Paradiso -- Canto XXVIII
The Angelic Orders
When she who makes my mind imparadised
Had told me of the truth that goes against
The present life of miserable mortals —
As someone who can notice in a mirror
5 A candle’s flame when it is lit behind him
Before he has a sight or thought of it,
And turns around to see if what the mirror
Tells him is true, and sees that it agrees
With it as notes are sung to music’s measure —
10 Even so I acted, as I well remember,
While gazing into the bright eyes of beauty
With which Love wove the cord to capture me.
And when I turned, my eyes were greeted with
What shines within that whirling sphere whenever
15 Someone intently stares into its spiral:
I saw a Point that radiated light
So sharply that the eyelids which it flares on
Must close because of its intensity.
Whatever star looks smallest from the earth
20 Would look more like a moon if placed beside it,
As star is set next to another star.
Perhaps as close a halo seems to circle
The starlight radiance that paints it there
Around the thickest mists surrounding it,
25 As close a ring of fire spun about
The Point so fast that it would have outstripped
The motion orbiting the world most swiftly.
And this sphere was encircled by another,
That by a third, and the third by a fourth,
30 The fourth by a fifth, the fifth then by a sixth.
The seventh followed, by now spread so wide
That the whole arc of Juno’s messenger
Would be too narrow to encompass it.
So too the eighth and ninth, and each of them
35 Revolved more slowly in proportion to
The number of turns distant from the center.
And that sphere which spun nearest the pure Spark
Shone with the clearest flame because, I think,
It partakes most in its essential truth.
40 My lady, who saw that I was rapt
In deep suspense, then said, "Upon this Point
Hang all the heavens and the whole of nature.
"Look at that circle closest linked to it
And understand its motion is so rapid
45 Because of burning love which spurs it on."
And I told her, "If the universe were set
Within the order I see in these whorls,
I would be happy with what’s put before me.
"But in the universe seen by our senses
50 The revolutions are the more divine
The more remotely they lie from the center.
"So if my longing is to reach its end
In this amazing temple of the angels
Where all the walls are only love and light,
55 "Then I must hear a further explanation
On why the pattern and its copy differ,
For, contemplating it, I make no headway."
"If your fingers fail to untie this tight knot,
It comes as no surprise, so difficult
60 Has it become by its not being tried."
So said my lady; then she went straight on,
"Take what I tell you — if you would be happy —
And sharpen up your mind concerning it.
"Materially, the spheres are wide or narrow
65 Depending on degrees of more or less
Power that flows down through all their parts.
"A greater power must work greater good:
The greater body holds a greater good
If it possesses equally perfect parts.
70 "This circle, then, that sweeps along with it
The rest of all creation, corresponds
To the circle that knows most and loves the most.
"If then you take your measure by the power,
Not the resemblance, of the substances
75 That here appear to you within these circles,
"You will observe an awesome correspondence
Of greater power to more and smaller to less
Between each heaven and its Intelligence."
Just as our hemisphere of air remains
80 Serene and splendid when Boreas blows
The northeast breezes from his gentler cheeks,
And with these breezes clears and wafts away
The overhanging mists, so that the sky
Smiles on us with the beauties of each quarter,
85 So I became the moment that my lady
Bestowed on me her crystal-clear reply
That like a star in heaven shone with truth.
And after she had finished with her speaking,
The circles all around began to sparkle,
90 Like red-hot iron shooting off bright sparks.
Each sparkle stayed within its fiery ring,
So many that their number runs to more
Millions than the redoubling of the chessboard.
From choir to choir I heard Hosannah sung
95 To the Still Point that holds them fast forever
To that one spot where they have always been.
And she who saw the hesitating thoughts
Within my mind then said, "The first two circles
Have shown you Seraphim and Cherubim.
100 "They swing so swiftly in their inner loops
The more to liken themselves to the Point;
The more they can, the loftier their vision.
"Those other loves that whirl in the next circle
Are called the Thrones of Gazing-on-the-Godhead,
105 Since they bring the first triad to a close.
"And you must know that they are all elated
In measure as their sight probes to the depths
Of that truth in which every mind finds rest.
"From this we see the state of blessedness
110 Is founded first upon the act of seeing
And not upon the love that follows on it.
"And their reward, to which grace and goodwill
Give birth, is measure of their seeing: so,
Their ranks unfold themselves from grade to grade.
115 "The second triad, flowering in this way
During this unending springtime which
No nightly Aries may despoil with autumn,
"Unceasingly in birdsong sings Hosannah
With triple melodies that warble from
120 The three degrees of bliss that form the triad.
"The following divinities are found
Within this hierarchy: first, Dominions;
Then, Virtues; and the third ones there are Powers.
"Next to the last, dance Principalities
125 And there Archangels whirl in the last round,
The whole wide ring is where the Angels play.
"These orders all gaze upward and pour out
Their power downward, so that all of them
Are drawn — and they all draw in turn — toward God.
130 "And Dionysius with such deep desire
Gave himself up to contemplate these orders
That he named them and their ranks as I do.
"But Gregory would later disagree,
Until the time he opened up his eyes
135 In this heaven and smiled at his mistake.
"And if on earth such secret truths are uttered
By a mere mortal, I would not have you marvel,
For Paul who saw it up here told him this
"And many other truths about these circles."
