Paradise:Canto XXIX. Discourse Of Beatrice Concerning The Creation And Nature Of The Angels
Discourse of Beatrice concerning the creation and
nature of the Angels.--She reproves the presumption and
foolishness of preachers.
When both the children of Latona, covered by the Ram and by the
Scales, together make a zone of the horizon,[1] as long as from
the moment the zenith holds them in balance, till one and the
other, changing their hemisphere, are unbalanced from that
girdle, soloing, with her countenance painted with a smile, was
Beatrice silent, looking fixedly upon the Point which had
overcome me. Then she began: "I speak, and I ask not what thou
wishest to hear, for I have seen it where every WHERE and every
WHEN are centred. Not for the gain of good unto Himself, which
cannot be, but that His splendor might, in resplendence, say,
Subsisto; in His own eternity, outside of time, outside of every
other limit, as pleased Him, the Eternal Love disclosed Himself
in new loves. Nor before, as if inert, did He lie; for the going
forth of God upon these waters had proceeded neither before nor
after.[2] Form and matter, conjoined and simple, came forth to
existence which had no defect, as three arrows from a
three-stringed bow; and as in glass, in amber, or in crystal a
ray shines so that there is no interval between its coining and
its complete existence, so the triform effect[3] rayed forth from
its Lord into its. existence all at once, without discrimination
of beginning. Order was concreate, and established for the
substances, and those were top of the world in which pure act was
produced.[4] Pure potency held the lowest part;[5] in the middle
such a bond unites potency with act, that it is never unbound.[6]
Jerome has written to you of the Angels, created a long tract of
centuries before the rest of the world was made. But this
truth[7] is written on many pages by the writers of the that Holy
Spirit: and thou wilt thyself discover it, if thou watchest well
for it; and even the reason sees it somewhat, for it would not
admit that the motors could be so long without their
perfection.[8] Now thou knowest where and when these loves were
elected, and how; so that three flames of thy desire are already
quenched.
[1] When at the spring equinox, the sun being in the sign of
Aries or the Ram, and the moon in that of Libra or the Scales,
opposite to each other on the horizon, the one just rising and
the other setting, they seem as if held for a moment in a balance
which hangs from the zenith.
[2] In eternity there is no before or after; time had no
existence till the creation, and has relevancy only to created
things.
[3] Pure form, pure matter, and form conjoined with matter.
[4] The substances created purely active, to exercise action upon
others, were the angels.
[5] The substances purely passive, capable potentially only of
submitting to the action of others, are the material things
without intelligence.
[6] The substances in which potency and act are united are the
creatures endowed with bodies and souls.
[7] The truth here set forth (contrary to Jerome's assertion),
the creation of the Angels was contemporaneous with that of the
creation of the rest of the Universe of which they were the
Intelligences.
[8] Without scope for their action as movers of the spheres.
One would not reach to twenty, in counting, so quickly as a part
of the Angels disturbed the subject of your elements.[1] The rest
remained and began this art which thou beboldest, with such great
delight that they never cease from circling. The origin of the
fall was the accursed pride of him whom thou hast seen opprest by
all the weights of the world. Those whom thou seest here were
modest in grateful recognition of the goodness which had made
them ready for intelligence so great; wherefore their vision was
exalted with illuminant grace and with their merit, so that they
have full and steadfast will. And I wish that thou doubt not, but
be certain, that to receive grace is meritorious in proportion as
the affection is open to it.
[1] The earth.
"Henceforth, if my words have been harvested, thou canst
contemplate sufficiently round about this consistory without
other assistance. But because on earth it is taught in your
schools that the angelic nature is such that it understands, and
remembers, and wills, I will speak further, in order that thou
mayest see the truth pure, which there below is mixed, through
the equivocation in such like teaching. These substances, from
the time that they were glad in the face of God, have not turned
their sight from it, from which nothing is concealed. Therefore
they have not their vision interrupted by a new object, and
therefore do not need because of divided thought to recollect.[1]
So that there below men dream when not asleep, believing and not
believing to speak truth; but in the one is more fault and more
shame.[2] Ye below go not along one path in philosophizing; so
much do the love of appearance[3] and the thought of it transport
you; and yet this is endured hereabove with less indignation than
when the divine Scripture is set aside, or when it is perverted.
