Inferno: Canto XI
Upon the margin of
a lofty bank
Which
great rocks broken in a circle made,
We came upon a still more cruel throng;
And there, by
reason of the horrible
Excess
of stench the deep abyss throws out,
We drew ourselves aside behind the cover
Of a great tomb,
whereon I saw a writing,
Which
said: "Pope Anastasius I hold,
Whom out of the right way Photinus drew."
"Slow it behoveth
our descent to be,
So
that the sense be first a little used
To the sad blast, and then we shall not heed it."
The Master thus;
and unto him I said,
"Some
compensation find, that the time pass not
Idly;" and he: "Thou seest I think of that.
My son, upon the
inside of these rocks,"
Began
he then to say, "are three small circles,
From grade to grade, like those which thou art leaving.
They all are full
of spirits maledict;
But
that hereafter sight alone suffice thee,
Hear how and wherefore they are in constraint.
Of every malice
that wins hate in Heaven,
Injury
is the end; and all such end
Either by force or fraud afflicteth others.
But because fraud
is man's peculiar vice,
More
it displeases God; and so stand lowest
The fraudulent, and greater dole assails them.
All the first
circle of the Violent is;
But
since force may be used against three persons,
In three rounds 'tis divided and constructed.
To God, to
ourselves, and to our neighbour can we
Use
force; I say on them and on their things,
As thou shalt hear with reason manifest.
A death by
violence, and painful wounds,
Are
to our neighbour given; and in his substance
Ruin, and arson, and injurious levies;
Whence homicides,
and he who smites unjustly,
Marauders,
and freebooters, the first round
Tormenteth all in companies diverse.
Man may lay violent
hands upon himself
And
his own goods; and therefore in the second
Round must perforce without avail repent
Whoever of your
world deprives himself,
Who
games, and dissipates his property,
And weepeth there, where he should jocund be.
Violence can be
done the Deity,
In
heart denying and blaspheming Him,
And by disdaining Nature and her bounty.
And for this reason
doth the smallest round
Seal
with its signet Sodom and Cahors,
And who, disdaining God, speaks from the heart.
Fraud, wherewithal
is every conscience stung,
A
man may practise upon him who trusts,
And him who doth no confidence imburse.
This latter mode,
it would appear, dissevers
Only
the bond of love which Nature makes;
Wherefore within the second circle nestle
Hypocrisy,
flattery, and who deals in magic,
Falsification,
theft, and simony,
Panders, and barrators, and the like filth.
By the other mode,
forgotten is that love
Which
Nature makes, and what is after added,
From which there is a special faith engendered.
Hence in the
smallest circle, where the point is
Of
the Universe, upon which Dis is seated,
Whoe'er betrays for ever is consumed."
And I: "My Master,
clear enough proceeds
Thy
reasoning, and full well distinguishes
This cavern and the people who possess it.
But tell me, those
within the fat lagoon,
Whom
the wind drives, and whom the rain doth beat,
And who encounter with such bitter tongues,
Wherefore are they
inside of the red city
Not
punished, if God has them in his wrath,
And if he has not, wherefore in such fashion?"
And unto me he
said: "Why wanders so
Thine
intellect from that which it is wont?
Or, sooth, thy mind where is it elsewhere looking?
Hast thou no
recollection of those words
With
which thine Ethics thoroughly discusses
The dispositions three, that Heaven abides not,--
Incontinence, and
Malice, and insane
Bestiality?
and how Incontinence
Less God offendeth, and less blame attracts?
If thou regardest
this conclusion well,
And
to thy mind recallest who they are
That up outside are undergoing penance,
Clearly wilt thou
perceive why from these felons
They
separated are, and why less wroth
Justice divine doth smite them with its hammer."
"O Sun, that
healest all distempered vision,
Thou
dost content me so, when thou resolvest,
That doubting pleases me no less than knowing!
Once more a little
backward turn thee," said I,
"There
where thou sayest that usury offends
Goodness divine, and disengage the knot."
"Philosophy," he
said, "to him who heeds it,
Noteth,
not only in one place alone,
After what manner Nature takes her course
From Intellect
Divine, and from its art;
And
if thy Physics carefully thou notest,
After not many pages shalt thou find,
That this your art
as far as possible
Follows,
as the disciple doth the master;
So that your art is, as it were, God's grandchild.
From these two, if
thou bringest to thy mind
Genesis
at the beginning, it behoves
Mankind to gain their life and to advance;
And since the
usurer takes another way,
Nature
herself and in her follower
Disdains he, for elsewhere he puts his hope.
But follow, now, as
I would fain go on,
For
quivering are the Fishes on the horizon,
And the Wain wholly over Caurus lies,
And far beyond
there we descend the crag."
This document (last modifiedJanuary 08, 1998) from Believerscafe.com
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