_Se Dio ci dà la vita._


God gives us life, and God our life preserves;
Nay, all our happiness on Him doth rest:
Why then should love of God inflame man's breast
Less than his lady and the lord he serves?
Through mean and wanton ignorance he swerves,
And worships a false Good, divinely dressed;
Love cannot soar to what it never guessed,
But stoops its flight, and the thralled soul unnerves.
Here too is man deceived. He yields his own
To spend on others. Yet in vile delight
God's splendour still shines through love's earthliness.
But we embrace the loss, the lure alone
Love fools us with. That glimpse of heavenly light,
That foretaste of eternal Good, we miss.



XI.

_THE PHILOSOPHER._

_Gran fortuna è 'l saper._


Wisdom is riches great and great estate,
Far above wealth; nor are the wise unblest