Men think not there how much blood it costs to sow it in the
world, and how much he pleases who humbly keeps close to its
side. Every one strives for appearance, and makes his own
inventions, and those are discoursed of by the preachers, and the
Gospel is silent. One says that the moon turned back at the
passion of Christ and interposed herself, so that the light of
the sun reached not down; and others that the light hid itself of
its own accord, so that this eclipse answered for the Spaniards
and for the Indians as well as for the Jews. Florence hath not so
many Lapi and Bindi[4] as there are fables such as these shouted
the year long from the pulpits, on every side; so that the poor
flocks, who have no knowledge, return from the pasture fed with
wind; and not seeing the harm does not excuse them. Christ did
not say to his first company, 'Go, and preach idle stories to
the world,' but he gave to them the true foundation; and that
alone sounded in their cheeks, so that in the battle for kindling
of the faith they made shield and lance of the Gospel. Now men go
forth to preach with jests and with buffooneries, and provided
only there is a good laugh the cowl puffs up, and nothing more is
required. But such a bird is nesting in the tail of the hood,
that if the crowd should see it, they would see the pardon in
which they confide; through which such great folly has grown on
earth, that, without proof of any testimony, men would flock to
every indulgence. On this the pig of St. Antony fattens, and
others also, who are far more pigs, paying with money that has no
stamp of coinage.
[1] The angels, looking always upon God, to whom all things are
present, have no need of memory.
[2] Many of the doctrines of men on earth axe like dreams,
because they have no foundation in truth; and while some honestly
believe in them, there are others, who, though not believing,
still teach these doctrines as truth.
[3] Of making a good show.
[4] Common nicknames in Florence; Lapo is from Jacopo, Bindo from
Ildebrando.
"But because we have digressed enough, turn back thine eyes now
toward the straight path, so that the way be shortened with the
time. This nature[1] so extends in number, that never was there
speech or mortal concept that could go so far. And if thou
considerest that which is revealed by Daniel thou wilt see that
in his thousands[2] a determinate number is concealed. The primal
light that irradiates it all is received in it by as many modes
as are the splendors with which the light pairs itself.[3]
Wherefore, since the affection follows upon the act[4] that
conceives, in this nature the sweetness of love diversely glows
and warms. Behold now the height and the breadth of the Eternal
Goodness, since it has made for itself so many mirrors on which
it is broken, One in itself remaining as before."
[1] The Angels.
[2] "Thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand
times ten thousand stood before him."--Daniel, vii. 10.
[3] No two angels are precisely alike in their vision of God.
[4] Since love follows on knowledge through vision.
nature of the Angels.--She reproves the presumption and
foolishness of preachers.
When both the children of Latona, covered by the Ram and by the
Scales, together make a zone of the horizon,[1] as long as from
the moment the zenith holds them in balance, till one and the
other, changing their hemisphere, are unbalanced from that
girdle, soloing, with her countenance painted with a smile, was
Beatrice silent, looking fixedly upon the Point which had
overcome me. Then she began: "I speak, and I ask not what thou
wishest to hear, for I have seen it where every WHERE and every
WHEN are centred. Not for the gain of good unto Himself, which
cannot be, but that His splendor might, in resplendence, say,
Subsisto; in His own eternity, outside of time, outside of every
other limit, as pleased Him, the Eternal Love disclosed Himself
in new loves. Nor before, as if inert, did He lie; for the going
forth of God upon these waters had proceeded neither before nor
after.[2] Form and matter, conjoined and simple, came forth to
existence which had no defect, as three arrows from a
three-stringed bow; and as in glass, in amber, or in crystal a
ray shines so that there is no interval between its coining and
its complete existence, so the triform effect[3] rayed forth from
its Lord into its. existence all at once, without discrimination
of beginning. Order was concreate, and established for the
substances, and those were top of the world in which pure act was
produced.[4] Pure potency held the lowest part;[5] in the middle
such a bond unites potency with act, that it is never unbound.[6]
Jerome has written to you of the Angels, created a long tract of
centuries before the rest of the world was made. But this
truth[7] is written on many pages by the writers of the that Holy
Spirit: and thou wilt thyself discover it, if thou watchest well
for it; and even the reason sees it somewhat, for it would not
admit that the motors could be so long without their
perfection.[8] Now thou knowest where and when these loves were
elected, and how; so that three flames of thy desire are already
quenched.
[1] When at the spring equinox, the sun being in the sign of
Aries or the Ram, and the moon in that of Libra or the Scales,
opposite to each other on the horizon, the one just rising and
the other setting, they seem as if held for a moment in a balance
which hangs from the zenith.
[2] In eternity there is no before or after; time had no
existence till the creation, and has relevancy only to created
things.
[3] Pure form, pure matter, and form conjoined with matter.
