diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 16978-8.txt | 6689 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 16978-8.zip | bin | 0 -> 149451 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 16978-h.zip | bin | 0 -> 160909 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 16978-h/16978-h.htm | 6980 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 16978.txt | 6689 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 16978.zip | bin | 0 -> 149441 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 |
9 files changed, 20374 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/16978-8.txt b/16978-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b38a528 --- /dev/null +++ b/16978-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6689 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Dante: "The Central Man of All the World", by +John T. Slattery, et al + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Dante: "The Central Man of All the World" + A Course of Lectures Delivered Before the Student Body of the New York State College for Teachers, Albany, 1919, 1920 + + +Author: John T. Slattery + + + +Release Date: November 1, 2005 [eBook #16978] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DANTE: "THE CENTRAL MAN OF ALL THE +WORLD"*** + + +E-text prepared by David Garcia, Bethanne M. Simms, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net/) + + + +DANTE: "THE CENTRAL MAN OF ALL THE WORLD." + +A Course of Lectures Delivered Before the Student Body of the +New York State College for Teachers, Albany, 1919, 1920 + +by + +JOHN T. SLATTERY, Ph.D. + +With a Preface by John H. Finley, L.H.D. + + + + + + + +New York +P. J. Kenedy & Sons +1920 +Copyright, 1920, by +P. J. Kenedy & Sons, New York +Printed in U.S.A. + + + + + +DEDICATION + +THIS MODEST WORK OWES ITS +PUBLICATION TO THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF + +PRESIDENT ABRAM R. BRUBACHER + +AND + +DEAN HARLAN H. HORNER + +OF THE STATE COLLEGE FOR TEACHERS, ALBANY, N.Y. + + WHERE MANY PLEASANT HOURS WERE PASSED IN + DELIVERING THESE LECTURES. TO THESE FRIENDS + AND TO THE STUDENT-BODY OF THE COLLEGE THE + AUTHOR HAS THE HONOR OF DEDICATING THIS BOOK + + + + + +PREFACE + + +I stand as does the reader at the entrance to this book which I have not +as yet entered myself. I have before me the journey through the Inferno +and Purgatorio, into Paradise, with a new companion. I have made the +journey before many times with others, or with Dante and Virgil alone, +but I know that I shall enjoy especially the companionship and comment +of one with whom I have had such satisfaction of comradeship in our +journey as neighbors for a little way across this earth. I invite +others, and I hope they may be many, to make this brief journey with +us, not because I know specifically what Dr. Slattery will say along +the way, but because whatever he says out of his deep and reverent +acquaintance with the Divine Comedy will help us all who follow him, +whether we are of his particular faith or not, to an appreciation of +the meaning of this immortal poem, and make us desire to go again and +again in our reading through these spaces of the struggles of human souls. + +A world-literary-movement will commemorate in 1921 the six hundredth +anniversary of the death of the immortal Dante. That a medievalist +should call forth the homage of the twentieth century to the extent of +being honored in all civilized lands and by cultured peoples who, for +the most part, do not know the language spoken by him, or who do not +profess the religion of him who wrote the most religious book of +Christianity, is a marvel explainable by the fact that the Divine Comedy +is a drama of the soul,--the story of a struggle which every man must +make to possess his own spirit against forces that would enslave it. The +central interest of the poem is in the individual who may be you or I +instead of Dante the subject of the work, and that fact exalts the +personal element and gives the spiritual value which we of modern times +appreciate as well as did the thirteenth century. + +The Divine Comedy is attractive for other reasons. It may appeal to us +as it did to Tennyson, because of "its divine intensity," or it may +affect us as it did Charles Eliot Norton by "its powerful exposition of +moral penalties and rewards," showing that righteousness is inexorable; +or it may interest us because of its solid realism, its pure strength of +conception, its surpassing beauty, its vivid imaginative power, its +perfection of diction "without superfluousness, without defect." +Whatever be the reason of our interest in Dante, the study of his Divine +Comedy will ever be both a discipline "not so much to elevate our +thoughts," says Coleridge, "as to send them down deeper," and a delight +calling forth the deepest emotions of our being. + +JOHN H. FINLEY. + + + + +CONTENTS + + PAGE + + Dante and His Time 1 + + Dante, The Man 49 + + Dante's Inferno 101 + + Dante's Purgatorio 151 + + Dante's Paradiso 219 + + + + + +DANTE AND HIS TIME + + + + +DANTE AND HIS TIME + + +To know Dante we must know the age which produced Christianity's +greatest poet, he whom Ruskin calls "the central man of all the world, +as representing in perfect balance the imaginative, moral and +intellectual faculties, all at their highest." Other writers are not so +dependent upon their times for our clear understanding of their books. +Dante to be intelligible to the modern mind, cannot be taken out of the +thirteenth century. "Its contemporary history and its contemporary +spirit" says Brother Azarias in his Phases of Thought and Criticism, +"constitute his clearest and best commentary." Only in the light of this +commentary can we hope to know his message and realize its supremacy. +And that it is worth while to make the study there can be no doubt upon +the part of any seeker of truth and admirer of beauty. + +Emerson said: "I think if I were a professor of rhetoric I should use +Dante for my text-book. Dante is the rhetorician. He is all wings, pure +imagination and he writes like Euclid." James Russell Lowell told his +students in answer to the question as to the best course of reading to +be followed: "If I may be allowed a personal illustration, it was my +own profound admiration for the Divina Commedia of Dante that lured me +into what little learning I possess." Gladstone declared: "In the school +of Dante I learned a great part of that mental provision ... which has +served me to make the journey of human life." It surely must be of +inestimable advantage to sit under the instruction of one of the race's +master teachers who stimulates one to lofty thinking and deep feeling, +leads one into realms of wider knowledge and helps one to know his own +age by revealing a mighty past. + +To see that mighty past, to live again with Dante in the thirteenth +century is possible only after we have cleared the way with which +ignorance and misrepresentation have encumbered the approach. Here, +perhaps, more than in any other period of civilization is the dictum +true that history is often a conspiracy against the truth. We moderns +who are not only obsessed with the theory of evolution, but are +dominated by the idea that nothing of permanent value can come from +medievalism, arrogantly proclaim that ours is the greatest of centuries +because we have not only what all other centuries had, but something +else distinctively our own--a vast contribution to the world's progress. +This self-complacency makes us forget that whatever truth there may be +in the great theory of evolution, certainly the validity of the theory +is not confirmed by the intellectual history of the human race. As was +said of the Patriarchal Age so we may say of Dante's times "there were +giants in those days" which we presume to ignore. Homer, Shakespeare, +Dante, indeed stand forth in irrefutable protest against the +questionable assertion of evolution that the present is intellectually +superior to the past. + +The evolutionary theory prejudices our age against acknowledging the +high accomplishments of the past. So to know the truth we must overcome +the conspiracy with which so-called history has enveloped the past, +especially those generations immediately prior to Dante's. How that +ignorance of the history and spirit of that period can blind even a +great writer to the wonderful feats inherited from the centuries +immediately preceding the thirteenth, is revealed by the assertion of +Carlyle that "in Dante ten _silent_ centuries found a voice." To +state what history now regards as fact, it must be said that while Dante +by his giant personality and sublime poetic genius could alone ennoble +any epoch he was not "a solitary phenomenon of his time but a worthy +culmination of the literary movement which, beginning shortly before +1200, produced down to 1300 such a mass of undying literature" that +subsequent generations have found in it their model and inspiration +and have never quite equalled its originality and worth. + +In verification of this statement I have only to mention to you the +names of the Cid of Spain, the Arthurian Legends of England, the +Nibelungen Lied of Germany and the poems of the Meistersingers, the +Trouveres and the Troubadours. The authors of these works had been +taught to make themselves eternal as Dante says Brunetto Latini taught +him. They are proof against the alleged dumbness of the ages just +preceding Dante's. Of those times speaks Dr. Ralph Adams Cram, renowned +equally for historical study and for architectural ability: "The twelfth +was the century of magnificent endeavors and all that was great in its +successor is here in embryo not only in art but in philosophy, religion +and the conduct of life. The eleventh century is a time of aspiration +and vision, of the enunciation of new principles and of the first shock +of the contest between the old that was doomed and the new that was +destined to unprecedented victories." (The Substance of Gothic, p. 69.) + +Let us now make a general survey of Dante's century and then consider +the more particular events and circumstances of his environment. + +It may be a surprise to you to know that there is a book entitled The +Thirteenth, the Greatest of Centuries by Dr. James J. Walsh, in its +fifth edition with a sale of 70,000 copies. He indeed is not the only +man of letters who signalizes that century for its greatness. To confine +the quotations to two writers well known in our day, I find that Fiske +in his Beginnings of New England says of the thirteenth century: "It was +a wonderful time but after all less memorable as the culmination of +medieval empire and medieval church than as the dawning of the new era +in which we live today." Frederic Harrison, in his Survey of the +Thirteenth Century says, "Of all the epochs of effort after a new life +that ... is the most spiritual, the most really constructive and indeed +the most truly philosophic. It had great thinkers, great rulers, great +teachers, great poets, great artists, great moralists, and great +workmen. It could not be called the material age, the devotional age, +the political age or the poetic age in any special degree. It was +equally poetic, political, industrial, artistic, practical, intellectual +and devotional. And these qualities acted on a uniform conception of +life with a real symmetry of purpose." + +Ours is an age of thought but of thought finding concrete expression +in practical invention and especially in activities in the line of +manufacture and commerce. Posterity will probably characterize our age +as the Industrial Age, a phrase that will signalize our period both for +the development of industries not thought possible a century ago and +for the evolution of the industrial worker to a position of striking +importance and power. For the first time in the history of humanity the +workman's status is the subject of international agreement. The League +of Nations promises to treat Labor from a humanitarian point of view +and so to place it on the broad, firm pathway leading to industrial +peace and economical solidarity for the common good. That would seem +a necessity in view of the strides of progress in other directions. + +Now wireless telegraphy crosses oceans and unites continents. The +wireless telephone between ships and shore is in operation. It has been +found practicable to transport by submarine a cargo from Bremen to +Baltimore. In aircraft the development has been just as wonderful. Less +than ten years ago the world's record for long flight by aeroplane was +made, with no regard for time, with two stops between Albany and New +York. In July, 1919, an aeroplane making no stop covered the distance +between New York and Chicago in some six hours. Furthermore an American +seaplane, in three stages made the trip from New York to England and +then a British Dirigible without making a stop came from England to +Long Island in ninety-six hours. "This is the end and the beginning of +an age" says the author of Mr. Brittling Sees It Through. "This is +something far greater than the French Revolution or the Reformation +and we live in it." + +We indeed consider it the age of "big things." Dynasties fall and +republics spring up. When war breaks out it is a World War involving +twenty-four nations and causing 7,781,806 deaths (Nelson's Encyclopedia, +V. iv, p. 519) and costing $200,000,000,000. In the first year in which +we were at war, our country spent more than had been the cost of +conducting the government for 124 years, including the expenses of + the Civil and the Spanish-American Wars. Yes, it is an age of "big +things." The Allies in the Champagne offensive of September, 1915, +threw 50,000,000 shells into the German lines in three days. Was it one +out of sympathy with "big things," one intent on the quiet of the higher +life as contrasted with the din of the day, who said that "modern +civilization is noise and the more civilization progresses, the greater +will be the noise?" In any event the muses who inspired Dante, are +almost dumb. Now the captains of industry are the commanding figures of +the day and the student, the poet, the philosopher, the statesman have +gone into innocuous desuetude. Amy Lowell is preferred to Longfellow: +Charlie Chaplin draws bigger crowds than Shakespeare can interest. +Trainmen get wages higher than are the salaries of some of our +governors. Unskilled labor is paid more than the teachers of our youth +receive. The cost of living was never higher in the history of mankind. + +How illuminating to turn from this picture to that of Dante's age. Then +in Florence, a bushel of wheat cost about fifteen cents, a carpenter +could buy a broad ax for five cents, a saw for three cents, a plane +for four cents, a chisel for one cent. The average daily wage of a +woolworker was about thirty-six cents. In view of the high purchasing +power of money in Dante's age, the fact that he borrowed at least seven +hundred and fifty seven and a half golden florins, a debt that was not +paid until after his death, leads one to think that he must have been +regarded by his contemporaries as prodigal in the use of money. His +financial difficulties must have given him an uneasy conscience for he +insists repeatedly on the wickedness of prodigality. In fact he makes +the abuse of money on the part either of a miser or of a spendthrift a +sin against the social order punishable according to the gravity of the +offence in Hell or Purgatory. + +To return to the matter of prices in Dante's day. In England a goose +could be bought for two and a half pence. A stall-fed ox commanded +twenty-four shillings while his fellow brought up on grass was sold for +sixteen shillings. A fat hog, two years old,--and this is interesting to +us who pay seventy-five cents a pound for bacon--a fat hog two years old +cost only three shillings four pence and a fat sheep shorn, one shilling +and two pence. A gallon of oysters was purchasable for two pence, a +dozen of the best soles for three pence. A yard of broadcloth cost only +one shilling one pence, a pair of shoes four pence. These figures of +English money are taken from an act of Edward III of England who was +born seven years after Dante's death. Parliamentarian enactment under +the same king fixed a table of wages. + +For a day's work at haymaking or weeding of corn, for instance, a woman +got one penny. For mowing an acre of grass or threshing a quarter of +wheat a man was paid four pence. The reaper received also four pence for +his day's labor. Eight hours constituted a working day. The people of +the Middle Ages not only had the Saturday half-holiday but they enjoyed +release from work on nearly forty vigils of feast days during the year. +That they were as well off, e.g. as the unskilled laborer of our day, +who demands from four to eight dollars a day as a wage, is evident from +the fact that while he has to pay forty cents a pound for mutton, the +workman of Edward the Third's day earned enough in four days to buy a +whole sheep and a gallon of ale. So plentiful was meat in England that +it was the ordinary diet of the poor. A preamble of an act of Parliament +of the fourteenth century in specifying beef, pork, mutton and veal +declares that these are "the food of the poorer sort." (The Thirteenth, +the Greatest of Centuries, p. 479.) + +Speaking of live-stock leads to the observation that the people of +Dante's time for the most part lived in the country. Cities had not yet +become magnets. London is supposed to have had a population of +twenty-five thousand, York ten thousand four hundred, Canterbury, four +thousand seven hundred, Florence, in the year 1300, according to +Villani, a contemporary of Dante, had "ninety thousand enjoying the +rights of citizenship. Of rich Grandi, there were fifteen hundred. +Strangers passing through the city numbered about two thousand. In +the elementary schools were eight thousand to ten thousand children." +(Staley's Guilds of Florence, p. 555.) + +The means of travel and communication, of course, were few and +difficult. The roads were bad and dangerous. In France, Germany and +Italy there were so many forms of government, dukedoms, baronies, +marquisates, signories, city republics, each with its own custom +regulations, not to speak of each having its own coinage and language, +that travelers encountered obstacles almost at every step. For the most +part, journeys had to be made afoot and a degree of safety was attained +only if the traveler joined a large trade caravan, a pilgrimage or a +governmental expedition. Night often found the party far from a hospice +or inn and so they were obliged for shelter to camp on the highway or +in the fields. Necessarily the traveler was subjected to innumerable +privations and sufferings. + +I have not been able to get accurate information as to the exact length +of time required to make a trip, say from London to Paris--a distance +covered the other day by an aeroplane in eighty minutes. But, the +"Consuetudines" of the Hereford Cathedral, England, afford us some data +upon which to base the conclusion that six weeks were necessary for +such a trip, allowing another week for religious purposes. The +"Consuetudines" after specifying that no canon of the cathedral was to +make more than one pilgrimage beyond the seas in his lifetime, allows +the clergyman seven weeks' absence to go abroad to the tomb of St. Denis +in the suburbs of Paris, sixteen weeks to Rome and a year to Jerusalem. + +A table of time limits between Florence and the principal cities of +Europe and the East made by the Florentine Banking houses in Dante's +day, showed the number of days required for consignments of specie and +goods to reach their destination. Rome was reached in fifteen days, +Venice and Naples in twenty days, Flanders in seventy days, England and +Constantinople in seventy-five days, Cyprus in ninety days. How long it +took Dante to make the trip from Florence to Rome, we do not know but +history tells us that he went to the Eternal City in the year 1300. He +was indeed a great traveler. During his twenty years' exile, we know +that our poet's itinerary led him among other places to Padua, Venice, +Ravenna, Paris and there is good reason to believe, as Gladstone +contends, that he went for study to Oxford. The regret is permissible +that he did not leave us an account of his journeyings. "Had he given us +pictures--as he alone could have painted them--of scenes by the wayside +and of the courts of which he was an honored guest," says Dr. J.A. Zahm +in his Great Inspirers, "we should have had the most interesting +and the most instructive travel book ever written." + +We cannot but notice one great effect brought about by traveling in +those days, especially by pilgrimages and by the Crusades formed in +defence of pilgrimages to the Holy Land and that is, that there arose on +all sides a desire for liberty and the growth of a spirit of nationality +that worked to the destruction of absolute government. The power of the +common people began to assert itself. In 1215, England forced from John +Lackland the Magna Charta, the foundation of all the liberty of English +speaking people even in modern times. The very year in which Dante was +born, representatives of the townspeople were admitted as members of the +English Parliament. In France, during the thirteenth century, the +centralization of power in the hands of the kings went forward with the +gradual diminution of the influence of the nobility--a fact operating to +the people's advantage. + +In 1222 the nobles forced Andrew II of Hungary to issue the Golden Bull, +the instrument which Blackstone later declared turned "anarchy into +law." In Germany and Sicily Frederick II published laws giving a larger +measure of popular freedom. In Italy, the existence of the city +republics--especially those of Florence, Sienna, Pisa--showed how +successfully the ferment of liberty had penetrated the mass of the +body-politic. + +Coming now to regard the characteristics of Dante's age we must say that +the first big thing that looms in sight is the fact that this was the +golden age of Christian faith. Everywhere the Cross, the symbol of +salvation, met the eye. It was the age when men lived in one faith, used +one ritual, professed one creed, accepted a common doctrine and moral +standard and breathed a common religious atmosphere. Heresy was not +wholly absent but it was the exception. Religion regarded then not as an +accident or an incident of life but as a benign influence permeating +the whole social fabric, not only cared for the widow and orphan and +provided for the poor, but it shaped men's thoughts, quickened their +sentiments, inspired their work and directed their wills. These men +believed in a world beyond the grave as an ever present reality. Hell, +Purgatory, Heaven were so near to them that they, so to speak, could +touch the invisible world with their hands. To them, as to Dante, "this +life was but a shadowy appearance through which the eternal realities of +another world were constantly betraying themselves." Of the intensity +and universality of faith in that life beyond death, Dante is not the +exception but the embodiment. His poem has no such false note of +scepticism as we detect in Tennyson's In Memoriam. Note the words of the +modern poet: + + "I falter where I firmly trod + And falling with my weight of cares + Upon the great world's altar stairs + That slope through darkness up to God, + I stretch lame hands of faith and grope + And gather dust and chaff and call + To what I feel is Lord of all + And faintly trust the larger hope." + +Not thus does Dante speak. As the voice of his age he begins with faith, +continues with faith and leads us to the unveiled vision of God. He +both shows us his unwavering adherence to Christian doctrine in that +scene in Paradiso where he is examined as to his faith by St. Peter and +he teaches us that the seen is only a stepping stone into the unseen. It +has been said of him in reference to his Divina Commedia, "The light of +faith guides the poet's steps through the hopeless chambers of Hell with +a firmness of conviction that knows no wavering. It bears him through +the sufferings of Purgatory, believing strongly fits reality: it raises +him on the wings of love and contemplation into Heaven's Empyrean, where +he really hopes to enjoy bliss far beyond that whereof he says." +(Brother Azarias.) + +Leading the religious awakening of the thirteenth century and making +possible Dante's work at the end of the century were two of the world's +greatest exponents of the spiritual life, both signalized in the +Paradiso. St. Dominic characterized by Dante (Par. XII, 56) as "a +jealous lover of the Christian faith with mildness toward his disciples +but formidable to his foes," founded an order to be "the champions of +Faith and the true lights of the world." Even in its early days it gave +to the world eminent scholars such as Albertus Magnus and St. Thomas +Aquinas, and it has never ceased to number among its members great +thinkers, ardent apostles, stern ascetics and profound mystics. In +Dante's time it was the only order specially charged with the office of +preaching and from its founder's time down to the present day the one +who acts as the Pope's Theologian has been taken from the ranks of this +order. Besides preaching to all classes of Christian society and +evangelizing the heathen, the Dominicans in Dante's day fought against +heresy and schism, lectured in the universities, toiled among the poor, +activities in which the order is still engaged. + +But perhaps the man whose spiritual influence was greatest in +medievalism, if not in all the history of Christianity, was Francis of +Assisi, who "all seraphical in order rose a sun upon the world." (Par. +XI, 37.) Born at Assisi in Umbria in 1182, the son of a wealthy cloth +merchant and of Pica, a member of a noble family of Provence, Francis +grew up a handsome, gay and gallant youth "the prime favorite among the +young nobles of the town, the foremost in every feat of arms, the leader +of civil revels, the very king of frolic." A low fever contracted when +with his fellow citizens he fought against the Perugians turned his +thoughts to the things of eternity. Upon his recovery he determined to +devote himself to the service of his fellow man for the honor of God. + +His renunciation of the things of this life was dramatic. To swerve him +from the new life his father had cited him to appear before the Bishop. +Francis, unmoved by the appeal of his father persisted in his +resolution. Stripping himself of the clothes he wore, the Bishop +covering his nakedness, Francis gave his clothes to his father saying, +"Hitherto I have called you Father, henceforth I desire to say only Our +Father who art in heaven." Then and there as Dante sings, were +solemnized Francis' nuptials with his beloved Spouse, the Lady Poverty, +under which name, in the mystical language afterwards so familiar to +Francis, "he comprehended the total surrender of all wordly goods, +honors and privileges." He went forth and attracted disciples. With +these partaking of his zeal and animated by his charity, he labored to +make his generation turn from the sordid to the spiritual, diffusing +over all the people a tender love of nature and God. + +Among his disciples--great minds of the time--were Thomas of Celano, one +of the literary geniuses of the day, the author of the sublime Dies +Irae--a religious poem chanted to this day at every funeral high mass +in the Catholic Church, and frequently sung or played in great opera +houses,--Bonaventure, professor of philosophy and theology at the +university of Paris, Roger Bacon, the friar, the renowned teacher at +Paris and Oxford, Duns Scotus, the subtile doctor. In the Third Order +established for those not following the monastic life the membership, +in the course of time, embraced among others St. Louis, King of France, +St. Elizabeth of Hungary, and Dante. + +He, towards the end of his exile, footsore, weary and discouraged, +buffeted by the adverse winds of fortune knocked, a stranger, at the +gates of the Franciscan monastery at Lunigiana. "As neither I nor any of +the brothers recognized him," writes Brother Hilary, the Prior, "I asked +him what he wished. He made no answer but gazed silently upon the +columns and galleries of the cloister. Again I asked him what he wished +and whom he sought and slowly turning his head and looking around upon +the brothers and me, he answered 'Peace.'" + +The monks spoke gently to him, ministered with kindly and delicate +sympathy to his bodily and spiritual needs. His reticence left him and +his reserve melted away. Here the object of loving hospitality, he +remained finding means and opportunity for profound study. Before he +departed he drew from his bosom a part of the precious manuscript of +Divina Commedia and trustingly giving it into the hands of the Prior +said, "Here, Brother, is a portion of my work which you may not have +seen: this remembrance I leave with you: forget me not." + +That he himself was not unforgetful of the sympathy of the simple and +warm-hearted followers of St. Francis is evident from the fact that he +gloried in his membership of the Third Order, wearing about his body the +Franciscan cincture for chastity and it is not unlikely that at Ravenna +before he finally closed his eyes upon the turmoil of the world full of +vicissitudes, he modestly requested that he be buried in the simple +habit of the order and be laid to rest in a tomb attached to their +monastery. In any event such was his burial. + +For our sympathetic understanding of the supremacy of religion in +Dante's day, may I again quote Ralph Adams Cram, whose words on the +eleventh century are equally applicable to the era of our Florentine and +to his country? Dr. Cram writes: "It is hard for us to think back into +such an alien spirit and time as this and so understand how with +one-tenth of its present population England could support so vast and +varied a religious establishment, used as we are to an age where +religion is only a detail for many and for most a negligible factor. We +are only too familiar with the community that could barely support one +parish church, boasting its one-half dozen religious organizations, all +together claiming the adherence of only a minority of the population, +but in the Middle Ages, religion was not only the most important and +pervasive thing, it was a moral obligation on every man, woman and +child, and rejection or even indifference was unthinkable. If once we +grasp this fact," continues Cram, "we can understand how in the eleventh +century, the whole world should cover itself with 'its white robe of +churches.'" + +The second great fact observable in the times of Dante is that it was an +age of inquiry and of efficient craftsmanship. Many of our generation +think that Dante's day being so far removed from the age of printing and +the spirit of positivism, and being given to the upholding of authority +almost as an unexhaustible source of knowledge, was wholly unacquainted +with scientific research. Furthermore they declare that education then +was almost at its minimum stage. A little study will show that the +people of that era were not unacquainted with the scientific spirit and +it will also prove that if education did not prevail, in the sense that +everybody had an opportunity to read and write--a consummation hardly to +be expected--education in the sense of efficiency--education in the +etymological sense, i.e. the training of the faculties so that the +individual might develop creative self-expression and especially that he +might bring out what was best in him, all which meant knowledge highly +useful to himself and others--that kind of education was not uncommon. + +To give an idea of the scientific inquiry and sharp observation of mind +in those days, I might cite Dante as a master exponent of nature study, +and adept of science. Passing over his experiment in optics given in +Paradiso, given so naturally as to justify the inference that +investigation in physics was then not an uncommon mode of gaining +knowledge, I call your attention to an observation made by Alexander +Von Humboldt, the distinguished scientist, to prove that nothing escaped +the eyes of Dante, intent equally upon natural phenomena and the things +of the soul. Von Humboldt suggests that the rhetorical figure employed +by Dante in his description of the River of Light with its banks of +wonderful flowers (Par. XXX, 61) is an application of our poet's +knowledge of the phosphorescence of the ocean. If you have ever looked +down the side of a steamship at night as it ploughed its way forward, +and if you have ever observed in the sea the thousand darting lights +just below the water line your enjoyable experience will enable you +to appreciate the beauty of this passage. I now quote: + + "I saw a glory like a stream flow by + In brightness rushing and on either side + Were banks that with spring's wondrous hues might vie + And from that river living sparks did soar + And sank on all sides in the flow'rets bloom + Like precious rubies set in golden ore + Then as if drunk with all the rich perfume + Back to the wondrous torrent did they roll + And as one sank another filled its room." + +Commenting on this passage, Von Humboldt says "It would seem as if this +picture had its origin in the poet's recollection of that peculiar and +rare phosphorescent condition of the ocean in which luminous points +appear to rise from the breaking waves and, spreading themselves over +the surface of the waters, convert the liquid plain into a moving sea of +stars." This mention of a sea brings to mind the striking fact that Dean +Church has pointed out, viz., when Dante speaks of the Mediterranean, he +speaks not as a historian or an observer of its storms or its smiles but +as a geologist. The Mediterranean is to him: "The greatest _valley_ +in which water stretcheth." (Par. IX, 82.) + +So also when he speaks of light he regards it not merely in its +beautiful appearances but in its natural laws (Purg. XV). And when Dante +comes to describe the exact color, say of an apple blossom, his splendid +and unequalled power as a scientific observer of Nature and a poet is +most evident. Ruskin (Mod. Painters III, 226) commenting on the passage: +flowers of a color "less than that of roses but more than that of +violets" (Purg. XXXII, 58) makes this interesting remark: "It certainly +would not be possible in words, to come nearer to the _definition_ +of the exact hue which Dante meant--that of the apple blossom. Had he +employed any simpler color phrase, as 'pale pink' or 'violet pink' or +any other such combined expression, he still could not have completely +got at the delicacy of the hue; he might, perhaps, have indicated its +kind, but not its tenderness; but by taking the rose-leaf as the type +of the delicate red, and then enfeebling this with the violet gray he +gets, as closely as language can carry him to the complete rendering of +the vision although it is evidently felt by him to be in its perfect +beauty ineffable." + +These examples of Dante's interest in scientific observation prove his +fitness to be considered a representative of his age in its love for +science. Instead, however, of proposing Dante as a typical example of +the experimental inquiry of his age--you may say that he is _sui +generis_--I shall call forth other witnesses. + +First let Albertus Magnus speak. He was distinguished as a theologian +and philosopher and was also renowned as a scientist. In his tenth book +after describing all the trees, plants and herbs then known, he says: +"All that is here set down is the result of our own observation or has +been borrowed from others whom we have known to have written what their +personal experience has confirmed, for in these matters, experience +alone can give certainty (_experimentum solum certificat in talibus_)." + +We may be sure that such an investigator showing in his method a +prodigious scientific progress was on the line so successfully followed +by modern natural philosophy. This conclusion is confirmed by evidence +from his other books showing that he did a great deal of experimental +work, especially in chemistry. In his treatise De Mineralibus, Albertus +Magnus keen to observe natural phenomena, enumerates different +properties of natural magnets and states some of the properties commonly +attributed to them. + +In his book on Botany he treats of the organic structure and physiology +of plants so accurately as to draw from Meyer, a botanist of the +nineteenth century, this appreciative tribute. "No botanist who lived +before Albert can be compared to him unless Theophrastus, with whom he +was not acquainted: and after him none has painted nature with such +living colors or studied it so profoundly until the time of Conrad +Gesner and Cesalpino"--a high compliment indeed for Albertus for +leadership in science for three centuries. To quote Von Humboldt again, +"I have found in the book of Albertus Magnus, De Natura Locorum, +considerations on the dependence of temperature concurrently on latitude +and elevation and on the effect of different angles of incidence of the +sun's rays in heating the ground, which have excited my surprise." + +Albertus Magnus gains renown also from his distinguished pupil Roger +Bacon who, some think, should have the honor of being regarded as the +father of inductive science--an honor posterity has conferred upon +another of the same family name who lived 300 years later. We, who wear +eye-glasses would be willing, I think, to vote the honor to the elder +Bacon, because if we do not owe to him the discovery of lenses, we are +his debtors for his clarification of the principles of lenses and for +his successful efforts in establishing them on a mathematical basis. In +any event, he was a pioneer in inductive science. + +Before gunpowder is known to have been discovered in the West, the friar +Roger Bacon must have made some interesting experiments along the line +of explosives, else he could not have made the following remarkable +statement as to the property of gunpowder: "One may cause to burst from +bronze, thunderbolts more formidable than those produced by nature. A +small quantity of prepared matter causes a terrible explosion +accompanied by a brilliant light. One may multiply this phenomenon so +far as to destroy a city or an army." Anticipating the use of even motor +boats and automobiles driven by gasoline, this thirteenth century +scientist wrote: "Art can construct instruments of navigation such that +the largest vessels governed by a single man will traverse rivers and +seas more rapidly than if they were filled with oarsmen. One may also +make carriages which, without the aid of any animal, will run with +remarkable swiftness." This man whose clarity of vision anticipated +those discoveries of the nineteenth century, left three disciples after +him,--John of Paris, William of Mara and Gerard Hay--who followed their +master's methods, especially of testing by observation and by careful +searching of authorities, every proposition that came up for study. + +Perhaps the most striking argument in favor of the experimental attitude +of Dante's century is that afforded by certain facts in the history of +medicine of that epoch. Then surgery began to make vast strides. Pagel, +regarded in our time as the best informed writer on the history of +medicine, has this to say of the surgery in Dante's age. "The stream of +literary works on surgery flows richer during this period. While +surgeons are far from being able to emancipate themselves from the +ruling pathological theories, there is no doubt that in one department, +that of manual technics, free observation came to occupy the first place +in the effort for scientific progress. Investigation is less hampered +and concerns itself with practical things and not with artificial +theories. Experimental observation was in this not repressed by an +unfortunate and iron-bound appeal to reasoning." (The Popes and Science, +p. 172.) + +As to medical practice in the thirteenth century, interesting data are +furnished by the Bulletin of Johns Hopkins Hospital and the Journal of +the American Medical Association, January, 1908. The former publication +gives us remarkable instances of surgical operations and of the +treatment of Bright's disease, matters which we might have thought +possible only in the nineteenth century; the latter publishes in full +the law for the regulation of the practice of medicine issued by Emperor +Frederick II in 1240 or 1241. According to that law binding on the two +Sicilies, three years of preparatory university work were required +before the student could begin the study of medicine. Then he had to +devote three years to the study of medicine and finally he had to spend +a year under a physician's direction before a license was issued to him. +In connection with this high standard of a medical education, the law +of Frederick II forbade not only the sale of impure drugs under penalty +of confiscation of goods, but also the preparation of them under penalty +of death--stern legislation, anticipating by nearly seven centuries the +American Pure Drug Law. (The Popes and Science, p. 419.) + +Undoubtedly the experimental demonstration and original observation of +Dante's time sprang either from the training or pedagogical methods of +the great universities of that period. There were universities at +Oxford, Paris, Cologne, Montpelier, Orleans, Angers. Spain had four +universities; Italy, ten. The number of students in attendance must +amaze us if we think that higher education did not then prevail. +Professor Thomas Davidson in his History of Education, says: "The number +of students reported as having attended some of the universities in +those early days almost passes belief, e.g. Oxford is said to have had +about 30,000 about the year 1300 and half that number as early as 1224. +The numbers attending the University of Paris were still greater. The +numbers become less surprising when we remember with what poor +accommodations--a bare room and an armful of straw--the students of +those days were content and what numbers of them even a single teacher +like Abelard could, long before, draw into lonely retreats." + +That in the twelfth and following centuries there was no lack of +enthusiasm for study, notwithstanding the troubled conditions of the +times, is very clear. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, +education rose in many European states to a height which it had not +attained since the days of Seneca and Quintilian. + +The curriculum followed by a student in Dante's time embraced the seven +liberal arts of the Trivium and the Quadrivium, namely Grammar, +Dialectic, Rhetoric, Arithmetic, Music, Geometry and Astrology. The +higher education comprised also Physics, Metaphysics, Logic, Ethics, and +Theology. Of the cultural effect of the old education, Professor Huxley +spoke in the highest praise on the occasion of his inaugural address as +rector of Aberdeen University. "I doubt," he said, "if the curriculum +of any modern university shows so clear and generous a comprehension +of what is meant by culture as the old Trivium and Quadrivium does." +(The Thirteenth the Greatest of Centuries, p. 466.) + +Speaking of education in those distant days, one thinks of the supreme +intellect of medieval life, the giant genius St. Thomas Aquinas, whose +philosophy was the food of Dante and became the basis not only of +Dante's great poem but of Christian Apologetics down to our own day, +when Pope Leo XIII directed that all Catholic seminaries and +universities implant the doctrine expounded by Thomas, Angel of the +Schools. A philosopher whose breadth and lucidity of mind gave such +perennial interest to a system of thought that it is still followed more +generally than that of any other school of philosophy--taught in the +regular course even at Oxford, Harvard, Columbia--such a philosopher +could have left the impress of his genius upon seven succeeding +centuries only if his work had been to philosophy what Dante's Divina +Commedia is to literature. + +The subject of scholastic philosophy now more or less claims attention +here, since the coming to our country of the most distinguished exponent +of Neo-scholasticism. Cardinal Mercier before becoming a prince of the +Church, held the chair of neo-scholastic philosophy at Louvain where he +made his department so distinguished for deep scholarship that pupils +came from afar to sit under his instruction or to prepare themselves for +a doctorate of philosophy whose requirements at Louvain were perhaps, +more exacting than at any other modern university. + +In 1889 Bishop John H. Keane engaged in the task of getting together a +faculty for the Catholic University at Washington went to Louvain to see +Dr. Mercier. "I want you to go to Washington and become head of our +school of philosophy," said the visitor. "I am perfectly willing to go, +nothing could please me more. But we must first get the permission of +the Pope," answered the Belgian scholar. Bishop Keane went to Rome and +presented the matter to Leo XIII. "Better leave him where he is," +replied the Pope. "He is more needed in Belgium than in the United +States." So it was owing to the wisdom of Pope Leo in keeping the right +man in the right place that Belgium's strongest man was held for his +country against the evil hour to be a terror to wrongdoers and an +inspiration and object of reverence. + +The World's War revealed Belgium's Primate not only as a great lucid +thinker who shattered the subtilities with which the philosophy of might +tried to confuse the mind of the world, but also as an undaunted leader +who could not be frightened or defeated by all the forces of militarism. +To my mind the secret of the dominating influence working upon Cardinal +Mercier's character and making him a world-hero came from his training +in scholastic philosophy and from his having assimilated the spirit of +the thirteenth century. + +That period indeed not only trained its people to a high spiritual ideal +but gave them golden opportunities to express themselves and to put +forth, under the inspiration of religion, the best that was in them. +The medium was the guild system which, working from a self-protecting +alliance of traders, extended itself to every existing form of industry +and commerce and gave "the workman a position of self-respect and +independence such as he had never held before and has failed to achieve +since" (Cram). + +A remarkable thing about the guild system was that it established and +maintained what we, today, call technical schools for the training of +apprentices. But more remarkable was the spirit which animated the +system. _Operare est orare_ was its principle. As a result of that +teaching that labor is practical prayer, that the worker should labor +not simply for a wage, but for perfection, men with untiring energy +straining for finer and better work came to make the best things their +minds could conceive, their taste could plan, their hands could fashion. +Bell-making in Dante's day attained such perfection that the form and +composition of bells have ever since been imitated. Workers of precious +metals produced such wonderful chalices that succeeding generations have +never equalled the ancient model. The masonry of medievalism has secrets +of construction lost to our age. Mechanical engineering solved without +the use of steel girders problems in the structural work of cathedrals, +palaces, fortresses and bridges that causes open-eyed astonishment in +the twentieth century. Wood carving as seen in many medieval chairs, +tables, and choir equipment is of design so exquisite and of finish of +detail so artistic that it is the despair of the cabinet makers of our +age. + +The beauty of the thirteenth century needlework made into chasubles, +copes, albs, stoles, altar covers,--triumphs of artistic excellence, is +seen in the typical example of the Cope of Ascoli for which Mr. Pierpont +Morgan about ten years ago, paid sixty thousand dollars. So high a price +was paid for this ecclesiastical vestment not because it was an antique +but because marvelous expertness in artcraft had given it such value. Be +it recorded to the honor of the American millionaire, that he returned +the treasure to a church in Italy when he discovered that he had +unknowingly bought stolen property. + +Of iron-mongery of Dante's time, the author of the Thirteenth the +Greatest of Centuries writes as follows: "It is difficult to understand +how one of the village blacksmiths of the time made a handsome gate that +has been the constant admiration of posterity ever since, or designed +high hinges for doors that artists delight to copy, or locks and latches +and bolts that are transported to our museums to be looked at with +interest not only because they are antiques but for the wonderful +combination of the beautiful and the useful which they illustrate. The +surprise grows the greater when we realize that these beautiful objects +were made not only in one place or even in a few places, but in nearly +every town of any size in England, France, Italy, Germany and Spain at +various times during the thirteenth century and that at any time a town +of considerably less than ten thousand inhabitants seemed to be able to +obtain among its own inhabitants, men who could make such works of art +not as copies nor in servile imitation of others, but with original +ideas of their own, and make them in such perfection that in many cases +they have remained the models for many centuries." + +That is especially true of the thirteenth century glass windows as seen, +for example, in the Cathedrals of York, Lincoln, Westminster, +Canterbury, Chartres, Rheims, and in Notre Dame and the Sainte Chapelle, +Paris. Modern art with all its boasting cannot begin to make anything +comparable to that antique glass made and put in place by faith and love +long before Columbus discovered America. There are tiny bits of it in +this country as a result of the relic hunting of our soldiers in the +World's War. Many of them got a fragment of the shattered glass of +Rheims, "petrified color" deep sky blue, ruby, golden green, and sent it +home to a sweetheart, a wife or sister to be mounted on a ring or set in +a pin. + +The donors for the most part of the glass of the thirteenth century +Cathedrals, were guilds at that time. For the Cathedral of Chartres +e.g. the drapers and the furriers gave five windows, the porters one, +the tavern-keepers two, the bakers two. + +In Dante's time glass-making reached its climax and then the curve began +to decline, until in the eighteenth century and in the early part of the +nineteenth century glass-making reached its lowest point. + +Great as was Dante's day in the efficiency and education promoted by the +Guild system--Dante himself was a member of it--the achievement of his +era in architecture was the "most notable perhaps because what happened +there epitomizes all that was done elsewhere and the nature of what was +accomplished is precisely that which informed the whole body of medieval +achievement." (The Substance of Gothic, p. 137.) + +In the course of the century that gave birth to Dante, architecture rose +to a glory never equalled before or after. In France alone between the +years of 1180 and 1270 eighty great cathedrals and five hundred abbey +houses were constructed. It was in this century that Notre Dame, Paris, +arose, "the only un-Greek thing" said R.M. Stevenson, "which unites +majesty elegance and awfulness." But it was not alone. Other Notre Dames +sprung up in Germany, Italy and Spain. In England also, in that period +there were more than twenty cathedrals in the course of construction, +some of them in places as small as Wells, whose population never +exceeded four thousand. + +To look today upon Wells with its facade of nearly three hundred +statues, one hundred and fifty-three of which are life size or heroic +and then to realize that this magnificent poem in stone was composed by +villagers unknown to us and unhonored and unsung, is to open our eyes +to the wonders accomplished by the foremost age of architecture. + +So wonderful are those cathedrals that Ferguson, the standard English +authority on Gothic architecture, does not hesitate to say; "If any one +man were to devote a lifetime to the study of one of our great +cathedrals, assuming it to be complete in all its medieval +arrangements--it is questionable whether he would master all its details +and fathom all the reasonings and experiments which led to the result +before him. + +"And when we consider that not only in the great cities alone, but in +every convent and in every parish, thoughtful men were trying to excel +what had been done and was doing by their predecessors and their +fellows, we shall understand what an amount of thought is built into the +walls of our churches, castles, colleges and dwelling houses. My own +impression is that not one-tenth part of it has been reproduced in all +the works written on the subject up to this day and much of it is +probably lost never again to be recovered for the instruction and +delight of future ages." + +The irreparable shattering of the greatest of these monuments of the +past, occurred in our day. The Cathedral of Rheims, the crowning +perfection of architecture having survived "the ravages of wars, the +brutishness of revolutions, the smug complacency of restoration which +had stripped it of its altars, its shrines and its tombs of unnumbered +kings" was the target for two years of German shell and shrapnel and +today it stands gaunt and scathed in a circle of ruin. But even in its +ruin it shows infinite majesty and if it is left as it is,--and may that +be so--for restoration would only vulgarize its incomparable art, Rheims +will stand as a monument both to the thirteenth century which had made +it the supreme type of the Gothic ideal to raise men's souls to God, and +to the twentieth century against whose materialism it was an offence and +a protest. + +The third characteristic of the age of Dante is its chivalry, which +placed woman on the highest pedestal she had ever occupied. In +literature that unique influence is seen in a new and an exalted +conception of love. Love is now coupled with nobility of life. The +troubadours had sung of love as a quality belonging to gentle folk, +meaning by that phrase the nobility, and nobility had been defined by +the Emperor Frederick II, patron of the troubadours, as a combination +of ancestral wealth and fine manners. In the Banquet (bk. IV) Dante +rejects that definition and transfers nobility from the social to the +moral order holding that "nobility exists where virtue dwells." + +Love, the flowering of this nobility, may be found in the heart of him +even lowest in the social scale provided that he is a virtuous man. It +is not an affair solely of gentle blood. It has no pedigree of birth or +richness. "In this sense the true lover need not be a _gentleman_ +but he must be a _gentle man_, loving not by genteel code of caste +but by gentle code of character." (J.B. Fletcher: Dante p. 27.) + +Thus Dante makes Guido Guinicelli say: "Love and the gentle heart are +one and the same thing." And Dante himself in one of his Canzoni writes: + + "Let no man predicate + That aught the name of gentleman should have + Even in a king's estate + Except the heart there be a gentle man's." + +Love, Then, Became In Literature Such A Refined Emotion That To Quote +Dante: "It Makes Ill Thought To Perish, It Drives Into Foul Hearts A +Deadly Chill" And On The Other Hand It Fills Indeed The Lover With Such +Delicacy Of Sentiment For His Beloved That She Is His Inspiration To +Virtue And The Muse Who Directs His Pen. In Harmony With "The Sweet New +Style" Of Sincerity With Which Dante Treats Of Love, Thomas Bernart De +Ventadorn Sings: + +"It is no wonder if I sing better than any other singer, for my heart +draws near to Love and I am a better man for Love's command." + +Not in literature alone but in actual life did chivalry exalt "the +eternal womanly." In Dante's age, to quote the author of Phases of +Thought and Criticism, "Knights passed from land to land in search of +adventure, vowed to protect and defend the widow and the orphan and the +lonely woman at the hazard of their lives: they went about with a prayer +on their lips and in their hearts the image of the lady-love whom they +had chosen to serve and to whom they had pledged loyalty and fidelity: +they strove to be chaste in body and soul and as a tower of strength for +the protection of this spirit of chastity, they were taught to venerate +the Virgin Mother Mary and cultivate toward her a tender devotion as the +purest and holiest ideal of womanhood. This spirit of chivalry is the +ruling spirit of Dante's life and the inspiration of some of his +sublimest flights." + +All these high achievements of Dante's century are all the more notable +in view of the fact that war with its horror and destruction was never +absent from those times. Every European country was involved often in +war and Asia and Africa were not free from its devastation. + +In such stirring times, Dante was born at Florence. A city of flowers +and gay festivities, the home of a cultured pleasure-loving people, it +was the frequent scene of feuds and factions handed down from sire to +son. The hatred they engendered and the desolation they caused may be +understood from the reading of Romeo and Juliet, a tragedy whose scene +is laid in Verona in the year 1303 and to the families concerned in +which Dante makes allusion in the sixth canto of his Purgatorio. But +Verona and Florence were not the only cities involved by the militarism +of the age. Especially in northern Italy were strife and bloodshed +common. Province, city, town, hamlet and even households were torn by +internal dissensions, which only complicated the main conflict of that +day, viz., the world struggle for supremacy of pope and emperor. + +The imperial party called Ghibellines, composed mainly of aristocrats +and their followers, aimed to break down the barriers which kept the +German Emperor out of Italy, their object being to have him subjugate +the whole country, even the states of the Pope. The papal or popular +party, known as Guelfs, had as its purpose the independence of +Italy--the freedom and alliance of the great cities of the north of +Italy and dependence of the center and southern parts on the Roman See. +A few months after Dante's death, the Ghibellines, the imperial party, +suffered a defeat by the overthrow of King Manfred from which they never +recovered. But in Florence for many years they maintained their +struggle. + +To add to the confusion of the Florentines whose sympathy was mostly +Guelf--i.e. favorable to the papal or popular cause--the Guelf party of +Florence was divided into two factions, the Bianchi and the Neri, the +history of whose tumults often leading to blood and mischief may be +known by the frequent allusions of our poet. Embroiled by those feuds, +Dante is found not only as a prior among the ruling Bianchi but as a +soldier under arms at the battle of Campaldino and at the siege of +Caprona. Later when the Neri were restored to power, Dante was banished +and never again beheld his beloved city. In exile Dante transferred his +allegiance to the Ghibellines though he upheld the Guelf view as to the +primacy of the Church. Subsequently he tried, but in vain, to form a +party independent of Guelf, Ghibelline, Bianchi or Neri. + +May I conclude this chapter by giving you another view of Dante's +environment? To point out the degeneracy of Florence, Dante becomes a +_laudator acti temporis_ in a picture of the earlier Florence that +has never been equalled. + +"Florence was abiding in peace, sober and modest. She had not necklace +or coronal or women with ornamented shoes or girdle which was more to be +looked at than the person. Nor yet did the daughter at her birth give +fear to her father, for the time and dowry did not outrun measure on +this or that side. She had not houses empty of families. I saw +Bellencion Berti go girt with leather and bone and his lady come from +the mirror with unpainted face. I saw him of the Nerlo and him of the +Vecchio satisfied with unlined skin and their ladies with the spindle +and the distaff. O! fortunate women, each was sure of her burial place" +(Paradiso IV, 97). + +But time changed all that. With her population vastly increased in +Dante's day and her commerce on all seas and on every road and her +banking system controlling the markets of Europe and the East, Florence +had become such a mighty city that Pope Boniface VIII could say to the +Florentine embassy who came to Rome to take part in the Jubilee of 1300: +"Florence is the greatest of cities. She feeds, clothes, governs us all. +Indeed she appears to rule the world. She and her people are, in truth, +the fifth element of the universe." (The Guilds of Florence, p. 562.) + +Such greatness was attained according to Dante only at the loss of +pristine simplicity and virtue. So he apostrophizes his native city: +"Rejoice O Florence, since thou art so mighty that thou canst spread +thy wings over sea and land and thy name is known throughout Hell." +Notorious for crime Florence still kept a big place in her life for +religion. There "religion was abused but its beneficial effects +continued to be manifest--vice was flagrant but it never lost the sense +of shame--men were cruel but their cruelty was followed by sincere +regrets--misfortunes were frequent and signal but they were accepted +with resignation or with the hope of retrieval or men gloried in them +on account of the cause in which they suffered." (Brother Azarias.) + +And, meanwhile, side by side with fierce and bloody struggles the +creative forces of art and architecture were making marvelous progress +before the very eyes of Dante. Niccolo Pisano had finished his Sienna +pulpit and with his son was engaged on his immortal works of sculpture. +Orcagna had made a wonderful tabernacle for the Florentine church of San +Michele, Cimabue had painted the Madonna which is now in the Rucellai +chapel. Giotto had completed his work at Assisi and Rome and would soon +give to the world the Florentine Campanile. Fra Sisto and Fra Ristoro +had built the church Santa Maria Novella at Florence and Arnolfo di +Cambio, while Dante was writing sonnets, had begun the duomo or +cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. The stout walls and lofty tower of +the Bargello had sprung into beauteous being. Santa Croce destined to +be the burial place of illustrious Italians, had been built and remains +today one of Florence's greatest churches. St. John's Baptistry, _il +mio bel Giovanni_, had received its external facing of marble, and in +ten years after Dante's death would get its massive bronze doors which +are unparalleled in the world. + +The century closed with the opening of the great Jubilee at Rome. March +twenty-fifth of the following year, 1300, Dante places as the time for +his journey through the realms of the unseen--the story of which is told +in the Divina Commedia. If sympathy with Dante and his work is not +aroused already, perhaps these two quotations may quicken your interest. + +Charles Elliot Norton writes: "There are few other works of man, perhaps +there is no other, which affords such evidence as the Divine Comedy, of +uninterrupted consistency of purpose, of sustained vigor of imagination, +and of steady force of character controlling alike the vagaries of the +poetic temperament, the wavering of human purpose, the fluctuation of +human powers, the untowardness of circumstances. From the beginning to +the end of his work of many years there is no flagging of energy, no +indication of weakness. The shoulders burdened by a task almost too +great for mortal strength, never tremble under their load." + +And Dr. Frank Crane, a foremost writer of the syndicate press, says "I +have put a good deal of hard labor digging into Dante and while I cannot +say that I ever got from him any direct usable material, yet I no more +regret my hours spent with him than I regret the beautiful landscapes I +have seen, the great music I have heard, the wise and noble souls I have +met, the wondrous dreams I have had. These are all a part of one's +education, of one's equipment for life and perhaps the best part." + + + + +DANTE THE MAN + + + + +DANTE THE MAN + + +Fifty-five years ago when called on for a poem to celebrate the sixth +hundredth anniversary of Dante's birth, Tennyson, feeling his own +littleness before "this central man of all the world," wrote: + + "King, that has reigned six hundred years and grown + In power and ever growest + I, wearing but the garland of a day, + Cast at thy feet one flower that fades away." + +New tributes to the genius of Dante will be offered by our generation, +for already great preparations are under way in all parts of Italy and +the literary world to commemorate in 1921, the six hundredth anniversary +of the death of the author of the greatest of all Christian poems. The +question naturally suggests itself: Has not the world moved forward many +centuries from Dante's viewpoint and lost interest in many things +regarded as truths or at least as burning issues by Dante? Who is now +concerned with the Ptolomaic system of astronomy, which is so often the +subject of Dante's thought? Who is now interested in the tragic +jealousies and injustices suffered by the people of Florence which led +to the bitter feuds that helped to make Dante the great poet? Who, in +this twentieth century so intent upon making the world safe for +democracy, has sympathy with Dante's advocated scheme of a world-wide +absolute monarchy as the cure for the ills of the society of his day? +Is this generation which sees Italy united as a result of the overthrow +of the Papal states, so universally concerned with Papal claims which +were matters of vital importance to Dante and his generation? Is our +era, which unfortunately looks upon religion as a negligible factor and +not as the animating principle of life, interested in the golden age of +faith of which Dante is the embodiment, and his message in which the +eternal is the object? + +Yet, Dante's following is today larger than ever before; his empire over +minds and hearts is more extensive. The moving pictures feature his +Inferno; the press issues, even in languages not his own, such a mass of +books and articles concerning him that a specialist can hardly keep +track of the output. In the universities, especially of Harvard, Cornell +and Columbia, not to speak of those in other lands, the courses on Dante +attract an unusually large number of students. Outside of the academic +atmosphere there are thousands of readers who still find in his +writings, a solace in grief, a strength in temptation, a deep sense of +reality, permanent though unseen, of the love of God and of His justice. +The reasons are not far away. + +"Our poet," says Grandgent "was a many sided genius who has a message +for nearly everyone." + +Dante's compelling renown among us, is due says Dr. Frank Crane both "to +the intrinsic greatness of the man's personality and to the sheer beauty +of his craftsmanship." + +"The secret of Dante's power" writes James Russell Lowell "is not far +to seek. Whoever can express _himself_ with the full force of +unconscious sincerity will be found to have uttered something ideal +and universal." + +Whether one or all these reasons are the true explanation of the +twentieth century's great interest in Dante, the fact remains, as +Tennyson said, that far from being a waning classic, Dante "in power +ever grows," and the interest he calls forth constitutes, as James Bryce +observed in his Lowell Institute lectures "the literary phenomenon of +England and America." + +Now to Dante as the man let us turn. To know the fibre of his manhood +will help us to appreciate the genius of his art. "It is needful to know +Dante as man" wrote Charles Elliot Norton, "in order fully to +appreciate him as poet." The thought is expressed in another way by +James Russell Lowell: "The man behind the verse is far greater than the +verse itself and Dante is not merely a great poet but an influence, part +of the soul's resources in time of trouble. From him the soul learns +that 'married to the truth she is a mistress but otherwise a slave shut +out of all liberty'" (The Banquet). But that knowledge is dependent upon +our intimacy with the life and spirit of Dante. In many other cases the +knowledge of the life and personality of an author may not be essential +to either our enjoyment or our understanding of his work. In the case of +Dante "he faces his own mirror and so appears in the mid-foreground of +his reflected word." Before looking into that mirror for Dante's +picture, let us first recall some of the established facts in his life +and then see what manner of man he appeared to those who were his +contemporaries or who lived chronologically near him. + +Dante was born in Florence in the year 1265. His father was a notary +belonging to an old but decadent Guelph family, his mother, named Bella, +was a daughter of Durante Abati, a Ghibelline noble. Whether his own +family was regarded among the first families of nobility or not, it is +certain that Dante enjoyed the honor of knowing that one of his +forebears, Cacciaguida, had been knighted by Emperor Conrad II on the +Second Crusade. Precocious Dante must have been, as a boy, with +faculties and emotions extraordinarily developed, for in his ninth year, +while attending a festal party, he fell in love with a little girl named +Beatrice Portinari, eight years old. "Although still a child" to quote +Boccaccio his earliest biographer "he received her image into his heart +with such affection that from that day forward never so long as he +lived, did it depart therefrom." She became the wife of Simone dei +Bardi, and died in her twenty-fourth year, the subject of many sonnets +from her mystic lover who, if he had never written anything else, would +have been entitled, by his book of sonnets, his New Life, to rank as a +poet of the first class. + +Two years after the death of Beatrice, Dante married Gemma Donati, a +member of an old aristocratic family of Florence and by her had four +children. In the period between the death of Beatrice and his marriage +he had seen military service, having borne arms as a Guelph at the +battle of Campaldino (Purg. V, 91-129) in which the Florentines defeated +the Ghibelline league of Arezzo and he took part at the siege of Caprona +and was present at its surrender by the Pisans (Inf., XXI, 95.) When he +was thirty years old he became a member of the Special Council of the +Republic, consisting of eight of the best and most influential citizens +and in 1300, at the age of thirty-five, midway in the journey of his +life, he was elected one of the six Priors (chief magistrates of his +city) for the months of June and July. Shortly after this Dante with +three others went to Rome on an embassy to Pope Boniface VIII to get +that pontiff's veto to the intervention of Charles de Valois, brother +of Philip IV of France, in the affairs of Florence. But there was delay +in the transaction of the business and that gave the stranger time to +win the city by treachery. When the news reached Dante, he hurried +homeward. At Sienna he learned that his house had been pillaged and +burned and he himself had been accused of malfeasance in office. Without +a trial he was condemned to a heavy fine and to perpetual banishment +under penalty that if he returned he would be burned alive. Then began +his twenty years' exile--years in which he went sometimes almost begging +and at all times even when he was an honored guest in the home of +nobility--knowing as only an exile can know "how bitter is the bread of +dependence and how steep the stranger's stairs." It was during his exile +that Dante completed his immortal Divina Commedia, the child of his +thought "cradled into poetry by wrong." Dante never again saw Florence +for which he yearned with all the intensity of the Hebrew captives weeping +on the rivers of Babylon for a sight of Jerusalem. Death came to free his +undaunted soul in the year 1321 while he was a guest at Ravenna of Guido +Novello da Polenta, a nephew of Francesca da Rimini. At Ravenna the last +seat of Roman arts and letters, in a sepulchre attached to the convent +of the Franciscan monks, he was buried with the honors due to a saint +and a sage. The inscription on his epitaph said to have been composed by +him on his deathbed, is paraphrased by Lowell in the following words: + + "The rights of Monarchy, the Heavens, the stream of Fire, the Pit + In vision seen, I sang as far as to the Fates seemed fit. + But since my soul, an alien here, hath flown to nobler wars, + And happier now, hath gone to seek its Maker with the stars, + Here am I, Dante, shut, exiled from the ancestral shore + Whom Florence, the fairest of all-least-loving mothers, bore." + +Such is the brief outline of the outward life of him of whom +Michelangelo declared: + +"Ne'er walked the earth a greater man than he." + +It will help us to a better understanding of that man if his likeness is +impressed upon our memory. The portrait made by his friend Giotto, shows +him as a young man perhaps of twenty to twenty-five years, with a face +noble, beardless, strong, intelligent and pensive--a face which would +not lead one to suspect an appreciation of humor. Yet writers find two +distinct forms of that quality--a playfulness in his eclogues and a +grotesqueness in certain of his assignments to punishments in Hell. +Contrasting with this picture of his early life is the face of his death +mask and of the Naples bust, suggesting the lines + + "How stern of lineament, how grim + The father was of Tuscan song." + +Here we see him mature with strength of character in every feature and a +seriousness of mien which shows a man with whom one might not take +liberties. It was of Dante in mature life that Boccaccio wrote: "Our +poet was of moderate height and after reaching maturity was accustomed +to walk somewhat bowed with a slow and gentle pace, clad always in such +sober dress as befitted his ripe years. His face was long, his nose +aquiline and his eyes rather large than small. His jaws were large and +his lower lip protruded beyond the upper. His complexion was dark and +his expression very melancholy and thoughtful. His manners, whether in +public or at home, were wonderful, composed and restrained, and in all +ways he was more courteous and civil than any one else." + +Bruni, on the other hand, who wrote a century later describes Dante as +if he had in mind Giotto's fresco of the poet. This is Bruni's +word-picture: "He was a man of great refinement, of medium height and +a pleasant but deeply serious face. It was remarkable that although he +studied incessantly, none would have supposed from his happy manner and +youthful way of speaking that he had studied at all." However well these +pictures may visualize the poet for us, I cannot help thinking that +Dante himself, after the manner of great artists who paint their own +pictures, gives us a far better portrait of himself. What we know of him +from others is as nothing compared to the revelation he has made of +himself in his writings. For, as Dr. Zahm, in his Great Inspirers, has +said: "Dante, although the most concealing of men was, paradoxical as it +may seem, the most self-revealing." The indirect recorder of his own +life, he discloses to us an intimate view of his spiritual struggles, of +the motives which actuated him, of the passions he experienced, not to +speak of the judgments he formed upon all great questions. "So true is +this that if it were possible to meet him, we should feel that he was +an intimate friend who had never concealed anything from us--who had +discoursed with us on all subjects; science, literature, philosophy, +theology, love, poetry, happiness, the world to come and all that of +which it most imports us to have accurate knowledge." Let us then see +the man as reflected in his writings. + +First of all he reveals himself as a man profoundly animated by +religion. He is not a Huysmanns or a François Coppée, a Brunetiere, +a Paul Bourget, forsaking the religious teachings of his youth only to +embrace them in mature life. Never for a moment did he deflect from the +Catholic doctrine, though his studies led him to the consideration of +the most subtle arguments raised against it. He was indeed the defender +and champion of faith, having no sympathy for a mind which would lose +itself in seeking the solution of the incomprehensible mysteries of +religion. So he has Virgil say: + + "Insensate he who thinks with mortal ken + To pierce Infinitude which doth enfold + Three persons in one substance. Seek not, then, + O Mortal race, for reasons, but believe + And be content, for had all been seen + No need there was for Mary to conceive. + Men have ye known who thus desired in vain + And whose desires, that might at rest have been, + Now constitute a source of endless pain. + Plato, the Stagerite, and many more + I here allude to. Then his head he bent, + Was silent and a troubled aspect wore." + (Purg., III, 34.) + +Guided by the wisdom he thus enunciated Dante from youth to death +maintained a child-like faith that satisfied his intellect and animated +his sentiments. His faith really grew into a passion. His fidelity to +the truth of the doctrines of the Church or to the sacred offices of the +papacy was never shaken either by the scandals of clerical life or the +opposition of different popes to his political ideals. Frequently he +raised his voice in protest yet, notwithstanding his censures against +what he considered abuses in the external administration of the Church +and the policy of her popes, on his part there was not the least +suspicion of unsettled faith or revolutionary design. Strongly convinced +of the divinity of the Church, his passionate nature could not help +execrating the human element that would weaken her influence. "He +teaches that the mystical Vine of the Church still grows and Peter and +Paul who died for it, still live. He holds by that Church. He begs +Christians not to be moved feather-like by every wind of doctrine. 'You +have' he tells them 'the Old Testament and the New. The Pastor of the +Church guides you, let this suffice for your salvation'" (Brother +Azarias). In his devotional life Dante is just as ardent as he is firm +in his adherence to dogma. While all Catholics are held to profess a +common creed, each may follow the bent of his disposition and sympathy +in pious practices, theologically called devotions. It seems to me that +Dante had three such devotions which he practised intensely in his inner +life. + +First, devotion to the sacred Humanity of Christ. In eleven places does +he speak at length of Christ's two-fold nature as God and Man; in ten +places does he refer to Christ as the Second Person of the Blessed +Trinity, and wherever Cristo occurs at the end of a line, Dante out of +reverence for the Sacred Person does not rime with it, but repeats the +name itself. The climax of the Purgatorio is the apparition of the +Griffin, the symbol of Christ. Further, on the stellar white cross of +red-glowing Mars the poet shows the figure of the Redeemer. In the +Empyrean Christ is represented in the unveiled glory of His human and +divine natures. So teaching the doctrine of the Incarnation most clearly +and most ardently Dante seeks to promote this cultus as the soul of the +Catholic religion. + +Dante's second special devotion is to the Blessed Virgin. His Paradiso +contains the best treatise on Mariology. The whole Divine Comedy indeed +is the poet's loving testimonial of gratitude to the Madonna. It was +through Mary that his visionary voyage to the other world was made +possible. She rescued him when he was enslaved by sin and sent as his +successive guides Virgil, Beatrice and St. Bernard. She of all creatures +is proclaimed on every terrace of Purgatory first in virtue and highest +in dignity and her example is exhibited as an unfailing source of +inspiration to the Souls, to endure suffering cheerfully and to make +themselves, like her, the exemplars of goodness in the highest degree. +In Paradiso she is seen by the poet in all her unspeakable loveliness +and beatitude and as Queen of Angels and of Saints her intercession is +favorably invoked that Dante might enjoy the Vision of God himself. In +the last canto of the poem her super-eminence and incomparable +excellence are sung "with a sweetness of expression, a depth of +philosophy and a tenderness of feeling that have never been surpassed +in human language." + + "Thou Virgin Mother, daughter of thy Son, + Humble and high beyond all other creatures, + The limit fixed of the eternal counsel; + Thou art the one who such nobility + To human nature gave that its Creator + Did not disdain to make Himself its creature. + Within thy womb rekindled was the love + By heat of which in the eternal peace, + After such wise, this flower was germinated. + Here unto us thou art a noonday torch + Of charity, and below there among mortals + Thou art the living fountainhead of hope. + + Lady, thou art so great and so prevailing, + That he who wishes grace nor runs to thee, + His aspirations without wings would fly. + Not only thy benignity gives succor + To him who asketh it, but oftentimes + Forerunneth of its own accord the asking. + In thee compassion is, in thee is pity, + In thee magnificence; in thee unites + Whatever of goodness is in any creature." + +The third private devotion of Dante is devotion to the Souls in +Purgatory--a pious practice founded upon the scriptural words: "It is a +holy and a wholesome thought to pray for the dead that they may be +loosed from their sins." Not only does Dante answer the objection raised +as to the efficacy of prayer offered for the souls in Purgatory (VI, 28) +but in many passages he promises his own prayers and works and seeks to +arouse in others on earth a helpful sympathy for those souls. "Truly" he +says, "we ought to help them to wash away their stains which they have +borne hence, so that, pure and light, they may go forth to the starry +spheres," (Purg. VI, 34.) + +To sum up Dante's attachment to his religion we can truly say not only +his life but his great poem radiates the spirit and doctrine of the +Church. Hettinger says of Dante: "In truth he anticipated the most +pregnant developments of Catholic doctrine, mastered its subtlest +distinctions and treated its hardest problems with almost faultless +accuracy. Were all the libraries in the world destroyed and the Sacred +Scripture with them, the whole Catholic system of doctrine and morals +might be almost reconstructed out of the Divina Commedia." + +Intensity, indeed, is the characteristic of Dante's spiritual life. In +bringing that quality to his faith and religious practice he was only +manifesting the operation of the dominating quality which regulated his +whole life and shaped all his mental and emotional habits. The realm of +his thought and feeling was truly the land of the strenuous life. Having +once set out to say of Beatrice what had never been said of any woman, +Dante applied himself to his prodigious task with a consistency of +purpose that was unmoved by persecution and unshaken by time. In all +the years that he spent in the composition of the Divina Commedia there +was no flagging of interest, no indication of weakness. No one ever +applied himself with more complete absorption or with greater power +of unfaltering concentration, just as no one ever felt more deeply +the outrageous arrows of fortune or the transcendent supremacy of love. +It is precisely because of this intensity that his thoughts and feelings +affect us so profoundly six centuries later. + +Intense in his own life Dante had no sympathy with slackers or the +lukewarm whom he characterizes as never having been alive, i.e. of never +having awakened to responsibility to take part in good or evil. As a +consequence they never contributed anything to society. Because in this +life they shifted from one side to another, they are now depicted +running perpetually after an aimlessly dodging banner. Here is the +description of the punishment of the lukewarm: + +"Now sighs, cries, and shrill shrieks rang through the starless air: +Whereat at first I began to weep, strange tongues, hurried speech, words +of pain, accents of wrath, voices loud and weak, and the sound of hands +accompanying them, made a tumult which revolves forever in that air +endlessly dark, like sands blowing before a whirlwind. And I, whose head +was hooded with horror, exclaimed: 'Master, what is it I hear? What +kind of people is it that seems so vanquished by grief? And he replied: +'This is the miserable way followed by the sorry souls of those who +lived without infamy and without glory. They are mingled with the mean +choir of those angels who were not rebels and were not faithful to God, +but were for themselves. Heaven cast them out lest its beauty should be +spoiled; and deep Hell will not receive them, because the damned might +derive some satisfaction from them.' + +"'Master,' I said, 'what is so grievous to them which makes them +complain so loud?' 'I shall tell thee right briefly' he answered. 'These +people have no hope of death and their blind life's so vile that they +are envious of any other lot. The world allows no report of them to +last: mercy and justice disdain them. Let us not speak of them but look +and pass by!' And I, looking, saw a banner which ran circling so swift +that it seemed scornful of all rest: and after it there came trailing +such a long train of people that I should never have thought death had +undone so many. When I had made out one or two of them I saw and +recognized the shade of him who, for cowardice, made the great refusal. +Forthwith I understood and was convinced that this was the sect of +poltroons, obnoxious both to God and to God's enemies. These luckless +creatures who never had been really alive, were naked and badly stung +by flies and wasps which were there. These insects streaked their faces +with blood which, mixed with tears, was caught by disgusting worms at +their feet--" (Inferno III, 33. Grandgent's translation.) In reading +that description of the punishment of the lukewarm, one cannot fail to +observe that not one is called by name. Because they "lived without +infamy and without glory" their name deserves to be lost forever to +the world. + +Of the renown of Dante's own name our poet has no misgivings. He reveals +himself as a man having supreme confidence in his own powers. Boccaccio +represents him as saying when he was with his party at the head of the +government of the republic of Florence, and when there was question of +sending him on an embassy to Rome, "If I go, who stays? And if I stay, +who goes?" "As if he alone," is the comment of Boccaccio, "was worth +among them all, and as if the others were nothing worth except through +him." It is certain that Dante put a high valuation upon his genius, an +estimate due, perhaps, to the belief he held, like Napoleon, in the +potency of his star. He was born under the constellation of the Gemini +and to them in gratitude for his self-recognized talent he gives praise: + + "O glorious stars, O light impregnated + With mighty virtue, from which I acknowledge + All of my genius whatso'er it be, + With you was born, and hid himself with you, + He who is father of all mortal life, + When first I tasted of the Tuscan air." + (Par. XXII, 112) + +Certain it is that Dante acted on the counsel which, addressed to +himself, he puts into the mouth of his beloved teacher, Brunetto Latini, +"Follow thy star and thou cans't not miss the glorious port." (Inf., XV, +55.) In Purgatorio Dante says: "My name as yet marks no great sound," +but he boasts that he will surpass in fame the Guidos, writers of verse: +"Perchance some one is already born who will drive both from out the +nest." He is so sure that posterity will confer immortality upon his +work that he does not hesitate to make himself sixth among the greatest +writers of the world. This passage occurs when he enters Limbus +accompanied by Virgil to whom a group of spirits, Homer, Horace, Ovid, +and Lucan, make salutation. (Inf., IV, 76.) Posterity has bestowed +greater renown on Dante's name than even he presumed to hope, for it +has placed him in the Court of Letters with only one of the writers +of antiquity, Homer, and with two subsequent writers, Cervantes +and Shakespeare. + +Naturally we think that a writer who was so positively confident and +boastful of his powers must have been given to pride and Dante indeed +plainly indicates to us that he was guilty of this. But it was pride, +we think, that was honorable and not a vice, a pride of which a lesser +light, Lacordaire says, "By the grace of God, I abhor mediocrity." In +the dark wood Dante represents the Lion (Pride) as preventing him from +ascending the mountain--"He seemed to be coming to me with head upreared +and with such raging hunger, that the air appeared to be in fear of +him." (Inf., I, 43.) + +And that the poet's trepidation was justified he later makes known +(Purg. XI, 136) when he expresses the fear that for pride he may be +eternally punished. Perhaps it was because Dante recognized the pride of +his learning, of his ancestry, of his associations with distinguished +personages as his besetting sin that he exercised his skill as a master +in showing us profound imagery representing the characteristics of +pride. Carved out of the mountain in the first circle of a terrace of +Purgatory are scenes illustrative of humility. While looking on these +scenes, which seem to live and speak in their beautiful and compelling +reality, the poet turns and sees approaching the forms of the proud. On +earth they had exalted themselves as if they had the weight of the world +on their shoulders, so now they are seen bent under huge burdens of +stone, crumpled up in postures of agonizing discomfort. The poet, to let +us know that he shares in their punishment, says: + + "With equal pace as oxen in the yoke, + I, with that laden spirit, journey'd on + Long as the mild instructor suffer'd me." + (Purg. XII, 1) + +He apostrophizes them, but the words are really an upbraiding of himself +for pride. + + "O ye proud Christians, wretched weary ones, + Who in the vision of the mind infirm, + Confidence have in your backsliding steps, + Do ye not comprehend that we are worms + Born to bring forth the angelic butterfly + That flieth unto judgment without screen? + Who floats aloft your spirit high in air? + Like are ye unto insects undeveloped + Even as the worm in whom formation fails! + As to sustain a ceiling or a roof + In place of corbel, sometimes a figure + Is seen to join unto its knees its breast + Which makes of the unreal, real anguish + Arise in him who sees it: fashioned thus + Beheld I these, when I had ta'en good heed + True is it, they were more or less bent down + According as they were more or less laden + And he who had most patience on his looks + Weeping did seem to say I can no more." + (Purg. X, 121) + +Like all great men of undoubted sincerity Dante was intellectually big +enough to change his mind when a new view presented itself in +condemnation of an earlier judgment. So his "Vernacular Composition" +retracts a statement he had made in the New Life where he had held that +as amatory poems were addressed to ladies ignorant of Latin, Love should +be the only subject the poet ought to present in the vernacular. He +learned later and published his new view that there is good precedent +for treating in the vulgar tongue not only Love but also Righteousness +and War. + +Other examples of his honesty of mind are furnished in the Paradise +where he expresses through the mouths of his disembodied teachers views +opposed to those he had already advanced in his other works. Thus his +theory of the spots on the moon, his statement as to the respective rank +of the angelic orders, his assumption that Hebrew was the language of +Adam and Eve--all yield to a maturer conception in contradiction to his +original views. He is, it is true, sometimes blinded by partisanship or +lacking in the historical perspective necessary for a true judgment of +his contemporaries--but Dante is naturally so sincere a man that he is +eager to be just to every one. Perhaps there is no better instance of +the exercise of this quality than in his assigning to the heaven of +Jupiter, Constantine, to whose supposed donation of vast territories, +then regarded as genuine, Dante ascribes the corruption of the Church. + +Many readers, whose acquaintance with our poet does not extend beyond +the Inferno, see in him only the incarnation of savagery and scorn. They +fail to pay tribute to the wonderful power of his friendship or to +recognize that his sufferings of adversity and injustice gave birth to +deep passion. To them he seems only to place his few friends in Heaven +and in Hell to roast all his enemies. It must be at once confessed that +there are instances in the Divina Commedia which, taken by themselves, +would lead one to so superficial an estimate of the man. In Canto VIII +of the Inferno Dante with his guide, Virgil, enters a bark on the Styx +and sails across the broad marsh. During the passage a spirit all +covered with mud addresses Dante, who recognizes him as Filippo Argenti, +a Florentine notorious for his arrogance and brutal violence. "Master," +says Dante to Virgil, "I should be glad to see him dipped in this swill +ere we quit the lake." And he to me, 'Before the shore comes to thy view +thou shalt be satisfied.' A little while after this I saw the muddy +people make such a rending of him that even now I praise and thank God +for it. Such gloating over suffering surely seems to say to you: Here +we have a man of a cruel vindictive nature. + +Again, in the ice of Caina, the region where traitors are immersed up to +their heads, Dante hits his foot violently against the face of Bocca +degli Abati who betrayed the Florentines at the crucial battle of +Montaperti. "Weeping it cried out to me: 'Why tramplest thou on me? If +thou comest not to increase the vengeance for Montaperti, why dost thou +molest me?' I said: 'What art thou who thus reproachest others?' 'Nay +who art thou' he answered 'that through the Antenora goest, smiting the +cheeks of others, so that if thou wert alive, it were too much.' 'I am +alive' was my reply 'and if thou seekest fame, it may be precious to +thee, that I put thy name among the other notes.' And he to me. 'The +contrary is what I long for, take thyself away!' Then I seized him by +the afterscalp and said: 'It will be necessary that thou name thyself or +that not a hair remain upon thee here.' Whence he to me: 'Even if thou +unhair me I will not tell thee who I am.' I already had his hair coiled +on my hand and had plucked off more than one tuft of it, he barking and +keeping down his eyes, when another cried, 'What ails thee Bocca?' +Having thus learned the sinner's name, the poet releases him, saying: +'accursed traitor I do not want thee to speak, for to thy shame I will +bear true tidings'" (Inf., XXXII, 97.) Some may say that it is to Dante's +shame that he shows himself so devoid of pity. + +Another example would seem to confirm this startling view of Dante's +character. At the bottom of Hell, eager to learn the identity of a +reprobate, a certain Friar Albergo, the poet promises him in return for +the desired information to remove the ice from his eyes so that he may +have "the poor consolation of grief unchecked." + +"Remove the hard veils from my face that I may vent the grief which +stuffs my heart, a little ere the weeping freeze again! Wherefore I said +to him. 'If thou woulds't have me aid thee, tell me who thou art, and if +I do not extricate thee, may I have to go to the bottom of the ice.'" +The poet of course knows that he must go thither to continue his journey +to Purgatory, but the reprobate soul is unaware of such a course, and +believes that the visitor has fortified his promise with a true oath. +Both his name and the damning story of his life are soon told by the +poor wretch, who then asks Dante for the fulfillment of the +promise--the removal of the ice so that sight may be restored even for a +minute. "'Open my eyes' he said--but I opened them not, to be rude to +him was courtesy" (Inf., XXXIII, 148.) Does not Dante by his own words +show himself deep-dyed in hatred and cruelty? + +"The case against him" says Dinsmore, "is not so bad as the first +reading would indicate. Part of the explanation of his apparent cruelty +undoubtedly lies in the fact that the poet would teach us that character +is influenced by environment. In the circle of wrath, he is wrathful, in +the pit of traitors he is false. Then we are to recall that Dante +undoubtedly laid to heart Virgil's reproof, when he wept at the sad +punishment of the soothsayers: 'Who is more wicked than he who feels +compassion at the Divine Judgment.' Passionate love of God, Dante holds, +implies passionate hatred of God's enemies. That is a thought expressed +by the Psalmist. 'Lord, have I not hated them that hate thee and pined +away because of thy enemies? I have hated them with a perfect hatred and +they are become enemies to me' (CXXXVIII, 21). So it may be said that +Dante has the spirit of the psalmist and seeks to love, as God loves, +and to hate as God hates." + +Whether that explanation satisfy my readers or not, there is another +side to Dante's character that is most attractive. "Dowered with the +hate of hate, the scorn of scorn," he was a paradox,--gentle and tender. +Failure to see this phase of Dante's nature led Frederick Schlegel to +declare that Dante's "chief defect is the want of gentle feelings"--a +statement that called forth this exclamation from Lord Byron: "Of gentle +feelings. And Francesca of Rimini and the father's feelings in Ugolino +and Beatrice and the Pia! Why there is a gentleness in Dante above all +gentleness when he is tender!" + +Let us see some examples of this tender quality in our poet. Only one +endowed with gentleness and beauty of soul, could have conceived a +Purgatory "not hot with sulphurous flames" remarks Dinsmore, "but +healing the wounded spirit with the light of shimmering sea, the glories +of morning, the perfume of flowers, the touch of angels, the living +forms of art and the sweet strains of music." + +Only a man of warm-heartedness and delicate susceptibility at the sight +of a row of souls, temporarily blinded, would have been touched to such +an extent that he would be filled with anxiety lest in looking upon them +and silently passing them by who could not return his gaze, he would +show them some discourtesy. + + "It were a wrong, methought, to pass and look + On others, yet myself, the while unseen, + To my sage counsel therefore did I turn." + (Purg. XIII,73) + +Gentleness also reveals itself in lovely lines wherein the poet speaks +of the relations of parent and child. He tells us, for instance, how + + "An infant seeks his mother's breast + When fear and anguish vex his troubled heart." + (Purg. XXX.) + +He recalls how he himself with child-like sorrow stood confessing his +sins: + + "As little children, dumb with shame's keen smart, + Will listening stand with eyes upon the ground + Owning their faults with penitential heart + So then stood I." + (Purg. XXXI, 66) + +When overcome by the splendor of the heaven Saturn it is as a child he +turns to Beatrice for assurance: + + "Oppressed with stupor, I unto my guide + Turned like a little child who always runs + For refuge there where he confideth most, + And she, even as a mother who straightway + Gives comfort to her pale and breathless boy + With voice whose wont is to reassure him, + Said to me: 'Knowest thou not thou art in heaven?'" + (Par. XXII, I) + +Again, it is the gentle heart of a fond father who speaks in the +following lines: + + "Awaking late, no little innocent + So sudden plunges towards its mother's breast + With face intent upon its nourishment + As I did bend." + (Par. XXX, 85, Grandgent's trans.) + +Another figure of beautiful imagery makes us appreciate Dante's +understanding of infantile emotion. He is eager to tell us how bright +souls flame upward towards the Virgin Mother and here is the simile: + + "And as a babe which stretches either arm + To reach its mother, after it is fed + Showing a heart with sweet affection warm, + Thus every flaming brightness reared its head + And higher, higher straining, by its act + The love it bore to Mary plainly said." + (Par. XXIII, 121 Grandgent's trans.) + +Perhaps the most appealing example of Dante's kindly love for children +springs from the fact that instead of following the teaching of St. +Thomas Aquinas, who holds that in heaven the risen bodies of baby +children will appear in the aspect of the prime of life, our poet +discloses them with the charm of babyhood carrolling, as it were, the +nursery songs of Heaven. Of those blessed infants he speaks: + + "Their youth, those little faces plainly tell, + Their childish treble voices tell it, too, + If thou but use thine eyes and listen well." + (Par. XXXII, 46. Grandgent's trans.) + +Seeing so many examples of Dante's love for motherhood and children, one +naturally wonders why he makes no mention of his own wife and children. +But we have only to remember that a nice sense of delicacy may have +restrained him from speaking of the sacredness of his family life. In +this matter he exhibited the wisdom of the gentleman-Saint, Francis de +Sales, who used to say, "Without necessity never speak of yourself well +or ill." It was indeed a principle of propriety with our poet that +talking about one's self in public is to be avoided as unbecoming unless +there is need of self vindication or edification of others. Only once in +the Divine Comedy does he mention his own name and at once he apologizes +for the intrusion. It is true that the poem is autobiographical but it +is that in so far as it concerns matters of universal interest from +which the poet may draw the moral that what God has done for him He will +do for all men if they will but let Him. That being so it was not +necessary for him to exploit his family affairs. + +Out of the kindly heart of Dante sprang gratitude, one of the strongest +virtues of his being. He never wearies in pouring forth thanks to his +Maker for the gift of creation and His fatherly care of all beings in +the universe. He is filled with unbounded gratitude to the Saviour for +having become man and for having suffered and died for our salvation +instead of taking an easier way of satisfying divine justice. In his +works he mentions the name or the offices of the Holy Ghost eight times. +To the Blessed Virgin, the saints and especially to Beatrice for their +virtuous example and loving protection he is heartily grateful. His +thankful affection is extended to those who showed him kindness +particularly during the years of his homeless poverty. To them he offers +the only thing he has to give--an undying tribute of praise. Tenderly he +makes known his obligations to all those who taught him, both the +teachers of his own day and the masters of past ages. But it is to +Virgil, his ideal author, the guide whom he has chosen for his journey +through Hell and Purgatory, that he offers his most touching tribute of +gratitude. The occasion arises when he discovers his beloved Beatrice in +the Garden of Eden and turns to Virgil to tell him of his overwhelming +joy. But behold! his guide has vanished, his mission fulfilled. And all +the joys of the earthly Paradise, originally forfeited by the sin of +Eve, cannot compensate the disciple for the loss of his great master. In +loneliness he weeps, staining again his face that had been washed clean +with dew by Virgil when they emerged from Hell. Is there not genuine +pathos in these lines? + + "Virgil was gone! and we were all bereft! + Virgil my sweetest sire! Virgil who led + My soul to safety, when no hope was left. + Not all our ancient mother forfeited, + All Eden, could prevent my dew cleansed cheek + From changing whiteness to a tearful red." + (Purg. XXX, 45, Grandgent's trans.) + +One quality is still necessary to complete the picture which our poet +gives of himself. So far we see him as a man of strong faith, of abiding +intensity--a man having supreme confidence in himself with resulting +pride of life, a man big with splendid sincerity and dowered with deep +passion, yet manifesting a gentle, gracious and grateful spirit. So +composed, he is a combination of virtues that may inspire and traits +that may attract many readers. But this is not the finished picture of +the strangely fascinating man who has for six hundred years exercised an +irresistible sway over hearts and minds. What feature is lacking? The +one which has made him master over willing subjects who love and admire +him whether they live in a monarchy or republic, a hovel or a palace, +whether they are of his faith or alien to it. Because the world ever +loves a lover, and because Dante is The Lover _par excellence_ whose +love-story is one "to which heaven and earth have put their hand," he +stands forth with a hold on humanity that is both enduring and supreme. + +Love as a passion and a principle of action never left him to his dying +day, from the time when he, a boy of nine years of age, became attracted +by the sweet little girl Beatrice. "She appeared to me" he says, +"clothed in a most noble color, a modest and becoming crimson, and she +was girt and adorned in such wise as befitted her very youthful age." If +we add to those few lines the brief statements made later in the _New +Life_ that her hair was light and her complexion a pearl-pink and that +when he saw her as a maiden she was dressed in white, we have the only +description that Dante ever gave of her personal appearance. It was +love at sight. "I truly say that at that instant the spirit of life +which dwells in the most secret chamber of the heart, said these words: +'Behold a god stronger than I, who coming shall rule over me.' From that +time forward Love lorded it over my soul which had been so speedily +wedded to him and he began to exercise over me such control and such +lordship, through the power which my imagination gave him, that it +behooved me to do completely all his pleasure." + +If we are disposed to doubt Dante's capability of deep emotion at so +tender an age we have only to remember that Cupid's darts pierced at an +early age the hearts of others of precocious sensibilities. The love +experience of Lord Byron, Victor Hugo, and Canova the sculptor, when +they too were only children is a matter of history. This statement we +shall the more readily accept if we recall the dictum of Pascal: "The +passions are great in proportion as the intelligence is great. In a +great soul everything is great." In the light of that principle we must +say that if Dante's love attachment in early life runs counter to the +experience of mankind, he is, even as a boy, exceptional in the power of +imagination and peculiarly sensitive to heart impressions. + +His experience as a nine year old boy loving with a depth of increasing +emotion a girl with whom there probably had never been any +communication except a mere greeting, a love reverential, persisting, +even after her marriage to another, continuing through the married life +of the poet himself, a love, the story of which is celebrated in +matchless verse,--all that is so unique a thing that critics have been +led to deny the very existence of Beatrice or to see in the story an +allegory which may be interpreted in various ways. + +Some critics see in Beatrice only the ideal of womanhood; others make +her an allegory of conflicting things. Francesco Perez holds that +Beatrice is only the figure of Active Intelligence, while Dante Gabriel +Rossetti advances the fantastic theory that she is the symbol of the +Roman Empire, and love--the anagram of Roma--on Dante's part is only +devotion to the imperial cause. According to Scartazzini, Beatrice is +the symbol of the Papacy. Gietmann denies the historicity of Beatrice +and declares that she typifies the Church. The argument for this theory +expressed by a sympathetic reviewer of Gietmann's book, "Beatrice, Geist +und Kern der Danteshen Dichtung," follows: "Beatrice is the soul and +center of the poet's works, his inspiring genius, the ideal which moulds +his life and character. If we consider her as a mere historical +personage we must look upon those works as silly and meaningless +romances, and on the poet himself as a drivelling day-dreamer. + +"But if we are able to assign to Dante's beloved an appropriate and +consistent allegorical character, in keeping with the views of the +poet's time, and with the quality of the varied material which goes to +build up his poetic structures, his creations will appear not only +intelligible and natural, but unfold a treasure of thought and beauty +nowhere else to be found, while the poet himself will be shown to be not +only one of the greatest masters of thought and imagination, but one of +the noblest and loftiest minds to be met with in the history of letters" +(John Conway, Am. Cath. Quar. Review, April, 1892). + +The editor of the English Quarterly Review (July, 1896, p. 41) while not +denying the real existence of Beatrice argues that she represents Faith, +and affirms that the story of Dante's love for her, a love wavering at +times, represents the conflict of Faith and Science. You will be +interested in seeing, as a curiosity of literature, how that author +attempts the translation into allegory of Dante's account of his first +meeting with Beatrice. + +This is the translation--Dante speaking in the first person says: "At +the close of my ninth year I experienced strong impressions of religion. +This was the time of my Confirmation and my First Communion. I was +filled with reverence for the wondrous truths instilled into my mind by +those whom I loved best: and my whole being glowed with the roseate glow +of a first love. My feelings were rapturous yet constant; and from that +time I date the beginning of a New Life. From that time forward I was so +completely under the influence of this divine principle that my soul +was, as it were, espoused to heavenly love, and it was in the precepts +and ordinances of the Church that this passion found its proper +satisfaction. Often and often did it lead me to the congregation of the +faithful, where I had meetings with my youthful angel and these were so +gratifying that all through my boyhood I would frequently go in search +of a repetition of those pleasures and I perceived her so noble and +admirable in all her bearings, that of her might assuredly be said that +saying of Homer: 'She seemed no daughter of mortal man but of God.'" + +We need not be surprised that there is such divergence of opinion among +critics as to the interpretation of Dante. He himself in The Banquet +(bk. II, ch. 15), written some years after his New Life, tells us that +there is a hidden meaning back of the literal interpretation of his +words. That is especially true of the Divine Comedy, as he writes to Can +Grande in explanation of the purpose of the poem. In the Paradiso he +bids this lacking in power of penetration to pierce the symbolism, to +accompany him no longer on his journey through the invisible world. + + "O ye who in some pretty little boat + Eager to listen, have been following + Behind my ship, that singing sails along, + Turn back to look again upon your shores, + Do not put out to sea, lest, peradventure, + In losing me, you might yourselves be lost." + (Par. bk. II, I.) + +With obscurity thus acknowledged, is it any wonder that Dante is +subjected to prolonged controversy by historical criticism which has not +hesitated to cast doubt upon the authorship of the Iliad and the Synotic +Gospels? In the face of this obscurity it is the opinion of such well +known Dantian scholars as D'Ancona, Charles Eliot Norton, John Addington +Symonds, Dean Plumtre, Edmund Gardiner, W.W. Vernon, Paget Toynbe, C.H. +Grandgent, Jefferson B. Fletcher, James Russell Lowell--that Beatrice is +both a real human being and a symbol. + +The direct testimony, not to urge the subtle arguments furnished by +internal evidence of Dante's works, as to the reality of Beatrice +Portinari as the beloved of our poet is offered first by Boccaccio who +was acquainted with Dante's daughter Beatrice, a nun who lived near +enough to the poet to get information from the Portinari family. +Certainly Boccaccio did not hesitate when chosen in 1373 by the +Florentines to lecture on Dante, to make the very positive statement +that the boy Dante, "received the image of Beatrice Portinari into his +heart with such affection that from that day forward as long as he lived +it never departed from him." That statement was doubtless made within +the hearing of many relatives and friends of the families concerned, the +Alighieri, the Portinari, the Bardi. "If the statement was false," +argues Dr. Edward Moore, England's foremost Dantian scholar, "it must +have been so glaring and palpable that its assertion could only have +covered Boccaccio with ridicule." The second authority for the statement +that Beatrice Portinari had a real existence and was the object of +Dante's love is furnished by Dante's own son Pietro, who wrote a +commentary on the Divine Comedy nineteen years after his father's +demise--a commentary in which he declares "because mention is here first +made of Beatrice of whom so much has been said, especially in the third +book of the Paradiso, it is to be premised that there really was a lady +Beatrice by name, greatly distinguished for her beauty and virtues who, +in the time of the author, lived in the city of Florence and who was of +the house of certain Florentine citizens called the Portinari, of whom +the author Dante was a suitor. During the life of the said lady, he was +her lover and he wrote many ballads to her honor. After her death in +order that he might make her name famous, he, in this his poem, +frequently introduced her under the allegory and style of theology." + +The third witness quoted by W.W. Vernon, is Benvenuto da Imola who +attended the lectures of Boccaccio and succeeded him as incumbent of the +chair of Dantian literature, established by the government of Florence. +This Florentine professor whose "commentary on Dante was written only +fifty years after the death of the poet, expressly states that this +Beatrice (he does not mention her family name) was really and truly a +Florentine of great beauty and most honorable reputation. When she was +eight years old she so entered into Dante's heart that she never went +out from it and he loved her passionately for sixteen years, at which +time she died. His love increased with his years: he would follow her +where-ever she went and always thought that in her eyes he could behold +the summit of human happiness. Dante in his works, at one time, takes +Beatrice as a real personage and at another in a mysterious sense as +Sacred Theology" (Readings on Inf., I, 61.) + +The question now arises: Did Beatrice know of Dante's love and did she +reciprocate his passion? Many critics answer in the negative, believing +that an affirmative view must premise a guilty love since Beatrice was +married to Simone de Bardi and Dante to Gemma Donati. But an opposite +view holds that such a deduction overlooks the unique fact that the love +of Dante and Beatrice was purely spiritual and mystical. Doctor Zahm +says that Dante's passion was "a species of homage to the beloved which +was common during the age of the troubadours but which has long since +disappeared--a chivalrous devotion to a woman, neither wife nor +mistress, by means of which the spirit of man, were he knight or poet, +was rendered capable of self-devotion, and of noble deeds and of rising +to a higher ideal of life" (Great Inspirers, p. 245.) + +In any event we know that it was a most noble, exalting sentiment and if +we accept the statement of Bishop de Serravalle, the love was mutual and +lasting. This ecclesiastic while attending the council of Florence in +1414 was asked by the Bishops of Bath and Salisbury, England, to make a +Latin translation of the Divine Comedy. In the preamble to his +translation he not only declares that Dante historically and literally +loved Beatrice (_"Dantes delexit hanc puellam historice et +literaliter"_) but he affirms that the love was reciprocal and that it +lasted during the lifetime of Beatrice, ("_Philocaptus fuit de ipsa et +ipsa de ipso, qui se invicem dilexerunt quousque vixit ipsa puella_"). + +Only by holding such a view can we really appreciate the significance +and beauty of that episode in Purgatorio depicting the first meeting of +the lovers in the invisible world after ten years' separation--a meeting +said to be "one of the most touching and beautiful episodes in all +literature." + +In the Terrestrial Paradise a voice is heard after the sudden departure +of Virgil. "Dante" it says "though Virgil leave thee, weep not, weep not +yet, for thou must weep for a greater wound. I beheld that Lady who had +erst appeared to me under a cloud of flowers cast by angel's hands: and +she was gazing at me across the stream ... 'Look at us well. We are, +indeed Beatrice. Hast thou then condescended to come to the mountain?' +(the mountain of discipline)--Shame weighed down my brow. The ice that +had collected about my heart, turned to breath and water and with agony +issued from my breast through lips and eyes." Beatrice then proceeds to +tell the angels of her love for the poet and of his faithlessness to +her. "For some time I sustained him with the sight of my face. Showing +to him my youthful eyes I led him toward the right quarter. As soon as I +reached the threshold of the second age of man and passed from mortal to +eternal life he took himself from me and gave himself to another." + +Beatrice now turns to Dante and rebukes him: "In order the more to shame +thee from thine error and to make thee stronger, never did nature and +art present to thee a charm equal to that fair form now scattered in +earth with which I was enclosed. And if this greatest of charms so +forsook thee at my death, what mortal thing should thereafter have led +thee to desire it? Verily at the first hour of disappointment over +elusive things, thou shouldst have flown up after me who was no longer +of them. Thou shouldst not have allowed thy wings to be weighed down to +get more wounds, either by a little maid or by any other so short lived +vanity." The effect of her rebuke is the overwhelming of his heart with +shame and contrition. "So much remorse gnawed at my heart that I fell +vanquished and what I then became she knoweth who gave me the cause" +(Purg. XXXI, 49). He arose forgiven, the memory of his sin removed by +the waters of Lethe. Then drinking of the waters of Eunoe he was made +fit to ascend to Heaven. + +To understand the allusion to his defection and to see the progressive +development of his love of Beatrice as a woman, then as a living ideal +and finally as an animated symbol--the various transfigurations in which +Beatrice appears to him, we must go back to his New Life--the book of +which Charles Eliot Norton says--"so long as there are lovers in the +world and so long as lovers are poets this first and tenderest +love-story of modern literature will be read with appreciation and +responsive sympathy." + +It is hardly to be supposed that the nine year old lover noted with +minute care in his diary, his first meeting of Beatrice Portinari but as +he looked back on the event years later he saw that the vision had been +the the greatest crisis in his mental, moral and spiritual history. The +story begins in the first page of the New Life. A real living child +familiarly called Bice, the diminutive for Beatrice, enamoured Dante +with a real, genuine love. "After that meeting," says the poet, "I in my +boyhood often went seeking her and saw her of such noble and +praiseworthy deportment that truly of her might be said the word of the +poet Homer: 'She seems not the daughter of mortal man but of God.'" Nine +years passed and the child, now a maiden, "blooming in her beauty's +spring, saluted me with such virtue that it seemed to me that I saw all +the bounds of bliss. Since it was the first time her words came to my +ears I took in such sweetness that, as it were intoxicated, I turned +away from the folk and betaking myself to the solitude of my own +chamber I sat myself down to think of this most courteous lady." + +A little later the wrapt expression of his loving eyes as he looks at +Beatrice attracts the attention of others and to misdirect them, he +feigns love for the lady he calls the screen of truth and writes verses +in her honor. On the part of Beatrice there is misunderstanding of the +amatory verses he writes at this period and she withholds her greeting. +Then, more than ever, he realizes what that salutation meant to him. +Deprived of it now, he dwells upon the sweet memory of the salutation: +"In the hope of her marvelous salutation there no longer remained to me +an enemy, nay, a flame of charity possessed me which made me pardon +everyone who had done me wrong." Under the influence of her salutation, +Dante tells us that he devised this sonnet: + + "So gentle and so gracious doth appear + My lady when she giveth her salute + That every tongue becometh, trembling, mute: + Nor do the eyes to look upon her dare + Although she hears her praises, she doth go + Benignly vested with humility: + And like a thing come down, she seems to be, + From heaven to earth, a miracle to show. + So pleaseth she whoever cometh nigh. + She gives the heart a sweetness through the eyes, + Which none can understand who doth not prove + And from her countenance there seems to move + A spirit, sweet, and in Love's very guise, + Who to the soul, in going sayeth: 'Sigh.'" + (Norton's translation.) + +Because she now denies to him the bliss of salutation he says: "I went +into a solitary place to bathe the earth with most bitter tears." But +this misunderstanding is not his only torment. Almost from his second +meeting he fears that his beloved will soon die. His prophetic vision +becomes an agonising reality when in 1290 in her twenty-fourth year, the +eyes that radiated bliss are closed in death. + +So stunned was he by the blow that his life was despaired of. When he +recovered it seemed to him that Florence had lost her gaiety and +desolate is mourning the loss of his beloved one. Pilgrims passing on +their way to Galicia do not appear to share the general grief. To arouse +their sympathy in the loss which the city has sustained the heart-broken +poet lover devises a sonnet "in which I set forth that which I had said +to myself. + + Pilgrims: + If through your will to hear, awhile ye stay, + Truly my heart with sighs declare to me + That ye shall afterwards depart in tears. + Alas her Beatrice now lost hath she. + And all the words that one of her way may say + Have virtue to make weep whoever hears." + + (Norton's translation.) + +In his great affliction his grieving heart is sustained by his belief in +immortality. His vision penetrates the skies and he sees his 'lady of +virtue' in glory in the regions of the eternal. + + "The gentle lady to my mind had come + Who, for the sake of her exceeding youth, + Had by the Lord most High been ta'en from earth + To that calm heaven where Mary hath her home." + +In heaven indeed more than upon earth she enamours the poet. There +divested of her mortal veil, to his eyes she + + "grew perfectly and spiritually fair," + +leading him to fit himself to put on immortality. The passion of his +boyhood has now become the ennobling ideal of his life. Sustaining and +stimulating him, saving him from himself, ever leading him upward and +onward, his angelicized lady is an abiding presence with him whether he +is deep in the contemplation of the study of philosophy and the learning +of the ancients, or engaged in the activity of military or political +life, or as homeless wayfarer in exile, making his way from place to +place. When he falls from grace it is Beatrice who disturbs his peace of +mind by "a battle of thoughts." It is the "strong image" of Beatrice who +comes to him as he had seen her as a child, raises him from moral +obliquity, fills him with the very essence of the spiritual. Then he has +a wonderful vision--"a vision in which I saw things which made me +resolve to speak no more of this blessed one (Beatrice) until I could +more worthily treat of her. And to attain to this I study to the utmost +of my power as she truly knows: So that if it shall please Him through +whom all things live that my life be prolonged for some years, I hope to +say of her what was never said of any woman." + +That promise, involving years of intense study and increasing devotion +to his beloved, Dante kept. The Divine Comedy is his matchless monument +to her who is the protagonist and muse of his poem and the love of his +heart. "Not only has the poet made her" says Norton, "the loveliest and +most womanly woman of the Middle Ages at once absolutely real and truly +ideal," but he has done what no poet had ever before conceived, thereby +achieving something unique in the whole range of literature--he has +"imparadised" among the saints and angels his lovely wonder, Beatrice, +"that so she spreads even there a light of love which makes the angels +glad and even to their subtle minds can bring a certain awe of profound +marvelling." He has given to her such a glorious exaltation that after +Rachel and Eve she of all women is enthroned in the glowing Rose of +Heaven next to the Virgin Mother, "our tainted nature's solitary boast," +and so enthroned, Beatrice is at once his beloved and the symbol of +revelation, the heavenly light that discloses to mankind both the true +end of our being and the realities of Eternity. + +Now with tremulous delight in his heart, admiration on his lips, ecstasy +in his soul, he is able to render her perhaps the very purest tribute of +praise and gratitude that ever came out of a human soul: + + "O Lady, thou in whom my hope is strong + And who, for my salvation, didst endure + In Hell to leave the imprint of thy feet, + Of whatsoever things I have beheld, + As coming from thy power and from thy goodness + I recognize the power and the grace. + Thou from a slave hast brought me unto freedom, + By all those ways, by all the expedients, + Whereby thou hast the power of doing it. + Preserve towards me thy magnificence + So that this soul of mine, which thou hast healed + Pleasing to thee be loosened from the body." + +Norton says: "It is needful to know Dante as a man in order fully to +appreciate him as poet." + +What manner of man then was he? Redeemed by love, he was, to quote John +Addington Symonds, "the greatest, truest, sincerest man of modern +Europe." + + + + +DANTE'S INFERNO + + + + +DANTE'S INFERNO + + +At no period of modern times do we find that literature showed an +interest more keen in the Hereafter than at the present day. Religion +has always used both pen and voice to direct men's thoughts towards +eternity, but now it is literature that goes for subject-matter to +religion. This change of attitude is due, no doubt, to the fact that +several factors in present-day life--factors that literature cannot +ignore, have turned popular thought to religion. The World-war has +disciplined the character of men by the unspeakable experiences of +contact with shot, shell and shrapnel and the result has been that +countless numbers have turned to religion for strength and consolation. +Countless thousands whose dear ones made the supreme sacrifice for the +ideals of patriotism, also find in religion their only solace. + +Those who have not this refuge turn to spiritualism and psychical +research in a futile effort to find a satisfactory solution of the +problem of the Hereafter. Again and again we see the unrest of the +ever-questioning soul depicted in the drama and the literature of the +day as it seeks enlightenment on the potentiality of the future life. +The stage presents plays based on spiritualistic manifestations or upon +supernatural healing or miraculous intervention. Many recent novels have +either psychical phenomena for their central interest or plots evolved +out of the miraculous in religion. As exponents of psychical research, +Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, W.T. Stead and Sir Oliver Lodge make an appeal +to readers to accept as scientific truths, the psychical manifestations +of the unseen world. A typical answer is given to that appeal by a +distinguished writer, Doctor Inge, Dean of St. Paul's, London, who +declares: "If this kind of after-life were true, this portrayed in the +pitiable revival of necromancy in which many desolate hearts have sought +spurious satisfaction, it would, indeed, be a melancholy postponement or +negation of all we hope and believe about our dead." + +Prescinding from any attempt to discuss the occult phenomena evoked, +observed and studied in our day or to treat of the matters involved in +the supernatural in the books of the day, one may state as a fact that +the whole tendency of present day literature is to show a yearning for +light on a subject of fundamental importance to human nature. Far back +in the history of the race Job gave voice to the spiritual problems that +are today engaging the attention of the world. Some fifteen hundred +years ago, St. Augustine proposed to himself the question which so +generally concerns the twentieth century: "On what matter of all those +things of which thou art ignorant, hast thou the greatest desire for +enlightenment?" The great Bishop of Hippo becomes the spokesman of +humanity when he answers his own question by proposing another: "Am I +immortal or not?" (Soliloquia 2d). + +In the realms of literature no work of man has answered that question +with greater vividness of imagery, intensity of concentration, beauty of +description--all based in a large measure on the teachings of +Christianity--than has Dante in his Divine Comedy. Devised as a love +offering to the memory of his beloved Beatrice who in the work is +symbolized as Heavenly Light on the things hidden from man, the poem +leads the reader through the dark abyss of Hell, the patient abode of +Purgatory, the glorious realm of Heaven as if the poet had seen Eternity +in reality instead of in imagination. Not only the state and the +conditions of the soul after death does he visualize with the precision +of Euclid, but as a philosopher and a theologian he proposes for our +instruction in the course of the journey many questions of dogmatic and +speculative thought affecting the Hereafter. He believes himself called +to be not simply a poet to entertain his readers, but a prophet and a +preacher with burning fire to deliver a message for man's salvation. So +he asks the help of Heaven: + +"O Supreme Light that so high upliftest Thyself from mortal conceptions, +re-lend a little to my mind of what Thou didst appear and make my tongue +so powerful that it may be able to leave one single spark of Thy glory, +for the future people: for by returning to my memory and by sounding a +little in these verses, more of Thy victory shall be conceived" (Par. +XXXIII, 67). + +Comedy is the title which Dante gives to his trilogy and posterity has +added the prefix adjective divine. The term comedy however is not used +in the modern sense which suggests to us a light laughable drama written +in a familiar style. "Comedy" Dante himself explains in his dedication +of the poem, "is a certain kind of poetical narrative which differs from +all others. It differs from tragedy in its subject matter in this way, +that tragedy in the beginning is admirable and quiet, in its ending or +catastrophe foul and horrible ... Comedy on the other hand, begins with +adverse conditions, but its theme has a happy termination. Likewise they +differ in their style of language, for tragedy is lofty and sublime, +comedy lowly and humble. + +"From this it is evident why the present work is called a comedy, for +if we consider the theme in its beginning it is horrible and foul +because it is Hell; in its ending fortunate, desirable and joyful +because it is Paradise: and if we consider the style of language the +style is lowly and humble because it is the vulgar tongue in which even +housewives hold converse." + +The theme of the poem Dante himself explains: "The subject of the work +literally taken is the state of souls after death; this is the pivotal +idea of the poem throughout its entire course. In the allegorical sense +the poet treats of the hell of this world through which we are +journeying as pilgrims, with the power of meriting and demeriting, and +the subject is man, in as much as by his merits and demerits he is +subject to divine Justice, remunerative or retributive" (Epis. dedicat. +ad Can Grande). + +One of the earliest commentators amplifies the poet's statement. +Benvenuto da Imola writes: "The matter or subject of this book is the +state of the human soul both as connected with the human body and as +separated from it. As the state of the whole is threefold, so does the +author divide his work into three parts. A soul may be in sin; such a +one even while it lives with the body, is morally speaking dead, and +hence it is in moral Hell; when separated from the body, if it died +incurably obstinate, it is in the actual Hell. Again a soul may be +receding from vice: such a one while still in the body is in the moral +Purgatory, or in the act of penance in which it purges away its sin; if +separated, it is in the actual Purgatory. Yet even while living in the +body, a soul is already in a manner in Paradise, for it exists in as +great felicity as is possible in this life of misery: separated from the +body, it is in the heavenly Paradise where there is true and perfect +happiness, where it enjoys the vision of God." (Ozanam, Dante, p. 129.) + +This testimony as to the subject matter of the Divine Comedy is brought +forth to offset the statements not infrequently made by expositors who +deny or ignore the supernatural that Dante's full thought can be +realized even if the reader rejects the poet's spiritual teaching, +especially his doctrine of the existence of a real Heaven and a real +Hell. It is true that Dante is "such a many-sided genius that he has a +message for almost every person." It is likewise true that an +allegorical interpretation may be adopted with no belief in the +Hereafter and it may open up many fruitful lessons for the reader. That +being granted, one may still ask whether one can ignore Dante's doctrine +of future rewards and punishment and so get full satisfaction from +treating the poet's conception of the Hereafter as a mere allegory. + +The allegory presupposes that sin inevitably brings its own penalty. +But in this life virtue does not always bear its own reward nor is evil +always followed by retribution. Dante as the prophet and the preacher of +Christianity would have us understand, as Benvenuto da Imola points out, +that if the moral law is not vindicated in this life it will be in the +Hereafter, for our acts make our eternity. So the poet holds that while +this life according as it shows the soul in sin, in repentance or in +virtue may be considered allegorically Hell, Purgatory or Heaven, before +the Last Judgment a real Hell, a real Purgatory, a real Heaven is the +abode of disembodied spirits according to their demerits or merits and +after the Last Judgment, Purgatory no longer existing, souls will be in +eternal suffering in Hell or in unending joy in Heaven. + +It is not to be expected that any reader will believe that Dante's Hell +is a photograph of reality. It is a Hell largely fashioned by poetic +visions and political theories, peopled in a great measure by those who +stand in opposition to the poet's theory of government. It is not, as is +sometimes asserted, a place to which the poet consigns his personal +enemies. As Dinsmore says: "Dante had too much greatness in his soul and +too much pride (it may be) to make revenge a personal matter: he had +nothing but contempt for his own enemies and never except in the case of +Boniface VIII ... did he place a single one of them in the Inferno, not +even his judge Cante Gabriella." + +Though largely colored by his political theories Dante's Hell is also a +theological conception based on the teaching of the Catholic Church that +Hell exists as a place or state of punishment for the rebel angels and +for man dying impenitent, that is, for man in whom sin has become so +humanized that death finds him not simply in the act or habit of sin but +so transformed that in the striking words of Bossuet, "he is man made +sin." Dante fully accepted that doctrine which had been the constant +tradition and faith of the Church and had been reaffirmed in the second +ecumenical Council of Lyons held when Dante was a boy, nine years of +age. + +It is not unlikely with his precocity for knowledge and sentiment at +that age that he was deeply impressed with the history of that council +especially as its legislation also dealt with the Crusades, the union of +Churches, the reform of the Church, the appointment of a king of the +Romans and an emperor--matters of vital importance to him later. He must +have recalled that Council also with special interest, for two of his +ideal personages, Thomas Aquinas and Bonaventure met their death, one on +his way to the Council, the other while actually attending its sessions. + +In any event Dante firmly believed the doctrine of the Hereafter "that +they that have done good shall go into life everlasting and they that +have done evil, into everlasting fire." He held that the punishment of +the damned is two-fold. The greater punishment, called the pain of loss, +consists in the loss of the Beatific Vision, a suffering so great that +the genius of St. Augustine can hardly translate it in human language. +"To be separated from God," he says, "is a torment as great as the very +greatness of God." The other pain of the reprobate consists in the +torment of fire so frequently mentioned in Holy Writ. "According to the +greater number of theologians the term fire denotes a material and so a +real fire ... (but) there have never been wanting theologians who +interpret the scriptural term fire metaphorically as denoting an +incorporeal fire and thus far the Church has not censured their opinion" +(Cath. Encyclo., VIII, 211.) + +While the pain of loss and the pain of sense constitute the very essence +of the punishment of Hell, theologians teach that there are other +sufferings called accidental. The reprobate never experience v.g. the +least real pleasure nor are they ever free from the hideous presence of +one another. After the Last Judgment the lost souls will also be +tormented by union with their bodies, a union bringing about a fresh +increase of punishment. On this subject, for our information Dante +addresses Virgil his guide through Hell: "Master, will these torments +after the great sentence increase or diminish?" Virgil explains that +they will become worse because when the soul is united again to the body +there will be perfection of being and the resulting sensitiveness will +be the more intense. + +"Return unto thy science," answers Virgil, "which wills that as a thing +more perfect is the more it feels of pleasure and of pain." (Inf., VI, +40.) + +Dante also holds that only by way of exception is there any escape from +Hell once a soul is condemned. Following a legend commonly believed in +the Middle Ages that in answer to the prayers of Pope Gregory the Great, +the soul of the Emperor Trajan was delivered from Hell, Dante assumes +that God who could not save Trajan against his will, allowed his soul to +"come back to its bones" and while thus united to use its will for +salvation. So regenerated Trajan is placed by Dante, in the Heaven of +Jupiter (Par. XX 40, 7). Referring to this incident the Catholic +Encyclopedia says: "In itself it is no rejection of Catholic dogma to +suppose that God might at times by way of exception, liberate a soul +from Hell. Thus some argued from a false interpretation of I Peter III, +19 seq. that Christ freed several damned souls on the occasion of His +descent into Hell. Others were led by untrustworthy stories into the +belief that the prayers of Gregory the Great rescued the Emperor Trajan +from Hell but now theologians are unanimous in teaching that such +exceptions never take place and never have taken place" (VIII, 209.) + +As to the location of Hell it is the poet Dante and not Dante the +theologian, as we shall see later, who gives definite place and +boundaries to Hell. He knows that on this subject the Church has decided +nothing, holding to the statement of St. Augustine: "It is my opinion +that the nature of hell-fire and the location of Hell are known to no +man unless the Holy Ghost made it known to him by a special revelation." + +Dante makes his Hell big enough to hold the majority of mankind. He +thinks that the elect will be comparatively few--just numerous enough to +fill those places in heaven forfeited by the rebel angels who formed +according to his conjecture, about a tenth of the angelical host. That +their places in Heaven are already nearly filled leaving little room for +future generations Dante makes known in the words of Beatrice: + + "Behold our City's circuit, oh how vast + Behold our benches now so full that few + Are they who are henceforth lacking here." + (Par. XXX, 130.) + +His theory of restrictive salvation, it may be noted, is not in accord +with the teaching of the Church which holds that to every man God gives +grace sufficient for salvation. That is true even as affecting the +heathen and those living in place or in time far removed from the Cross. +St. Thomas Aquinas expresses this doctrine of the Church when he writes: +"If anyone who is born in a barbaric nation does what lieth in him, God +will reveal what is necessary for salvation, either by internal +inspiration or by a teacher." + +The farcical element is not wanting in the Inferno, a fact proving that +our poet, in furnishing the episodes, not superior to his age which +demanded especially in the religious plays presented in the public +square the sight of the discomfiture of the devil in scenes provoking +the audience to laughter. The best example of such farcicality occurs in +the eighth circle, fifth bolgia, where officials, traffickers in public +offices, or unjust stewards are immersed in boiling pitch. From time to +time when the fiends are not alert the reprobate here come to the +surface for a breathing or cooling spell, like dolphins on the approach +of a storm darting in the air and diving back again or like frogs with +their muzzles alone exposed and their bodies covered by the water, +resting on the banks of a stream into which they drop at the first +approach of danger. + +Getting in this way momentary relief from suffering a grafter named +Ciampolo, a former retainer of King Thibaut II of Navarre, lingered too +long and was deftly hooked by Graffiacane amid the savage exultations of +the other fiends, who proceed to maltreat the unfortunate wretch. The +hideous confusion of attacks by the demons is stopped long enough for +the poet to learn his history, and also what is more interesting to +Dante, the names of two Italians, Friar Gomita and Michel Zanche who are +likewise suffering in the boiling pitch. Ciampolo, to save himself from +further maltreatment and to escape from his captors, now has recourse to +stratagem. He promises that if they consent to withdraw out of sight he +will whistle a signal that will be recognized only by his hapless +comrades; the two Italians and five others will then come to the surface +for cool air. The fiends may then have not one, but seven to rend! The +crafty plan succeeds. The demons withdraw behind the crags and then +Ciampolo plunges deeply into the boiling pitch. Two devils, endeavoring +to swoop down upon him now beyond their reach, fall upon each other in +brutal fury, while the rest of the troop hurry to the opposite shore to +rescue the belimed pair. Here is Dante's description of the farce: + +"As dolphins, when with the arch of the back; they make sign to +mariners that they may prepare to save their ship: so now and then, to +ease the punishment, some sinner showed his back and hid in less time +than it lightens. And as at the edge of the water of a ditch, the frogs +stand only with their muzzles out, so that they hide their feet and +other bulk: thus stood on every hand the sinners; but as Barbariccia +approached, they instantly retired beneath the seething. I saw, and my +heart still shudders thereat, one linger so, as it will happen that one +frog remains while the other spouts away; and Graffiancane, who was +nearest to him, hooked his pitchy locks and haled him up, so that to me +he seemed an otter. + +"I already knew the name of every one, so well I noted them as they were +chosen, and when they called each other, listened how. 'O Rubicante, see +thou plant thy clutches on him, and flay him!' shouted together all the +accursed _crew_. And I: 'Master, learn if thou canst, who is that +piteous _wight_, fallen into the hands of his adversaries.' My Guide +drew close to (his side) and asked him whence he came; and he replied: +'I was born in the kingdom of Navarre. My mother placed me as servant of +a lord; for she had borne me to a ribald master of himself and of his +substance. Then I was domestic with the good King Thibault; here I set +myself to doing barratry, of which I render reckoning in this heat.' And +Ciriatto, from whose mouth on either side came forth a tusk as from a +hog, made him feel how one of them did rip. Amongst evil cats the mouse +had come; but Barbariccia locked him in his arms, and said: 'Stand off +whilst I enforke him!' And turning his face to my Master: 'Ask on,' he +said, 'if thou wouldst learn more from him, before some other undo him.' + +"The Guide therefore: 'Now say, of the other sinners knowest thou any +that is a Latian, beneath the pitch?' And he: 'I parted just now from +one who was a neighbour of theirs (on the other side); would I still +were covered with him, for I should not fear claw nor hook!' And +Libicocco cried: 'Too much have we endured,' and with the hook seized +his arm and mangling carried off a part of brawn. Draghignazzo, he too, +wished to have a catch at the legs below; whereat their decurion wheeled +around around with evil aspect. When they were somewhat pacified, my +Guide, without delay, asked him that still kept gazing on his wound: +'Who was he, from whom thou sayest that thou madest an ill departure to +come ashore?' And he answered: 'It was Friar Gomita, he of Gallura, +vessel of every fraud, who had his master's enemies in hand, and did so +to them that they all praise him for it: money took he for himself, and +dismissed them smoothly, as he says; and in his other offices besides, +he was no petty but a sovereign barrator. With him keeps company Don +Michel Zanche of Logodoros; and in speaking of Sardinia the tongues of +them do not feel weary. Oh me! see that other grinning; I would say +more; but fear he is preparing to claw my scurf.' And their great +Marshal, turning to Farfarello, who rolled his eyes to strike, said: +'Off with thee, villainous bird!' 'If you wish to see or hear Tuscans or +Lombards,' the frightened sinner then resumed, 'I will make them come. +But let the (evil claws hold back) a little, that they may not fear +their vengeance; and I, sitting in this same place, for one that I am, +will make seven come, on whistling, as is our wont to do, when any of us +gets out.' + +"O Reader, thou shalt hear new sport! All turned their eyes toward the +other side, he first who had been most unripe for doing it. The +Navarrese chose well his time; planted his soles upon the ground, and in +an instant leapt and from their purpose freed himself. Thereat each was +stung (with guilt); but he most who had been the cause of the mistake; +he therefore started forth, and shouted: 'Thou'rt caught!' But little it +availed (him); for wings could not outspeed the terror; the _sinner_ +went under; and he, flying, raised up his breast: not otherwise the duck +suddenly dives down, when the falcon approaches, and he returns up angry +and defeated. + +"Calcabrina, furious at the trick, kept flying after him, desirous that +the sinner might escape, to have a quarrel. And, when the barrator had +disappeared, he turned his talons on his fellow, and was clutched with +him above the ditch. But the other was indeed a sparrowhawk to claw him +well; and both dropt down into the middle of the boiling pond. The heat +at once unclutched them; but rise they could not, their wings were so +beglued. Barbariccia with the rest lamenting, made four of them fly over +to the other coast with all their drags; and most rapidly on this side, +on that, they descended to the stand; they stretched their hooks towards +the limed pair, who were already scalded within the crust; and we left +them thus embroiled." (XXII, 19.) + +The grotesque, also, plays a part in the Inferno appearing not only in +the demons taken from classical legend and deformed into caricatures, +but also in the punishment of crimes, v.g. simony and malfeasance in +public office, regarded by our poet as malicious in themselves and +grotesque in their perversity. + +Readers who regard the grotesque as a repelling element in the Inferno +may be surprised to learn that Ruskin considers this feature of Dante's +writings an expression of the highest human genius. The great English +critic writes: + +"I believe that there is no test of greatness in nations, periods, nor +men more sure than the development, among them or in them of a noble +grotesque, and no test of comparative smallness or limitation, of one +kind or another, more sure than the absence of grotesque invention or +incapability of understanding it. I think that the central man of all +the world, as representing in perfect balance and imaginative, moral and +intellectual faculties, all at their highest is Dante; and in him the +grotesque reaches at once the most distinct and the most noble +development to which it was ever brought in the human mind. Of the +grotesqueness of our own Shakespeare I need hardly speak, nor of its +intolerableness to his French critics; nor of that of Æschylus and +Homer, as opposed to the lower Greek writers; and so I believe it will +be found, at all periods, in all minds of the first order." + +Dante's doctrine of punishment presupposes certain primary truths which +the Church proclaims today as she did in Dante's day. According to the +Florentine's creed, man must answer to God for his moral life because he +has free will. He cannot excuse his evil deed on the ground of +necessity. Even in the face of planetary influence and of temptation +from within, by his evil inclinations, and from without by solicitation +of other agents man has still such discernment between good and evil and +such power to make choice freely, that moral judgment with him is free. +"Who hath been tried thereby and made perfect," says Holy Writ, "he +shall have glory everlasting. He that could have transgressed, and hath +not transgressed and could do evil things, and hath not done them." +(Eccli., XXXI, 10.) + +Against this doctrine of free will the sociology, the philosophy and the +medical science of the present day contend with a theory which minimizes +man's accountability for sin if it does not wholly excuse him as the +victim of heredity, environment or society. Literature also, as +reflected not only in the Greek tragedies but in the writings of authors +from Shakespeare to Shaw portray the evil doer as the victim of fate or +determinism. + +Against all such theories and views Dante appears as the fearless, +uncompromising champion of the doctrine of the greatness of man in the +exercise of the divine gift of Free Will. His own life, showing how he +had won victory over the forces of poverty and persecution, is symbolic +of the glorious truth he would teach; viz., that man, endowed with free +will and animated with the grace of God, is master of his destiny and +cannot be defeated even by principalities and powers. So he tells us, +"And free will which if it endure fatigue in the first battles with the +heavens, afterwards if it be well nurtured, conquers everything." +(Purg., XVI, 76.) He makes Beatrice testify to the supremacy of the +will: "The greatest gift which God in His bounty bestowed in creating +and that which He prizes most, was the freedom of will with which the +creatures that have intelligence--they all and they alone--were +endowed." (Cf. Purg., XVIII, 66-73.) + +But such a distinctive endowment may be the the curse of man if he fails +to use it rightly. Like Job, Dante insists that life is a warfare. +Victory is possible only by the right exercise of the will enlightened +by God. Defeat is sure if the will embraces sin. To Dante sin is not a +mere vulgarity or the violation of a social convention or "a soft +infirmity of the blood." "Very hateful to his fervid heart and sincere +mind," says James Russell Lowell, "would have been the modern theory +which deals with sin as involuntary error." To Dante sin is the greatest +evil of the world--not only because it is the source of all other evils, +but because it is at once the denaturing of man--the damned are +characterized as "the woeful people who have lost the good of the +understanding" (Inf., III, 18), and it is also a defiance of God. Sin, +then, is Atheism--a rejection of God, with a conviction that pleasure or +happiness can be attained outside of God, independent of God and in +opposition to God. Apart from the inspired writers of Holy Writ it is +doubtful whether any other writer ever had such an awful sense of sin +and such a vivid vision of sin and its consequences as Dante has given +to the world in a picture which has burned terror into the thought of +man. + +To show us that life is a warfare against sin, Dante gives us several +striking pictures of temptation and heavenly deliverance from evil. At +the very beginning of the Divine Comedy, we see his ascent to the +mountain of the Lord barred by Lust, Pride and Avarice represented by a +leopard, a lion, and a wolf. He is victorious over those enemies of his +salvation because Reason (Virgil) and Beatrice (Revelation) come to his +aid. Temptation is also exhibited in Ante-Purgatorio and that is the +more remarkable because both as a theologian and a poet Dante holds that +the present life is the end of man's probation and that as a +consequence, temptation is not to be encountered in the next life. Why +it is put forth in Ante-Purgatorio is explained by the theory that our +poet here nods, that he means, not the actual Purgatory of disembodied +spirits, but moral Purgatory, _i.e._, the present life wherein man, +striving upward, is attacked by temptation to keep him from the end for +which God created him. + +Showing temptation in Ante-Purgatorio, the poet gives us a picture of +souls protected by two angels against the serpent. Here is the scene: + + "Now was the hour that wakens fond desire + In men at sea, and melts their thoughtful heart + Who in the morn have bid sweet friends farewell, + And pilgrim newly on his road with love + Thrills, if he hear the vesper bell from far, + That seems to mourn for the expiring day": + A band of souls approach: + "I saw that gentle band silently next + Look up, as if in expectation held, + Pale and in lowly guise; and, from on high, + I saw, forth issuing descend beneath, + Two angels, with two flame-illumined swords, + Broken and mutilated of their points. + Green as the tender leaves but newly born, + Their vesture was, the which, by wings as green + Beaten, they drew behind them, fann'd in air. + A little over us one took his stand; + The other lighted on the opposing hill; + So that the troop were in the midst contain'd. + But in their visages the dazzled eye + Was lost, as faculty that by too much + Is overpower'd. 'From Mary's bosom both + Are come,' exclaimed Sordello, 'as a guard + Over the vale, 'gainst him, who hither tends, + The serpent.' Whence, not knowing by which path + He came, I turn'd me round; and closely press'd, + All frozen, to my leader's trusted side." + +After describing an interview with one of the souls, the poet continues +his narrative: + + "While yet he spoke, Sordello to himself + Drew him, and cried: 'Lo there our enemy!' + And with his hand pointed that way to look + Along the side, where barrier none arose + Around the little vale, a serpent lay, + Such haply as gave Eve the bitter food. + Between the grass and flowers, the evil snake + Came on, reverting oft his lifted head; + And, as a beast that smooths its polish'd coat. + Licking his back. I saw not, nor can tell, + How those celestial falcons from their seat + Moved, but in motion each one well described. + Hearing the air cut by their verdant plumes, + The serpent fled; and, to their stations, back + The angels up return'd with equal flight." + (Purg., VIII.) + +A third picture of temptation is furnished by the episode of one of the +Sirens who appears first repulsive and then seems to the poet sweet and +alluring. Only when Virgil discloses her hideous nature does Dante see +how easily he might have fallen a victim to her wiles. He tells us that +in his sleep there appeared to him a woman with stammering utterance, +squinting eyes, deformed hands. "I gazed at her, and as the sun restores +the cold limbs made heavy by night, thus my look loosened her tongue, +then straightened her all out in a little while and colored her wan face +as love demands. When her speech was thus unbound she began to sing so +that I could hardly have turned my attention from her. 'I am,' she sang, +'I am sweet Siren who bewitch sailors by mid-sea, so full am I of charm +to hear. By my song I turned Ulysses from his wandering way. And +whosoever abides with me seldom departs, so wholly do I satisfy him.' +Her lips were not yet closed when a lady, swift and holy, appeared at my +side to confound the other. 