Page:Dante (Oliphant).djvu/37

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THE 'VITA NUOVA.'
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carry their perceptions, began to marvel greatly, and addressing itself especially to the spirits of vision, it spoke these words—'Apparuit jam beatitudo vestra. Now hath your bliss appeared.' And straightway the natural spirit, which abides in that part whereto our nourishment[1] is ministered, began to wail, and dolorously it spoke these words—'Heu miser! quia frequenter impeditus ero deinceps! Ah wretched me! for henceforth shall I be oftentimes obstructed!' From that time forth I say that Love held sovereign empire over my soul, which had so readily been betrothed unto him; and through the influence lent to him by my imagination, he at once assumed such imperious sway and masterdom over me, that I could not choose but do his pleasure in all things. Oftentimes he enjoined me to strive, if so I might behold this youngest of the angels—wherefore did I during my boyish years frequently go in search of her; and so praiseworthy was she, and so noble in her bearing, that of her might with truth be spoken that saying of the poet Homer—

'She of a god seemed born, and not of mortal man.'"


The second meeting, conscious on both sides, seems to have befallen as follows:—


"When so many days had passed away, after the vision of that most noble lady above recorded, as made up the exact measure of nine years, on the last of these days it came to pass that this wonderful lady appeared to me once more, arrayed in the purest white, between two noble ladies older than herself. And as she passed along the street, she turned her eyes towards the spot where I, thrilled through and through with awe, was standing; and by her ineffable courtesy, which now hath its guerdon in everlasting life, she saluted me in such gracious wise that I seemed in that moment to see beatitude in all its length and breadth. The hour her most sweet salutation reached me was certainly the ninth hour of that day: and forasmuch as this was the first
  1. The tongue.