Here Beatrice instructed Dante as to the
imperfection of those wills that held not to their vows, but allowed
violence to thwart them.
Another look into the smiling eyes, and the two were in the Heaven of
Mercury, where those wills abide in whom love of fame partly extinguished
love of God. One of the thousand splendors that advanced towards them was
the soul of the Emperor Justinian, who reviewed the Empire, the Church,
condemning severely the behavior of the Guelphs and Ghibellines, and told
of the spirits who inhabited the little planet, whose lives were sweetened
by living justice, and whose ears were gladdened by the sweetest
harmonies.
Dante was unaware of his ascent into, Venus, where dwelt those souls who
were lovers on earth, until he perceived Beatrice's added beauty. Amid
revolving lights Charles Martel of Hungary appeared, denounced his brother
Robert of Sicily, and instructed Dante on the subjects of heredity and
degeneracy; that "sweet seed can come bitter" because the influence of the
star under which the child is born can counteract that of the parent, and
because his state is not always adapted to him by his parents and
advisers.
In the sphere of the Sun, consecrated to the great doctors of divinity,
Beatrice became still more beautiful; but so absorbed was the poet in the
love for the Eternal Source of all this splendor that for the first time
he forgot her.
Pages:
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392