LVII.

FIRST READING.

_CARNAL AND SPIRITUAL LOVE._

_Passa per gli occhi._

Swift through the eyes unto the heart within All lovely forms that thrall our spirit stray; So smooth and broad and open is the way That thousands and not hundreds enter in. Burdened with scruples and weighed down with sin, These mortal beauties fill me with dismay; Nor find I one that doth not strive to stay My soul on transient joy, or lets me win The heaven I yearn for. Lo, when erring love-- Who fills the world, howe'er his power we shun, Else were the world a grave and we undone-- Assails the soul, if grace refuse to fan Our purged desires and make them soar above, What grief it were to have been born a man!