lorence my town thou shalt perchance behold,
Which bars me from itself,
Devoid of love and naked of compassion."]

[Line 9: This allusion to the Church of San Giovanni, "_il mio bel San
Giovanni_," as Dante calls it elsewhere, (Inf. xix. 17,) is a fitting
prelude to the Canto in which St. John is to appear. Like the "laughing
of the grass" in Canto xxx. 77, it is a "foreshadowing preface,"
_ombrifero prefazio_, of what follows.

See Canto xxiv. 150;

"So, giving me its benediction, singing,
Three times encircled me, when I was silent,
The apostolic light."]

[Line 14: St. Peter. "That we should be a kind of first-fruits of his
creatures." Epistle of St. James, i. 18.]

[Line 18: St. James. Pilgrimages are made to his tomb at Compostella in
Galicia.]

[Line 30: The General Epistle of St. James, called the _Epistola
Cattolica_, i. 17. "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from
above, and cometh down from the Father of lights." Our Basilica:
Paradise: the Church Triumphant.]

[Line 33: Peter, James, and John, representing the three theological
virtues, Faith, Hope, and Charity, and distinguished above the other
apostles by clearer manifestations of their Master's favor.]

[Line 34: St. James speaks.]

[Line 37: The three Apostles, luminous above him, overwhelming him with
light.]

[Line 38: "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh
my help." Psalm cxxi. 1.]

[Line 42: The most august spirits of the Celestial City.]

[Line 49: Beatrice.]

[Line 54: In God,

"Where everything beholds itself depicted."

Canto xxiv. 42.]

[Line 56: To come from earth to heaven.]

[Line 58: "Say what it is," and "whence it came to thee."]

[Line 67: "_Est spes certa expectatio futurae beatitudinis, veniens ex
Dei gratia et meritis praecedentibus_." Petrus Lombardus, _Magister
Sententiarum_.]

[Line 72: The Psalmist David.]

[Line 74: The Book of Psalms, or Songs of God.]

[Line 75: "And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee."
Psalm ix. 10.]

[Line 78: Your rain: that is, of David and yourself.]

[Line 89: "The mark of the high calling and election sure."]

[Line 92: The twofold garments are the glorified spirit and the
glorified body.]

[Line 95: St. John, in the Apocalypse, vii. 9. "A great multitude which
no man could number ... clothed with white robes."]

[Line 99: Dances and songs commingled; the circling choirs, the
celestial chorist