in the second circle have their nest
Dissimulation, witchcraft, flatteries,
Theft, falsehood, simony, all who seduce
To lust, or set their honesty at pawn,
With such vile scum as these. The other way
Forgets both Nature’s general love, and that
Which thereto added afterwards gives birth
To special faith. Whence in the lesser circle,
Point of the universe, dread seat of Dis,
The traitor is eternally consum’d.”
I thus: “Instructor, clearly thy discourse
Proceeds, distinguishing the hideous chasm
And its inhabitants with skill exact.
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-illum’d
Are not these punish’d, if God’s wrath be on them?
And if it be not, wherefore in such guise
Are they condemned?” 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 page2 describes
Three dispositions adverse to Heav’n’s will,
Incont’nence, 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 plac’d
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 solv’st my doubt,
That ignorance not less than knowledge charms.
Yet somewhat turn thee back,” I in these words
Continu’d, “where thou saidst, 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 laws3 the Stagyrite 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,4 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.5 But follow now
My steps on forward journey bent; for now
The Pisces play with undulating glance
Along the’ horizon, and the Wain6 lies all
O’er the north-west; and onward there a space
Is our steep passage down the rocky height.”
Footnotes
1 By some supposed to have been Anastasius II.; by others, the fourth of that name; while a third set, jealous of the integrity of the papal faith, contend that our poet has confounded him with Anastasius I., Emperor of the East.
2 “Thy ethic page.” He refers to Aristotle’s Ethics, lib. vii. c. 1: “———let it be defined that respecting morals there are three sorts of things to be avoided, malice, incontinence, and brutishness.”
3 “Her laws.” Aristotle’s Physics, lib. ii. c. 2: “Art imitates nature.”
4 “Creation’s holy book.” Genesis, c. ii. v. 15: “And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the Garden of Eden, to dress it, and to keep it.” And, Genesis, c. iii. v. 19: “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread.”
5 “Placing elsewhere his hope.” The usurer, trusting in the produce of his wealth lent out on usury, despises nature directly, because he does not avail himself of her means for maintaining or enriching himself; and indirectly, because he does not avail himself of the means which art, the follower and imitator of nature, would afford him for the same purposes.
6 “The Wain.” The constellation Boötes, or Charles’s Wain.
