Sweet star! what glorious and thick-studded gems Declar'd to me our justice on the earth To be the effluence of that heav'n, which thou, Thyself a costly jewel, dost inlay! Therefore I pray the Sovran Mind, from whom Thy motion and thy virtue are begun, That he would look from whence the fog doth rise, To vitiate thy beam: so that once more He may put forth his hand 'gainst such, as drive Their traffic in that sanctuary, whose walls With miracles and martyrdoms were built. Ye host of heaven! whose glory I survey! O beg ye grace for those, that are on earth All after ill example gone astray. War once had for its instrument the sword: But now 't is made, taking the bread away Which the good Father locks from none. --And thou, That writes but to cancel, think, that they, Who for the vineyard, which thou wastest, died, Peter and Paul live yet, and mark thy doings. Thou hast good cause to cry, "My heart so cleaves To him, that liv'd in solitude remote, And from the wilds was dragg'd to martyrdom, I wist not of the fisherman nor Paul." CANTO XIX Before my sight appear'd, with open wings, The beauteous image, in fruition sweet Gladdening the thronged spirits. Each did seem A little ruby, whereon so intense The sun-beam glow'd that to mine eyes it came In clear refraction. And that, which next Befalls me to portray, voice hath not utter'd, Nor hath ink written, nor in fantasy Was e'er conceiv'd. For I beheld and heard The beak discourse; and, what intention form'd Of many, singly as of one express, Beginning: "For that I was just and piteous, l am exalted to this height of glory, The which no wish exceeds: and there on earth Have I my memory left, e'en by the bad Commended, while they leave its course untrod."