# Paradise Canto  8

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

---

> Christianity Index  Divine Comedy Index  Previous: Paradise Canto 7  Next: Paradise Canto 9  
> 
> Canto VIII
> 
> Argument
> 
>      The Poet ascends with Beatrice to the third heaven, the planet Venus; and
> here finds the soul of Charles Martel, King of Hungary, who had been Dante's
> friend on earth, and who now, after speaking of the realms to which he was
> heir, unfolds the cause why children differ in disposition from their parents.
> 
> The world[1] was, in its day of peril dark,
> Wont to believe the dotage of fond love,
> From the fair Cyprian deity, who rolls
> In her third epicycle, shed on men
> By stream of potent radiance: therefore they
> Of elder time, in their old error blind,
> Not her alone with sacrifice adored
> And invocation, but like honours paid
> To Cupid and Dione, deem'd of them
> Her mother, and her son, him whom they feign'd
> To sit in Dido's bosom: and from her,
> Whom I have sung preluding, borrow'd they
> The appellation of that star, which views
> Now obvious, and now averse, the sun.
> 
> [1: The Poet, on his arrival at the third Heaven, tells us that the
> world, in its days of heathen darkness, believed the influence of sensual love
> to proceed from the star, to which, under the name of Venus, they paid divine
> honors; as they worshipped the supposed mother and son of Venus, under the
> names of Dione and Cupid.]
> 
> I was not ware that I was wafted up
> Into its orb; but the new loveliness,
> That graced my lady, gave me ample proof
> That we had enter'd there. And as in flame
> A sparkle is distinct, or voice in voice
> Discern'd, when one its even tenour keeps,
> The other comes and goes; so in that light
> I other luminaries saw, that coursed
> In circling motion, rapid more or less,
> As their eternal vision each impels.
> 
> Never was blast from vapour charged with cold,
> Whether invisible to eye or no,
> Descended with such speed, it had not seem'd
> To linger in dull tardiness, compared
> To those celestial lights, that toward us came,
> Leaving the circuit of their joyous ring,
> Conducted by the lofty Seraphim.
> And after them, who in the van appear'd,
> Such an Hossana sounded as hath left
> Desire, ne'er since extinct in me, to hear
> Renew'd the strain. Then, parting from the rest,
> One near us drew, and sole began: "We all
> Are ready at thy pleasure, well disposed
> To do thee gentle service. We are they
> To whom thou in the world erewhile didst sing;
> 'O ye! whose intellectual ministry
> Moves the third Heaven:' and in one orb we roll,
> One motion, one impulse, with those who rule
> Princedoms in Heaven; yet are of love so full,
> That to please thee 'twill be as sweet to rest."
> 
> After mine eyes had with meek reverence
> Sought the celestial guide, and were by her
> Assured, they turn'd again unto the light,
> Who had so largely promised; and with voice
> That bare the lively pressure of my zeal,
> "Tell who ye are," I cried. Forthwith it grew
> In size and splendour, through augmented joy;
> And thus it answer'd: "A short date, below,
> The world possess'd me.[2] Had the time been more,
> Much evil, that will come, had never chanced.
> My gladness hides thee from me, which doth shine
> Around, and shroud me, as an animal
> In its own silk enswathed. Thou lovedst me well,[3]
> And hadst good cause; for had my sojourning
> Been longer on the earth, the love I bare thee
> Had put forth more than blossoms. The left bank,[4]
> That Rhone, when he hath mix'd with Sorga, laves,
> In me its lord expected, and that horn
> Of fair Ausonia,[5] with its boroughs old,
> Bari, and Croton, and Gaeta piled,
> From where the Trento disembogues his waves
> With Verde mingled, to the salt - sea flood.
> Already on my temples beam'd the crown,
> Which gave me sovereignty over the land[6]
> By Danube wash'd, whenas he strays beyond
> The limits of his German shores. The realm,
> Where, on the gulf by stormy Eurus lash'd,
> Betwixt Pelorus and Pachynian heights,
> The beautiful Trinacria[7] lies in gloom,
> (Not through Typhoeus,[8] but the vapoury cloud
> Bituminous upsteam'd), that too did look
> To have its sceptre wielded by a race [Rodolph,[9]
> Of monarchs, sprung through me from Charles and
> Had not ill - lording,[10] which doth desperate make
> 
> [2: The spirit now speaking is Charles Martel, crowned King of
> Hungary, and son of Charles II, King of Naples and Sicily, to which throne,
> dying in his father's lifetime, he did not succeed. The evil, that would have
> been prevented by the longer life of Charles Martel, was that resistance which
> his brother Robert, King of Sicily, who succeeded him, made to the Emperor
> Henry VII.]
> 
> [3: Charles Martel might have been known to our Poet at Florence,
> whither he came to meet his father in 1259, the year of his death. G. Villani
> says that "he remained more than twenty days in Florence, waiting for his
> father, King Charles, and his brothers." Lib. vii. cap. xiii. His brother
> Robert, King of Naples, was the friend of Petrarch.]
> 
> [4: "The left bank." Provence.]
> 
> [5: The kingdom of Naples.]
> 
> [6: "The land." Hungary.]
> 
> [7: Sicily; so called from its three promontories of which Pachynus
> and Pelorus, here mentioned, are two.]
> 
> [8: The giant, whom Jupiter overwhelmed under Mount Aetna, whence he
> vomited forth smoke and flame.]
> 
> [9: "Sicily would be still ruled by monarchs, descended through me
> from Charles I and Rodolph I, the former my grandfather, King of Naples and
> Sicily; the latter, Emperor of Germany, my father - in - law;" both celebrated
> in the "Purgatory," Canto vii.]
> 
> [10: If the ill - conduct of our governors in Sicily had not excited
