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[76] 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.”
“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[77] the Stagirite unfolds,
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,[78] 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.[79] But follow now
My steps on forward journey bent; for now
The Pisces play with undulating glance
Along the horizon, and the Wain[80] lies all
O’er the northwest; and onward there a space
Is our steep passage down the rocky height.”
Canto XII
Argument.—Descending by a very rugged way into the seventh circle, where the violent are punished, Dante and his leader find it guarded by the Minotaur; whose fury being pacified by Virgil, they step downward from crag to crag; till, drawing near the bottom, they descry a river of blood, wherein are tormented such as have committed violence against their neighbor. At these, when they strive to emerge from the blood, a troop of Centaurs, running along the side of the river, aim their arrows; and three of their band opposing our travellers at the foot of the steep, Virgil prevails so far that one consents to carry them both across the stream; and on their passage, Dante is informed by him of the course of the river, and of those that are punished therein.
The place, where to descend the precipice
We came, was rough as Alp; and on its verge
Such object lay, as every eye would shun.
As is that ruin, which Adice’s stream[81]
On this side Trento struck, shouldering the wave,
Or loosed by earthquake or for lack of prop;
For from the mountain’s summit, whence it moved
To the low level, so the headlong rock
Is shiver’d, that some passage it might give
To him who from above would pass; e’en such
Into the chasm was that descent: and there
At point of the disparted ridge lay stretch’d
The infamy of Crete,[82] detested brood
Of the feign’d heifer:[83] and at sight of us
It gnaw’d itself, as one with rage distract.
To him my guide exclaim’d: “Perchance thou deem’st
The King of Athens[84] here, who, in the world
Above, thy death contrived. Monster! avaunt!
He comes not tutor’d by thy sister’s art,[85]
But to behold your torments is he come.”
Like to a bull, that with impetuous spring
Darts, at the moment when the fatal blow
Hath struck him, but unable to proceed
Plunges on either side; so saw I plunge
The Minotaur; whereat the sage exclaim’d:
“Run to the passage! while he storms, ’tis well
That thou descend.” Thus down our road we took
Through
