On the divine goodness, and on his art;
And if thy physics, but a little way

From the first pages, thou wilt lay to heart,
Your art the latter follows where she may,

As pupil doth his master; whence we find
That art is God's grand-daughter, so to say.
Now if thou call thy Genesis to mind

From the beginning, it behoves man hence To earn his living and advance his kind.

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But usurers take other means, and hence

Both by herself and delegate disdain

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This nature, whom they grudge their confidence.

But follow now, I would no more remain,

For now the Fishes on the horizon peep,

And quite above the north-west lies the Wain,

And far out yonder we descend the steep."

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CANTO XII.

THE place, where to descend this bank we drew,
Was alpine-like, and with an object blent
That every beholder would eschew;

As is that landslip, ere you come to Trent,

That smote the flank of Adige, through some stay Sinking beneath it, or by earthquake rent; For from the summit, where of old it lay

Plainwards, the broken rock unto the feet Of one above it, might afford some way; Such path adown this precipice we meet;

And o'er the broken hollow, at the brow, Lay stretched along the infamy of Crete, Engendered in the simulated cow;

Who bit himself on seeing us, as he

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With inward rage who labours. "What, dost thou,"

Cried out my sage, "suppose thyself to see,

That great Athenian duke returned once more,
Who gave, on earth above, thy death to thee?
Aroint thee, beast, for this man by the lore
Of thy half-sister is not led below;
But he is come your torments to explore."
As when a bull receives the mortal blow

He breaketh from his bonds, and, impotent
To guide himself, goes plunging to and fro,
Thus in our sight this Minotaurus went;

At which my guide said, "Hasten to the road; Best make, while he is raging, thy descent."

And so along these outshot stones we trode

Downwards, and oftentimes they were dispelled

Beneath my feet, from their unwonted load.

Then said he while I mused, "Thy thoughts are filled,
Perhaps, with yonder landslip, guarded by

This bestial anger, which I lately quelled.
Now I would have thee know, the first time I
Came this way downwards into nether hell,
That rock had not yet fallen from on high.

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Certes not long, if I remember well,

Before he came, who did from Pluto's reign, From the upper zone so large a prey compel, On all sides round the deep and putrid glen

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So trembled, that the universe, I thought,
Seemed struck with love; for thereby some maintain
The world has been to chaos often brought;

At which time in the ancient rock, both here
And further down, this overthrow was wrought.
But now look downwards, we are drawing near
The bloody river, wherein boileth he
Whose violence to his neighbours costeth dear."
O frantic wrath, O blind cupidity,

That spurrest us within our short life so,
And thus embrewest us everlastingly.

I saw an ample moat, and curved, as though
Its complement should all the plain embrace,
Like as my guide before had let me know;
And 'twixt the bank and it, as if to trace

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quarry, Centaurs ran with arrows dight,

As they were used on earth to ply the chase.

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And suddenly they stopped, as we in sight
Arrived, and three departed from the train,
With bows and arrows chosen first aright.
And one among them cried, "Unto what pain
Are you appointed, who descend the shore?
Tell us from thence; if not, the bow I strain."
My master said, "Our answer is in store

To give to Chiron yonder presently,

Thy hasty will has wrought mischance of yore." "Lo, that is Nessus," quoth he, prompting me,

"Who died in lovely Dejanira's quest, And brought about his own revenge; and he Betwixt the twain, who gazeth on his breast,

That great one is who did Achilles rear;
The other's Pholus, whom such rage possest.
Around the moat by thousands they career,

Transfixing every soul, that flinches more
The blood than suits her sin's allotment here."
Meantime towards these rapid beasts we bore.
Then Chiron took a shaft, and with its head
Threw back the beard that hung his jaws before;

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