This passage helps us to understand expressions which often strike one as very strange, describing the circling movements of the spirits in Paradise. For the likeness to stars is clear throughout. Their brightness is an expression of their happiness,[306] and increases in each succeeding heaven. Only in the lowest can Dante see the forms and features of Piccarda and the other blessed spirits; in the next they clothe themselves in light, and although at first the radiant eyes of Justinian are seen, the first words addressed to him cause him to shine more brilliantly than before, and as the sun conceals himself by his own light, so the spirit conceals himself by the splendour which grows with his joy.[307] In the third heaven the spirits shine in the star of Venus like sparks seen in flame;[308] in the fourth they are called suns, and surpass the sun in brilliancy;[309] in the fifth they are compared with the Galaxy[310] and with shooting stars,[311] in the seventh and eighth with stars[312] and with spheres of light, turning on fixed poles and flaming like comets.[313] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [306] _Par._ viii. 52, 53. [307] _Par._ v. 136, 137. [308] _Par._ viii. 16. [309] _Par._ x. 76, 40-42. [310] _Par._ xiv. 97-101. [311] _Par._ xv. 13, 14. [312] _Par._ xxi. 32, 33; xxiii. 26, 27. [313] _Par._ xxii 23; xxiv. 11, 12. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ In like manner the swiftness of their motion increases in proportion to the clearness with which each beholds eternal truth.[314] The almost incredible speed with which Dante himself soars from sphere to sphere, and with which the spirits move—whether in coming towards him, impelled by Divine charity, in returning to the heaven of heavens, or in circling with one another in mystic dance—is frequently dwelt upon, and illustrated by many striking similes. The dance is always a circling or wheeling movement (“il giro,” “la rota,” _Par._ viii. 20 and 26; ix. 65). And besides this, individual spirits turn with a rapid motion, remaining on the same spot. Descending the celestial Ladder in the heaven of Saturn, step by step, they revolve:— ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [314] _Par._ viii. 20, 21; and xxviii. 100-102. “Vid’ io più fiamelle Di grado in grado scendere e girarsi, Ed ogni giro le facea più belle.”[315] [315] “Saw I many little flames From step to step descending and revolving, And every revolution made them fairer.” _Par._ xxi. 136-138. (_Longfellow_). Compare 80, 81 and 39; and _Par._ xxiv. 10, 11. ------------------------------------------------------------------------