'O Virgil, Virgil, who is this?' she said +proudly; and he advanced with his eyes fixed only on this modest woman." +Virgil (Reason called by Conscience) comes to the rescue of the +entranced poet and reveals the Siren in all her foul ugliness. At that +Dante awakes from his dream more than ever convinced of the evil of sin +and its hideousness. (Purg., XIX, 9.) + +Our poet, as we said, is firmly convinced that sin will be punished in +Hell. But where is Hell? Popular tradition attributing an infernal +connection with volcanic phenomena and moved by those passages in Holy +Scripture which describe Hell as a place to which the reprobate descend, +locates Hell in the interior of the earth. Dante not only follows this +tradition for his Hell, but he does what no other writer before or after +him ever did--he constructs a Hell with such rare architectural skill +that the awful structure stands forth in startling reality, visualized +easily as to form an atmosphere, and with a finish of detail that is +amazing. Covered by a crust of earth it is situated under Jerusalem and +extends in funnel shape to the very center of the earth. + +How it got this shape is told by the poet. When Lucifer was hurled from +Heaven by the justice of God, he kept falling until he reached the +center of earth, whence further motion downward was impossible. At the +approach of Lucifer the earth is represented as recoiling and so making +the cavity of Hell. The earth dislodged by the cataclysm was forced +through an opening, a kind of nozzle of the funnel of Hell, to the +antipodes and it there emerged, forming a mountain, which became the +site of the Garden of Eden and Purgatory. The phenomenon made land in +the northern and water in the southern hemisphere. Here is the +description: + + "Upon this side he fell down out of heaven + And all the land, that whilom here emerged + For fear of him made of the sea a veil + And came to our hemisphere; and peradventure + To flee from him, what on this side + Left the place vacant here and back recoiled." + (Inf., XXXIV, 121.) + +The material structure of the Inferno is a series of nine concentric +circles--darkness brooding over the whole region,--with ledges, chasms, +pits, swamps and rivers. The rivers, though different in name and +aspect, appear to be one and the same stream winding its way through the +various circles. We see it first as the boundary of Hell proper and it +is known as the Acheron. It comes again to view in the fourth circle and +is called the Styx. In the seventh circle, second round, it emerges as +the red blood stream of Phlegethon. In the very depths of Hell it forms +the frozen lake of Cocytus. The circles of Hell, distant from one +another, decrease in circumference as descent is made--the top circle +being the widest. Galileo estimates that Dante's Hell is about 4,000 +miles in depth and as many in breadth at its widest diameter. Its +opening is near the forest at the Fauces Averni, near Cuma, Italy, where +Virgil places the site of the entrance of his Inferno. + +Dante's Hell in its moral aspect is Aristotelian. Sins are divided into +three great classes, incontinence, bestiality and malice. Incontinence +is punished in the five upper circles; bestiality and malice in the City +of Dis, lower Hell. More particularly stated, Dante's scheme of +punishment in the underworld, not considering the vestibule of Hell, +where neutrals are confined, is as follows: 1, Limbo; 2, The Circle of +Lust; 3, Gluttony; 4, Avarice and Prodigality; 5, Anger, Rage and Fury; +6, Unbelief and Heresy; 7, Violence; 8, Fraud; 9, Treason. + +In regard to this plan of punishment three things are to be noted: (a) +Though generally following the teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas, here +Dante, in his conception of Limbo, differs from his master. Our poet's +Limbo, wherein are the souls of unbaptized children and others who died +stained with original sin, but without personal grievous guilt, is a +much more severe abode than that of the Angelic Doctor. The latter +teaches that Limbo is a place or a state, not merely of exemption from +suffering and sorrow, but of perfect natural happiness unbroken even by +a knowledge of a higher, a supernatural destiny that has never been +given. Dante's Limbo, on the other hand, represents the souls in sadness +brought about by their constant desire and hope never realizable, of +seeing God. They suffer no pain of sense, but they are baffled in their +endless yearning for the Beatific Vision. To quote Dante: + + "There, in so far as I had power to hear, + Were lamentations none, but only sighs + That tremulous made the everlasting air. + And this arose from sorrow without torment, + Which the crowds had, that many were and great, + Of infants and of women and of men. + To me the Master good: 'Thou dost not ask + What spirits these may be, which thou beholdest? + Now will I have thee know, ere thou go farther, + That they sinned not; and if they merit had, + 'T is not enough, because they had not baptism, + Which is the portal of the Faith thou holdest; + And if they were before Christianity, + In the right manner they adored not God; + And among such as these am I myself. + For such defects, and not for other guilt, + Lost are we, and are only so far punished, + That without hope we live on in desire.'" + (IV, 25.) + +(b) Our poet represents a soul as punished but for one sin, though it +may be guilt-dyed by its having broken all the commandments. Even so, it +is placed in one particular circle wherein a certain sin is punished and +we are not told that it passes to other circles. In explanation of this +we have only to remember that Dante, for our instruction, is showing us +object lessons of evil, types of certain sins. Judas, for example, whose +name is synonymous with traitor, is exhibited as suffering in the ninth +circle, the circle of treason, the poet taking no notice of other sins, +v.g., sacrilege, avarice, suicide, of which the fallen apostle may have +been guilty. Furthermore, Dante as a master psychologist and moralist +would teach us the lesson that the evil doer may come to damnation +through one sin if that acquires such an ascendency over his will as to +become a capital sin or predominant passion of his life. Then the +besetting passion is the father of an innumerable progeny of evil. This +is seen (Purg., XX, 103) in the case of Pygmalion, whose predominant +passion, avarice, made him a traitor, a thief and a parricide. + +(c) Let us not be surprised that Dante is so lenient in the punishment +of carnal sinners. He assigns a lighter punishment to the unchaste than +to the unjust. Back of his plan is a sound theological doctrine. Guilt +is to be estimated not simply from the gravity of the matter prohibited +to conscience and the knowledge that one has of the evil, but more +especially from the malice displayed by the will in its voluntary +choosing and embracing the evil. Now impurity, it is held, is often a +sin of impulse. It springs from concupiscence, a common human +inclination, wrong only when there is inordinateness. Then though a man +freely consents to the temptation and thereby commits a grievous sin, +his will generally is not overcast with perversion or affected with +malice. That being so, Dante in assigning punishment for sins against +the virtue of purity is moved by the thought that such sins deserve a +milder punishment in Hell, because they may be oftener surprises than +infidelities. + +To make known the nature of the particular sin he depicts Dante shows us +the evil in various phases. First of all it is personified in repulsive +demons, the guardians of the circles of Hell. At the very entrance, +sits, symbolizing the evil conscience, the sinners' judge "Minos +horrific and grins. The ill-born spirit comes before him, confesses all +and that sin-discerner (Minos) sees what place in Hell is for it, and +with his tail makes as many circles round himself as the degrees he will +have it descend." (Inf., V, 2.) In the circle of Gluttony, the sin is +symbolized by the three-headed monster Cerberus, "who clutches the +spirits, flays and piecemeal rends them." + +Plutus, the ancient god of riches--"a cursed wolf"--commands the circle +of Avarice. Phlegyas, who in fury set fire to Apollo's temple, is head +of the circle of Anger. Symbolizing remorse, the three Furies, in the +semblance of women girt with green water snakes, with snakes for hair, +and the Gorgon Medusa, representing the heart-hardening effect of +sensual pleasures, are found on the fire-glowing towers of the City of +Dis, Inner Hell. In the seventh circle presides Minotaur, half-man, +half-bull, the symbol of bloodthirsty violence and brutal lust. + +Fraud is typified by Geryon, having the face of an honest man and the +body of a dragon. Further down giants are seen, emblematic of the +enormity of crime. At the very lowest point of Hell is Lucifer, "emperor +of the Realm of Sorrow." A gigantic monster, he is imprisoned in ice +formed from rivers which freeze by the movements of his bat-like wings +flapping in vain efforts to raise himself. To him, as to the source of +all evil, flow back all the streams of guilt. As he sinned against the +Tri-une God, he is represented with three faces, one crimson, another +between white and yellow, and the third black. (XXXIV, 55.) + +Not only by such terrible monsters, but by the environment of the +condemned sinner, does our poet reveal the hideousness of sin. To +mention only the three great divisions of Hell, the abodes of +incontinence, bestiality and malice, we find in murky gloom the +incontinent whose sin had darkened their understanding. In the City of +Dis, red with fire, are the violent and the bestial, who in this life +had burned either with consuming rage or unnatural passion; in the +frozen circle of malice are those whose sins had congealed human +sympathy and love into cold, calculating destruction of trust reposed in +them. + +But it is principally by depicting the intellectual, the moral and the +physical sufferings of the damned that Dante would teach us the nature +of sin. To depict physical sufferings the poet was under the necessity +of creating provisional bodies for his damned. Without such a poetic +device the souls of the reprobate before the resurrection of their +bodies cannot be conceived to suffer physically, since they lack the +senses and organs of pain. So Dante pictures the damned united to forms +shadowy yet real, palpable and visible. They sometimes lose the human +semblance and assume more sinister shapes, grovelling as hideous +serpents, bleeding and wailing from shrubs and trees, or bubbling in a +slushing stream. + +In such forms the souls are seen in punishment fitting their sin, on the +principle that "by what things a man sinneth by the same he is +tormented." (Wisdom XI, 17.) The unchaste because they allowed their +reason to be subjected to the hot blasts of passion are now driven by "a +hellish storm which never rests; whirling and smiting, it vexes them." +(Inf., V, 31.) The gluttonous howl like dogs as hail and rain and snow +beat down upon them and Cerberus attacks and rends them. The misers and +spendthrifts to whom money was king, now are occupied in rolling huge +stones in opposite directions. The wrathful, all muddy and naked, assail +and tear one another. + +The sullen are fixed in slime and gurgle a dismal chant. The materialist +and the heretic, whose existence, Dante holds, was only a living death, +are confined in blazing tombs. Murderers and tyrants are immersed in +boiling blood. + +With poetic justice, suicides are represented as stunted trees lacerated +by the beaks of foul harpies. The violent lie supine on a plain of dry +and dense sand, upon which descend flakes of fire like "snow in the +Alps, without a wind." Usurers--should we call them profiteers?--suffer +also from a rain of fire and carry about their necks money bags stamped +with armorial designs. Thieves, to remind them of their sneaking trade, +are repeatedly transformed from men into snakes, hissing and creeping. +Hypocrites march in slow procession with faces painted and with leaden +cloaks all glittering with gold on the outside. With such realism does +Dante declare the nature of sin and its inevitable consequences. + +Let us now accompany Dante through the Underworld. The scene opens at +dawn in a dark and tangled wood. Dante, the type of humanity, is unable +to ascend the Hill of the Lord, as we said before, because his way is +barred successively by a leopard, a lion and a wolf, representing the +passions of life. Virgil (Reason), sent by Beatrice (Revelation), offers +to conduct the poet by another road. It is a way which leads through +Hell and Purgatory. Through the heavens Beatrice herself will be the +guide. Descending through the earth the two poets come to the Vestibule +of Hell. On the gate appears this inscription: + + "Through me you pass into the city of woe + Through me you pass into eternal pain + Through me among the people lost for aye + Justice, the founder of my fabric, moved + To rear me was the task of Power divine, + Supremest wisdom and primeval Love + Before me things create were none, save things + Eternal, and eternal I endure. + All hope abandon, ye who enter here." + +It may be said in passing that in these nine lines Dante attains an +effect for which Milton, with all his heavy description of the gateway +of Hell, labors in vain. Contrast with the Florentine's the words of the +author of Paradise Lost: + + "Hell bounds high reaching to the horrid roof + And thrice three fold the gates: three folds were brass, + Three iron, three of adamantine rock. + Impenetrable, impaled with circling fire, + Yet unconsumed. Before the gate there sat + On either side a formidable shape," etc. + +Not by gigantic images which only astonish the reader, but by words +which burn into the brain and leave him dismayed, does our poet drive +home his thought. + +Passing through a crowd of neutrals the poets come to the river Acheron, +where assemble those who die in mortal sin, to be ferried over by the +demon Charon. He refuses passage to Dante: "By other ways, by other +ferries, shalt thou pass over, a lighter boat must carry thee." (Inf., +III, 91.) An earthquake occurs, accompanied with wind and lightning, and +Dante falls into a state of insensibility. Upon coming to consciousness +he finds himself on the brink of the Abyss, whence the poets enter +Limbo. Here Christ descended, Virgil says, and "drew from us the shade +of our first parent, of Abel, his son; that of Noah, of Moses, the +lawgiver, the obedient; patriarch Abraham and King David; Israel, with +his father, and with his sons and with Rachel, for whom he wrought much, +and many others and made them blessed." (Inf., IV, 55.) + +In the second circle, where carnal sinners are punished, Dante sees, +among others, Semiramis, Dido, Cleopatra, Helen, Achilles, Paris. The +poet's attention is suddenly attracted by two spirits, who prove to be +Francesca da Rimini and her lover, Paolo, murdered by her husband when +Dante was twenty-four years old. The scandal of their illicit love and +the penalty they paid by their lives must have been so generally known +that Dante, though attached to her family by the memory of hospitality +received from her nephew, Guido Novello da Polenta, the lord of Ravenna, +is dominated by the necessity of declaring in Francesca and Paolo the +operation of the unalterable law which rules the terrible consequences +of crime unforgiven by Heaven. Was it gratitude for kindness extended to +him, an exile, by the Lord of Ravenna, or was it the memory of +association with the brother of Francesca, at the battle of Campaldino, +that led our poet to treat the whole episode of the fatal liaison with +such tender sympathy for the unfortunate lady that he hoped to +rehabilitate her memory? In any event, the poet represents himself as +gracious and benign when addressing Francesca, and she, moved by his +friendly attitude, tells the story of her intrigue, in lines justly +regarded as the most beautiful ever written in verse. The reader will +not fail to observe that the fatal denouement is only hinted, not +told--the line, "that day we read no more," making what is admitted to +be the finest ellipsis in all the literature of the world. + + "Then turning, I to them, my speech address'd + And thus began: 'Francesca! Your sad fate + Even to tears my grief and pity moves. + But tell me, in the time of your sweet sighs, + By what and how Love granted that ye knew + Your yet uncertain wishes.' She replied: + 'No greater grief than to remember days + Of joy, when misery is at hand. Yet so eagerly + If thou art bent to know the primal root + From whence our love gat being, I will do + As one who weeps and tells his tale. One day + For our delight, we read of Lancelot, + How him love thrall'd. Alone we were, and no + Suspicion near us. Oft times by that reading + Our eyes were drawn together, and the hue + Fled from our alter'd cheek. But at one point + Alone we fell. When of that smile, we read, + The wish'd smile so rapturously kiss'd + By one so deep in love, then he who ne'er + From me shall separate, at once my lips + All trembling kiss'd. The book and writer both + Were love's purveyors. In its leaves that day + We read no more.' While thus one spirit spake, + The other wail'd so sorely, that heart-struck + I through compassion fainting, seem'd not far + From death, and like a corse fell to the ground." + +In the next circle where, with faces to the ground, the gluttons suffer +in a ceaseles storm, the shade of Ciacco, the Florentine, sits up as he +recognizes a fellow-citizen: + + "He said to me: 'Thy City which is filled + With envy, like a sack that overflows, + Once held me in its tranquil life, well skilled + In dainties, and a glutton, and by those + Who dwelt there Ciacco called, but now the blows + Of this fierce rain avenge my wasteful sin. + Sad as I am, full many another knows + For a like crime like penalty within + This circle', and more word he spake not." (VI, 49.) + +In the fourth circle the poet sees the souls of the prodigal and +avaricious rolling heavy stones, against each other with mutual +recriminations: + + "Almighty Justice! in what store thou heap'st + New pains, new troubles, as I here beheld, + Wherefore doth fault of ours bring us to this? + E'en as a billow, on Charybdis rising + Against encountered billow dashing breaks; + Such is the dance this wretched race must lead + Whom more than elsewhere numerous here I found." + (VII, 19.) + +The next is the circle of the wrathful and the sullen. Following is the +circle of the materialists and heretics, all covered with burning +sepulchres: + + "Soon as I was within, I cast around + My eyes and saw extend on either hand + A spacious plain, that echoed to the sound + Of grief and torment sore; as o'er the land + At Aries where Rhone's vast waters stagnant stand + Or Pola, near Quarnero Bay, that bounds + And bathes the line of Italy, expand + Plains rough and heaving with supulchral mounds, + 'Tis thus the plain, wherein I stood, with tombs abounds, + Save that the buried were more grimly treated. + For twixt the graves were scattered tongues of fire + By which to such a pitch the place was heated + That iron could no fiercer flame require + For art to mould it: lamentation dire + Issued from each unlidded vault, and seemed + The voice of those in torment." + +From one of these fiery tombs, the Florentine freethinker, the haughty +Farinata, rises "with breast and brow erect, as holding Hell in great +contempt," and tells Dante that the souls of the lost have no knowledge +concerning things that are actually passing on earth, though they know +the past and see the future. He foretells the duration of the poet's +exile and boasts that he himself saved Florence from being razed to the +ground. + + "When all decreed that Florence should be laid + in ruin I alone with fearless face defended her." + (X, 91.) + +In the seventh circle Virgil leads Dante to the river of blood, "in +which boils every one who by violence injures others." Centaurs, half +horses and half men, are there. "Around the fosse they go by thousands, +piercing with their arrows whatever spirit wrenches itself out of the +blood farther than its guilt has allotted for it." (XII, 73.) With +characteristic realism the poet describes Chiron, one of the leaders of +the Centaurs, pushing back with an arrow his beard as he prepares to +speak: + + "Chiron took an arrow, and with the notch put back his beard upon + his jaws. When he had uncovered his great mouth, he said to his + companions: 'Have ye perceived that the one behind (Dante) moves + what he touches? The feet of the dead are not wont to do so.'" + (XII, 76.) + +In the third round of Circle VII Dante meets his friend Brunetto Latini, +punished for unnatural offences. + + "I remembered him and toward his face + My hand inclining, answered: Ser Brunetto! + And are ye here? He thus to me: 'My son! + Oh let it not displease thee, if Brunetto + Latini but a little space with thee + Turn back, and leave his fellows to proceed.' + I thus to him replied: 'Much as I can, + I thereto pray thee: and if thou be willing + That I here seat me with thee, I consent: + His leave with whom I journey, first obtain'd.' + 'O Son,' said he, 'whoever of this throng + One instant stops, lies then a hundred years, + No fan to ventilate him, when the fire + Smitest sorest. Pass thou therefore on. I close + Will at thy garments walk and then rejoin + My troup, who go mourning their endless doom.'" + + * * * * * + + "Were all my wish fulfill'd," I straight replied, + Thou from the confines of man's nature yet + Hadst not been driven forth; for in my mind + Is fix'd, and now strikes full upon my heart, + The dear, benign, paternal image, such + As thine was, when so lately thou didst teach me + The way for man to win eternity: + And how I prized the lesson, it behoves, + That, long as life endures, my tongue should speak. + (XV, 28.) + +The eighth circle is known as Malebolge, Evil Pouches, of which there +are ten. Here are punished differently panders, seducers, flatterers, +simonists, magicians, cheats, hypocrites, thieves, evil-counsellors, +forgers. + +In the ninth circle, the abode of traitors, which comprises four +divisions, named respectively after Cain (Caina), Antenor of Troy +(Antenora), Ptolemy of Jericho (Tolomea), and Judas Iscariot (Giudecca), +Dante sees in the second division, Antenora, the shade of the traitor +Ugolino imprisoned in ice with his enemy, Archbishop Ruggieri, by whom +he was betrayed. Ugolino, with his two sons and two grandsons, were +locked in the Tower of Famine at Pisa, the key of the prison was thrown +into the river and the prisoners began their term of starvation ending +in death. The story of the imprisonment and the death of the five +prisoners is one of the most tragic recitals in the domain of +literature. In the passage I quote, Ugolino is relating his feelings +when he finds himself imprisoned with his sons and grandsons in the +Tower of Famine. + + "When I awoke before the morn, that day, + I heard my little sons, who shared my cell, + For bread, even in their slumber, moaning pray; + Hard art thou, if unmoved thou hearest me tell + The message that my heart had guessed too well! + If this thou feel not, what can make thee feel? + And when we all were risen, the hour befell + At which was brought to us the morning meal, + Yet each one doubted sore what might their dreams reveal. + + And as the locking of the gate I heard + Beneath that terrible tower, I gazed alone + Into my children's faces, without a word. + I wept not, for within I turned to stone; + But saw that they were weeping every one; + 'Twas then my darling little Anselm cried: + 'You look so, father! Say, what have they done?' + Still not a tear I shed, nor word replied + That day, nor till that night in next day's dawning died. + + And as there shot into this prison drear + A little sunbeam, by whose light I caught + My look upon four faces mirrored clear; + Both of my hands I bit, by grief o'erwrought. + Then suddenly they rose as if they thought + I did it hungering; 'Less our misery,' + They cried, 'Should'st thou on us feed, who are nought + But creatures vested in our flesh by thee: + Then strip away the weeds that still thine own must be.' + + It calmed me to make them feel less their fate; + Two days we spent in silence all forlorn; + Earth, Earth, oh wherefore wert thou obdurate, + And would'st not open! On the following morn + Gaddo, before my face, from life was torn! + 'Can you not help me, father?' first he cried, + And perished; then, I saw the younger born, + Three, one by one, fall ere the sixth day sped-- + Plainly as you see me, and this accursed head. + + 'Already blind, I fondly grope my way + To them, and for three days their names I call + After their death; then famine found its prey + And did what sorrow could not.' This was all + He said." + (XXXIII, 35.) + +And now we come with the poets to the lowest depths of Hell, where we +see imprisoned in ice Lucifer, huge and hideous. As we gaze on mankind's +enemy, an archangel fallen and punished for sin, the words of Isaias +come to mind: "How art thou fallen from Heaven, O Lucifer, who did'st +rise in the morning! How art thou fallen to the earth, that did'st wound +the nations. And thou saidst within thy heart, 'I will ascend into +Heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God--I will be like +the most High. But yet thou shalt be brought down to Hell, into the very +depth of the pit." (Is., XIV, 12.) + +Let us see how Dante puts Lucifer "into the very depth of the pit." + + "The lamentable kingdom's emperor + Issued from out the ice with half his breast; + And with a giant more do I compare + Than with his arms do giants; therefore see + How great must be that whole which corresponds + Unto a part so fashioned. If he was + As beautiful as he is ugly now, + And raised his brows against his Maker, sure + All sorrowfulness must proceed from him. + Ah! how great marvel unto me it seemed + When I beheld three faces to his head! + The one before, and that was vermeil-hue; + Two were the others which adjoined to this, + Over the midst of either shoulder, and + They made the joining where the crown is placed. + And between white and yellow seemed the right; + The left was such an one to be beheld + As come from there wherein the Nile is sunk. + There issued under each two mighty wings, + Such as 'twas fitting for so great a bird: + I never saw the sails of shipping such. + They had not feathers, but the mode thereof + Was like a bat's; and these he fluttered so + That from him there was moved a threefold wind: + Cocytus all was frozen over hence. + With six eyes wept he, and three chins along + The weeping trickled, and a bloody foam. + At every mouth he shattered with his teeth + A sinner, in the manner of a brake, + So that he thus made woful three of them. + The biting for the foremost one was nought + Unto the scratching, for at times the spine + Remained of all the skin completely stripped. + 'That soul above which has most punishment + Is,' said my lord, 'Judas Iscariot, + Who has his head within, and outside plies + His legs. O' the other two, whose head is down, + Brutus is he who from the black head hangs; + See how he writhes, and does not speak a word: + The other's Cassius, who appears, so gaunt,'" + (XXXIV, 28-67) + +Now that the lesson is learned that the wages of sin is death, that sin +will find a man out and bring him to the judgment of God, the gracious +guide can release his companion from his awful contemplation. + +"Now it is time for us to go," says Virgil, "for we have seen all." By a +secret path leading to Purgatory the pilgrims make their way through the +darkness, guided by the encouraging murmur of running water. It is a +streamlet of discarded sin, flowing constantly from Purgatory, whence +wickedness is washed down to its original Satanic source. + + "By that hidden way + My guide and I did enter, to return + To the fair world; and heedless of repose + We climb'd, he first, I following his steps, + Till on our view the beautiful lights of Heaven + Dawn'd through a circular opening in the cave + Thence issuing we again beheld the stars." + + + + +DANTE'S PURGATORIO + + + + +DANTE'S PURGATORIO + + +Purgatory, as a doctrine, is peculiar to the Catholic Church; Purgatory, +as a discipline from sin to virtue, is a practice followed by a large +portion of humanity. The latter fact explains why so many who reject the +dogma, still love and admire Dante's Purgatorio, which, while it teaches +the doctrine of the intermediate state, also serves as an allegory, the +most helpful and beautiful allegory, perhaps, in the literature of the +world. In the opinion of Dean Stanley, it is the most religious book he +ever read. It makes a peculiar appeal to the modern mind because, as +Grandgent says: "It's theme is betterment, release from sin and +preparation for Heaven" ... (and) "its atmosphere is rightly one of hope +and progress." + +Dinsmore declares: "Purgatory as a place may not exist in our system of +thought, but life is a cleansing process if we take its hardships in a +proper spirit." In another place he asserts: "In pondering the way of +life by which this high priest of the Middle Ages (Dante) proclaims that +men attain perfect liberty, we cannot but remark the stress he lays +upon a principle which has well-nigh faded from the Protestant mind. It +is that of expiation--(and) expiation is no musty dogma of the +schoolmen, but a living truth.... Dante placed more emphasis on the +human side of the problem than we, and for this reason he deserves +attentive study, having portrayed most powerfully some truths which our +age, so eager to break from the narrowness of the past, has overlooked." + +In agreement with this statement of the learned Congregational divine is +William T. Harris, former United States Commissioner of Education, who +observes in his "Spiritual Sense of the Divina Commedia," that if +Purgatory is absent from the Protestant creed, the thought of which +Purgatory in this life is the symbol, is not uncommon in non-Catholic +literature. His exact words are: "If Protestantism has omitted Purgatory +from its religion, certainly Protestant literature has taken it up and +absorbed it entire," and for proof he points to the moral, among other +books, of The Scarlet Letter, The Marble Faun, Adam Bede and Romola, all +showing + + "That men may rise on stepping stones + Of their dead selves to higher things." + +Dante, the theologian, makes his allegory grow out of the doctrine of +Purgatory. According to the teaching of the Catholic Church, temporal +punishment is connected with sin. Even when the guilt of sin is +forgiven, the justice of God in most cases calls for amends by means of +the temporal punishment of the sinner. Holy Writ gives us instances of +the operation of this law. Adam, though brought out of his disobedience +(Wisdom X, 2) was condemned "to eat bread in the sweat of his face" +(Gen. III, 19) to his dying day. Moses and Aaron were forgiven for their +sin of incredulity, but they were punished by being deprived of the +glory of entering "the Land of Promise." (Num., XX, 12.) To King David, +perfectly contrite, the prophet Nathan announces in the name of God, the +forgiveness of the guilt of adultery and murder, yet he must suffer for +his sin. "Nathan said to David: 'The Lord also hath taken away thy sin. +Thou shalt not die. Nevertheless, because thou hast given occasion to +the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme for this thing, the child shall +die,' and it came to pass on the seventh day that the child died" (II +Kings XII, 13.) + +From these instances it is evident that when God forgives the guilt of +sins and the eternal punishment due to such of them as are mortal, He +does not remove the temporal punishment which must be satisfied in this +life or in the life to come. That is true, the Church teaches, even of +unrepented venial sin with its debt of temporal punishment. While +venial sin does not destroy the supernatural life of the soul and while, +therefore, it is not said to be punishable in Hell, still it is sin in +the sight of Him "whose eyes are too pure to behold evil." (Hab., I, +13.) Now the Church has ever held that into Heaven "there shall not +enter anything defiled." (Apoc., XXI, 27.) Likewise, she has taught that +Hell is the eternal punishment of souls whose grievous guilt has not +been forgiven. It follows, therefore, according to her teachings, that +there must be a middle state for the cleansing of unrepented venial sins +and for the satisfaction of sins already forgiven but not wholly +expiated. + +This state or place is called Purgatory, the belief in the existence of +which is confirmed by the practice of praying for the dead, a practice +based on the teachings of the Old and of the New Testament. In the +second book of Maccabees (XII, 43, 46) we read that Judas, the general +of the Hebrew army, "sent twelve thousand drachms of silver to Jerusalem +for sacrifice to be offered for the sins of the dead, thinking well and +religiously concerning the resurrection. (For if he had not hoped that +they that were slain should rise again, it would have seemed superfluous +and vain to pray for the dead.) And because he considered that they who +had fallen asleep with godliness had great grace laid up for them. It +is, therefore, a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead that +they may be loosed from sins." + +This doctrine presupposes that the dead for whom prayer is profitable +are neither in Heaven, the abode of the elect, nor in Hell, from which +release is not possible, but in a state of purification, lasting for a +time. The New Testament alludes to that state. Christ declares: "And +whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of Man, it shall be +forgiven him; but he that shall speak against the Holy Ghost, it shall +not be forgiven him, neither in this world nor in the world to come." +(Matt., XII, 32.) These words imply that there is a future state in +which some sins are purged away, while there is another state (Hell) in +which the punishment is eternal. The words of St. Paul: "If any man's +work burn, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so +as by fire" (1 Cor., III, 15), are interpreted to mean the existence of +a middle state in which unforgiven venial sins and the temporal +punishment due to sin will be burnt away and the soul thus purified will +attain eternal life. + +To state the doctrine of the Church briefly, let it be said that the +Church has defined that there is a Purgatory and that the souls in +Purgatory are helped by the suffrages of the faithful. + +Out of facts so general, Dante the poet, has created a Purgatory wholly +unique in the realms of literature, and amazingly definite as to place, +form, atmosphere, inhabitants and their activities. In the southern +hemisphere, at the very antipodes of Jerusalem, out of an ocean on which +there is no other land (according to Dante's system of cosmography) +springs the island of Purgatory, redolent with flowers, lovely with +music, peace keeping pace with penance over all the region. Not a flat, +unbroken plain is this island, but a mountain whose shores are washed by +the ocean, from which the earth forced from the interior by Lucifer's +fall, rises in a truncated conical structure. While its coast and the +land below the terraces are within the zone of air, its heights extend +into the sphere of fire and its crown is the Garden of Eden. The lowest +part of the mountain called Ante-Purgatorio is the abode of the +procrastinators and the excommunicated who put off their repentance to +the end and now must suffer a proportionate delay before they are +permitted to begin their ascent, their work of purification. + +Purification begins only after the soul passes into Purgatory proper. At +the entrance is St. Peter's gate, guarded by an angel, who, with his +sword inscribes on the brow of the penitent seven times the letter P, +the first letter of the word Peccatum, signifying sin. These seven P's, +outward signs of inward evil, represent the seven capital sins, the P's +of which are removed in succession by an angel as penance is done for +each sin on its corresponding terrace. The seven terraces which run +around the mountain, rise in succession with lessening circuit as ascent +is made, their width being about seventeen or eighteen feet. Connecting +each terrace and cut out of solid rock is a narrow stairway, guarded by +an angel. The steps of each successive stairway become less steep as +each terrace is attained. Crowning the mountain is the Garden of Eden, +lonely and deserted since Adam and Eve, after six hours of occupancy, +were forced from its confines. Its herbage is still luxuriant, its +flowers endless and fragrant, its trees, melodious with birds, rustle +with the balmy wind, its waters serve to irrigate the garden as well as +to help the soul. These waters, the rivers Lethe and Eunoe, are produced +from heavenly sources and have miraculous powers. The former removes the +memory of sin; the latter restores the recollection of virtuous deeds, a +poetical way of expressing the Catholic dogma, that with the revival of +grace in the heart of the converted sinner comes back the merit that had +been acquired by moral acts. + +The problem which Dante sets out to solve in his Purgatory is this: +Assuming that the sinner has been baptized, how can he break his +shackles and attain to the liberty of the children of God? The literal +narrative of Dante's Purgatory presupposing that the soul at the hour of +death is in the state of grace, now shows us that soul working towards +perfection by way of expiation for unforgiven venial sin and for the +temporal punishment due to sin. It is the only way by which it can again +attain its pristine dignity. "And to his dignity he never returns," says +Dante, "unless where sin makes void, he fill up for evil pleasures just +penalties." + +The rule holds good, also, for salvation in this world. The thin veil of +allegory enables us to penetrate Dante's teaching that this life also is +a Purgatory, and here, too, we may cast off the defilement of sin by +means of repentance and expiation. But first the soul must be girt with +the rush of humility, and have perfect contrition represented by its +being washed with the dew, the moisture that descends from Heaven. To +Virgil (Reason guided by Heaven) says Cato (the symbol of Liberty), "Go, +then, and see that thou gird this man with a smooth rush and that thou +wash his face (with dew) so that thou efface from it all foulness, for +it would not be fitting to go into the presence of the first Minister, +who is of those of Paradise, with eyes dimmed by any mist." (1, 95.) + +But even if the soul, by perfect contrition, is freed from its guilt of +mortal sin, it must according to the mind of Christ, who instituted the +sacrament of Penance for the remission of sin, submit to the power of +the keys committed to the priesthood and that will be the more necessary +if its contrition is imperfect. While perfect contrition without the +sacrament of Penance may remit sin, if the supernatural motive of sorrow +is not the love of God, but a motive less worthy, _e.g._, fear of +punishment, forgiveness is to be obtained only by the worthy reception +of Penance. In other words, the penitent must confess his sin to a duly +authorized priest, express his contrition, accept the penance enjoined +by the confessor for the satisfaction of sin and be absolved by virtue +of the words of Christ: "Whose sins you shall forgive they are forgiven +and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained." + +All this is most beautifully expressed by Dante in his description of +the Gate of St. Peter and its angelic keeper: + + "The lowest stair was marble white, so smooth + And polish'd that therein my mirror'd form + Distinct I saw. The next of hue more dark + Than sablest grain, a rough and singed block, + Cracked lengthwise and across. The third, that lay + Massy above, seemed prophyry, that flam'd + Red as the life-blood spouting from a vein. + On this God's angel either foot sustain'd, + Upon the threshold seated, which appear'd + A rock of diamond. Up the trinal steps + My leader cheerly drew me. 'Ask,' said he, + 'With humble heart, that he unbar the bolt.' + Piously at his holy feet devolv'd + I cast me, praying him for pity's sake + That he would open to me: but first fell + Thrice on my bosom prostrate. Seven times + The letter, that denotes the inward stain, + He on my forehead with the blunted point + Of the drawn sword inscrib'd. And 'Look,' he cried, + 'When enter'd, that thou wash these scars away.' + Ashes, or earth ta'en dry out of the ground, + Were of one colour with the robe he wore. + From underneath that vestment forth he drew + Two keys of metal twain: the one was gold, + Its fellow silver. With the pallid first, + And next the burnish'd, he so ply'd the gate, + As to content me well. 'Whenever one + Faileth of these, that in the keyhole straight + It turn not, to this alley then expect + Access in vain.' Such were the words he spake, + 'One is more precious; but the other needs + Skill and sagacity, large share of each, + Ere its good task to disengage the knot + Be worthily perform'd. From Peter these + I hold, of him instructed, that I err + Rather in opening than in keeping fast, + So but the suppliant at my feet implore.' + Then of that hallow'd gate he thrust the door, + Exclaiming, 'Enter, but this warning hear: + He forth again departs who looks behind.'" + (IX, 75.) + +The allegory back of these words is put forth in clear language by Maria +F. Rossetti. "We need hardly to be told" she writes in her Shadow of +Dante (pp. 112-13) "that the Gate of St. Peter is the Tribunal of +Penance. The triple stair stands revealed as candid Confession mirroring +the whole man, mournful Contrition breaking the hard heart of the gazer +on the Cross, Love all aflame offering up in Satisfaction the lifeblood +of body, soul, and spirit:--the adamantine threshold-seat as the +priceless merits of Christ the Door, Christ the Rock, Christ the sure +Foundation and the precious Corner-Stone. In the Angel of the Gate, as +in the Gospel Angel of Bethesda, is discerned the Confessor; in the +dazzling radiance of his countenance, the exceeding glory of the +ministration of righteousness; in the penitential robe, the sympathetic +meekness whereby, restoring one overtaken in a fault, he considers +himself lest he also be tempted; in the sword, the wholesome severity of +his discipline; in the golden key, his divine authority; in the silver, +the discernment of spirits whereby he denies absolution to the +impenitent, the learning and discretion whereby he directs the +penitent." + +Dante's plan of Purgatorial punishment makes no distinction between the +punishment put forth for unforgiven venial sin and that due in +satisfaction for the violation of the moral order by one whose guilt has +been remitted. Both partake of the same penalty. Is that because the +poet thinks that if forgiveness is finally won by sorrow and suffering, +expiation for the offence is still to be made? Or does he hold that the +seven capital sins entailing temporal punishment either operate +effectively in every soul, or exist at least radically according to the +principle voiced by Hamilton Wright Mabie: "The man who slowly builds +Heaven with him, has constantly the terrible knowledge that he has only +to put his hand forth in another direction in order to build Hell?" + +In any event Dante, who shows in Hell how men are made sin eternally, in +Purgatory exhibits the sinful disposition more or less under the control +of the will, yet of such a nature that only the grace of God held the +soul back from the Abyss. It must be purged of all tendency to evil so +as to be made "pure and ready to mount to the stars." (XXXIII, 140.) The +purgation is seen in process in a threefold manner according to Dante. A +material punishment is inflicted to mortify the evil passion and to +incite the soul to virtue; the soul meditates upon the capital sin and +its opposite virtue, moved to abhorrence of the evil and to admiration +of the good by examples drawn from sacred and profane history; vocal +prayer is addressed to God and it brings forth grace to purify and +strengthen the soul. Hard in the beginning is this work of repentance, +but it becomes easy as the habit of virtue is formed. + + "The mountain is such, that ever + At the beginning down below, 'tis tiresome + And aye the more one climbs, the less it hurts." + (IV, 90.) + +As purification from each capital sin is effected, the soul experiences +the removal of a heavy burden and the consequent enjoyment of new +liberty, Dante, purified from pride, asks Virgil: "Master, say what +heavy thing has been lifted from me, that scarce any toil is perceived +by me in journeying." He answered "When the P's which have remained +still nearly extinguished on thy face, shall like the one be wholly +rased out, thy feet shall be so vanquished by goodwill, that not only +will they feel it no toil, but it shall be a delight to them to be urged +upward." (XII, 118). + +Mention was made of the material punishment of the souls in Purgatory. +Unlike the retributive penalties inflicted in Hell, this punishment is +reformative, confirming the penitent in good habits of thought and deed. +The proud here realize the irrevocable sentence "everyone who exalteth +himself shall be humbled." They creep round with huge burdens of stone +bowing them down to the very dust and so abased their hearts are turned +to humility. + +The envious sing the praises of generosity while their eyes, the seat of +their sins, are tortured by sutures of wire shutting out the light. + +The slothful cannot be restrained in their hurry forward, the leaders, +shouting with tears, examples of diligence, a pair in the rear crying +out instances of sloth. + +Penitents expiating the sins of avarice and prodigality lie prostrate +and motionless bound hand and foot, with their faces to the ground, +murmuring the words of the psalmist: "My soul hath cleaved to the +pavement" (Ps., 118, 25.) During the day they eulogize the liberal; +during the night they denounce instances of avarice. + +The gluttonous suffer so much from hunger and thirst that they are +reduced to a state of pitiable emaciation. All the while hungering for +righteousness, they glory in crucifying the old Adam in them. + +The unchaste purify their passion in hot flames while other penitents +sing the loveliness of chastity and proclaim many examples of that +virtue. + +Through this purification by suffering, the spirits not only submit +willingly but they exhibit real contentment if not actual love of the +chastisement imposed upon them. The unchaste not only heedfully keep +within the flames but gladly endure the fire because they are convinced +"with such treatment and with such diet must the last wound be healed" +(XXV, 136). And most beautiful and enlightening of all, one of the souls +tells Dante that the same impulse which brought Christ gladly to the +agony of the Cross throws them upon their sufferings. Forese, speaking +for the gluttonous, says that the mood in which they accept the +penitential pains is one of submission as well as of solace. "And not +only once, while circling this road, is our pain renewed. I say pain and +ought to say solace, for that desire leads us to the tree which led glad +Christ to say, 'Eli,' when He made us free with his blood." (XXIII, 71). +The avaricious confess "so long as it shall be the pleasure of the just +Lord, so long shall we lie here motionless and outstretched" (XIX, 125). +Among the envious, Guida del Duca prays Dante to continue his journey +instead of stopping to interrogate him, for he himself "delights far +more to weep than to talk" (XIV, 125). The slothful in their eagerness +not to interrupt their diligence in penance, by their conversing with +Virgil, entreat him not to ascribe this attitude to discourtesy, "We +are so filled with desire to speed on" they tell the poets "that stay we +cannot, therefore forgive if thou hold our penance for rudeness." +(XVIII, 115). + +By such instances and by many others does our poet show the contented +spirit prevailing in Purgatory. He makes it, indeed, a realm whose very +atmosphere is one of peace, because the will of God is done there even +in the midst of suffering. The greeting there is "My brothers, may God +give us peace" (XXI, 13). The penitents pray for a far greater measure +of peace: "Voices I heard and every one appeared to supplicate for peace +and misericord the Lamb of God who takes away our sins" (XVI, 15). When +the wrathful finish their penance an angel says to them, "Blessed are +the peacemakers who are without ill anger" (XVII, 68). + +The waters of Purgatory are called "the waters of peace which are the +souls diffused from the eternal fountain" (XVI, 133). Dante addresses +the souls as certain of gaining the unending peace of Paradise. "O +Souls, sure in the possession whenever it may be of a state of peace" +(XXVI, 54). And when the day of release comes on which a soul attains +perfect peace, the whole mountain of Purgatory literally thrills with +joy and every voice is raised to join the harmonious concert of the +angelic hymn first sung at Bethlehem, _Gloria in Excelsis Deo_. In this +way does the poet teach us the lesson that both Purgatory proper and the +penitential discipline of life give us a peace wholly in contrast with +the uproar of sin whether heard in the halls of conscience or in the +eternal Hereafter. "How different are those openings from those in +Hell," he says, "for here we enter through songs and down there through +fierce wailings" (XII, 112). + +Although our poet, imbued with the Catholic doctrine, teaches that +intercessory prayer helps the soul to shorten its term in Purgatory--a +doctrine bound up with the doctrine of the Communion of Saints--it must +never be forgotten that Dante is a Catholic preacher when he insists +that personal effort aided by God's grace, is the thing of supreme +importance in the matter of salvation and purification. Neither +lip-sorrow nor the sacraments themselves unless accompanied by true +sorrow and repentance, can profit the soul. "He cannot be absolved who +doth not first repent, nor can he repent the sin and will it at the same +time, for this were contradiction to which reason cannot assent" (Inf., +XXVII, 118.) Prayer can help the soul struggling in life or in Purgatory +proper, but the assistance derived from prayer can never do away with +the necessity of personal penance. "Conquer thy panting with the soul +that conquers every battle if with its heavy body it sinks not down." + +Let us now hear how Dante sings "of that second realm in which the human +soul is purified and becomes worthy to ascend to Heaven" (I, 5). Coming +out of the blackness of Hell just before dawn on Easter Sunday, Virgil +and Dante are entranced at the beautiful scene before them. Through a +cloudless sky of that deep blue for which the sapphire is noted, shines +Venus, the morning star; in the south appear four wonderful stars of +still greater brilliancy, seen before only by our first parents. + + "Sweet sheen of oriental sapphire hue + That, mantling in the aspect calm and bright + Of the pure air, to the primal circle grew, + Began afresh to give my eyes delight + Soon as I issued from the deathful air + That had cast sadness o'er my mind and sight, + The beauteous planet that for love takes care + Was making the East laugh through all its span, + Veiling the Fish, that in its escort were + Turned to the right, I set my mind to scan + The other pole; and four stars met my gaze + Ne'er seen before, except by primal man + Heaven seemed rejoicing in their flaming rays." + +The two poets looking to the north see Cato the Warder of Purgatory, his +face illuminated by the four stars, typical of the cardinal virtues, +Prudence, Justice, Fortitude and Temperance. Is Dante's selection of +Cato, the pagan suicide, as the guardian of Christian Purgatory, to be +taken as an example of the broadmindedness of the poet who believes "so +wide arms hath goodness infinite, that it receives all who turn to it?" +Or is it an instance showing how the leaven of the old Roman spirit in +the poet--a spirit which justifies suicide, prevails with his profession +of Christianity which condemns the taking of one's life? Whatever be the +answer "Cato's taking his own life rather than renounce liberty is +symbolical of the soul, destroying all selfishness that it may attain +the light and freedom of spiritual life." In the poem Cato is +represented as challenging the poets as if they were fugitives from +Hell. When he is told that it is by divine decree that the pilgrims are +making the journey, he bids Virgil cleanse Dante with dew and gird him +with a rush and he concludes by saying: "then be not this way your +return, the sun which now is rising, will show you how to take the mount +at an easier ascent"--words whose spiritual sense would seem to be that +once the soul has turned to virtue, it must never go back to sin and in +its upward path to perfection it will be guided by the rays of divine +grace (the sun) whose enlightenment will make the ascent easier. + +While lingering on the shore, undecided which way to turn, the poets see +a great marvel. Over the water dancing with sunlight comes a white boat +propelled by the white wings of an angel called the Divine Bird, red +with flame and bringing from the banks of the Tiber, the bosom of the +Church, over a hundred souls to begin their term in Purgatory. In +Charon's bark the reprobate souls fill the air with their imprecations; +in the angel-steered boat the spirits coming to Purgatory devoutly +chant: "When Israel went out of Egypt," the psalm so fittingly +descriptive of their own liberation from guilt and their coming into +peace. Here is the description of the scene: + + "And lo! as when, upon the approach of morning, + Through the gross vapours Mars grown fiery red + Down in the West upon the ocean floor, + Appeared to me--may I again behold it!