Now we were mounting up over the holy stairs, and it seemed to me I was far more light than I had seemed on the plain before. Whereon I, “Master, say, what heavy thing has been lifted from me, so that almost no weariness is felt by me as I go on?” He answered, “When the P’s that almost extinct[1] still remain on thy countenance shall be, as one is, quite erased, thy feet will be so conquered by good will that not only they will not feel fatigue, but it will be delight to them to be urged up.” Then I did like those who are going with something on their head, unknown by them unless the signs of others make them suspect; wherefore the hand assists to ascertain, and seeks and finds, and performs that office which cannot be accomplished by the sight; and with the fingers of my right hand outspread, I found only six those letters which he of the keys had encised upon my temples: looking at which my Leader smiled. [1] Almost extinct, because, as St. Thomas Aquinas says, “Pride by which we are chiefly turned from God is the first and the origin of all sins.” He adds, “Pride is said to be the beginning of every sin, not because every single sin has its source in pride, but because every kind of sin is born of pride.” Summa Theol., II. 2, quaest. 162, art. 7. CANTO XIII. Second Ledge the Envious.—Examples of Love.—The Shades in haircloth, and with sealed eyes.—Sapia of Siena. We were at the top of the stairway, where the mountain, ascent of which frees one from ill, is the second time cut back. There a cornice binds the hill round about, in like manner as the first, except that its arc bends more quickly. No shadow is there, nor mark which is apparent[1] so that the bank appears smooth and so the path, with the livid color of the stone. [1] No sculptured or engraved scenes. “If to enquire one waits here for people,” said the Poet, “I fear that perhaps our choice will have too much delay.” Then he set his eyes fixedly upon the sun, made of his right side the centre for his movement, and turned the left part of himself. “O sweet light, with confidence in which I enter on the new road, do thou lead us on it,” he said, “as there is need for leading here within. Thou warmest the world, thou shinest upon it; if other reason prompt not to the contrary, thy rays ought ever to be guides.”