# Inferno Canto 11

*Exported from [Holy-Writings.com](https://www.holy-writings.com/) on 2026-06-20 — 1 clipping.*

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> 
> Canto XI
> 
> Argument
> 
>      Dante arrives at the verge of a rocky precipice which encloses the
> seventh circle, where he sees the sepulchre of Anastasius the Heretic; behind
> the lid of which pausing a little, to make himself capable by degrees of
> enduring the fetid smell that steamed upward from the abyss, he is instructed
> by Virgil concerning the manner in which the three following circles are
> disposed, and what description of sinners is punished in each. He then
> inquires the reason why the carnal, the gluttonous, the avaricious and
> prodigal, the wrathful and gloomy, suffer not their punishments within the
> city of Dis. He next asks how the crime of usury is an offence against God;
> and at length the two Poets go toward the place from whence a passage leads
> down to the seventh circle.
> 
> Upon the utmost verge of a high bank,
> By craggy rocks environ'd round, we came.
> Where woes beneath, more cruel yet, were stow'd:
> And here, to shun the horrible excess
> Of fetid exhalation upward cast
> From the profound abyss, behind the lid
> Of a great monument we stood retired,
> Whereon this scroll I mark'd: "I have in charge
> Pope Anastasius,[1] whom Photinus drew
> From the right path." "Ere our descent, behoves
> We make delay, that somewhat first the sense,
> To the dire breath accustom'd, afterward
> Regard it not." My master thus; to whom
> Answering I spake: "Some compensation find,
> That the time pass not wholly lost." He then:
> "Lo! how my thoughts e'en to thy wishes tend.
> My son! within these rocks," he thus began,
> "Are three close circles in gradation placed,
> As these which now thou leavest. Each one is full
> Of spirits accurst; but that the sight alone
> Hereafter may suffice thee, listen how
> And for what cause in durance they abide.
> 
> [1: By some supposed to have been Anastasius II.; by others, the
> fourth of that name; while a third set, jealous of the integrity of the papal
> faith, contend that our poet has confounded him with Anastasius I., Emperor of
> the East.]
> 
> "Of all malicious act abhorr'd in Heaven,
> The end is injury; and all such end
> Either by force or fraud works other's woe.
> But fraud, because of man's peculiar evil,
> 
> To God is more displeasing; and beneath,
> The fraudulent are therefore doom'd to endure
> Severer pang. The violent occupy
> All the first circle; and because, to force,
> Three persons are obnoxious, in three rounds,
> Each within other separate, is it framed.
> To God, his neighbor, and himself, by man
> Force may be offer'd; to himself I say,
> And his possessions, as thou soon shalt hear
> At full. Death, violent death, and painful wounds
> Upon his neighbor he inflicts; and wastes,
> By devastation, pillage, and the flames,
> His substance. Slayers, and each one that smites
> In malice, plunderers, and all robbers, hence
> The torment undergo of the first round,
> In different herds. Man can do violence
> To himself and his own blessings: and for this,
> He, in the second round must aye deplore
> With unavailing penitence his crime,
> Whoe'er deprives himself of life and light,
> In reckless lavishment his talent wastes,
> And sorrows there where he should dwell in joy.
> To God may force be offer'd, in the heart
> Denying and blaspheming His high power,
> And Nature with her kindly law contemning.
> And thence the inmost round marks with its seal
> Sodom, and Cahors, and all such as speak
> Contemptuously of the Godhead in their hearts.
> 
> "Fraud, that in every conscience leaves a sting,
> May be by man employ'd on one, whose trust
> He wins, or on another, who withholds
> Strict confidence. Seems as the latter way
> Broke but the bond of love which Nature makes.
> Whence in the second circle have their nest,
> Dissimulation, witchcraft, flatteries,
> Theft, falsehood, simony, all who seduce
> To lust, or set their honesty at pawn,
> With such vile scum as these. The other way
> Forgets both Nature's general love, and that
> Which thereto added afterward gives birth
> To special faith. Whence in the lesser circle,
> Point of the universe, dread seat of Dis,
> The traitor is eternally consumed."
> 
> I thus: "Instructor, clearly thy discourse
> Proceeds, distinguishing the hideous chasm
> And its inhabitants with skill exact.
> But tell me this: they of the dull, fat pool,
> Whom the rain beats, or whom the tempest drives,
> Or who with tongues so fierce conflicting meet,
> Wherefore within the city fire - illumed
> Are not these punish'd, if God's wrath be on them?
> And if it be not, wherefore in such guise
> Are they condemn'd?" He answer thus return'd:
> "Wherefore in dotage wanders thus thy mind,
> Not so accustom'd? or what other thoughts
> Possess it? Dwell not in thy memory
> The words, wherein thy ethic page[2] describes
> Three dispositions adverse to Heaven's will,
> Incontinence, malice, and mad brutishness,
> And how incontinence the least offends
> God, and least guilt incurs? If well thou note
> This judgment, and remember who they are,
> Without these walls to vain repentance doom'd,
> Thou shalt discern why they apart are placed
> From these fell spirits, and less wreakful pours
> Justice divine on them its vengeance down."
> 
> [2: "Thy ethic page." He refers to Aristotle's Ethics, lib. vii. c.
> 1: "_____ let it be defined that respecting morals there are three sorts of
> things to be avoided, malice, incontinence, and brutishness."]
> 
> "O sun! who healest all imperfect sight,
> Thou so content'st me, when thou solvest my doubt,
> That ignorance not less than knowledge charms.
> Yet somewhat turn thee back," I in these words
> Continued," where thou said'st, that usury
> Offends celestial Goodness; and this knot
> Perplex'd unravel." He thus made reply:
> "Philosophy, to an attentive ear,
> Clearly points out, not in one part alone,
> How imitative Nature takes her course
> From the celestial mind, and from its art:
> And where her laws[3] the Stagirite unfolds,
> 
> [3: "Her laws." Aristotle's Physics, lib. ii. c. 2: "Art imitates
> nature."]
> 
> Not many leaves scann'd o'er, observing well
> Thou shalt discover, that your art on her
> Obsequious follows, as the learner treads
> In his instructor's step; so that your art
> Deserves the name of second in descent
> From God. These two, if thou recall to mind
> Creation's holy book,[4] from the beginning
> Were the right source of life and excellence
> To human - kind. But in another path
> The usurer walks; and Nature in herself
> And in her follower thus he sets at nought,
> Placing elsewhere his hope.[5] But follow now
> My steps on forward journey bent; for now
> The Pisces play with undulating glance
> Along the horizon, and the Wain[6] lies all
> O'er the northwest; and onward there a space
> Is our steep passage down the rocky height."
> 
> [4: "Creation's holy book." Genesis, c. ii. v. 15: "And the Lord God
> took the man, and put him into the Garden of Eden, to dress it, and to keep
> it." And, Genesis, c. iii. v. 19: "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat
> bread."]
> 
> [5: "Placing elsewhere his hope." The usurer, trusting in the produce
> of his wealth lent out on usury, despises nature directly, because he does not
> avail himself of her means for maintaining or enriching himself; and
> indirectly, because he does not avail himself of the means which art, the
> follower and imitator of nature, would afford him for the same purposes.]
> 
> [6: "The Wain." The constellation Bootes, or Charles' Wain.]
>
> — *Inferno Canto 11*