altitude;
      Thou knowest as oft thou dost personify it
      As Jesus to the three gave greater light,”—­ [33]
    “Lift up thy head, and make thyself assured; [34]
      For what comes hither from the mortal world
      Must needs be ripened in our radiance.” 
    This exhortation from the second fire [37]
      Came; and mine eyes I lifted to the hills, [38]
      Which bent them down before with too great weight,
    “Since, through his grace, our Emperor decrees
      Thou shouldst confronted be, before thy death,
      In the most secret chamber, with his Counts, [42]
    So that, the truth beholding of this court,
      Hope, which below there rightly fascinates,
      In thee and others may thereby be strengthened;
    Say what it is, and how is flowering with it
      Thy mind, and say from whence it came to thee”: 
      Thus did the second light continue still. 
    And the Compassionate, who piloted [49]
      The plumage of my wings in such high flight,
      In the reply did thus anticipate me: 
    “No child whatever the Church Militant
      Of greater hope possesses, as is written
      In that Sun which irradiates all our band; [54]
    Therefore it is conceded him from Egypt
      To come into Jerusalem to see, [56]
      Or ever yet his warfare is completed. 
    The other points, that not for knowledge’ sake [58]
      Have been demanded, but that he report
      How much this virtue unto thee is pleasing,
    To him I leave; for hard he will not find them,
      Nor to be boasted of; them let him answer;
      And may the grace of God in this assist him!”
    As a disciple, who obeys his teacher,
      Ready and willing, where he is expert,
      So that his excellence may be revealed,
    “Hope,” said I, “is the certain expectation [67]
      Of glory in the hereafter, which proceedeth
      From grace divine and merit precedent. 
    From many stars this light comes unto me;
      But he instilled it first into my heart,
      Who was chief singer unto the chief captain. [72]
    Hope they in thee, in the high Theody
      He says, all those who recognize thy name; [74]
      And who does not, if he my faith possesses? [75]
    Thou didst instil me, then, with his instilling
      In the Epistle, so that I am full,
      And upon others rain again your rain.” [78]
    While I was speaking, in the living bosom
      Of that effulgence quivered a sharp flash,
      Sudden and frequent, in the guise of lightning. 
    Then breathed:  “The love wherewith I am inflamed
      Towards the virtue