And bear in mind, whene’er thou writest them, Not to conceal what thou hast seen the plant, That twice already has been pillaged here. 1184 Whoever pillages or shatters it, With blasphemy of deed offendeth God, Who made it holy for his use alone. For biting that, in pain and in desire 1185 Five thousand years and more the first-born soul Craved Him, who punished in himself the bite. Thy genius slumbers, if it deem it not For special reason so pre-eminent In height, and so inverted in its summit. 1186 And if thy vain imaginings had not been Water of Elsa round about thy mind, 1187 And Pyramus to the mulberry, their pleasure, 1188 Thou by so many circumstances only The justice of the interdict of God Morally in the tree wouldst recognize. But since I see thee in thine intellect