Purgatory: Canto XXV. Ascent To The Seventh Ledge
Ascent to the Seventh Ledge.--Discourse of Statius on
generation, the infusion of the Soul into the body, and the
corporeal semblance of Souls after death.--The Seventh Ledge: the
Lustful.--The mode of their Purification.
It was the hour in which the ascent allowed no delay; for the
meridian circle had been left by the Sun to the Bull, and by the
Night to the Scorpion;[1] wherefore as the man doth who, whatever
may appear to him, stops not, but goes on his way, if the goad of
necessity prick him, so did we enter through the gap, one before
the other, taking the stairway which by its narrowness unpairs
the climbers.
[1] Taurus follows on Aries, so that the hour indicated is about
2 P.M. The Night here means the part of the Heavens opposite to
the Sun.
And as the little stork that lifts its wing through will to fly,
and dares not abandon the nest, and down it drops, so was I, with
will to ask, kindled and quenched, coming even to the motion that
he makes who proposes to speak. Nor, though our going was swift,
did my sweet Father forbear, but he said, Discharge the bow of
speech which up to the iron thou hast drawn." Then I opened my
mouth confidently, and began, "How can one become thin, where the
need of nourishment is not felt?" "If thou hadst called to mind
how Meleager was consumed by time consuming of a brand this would
not be," he said, " so difficult to thee; and if thou hadst
thought, how at your quivering your image quivers within the
mirror, that which seems hard would seem easy to thee. But that
thou mayst to thy pleasure be inwardly at ease, lo, here is
Statius, and I call on him and pray that he be now the healer of
thy wounds." "If I explain to him the eternal view," replied
Statius, "where thou art present, let it excuse me that to thee I
cannot snake denial."[1]
[1] Here and elsewhere Statius seems to represent allegorically
human philosophy enlightened by Christian teaching, dealing with
questions of knowledge, not of faith.
Then he began, "If, son, thy mind regards and receives my words,
they will be. for thee a light unto the 'how,' which thou
askest.[1] The perfect blood which is never drunk by the thirsty
veins, but remains like the food which thou removest from time
table, takes in time heart virtue informative of all the human
members; even as that blood does, which passes through the veins
to become those members.[2] Digested yet again, it descends to
the part whereof it is more becoming to be silent than to speak;
and thence, afterwards, it drops upon another's blood in the
natural vessel. There one and the other meet together; the one
ordained to be passive, and the other to be active because of the
perfect place[3] wherefrom it is pressed out; and, conjoined with
the former, the latter begins to operate, first by coagulating,
and then by quickening that to which it gives consistency for its
own material. The active virtue having become a soul, like that
of a plant (in so far different that this is on the way, and that
already arrived),[4] so worketh then, that now it moves and
feels, as a sea-fungus doth; and then it proceeds to organize the
powers of which it is the germ. Now, son, the virtue is
displayed, now it is diffused, which issues from the heart of the
begetter, where nature is intent on all the members.[5] But how
from an animal it becomes a speaking being,[6] thou as yet
seest not; this is such a point that once it made one wiser than
thee to err, so that in his teaching he separated from the soul
the potential intellect, because he saw no organ assumed by
it.[7] Open thy heart unto the truth that is coming, and know
that, so soon as in the foitus the articulation of the brain is
perfect, the Primal Motor turns to it with joy over such art of
nature, and inspires a new spirit replete with virtue, which
draws that which it finds active there into its own substance,
and makes one single soul which lives and feels and circles on
itself. And that thou mayst the less wonder at this doctrine,
consider the warmth of the sun which, combining with the juice
that flows from the vine, becomes wine. And when Lachesis has no
more thread, this soul is loosed from the flesh, and virtually
bears away with itself both the human and the divine; the other
faculties all of them mute,[8] but memory, understanding, and
will[9] far more acute in action than before. Without staying, it
falls of itself, marvelously to one of the banks.[10] Here it
first knows its own roads. Soon as the place there circumscribes
it, the formative virtue rays out around it in like manner, and
as much as in the living members.[11] And as the air when it is
full of rain becomes adorned with divers colors by another's rays
which are reflected in it, so here the neighboring air shapes
itself in that form which is virtually imprinted upon it by the
soul that hath stopped.[12] And then like the flamelet which
follows the fire wherever it shifts, so its new form follows the
spirit. Since thereafter from this it has its aspect, it is
called a shade; and by this it shapes the organ for every sense
even to the sight; by this we speak, and by this we laugh, by
this we make the tears and the sighs, which on the mountain thou
mayst have perceived. According as the desires and the other
affections impress us the shade is shaped; and this is the cause
of that at which thou wonderest."
[1] The doctrine set forth by Statius in the following discourse
is derived from St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theol., i. 118, 119,
who, in his turn, derived it from Aristotle. It is to be found,
more briefly stated, in the Convito, iv. 21.
[2] A portion of the blood remains after the veins are supplied;
in the heart all the blood receives the virtue by which it gives
form to the various organs of the body.
[3] The heart.
[4] The vegetative soul in the plant has attained its full
development, "has arrived;" in the animal is "on the way" to
perfection.
