"O company elect to the great supper
  Of the Lamb benedight, who feedeth you
  So that for ever full is your desire,

If by the grace of God this man foretaste
  Something of that which falleth from your table,
  Or ever death prescribe to him the time,

Direct your mind to his immense desire,
  And him somewhat bedew; ye drinking are
  For ever at the fount whence comes his thought."

Thus Beatrice; and those souls beatified
  Transformed themselves to spheres on steadfast poles,
  Flaming intensely in the guise of comets.

And as the wheels in works of horologes
  Revolve so that the first to the beholder
  Motionless seems, and the last one to fly,

So in like manner did those carols, dancing
  In different measure, of their affluence
  Give me the gauge, as they were swift or slow.

From that one which I noted of most beauty
  Beheld I issue forth a fire so happy
  That none it left there of a greater brightness;

And around Beatrice three several times
  It whirled itself with so divine a song,
  My fantasy repeats it not to me;

Therefore the pen skips, and I write it not,
  Since our imagination for such folds,
  Much more our speech, is of a tint too glaring.

"O holy sister mine, who us implorest
  With such devotion, by thine ardent love
  Thou dost unbind me from that beautiful sphere!"

Thereafter, having stopped, the blessed fire
  Unto my Lady did direct its breath,
  Which spake in fashion as I here have said.

And she: "O light eterne of the great man
  To whom our Lord delivered up the keys
  He carried down of this miraculous joy,

This one examine on points light and grave,
  As good beseemeth thee, about the Faith
  By means of which thou on the sea didst walk.

If he love well, and hope well, and believe,
  From thee 'tis hid not; for thou hast thy sight
  There where depicted everything is seen.

But since this kingdom has made citizens
  By means of the true Faith, to glorify it
  'Tis well he have the chance to speak thereof."

As baccalaureate arms himself, and speaks not
  Until the master doth propose the question,
  To argue it, and not to terminate it,

So did I arm myself with every reason,
  While she was speaking, that I might be ready
  For such a questioner and such profession.

"Say, thou good Christian; manifest thyself;
  What is the Faith?"  Whereat I raised my brow
  Unto that light wherefrom was this breathed forth.

Then turned I round to Beatrice, and she
  Prompt signals made to me that I should pour
  The water forth from my internal fountain.

"May grace, that suffers me to make confession,"
  Began I, "to the great centurion,
  Cause my conceptions all to be explicit!"

And I continued: "As the truthful pen,
  Father, of thy dear brother wrote of it,
  Who put with thee Rome into the good way,

Faith is the substance of the things we hope for,
  And evidence of those that are not seen;
  And this appears to me its quiddity."

Then heard I: "Very rightly thou perceivest,
  If well thou understandest why he placed it
  With substances and then with evidences."

And I thereafterward: "The things profound,
  That here vouchsafe to me their apparition,
  Unto all eyes below are so concealed,

That they exist there only in belief,
  Upon the which is founded the high hope,
  And hence it takes the nature of a substance.

And it behoveth us from this belief
  To reason without having other sight,
  And hence it has the nature of evidence."