------------------------------------------------------------------------ [491] “Turned her eyes again towards heaven.” [492] “Beatrice gazed upwards, and I at her.” “si rivolse tutta disiante A quelle parte ove il mondo è più vivo,”[493] [493] “Turned again with yearning to that part where the world is most living.” _Par._ v. 86, 87. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ and swift as an arrow that strikes its mark before the cord has ceased to quiver, they ascend to the Second Heaven, of Mercury. To understand the above lines we must remember that the sun, as Dante told us in the introductory Canto,[494] is at the equinox, or near it, and therefore on the equator; also that the equator of a sphere, where motion is quickest, is its most living part.[495] Beatrice is therefore looking again at the sun. Some understand “quella parte”[496] to refer directly to the sun, “quegli ch’ è padre d’ogni mortal vita,”[497] some to the equinoctial point;[498] others think that the east is meant; others the Empyrean, in which is the true life of all the Universe. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [494] _Inf._ i. 38-40. [495] _Conv._ II. iv. 52-62. [496] “That part.” [497] “He who is father of all mortal life.” _Par._ xxii. 116; see also _De Mon._ I. ix. 6, 7. [498] See _Par._ x. 7-21. ------------------------------------------------------------------------