The ascent to the Empyrean, the tenth and last Heaven. Of this Heaven, Dante, Convito, II. 4, says: "This is the sovereign edifice of the world, in which the whole world is included, and outside of which nothing is. And it is not in space, but was formed solely in the primal Mind, which the Greeks call Protonope. This is that magnificence of which the Psalmist spake, when he says to God, 'Thy magnificence is exalted above the heavens.'"
Milton, Par. Lost, III. 56 :--
"Now had the Almighty Father from above,
From the pure empyrean where he sits
High throned above all highth, bent down his eye
His own works and their works at once to view.
About him all the sanctities of heaven
Stood thick as stars, and from his sight received
Beatitude past utterance."
The sixth hour is noon, and when noon is some six thousand miles away from us, the dawn is approaching, the shadow of the earth lies almost on a plane with it, and gradually the stars disappear.
The nine circles of Angels, described in Canto XXVIII.
From the Crystalline Heaven to he Empyrean. Dante, Convito, II.15, makes the Empyrean the symbol of Theology; the Divine Science: "The Empyrean Heaven, by its peace, resembles the Divine Science, which is full of all peace; and which suffers no strife of opinions or sophistical arguments, because of the exceeding certitude of its subject, which is God. And of this he says to his disciples, 'My peace I give unto you; my peace I leave you;' giving and leaving them his doctrine, which is this science of which I speak. Of this Solomon says: 'There are threescore queens, and fourscore concubines, and virgins without number; my dove, my undefiled, is but one.' All sciences he calls queens and paramours and virgins; and this he calls a dove, because it is without blemish of strife; and this he calls perfect, because it makes us perfectly to see the truth in which our soul has rest."
Philippians iv. 7 : -- "The peace of God, which passeth all understanding."
The Angels and the souls of the saints.
The Angels will be seen in the same aspect after the last judgment as before; but the souls of the saints will wear "the twofold garments," spoken of in Canto XXV. 92, the spiritual body, and the glorified earthly body.
Daniel vii. 10: " A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him." And Revelation xxii. I : "And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb."
The sparks are Angels, and the flowers the souls of the blessed.
For the mystic virtues of the ruby, see Canto IX. Note 69. Psyche of his philosophic romance. The soul, by evil influences, had become imprisoned in matter. By her the Deity had created the angels: the angels, enamoured of her, had inextricably en-tangled her in that polluting bondage, in order to prevent her return to heaven. To fly from their embraces she had passed from body to body. Connecting this fiction with the Grecian mythology, she was Minerva, or impersonated Wisdom; perhaps, also, Helena, or embodied Beauty."
Pope Boniface VIII., a native of Alagna, now Anagni. See Inf., XIX. Note 53, and Purg. XX. Note 87.
Dante has already his punishment prepared. He is to be thrust head downward into a narrow hole in the rock of Malebolge, and to be driven down still lower when Clement V. shall follow him.