• The Angels will be seen in the same aspect after the last judgment as before; but the souls of the saints will wear “the twofold garments,” spoken of in Canto XXV 92, the spiritual body, and the glorified earthly body. ↩
• Daniel 7:10:⁠— “A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him.” And Revelation 22:1:⁠— “And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.” ↩
• The sparks are Angels, and the flowers the souls of the blessed. ↩
• For the mystic virtues of the ruby, see note 658 . ↩
• For the mystic virtues of the topaz, see note 1584 . ↩
• “By the length,” says Venturi, “was represented the outpouring of God upon his creatures; by the roundness, the return of this outpouring to God, as to its first source and ultimate end.” ↩
• Dante repeats the word vidi , I saw, three times, as a rhyme, to express the intenseness of his vision. ↩
• Buti thinks that this light is the Holy Ghost; Philalethes, that it is the Logos, or second person of the Trinity; Tommaseo, that it is Illuminating Grace. ↩