Perpetually hosanna warbles forth
With threefold melody, that sounds in threeOrders of joy, with which it is intrined.
The three Divine are in this hierarchy,First the Dominions, and the Virtues next;And the third order is that of the Powers.
Then in the dances twain penultimateThe Principalities and Archangels wheel;The last is wholly of angelic sports.
These orders upward all of them are gazing,And downward so prevail, that unto GodThey all attracted are and all attract.
And Dionysius with so great desireTo contemplate these Orders set himself,He named them and distinguished them as I do.
But Gregory afterwards dissented from him;Wherefore, as soon as he unclosed his eyesWithin this heaven, he at himself did smile.
And if so much of secret truth a mortalProffered on earth, I would not have thee marvel,For he who saw it here revealed it to him,
With much more of the truth about these circles.”
Paradiso: Canto XXIX
At what time both the children of Latona,Surmounted by the Ram and by the Scales,Together make a zone of the horizon,
As long as from the time the zenith holds themIn equipoise, till from that girdle bothChanging their hemisphere disturb the balance,
So long, her face depicted with a smile,Did Beatrice keep silence while she gazedFixedly at the point which had o’ercome me.
Then she began: “I say, and I ask notWhat thou dost wish to hear, for I have seen itWhere centres every When and every ‘Ubi.’
Not to acquire some good unto himself,Which is impossible, but that his splendourIn its resplendency may say, ‘Subsisto,’
In his eternity outside of time,Outside all other limits, as it pleased him,Into new Loves the Eternal Love unfolded.
Nor as if torpid did he lie before;For neither after nor before proceededThe going forth of God upon these waters.
Matter and Form unmingled and conjoinedCame into being that had no defect,E’en as three arrows from a three-stringed bow.
And as in glass, in amber, or in crystalA sunbeam flashes so, that from its comingTo its full being is no interval,
So from its Lord did the triform effectRay forth into its being all together,Without discrimination of beginning.