Till the remotest leaves we were approaching, Did recommence once more: "The Grace that lords it Over thy intellect thy mouth has opened, Up to this point, as it should opened be, So that I do approve what forth emerged; But now thou must express what thou believest, And whence to thy belief it was presented." "O holy father! O thou spirit, who seest What thou believedst, so that thou o'ercamest, Towards the sepulchre, more youthful feet," [126] Began I, "thou dost wish me to declare Forthwith the manner of my prompt belief, And likewise thou the cause thereof demandest. And I respond: In one God I believe, Sole and eterne, who all the heaven doth move, Himself unmoved, with love and with desire; And of such faith not only have I proofs Physical and metaphysical, but gives them Likewise the truth that from this place rains down Through Moses, through the Prophets and the Psalms, Through the Evangel, and through you, who wrote After the fiery Spirit sanctified you; [138] In Persons three eterne believe I, and these One essence I believe, so one and trine, They bear conjunction both with _sunt_ and _est_. With the profound conjunction and divine, Which now I touch upon, doth stamp my mind Ofttimes the doctrine evangelical. This the beginning is, this is the spark Which afterwards dilates to vivid flame, And, like a star in heaven, is sparkling in me." Even as a lord, who hears what pleases him, His servant straight embraces, giving thanks For the good news, as soon as he is silent; So, giving me its benediction, singing, Three times encircled me, when I was silent, The apostolic light, at whose command I spoken had, in speaking I so pleased him. [Line 1: Beatrice speaks.] [Line 7: Hunger and thirst after things divine.] [Line 9: The grace of God.] [Line 16: The carol was a dance as well as a song.] [Line 22: St. Peter thrice encircles Beatrice, as the Angel Gabriel did the Virgin Mary in the preceding canto.] [Line 27: Too glaring for painting such delicate draperies of song.] [Line 28: St. Peter speaks to Beatrice.] [Line 42: Fixed upon God, in whom all things reflected.] [Line 52: St. Peter speaks to Dante.] [Line 59: The great Head of the Church.] [Line 66: In the Scholastic Philosophy, the essence of a thing, distinguishing it from all other things, was called its _quiddity_: an answer to the question, _Quid est?_] [Line 93: The Old and New Testaments.] [Line 115: In the Middle Ages earthly titles were sometimes given to the saints. Thus, Boccaccio speaks of _Baron Messer San Antonio_.] [Line 126: St. John, xx. 3-8. St. John was the first to reach the sepulchre, but St. Peter the first to enter it.] [Line 138: St. Peter and the other Apostles after Pentecost.] CANTO XXV.