But have through others’ merit been advanc’d,
On set conditions:  spirits all releas’d,
Ere for themselves they had the power to choose. 
And, if thou mark and listen to them well,
Their childish looks and voice declare as much. 
     “Here, silent as thou art, I know thy doubt;
And gladly will I loose the knot, wherein
Thy subtle thoughts have bound thee.  From this realm
Excluded, chalice no entrance here may find,
No more shall hunger, thirst, or sorrow can. 
A law immutable hath establish’d all;
Nor is there aught thou seest, that doth not fit,
Exactly, as the finger to the ring. 
It is not therefore without cause, that these,
O’erspeedy comers to immortal life,
Are different in their shares of excellence. 
Our Sovran Lord—­that settleth this estate
In love and in delight so absolute,
That wish can dare no further—­every soul,
Created in his joyous sight to dwell,
With grace at pleasure variously endows. 
And for a proof th’ effect may well suffice. 
And ’t is moreover most expressly mark’d
In holy scripture, where the twins are said
To, have struggled in the womb.  Therefore, as grace
Inweaves the coronet, so every brow
Weareth its proper hue of orient light. 
And merely in respect to his prime gift,
Not in reward of meritorious deed,
Hath each his several degree assign’d. 
In early times with their own innocence
More was not wanting, than the parents’ faith,
To save them:  those first ages past, behoov’d
That circumcision in the males should imp
The flight of innocent wings:  but since the day
Of grace hath come, without baptismal rites
In Christ accomplish’d, innocence herself
Must linger yet below.  Now raise thy view
Unto the visage most resembling Christ: 
For, in her splendour only, shalt thou win
The pow’r to look on him.”  Forthwith I saw
Such floods of gladness on her visage shower’d,
From holy spirits, winging that profound;
That, whatsoever I had yet beheld,
Had not so much suspended me with wonder,
Or shown me such similitude of God. 
And he, who had to her descended, once,
On earth, now hail’d in heav’n; and on pois’d wing. 
“Ave, Maria, Gratia Plena,” sang: 
To whose sweet anthem all the blissful court,
From all parts answ’ring, rang:  that holier joy
Brooded the deep serene.  “Father rever’d: 
Who deign’st, for me, to quit the pleasant place,
Wherein thou sittest, by eternal lot! 
Say, who that angel is, that with such glee
Beholds our queen, and so enamour’d glows
Of her high beauty, that all fire he seems.” 
So I again resorted to the lore
Of my wise teacher, he, whom Mary’s charms
Embellish’d, as the sun the morning star;
Who thus in answer spake:  “In him are summ’d,
Whatever of buxomness and free delight
May be in Spirit, or in angel, met: 
And so beseems:  for that he bare the palm