And as a little child, that towards its mother Extends its arms, when it the milk has taken, Through impulse kindled into outward flame, Each of those gleams of white did upward stretch So with its summit, that the deep affection They had for Mary was revealed to me. Thereafter they remained there in my sight, _Regina coeli_ singing with such sweetness, [132] That ne'er from me has the delight departed. Oh, what exuberance is garnered up In those resplendent coffers, which had been For sowing here below good husbandmen! There they enjoy and live upon the treasure [137] Which was acquired while weeping in the exile Of Babylon, wherein the gold was left. There triumpheth beneath the exalted Son Of God and Mary, in his victory, Both with the ancient council and the new, He who doth keep the keys of such a glory. [143] [Line 1: Dante is with Beatrice in the eighth circle, that of the fixed stars. She is gazing upwards, watching for the descent of the Triumph of Christ.] [Line 12: Under the meridian, or at noon, the shadows being shorter move slower, and, therefore the sun seems less in haste.] [Line 21: By the beneficent influences of the stars.] [Line 29: The old belief that the stars were fed by the light of the sun. So Milton,-- "Hither, as to their fountain, other stars Repair, and in their golden urns draw light." Here the stars are souls, the sun is Christ.] [Line 45: Beatrice speaks.] [Line 55: The Muse of harmony and singing.] [Line 72: The rose is the Virgin Mary, _Rosa Mundi, Rosa Mystica_; the lilies are the Apostles and other saints.] [Line 78: The struggle between his eyes and the light.] [Line 89: Christ reascends, that Dante's dazzled eyes, too feeble to bear the light of his presence, may behold the splendors around him. The greater fire is the Virgin Mary, greater than any of those remaining. She is the living star, surpassing in brightness all other souls in heaven, as she did here on earth: _Stella Maris, Stella Matutina_.] [Line 98: The Angel Gabriel, or Angelic Love.] [Line 106: Sapphire is the color in which the old painters arrayed the Virgin.] [Line 116: The regal mantle of all the volumes, or rolling orbs, of the world is the crystalline heaven, or _Primus Mobile_, which infolds all the others like a mantle.] [Line 132: Easter hymn to the Virgin.] [Line 137: Caring not for gold in the Babylonian exile of this life, they laid up treasures in the other.] [Line 143: St. Peter, keeper of the keys, with the holy men of the Old and the New Testament.] CANTO XXIV.