“How sweet to stand, when tempests tear the main, On the firm cliff, and mark the seaman’s toil! Not that another’s danger soothes the soul, But from such toil how sweet to feel secure! How sweet, at distance from the strife, to view Contending hosts, and hear the clash of war! But sweeter far on Wisdom’s heights serene, Upheld by Truth, to fix our firm abode; To watch the giddy crowd that, deep below, Forever wander in pursuit of bliss; To mark the strife for honors and renown, For wit and wealth, insatiate, ceaseless urged Day after day, with labor unrestrained.”

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Thomas Aquinas. ↩

The spirits see the thoughts of men in God, as in Canto VIII 87:⁠—