Purgatory Canto 25
Canto XXV
Argument
Virgil and Statius resolve some doubts that have arisen in the mind of Dante from what he had just seen. They all arrive on the seventh and last cornice, where the sin of incontinence is purged in fire; and the spirits of those suffering therein are heard to record illustrious instances of chastity.
It was an hour, when he who climbs, had need To walk uncrippled: for the sun had now To Taurus the meridian circle left, And to the Scorpion left the night. As one, That makes no pause, but presses on his road, Whate'er betide him, if some urgent need Impel; so enter'd we upon our way, One before other; for, but singly, none That steep and narrow scale admits to climb.
[1: "The sun." The sun had passed the meridian two hours, and that meridian was now occupied by the constellation of Taurus, to which as the Scorpion is opposite, the latter constellation was co sequently at the meridian of night.]
E'en as the young stork lifteth up his wing Through wish to fly, yet ventures not to quit The nest, and drops it; so in me desire Of questioning my guide arose, and fell, Arriving even to the act that marks A man prepared for speech. Him all our haste Restrain'd not; but thus spake the sire beloved:
"Fear not to speed the shaft, that on thy lip
Stands trembling for its flight." Encouraged thus, I straight began: "How there can leanness come, Where is no want of nourishment to feed?"
"If thou," he answer'd, hadst remember'd thee, How Meleager with the wasting brand Wasted alike, by equal fires consumed;
This would not trouble thee: and hadst thou thought, How in the mirror your reflected form With mimic motion vibrates; what now seems Hard, had appear'd no harder than the pulp Of summer - fruit mature. But that thy will In certainty may find its full repose, Lo Statius here! on him I call, and pray That he would now be healer of thy wound."
[2: Virgil reminds Dante that, as Meleager was wasted away by the decree of the fates, and not through want of blood; so by the divine appointment, there may be leanness where there is no need of nourishment.]
[3: As the reflection of a form in a mirror is modified with the modification of the form itself; so the soul, separated from the earthly body, impresses the ghost of that body with its own affections.]
"If, in thy presence, I unfold to him The secrets of Heaven's vengeance, let me plead Thine own injunction to exculpate me."
So Statius answer'd, and forthwith began:
"Attend my words, O son, and in thy mind Receive them; so shall they be light to clear The doubt thou offer'st. Blood, concocted well, Which by the thirsty veins is ne'er imbibed, And rests as food superfluous, to be ta'en From the replenish'd table, in the heart Derives effectual virtue, that informs The several human limbs, as being that Which passes through the veins itself to make them.
Yet more concocted it descends, where shame Forbids to mention: and from thence distils In natural vessel on another's blood.
There each unite together; one disposed To endure, to act the other, through that power Derived from whence it came; and being met, It' gins to work, coagulating first;
Then vivifies what its own substance made
Consist. With animation now indued, The active virtue (differing from a plant No further, than that this is on the way, And at its limit that) continues yet To operate, that now it moves, and feels, As sea - sponge clinging to the rock: and there Assumes the organic powers its seed convey'd.
This is the moment, son! at which the virtue, That from the generating heart proceeds, Is pliant and expansive; for each limb Is in the heart by forgetful nature plann'd.
How babe of animal becomes, remains For thy considering. At this point, more wise, Than thou, has err'd, making the soul disjoin'd From passive intellect, because he saw No organ for the latter's use assign'd.
"Open thy bosom to the truth that comes.
Know, soon as in the embryo, to the brain Articulation is complete, then turns The primal Mover with a smile of joy On such great work of nature; and imbreathes New spirit replete with virtue, that what here Active it finds, to its own substance draws;
And forms an individual soul, that lives, And feels, and bends reflective on itself.
And that thou less may'st marvel at the word, Mark the sun's heat; how that to wine doth change, Mix'd with the moisture filter'd through the vine.
"When Lachesis hath spun the thread, the soul Takes with her both the human and divine, Memory, intelligence, and will, in act Far keener than before; the other powers Inactive all and mute. No pause allow'd, In wondrous sort self - moving, to one strand Of those, where the departed roam, she falls: Here learns her destined path. Soon as the place Receives her, round the plastic virtue beams, Distinct as in the living limbs before: And as the air, when saturate with showers,
[4: "When Lachesis hath spun the thread." When a man's life on earth is at an end.]
