Page:Divine Comedy (Longfellow 1867) v1.djvu/42

22 Great grief seized on my heart when this I heard,

Because some people of much worthiness

I knew, who in that Limbo were suspended.

"Tell me, my Master, tell me, thou my Lord,"

Began I, with desire of being certain

Of that Faith which o'ercometh every error,

"Came any one by his own merit hence,

Or by another's, who was blessed thereafter?"

And he, who understood my covert speech,

Replied: "I was a novice in this state,

When I saw hither come a Mighty One,

With sign of victory incoronate.

Hence he drew forth the shade of the First Parent,

And that of his son Abel, and of Noah,

Of Moses the lawgiver, and the obedient

Abraham, patriarch, and David, king,

Israel with his father and his children,

And Rachel, for whose sake he did so much,

And others many, and he made them blessed;

And thou must know, that earlier than these

Never were any human spirits saved."

We ceased not to advance because he spake,

But still were passing onward through the forest,

The forest, say I, of thick-crowded ghosts.