heeds." "Surely, my Master," said I, "never yet saw I so clearly,
as I now discern there where my wit seemed deficient; for the
mid-circle of the supernal motion, which is called Equator in a
certain art,[4] and which always remains between the sun and the
winter, for the reason that thou tellest, from here departs
toward the north, while the Hebrews saw it toward the warm
region. But, if it please thee, willingly I would know how far we
have to go, for the hill rises higher than my eyes can rise." And
he to me, "This mountain is such, that ever at the beginning
below it is hard, and the higher one goes the less it hurts;
therefore when it shall seem so pleasant to thee that the going
up will be easy to thee as going down the current in a vessel,
then wilt thou be at the end of this path; there repose from toil
await: no more I answer, and this I know for true."

[1] A steeper inclination than that of an angle of forty-five
degrees.

[2] The North.

[3] The brightness of the sun is the reflection of the Divine
light.

[4] If the sun were in the sign of the Gemini instead of being in
Aries it would make the Zodiac ruddy still farther to the north.
In Purgatory the sun being seen from south of the equator is on
the left hand, while at Jerusalem, in the northern hemisphere, it
is seen on the right.

[5] Astronomy.