# Divine Comedy (Longfellow 1867)/Volume 3/Canto 7

"Osanna sanctus Deus Sabaoth,  Superillustrans claritate tua  Felices ignes horum malahoth!"
In this wise, to his melody returning,  This substance, upon which a double light  Doubles itself, was seen by me to sing,
And to their dance this and the others moved,  And in the manner of swift-hurrying sparks  Veiled themselves from me with a sudden distance.
Doubting was I, and saying, "Tell her, tell her,"  Within me, "tell her," saying, "tell my Lady,"  Who slakes my thirst with her sweet effluences;
And yet that reverence which doth lord it over  The whole of me only by B and ICE,  Bowed me again like unto one who drowses.
Short while did Beatrice endure me thus;  And she began, lighting me with a smile  Such as would make one happy in the fire:
"According to infallible advisement,  After what manner a just vengeance justly  Could be avenged has put thee upon thinking,
But I will speedily thy mind unloose;  And do thou listen, for these words of mine  Of a great doctrine will a present make thee.
By not enduring on the power that wills  Curb for his good, that man who ne'er was born,  Damning himself damned all his progeny;
Whereby the human species down below  Lay sick for many centuries in great error,  Till to descend it pleased the Word of God
To where the nature, which from its own Maker  Estranged itself, he joined to him in person  By the sole act of his eternal love.
Now unto what is said direct thy sight;  This nature when united to its Maker,  Such as created, was sincere and good;
But by itself alone was banished forth  From Paradise, because it turned aside  Out of the way of truth and of its life.
Therefore the penalty the cross held out,  If measured by the nature thus assumed,  None ever yet with so great justice stung,
And none was ever of so great injustice,  Considering who the Person was that suffered,  Within whom such a nature was contracted.
From one act therefore issued things diverse;  To God and to the Jews one death was pleasing;  Earth trembled at it and the Heaven was opened.
It should no longer now seem difficult  To thee, when it is said that a just vengeance  By a just court was afterward avenged.
But now do I behold thy mind entangled  From thought to thought within a knot, from which  With great desire it waits to free itself.
Thou sayest, 'Well discern I what I hear;  But it is hidden from me why God willed  For our redemption only this one mode.'
Buried remaineth, brother, this decree  Unto the eyes of every one whose nature  Is in the flame of love not yet adult.
Verily, inasmuch as at this mark  One gazes long and little is discerned,  Wherefore this mode was worthiest will I say.
Goodness Divine, which from itself doth spurn  All envy, burning in itself so sparkles  That the eternal beauties it unfolds.
Whate'er from this immediately distils  Has afterwards no end, for ne'er removed  Is its impression when it sets its seal.
Whate'er from this immediately rains down  Is wholly free, because it is not subject  Unto the influences of novel things.
The more conformed thereto, the more it pleases;  For the blest ardour that irradiates all things  In that most like itself is most vivacious.
With all of these things has advantaged been  The human creature; and if one be wanting,  From his nobility he needs must fall.
'Tis sin alone which doth disfranchise him,  And render him unlike the Good Supreme,  So that he little with its light is blanched,
And to his dignity no more returns,  Unless he fill up where transgression empties  With righteous pains for criminal delights.
Your nature when it sinned so utterly  In its own seed, out of these dignities  Even as out of Paradise was driven,
Nor could itself recover, if thou notest  With nicest subtilty, by any way,  Except by passing one of these two fords:
Either that God through clemency alone  Had pardon granted, or that man himself  Had satisfaction for his folly made.
Fix now thine eye deep into the abyss  Of the eternal counsel, to my speech  As far as may be fastened steadfastly!
Man in his limitations had not power  To satisfy, not having power to sink  In his humility obeying then,
Far as he disobeying thought to rise;  And for this reason man has been from power  Of satisfying by himself excluded.
Therefore it God behoved in his own ways  Man to restore unto his perfect life,  I say in one, or else in both of them.
But since the action of the doer is  So much more grateful, as it more presents  The goodness of the heart from which it issues,
Goodness Divine, that doth imprint the world,  Has been contented to proceed by each  And all its ways to lift you up again;
Nor 'twixt the first day and the final night  Such high and such magnificent proceeding  By one or by the other was or shall be;
For God more bounteous was himself to give  To make man able to uplift himself,  Than if he only of himself had pardoned;
And all the other modes were insufficient  For justice, were it not the Son of God  Himself had humbled to become incarnate.
Now, to fill fully each desire of thine,  Return I to elucidate one place,  In order that thou there mayst see as I do.
Thou sayst: 'I see the air, I see the fire,  The water, and the earth, and all their mixtures  Come to corruption, and short while endure;
And these things notwithstanding were created;'  Therefore if that which I have said were true,  They should have been secure against corruption.
The Angels, brother, and the land sincere  In which thou art, created may be called  Just as they are in their entire existence;
But all the elements which thou hast named,  And all those things which out of them are made,  By a created virtue are informed.
Created was the matter which they have;  Created was the informing influence  Within these stars that round about them go.
The soul of every brute and of the plants  By its potential temperament attracts  The ray and motion of the holy lights;
But your own life immediately inspires  Supreme Beneficence, and enamours it  So with herself, it evermore desires her.
And thou from this mayst argue furthermore  Your resurrection, if thou think again  How human flesh was fashioned at that time
When the first parents both of them were made."