No other intimation is given as to the direction from which the Procession comes. The sun’s daily motion appears slowest on the meridian, as Dante remarked in _Purg._ xxxiii. 103, 104, because he is scarcely changing his position with regard to the horizon; or in the south (where we in this hemisphere see him when on the meridian); he shows least haste to leave us in the long summer days, near the solstice. If the Procession descends from the heaven of heavens to show itself here symbolically to Dante, as we know that the spirits in other heavens did,[501] then Beatrice was gazing upwards, and the meridian may be meant, particularly that part of it which passes directly overhead. If the Procession came from the east, like the Procession in Eden,[502] the summer solstice in Cancer is meant, which lies east of Gemini. It is difficult to see any special meaning in its coming from the south, for although some commentators say that this suggests the consummate glory of the midday sun, the same idea is conveyed by the meridian. A constellation like Cancer perhaps corresponds better than a circle like the meridian with the expression “plaga,”[503] and the idea of the east makes more perfect the beautiful simile which the poet has just drawn between the little bird on the spray beside its nest waiting for the sun to rise, and Beatrice watching for the advent of Him who is likened to a sun among the starry company of His saints.[504] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [501] See _Par._ iv. 34-39. [502] _Purg._ xxix. 12 and 34. [503] “Region.” [504] _Par._ xxiii. 29, 30. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration: Fig. 48. Dante’s first view of Earth from the Stars. _Par._ xxii. (see p. 397).] When this glorious company has at length vanished, she bids him look down once more, this time that he may realise how he has been revolving with the spheres, the little earth lying immoveable at his feet. He looks down, and notes what parts of Earth are lighted by the sun, and what parts are wrapped in darkness, for now he is able to see what he had often imagined, the shadow of night sweeping westward over the globe. The Atlantic Ocean, where Ulysses sailed beyond Gades, is all in daylight, and so is the Mediterranean, but the sun is setting over Jerusalem, for he says that its position prevents him from seeing beyond the coast whence Europa was carried (_i.e._ Phœnicia or Palestine). It must therefore be midday at Gades, and the sun is on the meridian there; it is “a sign and more,” or something between 30° and 60°, advanced to the west beyond the meridian over which Dante stands.