguish one case from the other.
"For often it occurs that one’s opinion,
When quickly formed, leans in the wrong direction,
120 And vanity then binds the intellect.
"It is far worse than vain to quit the shore
To fish for truth and not possess the skill,
Since one returns worse off than when he left.
"And here, Parmenides, Melissus, Bryson,
125 And many more who went they knew not where
Are open proof of this folly to the world,
"As are Sabellius and Arius,
And those fools who to Scripture were like swords
Mirroring straight faces with distortion.
130 "Again, let people not be too secure
In how they judge, like someone who would count
The ears of corn before the field is ripe.
"For I have seen first, all the winter through,
The briar show itself barbed and unbending,
135 And then upon its stem it bears a rose.
"And I have seen a ship sail swift and straight
Over the vast sea, through her entire course,
To sink at last while entering the harbor.
"Let every Dick and Jane not think, if they
140 See someone steal and someone make an offering
That they observe them with divine omniscience,
"For the thief may rise up, and the donor fall."
