"At the last audit, so The blest shall rise, from forth his cavern each Uplifting lightly his new-vested flesh; As, on the sacred litter, at the voice Authoritative of that elder, sprang A hundred ministers and messengers Of life eternal. 'Blessed thou, who comest!' And, 'Oh!' they cried, 'from full hands scatter ye Unwithering lilies:' and, so saying, cast Flowers over head and round them on all sides. "I have beheld, ere now, at break of day, The eastern clime all roseate; and the sky Opposed, one deep and beautiful serene; And the sun's face so shaded, and with mists Attempered, at his rising, that the eye Long while endured the sight: thus, in a cloud Of flowers, that from those hands angelic rose, And down within and outside of the car Fell showering, in white veil with olive wreathed, A virgin in my view appeared, beneath Green mantle, robed in hue of living flame. And o'er my spirit, that so long a time Had from her presence felt no shuddering dread, Albeit mine eyes discerned her not, there moved A hidden virtue from her, at whose touch The power of ancient love was strong within me." After Beatrice has rebuked Dante for his wayward conduct in life, and he repents in bitter tears, he is led by Matilda to the streams of Lethe and Eunoe, and bathing therein, is made "pure and apt for mounting to the stars." As we have already seen, the paradise of Dante is composed of nine spheres enclosed by the Empyrean, which itself is boundless, and is the seat of the Godhead, surrounded by the celestial hierarchy of seraphim, cherubim, thrones, dominions, virtues, powers, principalities, archangels, and angels. The blessed are here arranged on seats in the form of a rose, surrounding a lake of liquid light, in which they, gazing, see all the fulness of the glory of God. These souls, however, by a mystical virtue of ubiquity, are likewise seen by Dante in the various heavens through which he, with Beatrice, passes, and manifest themselves to him in various forms of light, flames, flashes, sparkles, or shapes made of fiery particles. The souls of the blessed, which are thus distributed over the nine heavens, have varying degrees of felicity. Thus, in the first heaven--that of the moon--Piccarda, sister of Corso Donati, appears to Dante, faint and dim in that tenuous atmosphere, as a "pearl set on a white forehead," and tells him how, having been forced by her brother to break her vows as a nun, and not having shown tenacity of purpose in opposing his tyranny, she now occupies the lowest sphere of Paradise. Yet this she does with perfect content and happiness, since such is the will of God, for, she says, to quote that one incomparable line, as Matthew Arnold calls it: "In la sua voluntade è nostra pace." (In His will is our peace.)