------------------------------------------------------------------------ [347] “One is the slowness of its movement through the twelve signs; for twenty-nine years and more, according to the writings of the astrologers, are required for its revolution: the other is that it is high above all other planets.” _Conv._ II. xiv. 226-231. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ In the _Paradiso_ Saturn is called a Mirror,[348] a Crystal,[349] a splendour;[350] his circling motion is alluded to, and his position at the time in the zodiac:— ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [348] _Par._ xxi. 18. [349] _Par._ xxi. 25. [350] _Par._ xxi. 13. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ “Cerchiando il mondo.”[351] “Sotto il petto del Leone ardente.”[352] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [351] “Circling the world.” _Par._ xxi. 26. [352] “Beneath the burning Lion’s breast.” _Par._ xxi. 14. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Some of the most beautiful similes in the _Divine Comedy_ are drawn from the planets. The angel-pilot of Purgatory, when first seen far off over the sea, is likened to the planet Mars, glowing red through morning mists, low in the west above the ocean floor;[353] and the angel that welcomes the poet to the second circle on the Mountain is beautiful as the Morning Star. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [353] _Purg._ ii. 13-15. “A noi venia la creatura bella, Bianco vestita, e nella faccia quale Par tremolando mattutina stella.”[354] [354] “Towards us came the being beautiful, Vested in white, and in his countenance Such as appears the tremulous morning star.” _Purg._ xii. 88-90. (_Longfellow_). ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Although any of the planets when rising just before the sun may be called a morning star, Venus is probably intended here, as also where St. Bernard, in his devotion to the Virgin, is compared with the Morning Star which takes its beauty from the sun:— “Colui ch’abbelliva di Maria, Come del sole stella mattutina.”[355] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [355] “He who drew beauty from Mary, as the Morning Star does from the Sun.” _Par._ xxxii. 107, 108. ------------------------------------------------------------------------