# Paradise Canto  4

*Exported from [Holy-Writings.com](https://www.holy-writings.com/) on 2026-06-22 — 1 clipping.*

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> 
> Canto IV
> 
> Argument
> 
>      While they still continue in the moon, Beatrice removes certain doubts
> which Dante had conceived respecting the place assigned to the blessed, and
> respecting the will absolute or conditional. He inquires whether it is
> possible to make satisfaction for a vow broken.
> 
> Between two kinds of food, both equally
> Remote and tempting, first a man might die
> Of hunger, ere he one could freely chuse.
> E'en so would stand a lamb between the maw
> Of two fierce wolves, in dread of both alike:
> E'en so between two deer a dog would stand.
> Wherefore, if I was silent, fault nor praise
> I to myself impute; by equal doubts
> Held in suspense; since of necessity
> It happen'd. Silent was I, yet desire
> Was painted in my looks; and thus I spake
> My wish more earnestly than language could.
> 
> As Daniel,[1] when the haughty king he freed
> From ire, that spurr'd him on to deeds unjust
> And violent; so did Beatrice then.
> 
> [1: "Daniel." See Dan. ii. Beatrice did for Dante what Daniel did for
> Nebuchadnezzar, when he freed the King from the uncertainty respecting his
> dream, which had enraged him against the Chaldeans. See Hell, Canto xiv.]
> 
> "Well I discern," she thus her words address'd,
> "How thou art drawn by each of these desires;[2]
> So that thy anxious thought is in itself
> Bound up and stifled, nor breathes freely forth.
> Thou arguest: if the good intent remain;
> What reason that another's violence
> 
> [2: His desire to have each of the doubts, which Beatrice mentions,
> resolved.]
> 
> Should stint the measure of my fair desert?
> 
> "Cause too thou find'st for doubt, in that it seems,
> That spirits to the stars, as Plato[3] deem'd,
> Return. These are the questions which thy will
> Urge equally; and therefore I, the first,
> Of that[4] will treat which hath the more of gall.[5]
> Of Seraphim[6] he who is most enskied,
> Moses and Samuel, and either John
> Chuse which thou wilt, nor even Mary's self,
> Have not in any other Heaven their seats,
> Than have those spirits which so late thou saw'st;
> Nor more or fewer years exist; but all
> Make the first circle[7] beauteous, diversely
> Partaking of sweet life, as more or less
> Afflation of eternal bliss pervades them.
> Here were they shown thee, not that fate assigns
> This for their sphere, but for a sign to thee
> Of that celestial furthest from the height.
> Thus needs, that ye may apprehend, we speak:
> Since from things sensible alone ye learn
> That, which, digested rightly, after turns
> To intellectual. For no other cause
> The Scripture, condescending graciously
> To your perception, hands and feet to God
> Attributes, nor so means: and holy Church
> Doth represent with human countenance
> Gabriel, and Michael, and him who made
> Tobias whole. Unlike what here thou seest,
> The judgment of Timaeus, who affirms
> Each soul restored to its particular star;
> Believing it to have been taken thence,
> When nature gave it to inform her mold:
> Yet to appearance his intention is
> 
> [3: "Plato." Plato, Timaeus, v. ix. p. 326. "The Creator, when he had
> framed the universe, distributed to the stars an equal number of souls,
> appointing to each soul its several star."]
> 
> [4: "Of that." Plato's opinion.]
> 
> [5: Which is the more dangerous.]
> 
> [6: She first resolves his doubt whether souls do not return to their
> own stars, as he had read in the Timaeus of Plato. Angels, then, and beatified
> spirits, she declares, dwell all and eternally together, only partaking more
> or less of the divine glory, in the empyrean; although, in condescension to
> human understanding, they appear to have different spheres allotted to them.]
> 
> [7: "The first circle." The empyrean.]
> 
> Not what his words declare: and so to shun
> Derision, haply thus he hath disguised
> His true opinion. If his meaning be,
> That to the influencing of these orbs revert
> The honour and the blame in human acts,
> Perchance he doth not wholly miss the truth.
> This principle, not understood aright,
> Erewhile perverted well - nigh all the world;
> So that it fell to fabled names of Jove,
> And Mercury, and Mars. That other doubt,
> Which moves thee, is less harmful; for it brings
> No peril of removing thee from me.