-- + A light along the sea so swiftly coming, + Its motion by no flight of wing is equalled; + From which when I a little had withdrawn + Mine eyes, that I might question my Conductor, + Again I saw it brighter grown and larger. + Then on each side of it appeared to me + I knew not what of white, and underneath it + Little by little there came forth another. + My Master yet had uttered not a word + While the first whiteness into wings unfolded; + But when he clearly recognized the pilot, + He cried: 'Make haste, make haste to bow the knee! + Behold the Angel of God! fold thou thy hands! + Henceforward shalt thou see such officers! + See how he scorneth human arguments, + So that nor oar he wants, nor other sail + Than his own wings, between so distant shores. + See how he holds them pointed up to heaven, + Fanning the air with the eternal pinions, + That do not mount themselves like mortal hair!' + Then as still nearer and more near us came + The Bird Divine, more radiant he appeared, + So that near by the eye could not endure him, + But down I cast it; and he came to shore + With a small vessel, very swift and light, + So that the water swallowed naught thereof. + Upon the stern stood the Celestial Pilot; + Beatitude seemed written in his face, + And more than a hundred spirits sat within." + (II, 13.) + +And now occurs a touching episode which shows how deep and rich is +friendship in Dante's heart. One of the shades recognizing him, steps +forward with a look so full of affection to embrace him that the poet +is moved to do likewise. Amazement ensues on both sides. The spirit +finds Dante alive in the flesh and he in turn on account of the +impalpability of the shade clasps only empty air. But there is mutual +recognition. Dante asks his newly-found friend Casella, the musician, to +sing as he used to do when his sweet voice soothed the troubled heart of +the poet and banished his cares. "May it please thee therewith to solace +awhile my soul that with its mortal form, journeying here, is sore +distressed." Casella's answer is as loving as it is surprising. He sings +one of Dante's canzoni and the whole party listen with intent delight +finally broken by the chiding words of Cato: + + "What is this ye laggard spirits? + What negligence, what standing still is this? + Run to the mountain to strip off the slough + That lets not God be manifest to you." + (II, 117.) + +At the foot of the mountain the poets meet a troop of spirits who, +though excommunicated, died contrite. For their delay in submitting to +the Church for absolution they must wait thirty times as long as the +period of their excommunication. One of them, King Manfred, Chief of the +Ghibellines, son of Emperor Frederick II, tells of his last moment +conversion and also how the Bishop of Cosenza at the word of Pope +Clement IV, enforcing the penalty of excommunication against the corpse +of the king, had it removed from the Papal realm and thrown into the +river Verde. + +In narrating how a Christian may be saved even if he died under the ban +of the Church, Dante is only expressing what every Catholic knows as to +the effect of excommunication. This ecclesiastical censure incurred by a +contumacious member of the Church, a censure entailing forfeiture of all +rights and privileges common to a Christian, such as the right to the +sacraments,--a right restored through the confessor, however, whenever +there is danger of death--the right to public service and prayers, the +right to jurisdiction, and to benefices, the right to the canonical +forum, to social intercourse and to Christian burial, this censure of +excommunication does not in the mind of the Church carry with it +exclusion from Purgatory or Heaven. + +According to a principle of canon law applied to censures, _Ecclesia de +internis non judicat_, the Church in the matter of crime does not +concern itself with interior dispositions, excommunication far from +being a sentence of damnation in the next world, is a penalty pertaining +to the external forum of the Church in this life. Even if the penalty +follows the corpse so far as to exclude it from Christian burial, even +here the purpose of the Church is not to pronounce a verdict of the loss +of the contumacious soul in the Hereafter, but to stigmatize among the +living, the memory of the person and so to inspire in them a hatred of +the evil condemned and a respect for law. The story of Manfred now +follows: + + "And one of them began: 'Whoe'er thou art, + Thus going turn thine eyes, consider well + If e'er thou saw me in the other world' + I turned me tow'rds him, and looked at him closely; + Blond was he, beautiful, and of noble aspect, + But one of his eyebrows had a blow divided. + When with humility I had disclaimed + E'er having seen him, 'Now behold,' he said. + And showed me high upon his breast a wound. + Then said he with a smile: 'I am Manfredi, + The grandson of the Empress Costanza; + Therefore, when thou returnest, I beseech thee + Go to my daughter beautiful, the mother + Of Sicily's honor and of Aragon's, + And the truth tell her, if aught else be told. + After I had my body lacerated + By these two mortal stabs, I gave myself + Weeping to Him, who willingly doth pardon. + Horrible my iniquities had been; + But Infinite Goodness hath such ample arms, + That it receives whatever turns to it, + Had but Cosenza's pastor, who in chase + Of me was sent by Clement at that time, + In God read understandingly this page, + The bones of my dead body still would be + At the bridge-head, near unto Benevento, + Under the safeguard of the heavy cairn. + Now the rain bathes and moveth them the wind, + Beyond the realm, almost beside the Verde, + Where he transported them with tapers quenched. + By malison of theirs is not so lost + Eternal Love, that it cannot return, + So long as hope has anything of green.'" + (III, 105.) + +Following the directions given by Manfred and his companions our +travelers continue their way upward until they reach a broad ledge cut +out in the side of the mountain. While resting here Dante sees a spirit +whom he recognizes as Balaqua, a maker of musical instruments, whose +laziness was a byword in Florence. Our poet who knew the man intimately +had often upbraided him for his indolence. It is said that to excuse +himself in the days of his mortal life, Balaqua quoted a line of +Aristotle: "By sitting down and resting the soul is rendered wise," to +which Dante retorted: "Certainly if one becomes wise by sitting down +none was ever so wise as thou." Now in Purgatory there is amused +indulgence upon Dante's part as he addresses his former fellow citizen +"sitting and clasping his knees, holding his face down between them, +lazier than if sloth were his very sister" (IV, 10). + + "His sluggish attitude and his curt words + A little unto laughter moved my lips + Then I began: 'Balaqua I grieve not + For thee henceforth; but tell me wherefore seated + In this place art thou? Waitest thou an escort? + Or has thy usual habit seized upon thee?' + And he: 'O brother, what's the use of climbing? + Since to my torment would not let me go + The angel of the Lord who sitteth at the gate. + First heaven must needs so long revolve me round + Outside thereof, as in my life it did, + Since the good sighs I to the end postponed, + Unless e'er that some prayer may bring me aid + Which rises from a heart that lives in grace." + (IV, 120.) + +Unless assisted by the prayer of the sinless faithful upon earth, +Balaqua and his class must stay in Outer-Purgatory, each for a term +equal to the period of his natural life. The third and the fourth +classes in Outer-Purgatory, viz., those who died of violence, deferring +their repentance to the last hour, and kings and princes who because of +temporal concerns of state put off their conversion to the last--all +those also must remain in Outer-Purgatory for a period equal to that of +their lives upon earth, unless the time be shortened by intercessory +prayer. It is to be noted that the souls of the violently slain press so +closely and so insistently about Dante in their eagerness to obtain his +good offices in favor of prayerful intercession for them by their +friends upon earth that he has great difficulty in getting away from +these souls. He succeeds by making promises to execute their +desires--comparing his difficulty of advancing to the trouble a winner +at dice experiences when bystanders crowd about him in obstructive +congratulations and make his way impracticable until he gives some of +his winnings to this one, and some to that one. + + "When from their game of dice men separate + He who hath lost remains in sadness fix'd, + Revolving in his mind what luckless throws + He cast; but meanwhile all the company + Go with the other; one before him runs, + And one behind his mantle twitches, one + Fast by his side bids him remember him, + He stops not, and each one to whom his hand + Is stretch'd, well knows he bids him stand aside, + And thus he from the crowd defends himself. + E'en such was I in that close-crowding throng; + And turning so my face around to all, + And promising, I 'scaped from it with pains." + (VI, 1.) + +Higher up the mountain occurs a touching instance of love of country. +Virgil draws near a spirit "praying that it would show us the best +ascent"; and that spirit answered not his demand but of our country and +of our life did ask us. And the sweet Leader (Virgil) began "Mantua ..." +And the shade all rapt in self leaped toward him saying, "O Mantuan, I +am Sordello of thy city. And one embraced the other" (VI, 67). This +episode gives to Dante the opportunity to contrast on the one hand the +love of those two fellow citizens drawn together by no other bond than +affection for their native place and on the other hand hatred with which +living contemporaries rend one another. + +"Ah Italy, thou slave, that gentle spirit was thus quick, merely at the +sweet name of his city, to give greeting there to his fellow citizen and +now in thee thy living abide not without war and one doth rend the other +of those that one wall and one foss shuts in" (VI, 79). + +As night approaches Sordello leads the poets to the angelically +protected Flowery Valley wherein are found the souls of those rulers who +were negligent of the spiritual life. Many of them were once old enemies +but now they not only sing together but live in harmony, united also in +paying tributes to the worth of some reigning monarchs or in expressing +denunciation at the degeneracy of others. Here in the Valley of the +Princes, while sleeping on the grass and among the flowers, Dante has a +strange dream indicative of a near episode in his journey. He sees an +eagle in the sky with wings wide open and intent upon swooping + + "Then wheeling somewhat more, it seemed to me + Terrible as the lightning he descended + And snatched me upward even to the (sphere of) fire + Therein it seemed that he and I were burning, + And the imagined fire did scorch me so + That of necessity my sleep was broken." + (IX, 28.) + +He awakes to find himself actually transported up the perpendicular wall +to the entrance Gate of Purgatory. Virgil interprets the dream, pointing +out that the eagle represents Lucia (Illuminating Grace) who has carried +the poet to St. Peter's Gate. + + "Thou hast at length arrived at Purgatory; + See there the cliff that closeth it around; + See there the entrance, where it seems disjoined. + While at dawn, which doth precede the day, + When inwardly thy spirit was asleep + Upon the flowers that deck the land below, + There came a Lady and said: 'I am Lucia; + Let me take this one up, who is asleep; + So will I make his journey easier for him.' + Sordello and the other noble shapes + Remained; she took thee, and, as day grew bright, + Upward she came, and I upon her footprints. + She laid thee here; and first her beauteous eyes + That open entrance pointed out to me; + Then she and sleep together went away." + (IX, 49.) + +The poet, as we said before, cannot enter Purgatory until he mounts the +three steps of confession, contrition and satisfaction. Moreover, he +must receive absolution from the angel-keeper, typical of the priestly +confessor, and he must have seven P's branded upon his forehead. When +this is done the angel opens the gate and Dante enters to the sound of a +thunder-peal from the organ of Heaven, and of voices expressing the joy +of Heaven upon the sinner's doing penance. + +Dante's description, which now follows, of the lovely art displayed on +the terrace of Pride leads to the reflection that he must have been a +matchless master of visual instruction or at least the representative of +his times, which, before the age of printing, taught the people by means +of pictures painted upon canvas, burnt in glass or chiseled in stone. +Certain it is that the people of Dante's day from seeing the productions +of art knew the Bible and sacred and profane history so well as to amaze +subsequent generations taught from the printed page. Be that as it may, +the power and beauty of Dante's pictures on the terraces of Purgatory +show his consummate knowledge of a principle of psychology very much +operative in our day, a principle which makes character by educating the +will far better than any other pedagogical method. _Verba movent, +exampla trahunt_, is a principle which Dante illustrates on every +terrace of Purgatory. + +On the terrace of Pride the penitent sees examples of humility carved of +white marble out of the mountain side like Thorwaldsen's Lion, at +Lucerne, Switzerland. Their reality is so compelling that, "not only +Polycletus (the great Greek sculptor) but Nature there would be put to +shame." First to meet the penitent's eyes is the scene of the +Annunciation--the angel Gabriel saluting the Blessed Virgin and +unfolding to her God's plan of making her the Mother of His Son for the +salvation of mankind. In humility she gives her consent in the words: +"Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to thy +word." That is the attitude in which she is represented in sculpture, +says Dante, an attitude "imprinting those words as expressly as a figure +is stamped in wax" (X, 44). Near that work of art David stands forth in +marble, dancing before the Ark of the Covenant. Trajan, the Roman +emperor, is also seen, interrupting affairs of state to grant a poor +woman a favor. Not only of humility but also of pride are examples +given. Looking down on the pavement over which they slowly walk with +their heavy burdens, the proud have before their eyes the sculptured +punishment of pride as committed by Satan, Briareus, the Giants, Nimrod, +Niobe, Saul and others. Meditating on the loveliness of humility and the +hatefulness of pride, as suggested by those examples and bearing with +prayer the heavy weights imposed upon them for their humiliation and +penance, the proud experience a transformation of disposition wholly +alien to them in the days of their mortality. Among the souls in this +first terrace is Oderisi, who attained such renown as an illuminator of +manuscripts and a painter of miniatures that he boasted that no one +could surpass him. Now he not only is conscious of his former blatant +pride, but in proof of his change of heart he gives full credit for +superiority to his former pupil and subsequent rival, Franco Bolognese; + + "O," asked I him, "art thou not Oderisi, + Agobbio's honor and honor of that art + Which is in Paris called illuminating? + 'Brother,' said he, 'more laughing are the leaves + Touched by the brush of Franco Bolognese. + All his the honor now, and mine in part, + In sooth I had not been so courteous + While I was living, for the great desire + Of excellence on which my heart was bent.'" + (XI, 79.) + +Dante sees here another spirit, Provenzano Salvani. His rapid advance +from Outer Purgatory to Purgatory was due to the merit of a +self-humiliating act performed in favor of a friend. This friend had +been taken prisoner by King Charles of Anjou and was held for ransom of +a thousand florins of gold, the threat being made that if the amount was +not raised within a month he would be put to death. It speaks well for +the tender friendship of Salvani that he put aside all his pride and +arrogance while he took his place in the market square to beg alms with +which to liberate his friend. Dante relates the incident in the +following words; "When he was living in highest glory, in the market +place of Sienna he stationed himself of his own free will and put away +all shame and there to deliver his friend from the pains he was +suffering in Charles' prison, he brought himself to tremble in every +vein" (XI, 133). + +As the poets enter the terrace of Envy aerial voices proclaim examples +of Brotherly Love. First are heard the words of the Blessed +Virgin:--"They have no wine," words in favor of those who were in need +at the marriage feast, which led Christ to perform his first miracle. +Then as an example of exposing one's self to death for the sake of +another, the incident is recalled of the pagan Pylades feigning himself +to be Orestes to save the latter from death. The voice saying, "Love +those from whom ye have had evil," is an exhortation to the heroic act +of charity of returning good for evil. In contrast with those counsels +of charity, other voices call out direct warnings against envy. + +On this terrace is neither beauty nor art but envy's own color. A livid +hue is the whole landscape. Of this color also are the garments of the +suffering souls. They are depicted one leaning against the other in +mutual love and for mutual support, like beggars sitting at the entrance +of a church to which crowds go for the gaining of an Indulgence. +Pitiable is the scene, for the envious in expiation for their sin, +which entered their soul through its windows, the eyes, are deprived of +sight, their lids being fastened by a wire suture such as is used for +the taming of a hawk. Dante says of them: + + "I saw, + Shadows with garments dark as was the rock; + And when we pass'd a little forth, I heard + A crying, 'Blessed Mary! pray for us, + Michael and Peter! all ye saintly host!' + I do not think there walks on earth this day + Man so remorseless, that he had not yearn'd + With pity at the sight that next I saw. + Mine eyes a load of sorrow teem'd, when now + I stood so near them, that their semblance + Came clearly to my view. Of sackcloth vile + Their covering seem'd; and, on his shoulder, one + Did stay another, leaning; and all lean'd + Against the cliff. E'en thus the blind and poor, + Near the confessionals, to crave an alms, + Stand, each his head upon his fellow's sunk; + So most to stir compassion, not by sound + Of words alone, but that which moves not less, + The sight of misery. And as never beam + Of noonday visiteth the eyeless man, + E'en so was heaven a niggard unto these + Of this fair light: for, through the orbs of all, + A thread of wire, impiercing, knits them up, + As for the taming of a haggard hawk." + (Canto, XIII, 42.) + +As the poets continue their way over the second terrace Virgil explains +an obscure phrase uttered by Guido del Duca, a soul punished for the sin +of envy. That spirit speaking to Dante reproached mankind for setting +its heart upon material things; "The heavens are calling to you and +wheel around you, displaying unto you their eternal beauties and your +eye gazes only on earth." Envy is consequently engendered because as the +spirit says: "Mankind sets its heart there where exclusion of +partnership is necessary." (XV, 43). "What meant the spirit from Romagna +by mentioning exclusion and partnership?" asks Dante. Virgil proceeds to +tell him that companionship in earthly possessions is not possible, for +the more of any material thing a person has, the less of it remains for +others. Hence envy arises from the very nature of the object which +excludes partnership. On the other hand the more of the spiritual life +one has, the more others participate in knowledge, peace and love, and +this is especially true of the angels and the elect. The greater their +number, the greater is the sum total of grace bestowed by God and the +more each spirit shares his love with others. "The more spirits there +on high yonder who love, the more there are to love perfectly and the +more do they love each other and as a mirror one reflects back to the +other" (XV, 75). + +This doctrine is expounded until the poets reach the third terrace, +where wrath is punished. Here Dante represents himself as having a +vision wherein he beholds examples of meekness and patience. First he +sees the Finding of the Boy Christ in the temple and hears Mary's gentle +complaint. Then follows the scene of Pisistratus refusing to condemn a +youth for insulting his daughter. The third picture is that of the +stoning of St. Stephen. + + "Then suddenly I seem'd + By an ecstatic vision wrapt away: + And in a temple saw, methought, a crowd + Of many persons; and at the entrance stood + A dame, whose sweet demeanor did express + Another's love, who said, 'Child! why hast thou + Dealt with us thus? Behold thy sire and I + Sorrowing have sought thee;' and so held her peace; + And straight the vision fled. A female next + Appear'd before me, down whose visage coursed + Those waters, that grief forces out from one + By deep resentment stung who seem'd to say: + 'If thou, Pisistratus, be lord indeed + Over this city, named with such debate + Of adverse gods, and whence each science sparkles, + Avenge thee of those arms, whose bold embrace + Hath clasp'd our daughter;' and to her, me seem'd, + Benigh and meek, with visage undisturb'd, + Her sovereign spake: 'How shall we those requite + Who wish us evil, if we thus condemn + The man that loves us?' After that I saw + A multitude, in fury burning, slay + With stones a stripling youth, and shout amain + 'Destroy, destroy'; and him I saw, who bow'd + Heavy with death unto the ground, yet made + His eyes, unfolded upward, gates to heaven, + Praying forgiveness of the Almighty Sire, + Amidst that cruel conflict, on his foes, + With looks that win compassion to their aim." + (Canto, XV, 84.) + +The wrathful are punished by being enveloped in a dense pungent smoke, +emblematic of the stifling caused by angry passions. + + "Darkness of hell, and of a night deprived + Of every planet under a poor sky, + As much as may be tenebrous with cloud, + Ne'er made unto my sight so thick a veil, + As did that smoke which there enveloped us, + Nor to the feeling of so rough a texture; + For not an eye it suffered to stay open; + Whereat mine escort, faithful and sagacious, + Drew near to me and offered me his shoulder. + E'en as a blind man goes behind his guide, + Lest he should wander, or should strike against + Aught that may harm or peradventure kill him, + So went I through the bitter and foul air, + Listening unto my Leader, who said only, + 'Look that from me thou be not separated.' + Voices I heard, and every one appeared + To supplicate for peace and misericord + The Lamb of God who takes away our sins. + Still _Agnus Dei_ their exordium was; + One word there was in all, and metre one, + So that all harmony appeared among them. + 'Master,' I said, 'are spirits those I hear?' + And he to me: 'Thou apprehendest truly, + And they the knot of anger go unloosing.'" + (Canto, XVI, 1.) + +Soon after this our poet hears one of the spirits of the wrathful, +discoursing on the degeneracy of human life and sees in a second series +of visions, historic instances of wrath and its punishment. He is +awakened from his trance by the shining light and the glad summons of +the Angel of meekness, who is at the stair leading to the next terrace. + + "This is a spirit divine who in the way + Of going up directs us without asking + And who with his own light himself conceals. + + * * * * * + + Accord we our feet, to such inviting + Let us make haste to mount ere it grow dark; + For then we could not till the day return." + (XVII, 55.) + +Lightened of the third P the poet passes from the circle of the wrathful +up the fourth stairway. Here he takes the opportunity to engage Virgil +in conversation regarding love as the seed of the capital sins. These +sins, it may be remarked in passing, are not always mortal sins, though +many Dantian editors make the mistake of so classifying them. It is to +be observed that on all the stairways of Purgatory there is a conference +between the two poets on things likely to be of interest to Dante, in +the matter of his salvation. At the end of the present conference Dante +falls into slumber, from which he is aroused by the racing activity of +the souls of the slothful, shouting instances of zeal and energy. + +Sloth is defined by St. Thomas Aquinas as sadness and torpor in the face +of some spiritual good which one has to achieve, and a preacher of our +day modernizes that definition to mean, the "don't-care-feeling" in the +presence of duty. The sin is unlisted in modern treatises on Ethics, +the writers of which see in its symptoms only indications of +melancholia, neurasthenia or pellagra. But according to the scholastic +classification still followed in this matter by the Catholic Church, +sloth is to be considered as a specific vice opposed to the great +commandment to love God with our whole heart. + +So Dante estimates it in his scheme of punishment, representing the +souls crying out in their diligence, "Haste, haste, let no time be lost +through little love." These souls are condemned to rush round and round +at the topmost speed, those in front proclaiming instances of alacrity, +viz., how the Blessed Virgin hastened to the hill country to visit +Elizabeth and how Julius Caesar hurried to subdue Lerida. Those in the +rear recall examples of sloth, viz., how the Israelites through +wandering in the desert lost the Promised Land, and how the Trojans who +dallied in Sicily gave themselves up to a life inglorious. Dante's +slothful souls are startlingly swift in their action. One of them, the +Abbot Zeno giving directions for ascent to Virgil and reprobating the +sins of his successors in the monastery is out of hearing as soon as he +speaks: "If more be said or if he was silent I know not, so far already +had he raced beyond us" (XVIII, 127). + +The reader will not fail to note that the terrace of the slothful is +the only circle of Purgatory where there is no request for intercessory +prayer and that Dante here never speaks to any of those souls. Is that +because the poet wishes us to understand that his own sentiment is that +they do not deserve to be prayed for who neglected through sloth to pray +for themselves and that his own silence in their presence is indicative +of his disregard for souls so stained? + +To foreshow the sins to be treated on the three upper terraces, where +are punished those who yielded to the sins of the body, Dante represents +himself as tempted by a Siren. She is described as ugly and repulsive +and then becoming, under the gaze of the beholder, fair and alluringly +attractive--a description, perhaps, unconsciously reproduced by Pope +when he wrote: + + "Vice is a monster of so frightful mien + As to be hated needs but to be seen. + Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face + We first endure, then pity, then embrace." + +Saved from the Siren by a noble lady (perhaps Lucia, Illuminating Grace) +and Virgil, the poet is brooding upon the dream which has brought to his +senses the pleasures of the world, when his guide admonishes him how +salvation from sin's seduction is to be had--viz., by using worldly +things as things to be trodden under foot, while the mind is raised to +Heaven, God's lure to draw it upward. + + "Didst thou behold, that old enchantress + Who sole above us henceforth is lamented? + Didst thou behold how man is free from her? + Suffice it thee, and smite earth with thy heels, + Thine eyes lift upward to the lure, that whirls + The Eternal King with revolutions vast." + (XIX, 58.) + +On the fifth terrace our poets find the shades of the avaricious and the +prodigals. They lie face to the ground, bound hand and foot, recalling +during the night instances of avarice and during the day proclaiming the +praise of liberality, as manifested in the Blessed Virgin, the pagan +Fabricius and St. Nicholas. The latter is identified in the United +States and some other countries, with the popular Santa Claus. Dante +says of St. Nicholas that "the spirit went on to speak of the bounty +which Nicholas gave to the maidens, to lead their youth to honor" (XX, +32). The allusion is to the legend that this Bishop of Myra secretly +threw at different times into the windows of the home of three destitute +maidens, bags of gold sufficient to provide them with dowries without +which they would have been forced by poverty to a life of shame. In the +realm of the avaricious and the prodigals, Dante addresses one of the +repentent souls: "Spirit, who thou wast and why ye have your backs +turned upward, tell me" (XX, 94). + +The answer of the shade of Pope Adrian IV, who died thirty-nine days +after his election to the supreme pontificate without having been +crowned, is one of the fine passages of the poem. + + "And he to me: 'Why Heaven makes us turn our backs to it, thou + shalt learn: but first know that I was the successor of Peter. + Between Siestri and Chiaveri there rushes down a fair river and + from its name the title of my race takes its proudest distinction. + For one month and a little more I experienced how heavily the great + mantle weighs on him who keeps it out of the mire, so much so that + all the other burdens seem but feathers. My conversion alas! was + tardy; but when I had become the Roman pastor then I discovered how + false life is. In it I found that the heart had no repose nor was + it possible to rise higher in that life; wherefore the desire for + this (immortal life) was kindled in me. Up to that time, I was a + wretched soul and severed from God, wholly given up to Avarice. Now + as thou seest I am punished for it here. What is the effect of + Avarice is here made manifest in the purgation of the converted + souls, and the mountain has no more bitter penalty, as our eyes + fixed on earthly things, were not lifted up on high, even so has + justice sunk them to the ground in this place. Even as Avarice + quenched our love for every good, wherefore our works were lost, so + justice doth hold us fast, bound and seized by feet and hands; and + so long as it shall be the pleasure of the just Lord, so long shall + we lie here motionless and outstretched.'" (XIX, 97.) + +At this point occurs one of those delightful surprises full of realism, +that Dante uses from time to time to heighten the reader's interest. The +poet has just learned that the spirit before him is Pope Adrian IV. At +once Dante falls on his knees to pay homage to the high office of the +Roman Pontiff, and he is about to say according to the conjecture of +Benvenuto "Holy Father, I entreat your holiness to excuse my natural +ignorance, for I was not aware of your being Pope." But the spirit bids +the poet arise, telling him that in the spirit world the dignities and +relations of this life are abolished. + + "I on my knees had fallen and wished to speak; + But even as I began and he was aware, + Only by listening, of my reverence, + 'What cause,' he said, 'has downward bent thee thus?' + And I told him: 'For your dignity, + Standing, my conscience stung me with remorse.' + 'Straighten thy legs, and upward raise thee, brother,' + He answered, 'Err not, fellow servant am I + With thee and with the others to one power + If e'er that holy, evangelic sound + Which sayeth _neque nubent_, thou hast heard + Well canst thou see why in this wise I speak.'" + (XIX, 127.) + +In this part of Purgatory Dante treats his readers to two other +instances of surprise. The first case which also makes use of the +dramatic quality of suspense, postponing the explanation to the +following canto in order to prolong the eager expectation of the reader, +narrates the occurrence of a wonderful phenomenon, the shaking of the +mountain of Purgatory, accompanied by a harmonious outburst of joyful +thanksgiving. + + * * * * * + +"We were striving to surmount the way so far as was permitted to our power +when I felt the mountain quake like a thing which is falling; whereupon a +chill gripped me, as is wont to grip him who is given to death. Of a surety +Delos was not shaken so violently ere Latona made her nest therein to give +birth to heaven's two eyes. Then began on all sides a shout, such that the +Master drew toward me saying: 'Fear not while I do guide thee.' _Gloria in +Excelsis Deo_ all were saying, by what I understood from those near by, +whose cry could be heard. Motionless we stood and in suspense, like the +shepherds who first heard that hymn, until the quaking ceased and it was +ended. Then we took up again our holy way, looking at the shades, that lay +on the ground already returned to their wonted plaint. No ignorance, if my +memory err not in this, did ever with so great assault give me yearning for +knowledge, I then seemed to have while pondering: nor by reason of our +haste was I bold to ask; nor of myself could I see aught there; thus I went +on timid and pensive." + +His curiosity is satisfied in an unexpected way. "The natural thirst which +never is sated, save with the water whereof the poor Samaritan woman asked +the grace, was burning within me--and lo, even as Luke writes to us that +Christ appeared to the two who were on the way, already risen from the +mouth of the tomb, a shade appeared to us saying: 'My brothers God give you +peace.' Quickly we turned us and Virgil gave back to him the sign that is +fitting thereto. Then began, 'May the true court that binds me in eternal +exile, bring thee peace to the council of the blest.' 'How,' said he, and +meantime we met sturdily, 'If ye are shades that God deigns not above, who +hath escorted you so far by his stairs'? And my Teacher: 'If thou lookest +at the marks which this man bears and which the angel outlines clearly +wilt thou see 'tis meet he reign with the good.... Wherefore I was brought +from Hell's wide jaws to guide him and I will guide him onward, so far as +my school can lead him. But tell us, if thou knowest, why the mount gave +before such quakings and wherefore all seemed to shout with one voice down +to its soft base.'" + +It was the very question Dante had been yearning to utter. + +"Thus, by asking did he thread the very needle of my desire and with the +pope alone my thirst was made less fasting." + + * * * * * + +The spirit, Statius by name, who has just obtained his release from +Purgatorial confinement to ascend to Heaven, states that the earthquake +was not due to natural causes, such as strong dry vapors producing wind, +but was caused by spiritual elements operative upon a soul's completing +the penance and term assigned. + + * * * * * + +"It quakes here when some soul feeleth herself cleansed, so that she may +rise up or set forth, to mount on high, and such a shout follows her. Of +the cleansing the will alone gives proof, which fills the soul, all free to +change her cloister, and avails her to will.... And I who have lain under +this torment five hundred years and more, only now felt free will for a +better threshold. Therefore didst thou feel the earthquake and hear the +pious spirits about the mount give praises to the Lord." + + * * * * * + +This Statius was a Roman poet who died in the year 96. His term in +Purgatory therefore has lasted a little more than eleven centuries. The +next longest period mentioned by Dante is that of Duke Hugh Capet who +has been in Purgatory over 350 years with his purification still +incomplete. Statius by Dante's poetic invention is represented first as +saved through the influence of Virgil's poems and then is shown to be a +Christian, having been led to embrace Christianity both from the heroic +example of the martyrs and from his meditation on Virgil's prophecy of +the Cumæan Sibyl interpreted in the Middle Ages to refer to Christ. In +the Divina Commedia Statius pays a glowing tribute to the Æneid and its +author, wholly ignorant that he is addressing Virgil himself. "Of the +Æneid I speak which was a mother to me and was to me a nurse in poesy +... and to have lived yonder when Virgil was alive, I would consent to +one sun more than I need perform." Dante is all aquiver to surprise +Statius with the information that Virgil is at hand, "but Virgil turned +to me with a look that silently said, 'be silent.'" + + "But the power which wills + Bears not supreme control: laughter and tears + Follow so closely on the passion prompts them, + They wait not for the motions of the will + In nature most sincere. I did but smile, + As one who winks; and thereupon the shade + Broke off, and peer'd into mine eyes, where best + Our looks interpret. 'So to good event + Mayst thou conduct such great emprize,' he cried, + 'Say, why across thy visage beam'd, but now, + The lightning of a smile.' On either part + Now am I straiten'd; one conjures me speak, + The other to silence binds me; whence a sigh + I utter, and the sigh is heard. 'Speak on,' + The teacher cried 'and do not fear to speak: + But tell him what so earnestly he asks.' + Whereon I thus: 'Perchance, O ancient spirit + Thou marvel'st at my smiling. There is room + For yet more wonder. He, who guides my ken + On high, he is that Mantuan, led by whom + Thou didst presume of men and gods to sing. + If other cause thou deem'dst for which I smiled, + Leave it as not the true one: and believe + Those words, thou spakest of him, indeed the cause.' + Now down he bent to embrace my teacher's feet; + But he forbade him: 'Brother! do it not: + Thou art a shadow, and behold'st a shade.' + He, rising, answer'd thus: 'Now hast thou proved + The force and ardor of the love I bear thee, + When I forget we are but things of air, + And, as a substance, treat an empty shade.'" + (XXI, 106.) + +On the sixth terrace Dante with five P's removed, accompanied by Virgil +sees the souls of those who sinned by gluttony. They are an emaciated +crowd obliged to pass and repass before a fruit-laden tree bedewed with +clear water from a fountain, without being able to satisfy their hunger +or quench their thirst. Voices from this tree proclaim examples of +temperance; voices from another tree equally tantalizing, declare +examples of gluttony. + + "People I saw beneath it (the tree) lift their hands + And cry I know not what towards the leaves, + Like little children eager and deluded, + Who pray, and he they pray to doth not answer + But, to make very keen their appetite + Holds their desire aloft and hides it not. + Then they departed as if undeceived." + (XXIV, 106.) + +Here Dante recognizes among the gaunt attenuated figures of the +penitents, Forese Donati, his intimate friend and kinsman of his wife +Gemma. Our poet was surprised to find him so soon after his death on +one of the terraces of Purgatory, the assumption being that because of +his delay of conversion to the end of his life Forese would be in +Outer Purgatory for a term equal in duration to the length of his life +on earth. But the reason he had come so quickly to Purgatory is to be +found in the efficacy of the prayers of his widow for the repose of +his soul. + + + "Then answered he: 'That now I wander reaping + The bitter sweat of all this punishment + My Nella gained for me, her vigil keeping + In prayer devout and infinite lament. + Thus, here, beyond that shore of waiting sent, + I landed, from the lower circles freed. + And that more dear to God omnipotent + Lives on my little widow, is the meed + Of the lone life she spends in many a saintly deed.'" + (XXXIII, 85.) + +Before ascending to the seventh and last terrace Dante describes how +the angel of abstinence removed the sixth P. + + "And as the harbinger of early dawn, + The air of May doth move and breathe out fragrance + Impregnate all with herbage and with flowers, + So did I feel a breeze strike in the midst + My front, and felt the moving of the plumes + That breathed around an odor of ambrosia; + And heard it said; Blessed are they whom grace + So much illumines that the love of taste + Excites not in their breasts too great desire, + Hungering at all times so far as is just." + (XXIV, 145.) + +And now our penitent as he reaches the seventh terrace, where sins +against the virtue of purity are expiated, enters upon the last stage of +his purification. Here the spirits pass and repass through the midst of +intensely hot flames, proclaiming examples of chastity. It is worthy of +note that this terrace is the only place in Dante's Purgatory where fire +is the punitive agent--a conception of our poet all the more remarkable +because it runs counter to the view commonly held by the churchmen in +the West, including St. Augustine, St. Gregory the Great, St. Thomas +Aquinas, St. Bonaventure, who teach that fire is the cleansing element +of all Purgatory. That indeed is only a theological opinion. The Church +itself, as the Greeks were assured at the Council of Florence, has never +put forth any dogmatic decree on the subject. + +Bidden by the angel to enter the fire, Dante draws back paralysed with +fear. Scenes of burning at the stake come with horror to his mind. He +probably recalls also that Florence had condemned him to be burned +alive. So, for the first time in Purgatory he recoils at the penance he +must perform. Impassionately Virgil exhorts him. The stubborn pupil +yields only at the utterance of Beatrice's name. For love of her he will +endure the flame. + + "The Mantuan spake: 'My son, + Here torment thou mayst feel, but canst not death. + Remember thee, remember thee, if I + Safe e'en on Geryon brought thee; now I come + More near to God, wilt thou not trust me now? + Of this be sure; though in its womb that flame + A thousand years contain'd thee, from thy head + No hair should perish. If thou doubt my truth, + Approach; and with thy hands thy vesture's hem + Stretch forth, and for thyself confirm belief. + Lay now all fear, oh! lay all fear aside. + Turn hither, and come onward undismay'd.' + I still, though conscience urged, no step advanced. + When still he saw me fix'd and obstinate, + Somewhat disturb'd he cried: 'Mark now, my son, + From Beatrice thou art by this wall + Divided.' As at Thisbe's name the eye + Of Pyramus was open'd (when life ebb'd + Fast from his veins) and took one parting glance, + While vermeil dyed the mulberry; thus I turned + To my sage guide, relenting, when I heard + The name that springs for ever in my breast. + He shook his forehead; and, 'How long,' he said, + 'Linger we now'? then smiled, as one would smile + Upon a child that eyes the fruit and yields. + Into the fire before me then he walk'd; + And Statius, who erewhile no little space + Had parted us, he pray'd to come behind, + I would have cast me into molten glass + To cool me, when I entered; so intense + Raged the conflagrant mass. The sire beloved, + To comfort me, as he proceeded, still + Of Beatrice talk'd. 'Her eyes,' saith he, + 'E'en now I seem to view.' From the other side + A voice, that sang did guide us; and the voice + Following, with heedful ear, we issued forth, + There where the path led upward. 'Come,' we heard, + 'Come blessed of my Father.'" + (Canto, XXVII, 20.) + +On emerging from the fire and on the very threshold of the Garden of +Eden, Dante is addressed by Virgil, no longer competent to guide him +higher. The Mantuan in touching words tells his disciple that having +passed through Purgatory he needs no other guide than his own will, +upright and sound, until he passes under the tutelage of Beatrice. + + "The temporal fire and the eternal + Son, thou hast seen, and to a place art come + Where of myself no farther I discern. + By intellect and art I here have brought thee; + Take thine own pleasure for thy guide henceforth; + Beyond the steep ways and the narrow art thou. + Expect no more or word or sign from me; + Free and upright and sound is thy free will, + And error were it not to do its bidding + Thee o'er thyself I therefore crown and mitre." + (XXVII, 127.) + +Brother Azarias gives us the mystical sense of this passage. "The soul +has conquered; therefore Virgil leaves the poet free from the dominion +of his passions; more than free, a king crowned triumphant over himself; +more than a king, a mitred priest, ruling the cloister of his heart, his +thoughts and his affections and mediator and intercessor before Divine +Mercy for himself and those commending themselves to his prayers." + +So crowned and mitred over himself Dante now enters the Garden of Eden. + +"Here did the parents of mankind dwell in innocence; here is there +perpetual spring and every fruit." + +In the forest of Eden is a pure stream with two currents, Lethe and +Eunoe, "the first has the power of all past sins the memory to erase, +the other can restore remembrance of good deeds and pious days." On the +banks of this stream the poet sees Matilda, who represents the Active +Life. + +"There appeared to me a lady all alone who went along singing and +selecting from among the flowers wherewith all her path was enamelled" +... suddenly "the lady turned completely round towards me, saying, 'My +Brother, look and listen'" (XXIX, 15). A solemn chant is heard, a +wonderful light is seen. It is a pageant representing the return of +mankind to Eden through membership in the Church. + +First come, shedding heavenly light, the seven mystical candlesticks, +symbolic of the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost or the seven sacraments of +the Church. Next follow twenty-four ancients representating the books of +the Old Testament. Then are seen the four prophetic animals symbolizing +the four Evangelists. Christ drawing a chariot representing the Church, +the central figure of the pageant, advances under the form of the +fabulous griffin, half eagle and half lion, typifying the two-fold +nature of our Lord. On the right side of the chariot, dancing are three +nymphs, the theological virtues, Faith, Hope and Charity. On the left +side are four other nymphs--the cardinal virtues, Prudence, Justice, +Fortitude and Temperance. Next come two old men, dignified and grave, +St. Paul and St. Luke, who are followed by four others representing +other books of the New Testament viz., the Epistles of St. James, St. +Peter, St. John and St. Jude. The rear guard is an aged Solitary +symbolic of the Apocalypse. + +"And when the chariot was opposite to me" writes Dante, "a clap of +thunder was heard; and those worthy folk seemed to have their further +march forbidden, and halted there with the first ensign" (XXIX, 153). + +What is the meaning of this symbolic procession so common to Dante's +day, so alien to ours? We have already said that it is a dramatic +representation of the human race finding happiness, finding its Eden in +its membership in the Church. But it, also, is a symbolic lesson for the +individual. Dante, the type of humanity having done penance for his +sins, is about to be received through the sacrament of penance into the +soul of the Church i.e. into the full communion of grace. It is +fitting, therefore, that the Church should advance to meet him, the +repentant sinner, and should reveal itself to him before receiving him +into its bosom. + +If objection be made that Dante already has been absolved from sin and +in Purgatory has made expiation for his offences, the answer is given by +Ozanam; "At the term of the expiatory course, as at its beginning, to +quit it as well as to enter upon it, we must render submission to a +religious authority and fulfill the conditions without which God does +not treat with us--confession for oblivion, fears for consolation and +shame for definitive rehabilitation." When the pageant comes to a halt +the participants group themselves about the Griffin and the Chariot, by +that act declaring that the goal and object of their desires are +centered in Christ and His Church. Then one of the company by divine +command calls aloud three times to a heavenly being, the spouse of the +Church, to appear and the cry is repeated by the whole company. From the +Chariot arise, as will arise the dead from their graves, a hundred +angels scattering flowers over and around the Chariot and also raising +their voices in the call for the Heavenly Bride. They first sing the +words of the Canticle of Palm Sunday. _Benedictus qui venis_ (Blessed +art thou who comest) and then the beautiful line from the Aeneid: +_Manibus o date lilia plenis_ (Oh! give lilies with full hands). Then +comes from the clouds through the midst of the flowers showering down +again within and without the Chariot, arrayed in the colors of the three +theological virtues, the object of the invocation. + +"Crowned with olive over a white veil a Lady appeared to me, vestured in +hue of living flame under a green mantle." It is Beatrice, Dante's +beloved, now apotheosized in the personification of Revelation. What +other poet ever dreamed of so glorifying his beloved that for her coming +the natural virtues prepare the way, the supernatural virtues, as +handmaids accompany her to assist us to the understanding of her +doctrine, the angels sing her laudation and she herself in the role both +of unveiler of the Scriptures of the Prophets and the Apostles and the +mystical Bride of the Canticles is worthy to be called "O Light, O Glory +of the human race?" + +Dante before seeing her face, recognizes her by some mysterious instinct +of love, recognizes her after a lapse according to fiction of ten years, +but in reality of twenty-four years since her death. + +To Virgil, Dante turns to tell the joyous news but Virgil has gone and +tears course down the face of his disciple. + +"Dante," says Beatrice, "weep not that Virgil leaves thee, nay weep thou +not yet, for thou wilt have to weep for another wound." Awed by her +appearance, he is taken back by her greeting. The mere thought of her +loveliness uplifted him in the world. The hope of seeing her carried him +through the horrors of Hell and the penance of Purgatory. Crowned and +mitred over himself he came to Eden to meet her. And she has only +reproaches for him. Particularly to the angels does she tell the story +of his defection from the high ideals which she inspired in him. "This +man was such in his new life potentially that every good talent would +have made wondrous increase in him--(but) so low sank he that all means +for his salvation were already short save showing him the lost people. +For this I visited the portal of the dead and to him who has guided him +up hither, weeping my prayers were borne. God's high decree would be +broken if Lethe were passed and such viands were tasted, without some +sort of penitence that may shed tears." + +To her lover she turns for confirmation of the truth of her words: "Say, +say if this is true; to such accusation thy confession must be joined." + +"Confusion and fear together mingled, drove forth from my mouth a +'Yea,'" a monosyllable of confession which showed the depth of his +shame. + +But it is the sight of the superhuman beauty of Beatrice which completes +his contrition and resuscitates his love so as to fit him to pass +through the waters of the Lethe. + +"My eyes beheld Beatrice, turned toward the animal (the Griffin) that is +One Person only (Christ) in twofold nature (i.e. God and man). Under her +veil and on the far side of the stream she seemed to me to surpass more +her ancient self, than she surpassed the others here when she was with +us. So much remorse gnawed at my heart that I fell vanquished and what I +then became she knoweth who gave me the cause." (XXXI, 82.) + +When he recovers consciousness he finds his immersion in the Lethe in +progress by Matilda. Then he is led to Beatrice by the four nymphs (the +cardinal virtues) and at the request of the three nymphs who typify the +theological virtues she smiles upon him. + +"The fair lady (Matilda) dipped me where I must needs swallow of the +water, then drew me forth and led me, bathed, within the dance of the +four fair ones, and each did cover me with her arm. 