[5] From the vegetative, the soul has become sensitive,--anima
sensitiva.
[6] A being possessed of intellect,--the last stage in the
progress of the soul, when it becomes came intellective.
[7] Averroes asserted the intellect to be impersonal and
undivided in essence; not formally, but instrumentally only,
united with the individual. Hence there was no personal
immortality.
[8] The faculties of sense mute because their organs no longer
exist.
[9]The spiritual faculties.
[10] Of Acheron or of Tiber, according as the soul is damned or
saved.
[11] In this account of the formation of the bodily semblance in
the spiritual realms, Statius no longer follows the doctrine of
Aquinas. The conception is derived from Plato; but the form
given to it is peculiar to Dante.
[12] Stopped in the place allotted to it.
And now we had come to the last circuit,[1] and turning to the
right hand, we were intent upon another care. Here the bank
shoots forth flame, and the ledge breathes a blast upward which
drives it back, and sequesters a path from it.[2] Wherefore it
was needful to go one by one along the unenclosed side; and on
the one hand I was afraid of the fire, and on the other I was
afraid of falling off. My Leader said, "Through this place, one
must keep tight the rein upon the eyes, because for little one
might go astray." "Summae Deus clementiae,"[3] in the bosom of
the great burning then I heard singing, which made me care not
less to turn. And I saw spirits going through the flame;
wherefore I looked at them and at my own steps, apportioning to
each my sight from moment to moment. After the end of that hymn,
they loudly cried: "Virum non cognosco;"[4] then began again the
hymn with low voice; this finished, they cried anew, "To the wood
Diana kept herself, and drove therefrom Helice,[5] who had felt
the poison of Venus." Then they turned to singing; then wives
they cried out, and husbands who were chaste, as virtue and
marriage enjoin upon us. And I believe this mode suffices them
through all the time the fire burns them. With such cure it is
needful, and with such food, that the last wound of all should be
closed up.
[1] The word in the original is tortura. Benvenuto's comment is,
"nunc incipiebant torquere et flectere viam, ideo talem
deflectionem appellat torturam." Buti, on the contrary, says,
"tortura cioe tormento."
[2] Secures a safe pathway along the ledge.
[3] "God of clemency supreme," the beginning of a hymn, sung at
Matins, containing a prayer for purity.
[4] "I know not a man," the words of Mary to the angel--Luke, i.
34.
[5] Helice, or Callisto, the nymph who bore a son to Jupiter,
and, having been changed to a bear by Juno, was by Jove
transferred with her child to the heavens, where they are seen as
the Great and Little Bear.
generation, the infusion of the Soul into the body, and the
corporeal semblance of Souls after death.--The Seventh Ledge: the
Lustful.--The mode of their Purification.
It was the hour in which the ascent allowed no delay; for the
meridian circle had been left by the Sun to the Bull, and by the
Night to the Scorpion;[1] wherefore as the man doth who, whatever
may appear to him, stops not, but goes on his way, if the goad of
necessity prick him, so did we enter through the gap, one before
the other, taking the stairway which by its narrowness unpairs
the climbers.
[1] Taurus follows on Aries, so that the hour indicated is about
2 P.M. The Night here means the part of the Heavens opposite to
the Sun.
And as the little stork that lifts its wing through will to fly,
and dares not abandon the nest, and down it drops, so was I, with
will to ask, kindled and quenched, coming even to the motion that
he makes who proposes to speak. Nor, though our going was swift,
did my sweet Father forbear, but he said, Discharge the bow of
speech which up to the iron thou hast drawn." Then I opened my
mouth confidently, and began, "How can one become thin, where the
need of nourishment is not felt?" "If thou hadst called to mind
how Meleager was consumed by time consuming of a brand this would
not be," he said, " so difficult to thee; and if thou hadst
thought, how at your quivering your image quivers within the
mirror, that which seems hard would seem easy to thee. But that
thou mayst to thy pleasure be inwardly at ease, lo, here is
Statius, and I call on him and pray that he be now the healer of
thy wounds." "If I explain to him the eternal view," replied
Statius, "where thou art present, let it excuse me that to thee I
cannot snake denial."[1]
[1] Here and elsewhere Statius seems to represent allegorically
human philosophy enlightened by Christian teaching, dealing with
questions of knowledge, not of faith.
