"Firm is the hope founded on a noble heart, the changes of the mortal bark strip no leaves from its crown; never does it languish, and even here it receives an assurance of heaven."--(_Sonnet_ 9.) Now it is with accents of triumph and anon with the serener emotion of an immortal gratitude, that the poet exhibits the luminous ladder which his love assists him to mount, the support he finds in it when he descends again to the earth: "The power of a beautiful countenance, the only joy I know on earth, urges me to the heaven, I rise, yet living, to the abode of elect souls--favour granted rarely to our mortal state! "So perfect is the agreement of this divine work with its Creator, that I ascend to Him on the wings of this celestial fervour; and there I form all my thoughts, and purify all my words. * * * * * "In her beautiful eyes, from which mine cannot divert themselves, I behold the light, guide upon the way which leads to God; * * * * * "Thus, in my noble fire, calmly shines the felicity which smiles, eternal, in the heavens!--(_Sonnet_ 3.) "With _your_ beautiful eyes I see the mild light which my darkened eyes could not discern. Your support enables me to bear a burden which my weary steps could not endure to the end." * * * * * "My thoughts are shaped in your heart; my words are born in your mind. "With regard to you, I am like the orb of night in its career; our eyes can only perceive the portion on which the sun sheds his rays."--(_Sonnet_ 12.) The admirable picture of indissoluble union in a settled tenderness, one of the most perfect pieces which has come from Angelo's pen, was sketched, doubtless, in one of those moments of severe and entire felicity: "A refined love, a supreme affection, an equal fortune between two hearts, to whom joys and sorrows are in common, because one single mind actuates them both; "One soul in two bodies, raising both to heaven, and upon equal wings; * * * * * "To love the other always, and one's self never, to desire of Love no other prize than himself; to anticipate every hour the wishes with which the reciprocal empire regulates two existences: "Such are the certain signs of an inviolable faith; shall disdain or anger dissolve such a tie?"--(_Sonnet_ 20.) The last verse makes allusion to some incident of which we have been unable to find any historical explanation: "Or potra _sdegno_ tanto nodo sciorre?" But these ill-founded fears soon gave way to the presentiment of the cruel, the imminent trial, for which the poet's affection was reserved.