HOW SHARING CAUSES INCREASE - DANTE'S THE PURGATORIO
It is because you focus on the prize
of worldly goods, which every sharing lessens
that Envy pumps the bellows for your sighs.
But if, in true love for the Highest Sphere,
your longing were turned upward, then your hearts
would never be consumed by such a fear;
for the more there are there who say 'ours'-not 'mine'-
by that much is each richer, and the brighter
within that cloister burns the Love Divine."
"I am left hungrier being thus fed,
and my mind is more in doubt being thus answered,
than if I had not asked at all," I said.
"How can each one of many who divide
a single good have more of it, so shared
than if a few had kept it?" He replied:
"Because within the habit of mankind
you set your whole intent on earthly things,
the true light falls as darkness on your mind.
The infinite and inexpressible Grace
which is in Heaven, gives itself to Love
as a sunbeam gives itself to a bright surface.
As much light as it finds there, it bestows;
thus, as the blaze of Love is spread more widely,
the greater the Eternal Glory grows.
As mirror reflects mirror, so, above,
the more there are who join their souls, the more
Love learns perfection, and the more they love.
from The Purgatorio of Dante Alighieri, translated by John Ciardi,
published by The New American Library, Inc, 1961
Canto XV, lines 49 - 75