The casual beam refracting, decks itself With many a hue; so here the ambient air Weareth that form, which influence of the soul Imprints on it: and like the flame, that where The fire moves, thither follows; so, henceforth, The new form on the spirit follows still: Hence hath it semblance, and is shadow call'd, With each sense, even to the sight, indued: Hence speech is ours, hence laughter, tears, and sighs, Which thou mayst oft have witness'd on the mount.
The obedient shadow fails not to present Whatever varying passion moves within us.
And this the cause of what thou marvel'st at."
Now the last flexure of our way we reach'd;
And to the right hand turning, other care Awaits us. Here the rocky precipice Hurls forth redundant flames; and from the rim A blast up - blown, with forcible rebuff Driveth them back, sequester'd from its bound.
Behoved us, one by one, along the side, That border'd on the void, to pass; and I Fear'd on one hand the fire, on the other fear'd Headlong to fall: when thus the instructor warn'd:
"Strict rein must in this place direct the eyes.
A little swerving and the way is lost."
Then from the bosom of the burning mass,
"O God of mercy!" heard I sung, and felt No less desire to turn. And when I saw Spirits along the flame proceeding, I Between their footsteps and mine own was fain To share by turns my view. At the hymn's close They shouted loud, "I do not know a man;"
Then in low voice again took up the strain;
Which once more ended, "To the wood," they cried,
"Ran Dian, and drave forth Callisto stung With Cytherea's poison"; then return'd Unto their song; then many a pair extoll'd,
[5: "Summae Deus clementiae." The beginning of the hymn sung on the Sabbath at matins, as in the ancient breviaries; in the modern it is "summae parens clementiae."]
[6: Luke, i. 34.]
Who lived in virtue chastely and the bands Of wedded love. Nor from that task, I ween, Surcease they; whilesoe'er the scorching fire Enclasps them. Of such skill appliance needs, To medicine the wound that healeth last.
Argument
Virgil and Statius resolve some doubts that have arisen in the mind of Dante from what he had just seen. They all arrive on the seventh and last cornice, where the sin of incontinence is purged in fire; and the spirits of those suffering therein are heard to record illustrious instances of chastity.
It was an hour, when he who climbs, had need To walk uncrippled: for the sun had now To Taurus the meridian circle left, And to the Scorpion left the night. As one, That makes no pause, but presses on his road, Whate'er betide him, if some urgent need Impel; so enter'd we upon our way, One before other; for, but singly, none That steep and narrow scale admits to climb.
[1: "The sun." The sun had passed the meridian two hours, and that meridian was now occupied by the constellation of Taurus, to which as the Scorpion is opposite, the latter constellation was co sequently at the meridian of night.]
E'en as the young stork lifteth up his wing Through wish to fly, yet ventures not to quit The nest, and drops it; so in me desire Of questioning my guide arose, and fell, Arriving even to the act that marks A man prepared for speech. Him all our haste Restrain'd not; but thus spake the sire beloved:
"Fear not to speed the shaft, that on thy lip
Stands trembling for its flight." Encouraged thus, I straight began: "How there can leanness come, Where is no want of nourishment to feed?"
"If thou," he answer'd, hadst remember'd thee, How Meleager with the wasting brand Wasted alike, by equal fires consumed;
This would not trouble thee: and hadst thou thought, How in the mirror your reflected form With mimic motion vibrates; what now seems Hard, had appear'd no harder than the pulp Of summer - fruit mature. But that thy will In certainty may find its full repose, Lo Statius here! on him I call, and pray That he would now be healer of thy wound."
[2: Virgil reminds Dante that, as Meleager was wasted away by the decree of the fates, and not through want of blood; so by the divine appointment, there may be leanness where there is no need of nourishment.]
[3: As the reflection of a form in a mirror is modified with the modification of the form itself; so the soul, separated from the earthly body, impresses the ghost of that body with its own affections.]