'Here we are nymphs +and in heaven are stars. Ere Beatrice descended to the world, we were +ordained for her handmaids: we will lead thee to her eyes: but the three +on the other side who deeper gaze will sharpen thine eyes to the joyous +light that is within." + +Beholding the glorified beauty of Beatrice wholly inexpressible, Dante +is in such rapture that he is oblivious of everything else. + + "Mine eyes with such an eager coveting + Were bent to rid them of their ten years' thirst + No other sense was waking; and e'en they + Were fenced on either side from heed of aught: + So tangled, in its custom'd toils, that smile + Of saintly brightness drew it to itself." + +When our poet comes out of his rapture, the Chariot and the mystical +company are moving to a tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil +which according to a beautiful tradition has become the Cross of Christ, +the tree of salvation. To that tree is attached the Chariot which Christ +(the Griffin) now leaves to enter Heaven again with the ancients and the +angels. Beatrice remains with the seven nymphs to guard the Chariot (the +Church). Up to this point the picture of the Church has been one of +peace and happiness. Now with prophetic eye the poet beholds the +tribulations which the Church will suffer from without and within. The +description of the vision and the explanation of the symbolism are so +well set forth by Ozanam that I quote his words unable to improve upon +them, as I also share his view as to the unwarranted severity here of +Dante's censures of the Church. + +"An eagle falls like lightning upon the tree, from which he tears the +bark, and upon the car, which bends beneath his weight. Then comes a fox +which finds its way within, and then a portion is torn off by a dragon +that issues from the gaping earth. Thus far it is easy to recognize the +persecutions of the Roman emperors which so harried the Church, the +heresies by which it was desolated, and the schisms by which it was +torn. Soon, the eagle reappeared, less menacing but not less dangerous; +he shook his plumes above the sacred car, which speedily underwent a +monstrous transformation. From divers parts of it arose seven heads +armed with ten horns; a courtesan was seated in the midst; a giant stood +at her side, exchanging with her impure caresses which he interrupted to +scourge her cruelly. Then, cutting loose the metamorphosed car, he bears +it away, and is lost with it in the depths of the forest. + +"Is not this again the Church, enriched, by the gifts of princes who +have become her protectors, sadly marred in appearance, sundry of her +members defiled by the taint of the seven capital sins, and herself +ruled over by unworthy pontiffs? Is not this the court of Rome, +exchanging criminal flatteries with the temporal power, which flatteries +are to be followed by cruel injuries, when the Holy See, torn from the +foot of the cross of the Vatican, is transferred to a distant land, on +the banks of a foreign river? But these ills will not be without end nor +without retribution. The tree that lost and that saved the world cannot +be touched with impunity, and if the Church has been made militant here +below, it is with the liability of suffering from passing reverses, but +also with the assurance of final victory." + +Dante's own eternal victory is now assured, Beatrice directs Matilda to +lead him to the Eunoe, whose waters will regenerate him and fit him to +ascend to Paradise. "Behold, Eunoe which gushes forth yonder, lead him +thereto and as thou art wont, revive in him again his fainting powers." + +The poem closes with an address to the reader: + + "If, Reader, I possessed a longer space + For writing it, I yet would sing in part + Of the sweet draught that ne'er would satiate me; + But inasmuch as full are all the leaves + Made ready for this second canticle, + The curb of art no farther lets me go. + From the most holy water I returned + Regenerate, in the manner of new trees + That are renewed with a new foliage, + Pure and disposed to mount unto the stars." + (Purg., XXXIII, 136.) + + + + + +DANTE'S PARADISO + + + + +DANTE'S PARADISO + +Of Dante's trilogy the Paradiso is truly his "medieval miracle of song," +the supreme achievement of his genius. Here the poetry of the sublime +reaches its highest point--the summit on which Dante is a lonely and +unchallenged figure. "No uninspired hand," says Cardinal Manning, "has +ever written thoughts so high in words, so resplendent, as the last +stanza of the Divina Commedia." It was said of St. Thomas: "_Post Summam +Thomæ nihil restat nisi lumen gloriæ_." It may be said of Dante: "_Post +Dantis Paradisum nihil restat nisi visio Dei._" ("After Dante's Paradiso +nothing remains but the vision of God.") + +Shelley's tribute to the supremacy of Dante's Heaven is no less +beautiful: "Dante's apotheosis of Beatrice and the gradations of his own +love and her loveliness by which, as by steps, he feigns himself to have +ascended to the throne of the Supreme Cause, is the most glorious +imagination of modern poetry." + +Ruskin says: "Every line of the Paradiso is full of the most exquisite +and spiritual expressions of Christian truths and the poem is only less +read than the Inferno because it requires far greater attention and +perhaps, for its full enjoyment, a holier heart." + +That Dante's Inferno is more popular reading than his Paradiso is due to +the fact that evil and its consequences offer to the artist richer +material for dramatic fascination and to the reader more lively interest +in characters intensely human, than does the less sensational story of +the Elects finding peace and happiness in a realm transcending the +experiences of human nature. Dante's Purgatorio also finds a wider +circle of readers because his penitents, suffering, struggling and +aspiring, like people upon earth, have more human traits and exhibit +more human interest than the saints confirmed in grace against human +weakness. + +Another reason for lesser interest manifested in this part of the Divina +Commedia is the difficulty and obscurity of the Paradiso. It is not easy +reading, because it requires study, repetition, concentration, +meditation, qualities absent from the art of reading as it prevails +today. If we ever have time to look at a book, the habit of skimming +with inattentive rapidity so urges us onward that we find ourselves +flitting from page to page, from chapter to chapter, panting and +uninstructed. And if we belong to the bookless majority who have no time +to read, we rush to the moving picture theatre to get our mental +pabulum--often a season's best seller--boiled down, served in +rapid-fire order and bolted in the twinkling of an eye. For all such +Dante's Paradiso is an intellectual as well as a spiritual impossibility +and the poet begs such not to follow him on his voyage to the eternal +kingdom. + + "Oh ye who in some pretty little boat + Eager to listen, have been following + Behind my ship, that singing sails along, + Turn back to look again upon your shores; + In losing me, you might yourselves be lost. + The sea I sail has never yet been passed. + Minerva breathes, and pilots me Apollo, + And Muses nine point out to me the Bears. + Ye other few, who have the neck uplifted + Betimes to th' bread of Angels upon which + One liveth here and grows not sated by it, + Well may you launch upon the deep salt-sea + Your vessel, keeping still my wake before you + Upon the water that grows smooth again. + Those glorious ones who unto Colchos passed + Were not so wonder-struck as you shall be, + When Jason they beheld a ploughman made." + (II, 1.) + +The song which Dante sings in the Paradiso is the eternal happiness of +man in vision, love and enjoyment united to his Creator. In preparation +for this final consummation the poet, as he ascends to the Empyrean, +gives a most beautiful epitome of the principal mysteries of religion +and of some of the tenets of scholastic philosophy, treating especially +the Fall of Man, Predestination, Free Will, the Redemption, the +Immortality of the Soul and the theory of Human Knowledge. Allegorically +considered, the poem is a veil, under which we see the ideal life of man +upon earth, exercising virtue and gaining virtue's rewards. + +To exhibit man's supreme, happiness in the next life, the Christian +poet, insisting that his purpose is the inculcation of truth, both to +save and to adorn the soul, must base his theme upon the doctrines of +the Church. The definition of some of those dogmas Dante anticipated. +All may be summed up in the following statement: + +"It is of Catholic faith that the souls of the blessed see God directly +and face to face and this vision is Supernatural; that there are degrees +of this vision, corresponding to the merits of the elect; that to see +God in His Essence, the intellect is supernaturally perfected; that the +Beatific Vision is not deferred to the Day of Judgment, but is possessed +at once after death but the Just, in whom there is no stain of sin or +who have no temporal punishment to be expiated; and, furthermore, that +all human beings at the end of the world will arise with their own +bodies." + +How will the poet bring home those incomprehensible truths to his +readers? He has to treat a subject wholly transcendent and supernatural. +Though his vision be celestial, his langauge must be terrestrial. He +must visualize states of the soul which are alien to the eyes of the +body and translate into terms of the senses things which are wholly +non-sensuous. Dante is aware that no poet ever essayed that feat before: +"The sea I sail has never yet been passed." (1, 8.) He knows, also, that +shoals and rocks, seemingly impassable and a sea which may engulf his +genius, are before him. "It is no coastwise voyage for a little barque, +this sea through which the intrepid prow goes cleaving nor for a pilot +who would spare himself." (XXIII, 67.) + +And yet he will attempt the impossible, he will endeavor to sing not of +the scenes but of the states of suprasensible spiritual joys--joys which +Bishop Norris says "are without example, above experience and beyond +imagination, for which the whole creation wants a comparison, we an +apprehension and even the word of God, a revelation." Conscious of all +that, Dante confesses the impotency of speech, the inadequacy of memory, +the helplessness of imagination for the task to which he sets himself. +He tells us that the sublime songs of the elect "have lapsed and fallen +out of my memory"--"that to represent and transhumanize in words +impossible were." (I, 71.) + + "And what was the sun wherein I entered, + Apparent, not by color, but by light + I, though I call on genius, art and practice + Cannot so tell that it could be imagined." + (X, 41.) + +So by the very nature of the subject visualization can be only +partial--only "the shadow of the blessed realm," can be shown. But what +human nature can do, even if its feat seems solitary and unique, Dante +has accomplished in a failure which constitutes the most wonderful +achievement in the domain of the sublime in literature, an achievement +leaving us with a sense of his own ineffable bliss and of the +inexpressible joys of the Elect--an achievement which came to pass, say +some readers, because his poem is an account of a supernatural +vision--and Dante hints that he thinks he was so favored, or because it +is a work to which both heaven and earth have set their hand, showing +him, as Emerson observes, "all imagination," or, as James Russell Lowell +says, "The highest spiritual nature which has expressed itself in +rhythmical form." + +There are two methods of representing man's supreme happiness, relative +and absolute: one is to depict nature at her best, untouched by sin, and +to show man free from every defect and blemish, in the full perfection +of his being. Naturally the imagery in this case is the imagery born of +finite human experiences. The other method describes, as we said, not +scenes of happiness but transcendent conditions of the soul as it is +brought into ultimate communion with Supreme Goodness--the finite +possessing and enjoying the Infinite. Here the human mind, let us repeat +it, finds earthly images powerless to translate its thought, for it hath +not entered into the heart of man to conceive the glory of the spiritual +world. These two methods Dante follows successively. + +His Eden on the summit of Purgatory is literally the earthly Paradise of +Adam and Eve. It is pictured in moving imagery as man's "native country +of delights," a "lofty garden" of ineffable loveliness, high above all +the physical and moral disturbances of earth, its waters, its winds, its +flowers and its music all coming from supernatural sources, its bliss +springing from the perfect harmony of man's animal, intellectual and +spiritual powers in full and perfect accord with reason. It is Paradise +Regained by man's climbing the mountain of Purgatory, and its +significance is understood if we remember that Dante would teach us +that the present life can be made dual, a life worth while in itself, +full of service and godliness as well as a preparation for the unending +life of Heaven. + +For Dante there must be, also, the Celestial Paradise where man's +supernatural destiny will be realized in joys which the eye has not seen +and in music which the ear has not heard. His Paradiso has been called +the Ten Heavens, but in reality there is in his plan only one Heaven, +the Empyrean, the abode of the angels, of the blessed spirits and of +God. It is high above the planets and the stars, beyond time and space. +The Church has never answered the question: Where is Heaven? +Theologians, however, have put forth various opinions. "Some say," +writes Father Honthein, that "Heaven is everywhere, as God is +everywhere, the blessed being free to move freely in every part of the +universe while still remaining with God and seeing Him everywhere." +Others hold that Heaven is "a special place with definite limits. +Naturally this place is held to exist, not within the earth, but in +accordance with the expressions of Scripture, 'without and beyond its +limits.'" (Cath. Encycl., VII, 170.) + +According to Dante's conception, Heaven, being non-spatial and +non-temporal, is not a place but a state of spiritual life. As an aid in +depicting that state he makes use of a unique literary device. He +poetically creates nine Heavens, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, +Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, the Fixed Stars, the Primum Mobile or First +Movement. These, according to the Ptolemaic system which our poet +follows, are concentric with the earth, around which as their center +they revolve, while the earth remains fixed and motionless. The motion +of each of these nine spheres, originally coming from the Primum Mobile, +is communicated to it by the love of the angelic guardians, a literal +application of the common saying that "love makes the world go around." + +As a poetic fiction necessary for him to enter finally the true Heaven +Dante is required to pass through these nine spheres, the fiction being +used by him as an artist to declare the glories of the heavens and as a +teacher to inculcate doctrines for the instruction and edification of +mankind. In each of the nine Heavens groups of the blessed are +represented as coming to meet him "as he returns to God as to the port +whence (he) set out when (he) first entered upon the sea of this life." + +This peerless rhetorical figure is explained in the Banquet, where he +says: "As his fellow-citizens come forth to meet him who returns from a +long journey even before he enters the gates of his city; so to the +noble soul come forth the citizens of the eternal Life." This apparition +of the blessed spirits to greet the mystic traveller as he mounts from +sphere to sphere has several advantages: "it peoples with hosts of +spirits, the immense lonely spaces through which the journey lies"; it +affords the poet the opportunity of asking them "many things which have +great utility and delight"; it finally gives him a sensible sign of the +degree of beatitude which they possess in that realm of many mansions +where each is rewarded according to his merit and capacity, the capacity +of each spirit being in proportion to its degree of knowledge and love. +This is stressed by the poet's representing the apparitions first as +faint yet beautiful outlines of human features, then as ascent is made +to the other Heavens, the spirits make themselves known by increasing +manifestations of light so dazzling finally that the splendor would +blind Dante if his vision were not divinely adapted to its supernatural +needs. + +The inequalities of bliss are also symbolized by the sphere in which the +spirits appear to him; those in the sphere of the moon, e.g., are less +favored than those in the Heaven of Mercury. The inequality of merit, +and therefore of reward, is also declared by the difference in both the +quickness of the spirits' movement and their clearness of vision into +the essence of God. The Empyrean, it is worth while repeating, is the +only true Paradise, the nine Heavens being only myths or poetic devices. +If spirits are seen there, they have come forth only from the Empyrean +and will quickly return there after preparing the poet for the eternal +Light of Light. + +The materials out of which Dante constructs his Paradiso are not, as we +are already aware, fantastic images such as he employed for the first +two parts of the Divina Commedia, but are things of the spirit, viz., +knowledge, beauty, faith, love, joy; and he is aided in making visible +those invisible entities of the spiritual life by such intangible things +as sound, motion and light. + +Light, indeed, is one of the leading elements in the Paradiso. The poem +begins with a reference to the light of God's glory, and its last line +speaks of "the Love which moves the Sun and the other stars." And +between this beginning and this end in thirty-three cantiche light is +represented not only by degrees of increasing intensity and variety of +unlocked for movements but as surrounding the spirits, living flames, +and constituting, symbolically, the beatitude of Heaven. + +Dean Church, in his classic essay on Dante, has a beautiful paragraph +that here calls for quotation: "Light in general is his special and +chosen source of poetic beauty. No poet that we know has shown such +singular sensibility to its varied appearances.... Light everywhere--in +the sky and earth and sea--in the stars, the flames, the lamp, the +gems--broken in the water, reflected from the mirror, transmitted +through the glass, or colored through the edge of the fractured +emerald--dimmed in the mist. The halo, the deep water--streaming through +the rent cloud, glowing in the coal, quivering in the lightning, +flashing in the topaz and the ruby, veiled behind the pure alabaster, +mellowed and clouding itself in the pearl-light contrasted with shadow, +shading off and copying itself in the double rainbow like voice and +echo--light seen within light--light from every source and in all its +shapes illuminates, irradiates, gives glory to the Commedia.... And when +he (Dante) rises beyond the regions of earthly day, light, simple and +unalloyed, unshadowed and eternal, lifts the creations of his thought +above all affinity to time and matter; light never fails him, as the +expression of the gradations of bliss; never reappears the same, never +refuses the new shapes of his invention, never becomes confused or dim, +though it is seldom thrown into distinct figure and still more seldom +colored." + +In making light such a central feature of Heaven and symbolically in +identifying light with God and the angels and the blessed, Dante is only +expressing--but expressing beautifully and supremely--the thought which +pagan oracles proclaimed and Holy Writ and the Church made known. From +the earliest ages the sun which vivifies and illuminates the world was +regarded by many nations as the symbol of the Deity--and by still other +nations it was adored. The psalmist, addressing God, says: "Thou art +clothed with light as with a garment." (Ps., CIII, 2.) St. Paul declares +that the Lord of Lords "inhabiteth light inaccessible." (1 Tim., VI, +16.) The Seer of Patmos tells us that the heavenly Jerusalem has no need +of the light of the sun and the moon to shine upon it, "for the glory of +God hath enlightened it and the Lamb is the lamp thereof." (Apoc., XX, +23.) "I am the light of the world," declares Christ, and with that +revelation ringing in his ears the Beloved Disciple does not hesitate to +say: "and this is the declaration which we have heard--that God is +light." (I John, I, 5.) In narrating his vision of Heaven, Ezechial +compares the light emanating from and enveloping the Deity, to fire. "I +saw the likeness as of the appearance of fire, as the appearance of +brightness." (XXIV, 17.) Moses on the mountain saw the Lord in the midst +of fire, and on another mountain Christ, "the brightness of his Father's +glory was transfigured before his apostles and his face did shine as the +Sun and his garments became shining or glittering." (Matt., XVII, 2.) +Small wonder then that the Nicaean creed declares that Christ is "God of +God, Light of light." Not only with God, but with His saints is the idea +of visible light intimately associated. The prophet Daniel tells us +that "They that are learned shall shine as the brightness of the +firmament, and they that instruct many unto justice, as stars to all +eternity." (XII, 3.) And it is Christ Himself who says: "Then shall the +just shine as the sun, in the kingdom of their Father." (Matt., XIII, +43.) + +In using such a subtle, dazzling element as light so generally and in +such countless varieties throughout his Paradiso, Dante is exposed to +the danger of palling his readers with brightness and making them lose +interest in things glorious and supernal. But the genius of the man +saves the artist. By a conception of matchless beauty he binds the light +of heaven to the human, making the smile in the eye of his beloved +guide, Beatrice, express his own personal heaven, in the light that +enters his mind and the ardor which quickens his heart. As he mounts +with her the stairway of the heavens leading to the Eternal Palace and +his motion is brought about simply by his gazing into her eyes, she +makes known to him by her increasing brightness both his own mounting +knowledge and his ascent nearer the Empyrean. + +As Dante represents the increase of light and love deepening and +expanding in him as he rises empyreanward all by the loved smile of his +beloved Beatrice, it is well that we bear in mind the significance of +the symbolism as expounded by the poet in his Banquet. (III, 15.) +Beatrice being Revelation or Wisdom made known to the world, "in her +face appear things that tell of the pleasures of Paradise and ... the +place wherein this appears is in her eyes and her smile. And here it +should be known that the eyes of Wisdom are the two demonstrations by +which is seen the truth most certainly; and her smile is her persuasion +by which is shown forth the interior light of Wisdom under some veil; +and in these two things is felt the highest pleasure of beatitude, which +is the greatest good of Paradise." + +Beatrice--Revealed Truth--remains the poet's guide until he comes to +behold the Beatific Vision. Then, no longer needed, she withdraws in +favor of the contemplative St. Bernard as guide, just as Virgil had +withdrawn when he was powerless and when Beatrice was needed. + +The question here presents itself: In what does Dante place the +happiness of Heaven? Does he paint such a Heaven that it shows +principally the rectifications of the inequalities of this life--a +Heaven of such happiness, e.g., that the poor will love poverty or be +resigned to it in the hope of possessing the riches of this Eternity? Is +Dante's Heaven one in which happiness is so alluring that innocence will +gladly submit to calumny and faith will lovingly welcome the sword or +stake, in the certain confidence of gaining unending glory or bliss? +The Paradiso does reward poverty, crown innocence, glorify martyrdom, +but it was never intended to be an account of what takes place in the +real Heaven, or to be a description of the particular acts of goodness +which win Heaven for the soul, or a rapturous picture appealing to the +emotions of the believer and alluring him from earth. + +Does Dante place the happiness of Heaven in the bliss and glorification +of family reunion? + +He is too good a theologian to place the essential happiness of Heaven +merely in the joy of family reunion. He does not ignore that feature of +eternity, but he does not stress it, because temperamentally he is moved +less by sentiment of family and ties of friendship than by his curiosity +for knowledge, by his yearnings to behold Eternal Wisdom. Only once does +he mention Heaven as the state of reunion of families and friends, and +that is when he comments upon the action of the twenty-three spirits in +the Heaven of the Sun, in expressing their agreement with Soloman's +discourse as to the participation which the human body will have, after +the Resurrection in the glories of Paradise: + + "So ready and so cordial an Amen + Follow'd from either choir, as plainly spoke + Desire of their dead bodies; yet perchance + Not for themselves, but for their kindred dear, + Mothers and sires and those whom best they loved, + Ere they were made imperishable flames." + (XIV, 65.) + +For Dante, Heaven must be the beatitude of the intellect and that +primarily by the intellect's having an intuition full of joy in the +Divine Essence, and secondly by its possessing full light on all those +vexatious problems and mysteries which baffle us in this life. + + "Well I perceive that never sated is + Our intellect unless Truth illumines it, + Beyond which nothing true expands itself. + It rests therein, as wild beast in his lair + When it attains it and it can attain it." + (IV, 125.) + +In insisting upon the power of the mind to know the truth and to find +perfect happiness in the supernatural act of beholding God face to face, +Dante is not in agreement with Pragmatism, Hegelianism and the "new +Realist" theory--all which make truth elusive to the mind; but he is in +full accord with the teaching of the Catholic Church, which defends the +rights of reason holding, e.g., that "by the natural light of reason +God can be known with certainty, by means of created things" (Vatican +Council), and proclaiming that "all the saints in Heaven have seen and +do see the Divine Essence by direct intuition and face to face in such +wise that nothing created intervenes as an object of vision; ... that +the Divine Essence presents itself to their immediate gaze, unveiled, +clearly and openly; that in this vision they enjoy the Divine Essence, +and in virtue of this vision and this enjoyment they are truly blessed +and possess eternal life and eternal rest." (Benedict XII, Cath. +Encycl., VII, 171.) + +It is interesting to see how Dante's Master, St. Thomas Aquinas, +demonstrates the proposition that the beatitude of man consists in the +vision of the Divine Essence. With his usual lucidity of thought he +writes: "The last and perfect happiness of man cannot be otherwise than +in the vision of the Divine Essence. In evidence of this statement two +points are to be considered: first, that man is not perfectly happy so +long as there remains anything for him to desire and seek; secondly, +that the perfection of every power is determined by the nature of its +object. Now the object of the intellect is the essence of a thing; hence +the intellect attains to perfection so far as it knows the Essence of +what is before it. And therefore, when a man knows an effect and knows +that it has a cause, there is in him an outstanding natural desire of +knowing the essence of the cause. If, therefore, a human intellect knows +the essence of a created effect without knowing aught of God beyond the +fact of His existence, the perfection of that intellect does not yet +adequately reach the First Cause, but the intellect has an outstanding +natural desire of searching into the said Cause; hence it is not yet +perfectly happy. For perfect happiness, therefore, it is necesary that +the intellect shall reach as far as the very essence of the First +Cause." (Rickaby, Aquinas Ethicus I, 2 q., 3 a, 8.) + +This masterly exposition is after all only the philosophical development +of what every Catholic child learns from one of the first questions of +the little Catechism: "Why did God make you? God made me to know Him, to +love Him, and to serve Him in this life, and to be happy with Him +forever in the next." With the satisfaction of the intellect's boundless +yearning for knowledge attained by intuition of the Essence of God, a +consummation that will somewhat deify us--"Who shall be made like to +him, because we shall see him as he is" (I John, III, 2.), the happiness +of man will be primarily intellectual, being as Dante beautifully says: +"Light intellectual full of love, love of the true good, full of joy, +joy that transcendeth all sweetness." (XXX, 40.) + +His Heaven, then, is no Nirvana, for each spirit will for eternity have +its individuality, and its activity will be unremitting in seeing God +face to face--a vision that will cause the spirit increasing wonder in +an act that will have no flagging nor satiety. "What, after all, is +Heaven," says Bulwer Lytton, "but a transition from dim guesses to the +fullness of wisdom, from ignorance to knowledge, but knowledge of what +order?" To that exclamation of the nineteenth century writer the +medieval seer answers with conviction that the _summum bonum_ is to be +found only in the intellect's attaining Truth. + +Let us now join Dante in his mystic journey to the Heavenly Kingdom. We +left him after three days and three nights in Purgatory, standing with +Beatrice on the summit of the mountain in the Earthly Paradise, where he +remained six hours. At noon he begins his ascent through space, a feat +accomplished by Beatrice's looking up to the Heavens and by Dante's +fixing his eyes upon her. At once his human nature is supposed to take +on agility, the supernatural quality which makes the body independent of +space, and he begins to rise with incomprehensible velocity. Though they +are travelling without conscious movement at the rate of 84,000 miles a +second, there is time for Dante's mind to operate in desire to know how +he can ascend counter to gravitation and for Beatrice to discourse upon +the law--Dante's invention--of universal (material and spiritual) +gravitation. + + "The newness of the sound and the great light + Kindled in me a longing for their cause + Never before with such acuteness felt. + And she began: 'Thou makest thyself so dull + With false imagining, that thou sees not + What thou wouldst see if thou hadst shaken it off. + Thou are not upon earth as thou believest; + But lightning, fleeing its appropriate site, + Ne'er ran as thou, who thitherward returnest.'" + (I, 88.) + +She explains the order established by Providence by force of which +created beings seek their natural habitat, earthly things being +attracted downward, spiritual entities being drawn upward irresistibly +if they do not oppose this innate inclination to good. "It is as natural +for a man purged of all evil to ascend to God," she declares, "as it is +for a stream from a mountain height to fall into a valley." + +Very shortly after this, the first stage of the celestial journey is +reached. "Direct thy mind to God in gratitude," she said, "who hath +united us with the first star." "Me seemed a cloud enveloped us, shining +dense, firm and polished like a diamond smitten by the sun. Within +itself the eternal pearl received us, as water doth receive a ray of +light, though still itself uncleft." This is the Heaven of the Moon, the +planet farthest removed from the Empyrean and therefore the sphere where +not only motion but also beatitude are least in the heavenly bodies. The +sphere of the Moon, indeed with those of Mercury and of Venus, is held +by Dante's cosmography to be within the shadow cast by the earth. +Consequently, the spirits in those three lowest Heavens are represented +as less perfect than those in the higher spheres, because in the moral +sense the shadow of earth fell upon their lives making them imperfect +through inconstancy, vain glory or unlawful love. + +In the Heaven of the Moon a long disquisition is carried on by Beatrice +in explanation of Dante's question as to why there are spots on the +moon. It is very likely that this matter of apparent irrelevance in the +heavenly realms is introduced here at the very first stage of the ascent +to give the poet the opportunity of proclaiming that the first thing one +must learn in his passage heavenward--even if this is to be understood +in an allegorical sense--is that the laws of the laboratory are not the +_rationale_ of the heavenly world and that to employ them to explain the +supernal is to violate the very science of these laws, in an +application of scope to which in their very nature they protest. This +point of seeing natural causes for the unexplainable phenomenon of +Heaven and especially of relying upon the testimony of the senses is +soon brought out by Beatrice reproving Dante for thinking that the +spirits whom he now sees are only reflections of the human face: + + "Marvel thou not," she said to me, "because + I smile at this thy puerile conceit, + Since on the truth it trusts not yet its foot, + But turns thee, as 'tis wont, on emptiness. + True substances are these which thou beholdest, + Here relegate for breaking of some vow. + Therefore speak with them, listen and believe." + (III, 25.) + +So directed, the poet gazes again upon the faint forms appearing like +reflections seen in a plate of glass or in a dark, shallow pool. These, +the first spirits he meets, are apparitions in human form. In the other +spheres all that he will see of the souls will be the light which +envelopes them and which seemingly is identified with them, but here he +sees beautiful women divinely glorious even in their dim outline, who as +nuns had violated their vow of perpetual chastity. In the Inferno the +poet, to lead the reprobate soul to speak to him, promised earthly +fame; in Purgatorio there was the offer of intercessory prayer, here in +the first Heaven there is only an appeal to the charity which inflames +the spirit. All eagerness, Dante now addresses the spirit, who appears +most desirous to converse with him. This is Piccarda, kinswoman of his +wife and sister of his friend Forese (Purg. XXIII, 40), a Poor Clare +nun, who was compelled by her brother, Corse, to leave her convent and +marry Rossellino della Tosa in the expectation that the marriage would +promote a political alliance. So sacrificed, the young virgin sister of +lofty ideals and delicate spiritual sensibility, experienced +unhappiness, the intensity of which is revealed by the ellipsis +contained in the magic line: "And God doth know what my life became." +Dante addresses Piccarda: + + "'O well-created spirit, who in the rays + Of life eternal dost the sweetness taste + Which being untasted ne'er is comprehended, + Grateful 'twill be to me, if thou content me + Both with thy name and with your destiny.' + Whereat, she promptly and with laughing eyes: + 'Our charity doth never shut the doors + Against a just desire, except as she + Who wills that all her court be like herself. + I was a virgin sister in the world; + And if thy mind doth contemplate me well, + The being more fair will not conceal me from thee, + But thou shalt recognize I am Piccarda, + Who, stationed here among these other blessed, + Myself am blessed in the lowest sphere. + All our affections, that alone inflamed + Are in the pleasure of the Holy Ghost, + Rejoice at being of his order formed; + And this allotment, which appears so low, + Therefore is given us, because our vows + Have been neglected and in some part void.' + Whence I to her: 'In your miraculous aspects + There shines I know not what of the divine, + Which doth transform you from our first conceptions. + Therefore I was not swift in my remembrance; + But what thou tellest me now aids me so, + That the refiguring is easier to me.'" + (III, 37.) + +Dante, you recall, had found the souls in Purgatory contented with their +lot, though they were enduring great suffering; in Heaven he is eager to +learn in the very beginning whether the Elect are satisfied with the +decree which awards to them happiness in unequal measure. So he asks +Piccarda whether she and the other spirits in this lowest sphere are not +eager for a higher place. The answer is one of the most touching and +beautiful passages in the poem, summing up in language of radiant +gladness the law of Heaven that in "God's will is our peace," words +which Gladstone says "appear to have an unexpressible majesty of truth +about them, to be almost as if they were spoken from the very mouth of +God." + + "'But tell me, ye who in this place are happy, + Are you desirous of a higher place, + To see more or to make yourselves more friends?' + First, with those other shades, she smiled a little; + Thereafter answered me so full of gladness, + She seemed to burn in the first fire of love: + 'Brother, our will is quieted by virtue + Of charity, that makes us wish alone + For what we have, nor gives us thirst for more. + If to be more exalted we aspired, + Discordant would our aspirations be + Unto the will of Him who here secludes us; + Which thou-shalt see finds no place in these circles, + If being in charity is needful here, + And if thou lookest well into its nature; + Nay 'tis essential to this blest existence + To keep itself within the will divine, + Whereby our very wishes are made one; + So that, as we are station above station + Throughout this realm, to all the realm 'tis pleasing, + As to the King, who makes His will our will. + And His will is our peace; this is the sea + To which is moving onward whatsoever + It doth create, and all that nature makes.' + Then it was clear to me how everywhere + In Heaven is Paradise, although the grace + Of good supreme there rain not in one measure." + (III, 64.) + +Piccarda then tells the moving story of her life, how as a girl she +entered the order of St. Clare, only to be torn from the nunnery and +given into marriage. + + "A perfect life and merit high in Heaven + A lady o'er us," said she, "by whose rule + Down in your world they vest and veil themselves, + That until death they may both watch and sleep + Beside that Spouse who every vow accepts + Which charity conformeth to his pleasure. + To follow her, in girlhood from the world + I fled, and in her habit shut myself, + And pledged me to the pathway of her sect. + Then men accustomed unto evil more + Than unto good, from the sweet cloister tore me; + God knows what afterward my life became." + (III, 97.) + +Certain questions interesting to a seeker of truth grow out of +Piccarda's statement and these Beatrice proceeds to solve for the +edification of Dante. The first question asks whether in the assignment +to the lowest sphere of souls who violated their vows, there is divine +Justice; the second concerns Plato's teaching that souls really come +from the stars and return thither; the third is about the loss of merit +through coercion of the will, as exemplified in the case of Piccarda. +The solution of these difficulties need not detain us if only we +remember Dante's view that "the theories maintained by him in the Heaven +of the Moon are intended to manifest," as Gardner and Scartazzini point +out, "the moral freedom of man and to show that no external thing can +interfere with the soul that is bent upon attaining the end for which +God has destined it." + +To the next Heaven, the sphere of Mercury, Beatrice and Dante soar more +swiftly than an arrow attains its mark while the bow is still vibrating. +Increasing in loveliness as she ascends, Beatrice, in the second realm, +radiates such splendor that Mercury itself, apart from its own light, +gains such glory from her that it seems to glitter or smile from very +gladness. + + "My lady there so joyful I beheld + As unto the brightness of that heaven she entered + More luminous thereat the planet grew, + And if the star itself was changed and smiled + What became I who by my nature am + Exceeding mutable in every guise?" (V, 97.) + +Greeting the travellers, more than a thousand spirits joyfully exclaim: +"Lo, one who shall increase our loves!" The Saints in Mercury thus +testify to their delight that one (Dante) has come to be the fresh +object of their love, just as it is said that "there shall be joy before +the angels of God upon one sinner doing penance." (Luke XV, 10.) These +splendors in Mercury are the souls of those in whose virtue there was +the alloy of ambition and vainglory--a combination, according to Dante, +which makes "the rays of true love less vividly mount upwards." The poet +is addressed by a spirit who bids him ask any question he will and +Beatrice confirms the invitation. "Speak, speak with confidence and +trust them even as gods." All eagerness for knowledge, Dante inquires of +the friendly splendor who he is and why he is in this particular Heaven. + +The story told by the spirit of Emperor Justinian is a brief sketch of +his own life, with reference to his conversion from heresy by Pope +Agapetus, to the victories of his general, Belisarius, and to his own +great work of the codification of the Roman law. He then traces the +history of Rome from the time of Æneas to the thirteenth century, bent +upon showing that the Roman Empire, as a world-power over governments +and peoples, is divine in its institution and providentially protected +in its course. Two facts are adduced in crowning proof of this audacious +statement, viz., Christ's choosing to be born and to be registered as a +subject of Cæsar and His crucifixion under Tiberius, acting through +Pontius Pilate as the divinely constituted instrument of eternal justice +exercised by the Heavenly Father against His Son, at once the victim of +sin and its atonement. + +Dante enlarges on this point in his Monarchia. "If the Roman Empire did +not exist by right, the sin of Adam was not punished in Christ.... If, +therefore, Christ had not suffered by the sentence of a regular judge, +the penalty would not have been properly punished; and none could be a +regular judge who had not jurisdiction over all mankind, for all mankind +was punished in the flesh of Christ, who 'hath borne our infirmities and +carried our sorrows,' as said the prophet Isaias. And if the Roman +Empire had not existed by right, Tiberius Cæsar, whose vicar was Pontius +Pilate, would not have had jurisdiction over all mankind." To us both +the argument and its conclusion are wholly indefensible. It seems indeed +a mockery and a blasphemy to attribute to such a monster as Tiberius +Cæsar glory because Christ was crucified in his reign. Dante's words, +however, as spoken by Justinian, leave no room for doubt that the poet +was convinced that all the ancient celebrity of Rome was insignificant +as compared to the glory that would come to it because it would carry +out the crucifixion of Christ. + + "But what the standard that has made me speak + Achieved before, and after should achieve + Throughout the mortal realm that lies beneath, + Becometh in appearance mean and dim + If in the hand of the third Cæsar seen + With an eye unclouded and affection pure + Because the living Justice that inspires me + Granted it, in the hand of him I speak of + The glory of doing vengence for its wrath." + (VI, 82.) + +Shining among the splendors of Mercury is a spirit who, though he was +not a lawmaker like Justinian, attained earthly renown by arranging the +marriages of four Kings. Known by the name of Romeo, a word meaning a +pilgrim of Rome, this man came a stranger to the Court of Raymond +Berenger, Court of Provence, multiplied the income without lessening the +grandeur of his master and brought about the marriages to royalty of the +four daughters of the household--Margaret to St. Louis of France, +Eleanor to Henry III of England, Sanzia to Richard, Earl of Cornwall +(brother of Henry III), elected King of the Romans, Beatrice to Charles +of Anjou, later by Papal investiture, King of Naples. Charged by jealous +barons with having wasted his master's goods, Romeo established his +innocence and then departed as he came, on a mule and with a pilgrim's +staff. From affluence he goes a-begging and this is so much like Dante's +own case that the poet's sympathy goes out to the calumniated man, and +he says with touching simplicity: + + "If the world could know the heart he had + In begging bit by bit his livelihood, + Though much it laud him, it would laud him more." + (VI, 140.) + +Justinian's words as to the crucifixion of Christ suggest to Dante this +question: Why was man's redemption effected by the death of Christ upon +the Cross rather than by some other mode? Investing the argumentative +propositions of St. Thomas with poetic beauty, Dante shows that while +God might have freely pardoned man without exacting any satisfaction, +on the hypothesis that He had chosen to restore mankind to His favor and +at the same time to require full satisfaction as a condition of pardon +and deliverance, there was only one way for the accomplishment of this +reconciliation and that was by the atonement of One who was both God and +Man. For sin, inasmuch as it is an act against the Infinite Being, +requires a satisfaction of infinite value. Man being finite is incapable +of adequately making such satisfaction. But the Word was made flesh that +by His atonement on the Cross Mercy would be declared and Justice would +be satisfied. + +"Your nature, when it sinned in its totality in its first seed, from +these dignities, even as from Paradise, was parted; nor might they be +recovered, if thou look right keenly, by any way save passing one or the +other of these fords: either that God, of his sole courtesy, should have +remitted; or that man should of himself have given satisfaction for his +folly. Man had not power, within his own boundaries, even to render +satisfaction, since he might not go in humbleness by after-obedience so +deep down as in disobedience he had framed to exalt himself on high; and +this is the cause why from the power to render satisfaction by himself +man was shut off. Wherefore needs must God with his own ways reinstate +man in his unmaimed life, I mean with one way or with both the two. But +because the doer's deed is the more gracious the more it doth present +us of the heart's goodness whence it issued, the divine Goodness which +doth stamp the world, deigned to proceed on all his ways to lift you up +again; nor between the last night and the first day was, nor shall be, +so lofty and august a progress made on one or on the other, for more +generous was God in giving of himself to make man able to uplift himself +again, than had he only of himself granted remission; and all other +modes fell short of justice, except the Son of God had humbled him to +become flesh." (VII, 85.) + +From Mercury to Venus the ascent has been so rapid that Dante is unaware +that he has reached the third Heaven until he sees the greater +loveliness of Beatrice represented by her greater radiance. As ascent is +made heavenward it will also be found that the spirits are seen not as +human faces, as was the case in the Heaven of the Moon, but as lights +increasing in intensity and manifesting a movement of greater speed to +the accompaniment of diverse music. It is necessary to keep in mind this +plan of the poet lest thinking the lovely lights, and lovely sounds and +lovely movements are only terms descriptive of physical, though +impalpable phenomena, we lose the deep and beautiful symbolism that is +the magic secret of the seraphic poesy of the Paradiso. Of the +brilliancy and movement of the spirits of the Sphere of Venus--spirits +who in this life failed in Christian ideals because of their amours, +Dante says, and his description is that of an expert musician +distinguishing between the singing of one who sustains the main-theme +and that of other voices rising and falling in subordination to the +principal melody: + + "And as within a flame a spark is seen, + And as within a voice discerned, + When one is steadfast, and one comes and goes, + Within that light beheld I other lamps + Move in a circle, speeding more and less, + Methinks in a measure of their inward vision. + From a cold cloud descended never winds, + Or visible or not, so rapidly + They would not laggard and impeded seem + To any one who had those lights divine + Seen come towards us, leaving the gyration + Begun at first in the high Seraphim. + And behind those that most in front appeared + Sounded 'Osanna!' so that never since + To hear again was I without desire. + Then unto us more nearly one approached, + And it alone began: 'We all are ready + Unto thy pleasure, that thou joy in us. + + We turn around with the celestial Princes, + One gyre and one gyration and one thirst, + To whom thou in the world didst say, + "Ye who, intelligent, the third heaven are moving;" + And are so full of love, to pleasure thee + A little quiet will not be less sweet.'" + (VIII, 16.) + +The speaker discloses himself to be Charles Martel, once titular King of +Hungary, who on the occasion of a nineteen days' visit to Florence, +formed an intimate friendship with the poet. For the latter's +edification the spirit expounds the problem: Why from the same parents, +children grow up different in disposition, talent and career, a problem +just as interesting to the twentieth as the thirteenth century. We +account for the difference according to the principles of variation, +heredity and environment, but to stellar influence intent upon securing +the fulfillment of the law of individuality, was the difference +attributed by the medieval mind, which regarded the stars and planets +not as soulless spheres, but as orbs palpitating with the life of +angelic intelligences and radiating their influence upon the people of +the earth. + +Hence it was held that the Heavens affected the diversity of the +characters of children who otherwise would be cut out the exact pattern +of their parents. "The begotten nature would ever take a course like its +begetters, did not divine provision overrule." (VIII, 136.) The +necessity for diversity in man's life is deduced from the fact that in +society men are providentially destined for different vocations. +"Wherefore is one born Solon (a legislator), another Xerxes (a soldier), +another Melchisedech (a priest), and the man who soaring through the +welkin lost his son." (Daedalus, the typical mechanician.) But stellar +influence always controlled by man's free will is often ignored, +especially when we put into the sanctuary one who should be on the +battle field and when we gave a throne to him whose right place is in +the pulpit. + + "And if the world below would fix its mind + On the foundation which is laid by nature, + Pursuing that, 't would have the people good. + But you into religion wrench aside + Him who was born to gird him with the sword, + And make a king of him who is for sermons; + Therefore your footsteps wander from the road." + (VIII, 142.) + +The next four spheres being beyond the earth's shadow are for spirits +whose virtue was undimmed by human infirmity and whose place in eternal +life is consequently one of greater vision and bliss. In the first of +these higher spheres, the Sphere of the Sun, the fourth Heaven, Dante +sees the spirits of great theologians and others who loved wisdom--great +teachers of men. Around him and Beatrice, as their center, twelve of +them appear in one circle and twelve in another, while behind those +dazzling splendors of spirits are other vivid lights probably +representing authors whom the poet had not read or comprehended or +symbolizing the men of science, the lovers of wisdom, who in the future +by their discoveries would add to our knowledge of truth. As one of the +basic truths of Revelation is the mystery of the Blessed Trinity, here +in the Heaven of the Doctors the dogma is made prominent by special +frequency of reference and symbolism. The Creation, as an act of the +Three Divine Persons, is mentioned in lines of exquisite grace: + + "Looking into His Son with all the Love + Which each of them eternally breathes forth + The primal and unutterable Power + Whate'er before the mind or eye revolves + With so much order made, there can be none + Who thus beholds, without enjoying it." + (X, 1.) + +Not only by thought, but by dancing, is the same truth expressed: "those +burning suns round about us whirled themselves three times." (X, 76.) +Again in song they proclaim the mystery of the Holy Trinity: + + "The One and Two and Three who ever liveth + And reigneth ever in Three and Two and One + Not circumscribed and all circumscribing + Three several times was chanted by each one + Among those spirits, with such melody + That for all merit it were just reward." + (XIV, 27.) + +In this Heaven we hear the eulogy of St. Francis of Assisi pronounced +by a Dominican and the praises of St. Dominic sung by a +Franciscan--consummate