Download The Divine Comedy, Paradiso Study Guide
"And In His Will Is Our Tranquility"
(Magill's Quotations in Context)
Context: Dante, having been met in Purgatory by Beatrice, his celestial guide, has now ascended into the heavens. The first Heaven is the moon, "translucent, solid, firm, and polish'd bright,/Like adamant, which the sun's beam had smit." She explains the reasons for the shadows as "From its original nature full of joy,/ The virtue mingled through the body shines,/ As joy through pupil of the living eye./ From hence proceeds that which from light to light/ Seems different, and not from dense or rare./ This is the formal cause, that generates/ Proportion'd to its power, the dusk or clear." From ancient times the...
(The entire section is 215 words.)