“Siccome omai, per quello che detto è, puote vedere chi ha nobile ingegno, al quale è bello un poco di fatica lasciare.”[387] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [387] “For now, after what has already been said, the rest may be understood by whomsoever has a noble mind, to which it is well to leave a little labour.” (_Cf. Par._ x. 22-25). ------------------------------------------------------------------------ He draws attention to the interesting fact, which follows from the above, that in the course of a year (when the heaven of the sun has made a complete revolution and returned to the same place), every part of this globe on which we live has received an equal amount of daylight. And the essay ends in an apostrophe which recalls the reproof of Virgil to those who will not look up to the skies:[388] “O ineffabile Sapienza che a così ordinasti, quanto è povera la nostra mente a Te comprendere! E voi, a cui utilità e diletto io scrivo, in quanta cecità vivete, non levando gli occhi suso a queste cose, tenendoli fissi nel fango della vostra stoltezza.”[389] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [388] _Purg._ xiv. 148-151. [389] “O unspeakable Wisdom who hast thus ordained, how poor is our intellect to understand Thee! And you, for whose benefit and pleasure I am writing, in what blindness you live, not lifting up your eyes to these things, but keeping them fixed on the slough of your folly.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------ It is interesting to compare this passage with the parallel passages in Alfraganus and Ristoro. The astronomer is concise and clear; the monk is diffuse and apt to repeat himself; the poet is quaintly picturesque. Both the Italians evidently draw the main facts from the Arab, and all use the illustration of a mill-stone to explain the horizontal motion of the heavens at the pole: here are the three corresponding passages:— “Coelumque molæ trusatilis instar gyrum vertitur.”[390] “Lì si volgera il cielo attorno con tutte le sue stelle, in modo di macina.”[391] “Conviene che _Maria_ veggia ... esso sole ‘girare il mondo’ ... come una mola.”[392] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [390] “And the sky revolves like a mill-stone.” _El. Ast._ ch. vii. [391] “There the sky will revolve, with all its stars, mill-stone fashion.” _Comp. del Mondo._ I. xxiii. [392] “It follows that _Maria_ must see this sun ‘circling the world’ like a mill.” _Conv._ III. v. 142-147. ------------------------------------------------------------------------