> "That, to the eye of man,[8] our justice seems
> Unjust, is argument for faith, and not
> For heretic declension. But, to the end
> This truth[9] may stand more clearly in your view,
> I will content thee even to thy wish.
> 
> [8: "That the ways of divine justice are often inscrutable to man,
> ought rather to be a motive to faith than an inducement to heresy."]
> 
> [9: "This truth." That it is no impeachment of God's justice, if
> merit be lessened through compulsion of others, without any failure of good
> intention on the part of the meritorious. After all, Beatrice ends by
> admitting that there was a defect in the will, which hindered Constance and
> the others from seizing the first opportunity of returning to the monastic
> life.]
> 
> "If violence be, when that which suffers, nought
> Consents to that which forceth, not for this
> These spirits stood exculpate. For the will,
> That wills not, still survives, unquench'd, and doth,
> As nature doth in fire, though violence
> Wrest it a thousand times; for, if it yield
> Or more or less, so far it follows force.
> And thus did these, when they had power to seek
> The hallow'd place again. In them, had will
> Been perfect, such as once upon the bars
> Held Laurence[10] firm, or wrought in Scaevola
> To his own hand remorseless; to the path,
> Whence they were drawn, their steps had hasten'd back,
> When liberty return'd: but in too few,
> Resolve, so stedfast, dwells. And by these words,
> If duly weigh'd, that argument is void,
> Which oft might have perplex'd thee still. But now
> 
> [10: Martyr of the third century.]
> 
> Another question thwarts thee, which, to solve,
> Might try thy patience without better aid.
> I have, no doubt, instill'd into thy mind,
> That blessed spirit may not lie; since near
> The source of primal truth it dwells for aye:
> And thou mightst after of Piccarda learn
> That Constance held affection to the veil;
> So that she seems to contradict me here.
> Not seldom, brother, it hath chanced for men
> To do what they had gladly left undone;
> Yet, to shun peril, they have done amiss:
> E'en as Alcmaeon, at his father's[11] suit
> Slew his own mother;[12] so made pitiless,
> Not to lose pity. On this point bethink thee,
> That force and will are blended in such wise
> As not to make the offence excusable.
> Absolute will agrees not to the wrong;
> But inasmuch as there is fear of woe
> From non - compliance, it agrees. Of will[13]
> Thus absolute, Piccarda spake, and I
> Of the other; so that both have truly said."
> 
> [11: "His father's." Amphiaraus.]
> 
> [12: "His own mother." Eriphyle.]
> 
> [13: "Of will." What Piccarda asserts of Constance, that she retained
> her affection to the monastic life, is said absolutely and without relation to
> circumstances; and that, which I affirm, is spoken of the will conditionally
> and respectively: so that "both have truly said."]
> 
> Such was the flow of that pure rill, that well'd
> From forth the fountain of all truth; and such
> The rest, that to my wandering thoughts I found.
> 
> "O thou, of primal love the prime delight,
> Goddess!" I straight replied, "whose lively words
> Still shed new heat and vigour through my soul;
> Affection fails me to requite thy grace
> With equal sum of gratitude: be His
> To recompense, who sees and can reward thee.
> Well I discern, that by that Truth[14] alone
> Enlighten'd, beyond which no truth may roam,
> Our mind can satisfy her thirst to know:
> Therein she resteth, e'en as in his lair
> The wild beast, soon as she hath reach'd that bound.
> And she hath power to reach it; else desire
> 
> [14: The light of divine truth.]
> 
> Were given to no end. And thence doth doubt
> Spring, like a shoot, around the stock of truth;
> And it is nature which, from height to height,
> On to the summit prompts us. This invites,
> This doth assure me, Lady! reverently
> To ask thee of another truth, that yet
> Is dark to me. I fain would know, if man
> By other works well done may so supply
> The failure of his vows, that in your scale
> They lack not weight." I spake; and on me straight
> Beatrice look'd, with eyes that shot forth sparks
> Of love celestial, in such copious stream,
> That, virtue sinking in me overpower'd,
> I turn'd; and downward bent, confused, my sight.
>
> — *Paradise Canto  4*