[4] The substances created purely active, to exercise action upon
others, were the angels.
[5] The substances purely passive, capable potentially only of
submitting to the action of others, are the material things
without intelligence.
[6] The substances in which potency and act are united are the
creatures endowed with bodies and souls.
[7] The truth here set forth (contrary to Jerome's assertion),
the creation of the Angels was contemporaneous with that of the
creation of the rest of the Universe of which they were the
Intelligences.
[8] Without scope for their action as movers of the spheres.
One would not reach to twenty, in counting, so quickly as a part
of the Angels disturbed the subject of your elements.[1] The rest
remained and began this art which thou beboldest, with such great
delight that they never cease from circling. The origin of the
fall was the accursed pride of him whom thou hast seen opprest by
all the weights of the world. Those whom thou seest here were
modest in grateful recognition of the goodness which had made
them ready for intelligence so great; wherefore their vision was
exalted with illuminant grace and with their merit, so that they
have full and steadfast will. And I wish that thou doubt not, but
be certain, that to receive grace is meritorious in proportion as
the affection is open to it.
[1] The earth.
"Henceforth, if my words have been harvested, thou canst
contemplate sufficiently round about this consistory without
other assistance. But because on earth it is taught in your
schools that the angelic nature is such that it understands, and
remembers, and wills, I will speak further, in order that thou
mayest see the truth pure, which there below is mixed, through
the equivocation in such like teaching. These substances, from
the time that they were glad in the face of God, have not turned
their sight from it, from which nothing is concealed. Therefore
they have not their vision interrupted by a new object, and
therefore do not need because of divided thought to recollect.[1]
So that there below men dream when not asleep, believing and not
believing to speak truth; but in the one is more fault and more
shame.[2] Ye below go not along one path in philosophizing; so
much do the love of appearance[3] and the thought of it transport
you; and yet this is endured hereabove with less indignation than
when the divine Scripture is set aside, or when it is perverted.
Men think not there how much blood it costs to sow it in the
world, and how much he pleases who humbly keeps close to its
side. Every one strives for appearance, and makes his own
inventions, and those are discoursed of by the preachers, and the
Gospel is silent. One says that the moon turned back at the
passion of Christ and interposed herself, so that the light of
the sun reached not down; and others that the light hid itself of
its own accord, so that this eclipse answered for the Spaniards
and for the Indians as well as for the Jews. Florence hath not so
many Lapi and Bindi[4] as there are fables such as these shouted
the year long from the pulpits, on every side; so that the poor
flocks, who have no knowledge, return from the pasture fed with
wind; and not seeing the harm does not excuse them. Christ did
not say to his first company, 'Go, and preach idle stories to
the world,' but he gave to them the true foundation; and that
alone sounded in their cheeks, so that in the battle for kindling
of the faith they made shield and lance of the Gospel. Now men go
forth to preach with jests and with buffooneries, and provided
only there is a good laugh the cowl puffs up, and nothing more is
required. But such a bird is nesting in the tail of the hood,
that if the crowd should see it, they would see the pardon in
which they confide; through which such great folly has grown on
earth, that, without proof of any testimony, men would flock to
every indulgence. On this the pig of St. Antony fattens, and
others also, who are far more pigs, paying with money that has no
stamp of coinage.
[1] The angels, looking always upon God, to whom all things are
present, have no need of memory.
[2] Many of the doctrines of men on earth axe like dreams,
because they have no foundation in truth; and while some honestly
believe in them, there are others, who, though not believing,
still teach these doctrines as truth.
[3] Of making a good show.
[4] Common nicknames in Florence; Lapo is from Jacopo, Bindo from
Ildebrando.
"But because we have digressed enough, turn back thine eyes now
toward the straight path, so that the way be shortened with the
time. This nature[1] so extends in number, that never was there
speech or mortal concept that could go so far. And if thou
considerest that which is revealed by Daniel thou wilt see that
in his thousands[2] a determinate number is concealed. The primal
light that irradiates it all is received in it by as many modes
as are the splendors with which the light pairs itself.[3]
Wherefore, since the affection follows upon the act[4] that
conceives, in this nature the sweetness of love diversely glows
and warms. Behold now the height and the breadth of the Eternal
Goodness, since it has made for itself so many mirrors on which
it is broken, One in itself remaining as before."
[1] The Angels.
[2] "Thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand
times ten thousand stood before him."--Daniel, vii. 10.
[3] No two angels are precisely alike in their vision of God.
[4] Since love follows on knowledge through vision.
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