Page:Divine Comedy (Longfellow 1867) v1.djvu/86

66 And I: "My Master, clear enough proceeds

Thy reasoning, and full well distinguishes

This cavern and the people who possess it.

But tell me, those within the fat lagoon,

Whom the wind drives, and whom the rain doth beat,

And who encounter with such bitter tongues,

Wherefore are they inside of the red city

Not punished, if God has them in his wrath,

And if he has not, wherefore in such fashion?"

And unto me he said: "Why wanders so

Thine intellect from that which it is wont?

Or, sooth, thy mind where is it elsewhere looking?

Hast thou no recollection of those words

With which thine Ethics thoroughly discusses

The dispositions three, that Heaven abides not,—

Incontinence, and Malice, and insane

Bestiality? and how Incontinence

Less God offendeth, and less blame attracts?

If thou regardest this conclusion well,

And to thy mind recallest who they are

That up outside are undergoing penance,

Clearly wilt thou perceive why from these felons

They separated are, and why less wroth

Justice divine doth smite them with its hammer."