in which he likened the rule
of his order to a ladder having twelve rungs by means of which the
mystic might mount to Heaven. The second rung in that ladder is silence.
If Dante was familiar with the Benedictine treatise, the significance of
silence in Saturn is at once suggested. The figure of a ladder is a very
common one in mystical theology, which borrows the conception from the
experience of Jacob (Gen. XXVIII, 12). "And he saw in his sleep a ladder
standing upon the earth and the top thereof touching heaven, the angels
also of God ascending and descending." To symbolize the truth that
Heaven is to be reached through the Church by means of the contemplation
of eternal things Dante now shows us the Golden Ladder, down which gleam
so many radiant spirits that it seems as if all the stars of Heaven are
approaching.

"Colored like gold, on which the sunshine gleams,
A stairway I beheld to such a height
Uplifted, that mine eye pursued it not.
Likewise beheld I down the steps descending
So many splendors, that I thought each light
That in the heaven appears was there diffused."
(XXI, 28.)

In the Heaven of the Fixed Stars the triumph of Christ gladdens the
wondering eyes of the poet:

"Behold the hosts of Christ's triumphal march and all the fruit
harvested by the rolling of these spheres."

At these words of Beatrice Dante turns and beholds all the saints seen
in the other spheres and many other spirits gathered round the God-man
to praise Him for the Redemption and Atonement. Christ here reveals
Himself in the form of a gorgeous Sun surrounded by those countless
spirits, appearing as lights or flowers. Apparently the poet gets just
a momentary glimpse of the glorified humanity of the Saviour. The direct
rays of the divine splendor cannot long be endured, so, in condescension
to Dante's weakness of vision, a cloudy screen permits the poet to
sustain the Vision now irradiating its light on the living, spiritual
flowers.

"Saw I, above the myriad of lamps,
A sun that one and all of them enkindled,
E'en as our own doth the supernal sights,
And through the living light transparent shone
The lucent substance so intensely clear
Into my sight, that I sustained it not.
'O Beatrice, thou gentle guide and dear!'
To me she said: 'What overmasters thee
A virtue is from which naught shields itself.
There are the wisdom and the omnipotence
That ope the thoroughfares 'twixt heave