O fond anxiety of mortal men! 
How vain and inconclusive arguments
Are those, which make thee beat thy wings below
For statues one, and one for aphorisms
Was hunting; this the priesthood follow’d, that
By force or sophistry aspir’d to rule;
To rob another, and another sought
By civil business wealth; one moiling lay
Tangled in net of sensual delight,
And one to witless indolence resign’d;
What time from all these empty things escap’d,
With Beatrice, I thus gloriously
Was rais’d aloft, and made the guest of heav’n. 
     They of the circle to that point, each one. 
Where erst it was, had turn’d; and steady glow’d,
As candle in his socket.  Then within
The lustre, that erewhile bespake me, smiling
With merer gladness, heard I thus begin: 
     “E’en as his beam illumes me, so I look
Into the eternal light, and clearly mark
Thy thoughts, from whence they rise.  Thou art in doubt,
And wouldst, that I should bolt my words afresh
In such plain open phrase, as may be smooth
To thy perception, where I told thee late
That ‘well they thrive;’ and that ’no second such
Hath risen,’ which no small distinction needs. 
     “The providence, that governeth the world,
In depth of counsel by created ken
Unfathomable, to the end that she,
Who with loud cries was ’spous’d in precious blood,
Might keep her footing towards her well-belov’d,
Safe in herself and constant unto him,
Hath two ordain’d, who should on either hand
In chief escort her:  one seraphic all
In fervency; for wisdom upon earth,
The other splendour of cherubic light. 
I but of one will tell:  he tells of both,
Who one commendeth. which of them so’er
Be taken:  for their deeds were to one end. 
     “Between Tupino, and the wave, that falls
From blest Ubaldo’s chosen hill, there hangs
Rich slope of mountain high, whence heat and cold
Are wafted through Perugia’s eastern gate: 
And Norcera with Gualdo, in its rear
Mourn for their heavy yoke.  Upon that side,
Where it doth break its steepness most, arose
A sun upon the world, as duly this
From Ganges doth:  therefore let none, who speak
Of that place, say Ascesi; for its name
Were lamely so deliver’d; but the East,
To call things rightly, be it henceforth styl’d. 
He was not yet much distant from his rising,
When his good influence ’gan to bless the earth. 
A dame to whom none openeth pleasure’s gate
More than to death, was, ’gainst his father’s will,
His stripling choice:  and he did make her his,
Before the Spiritual court, by nuptial bonds,
And in his father’s sight:  from day to day,
Then lov’d her more devoutly.  She, bereav’d
Of her first husband, slighted and obscure,
Thousand and hundred years and more, remain’d
Without a single suitor, till he came. 
Nor aught avail’d, that, with Amyclas, she