art that is an indirect invitation to the +two orders of monks upon earth to avoid jealousy and to practice mutual +respect. It has been said that these narratives give us the essence of +what constitutes true biography, viz., a picture of the spiritual +element in man drawn in such words as ever to command the understanding +and elicit the respect of the reader of every period. The first speaker +is St. Thomas Aquinas, and his reference to the mystical marriage of St. +Francis and Lady Poverty will be the better understood if we have before +the mind's eye Giotto's painting which hangs over the tomb of the +founder of the Franciscans. The figures in the pictures are described +by Gardiner (Ten Heavens, p. 113): Christ, standing upon a rock, unites +St. Francis to his chosen bride, who is haggard and careworn, clothed in +ragged and patched garments, barefooted and girded with a cord. Roses +and lilies spring up behind her and encircle her head; she wears the +aureole and has wings, though weak; but thorns and briars are around her +feet. Hope and Love are her bridesmaids; Hope clothed in green with +uplifted hand and Love with flame-colored flowers and holding a burning +heart. A dog is barking at the Bride and boys are assaulting her with +sticks and stones, but all around are bands of angelic witnesses, their +flowing raiment and mighty wings glowing with rainbow hues. In these +days when money seems the ideal of thousands, Poverty, whose mystical +appeal is so glowingly painted, still speaks to great numbers of men and +women who give up material comforts and ease to embrace as monks and +nuns the state of voluntary poverty. Let us now hear how St. Thomas +recounts the life and work of St. Francis of Assisi: + + "He was not yet much distant from his rising, + When his good influence 'gan to bless the earth. + A dame, to whom one openeth pleasure's gate + More than to death, was 'gainst his father's will, + His stripling choice; and he did make her his, + Before the spiritual court, by nuptial bonds, + And in his father's sight: from day to day, + Then loved her more devoutly. She, bereaved + Of her first husband, slighted and obscure, + Thousand and hundred years and more, remain'd + Without a single suitor, till he came. + There concord and glad looks, wonder and love, + And sweet regard gave birth to holy thoughts, + So much that venerable Bernard first + Did bare his feet, and, in pursuit of peace + So heavenly, ran, yet deem'd his footing slow. + O hidden riches! O prolific good! + Egidius bares him next, and next Sylvester, + And follow, both, the bridegroom: so the bride + Can please them. Thenceforth goes he on his way + The father and the master, with his spouse, + And with that family, whom now the cord + Girt humbly: nor did abjectness of heart + Weigh down his eyelids, for that he was son + Of Pietro Bernardone, and by men + In wondrous sort despised. But royally + His hard intention he to Innocent + Set forth; and, from him, first received the seal + On his religion. Then, when numerous flock'd + The tribe of lowly ones, that traced _his_ steps, + Whose marvelous life deservedly were sung + In heights empyreal; through Honorius' hand + A second crown, to deck their Guardian's virtues, + Was by the eternal Spirit inwreathed: and when + He had, through thirst of martyrdom, stood up + In the proud Soldan's presence, and there preach'd + Christ and his followers, but found the race + Unripen'd for conversion; back once more + He hasted (not to intermit his toil), + And reap'd Ausonian lands. On the hard rock, + 'Twixt Arno and the Tiber, he from Christ + Took the last signet, which his limbs two years + Did carry. Then, the season come that he, + Who to such good had destined him, was pleased + To advance him to the meed, which he had earn'd + By his self-humbling; to his brotherhood, + As their just heritage, he gave in charge + His dearest lady: and enjoin'd their love + And faith to her; and, from her bosom, will'd + His goodly spirit should move forth, returning + To its appointed kingdom; nor would have + His body laid upon another bier." + (XI, 55.) + +At the conclusion of this discourse the spirits in both circles, +arranged like the concentric circles of a double rainbow, express their +joy by a gyrating dance and song. + +If St. Francis was "a sun upon the world," St. Dominic is shown by the +next speaker, St. Bonaventure, to be "a splendor of cherubic delight." +"In happy Callaroga was born the passionate lover of the Christian +faith, the holy champion, gentle to his own, and without mercy to his +enemies. As soon as his soul had been created it was so replete with +energy that, within his mother's womb, it made her a prophetess. When +the pledges for his baptism had been given at the sacred font, and he +and Faith had become one, dowering each other with salvation, the lady +who had given assent for him, beheld in her sleep the wonderful fruit +which would one day come of him, and of his heirs. He was named Dominic. +I speak of him as the husbandman whom Christ chose to assist Him with +His garden. Of a truth did he seem Christ's messenger and friend, for +the very first inclination which he manifested was to follow the first +percept which Christ gave. Not for the world, love of which at present +makes men toil, but for love of the true manna, did he, in short while, +become a mighty teacher, such that he set about pruning the vineyard of +the church, which soon runs wild if the vinedresser be negligent. + +"From the Papal chair which, in former days, was more generous to the +righteous poor, not because it has grown degenerate in itself, but +because of the degeneracy of him who sits upon it, Dominic begged not to +be allowed to dispense to the poor only two or three where six was due, +nor sought the first vacant benefice, the tithes of which belong to +God's poor. He begged rather for leave to fight against the erring world +in behalf of the seed of true faith, four and twenty plants of which +encircle you. Then, armed with doctrine and firm determination, together +with the sanction of the Papacy, he issued forth like a torrent from on +high, and on heretics his onslaught smote with greatest force where was +most resistance. Afterward, from him there burst forth various streams +by which the Catholic garden is watered so that the plants in it are +becoming vigorous." (XII, 48.) + +Transported into the Heaven of Mars Dante is made aware of his ascent +thither only by the glow of the ruddy planet, so different from the +white sheen of the sun. At once he beholds a spectacle far more +marvelous than the circles of dancing lights he has just seen. It fills +him with such wonder and bliss that he falls into an ecstasy and only +after that does he look into the eyes of Beatrice, now more lovely than +ever. What is the new marvel? A starry cross traversing the sphere--a +cross, the arms and body of which, each like a Milky Way, are made up of +dazzling lights of the souls of those who laid down their lives for the +Faith. On the Cross is flashed the blood red image of the Crucified, +likewise formed by glowing stars, the souls of Christian warriors. Not +stationary do the splendors remain, but through the glittering mass they +dart to and fro like motes in a sunbeam that finds its way through a +shutter or screen. With eyes amazed the poet now hears such a wondrous +melody that he says: "I was so much enamoured therewith that up to this +point there had not been anything which bound me with fetters of such +delight." (XIV, 128.) + +The names of some of the spirits forming the Stellar Cross are made +known to the poet--Joshua and Judas Maccabaeus, the intrepid heroes of +the Old Testament, the Christian Knights, Charlemagne and Orlando the +Paladin, William of Aquitaine and Rainouart, Godfrey de Bouillon, +conqueror of Jerusalem, Robert Guiscard, military executor of Pope +Hildebrande. + +Darting along the arm of the Stellar Cross and coming to its foot is a +splendor who greets Dante with warm affection. This is the spirit of his +great-great-grandfather, Cacciaguida, who sings the glory of ancient +Florence the better to describe the deterioration of the city in Dante's +day and to censure its people for their civil feuds, corruption and +opposition to the Imperial Eagle. Then at Dante's request the crusader +spirit interprets for his descendant the various predictions made to the +latter during his passage through Hell and Purgatory. Evil days will +come upon him (it must be remembered that this prophecy by Cacciaguida +is supposed to occur a year or two before Dante's exile), he will be +exiled from Florence and will become a homeless wanderer. + +Let him, however, write his poem and declare his vision, no matter if +offense will be taken by the high ones of the earth. He, having a +prophet's work to do, must speak with all the boldness of a prophet +without fear or dissimulation. The words, while assuring the poet of the +sweetness of everlasting fame, bring to his mind, also, the bitterness +of the injustice of his exile and suffering, and apparently he harbors +the thought of vengeance upon his enemies. Beatrice, however, checks his +resentment, assuring him that she, so near to God, will assist him--a +most beautiful passage showing the relations between her and the poet, +whether the words are taken literally as exhibiting her as his +intercessor before the throne of the Most High, or allegorically +considered as declaring that Revealed Truth takes from man the desire of +vengeance and places his case in the hands of Him who has said: +"Vengeance is mine, I will repay." For Dante's spiritual perfection his +lovely guide bids him not simply look into her her eyes (allegorically +meaning not merely to contemplate theological truth) but follow the +example of men sturdy of faith and valiant of deed. The passage here +follows: + + "Now was alone rejoicing in its word + That soul beatified, and I was tasting + My own, the bitter tempering with the sweet, + And the Lady who to God was leading me + Said: 'Change thy thought; consider that I am + Near unto Him who every wrong disburdens.' + Unto the loving accents of my comfort + I turned me round, and then what love I saw + Within those holy eyes I here relinquish + Not only that my language I distrust, + But that my mind cannot return so far + Above itself, unless another guide it. + Thus much upon that point can I repeat. + That, her again beholding, my affection + From every other longing was released. + While the eternal pleasure, which direct + Rayed upon Beatrice, from her fair face + Contented me with its reflected aspect, + Conquering me with the radiance of a smile + She said to me, 'Turn thee about and listen; + Not in mine eyes alone is Paradise. + Here are blessed spirits that below, ere yet + They came to Heaven, were of such great renown + That every Muse therewith would affluent be + Therefore look thou upon the cross' horns.'" + (XVIII, 4.) + +Now rising to Jupiter, where appear the spirits of those who upon earth +in a signal manner loved and rightly administered justice, Dante is +again made aware of his uplifting by the increased beauty of Beatrice, +by the new light different from that of ruddy Mars, which envelopes him +and by the perception of his own increase of virtue and power. Here the +poet has recourse to a most ingenious system of symbols to give variety +to his descriptions and doctrine, and so to sustain the interest of the +reader. Many hundreds of the souls of the just appear as golden lights +and so group themselves as to spell against the glowing white background +of the light of the planet, the maxim from the Book of Wisdom: +"_Diligite justitiam qui judicatis terram_" (Love justice ye who judge +the earth.) Then fade away all the letters except the last one, the M of +terram, M, symbol of Monarchy, and that M stands out in general outline +somewhat like the Florentine lily, the armorial sign of Florence. And +now other golden lights come from the Empyrean and transform the M into +the figure of an eagle, the bird of Jove, with outstretched wings. But +the marvel is only partly revealed, for soon the Eagle speaks and its +voice, though made up of a thousand voices of the Just, comes forth a +single sound, like a single heat that comes from many brands or the one +odor that is exhaled from many flowers. + +What a startling spectacle it must have been to the mind of the +thirteenth century, used to candles as the ordinary means of +illumination, to have visualized before it the blessed spirits in the +light of Heaven, dancing, whirling, circling in perfect harmony and +making more formal designs to express their bliss by the rapidity of +their rhythmical movements! Even though exquisitely quaint as the +picture may appear to us, it has been executed so reverently that +criticism has rarely if ever attacked this conception of our poet. With +light as his principal material to make known to us the joys of Heaven, +he has to paint everything in high light, using no shadows and he solves +his artistic problem by the variety of his "splendors" and by the deep +symbolism of their action. His nine Heavens are not meant to be a +picture true to reality of what the Souls in Heaven are doing. These +nine Heavens, as we said before, are only myths to which from the +Empyrean come forth the Elect in condescension to Dante's sense-bound +faculties, in order to symbolize certain truths. So in this sixth sphere +the poet would teach us that the Heaven of Jupiter represents justice on +earth and on the screen of this sphere he would put forth by means of +the Imperial Eagle the arguments he has already advanced in his +Monarchia that the Roman Empire is divine in its origin--that only from +such an institution can human justice proceed from civil government. He +represents unity coming from the Roman Empire by his showing to us the +unison with which all the splendors of the Eagle speak in a voice +blended as one sound--clearly also an allegory for the Guelf forces to +become an integral part of the Universal Monarchy. + +Justice is the quality which this Heaven symbolizes and the Eagle reads +in Dante's mind a doubt against the operation of justice and proceeds to +dispel it. + + "For saidst thou: 'Born a man is on the shore + Of Indus, and is none who there can speak + Of Christ, nor who can read, nor who can write; + And all his inclinations and his actions + Are good, so far as human reason sees, + Without a sin in life or in discourse: + He dieth unbaptized and without faith; + Where is this justice that condemneth him? + Where is his fault, if he do not believe?'" + (XIX, 70.) + +The question is answered both directly and indirectly. The exclusion of +the virtuous pagan from Heaven is assumed to be an act of injustice "but +who art thou who wouldst set upon the seat to judge at a thousand miles +away with the short sight that carries but a span?" (XIX, 79.) As our +very idea of justice comes from God all just and all wise, that thought +ought to assure us that not even the virtuous heathen will be excluded +from Heaven. Faith indeed is required for salvation, but many having +faith will be condemned, while many seemingly without it will be +admitted into Heaven. + + "But look thou, many crying are, 'Christ, Christ'! + Who at the judgment will be far less near + To him than some shall be who knew not Christ. + Such Christians shall the Ethiop condemn + When the two companies shall be divided, + The one forever rich, the other poor." + (XIX, 106.) + +The indirect answer to Dante's objection as to the exclusion of the +virtuous heathen from Heaven is given by the poet speaking through the +beak of the Eagle and showing in this Heaven as one of the lights of the +Eagle itself, the soul of Rhipeus mentioned by Æneas "as above all +others the most just among the Trojans and the strictest observer of +right." "So now," says Benvenuto, the fourteenth century lecturer on +Dante, "our author fitly introduces a pagan infidel in the person of +Rhipeus, of whose salvation there would seem the very slightest chance +of all; by reason of the time, so many centuries before the advent of +Christ; by reason of the place, for he was of Troy where exceeding pride +was then paramount; by reason of the sect, for he was a pagan and +gentile, not a Jew. Briefly then our author wishes us to gather from +this fiction--this conclusion,--that even such a pagan of whose +salvation no one hoped, is capable of salvation." + +In the Heaven of Saturn, Beatrice tells the poet that she does not smile +out of regard for his human vision not powerful enough to sustain her +excess of beauty. The lovely symphonies of Paradise are also silent for +the same reason. This in effect is a poetical way of saying that the +bliss and glory in Saturn are greater than any beatitude in the lower +spheres. + +This seventh Heaven is the Heaven where appear saints distinguished for +contemplation, the principle representatives being St. Peter Damian and +St. Benedict. The latter wrote a treatise in which he likened the rule +of his order to a ladder having twelve rungs by means of which the +mystic might mount to Heaven. The second rung in that ladder is silence. +If Dante was familiar with the Benedictine treatise, the significance of +silence in Saturn is at once suggested. The figure of a ladder is a very +common one in mystical theology, which borrows the conception from the +experience of Jacob (Gen. XXVIII, 12). "And he saw in his sleep a ladder +standing upon the earth and the top thereof touching heaven, the angels +also of God ascending and descending." To symbolize the truth that +Heaven is to be reached through the Church by means of the contemplation +of eternal things Dante now shows us the Golden Ladder, down which gleam +so many radiant spirits that it seems as if all the stars of Heaven are +approaching. + + "Colored like gold, on which the sunshine gleams, + A stairway I beheld to such a height + Uplifted, that mine eye pursued it not. + Likewise beheld I down the steps descending + So many splendors, that I thought each light + That in the heaven appears was there diffused." + (XXI, 28.) + +In the Heaven of the Fixed Stars the triumph of Christ gladdens the +wondering eyes of the poet: + +"Behold the hosts of Christ's triumphal march and all the fruit +harvested by the rolling of these spheres." + +At these words of Beatrice Dante turns and beholds all the saints seen +in the other spheres and many other spirits gathered round the God-man +to praise Him for the Redemption and Atonement. Christ here reveals +Himself in the form of a gorgeous Sun surrounded by those countless +spirits, appearing as lights or flowers. Apparently the poet gets just +a momentary glimpse of the glorified humanity of the Saviour. The direct +rays of the divine splendor cannot long be endured, so, in condescension +to Dante's weakness of vision, a cloudy screen permits the poet to +sustain the Vision now irradiating its light on the living, spiritual +flowers. + + "Saw I, above the myriad of lamps, + A sun that one and all of them enkindled, + E'en as our own doth the supernal sights, + And through the living light transparent shone + The lucent substance so intensely clear + Into my sight, that I sustained it not. + 'O Beatrice, thou gentle guide and dear!' + To me she said: 'What overmasters thee + A virtue is from which naught shields itself. + There are the wisdom and the omnipotence + That ope the thoroughfares 'twixt heaven and earth + For which there erst had been so long a yearning.'" + (XXIII, 28.) + +After Christ withdraws to the Empyrean the poet finds that he has been +so much strengthened and enlightened by the Vision that increased power +of sight is given to him again to behold the smile of his guide. She +says to him: + + "Open thine eyes and look at what I am + Thou has beheld such things, that strong enough + Hast thou become to tolerate my smile." + (XXIII, 46.) + +He continues in ecstasy to gaze upon her surpassing beauty until she +bids him look upon the "meadow of flowers," the angels and saints: + + "Why doth my face so much enamor thee, + That to the garden fair thou turnest not, + Which under the rays of Christ is blossoming? + There is the Rose in which the Word Divine + Became incarnate; there the lilies are + By whose perfume the good way was discovered." + (XXIII, 70.) + +The lilies are the apostles, the Rose the Blessed Virgin Mary. "Mary," +says Cardinal Newman, "is the most beautiful flower that ever was seen +in the spiritual world. She is the Queen of spiritual flowers and +therefore she is called Rose, for the rose is fitly called of all +flowers that most beautiful." Dante says: "The name of the fair flower +that I e'er invoke morning and night utterly enthralled my soul to gaze +upon the greater fire." Now with joy the poet sees the coronation by the +spirits of Mary, Mystical Rose, and then his eyes follow her as she +mounts to the Empyrean in the wake of her divine Son while the gleaming +saints sing her praises in the _Regina Coeli_. + +The eight Heavens through which the poet has come, have been so many +stages of preparation for the final vision of Paradise. His eyes have +been gradually gaining strength by gazing upon miracles of light and +beauty and by seeing truth embodied in many representative forms to fit +him finally to see God in His Essence. Before that consummation, +however, one more preparatory vision is necessary. The poet must first +see the symbolic image of God. "What!" you may exclaim, "will Dante be +audacious enough to attempt to picture the Invisible Himself? Granted +that 'he is all wings and pure imagination' can he hope to image the +Incomprehensible Being 'who only hath immortality and inhabiteth light +inaccessible, whom no man hath seen nor can see?' (I Tim. VI, 16). Will +he not defeat his purpose by employing a symbol circumscribing Him who +is beyond circumscription?" But the genius of Dante does not fail him in +his daring undertaking, and this is the more remarkable because instead +of selecting as a symbol something infinitely large, he choses something +atomically small. In the ninth Heaven surrounded by the nine orders of +pure spirits God is represented "as an indivisible atomic Point +radiating light and symbolizing the unity of the Divinity as a fitting +prelude to the more intimate vision of the Blessed Trinity which will be +vouchsafed in the Empyrean." "A Point I saw that darted light so sharp +no lid unclosing may bear up against its keenness. On that Point depend +the heavens and the whole of nature" (XXXVIII, 16). + +On the appropriateness of this symbol Ozanam makes this interesting +comment: "God reveals Himself as necessarily indivisible and +consequently incapable of having ascribed to Him the abstraction of +quantity and quality by which we know creatures: indefinable, because +every definition is an analysis which decomposes the subject defined; +incomparable because there are no terms to institute a comparison; so +that one may say, giving the words an oblique meaning, that He is +infinitely little, that He is nothing. But on the other hand, that which +is without extension, moves without resistance; that which is not to be +grasped, cannot be contained; that which can be enclosed within no +limits, either actual or logical is by that very fact limitless. The +infinitely little is then also the infinitely great and we may say that +it is all." The indivisible atomic Point of intensest light as a symbol +of God is indeed a sublime conception of faith and genius that appeals +equally to the child, the philosopher and the mystic. + +The supreme thing still necessary for the consummation of Dante's +pilgrimage is the Beatific Vision of God. That occurs in the Empyrean +where symbol gives way to reality, where the Elect are seen no longer in +forms veiled in light but in the glorified semblance of their earthly +bodies, where contemplation gives direct vision of God in His essence. +How will the poet, while still in the flesh, endure this vision of the +Infinite, Incomprehensible Eternal God? Prepared as he has been by the +experiences of the nine Heavens, he has still further need of +supernatural assistance. That is now given to him by means of a flash +wrapping him in a garment of light, which blinds him and then +illuminates his sight and intellect and enables him to see a more +complete foreshadowing of truth dissolving into Divine Wisdom. + +The spectacle he now beholds, perhaps suggested to the poet by the +passage from the Apocalypse (XXII, 1). "And he showed me a river of +water of life, clear as crystal proceeding from the throne of God and of +the Lamb,"--the spectacle which now presents itself is that of a river +of light flowing between two banks of flowers and vivid with darting +sparks. The river represents illuminating grace, the sparks angels, the +flowers saints. This river of light wherein are reflected the Elect, as +verdure and flowers on a hillside are mirrored in a limpid stream at +its foot, is poetically represented as having the effect of a +sacrament. It bestows grace and that grace called _lumen gloriae_, light +of glory, endowing the soul with a faculty beyond its natural needs or +merits, so disposes the soul that it becomes deiform and is rendered +capable of immediate intuition of the Divine Essence. + + "There is a light above, which visible + Makes the Creator unto every creature + Who only in beholding Him, has peace." + (XXX, 100.) + +Beatrice tells Dante that he must drink his fill of the stupendous +splendor by gazing intently on the river of pure light, so that he may +be able to contemplate the whole unveiled glory and then see God +directly. + +As Dante gazes on the illuminating stream it undergoes a marvelous +transformation, taking the form of a Rose the center of which is a sea +of radiance. + + "And even as the penthouse of mine eyelids + Drank of it, it forthwith appeared to me + Out of its length to be transformed to round. + Then as a folk who have been under masks + Seem other than before, if they divest + The semblance not their own they disappeared in, + Thus into greater pomp were changed for me + The flowerets and the sparks, so that I saw + Both of the Courts of Heaven made manifest." + (XXX, 87.) + +The two courts of Heaven, angels and saints, are made manifest in the +Rose which spreads out like a vast amphitheatre the lowest circle of +which is wider than the circumference of the sun. Above the center of +the Rose as the Point of light, is God in all His glory and love, adored +in blissful raptures by the saints who form the petals of the heavenly +flower. Angels with faces aflame, in white garments and with golden +wings fly down to the petals as bees to flowers, bringing God's +blessings to the saints and fly back to God as bees to their hive, +carrying the adoration of the Elect. + +Beatrice leads the poet into the center of the Heavenly Rose. + + "Into the yellow of the Rose Eternal + That spreads, and multiplies, and breathes an odor + Of praise unto the ever-vernal Sun, + As one who silent is and fain would speak, + Me Beatrice drew on, and said: 'Behold + Of the white stoles how vast the convent is! + Behold how vast the circuit of our city! + Behold our seats so filled to overflowing, + That here henceforward are few people wanting!'" + (XXX, 124.) + +While Dante gazes on the supernatural spectacle Beatrice slips away to +take her place the third seat below the throne of the Blessed Virgin. As +his guide she has led him to the highest Heaven and has instructed him +in all that concerns God and His attributes. Her mission as Revelation +or Divine Science being finished, she withdraws and sends St. Bernard to +bring the poet into intimate union with the Godhead. + + "The general form of Paradise already + My glance had comprehended as a whole, + In no part hitherto remaining fixed, + And round I turned me with rekindled wish + My lady to interrogate of things + Concerning which my mind was in suspense. + One thing I meant, another answered me; + I thought I should see Beatrice, and saw + An Old Man habited like the glorious people. + O'er flowing was he in his eyes and cheeks + With joy benign, in attitude of pity + As to a tender father is becoming. + And 'She, where is she?' instantly I said; + Whence he: 'To put an end to thy desire, + Me Beatrice hath sent from mine own place. + And if thou lookest up to the third round + Of the first rank, again shalt thou behold her + Upon the throne her merits have assigned her.' + Without reply I lifted up mine eyes, + And saw her, as she made herself a crown + Reflecting from herself the eternal rays. + Not from that region which the highest thunders + Is any mortal eye so far removed, + In whatsoever sea it deepest sinks, + As there from Beatrice my sight; but this + Was nothing unto me; because her image + Descended not to me by medium blurred." + (XXXI, 52.) + +St. Bernard, the mystic, celebrating the Blessed Virgin's praises in a +marvelous outburst of song, unsurpassed for lyrical beauty, beseeches +her intercession that Dante may see God face to face. + + "Now doth this man, who from the lowest depth + Of the universe as far as here has seen + One after one the spiritual lives, + Supplicate thee through grace for so much power + That with his eyes he may uplift himself + Higher towards the uttermost salvation. + And I, who never burned for my own seeing + More than I do for his, all of my prayers + Proffer to thee, and pray they come not short, + That thou wouldst scatter from him every cloud + Of his mortality so with thy prayers, + That the Chief Pleasure be to him displayed. + Still farther do I pray thee, Queen, who canst + Whate'er thou wilt, that sound thou mayst preserve + After so great a vision his affections. + Let thy protection conquer human movements; + See Beatrice and all the blessed ones + My prayers to second clasp their hands to thee! + The eyes beloved and revered of God, + Fastened upon the speaker, showed to us + How grateful unto her are prayers devout; + Then unto the Eternal Light they turned, + On which it is not credible could be + By any creature bent an eye so clear." + (XXXIII, 22.) + +The prayer is granted. "My vision becoming undimmed, more and more +entered the beam of light which in itself is Truth." (XXXIII, 52.) The +veil is removed. He gazes into the limitless depths of the Divinity. He +enjoys the Beatific Vision. + +First he sees by immediate intuition the Divine Essence in its creative +power, the examplar of all substances, modes and accidents united in +harmony and love; then he beholds the Creator Himself and all the +divine perfections and all the eternal plans of God. Clear to the poet +now is the truth of the mystery of the Blessed Trinity unveiled in +circles of light like rainbows of green, white and red of equal +circumference, the Second being as it were the splendor of the First and +the Third emanating from the two others. Unravelled also is the mystery +of the two natures human and divine, in the divine person of Christ seen +in human form in the second luminous circle. But the Vision is so far +above the poet's memory to retain or his speech to express that he +cannot find words to make intelligible the splendor he beholds or the +rapture he experiences. + +"Oh grace abounding, wherein I presumed to fix my look on the eternal +light so long that I consumed my sight thereon! Within its depths I saw +ingathered, bound by love in one volume, the scattered leaves of all the +universe; substance and accidents and their relations, as though +together fused, after such fashion that what I tell of is one simple +flame. + +"In the profound and shining being of the deep light appeared to me +three circles, of three colours and one magnitude; one by the second as +Iris by Iris seemed reflected, and the third seemed a fire breathed +equally from one and from the other. Oh, but how scant the utterance, +and how faint, to my conceit! and it, to what I saw, is such that it +sufficeth not to call it little. O light eternal who only in thyself +abidest, only thyself dost understand, and to thyself, self-understood, +self-understanding, turnest love and smiling! That circling which +appeared in thee to be conceived as a reflected light, by mine eyes +scanned some little, in itself, of its own colour, seemed to be painted +with our effigy, and thereat my sight was all committed to it. + +"To the high fantasy here power failed; but already my desire and will +were rolled--even as a wheel that moveth equally--by the Love that moves +the sun and the other stars." (XXXIII, 82.) + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DANTE: "THE CENTRAL MAN OF ALL THE +WORLD"*** + + +******* This file should be named 16978-8.txt or 16978-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/6/9/7/16978 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: +https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + diff --git a/16978-8.zip b/16978-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b95c8fb --- /dev/null +++ b/16978-8.zip diff --git a/16978-h.zip b/16978-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8a17c8b --- /dev/null +++ b/16978-h.zip diff --git a/16978-h/16978-h.htm b/16978-h/16978-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7dbf3db --- /dev/null +++ b/16978-h/16978-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,6980 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Dante: "The Central Man of All the World", by John T. Slattery, et al</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-indent:1em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right;} /* page numbers */ + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + .toright {text-align: right;} + + .caption {font-weight: bold;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em;} + hr.full { width: 100%; + margin-top: 0em; + margin-bottom: 0em; + border: solid black; + height: 5px; } + pre {font-size: 75%;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, Dante: "The Central Man of All the World", by +John T. Slattery, et al</h1> +<pre> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: Dante: "The Central Man of All the World"</p> +<p> A Course of Lectures Delivered Before the Student Body of the New York State College for Teachers, Albany, 1919, 1920</p> +<p>Author: John T. Slattery</p> +<p>Release Date: November 1, 2005 [eBook #16978]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DANTE: "THE CENTRAL MAN OF ALL THE WORLD"***</p> +<p> </p> +<h4>E-text prepared by David Garcia, Bethanne M. Simms,<br /> + and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> + (https://www.pgdp.net/)</h4> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<h1>DANTE: </h1> + <h2>"THE CENTRAL MAN OF ALL THE WORLD." +</h2> + +<h3> +A Course of Lectures Delivered Before the Student Body<br /> +of the New York State College for Teachers,<br /> +Albany, 1919, 1920 +</h3> + +<h3> +BY +</h3> + +<h2>JOHN T. SLATTERY, Ph.D. +</h2> + +<h3> +WITH A PREFACE BY +<br />JOHN H. FINLEY, L.H.D. +</h3> + +<h4> +New York +<br />P. J. Kenedy & Sons +</h4> + +<h4> +1920</h4> +<h4>COPYRIGHT, 1920,<br /> BY +P. J. KENEDY & SONS,<br /> NEW YORK</h4> + +<h4><i>Printed in U.S.A.</i></h4> + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="DEDICATION" id="DEDICATION"></a>DEDICATION</h2> + +<p class="center">THIS MODEST WORK OWES ITS<br /> +PUBLICATION TO THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF</p> +<h3>PRESIDENT ABRAM R. BRUBACHER</h3> +<p class="center">AND</p> +<h3>DEAN HARLAN H. HORNER</h3> +<p class="center">OF THE STATE COLLEGE FOR TEACHERS, ALBANY, N.Y.<br /></p> + +<p class="center">WHERE MANY PLEASANT HOURS WERE PASSED IN<br /> +DELIVERING THESE LECTURES. TO THESE FRIENDS<br /> +AND TO THE STUDENT-BODY OF THE COLLEGE THE<br /> +AUTHOR HAS THE HONOR OF DEDICATING THIS BOOK</p> + +<hr /> +<h2>PREFACE</h2> + + +<p>I stand as does the reader at the entrance to this book which I have not +as yet entered myself. I have before me the journey through the Inferno +and Purgatorio, into Paradise, with a new companion. I have made the +journey before many times with others, or with Dante and Virgil alone, +but I know that I shall enjoy especially the companionship and comment +of one with whom I have had such satisfaction of comradeship in our +journey as neighbors for a little way across this earth. I invite +others, and I hope they may be many, to make this brief journey with +us, not because I know specifically what Dr. Slattery will say along +the way, but because whatever he says out of his deep and reverent +acquaintance with the Divine Comedy will help us all who follow him, +whether we are of his particular faith or not, to an appreciation of +the meaning of this immortal poem, and make us desire to go again and +again in our reading through these spaces of the struggles of human souls.</p> + +<p>A world-literary-movement will commemorat in 1921 the six hundredth +anniversary of the death of the immortal Dante. That a medievalist +should call forth the homage of the twentieth century to the extent of +being honored in all civilized lands and by cultured peoples who, for +the most part, do not know the language spoken by him, or who do not +profess the religion of him who wrote the most religious book of +Christianity, is a marvel explainable by the fact that the Divine Comedy +is a drama of the soul,—the story of a struggle which every man must +make to possess his own spirit against forces that would enslave it. The +central interest of the poem is in the individual who may be you or I +instead of Dante the subject of the work, and that fact exalts the +personal element and gives the spiritual value which we of modern times +appreciate as well as did the thirteenth century.</p> + +<p>The Divine Comedy is attractive for other reasons. It may appeal to us +as it did to Tennyson, because of "its divine intensity," or it may +affect us as it did Charles Eliot Norton by "its powerful exposition of +moral penalties and rewards," showing that righteousness is inexorable; +or it may interest us because of its solid realism, its pure strength of +conception, its surpassing beauty, its vivid imaginative power, its +perfection of diction "without superfluousness, without defect." +Whatever be the reason of our interest in Dante, the study of his Divine +Comedy will ever be both a discipline "not so much to elevate our +thoughts," says Coleridge, "as to send them down deeper," and a delight +calling forth the deepest emotions of our being.</p> + +<p class="toright">JOHN H. FINLEY.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS</h2> + +<p class="center"> +<a href="#DEDICATION"><b>DEDICATION</b></a><br /> +<a href="#DANTE_AND_HIS_TIME"><b>DANTE AND HIS TIME Page 1</b></a><br /> +<a href="#DANTE_THE_MAN"><b>DANTE THE MAN Page 49</b></a><br /> +<a href="#DANTES_INFERNO"><b>DANTE'S INFERNO Page 101</b></a><br /> +<a href="#DANTES_PURGATORIO"><b>DANTE'S PURGATORIO Page 151</b></a><br /> +<a href="#DANTES_PARADISO"><b>DANTE'S PARADISO Page 219</b></a><br /> +</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h2><a name="DANTE_AND_HIS_TIME" id="DANTE_AND_HIS_TIME"></a>DANTE AND HIS TIME</h2> + +<hr /><p><a name="page3" id="page3" ></a><span class="pagenum">3</span></p> + +<p>To know Dante we must know the age which produced Christianity's +greatest poet, he whom Ruskin calls "the central man of all the world, +as representing in perfect balance the imaginative, moral and +intellectual faculties, all at their highest." Other writers are not so +dependent upon their times for our clear understanding of their books. +Dante to be intelligible to the modern mind, cannot be taken out of the +thirteenth century. "Its contemporary history and its contemporary +spirit" says Brother Azarias in his Phases of Thought and Criticism, +"constitute his clearest and best commentary." Only in the light of this +commentary can we hope to know his message and realize its supremacy. +And that it is worth while to make the study there can be no doubt upon +the part of any seeker of truth and admirer of beauty.</p> + +<p>Emerson said: "I think if I were a professor of rhetoric I should use +Dante for my text-book. Dante is the rhetorician. He is all wings, pure +imagination and he writes like Euclid." James Russell Lowell told his +students in answer to the question as to the best course of reading to +be followed:<a name="page4" id="page4" ></a><span class="pagenum">4</span> "If I may be allowed a personal illustration, it was my +own profound admiration for the Divina Commedia of Dante that lured me +into what little learning I possess." Gladstone declared: "In the school +of Dante I learned a great part of that mental provision ... which has +served me to make the journey of human life." It surely must be of +inestimable advantage to sit under the instruction of one of the race's +master teachers who stimulates one to lofty thinking and deep feeling, +leads one into realms of wider knowledge and helps one to know his own +age by revealing a mighty past.</p> + +<p>To see that mighty past, to live again with Dante in the thirteenth +century is possible only after we have cleared the way with which +ignorance and misrepresentation have encumbered the approach. Here, +perhaps, more than in any other period of civilization is the dictum +true that history is often a conspiracy against the truth. We moderns +who are not only obsessed with the theory of evolution, but are +dominated by the idea that nothing of permanent value can come from +medievalism, arrogantly proclaim that ours is the greatest of centuries +because we have not only what all other centuries had, but something +else distinctively our own—a vast contribution to the world's progress. +This self-complacency makes us forget that whatever truth there may be +in the<a name="page5" id="page5" ></a><span class="pagenum">5</span> great theory of evolution, certainly the validity of the theory +is not confirmed by the intellectual history of the human race. As was +said of the Patriarchal Age so we may say of Dante's times "there were +giants in those days" which we presume to ignore. Homer, Shakespeare, +Dante, indeed stand forth in irrefutable protest against the +questionable assertion of evolution that the present is intellectually +superior to the past.</p> + +<p>The evolutionary theory prejudices our age against acknowledging the +high accomplishments of the past. So to know the truth we must overcome +the conspiracy with which so-called history has enveloped the past, +especially those generations immediately prior to Dante's. How that +ignorance of the history and spirit of that period can blind even a +great writer to the wonderful feats inherited from the centuries +immediately preceding the thirteenth, is revealed by the assertion of +Carlyle that "in Dante ten <i>silent</i> centuries found a voice." To +state what history now regards as fact, it must be said that while Dante +by his giant personality and sublime poetic genius could alone ennoble +any epoch he was not "a solitary phenomenon of his time but a worthy +culmination of the literary movement which, beginning shortly before +1200, produced down to 1300 such a mass of undying literature" that +subsequent generations have found in it their model and inspiration +<a name="page6" id="page6" ></a><span class="pagenum">6</span> and have never quite equalled its originality and worth.</p> + +<p>In verification of this statement I have only to mention to you the +names of the Cid of Spain, the Arthurian Legends of England, the +Nibelungen Lied of Germany and the poems of the Meistersingers, the +Trouveres and the Troubadours. The authors of these works had been +taught to make themselves eternal as Dante says Brunetto Latini taught +him. They are proof against the alleged dumbness of the ages just +preceding Dante's. Of those times speaks Dr. Ralph Adams Cram, renowned +equally for historical study and for architectural ability: "The twelfth +was the century of magnificent endeavors and all that was great in its +successor is here in embryo not only in art but in philosophy, religion +and the conduct of life. The eleventh century is a time of aspiration +and vision, of the enunciation of new principles and of the first shock +of the contest between the old that was doomed and the new that was +destined to unprecedented victories." (The Substance of Gothic, p. 69.)</p> + +<p>Let us now make a general survey of Dante's century and then consider +the more particular events and circumstances of his environment.</p> + +<p>It may be a surprise to you to know that there is a book entitled The +Thirteenth, the Greatest of Centuries by Dr. James J. Walsh, in its +fifth<a name="page7" id="page7" ></a><span class="pagenum">7</span> edition with a sale of 70,000 copies. He indeed is not the only +man of letters who signalizes that century for its greatness. To confine +the quotations to two writers well known in our day, I find that Fiske +in his Beginnings of New England says of the thirteenth century: "It was +a wonderful time but after all less memorable as the culmination of +medieval empire and medieval church than as the dawning of the new era +in which we live today." Frederic Harrison, in his Survey of the +Thirteenth Century says, "Of all the epochs of effort after a new life +that ... is the most spiritual, the most really constructive and indeed +the most truly philosophic. It had great thinkers, great rulers, great +teachers, great poets, great artists, great moralists, and great +workmen. It could not be called the material age, the devotional age, +the political age or the poetic age in any special degree. It was +equally poetic, political, industrial, artistic, practical, intellectual +and devotional. And these qualities acted on a uniform conception of +life with a real symmetry of purpose."</p> + +<p>Ours is an age of thought but of thought finding concrete expression +in practical invention and especially in activities in the line of +manufacture and commerce. Posterity will probably characterize our age +as the Industrial Age, a phrase that will signalize our period both for +the development<a name="page8" id="page8" ></a><span class="pagenum">8</span> of industries not thought possible a century ago and +for the evolution of the industrial worker to a position of striking +importance and power. For the first time in the history of humanity the +workman's status is the subject of international agreement. The League +of Nations promises to treat Labor from a humanitarian point of view +and so to place it on the broad, firm pathway leading to industrial +peace and economical solidarity for the common good. That would seem +a necessity in view of the strides of progress in other directions.</p> + +<p>Now wireless telegraphy crosses oceans and unites continents. The +wireless telephone between ships and shore is in operation. It has been +found practicable to transport by submarine a cargo from Bremen to +Baltimore. In aircraft the development has been just as wonderful. Less +than ten years ago the world's record for long flight by aeroplane was +made, with no regard for time, with two stops between Albany and New +York. In July, 1919, an aeroplane making no stop covered the distance +between New York and Chicago in some six hours. Furthermore an American +seaplane, in three stages made the trip from New York to England and +then a British Dirigible without making a stop came from England to +Long Island in ninety-six hours. "This is the end and the beginning of +an age" says the<a name="page9" id="page9" ></a><span class="pagenum">9</span> author of Mr. Brittling Sees It Through. "This is +something far greater than the French Revolution or the Reformation +and we live in it."</p> + +<p>We indeed consider it the age of "big things." Dynasties fall and +republics spring up. When war breaks out it is a World War involving +twenty-four nations and causing 7,781,806 deaths (Nelson's Encyclopedia, +V. iv, p. 519) and costing $200,000,000,000. In the first year in which +we were at war, our country spent more than had been the cost of +conducting the government for 124 years, including the expenses of +the Civil and the Spanish-American Wars. Yes, it is an age of +things." The Allies in the Champagne offensive of September, 1915, +threw 50,000,000 shells into the German lines in three days. Was it one +out of sympathy with "big things," one intent on the quiet of the higher +life as contrasted with the din of the day, who said that "modern +civilization is noise and the more civilization progresses, the greater +will be the noise?" In any event the muses who inspired Dante, are +almost dumb. Now the captains of industry are the commanding figures of +the day and the student, the poet, the philosopher, the statesman have +gone into innocuous desuetude. Amy Lowell is preferred to Longfellow: +Charlie Chaplin draws bigger crowds than Shakespeare<a name="page10" id="page10" ></a><span class="pagenum">10</span> can interest. +Trainmen get wages higher than are the salaries of some of our +governors. Unskilled labor is paid more than the teachers of our youth +receive. The cost of living was never higher in the history of mankind.</p> + +<p>How illuminating to turn from this picture to that of Dante's age. Then +in Florence, a bushel of wheat cost about fifteen cents, a carpenter +could buy a broad ax for five cents, a saw for three cents, a plane +for four cents, a chisel for one cent. The average daily wage of a +woolworker was about thirty-six cents. In view of the high purchasing +power of money in Dante's age, the fact that he borrowed at least seven +hundred and fifty seven and a half golden florins, a debt that was not +paid until after his death, leads one to think that he must have been +regarded by his contemporaries as prodigal in the use of money. His +financial difficulties must have given him an uneasy conscience for he +insists repeatedly on the wickedness of prodigality. In fact he makes +the abuse of money on the part either of a miser or of a spendthrift a +sin against the social order punishable according to the gravity of the +offence in Hell or Purgatory.</p> + +<p>To return to the matter of prices in Dante's day. In England a goose +could be bought for two and a half pence. A stall-fed ox commanded +twenty-four shillings while his fellow brought up<a name="page11" id="page11" ></a><span class="pagenum">11</span> on grass was sold for +sixteen shillings. A fat hog, two years old,—and this is interesting to +us who pay seventy-five cents a pound for bacon—a fat hog two years old +cost only three shillings four pence and a fat sheep shorn, one shilling +and two pence. A gallon of oysters was purchasable for two pence, a +dozen of the best soles for three pence. A yard of broadcloth cost only +one shilling one pence, a pair of shoes four pence. These figures of +English money are taken from an act of Edward III of England who was +born seven years after Dante's death. Parliamentarian enactment under +the same king fixed a table of wages.</p> + +<p>For a day's work at haymaking or weeding of corn, for instance, a woman +got one penny. For mowing an acre of grass or threshing a quarter of +wheat a man was paid four pence. The reaper received also four pence for +his day's labor. Eight hours constituted a working day. The people of +the Middle Ages not only had the Saturday half-holiday but they enjoyed +release from work on nearly forty vigils of feast days during the year. +That they were as well off, e.g. as the unskilled laborer of our day, +who demands from four to eight dollars a day as a wage, is evident from +the fact that while he has to pay forty cents a pound for mutton, the +workman of Edward the Third's day earned enough in four days to buy a +whole sheep and a gallon of ale. So plentiful was meat<a name="page12" id="page12" ></a><span class="pagenum">12</span> in England that +it was the ordinary diet of the poor. A preamble of an act of Parliament +of the fourteenth century in specifying beef, pork, mutton and veal +declares that these are "the food of the poorer sort." (The Thirteenth, +the Greatest of Centuries, p. 479.)</p> + +<p>Speaking of live-stock leads to the observation that the people of +Dante's time for the most part lived in the country. Cities had not yet +become magnets. London is supposed to have had a population of +twenty-five thousand, York ten thousand four hundred, Canterbury, four +thousand seven hundred, Florence, in the year 1300, according to +Villani, a contemporary of Dante, had "ninety thousand enjoying the +rights of citizenship. Of rich Grandi, there were fifteen hundred. +Strangers passing through the city numbered about two thousand. In +the elementary schools were eight thousand to ten thousand children." +(Staley's Guilds of Florence, p. 555.)