Beatrice upward gaz’d, and I on her, And in such space as on the notch a dart Is plac’d, then loosen’d flies, I saw myself Arriv’d, where wond’rous thing engag’d my sight. Whence she, to whom no work of mine was hid, Turning to me, with aspect glad as fair, Bespake me: “Gratefully direct thy mind To God, through whom to this first star we come.” Me seem’d as if a cloud had cover’d us, Translucent, solid, firm, and polish’d bright, Like adamant, which the sun’s beam had smit Within itself the ever-during pearl Receiv’d us, as the wave a ray of light Receives, and rests unbroken. If I then Was of corporeal frame, and it transcend Our weaker thought, how one dimension thus Another could endure, which needs must be If body enter body, how much more Must the desire inflame us to behold That essence, which discovers by what means God and our nature join’d! There will be seen That which we hold through faith, not shown by proof, But in itself intelligibly plain, E’en as the truth that man at first believes. I answered: “Lady! I with thoughts devout, Such as I best can frame, give thanks to Him, Who hath remov’d me from the mortal world. But tell, I pray thee, whence the gloomy spots Upon this body, which below on earth Give rise to talk of Cain in fabling quaint?” She somewhat smil’d, then spake: “If mortals err In their opinion, when the key of sense Unlocks not, surely wonder’s weapon keen Ought not to pierce thee; since thou find’st, the wings Of reason to pursue the senses’ flight Are short. But what thy own thought is, declare.” Then I: “What various here above appears, Is caus’d, I deem, by bodies dense or rare.”