"If, in thy presence, I unfold to him The secrets of Heaven's vengeance, let me plead Thine own injunction to exculpate me."
So Statius answer'd, and forthwith began:
"Attend my words, O son, and in thy mind Receive them; so shall they be light to clear The doubt thou offer'st. Blood, concocted well, Which by the thirsty veins is ne'er imbibed, And rests as food superfluous, to be ta'en From the replenish'd table, in the heart Derives effectual virtue, that informs The several human limbs, as being that Which passes through the veins itself to make them.
Yet more concocted it descends, where shame Forbids to mention: and from thence distils In natural vessel on another's blood.
There each unite together; one disposed To endure, to act the other, through that power Derived from whence it came; and being met, It' gins to work, coagulating first;
Then vivifies what its own substance made
Consist. With animation now indued, The active virtue (differing from a plant No further, than that this is on the way, And at its limit that) continues yet To operate, that now it moves, and feels, As sea - sponge clinging to the rock: and there Assumes the organic powers its seed convey'd.
This is the moment, son! at which the virtue, That from the generating heart proceeds, Is pliant and expansive; for each limb Is in the heart by forgetful nature plann'd.
How babe of animal becomes, remains For thy considering. At this point, more wise, Than thou, has err'd, making the soul disjoin'd From passive intellect, because he saw No organ for the latter's use assign'd.
"Open thy bosom to the truth that comes.
Know, soon as in the embryo, to the brain Articulation is complete, then turns The primal Mover with a smile of joy On such great work of nature; and imbreathes New spirit replete with virtue, that what here Active it finds, to its own substance draws;
And forms an individual soul, that lives, And feels, and bends reflective on itself.
And that thou less may'st marvel at the word, Mark the sun's heat; how that to wine doth change, Mix'd with the moisture filter'd through the vine.
"When Lachesis hath spun the thread, the soul Takes with her both the human and divine, Memory, intelligence, and will, in act Far keener than before; the other powers Inactive all and mute. No pause allow'd, In wondrous sort self - moving, to one strand Of those, where the departed roam, she falls: Here learns her destined path. Soon as the place Receives her, round the plastic virtue beams, Distinct as in the living limbs before: And as the air, when saturate with showers,
[4: "When Lachesis hath spun the thread." When a man's life on earth is at an end.]
The casual beam refracting, decks itself With many a hue; so here the ambient air Weareth that form, which influence of the soul Imprints on it: and like the flame, that where The fire moves, thither follows; so, henceforth, The new form on the spirit follows still: Hence hath it semblance, and is shadow call'd, With each sense, even to the sight, indued: Hence speech is ours, hence laughter, tears, and sighs, Which thou mayst oft have witness'd on the mount.
The obedient shadow fails not to present Whatever varying passion moves within us.
And this the cause of what thou marvel'st at."
Now the last flexure of our way we reach'd;
And to the right hand turning, other care Awaits us. Here the rocky precipice Hurls forth redundant flames; and from the rim A blast up - blown, with forcible rebuff Driveth them back, sequester'd from its bound.
Behoved us, one by one, along the side, That border'd on the void, to pass; and I Fear'd on one hand the fire, on the other fear'd Headlong to fall: when thus the instructor warn'd:
"Strict rein must in this place direct the eyes.
A little swerving and the way is lost."
Then from the bosom of the burning mass,
"O God of mercy!" heard I sung, and felt No less desire to turn. And when I saw Spirits along the flame proceeding, I Between their footsteps and mine own was fain To share by turns my view. At the hymn's close They shouted loud, "I do not know a man;"
Then in low voice again took up the strain;
Which once more ended, "To the wood," they cried,
"Ran Dian, and drave forth Callisto stung With Cytherea's poison"; then return'd Unto their song; then many a pair extoll'd,
[5: "Summae Deus clementiae." The beginning of the hymn sung on the Sabbath at matins, as in the ancient breviaries; in the modern it is "summae parens clementiae."]
[6: Luke, i. 34.]
Who lived in virtue chastely and the bands Of wedded love. Nor from that task, I ween, Surcease they; whilesoe'er the scorching fire Enclasps them. Of such skill appliance needs, To medicine the wound that healeth last.
