Hell was entered at twilight, Purgatory at dawn, the ascent to Paradise is made at noon, “il colmo del dì.”[487] The time spent in Purgatory is three days and the morning of a fourth, which is the seventh from the beginning of the vision. [487] “The climax of the day.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4. PARADISE. That the time of ascent to the spheres was noon is again stated in the opening Canto of the _Paradiso_, where Dante says that the sun had brought morning there (Purgatory) and evening here (the inhabited hemisphere), and that now the whole of that hemisphere was bright while the whole of this was dark.[488] The sun is therefore now due north. While Beatrice stood beside the waters of Eunoe, after walking towards the sun, it had moved to her left, so she now turns in that direction to gaze upon it.[489] She, like Virgil, takes as her guide that sun which Dante has said is the fittest symbol of God, and it is through the power of this heavenly light that he is raised from earth. Compare [488] It has been suggested to read the line _Par._ i. 44. “Tal foce; e quasi tutto là era bianco,” transferring the “quasi” (almost) so that the meaning should be “almost was wholly white that hemisphere,” and to interpret that it is now morning of the day following the events in the last Canto of the _Purgatorio_. But if so, Dante would have spent a whole night in the Earthly Paradise without mentioning it, or explaining this long delay after he had become “pure and ready to rise to the stars.” (For the meaning of “foce,” the “passage,” see later, p. 400). ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [489] _Par._ i. 46, 47. “Amor che il ciel governi ... _col tuo lume_ mi levasti.”[490] [490] “Love that rules the heavens, _with thy light_ Thou didst raise me.” _Par._ i. 74, 75. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ He is not conscious of any effort, or even movement, but is astonished by a great light and strange music, and learns that he is in the sphere of fire and listening to the harmony of the spheres. His soul, freed from all that bound it to earth, is soaring towards its natural goal, as fire mounts up and rivers run down. The upward gaze to the sun or to the skies, and its power to raise them, is again described in _Par._ i. 142: Beatrice “rivolse inver lo cielo il viso,”[491] and in ii. 22, “Beatrice in suso ed io in lei guardava.”[492] Thus they rise to the First Heaven, of the moon. In answer to an eager question of Dante’s about the markings of the moon, Beatrice is led to discourse on the spheres and their movers. Spirits appear, and Dante learns that although all the redeemed dwell in the Empyrean, those of different degrees of blessedness will manifest themselves to him in each sphere. After explaining this and other things, Beatrice once more