# Paradise Canto  2

*Exported from [Holy-Writings.com](https://www.holy-writings.com/) on 2026-06-19 — 1 clipping.*

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> 
> Canto II
> 
> Argument
> 
>      Dante and his celestial guide enter the moon. The cause of the spots or
> shadows, which appear in that body, is explained to him.
> 
> All ye, who in small bark have following sail'd,
> Eager to listen, on the adventurous track
> Of my proud keel, that singing cuts her way,
> Backward return with speed, and your own shores
> Revisit; nor put out to open sea,
> Where losing me, perchance ye may remain
> Bewilder'd in deep maze. The way I pass,
> Ne'er yet was run: Minerva breathes the gale;
> Apollo guides me; and another Nine,
> To my rapt sight, the arctic beams reveal.
> Ye other few who have outstretch'd the neck
> Timely for food of angels, on which here
> They live, yet never know satiety;
> Through the deep brine ye fearless may put out
> Your vessel; marking well the furrow broad
> Before you in the wave, that on both sides
> Equal returns. Those, glorious, who pass'd o'er
> To Colchis, wonder'd not as ye will do,
> When they saw Jason following the plough.
> 
> The increate perpetual thirst, that draws
> Toward the realm of God's own form, bore us
> Swift almost as the Heaven ye behold.
> 
> Beatrice upward gazed, and I on her;
> And in such space as on the notch a dart
> Is placed, then loosen'd flies, I saw myself
> Arrived, where wonderous thing engaged my sight.
> Whence she, to whom no care of mine was hid,
> Turning to me, with aspect glad as fair,
> Bespake me: "Gratefully direct thy mind
> To God, through whom to this first star[1] we come."
> 
> [1: "This first star." The moon.]
> 
> Meseem'd as if a cloud had cover'd us,
> 
> Translucent, solid, firm, and polish'd bright,
> Like adamant, which the sun's beam had smit.
> Within itself the ever - during pearl
> Received us; as the wave a ray of light
> Receives, and rests unbroken. If I then
> Was of corporeal frame, and it transcend
> Our weaker thought, how one dimension thus
> Another could endure, which needs must be
> If body enter body; how much more
> Must the desire inflame us to behold
> That Essence, which discovers by what means
> God and our nature join'd! There will be seen
> That, which we hold through faith; not shown by proof,
> But in itself intelligibly plain,
> E'en as the truth that man at first believes.
> 
> I answer'd: "Lady! I with thoughts devout,
> Such as I best can frame, give thanks to Him,
> Who hath removed me from the mortal world.
> But tell, I pray thee, whence the gloomy spots
> Upon this body, which below on earth
> Give rise to talk of Cain in fabling quaint?"
> 
> She somewhat smiled, then spake: "If mortals err
> In their opinion, when the key of sense
> Unlocks not, surely wonder's weapon keen
> Ought not to pierce thee: since thou find'st, the wings
> Of reason to pursue the senses' flight
> Are short. But what thy own thought is, declare."
> 
> Then I: "What various here above appears,
> Is caused, I deem, by bodies dense or rare."
> 
> She then resumed: "Thou certainly wilt see
> In falsehood thy belief o'erwhelm'd, if well
> Thou listen to the arguments which I
> Shall bring to face it. The eighth sphere displays
> Numberless lights, the which, in kind and size,
> May be remark'd of different aspects:
> If rare or dense of that were cause alone,
> One single virtue then would be in all;
> Alike distributed, or more, or less.
> Different virtues needs must be the fruits
> Of formal principles; and these, save one,
> Will by thy reasoning be destroy'd. Beside,
> If rarity were of that dusk the cause,
> Which thou inquirest, either in some part
> That planet must throughout be void, nor fed
> With its own matter; or, as bodies share
> Their fat and leanness, in like manner this
> Must in its volume change the leaves.[2] The first,
> If it were true, had through the sun's eclipse
> Been manifested, by transparency
> Of light, as through aught rare beside effused.
> But this is not. Therefore remains to see
> The other cause: and, if the other fall,
> Erroneous so must prove what seem'd to thee.
> If not from side to side this rarity
> Pass through, there needs must be a limit, whence
> Its contrary no further lets it pass.
> And hence the beam, that from without proceeds,
> Must be pour'd back; as colour comes, through glass
> Reflected, which behind it lead conceals.
> Now wilt thou say, that there of murkier hue,
> Than, in the other part, the ray is shown,
> By being thence refracted farther back.
> From this perplexity will free thee soon
> Experience, if thereof thou trial make,
> The mountain whence your arts derive their streams.
> Three mirrors shalt thou take, and two remove
> From thee alike; and more remote the third,
> Betwixt the former pair, shall meet thine eyes:
> Then turn'd toward them, cause behind thy back
> A light to stand, that on the three shall shine,
> And thus reflected come to thee from all.
> Though that, beheld most distant, do not stretch
> A space so ample, yet in brightness thou
> Wilt own it equaling the rest. But now,
> As under snow the ground, if the warm ray
> Smites it, remains dismantled of the hue
> And cold, that cover'd it before; so thee,
> Dismantled in thy mind, I will inform
> 
> [2: "Change the leaves." Would, like leaves of parchment, be darker
> in some parts than in others.]
> 
> With light so lively, that the tremulous beam
> Shall quiver where it falls. Within the heaven,[3]
> Where peace divine inhabits, circles round
> A body, in whose virtue lies the being
> Of all that it contains. The following Heaven,
> That hath so many lights, this being divides,
> Through different essences, from it distinct,
> And yet contain'd within it. The other orbs
> Their separate distinctions variously
> Dispose, for their own seed and produce apt.
> Thus do these organs of the world proceed,
> As thou beholdest now, from step to step;
> Their influences from above deriving,
> And thence transmitting downward. Mark me well;
> How through this passage to the truth I ford,
> The truth thou lovest; that thou henceforth, alone,
> Mayst know to keep the shallows, safe, untold.
> 
> [3: According to our Poet's system, there are ten Heavens. The
> Heaven, "where peace divine inhabits," is the empyrean; the body within it,
> that "circles round," is the primum mobile; "the following Heaven," that of
> the fixed stars; and "the other orbs" the seven lower Heavens, are Saturn,
> Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, and the Moon. Thus Milton, "Paradise
> Lost" b. iii. 481.]
> 
> "The virtue and motion of the sacred orbs,
> As mallet by the workman's hand, must needs
> By blessed movers[4] be inspired. This Heaven,[5]
> Made beauteous by so many luminaries,
> From the deep spirit,[6] that moves its circling sphere,
> Its image takes and impress as a seal:
> And as the soul, that dwells within your dust,
> Through members different, yet together form'd,
> In different powers resolves itself; e'en so
> The intellectual efficacy unfolds
> Its goodness multiplied throughout the stars;
> On its own unity revolving still.
> Different virtue[7] compact different
> Makes with the precious body it enlivens,
> With which it knits, as life in you is knit.
> 
> [4: "By blessed movers." By Angels.]
> 
> [5: "This Heaven." The Heaven of fixed stars.]
> 
> [6: "The deep spirit." The moving Angel.]
> 
> [7: "Different virtue." "There is one glory of the sun, and another
> glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differeth from
> another star in glory." - 1 Cor. xv. 41]
> 
> From its original nature full of joy,
> The virtue mingled through the body shines,
> As joy through pupil of the living eye.
> From hence proceeds that which from light to light
> Seems different, and not from dense or rare.
> This is the formal cause, that generates,
> Proportion'd to its power, the dusk or clear."
>
> — *Paradise Canto  2*