> the people to that dreadful massacre at the Sicilian vespers in consequence of
> which the kingdom fell into the hands of Peter III of Arragon, in 1282.]
> 
> The people ever, in Palermo raised
> The shout of 'death,' re - echoed loud and long.
> Had but my brother's foresight[11] kenn'd as much,
> He had been warier, that the greedy want
> Of Catalonia might not work his bale.
> And truly need there is that he forecast,
> Or other for him, lest more freight be laid
> On his already over - laden bark.
> Nature in him, from bounty fallen to thrift,
> Would ask the guard of braver arms, than such
> As only care to have their coffers fill'd."
> 
> [11: He seems to tax his brother Robert with employing necessitous
> and greedy Catalonians to administer the affairs of his kingdom.]
> 
> "My liege! it doth enhance the joy thy words
> Infuse into me, mighty as it is,
> To think my gladness manifest to thee,
> As to myself, who own it, when thou look'st
> Into the source and limit of all good,
> There, where thou markest that which thou dost speak,
> Thence prized of me the more. Glad thou hast made
> Now make intelligent, clearing the doubt [me:
> Thy speech hath raised in me; for much I muse,
> How bitter can spring up,[12] when sweet is sown."
> 
> [12: "How a covetous son can spring from a liberal father." Yet that
> father has himself been accused of avarice in the "Purgatory," Canto xx. 78;
> though his general character was that of a bounteous prince.]
> 
> I thus inquiring; he forthwith replied:
> "If I have power to show one truth, soon that
> Shall face thee, which thy questioning declares
> Behind thee now conceal'd. The Good,[13] that guides
> 
> [13: The Supreme Being uses these spheres as the intelligent
> instruments of His providence in the conduct of terrestrial natures; so that
> these natures cannot but be conducted aright, unless these heavenly bodies
> should themselves fail from not having been made perfect at first, or the
> Creator of them should fail. To this Dante replies, that Nature, he is
> satisfied, thus directed must do her part. Charles Martel then reminds him
> that he had learned from Aristotle that human society requires a variety of
> conditions, and consequently a variety of qualifications in its members.
> Accordingly, men are born with different powers and capacities, caused by the
> influence of the heavenly bodies at the time of their nativity; on which
> influence, and not on their parents, those powers and capacities depend.
> Charles Martel adds, by way of corollary, that the want of observing their
> natural bent, in the destination of men to their several offices in life, is
> the occasion of much of the disorder that prevails in the world.]
> 
> And blessed makes this realm which thou dost mount,
> Ordains its providence to be the virtue
> In these great bodies: nor the natures only
> The all - perfect Mind provides for, but with them
> That which preserves them too; for naught, that lies
> Within the range of that unerring bow,
> But is as level with the destined aim,
> As ever mark to arrow's point opposed.
> Were it not thus, these Heavens, thou dost visit,
> Would their effect so work, it would not be
> Art, but destruction; and this may not chance,
> If the intellectual powers, that move these stars,
> Fail not, and who, first faulty made them, fail.
> Wilt thou this truth more clearly evidenced?"
> 
> To whom I thus: "It is enough: no fear,
> I see, lest nature in her part should tire."
> 
> He straight rejoin'd: "Say, were it worse for man,
> If he lived not in fellowship on earth?"
> 
> "Yea," answer'd I; "nor here a reason needs."
> 
> "And may that be, if different estates
> Grow not of different duties in your life?
> Consult your teacher,[14] and he tells you 'no.'"
> 
> [14: Aristotle, De Rep., lib. iii. cap. 4: Since a state is made up
> of members differing from one another (for even as an animal, in the first
> instance, consists of soul and body; and the soul, of reason and desire; and a
> family, of man and woman; and property, of master and slave; in like manner a
> state consists both of all these, and besides these of other dissimilar
> kinds); it necessarily follows that the excellence of all the members of the
> state cannot be one and the same.]
> 
> Thus did he come, deducing to this point,
> And then concluded: "For this cause behoves,
> The roots, from whence your operations come,
> Must differ. Therefore one is Solon born;
> Another, Xerxes; and Melchisedec
> A third; and he a fourth, whose airy voyage
> Cost him his son.[15] In her circuitous course,
> Nature, that is the seal to mortal wax,
> Doth well her art, but no distinction owns
> 'Twixt one or other household. Hence befals
> That Esau is so wide of Jacob: hence
> Quirinus[16] of so base a father springs,
> 
> [15: Daedalus.]
> 
> [16: "Quirinus." Romulus, born of so obscure a father that his
> parentage was attributed to Mars.]
> 
> He dates from Mars his lineage. Were it not
> That Providence celestial overruled,
> Nature, in generation, must the path
> Traced by the generator still pursue
> Unswervingly. Thus place I in thy sight
> That, which was late behind thee. But, in sign
> Of more affection for thee, 'tis my will
> Thou wear this corollary. Nature ever,
> Finding discordant fortune, like all seed
> Out of its proper climate, thrives but ill.
> And were the world below content to mark
> And work on the foundation nature lays,
> I would not lack supply of excellence.
> But ye perversely to religion strain
> Him, who was born to gird on him the sword,
> And of the fluent phraseman make your king:
> Therefore your steps have wander'd from the path."
>
> — *Paradise Canto  8*