Then he began, "If, son, thy mind regards and receives my words,
they will be. for thee a light unto the 'how,' which thou
askest.[1] The perfect blood which is never drunk by the thirsty
veins, but remains like the food which thou removest from time
table, takes in time heart virtue informative of all the human
members; even as that blood does, which passes through the veins
to become those members.[2] Digested yet again, it descends to
the part whereof it is more becoming to be silent than to speak;
and thence, afterwards, it drops upon another's blood in the
natural vessel. There one and the other meet together; the one
ordained to be passive, and the other to be active because of the
perfect place[3] wherefrom it is pressed out; and, conjoined with
the former, the latter begins to operate, first by coagulating,
and then by quickening that to which it gives consistency for its
own material. The active virtue having become a soul, like that
of a plant (in so far different that this is on the way, and that
already arrived),[4] so worketh then, that now it moves and
feels, as a sea-fungus doth; and then it proceeds to organize the
powers of which it is the germ. Now, son, the virtue is
displayed, now it is diffused, which issues from the heart of the
begetter, where nature is intent on all the members.[5] But how
from an animal it becomes a speaking being,[6] thou as yet
seest not; this is such a point that once it made one wiser than
thee to err, so that in his teaching he separated from the soul
the potential intellect, because he saw no organ assumed by
it.[7] Open thy heart unto the truth that is coming, and know
that, so soon as in the foitus the articulation of the brain is
perfect, the Primal Motor turns to it with joy over such art of
nature, and inspires a new spirit replete with virtue, which
draws that which it finds active there into its own substance,
and makes one single soul which lives and feels and circles on
itself. And that thou mayst the less wonder at this doctrine,
consider the warmth of the sun which, combining with the juice
that flows from the vine, becomes wine. And when Lachesis has no
more thread, this soul is loosed from the flesh, and virtually
bears away with itself both the human and the divine; the other
faculties all of them mute,[8] but memory, understanding, and
will[9] far more acute in action than before. Without staying, it
falls of itself, marvelously to one of the banks.[10] Here it
first knows its own roads. Soon as the place there circumscribes
it, the formative virtue rays out around it in like manner, and
as much as in the living members.[11] And as the air when it is
full of rain becomes adorned with divers colors by another's rays
which are reflected in it, so here the neighboring air shapes
itself in that form which is virtually imprinted upon it by the
soul that hath stopped.[12] And then like the flamelet which
follows the fire wherever it shifts, so its new form follows the
spirit. Since thereafter from this it has its aspect, it is
called a shade; and by this it shapes the organ for every sense
even to the sight; by this we speak, and by this we laugh, by
this we make the tears and the sighs, which on the mountain thou
mayst have perceived. According as the desires and the other
affections impress us the shade is shaped; and this is the cause
of that at which thou wonderest."
[1] The doctrine set forth by Statius in the following discourse
is derived from St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theol., i. 118, 119,
who, in his turn, derived it from Aristotle. It is to be found,
more briefly stated, in the Convito, iv. 21.
[2] A portion of the blood remains after the veins are supplied;
in the heart all the blood receives the virtue by which it gives
form to the various organs of the body.
[3] The heart.
[4] The vegetative soul in the plant has attained its full
development, "has arrived;" in the animal is "on the way" to
perfection.
[5] From the vegetative, the soul has become sensitive,--anima
sensitiva.
[6] A being possessed of intellect,--the last stage in the
progress of the soul, when it becomes came intellective.
[7] Averroes asserted the intellect to be impersonal and
undivided in essence; not formally, but instrumentally only,
united with the individual. Hence there was no personal
immortality.
[8] The faculties of sense mute because their organs no longer
exist.
[9]The spiritual faculties.
[10] Of Acheron or of Tiber, according as the soul is damned or
saved.
[11] In this account of the formation of the bodily semblance in
the spiritual realms, Statius no longer follows the doctrine of
Aquinas. The conception is derived from Plato; but the form
given to it is peculiar to Dante.
[12] Stopped in the place allotted to it.
And now we had come to the last circuit,[1] and turning to the
right hand, we were intent upon another care. Here the bank
shoots forth flame, and the ledge breathes a blast upward which
drives it back, and sequesters a path from it.[2] Wherefore it
was needful to go one by one along the unenclosed side; and on
the one hand I was afraid of the fire, and on the other I was
afraid of falling off. My Leader said, "Through this place, one
must keep tight the rein upon the eyes, because for little one
might go astray." "Summae Deus clementiae,"[3] in the bosom of
the great burning then I heard singing, which made me care not
less to turn. And I saw spirits going through the flame;
wherefore I looked at them and at my own steps, apportioning to
each my sight from moment to moment. After the end of that hymn,
they loudly cried: "Virum non cognosco;"[4] then began again the
hymn with low voice; this finished, they cried anew, "To the wood
Diana kept herself, and drove therefrom Helice,[5] who had felt
the poison of Venus." Then they turned to singing; then wives
they cried out, and husbands who were chaste, as virtue and
marriage enjoin upon us. And I believe this mode suffices them
through all the time the fire burns them. With such cure it is
needful, and with such food, that the last wound of all should be
closed up.
[1] The word in the original is tortura. Benvenuto's comment is,
"nunc incipiebant torquere et flectere viam, ideo talem
deflectionem appellat torturam." Buti, on the contrary, says,
"tortura cioe tormento."
[2] Secures a safe pathway along the ledge.
[3] "God of clemency supreme," the beginning of a hymn, sung at
Matins, containing a prayer for purity.
[4] "I know not a man," the words of Mary to the angel--Luke, i.
34.
[5] Helice, or Callisto, the nymph who bore a son to Jupiter,
and, having been changed to a bear by Juno, was by Jove
transferred with her child to the heavens, where they are seen as
the Great and Little Bear.
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