# Paradise Canto 28

*Exported from [Holy-Writings.com](https://www.holy-writings.com/) on 2026-06-18 — 1 clipping.*

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> Christianity Index  Divine Comedy Index  Previous: Paradise Canto 27  Next: Paradise Canto 29  
> 
> Canto XXVIII
> 
> Argument
> 
>      Still in the ninth heaven, our Poet is permitted to behold the divine
> essence; and then sees, in three hierarchies, the nine choirs of angels.
> Beatrice clears some difficulties which occur to him on this occasion.
> 
> So she, who doth imparadise my soul,
> Had drawn the veil from off our present life,
> And bared the truth of poor mortality:
> When lo! as one who, in a mirror, spies
> The shining of a flambeau at his back,
> Lit sudden ere he deem of its approach,
> And turneth to resolve him, if the glass
> Have told him true, and sees the record faithful
> As note is to its metre; even thus,
> I well remember, did befal to me,
> Looking upon the beauteous eyes, whence love
> Had made the leash to take me. As I turn'd:
> And that which none, who in that volume looks,
> Can miss of, in itself apparent, struck
> My view; a point I saw, that darted light
> So sharp, no lid, unclosing, may bear up
> Against its keenness. The least star we ken
> From hence, had seem'd a moon; set by its side,
> As star by side of star. And so far off,
> Perchance, as is the halo from the light
> Which paints it, when most dense the vapour spreads;
> 
> There wheel'd about the point a circle of fire,
> More rapid than the motion which surrounds,
> Speediest, the world. Another this enring'd;
> And that a third; the third a fourth, and that
> A fifth encompass'd; which a sixth next bound;
> And over this, a seventh, following, reach'd
> Circumference so ample, that its bow,
> Within the span of Juno's messenger,
> Had scarce been held entire. Beyond a seventh,
> Ensued yet other two. And every one,
> As more in number distant from the first,
> Was tardier in motion: and that glow'd
> With flame most pure, that to the sparkle of truth,
> Was nearest; as partaking most, methinks,
> Of its reality. The guide beloved
> Saw me in anxious thought suspense, and spake:
> "Heaven, and all nature, hangs upon that point.
> The circle thereto most conjoin'd observe;
> And know, that by intenser love its course
> Is, to this swiftness, wing'd." To whom I thus:
> "It were enough; nor should I further seek,
> Had I but witness'd order, in the world
> Appointed, such as in these wheels is seen.
> But in the sensible world such difference is,
> That in each round shows more divinity,
> As each is wider from the centre. Hence,
> If in this wondrous and angelic temple,
> That hath, for confine, only light and love,
> My wish may have completion, I must know,
> Wherefore such disagreement is between
> The exemplar and its copy: for myself,
> Contemplating, I fail to pierce the cause."
> 
> "It is no marvel, if thy fingers foil'd
> Do leave the knot untied: so hard 'tis grown
> For want of tenting." Thus she said: "But take,"
> She added, "if thou wish thy cure, my words,
> And entertain them subtly. Every orb,
> Corporeal, doth proportion its extent
> Unto the virtue through its parts diffused.
> The greater blessedness preserves the more,
> The greater is the body (if all parts
> Share equally) the more is to preserve.
> Therefore the circle, whose swift course enwheels
> The universal frame, answers to that
> Which is supreme in knowledge and in love.
> Thus by the virtue, not the seeming breadth
> Of substance, measuring, thou shalt see the Heavens,
> Each to the intelligence that ruleth it,
> Greater to more, and smaller unto less,
> Suited in strict and wondrous harmony."
> 
> As when the north blows from his milder cheek
> A blast, that scours the sky, forthwith our air,
> Clear'd of the rack that hung on it before,
> Glitters; and, with his beauties all unveil'd,
> The firmament looks forth serene, and smiles:
> Such was my cheer, when Beatrice drove
> With clear reply the shadows back, and truth
> Was manifested, as a star in Heaven.
> And when the words were ended, not unlike
> To iron in the furnace, every cirque,
> Ebullient, shot forth scintillating fires:
> And every sparkle shivering to new blaze,
> In number[1] did outmillion the account
> Reduplicate upon the chequer'd board.
> Then heard I echoing on, from choir to choir,
> "Hosanna," to the fixed point, that holds,
> And shall for ever hold them to their place,
> From everlasting, irremovable.
> 
> [1: "In number." The sparkles exceeded the number which would be
> produced by the sixty - four squares of a chess - board, if for the first we
> reckoned one; for the next, two; for the third, four; and so went on doubling
> to the end of the account.]
> 
> Musing awhile I stood: and she, who saw
> My inward meditations, thus began:
> "In the first circles, they, whom thou beheld'st
> Are Seraphim and Cherubim. Thus swift
> Follow their hoops, in likeness to the point,
> Near as they can, approaching; and they can
> The more, the loftier their vision. Those
> That round them fleet, gazing the Godhead next,
> Are Thrones; in whom the first trine ends. And all
> 
> Are blessed, even as their sight descends
> Deeper into the Truth, wherein rest is
> For every mind. Thus happiness hath root
> In seeing, not in loving, which of sight
> Is aftergrowth. And of the seeing such
> The meed, as unto each, in due degree,
> Grace and good - will their measure have assign'd.
> The other trine, that with still opening buds
> In this eternal springtide blossom fair,
> Fearless of bruising from the nightly ram,[2]
> Breathe up in warbled melodies threefold
> Hosannas, blending ever; from the three,
> Transmitted, hierarchy of gods, for aye
> Rejoicing; dominations first; next them,
> Virtues; and powers the third; the next to whom
> Are princedoms and archangels, with glad round
> To tread their festal ring; and last, the band
> Angelical, disporting in their sphere.
> All, as they circle in their orders, look
> Aloft; and, downward, with such sway prevail,
> That all with mutual impulse tend to God.
> These once a mortal view beheld. Desire
> In Dionysius,[3] so intensely wrought,
> That he, as I have done, ranged them; and named,
> Their orders, marshal'd in his thought. From him,
> Dissentient, one refused his sacred read.
> But soon as in this Heaven his doubting eyes
> Were open'd, Gregory[4] at his error smiled.
> Nor marvel, that a denizen of earth
> Should scan such secret truth; for he had learnt[5]
> 
> [2: Not injured, like spring products, by the influence of autumn,
> when the constellation Aries rises at sunset.]
> 
> [3: The Areopagite, in his book "De Coelesti Hierarchia."]
> 
> [4: "Gregory." Gregory the Great.]
> 
> [5: "He had learnt." Dionysius, he says, had learnt from St. Paul.
> The book above referred to, which goes under his name, was the production of a
> later age. In Bishop Bull's seventh sermon, which treats of the different
> degrees of beatitude in Heaven, there is much that resembles what is said on
> the same subject by our Poet. The learned prelate, however, appears a little
> inconsistent, when, after having blamed Dionysius the Areopagite, "for
> reckoning up exactly the several orders of the angelical hierarchy, as if he
> had seen a muster of the heavenly host before his eyes" (v. i. p. 313), he
> himself speaks more particularly of the several orders in the celestial
> hierarchy than Holy Scripture warrants.]
> 
> Both this and much beside of these our orbs,
> From an eye - witness to Heaven's mysteries."
>
> — *Paradise Canto 28*