</p> + +<p>The means of travel and communication, of course, were few and +difficult. The roads were bad and dangerous. In France, Germany and +Italy there were so many forms of government, dukedoms, baronies, +marquisates, signories, city republics, each with its own custom +regulations, not to speak of each having its own coinage and language, +that travelers encountered obstacles almost at every step. For the most +part, journeys<a name="page13" id="page13" ></a><span class="pagenum">13</span> had to be made afoot and a degree of safety was attained +only if the traveler joined a large trade caravan, a pilgrimage or a +governmental expedition. Night often found the party far from a hospice +or inn and so they were obliged for shelter to camp on the highway or +in the fields. Necessarily the traveler was subjected to innumerable +privations and sufferings.</p> + +<p>I have not been able to get accurate information as to the exact length +of time required to make a trip, say from London to Paris—a distance +covered the other day by an aeroplane in eighty minutes. But, the +"Consuetudines" of the Hereford Cathedral, England, afford us some data +upon which to base the conclusion that six weeks were necessary for +such a trip, allowing another week for religious purposes. The +"Consuetudines" after specifying that no canon of the cathedral was to +make more than one pilgrimage beyond the seas in his lifetime, allows +the clergyman seven weeks' absence to go abroad to the tomb of St. Denis +in the suburbs of Paris, sixteen weeks to Rome and a year to Jerusalem.</p> + +<p>A table of time limits between Florence and the principal cities of +Europe and the East made by the Florentine Banking houses in Dante's +day, showed the number of days required for consignments of specie and +goods to reach their destination. Rome was reached in fifteen days, +Venice<a name="page14" id="page14" ></a><span class="pagenum">14</span> and Naples in twenty days, Flanders in seventy days, England and +Constantinople in seventy-five days, Cyprus in ninety days. How long it +took Dante to make the trip from Florence to Rome, we do not know but +history tells us that he went to the Eternal City in the year 1300. He +was indeed a great traveler. During his twenty years' exile, we know +that our poet's itinerary led him among other places to Padua, Venice, +Ravenna, Paris and there is good reason to believe, as Gladstone +contends, that he went for study to Oxford. The regret is permissible +that he did not leave us an account of his journeyings. "Had he given us +pictures—as he alone could have painted them—of scenes by the wayside +and of the courts of which he was an honored guest," says Dr. J.A. Zahm +in his Great Inspirers, "we should have had the most interesting +and the most instructive travel book ever written."</p> + +<p>We cannot but notice one great effect brought about by traveling in +those days, especially by pilgrimages and by the Crusades formed in +defence of pilgrimages to the Holy Land and that is, that there arose on +all sides a desire for liberty and the growth of a spirit of nationality +that worked to the destruction of absolute government. The power of the +common people began to assert itself. In 1215, England forced from John +Lackland the Magna Charta, the foundation<a name="page15" id="page15" ></a><span class="pagenum">15</span> of all the liberty of English +speaking people even in modern times. The very year in which Dante was +born, representatives of the townspeople were admitted as members of the +English Parliament. In France, during the thirteenth century, the +centralization of power in the hands of the kings went forward with the +gradual diminution of the influence of the nobility—a fact operating to +the people's advantage.</p> + +<p>In 1222 the nobles forced Andrew II of Hungary to issue the Golden Bull, +the instrument which Blackstone later declared turned "anarchy into +law." In Germany and Sicily Frederick II published laws giving a larger +measure of popular freedom. In Italy, the existence of the city +republics—especially those of Florence, Sienna, Pisa—showed how +successfully the ferment of liberty had penetrated the mass of the +body-politic.</p> + +<p>Coming now to regard the characteristics of Dante's age we must say that +the first big thing that looms in sight is the fact that this was the +golden age of Christian faith. Everywhere the Cross, the symbol of +salvation, met the eye. It was the age when men lived in one faith, used +one ritual, professed one creed, accepted a common doctrine and moral +standard and breathed a common religious atmosphere. Heresy was not +wholly absent but it was the exception. Religion regarded then not as an +accident or an incident<a name="page16" id="page16" ></a><span class="pagenum">16</span> of life but as a benign influence permeating +the whole social fabric, not only cared for the widow and orphan and +provided for the poor, but it shaped men's thoughts, quickened their +sentiments, inspired their work and directed their wills. These men +believed in a world beyond the grave as an ever present reality. Hell, +Purgatory, Heaven were so near to them that they, so to speak, could +touch the invisible world with their hands. To them, as to Dante, "this +life was but a shadowy appearance through which the eternal realities of +another world were constantly betraying themselves." Of the intensity +and universality of faith in that life beyond death, Dante is not the +exception but the embodiment. His poem has no such false note of +scepticism as we detect in Tennyson's In Memoriam. Note the words of the +modern poet:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"I falter where I firmly trod</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And falling with my weight of cares</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Upon the great world's altar stairs</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That slope through darkness up to God,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I stretch lame hands of faith and grope</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And gather dust and chaff and call</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">To what I feel is Lord of all</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And faintly trust the larger hope."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Not thus does Dante speak. As the voice of his age he begins with faith, +continues with faith<a name="page17" id="page17" ></a><span class="pagenum">17</span> and leads us to the unveiled vision of God. He +both shows us his unwavering adherence to Christian doctrine in that +scene in Paradiso where he is examined as to his faith by St. Peter and +he teaches us that the seen is only a stepping stone into the unseen. It +has been said of him in reference to his Divina Commedia, "The light of +faith guides the poet's steps through the hopeless chambers of Hell with +a firmness of conviction that knows no wavering. It bears him through +the sufferings of Purgatory, believing strongly fits reality: it raises +him on the wings of love and contemplation into Heaven's Empyrean, where +he really hopes to enjoy bliss far beyond that whereof he says." +(Brother Azarias.)</p> + +<p>Leading the religious awakening of the thirteenth century and making +possible Dante's work at the end of the century were two of the world's +greatest exponents of the spiritual life, both signalized in the +Paradiso. St. Dominic characterized by Dante (Par. XII, 56) as "a +jealous lover of the Christian faith with mildness toward his disciples +but formidable to his foes," founded an order to be "the champions of +Faith and the true lights of the world." Even in its early days it gave +to the world eminent scholars such as Albertus Magnus and St. Thomas +Aquinas, and it has never ceased to number among its members great +thinkers, ardent apostles, stern ascetics and<a name="page18" id="page18" ></a><span class="pagenum">18</span> profound mystics. In +Dante's time it was the only order specially charged with the office of +preaching and from its founder's time down to the present day the one +who acts as the Pope's Theologian has been taken from the ranks of this +order. Besides preaching to all classes of Christian society and +evangelizing the heathen, the Dominicans in Dante's day fought against +heresy and schism, lectured in the universities, toiled among the poor, +activities in which the order is still engaged.</p> + +<p>But perhaps the man whose spiritual influence was greatest in +medievalism, if not in all the history of Christianity, was Francis of +Assisi, who "all seraphical in order rose a sun upon the world." (Par. +XI, 37.) Born at Assisi in Umbria in 1182, the son of a wealthy cloth +merchant and of Pica, a member of a noble family of Provence, Francis +grew up a handsome, gay and gallant youth "the prime favorite among the +young nobles of the town, the foremost in every feat of arms, the leader +of civil revels, the very king of frolic." A low fever contracted when +with his fellow citizens he fought against the Perugians turned his +thoughts to the things of eternity. Upon his recovery he determined to +devote himself to the service of his fellow man for the honor of God.</p> + +<p>His renunciation of the things of this life<a name="page19" id="page19" ></a><span class="pagenum">19</span> was dramatic. To swerve him +from the new life his father had cited him to appear before the Bishop. +Francis, unmoved by the appeal of his father persisted in his +resolution. Stripping himself of the clothes he wore, the Bishop +covering his nakedness, Francis gave his clothes to his father saying, +"Hitherto I have called you Father, henceforth I desire to say only Our +Father who art in heaven." Then and there as Dante sings, were +solemnized Francis' nuptials with his beloved Spouse, the Lady Poverty, +under which name, in the mystical language afterwards so familiar to +Francis, "he comprehended the total surrender of all wordly goods, +honors and privileges." He went forth and attracted disciples. With +these partaking of his zeal and animated by his charity, he labored to +make his generation turn from the sordid to the spiritual, diffusing +over all the people a tender love of nature and God.</p> + +<p>Among his disciples—great minds of the time—were Thomas of Celano, one +of the literary geniuses of the day, the author of the sublime Dies +Irae—a religious poem chanted to this day at every funeral high mass +in the Catholic Church, and frequently sung or played in great opera +houses,—Bonaventure, professor of philosophy and theology at the +university of Paris, Roger Bacon, the friar, the renowned teacher at +Paris<a name="page20" id="page20" ></a><span class="pagenum">20</span> and Oxford, Duns Scotus, the subtile doctor. In the Third Order +established for those not following the monastic life the membership, +in the course of time, embraced among others St. Louis, King of France, +St. Elizabeth of Hungary, and Dante.</p> + +<p>He, towards the end of his exile, footsore, weary and discouraged, +buffeted by the adverse winds of fortune knocked, a stranger, at the +gates of the Franciscan monastery at Lunigiana. "As neither I nor any of +the brothers recognized him," writes Brother Hilary, the Prior, "I asked +him what he wished. He made no answer but gazed silently upon the +columns and galleries of the cloister. Again I asked him what he wished +and whom he sought and slowly turning his head and looking around upon +the brothers and me, he answered 'Peace.'"</p> + +<p>The monks spoke gently to him, ministered with kindly and delicate +sympathy to his bodily and spiritual needs. His reticence left him and +his reserve melted away. Here the object of loving hospitality, he +remained finding means and opportunity for profound study. Before he +departed he drew from his bosom a part of the precious manuscript of +Divina Commedia and trustingly giving it into the hands of the Prior +said, "Here, Brother, is a portion of my work which you may<a name="page21" id="page21" ></a><span class="pagenum">21</span> not have +seen: this remembrance I leave with you: forget me not."</p> + +<p>That he himself was not unforgetful of the sympathy of the simple and +warm-hearted followers of St. Francis is evident from the fact that he +gloried in his membership of the Third Order, wearing about his body the +Franciscan cincture for chastity and it is not unlikely that at Ravenna +before he finally closed his eyes upon the turmoil of the world full of +vicissitudes, he modestly requested that he be buried in the simple +habit of the order and be laid to rest in a tomb attached to their +monastery. In any event such was his burial.</p> + +<p>For our sympathetic understanding of the supremacy of religion in +Dante's day, may I again quote Ralph Adams Cram, whose words on the +eleventh century are equally applicable to the era of our Florentine and +to his country? Dr. Cram writes: "It is hard for us to think back into +such an alien spirit and time as this and so understand how with +one-tenth of its present population England could support so vast and +varied a religious establishment, used as we are to an age where +religion is only a detail for many and for most a negligible factor. We +are only too familiar with the community that could barely support one +parish church, boasting its one-half dozen religious organizations, all +together claiming the<a name="page22" id="page22" ></a><span class="pagenum">22</span> adherence of only a minority of the population, +but in the Middle Ages, religion was not only the most important and +pervasive thing, it was a moral obligation on every man, woman and +child, and rejection or even indifference was unthinkable. If once we +grasp this fact," continues Cram, "we can understand how in the eleventh +century, the whole world should cover itself with 'its white robe of +churches.'"</p> + +<p>The second great fact observable in the times of Dante is that it was an +age of inquiry and of efficient craftsmanship. Many of our generation +think that Dante's day being so far removed from the age of printing and +the spirit of positivism, and being given to the upholding of authority +almost as an unexhaustible source of knowledge, was wholly unacquainted +with scientific research. Furthermore they declare that education then +was almost at its minimum stage. A little study will show that the +people of that era were not unacquainted with the scientific spirit and +it will also prove that if education did not prevail, in the sense that +everybody had an opportunity to read and write—a consummation hardly to +be expected—education in the sense of efficiency—education in the +etymological sense, i.e. the training of the faculties so that the +individual might develop creative self-expression and especially that he +might bring out what was best in him, all<a name="page23" id="page23" ></a><span class="pagenum">23</span> which meant knowledge highly +useful to himself and others—that kind of education was not uncommon.</p> + +<p>To give an idea of the scientific inquiry and sharp observation of mind +in those days, I might cite Dante as a master exponent of nature study, +and adept of science. Passing over his experiment in optics given in +Paradiso, given so naturally as to justify the inference that +investigation in physics was then not an uncommon mode of gaining +knowledge, I call your attention to an observation made by Alexander +Von Humboldt, the distinguished scientist, to prove that nothing escaped +the eyes of Dante, intent equally upon natural phenomena and the things +of the soul. Von Humboldt suggests that the rhetorical figure employed +by Dante in his description of the River of Light with its banks of +wonderful flowers (Par. XXX, 61) is an application of our poet's +knowledge of the phosphorescence of the ocean. If you have ever looked +down the side of a steamship at night as it ploughed its way forward, +and if you have ever observed in the sea the thousand darting lights +just below the water line your enjoyable experience will enable you +to appreciate the beauty of this passage. I now quote:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"I saw a glory like a stream flow by</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In brightness rushing and on either side</span><br /><a name="page24" id="page24" ></a><span class="pagenum">24</span> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Were banks that with spring's wondrous hues might vie</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And from that river living sparks did soar</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And sank on all sides in the flow'rets bloom</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Like precious rubies set in golden ore</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Then as if drunk with all the rich perfume</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Back to the wondrous torrent did they roll</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And as one sank another filled its room."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Commenting on this passage, Von Humboldt says "It would seem as if this +picture had its origin in the poet's recollection of that peculiar and +rare phosphorescent condition of the ocean in which luminous points +appear to rise from the breaking waves and, spreading themselves over +the surface of the waters, convert the liquid plain into a moving sea of +stars." This mention of a sea brings to mind the striking fact that Dean +Church has pointed out, viz., when Dante speaks of the Mediterranean, he +speaks not as a historian or an observer of its storms or its smiles but +as a geologist. The Mediterranean is to him: "The greatest <i>valley</i> +in which water stretcheth." (Par. IX, 82.)</p> + +<p>So also when he speaks of light he regards it not merely in its +beautiful appearances but in its natural laws (Purg. XV). And when Dante +comes to describe the exact color, say of an apple blossom, his splendid +and unequalled<a name="page25" id="page25" ></a><span class="pagenum">25</span> power as a scientific observer of Nature and a poet is +most evident. Ruskin (Mod. Painters III, 226) commenting on the passage: +flowers of a color "less than that of roses but more than that of +violets" (Purg. XXXII, 58) makes this interesting remark: "It certainly +would not be possible in words, to come nearer to the <i>definition</i> +of the exact hue which Dante meant—that of the apple blossom. Had he +employed any simpler color phrase, as 'pale pink' or 'violet pink' or +any other such combined expression, he still could not have completely +got at the delicacy of the hue; he might, perhaps, have indicated its +kind, but not its tenderness; but by taking the rose-leaf as the type +of the delicate red, and then enfeebling this with the violet gray he +gets, as closely as language can carry him to the complete rendering of +the vision although it is evidently felt by him to be in its perfect +beauty ineffable."</p> + +<p>These examples of Dante's interest in scientific observation prove his +fitness to be considered a representative of his age in its love for +science. Instead, however, of proposing Dante as a typical example of +the experimental inquiry of his age—you may say that he is <i>sui +generis</i>—I shall call forth other witnesses.</p> + +<p>First let Albertus Magnus speak. He was distinguished as a theologian +and philosopher and was also renowned as a scientist. In his tenth<a name="page26" id="page26" ></a><span class="pagenum">26</span> book +after describing all the trees, plants and herbs then known, he says: +"All that is here set down is the result of our own observation or has +been borrowed from others whom we have known to have written what their +personal experience has confirmed, for in these matters, experience +alone can give certainty (<i>experimentum solum certificat in talibus</i>)."</p> + +<p>We may be sure that such an investigator showing in his method a +prodigious scientific progress was on the line so successfully followed +by modern natural philosophy. This conclusion is confirmed by evidence +from his other books showing that he did a great deal of experimental +work, especially in chemistry. In his treatise De Mineralibus, Albertus +Magnus keen to observe natural phenomena, enumerates different +properties of natural magnets and states some of the properties commonly +attributed to them.</p> + +<p>In his book on Botany he treats of the organic structure and physiology +of plants so accurately as to draw from Meyer, a botanist of the +nineteenth century, this appreciative tribute. "No botanist who lived +before Albert can be compared to him unless Theophrastus, with whom he +was not acquainted: and after him none has painted nature with such +living colors or studied it so profoundly until the time of Conrad +Gesner and Cesalpino"—a high compliment indeed for<a name="page27" id="page27" ></a><span class="pagenum">27</span> Albertus for +leadership in science for three centuries. To quote Von Humboldt again, +"I have found in the book of Albertus Magnus, De Natura Locorum, +considerations on the dependence of temperature concurrently on latitude +and elevation and on the effect of different angles of incidence of the +sun's rays in heating the ground, which have excited my surprise."</p> + +<p>Albertus Magnus gains renown also from his distinguished pupil Roger +Bacon who, some think, should have the honor of being regarded as the +father of inductive science—an honor posterity has conferred upon +another of the same family name who lived 300 years later. We, who wear +eye-glasses would be willing, I think, to vote the honor to the elder +Bacon, because if we do not owe to him the discovery of lenses, we are +his debtors for his clarification of the principles of lenses and for +his successful efforts in establishing them on a mathematical basis. In +any event, he was a pioneer in inductive science.</p> + +<p>Before gunpowder is known to have been discovered in the West, the friar +Roger Bacon must have made some interesting experiments along the line +of explosives, else he could not have made the following remarkable +statement as to the property of gunpowder: "One may cause to burst from +bronze, thunderbolts more formidable than those produced by nature. A +small quantity of prepared<a name="page28" id="page28" ></a><span class="pagenum">28</span> matter causes a terrible explosion +accompanied by a brilliant light. One may multiply this phenomenon so +far as to destroy a city or an army." Anticipating the use of even motor +boats and automobiles driven by gasoline, this thirteenth century +scientist wrote: "Art can construct instruments of navigation such that +the largest vessels governed by a single man will traverse rivers and +seas more rapidly than if they were filled with oarsmen. One may also +make carriages which, without the aid of any animal, will run with +remarkable swiftness." This man whose clarity of vision anticipated +those discoveries of the nineteenth century, left three disciples after +him,—John of Paris, William of Mara and Gerard Hay—who followed their +master's methods, especially of testing by observation and by careful +searching of authorities, every proposition that came up for study.</p> + +<p>Perhaps the most striking argument in favor of the experimental attitude +of Dante's century is that afforded by certain facts in the history of +medicine of that epoch. Then surgery began to make vast strides. Pagel, +regarded in our time as the best informed writer on the history of +medicine, has this to say of the surgery in Dante's age. "The stream of +literary works on surgery flows richer during this period. While +surgeons are far from being able to emancipate<a name="page29" id="page29" ></a><span class="pagenum">29</span> themselves from the +ruling pathological theories, there is no doubt that in one department, +that of manual technics, free observation came to occupy the first place +in the effort for scientific progress. Investigation is less hampered +and concerns itself with practical things and not with artificial +theories. Experimental observation was in this not repressed by an +unfortunate and iron-bound appeal to reasoning." (The Popes and Science, +p. 172.)</p> + +<p>As to medical practice in the thirteenth century, interesting data are +furnished by the Bulletin of Johns Hopkins Hospital and the Journal of +the American Medical Association, January, 1908. The former publication +gives us remarkable instances of surgical operations and of the +treatment of Bright's disease, matters which we might have thought +possible only in the nineteenth century; the latter publishes in full +the law for the regulation of the practice of medicine issued by Emperor +Frederick II in 1240 or 1241. According to that law binding on the two +Sicilies, three years of preparatory university work were required +before the student could begin the study of medicine. Then he had to +devote three years to the study of medicine and finally he had to spend +a year under a physician's direction before a license was issued to him. +In connection with this high standard of a medical education, the<a name="page30" id="page30" ></a><span class="pagenum">30</span> law +of Frederick II forbade not only the sale of impure drugs under penalty +of confiscation of goods, but also the preparation of them under penalty +of death—stern legislation, anticipating by nearly seven centuries the +American Pure Drug Law. (The Popes and Science, p. 419.)</p> + +<p>Undoubtedly the experimental demonstration and original observation of +Dante's time sprang either from the training or pedagogical methods of +the great universities of that period. There were universities at +Oxford, Paris, Cologne, Montpelier, Orleans, Angers. Spain had four +universities; Italy, ten. The number of students in attendance must +amaze us if we think that higher education did not then prevail. +Professor Thomas Davidson in his History of Education, says: "The number +of students reported as having attended some of the universities in +those early days almost passes belief, e.g. Oxford is said to have had +about 30,000 about the year 1300 and half that number as early as 1224. +The numbers attending the University of Paris were still greater. The +numbers become less surprising when we remember with what poor +accommodations—a bare room and an armful of straw—the students of +those days were content and what numbers of them even a single teacher +like Abelard could, long before, draw into lonely retreats."<a name="page31" id="page31" ></a><span class="pagenum">31</span></p> + +<p>That in the twelfth and following centuries there was no lack of +enthusiasm for study, notwithstanding the troubled conditions of the +times, is very clear. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, +education rose in many European states to a height which it had not +attained since the days of Seneca and Quintilian.</p> + +<p>The curriculum followed by a student in Dante's time embraced the seven +liberal arts of the Trivium and the Quadrivium, namely Grammar, +Dialectic, Rhetoric, Arithmetic, Music, Geometry and Astrology. The +higher education comprised also Physics, Metaphysics, Logic, Ethics, and +Theology. Of the cultural effect of the old education, Professor Huxley +spoke in the highest praise on the occasion of his inaugural address as +rector of Aberdeen University. "I doubt," he said, "if the curriculum +of any modern university shows so clear and generous a comprehension +of what is meant by culture as the old Trivium and Quadrivium does." +(The Thirteenth the Greatest of Centuries, p. 466.)</p> + +<p>Speaking of education in those distant days, one thinks of the supreme +intellect of medieval life, the giant genius St. Thomas Aquinas, whose +philosophy was the food of Dante and became the basis not only of +Dante's great poem but of Christian Apologetics down to our own day, +when Pope Leo XIII directed that all Catholic seminaries<a name="page32" id="page32" ></a><span class="pagenum">32</span> and +universities implant the doctrine expounded by Thomas, Angel of the +Schools. A philosopher whose breadth and lucidity of mind gave such +perennial interest to a system of thought that it is still followed more +generally than that of any other school of philosophy—taught in the +regular course even at Oxford, Harvard, Columbia—such a philosopher +could have left the impress of his genius upon seven succeeding +centuries only if his work had been to philosophy what Dante's Divina +Commedia is to literature.</p> + +<p>The subject of scholastic philosophy now more or less claims attention +here, since the coming to our country of the most distinguished exponent +of Neo-scholasticism. Cardinal Mercier before becoming a prince of the +Church, held the chair of neo-scholastic philosophy at Louvain where he +made his department so distinguished for deep scholarship that pupils +came from afar to sit under his instruction or to prepare themselves for +a doctorate of philosophy whose requirements at Louvain were perhaps, +more exacting than at any other modern university.</p> + +<p>In 1889 Bishop John H. Keane engaged in the task of getting together a +faculty for the Catholic University at Washington went to Louvain to see +Dr. Mercier. "I want you to go to Washington and become head of our +school of philosophy," said the visitor. "I am perfectly willing to go,<a name="page33" id="page33" ></a><span class="pagenum">33</span> the Pope," answered the Belgian scholar. Bishop Keane went to Rome and +presented the matter to Leo XIII. "Better leave him where he is," +replied the Pope. "He is more needed in Belgium than in the United +States." So it was owing to the wisdom of Pope Leo in keeping the right +man in the right place that Belgium's strongest man was held for his +country against the evil hour to be a terror to wrongdoers and an +inspiration and object of reverence.</p> + +<p>The World's War revealed Belgium's Primate not only as a great lucid +thinker who shattered the subtilities with which the philosophy of might +tried to confuse the mind of the world, but also as an undaunted leader +who could not be frightened or defeated by all the forces of militarism. +To my mind the secret of the dominating influence working upon Cardinal +Mercier's character and making him a world-hero came from his training +in scholastic philosophy and from his having assimilated the spirit of +the thirteenth century.</p> + +<p>That period indeed not only trained its people to a high spiritual ideal +but gave them golden opportunities to express themselves and to put +forth, under the inspiration of religion, the best that was in them. +The medium was the guild system which, working from a self-protecting +alliance of traders, extended itself to every existing<a name="page34" id="page34" ></a><span class="pagenum">34</span> + form of industry +and commerce and gave "the workman a position of self-respect and +independence such as he had never held before and has failed to achieve +since" (Cram).</p> + +<p>A remarkable thing about the guild system was that it established and +maintained what we, today, call technical schools for the training of +apprentices. But more remarkable was the spirit which animated the +system. <i>Operare est orare</i> was its principle. As a result of that +teaching that labor is practical prayer, that the worker should labor +not simply for a wage, but for perfection, men with untiring energy +straining for finer and better work came to make the best things their +minds could conceive, their taste could plan, their hands could fashion. +Bell-making in Dante's day attained such perfection that the form and +composition of bells have ever since been imitated. Workers of precious +metals produced such wonderful chalices that succeeding generations have +never equalled the ancient model. The masonry of medievalism has secrets +of construction lost to our age. Mechanical engineering solved without +the use of steel girders problems in the structural work of cathedrals, +palaces, fortresses and bridges that causes open-eyed astonishment in +the twentieth century. Wood carving as seen in many medieval chairs, +tables, and choir equipment is of design so exquisite and of finish of +detail so artistic that<a name="page35" id="page35" ></a><span class="pagenum">35</span> + it is the despair of the cabinet makers of our +age.</p> + +<p>The beauty of the thirteenth century needlework made into chasubles, +copes, albs, stoles, altar covers,—triumphs of artistic excellence, is +seen in the typical example of the Cope of Ascoli for which Mr. Pierpont +Morgan about ten years ago, paid sixty thousand dollars. So high a price +was paid for this ecclesiastical vestment not because it was an antique +but because marvelous expertness in artcraft had given it such value. Be +it recorded to the honor of the American millionaire, that he returned +the treasure to a church in Italy when he discovered that he had +unknowingly bought stolen property.</p> + +<p>Of iron-mongery of Dante's time, the author of the Thirteenth the +Greatest of Centuries writes as follows: "It is difficult to understand +how one of the village blacksmiths of the time made a handsome gate that +has been the constant admiration of posterity ever since, or designed +high hinges for doors that artists delight to copy, or locks and latches +and bolts that are transported to our museums to be looked at with +interest not only because they are antiques but for the wonderful +combination of the beautiful and the useful which they illustrate. The +surprise grows the greater when we realize that these beautiful objects +were made not only in one place or even in a few places, but in nearly +every town of any size in<a name="page36" id="page36" ></a><span class="pagenum">36</span> + England, France, Italy, Germany and Spain at +various times during the thirteenth century and that at any time a town +of considerably less than ten thousand inhabitants seemed to be able to +obtain among its own inhabitants, men who could make such works of art +not as copies nor in servile imitation of others, but with original +ideas of their own, and make them in such perfection that in many cases +they have remained the models for many centuries."</p> + +<p>That is especially true of the thirteenth century glass windows as seen, +for example, in the Cathedrals of York, Lincoln, Westminster, +Canterbury, Chartres, Rheims, and in Notre Dame and the Sainte Chapelle, +Paris. Modern art with all its boasting cannot begin to make anything +comparable to that antique glass made and put in place by faith and love +long before Columbus discovered America. There are tiny bits of it in +this country as a result of the relic hunting of our soldiers in the +World's War. Many of them got a fragment of the shattered glass of +Rheims, "petrified color" deep sky blue, ruby, golden green, and sent it +home to a sweetheart, a wife or sister to be mounted on a ring or set in +a pin.</p> + +<p>The donors for the most part of the glass of the thirteenth century +Cathedrals, were guilds at that time. For the Cathedral of Chartres +e.g. the drapers and the furriers gave five windows,<a name="page37" id="page37" ></a><span class="pagenum">37</span> + the porters one, +the tavern-keepers two, the bakers two.</p> + +<p>In Dante's time glass-making reached its climax and then the curve began +to decline, until in the eighteenth century and in the early part of the +nineteenth century glass-making reached its lowest point.</p> + +<p>Great as was Dante's day in the efficiency and education promoted by the +Guild system—Dante himself was a member of it—the achievement of his +era in architecture was the "most notable perhaps because what happened +there epitomizes all that was done elsewhere and the nature of what was +accomplished is precisely that which informed the whole body of medieval +achievement." (The Substance of Gothic, p. 137.)</p> + +<p>In the course of the century that gave birth to Dante, architecture rose +to a glory never equalled before or after. In France alone between the +years of 1180 and 1270 eighty great cathedrals and five hundred abbey +houses were constructed. It was in this century that Notre Dame, Paris, +arose, "the only un-Greek thing" said R.M. Stevenson, "which unites +majesty elegance and awfulness." But it was not alone. Other Notre Dames +sprung up in Germany, Italy and Spain. In England also, in that period +there were more than twenty cathedrals in the course of construction,<a name="page38" id="page38" ></a><span class="pagenum">38</span> + +some of them in places as small as Wells, whose population never +exceeded four thousand.</p> + +<p>To look today upon Wells with its facade of nearly three hundred +statues, one hundred and fifty-three of which are life size or heroic +and then to realize that this magnificent poem in stone was composed by +villagers unknown to us and unhonored and unsung, is to open our eyes +to the wonders accomplished by the foremost age of architecture.</p> + +<p>So wonderful are those cathedrals that Ferguson, the standard English +authority on Gothic architecture, does not hesitate to say; "If any one +man were to devote a lifetime to the study of one of our great +cathedrals, assuming it to be complete in all its medieval +arrangements—it is questionable whether he would master all its details +and fathom all the reasonings and experiments which led to the result +before him.</p> + +<p>"And when we consider that not only in the great cities alone, but in +every convent and in every parish, thoughtful men were trying to excel +what had been done and was doing by their predecessors and their +fellows, we shall understand what an amount of thought is built into the +walls of our churches, castles, colleges and dwelling houses. My own +impression is that not one-tenth part of it has been reproduced in all +the works written on the subject up to this day and much of it is +probably<a name="page39" id="page39" ></a><span class="pagenum">39</span> + lost never again to be recovered for the instruction and +delight of future ages."</p> + +<p>The irreparable shattering of the greatest of these monuments of the +past, occurred in our day. The Cathedral of Rheims, the crowning +perfection of architecture having survived "the ravages of wars, the +brutishness of revolutions, the smug complacency of restoration which +had stripped it of its altars, its shrines and its tombs of unnumbered +kings" was the target for two years of German shell and shrapnel and +today it stands gaunt and scathed in a circle of ruin. But even in its +ruin it shows infinite majesty and if it is left as it is,—and may that +be so—for restoration would only vulgarize its incomparable art, Rheims +will stand as a monument both to the thirteenth century which had made +it the supreme type of the Gothic ideal to raise men's souls to God, and +to the twentieth century against whose materialism it was an offence and +a protest.</p> + +<p>The third characteristic of the age of Dante is its chivalry, which +placed woman on the highest pedestal she had ever occupied. In +literature that unique influence is seen in a new and an exalted +conception of love. Love is now coupled with nobility of life. The +troubadours had sung of love as a quality belonging to gentle folk, +meaning by that phrase the nobility, and nobility had been defined by +the Emperor Frederick II, patron<a name="page40" id="page40" ></a><span class="pagenum">40</span> + of the troubadours, as a combination +of ancestral wealth and fine manners. In the Banquet (bk. IV) Dante +rejects that definition and transfers nobility from the social to the +moral order holding that "nobility exists where virtue dwells."</p> + +<p>Love, the flowering of this nobility, may be found in the heart of him +even lowest in the social scale provided that he is a virtuous man. It +is not an affair solely of gentle blood. It has no pedigree of birth or +richness. "In this sense the true lover need not be a <i>gentleman</i> +but he must be a <i>gentle man</i>, loving not by genteel code of caste +but by gentle code of character." (J.B. Fletcher: Dante p. 27.)</p> + +<p>Thus Dante makes Guido Guinicelli say: "Love and the gentle heart are +one and the same thing." And Dante himself in one of his Canzoni writes:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Let no man predicate</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That aught the name of gentleman should have</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Even in a king's estate</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Except the heart there be a gentle man's."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Love, then, became in literature such a refined emotion that to quote +Dante: "it makes ill thought to perish, it drives into foul hearts a +deadly chill" and on the other hand it fills indeed the lover with<a name="page41" id="page41" ></a><span class="pagenum">41</span> such +delicacy of sentiment for his beloved that she is his inspiration to +virtue and the Muse who directs his pen. In harmony with "the sweet new +style" of sincerity with which Dante treats of love, Thomas Bernart de +Ventadorn sings:</p> + +<p>"It is no wonder if I sing better than any other singer, for my heart +draws near to Love and I am a better man for Love's command."</p> + +<p>Not in literature alone but in actual life did chivalry exalt "the +eternal womanly." In Dante's age, to quote the author of Phases of +Thought and Criticism, "Knights passed from land to land in search of +adventure, vowed to protect and defend the widow and the orphan and the +lonely woman at the hazard of their lives: they went about with a prayer +on their lips and in their hearts the image of the lady-love whom they +had chosen to serve and to whom they had pledged loyalty and fidelity: +they strove to be chaste in body and soul and as a tower of strength for +the protection of this spirit of chastity, they were taught to venerate +the Virgin Mother Mary and cultivate toward her a tender devotion as the +purest and holiest ideal of womanhood. This spirit of chivalry is the +ruling spirit of Dante's life and the inspiration of some of his +sublimest flights."</p> + +<p>All these high achievements of Dante's century are all the more notable +in view of the fact<a name="page42" id="page42" ></a><span class="pagenum">42</span> that war with its horror and destruction was never +absent from those times. Every European country was involved often in +war and Asia and Africa were not free from its devastation.</p> + +<p>In such stirring times, Dante was born at Florence. A city of flowers +and gay festivities, the home of a cultured pleasure-loving people, it +was the frequent scene of feuds and factions handed down from sire to +son. The hatred they engendered and the desolation they caused may be +understood from the reading of Romeo and Juliet, a tragedy whose scene +is laid in Verona in the year 1303 and to the families concerned in +which Dante makes allusion in the sixth canto of his Purgatorio. But +Verona and Florence were not the only cities involved by the militarism +of the age. Especially in northern Italy were strife and bloodshed +common. Province, city, town, hamlet and even households were torn by +internal dissensions, which only complicated the main conflict of that +day, viz., the world struggle for supremacy of pope and emperor.</p> + +<p>The imperial party called Ghibellines, composed mainly of aristocrats +and their followers, aimed to break down the barriers which kept the +German Emperor out of Italy, their object being to have him subjugate +the whole country, even the states of the Pope. The papal or popular +party, known as Guelfs, had as its purpose the independence<a name="page43" id="page43" ></a><span class="pagenum">43</span> of +Italy—the freedom and alliance of the great cities of the north of +Italy and dependence of the center and southern parts on the Roman See. +A few months after Dante's death, the Ghibellines, the imperial party, +suffered a defeat by the overthrow of King Manfred from which they never +recovered. But in Florence for many years they maintained their +struggle.</p> + +<p>To add to the confusion of the Florentines whose sympathy was mostly +Guelf—i.e. favorable to the papal or popular cause—the Guelf party of +Florence was divided into two factions, the Bianchi and the Neri, the +history of whose tumults often leading to blood and mischief may be +known by the frequent allusions of our poet. Embroiled by those feuds, +Dante is found not only as a prior among the ruling Bianchi but as a +soldier under arms at the battle of Campaldino and at the siege of +Caprona. Later when the Neri were restored to power, Dante was banished +and never again beheld his beloved city. In exile Dante transferred his +allegiance to the Ghibellines though he upheld the Guelf view as to the +primacy of the Church. Subsequently he tried, but in vain, to form a +party independent of Guelf, Ghibelline, Bianchi or Neri.</p> + +<p>May I conclude this chapter by giving you another view of Dante's +environment? To point out the degeneracy of Florence, Dante becomes a<a name="page44" id="page44" ></a><span class="pagenum">44</span> +<i>laudator acti temporis</i> in a picture of the earlier Florence that +has never been equalled.</p> + +<p>"Florence was abiding in peace, sober and modest. She had not necklace +or coronal or women with ornamented shoes or girdle which was more to be +looked at than the person. Nor yet did the daughter at her birth give +fear to her father, for the time and dowry did not outrun measure on +this or that side. She had not houses empty of families. I saw +Bellencion Berti go girt with leather and bone and his lady come from +the mirror with unpainted face. I saw him of the Nerlo and him of the +Vecchio satisfied with unlined skin and their ladies with the spindle +and the distaff. O! fortunate women, each was sure of her burial place" +(Paradiso IV, 97).</p> + +<p>But time changed all that. With her population vastly increased in +Dante's day and her commerce on all seas and on every road and her +banking system controlling the markets of Europe and the East, Florence +had become such a mighty city that Pope Boniface VIII could say to the +Florentine embassy who came to Rome to take part in the Jubilee of 1300: +"Florence is the greatest of cities. She feeds, clothes, governs us all. +Indeed she appears to rule the world. She and her people are, in truth, +the fifth element of the universe." (The Guilds of Florence, p. 562.)</p> + +<p>Such greatness was attained according to Dante<a name="page45" id="page45" ></a><span class="pagenum">45</span> only at the loss of +pristine simplicity and virtue. So he apostrophizes his native city: +"Rejoice O Florence, since thou art so mighty that thou canst spread +thy wings over sea and land and thy name is known throughout Hell." +Notorious for crime Florence still kept a big place in her life for +religion. There "religion was abused but its beneficial effects +continued to be manifest—vice was flagrant but it never lost the sense +of shame—men were cruel but their cruelty was followed by sincere +regrets—misfortunes were frequent and signal but they were accepted +with resignation or with the hope of retrieval or men gloried in them +on account of the cause in which they suffered." (Brother Azarias.)</p> + +<p>And, meanwhile, side by side with fierce and bloody struggles the +creative forces of art and architecture were making marvelous progress +before the very eyes of Dante. Niccolo Pisano had finished his Sienna +pulpit and with his son was engaged on his immortal works of sculpture. +Orcagna had made a wonderful tabernacle for the Florentine church of San +Michele, Cimabue had painted the Madonna which is now in the Rucellai +chapel. Giotto had completed his work at Assisi and Rome and would soon +give to the world the Florentine Campanile. Fra Sisto and Fra Ristoro +had built the church Santa Maria Novella at Florence and Arnolfo<a name="page46" id="page46" ></a><span class="pagenum">46</span> di +Cambio, while Dante was writing sonnets, had begun the duomo or +cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. The stout walls and lofty tower of +the Bargello had sprung into beauteous being. Santa Croce destined to +be the burial place of illustrious Italians, had been built and remains +today one of Florence's greatest churches. St. John's Baptistry, <i>il +mio bel Giovanni</i>, had received its external facing of marble, and in +ten years after Dante's death would get its massive bronze doors which +are unparalleled in the world.</p> + +<p>The century closed with the opening of the great Jubilee at Rome. March +twenty-fifth of the following year, 1300, Dante places as the time for +his journey through the realms of the unseen—the story of which is told +in the Divina Commedia. If sympathy with Dante and his work is not +aroused already, perhaps these two quotations may quicken your interest.</p> + +<p>Charles Elliot Norton writes: "There are few other works of man, perhaps +there is no other, which affords such evidence as the Divine Comedy, of +uninterrupted consistency of purpose, of sustained vigor of imagination, +and of steady force of character controlling alike the vagaries of the +poetic temperament, the wavering of human purpose, the fluctuation of +human powers, the untowardness of circumstances. From the beginning to +the end of his work of many years there<a name="page47" id="page47" ></a><span class="pagenum">47</span> is no flagging of energy, no +indication of weakness. The shoulders burdened by a task almost too +great for mortal strength, never tremble under their load."</p> + +<p>And Dr. Frank Crane, a foremost writer of the syndicate press, says "I +have put a good deal of hard labor digging into Dante and while I cannot +say that I ever got from him any direct usable material, yet I no more +regret my hours spent with him than I regret the beautiful landscapes I +have seen, the great music I have heard, the wise and noble souls I have +met, the wondrous dreams I have had. These are all a part of one's +education, of one's equipment for life and perhaps the best part."<a name="page48" id="page48" ></a><span class="pagenum">48</span> +<br /><a name="page49" id="page49" ></a><span class="pagenum">49</span></p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="page50" id="page50" ></a><span class="pagenum">50</span></p> +<h2><a name="DANTE_THE_MAN" id="DANTE_THE_MAN"></a>DANTE THE MAN</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + + +<p><a name="page51" id="page51" ></a><span class="pagenum">51</span>Fifty-five years ago when called on for a poem to celebrate the sixth +hundredth anniversary of Dante's birth, Tennyson, feeling his own +littleness before "this central man of all the world," wrote:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"King, that has reigned six hundred years and grown</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In power and ever growest</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I, wearing but the garland of a day,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cast at thy feet one flower that fades away."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>New tributes to the genius of Dante will be offered by our generation, +for already great preparations are under way in all parts of Italy and +the literary world to commemorate in 1921, the six hundredth anniversary +of the death of the author of the greatest of all Christian poems. The +question naturally suggests itself: Has not the world moved forward many +centuries from Dante's viewpoint and lost interest in many things +regarded as truths or at least as burning issues by Dante? Who is now +concerned with the Ptolomaic<a name="page52" id="page52" ></a><span class="pagenum">52</span> system of astronomy, which is so often the +subject of Dante's thought? Who is now interested in the tragic +jealousies and injustices suffered by the people of Florence which led +to the bitter feuds that helped to make Dante the great poet? Who, in +this twentieth century so intent upon making the world safe for +democracy, has sympathy with Dante's advocated scheme of a world-wide +absolute monarchy as the cure for the ills of the society of his day? +Is this generation which sees Italy united as a result of the overthrow +of the Papal states, so universally concerned with Papal claims which +were matters of vital importance to Dante and his generation? Is our +era, which unfortunately looks upon religion as a negligible factor and +not as the animating principle of life, interested in the golden age of +faith of which Dante is the embodiment, and his message in which the +eternal is the object?</p> + +<p>Yet, Dante's following is today larger than ever before; his empire over +minds and hearts is more extensive. The moving pictures feature his +Inferno; the press issues, even in languages not his own, such a mass of +books and articles concerning him that a specialist can hardly keep +track of the output. In the universities, especially of Harvard, Cornell +and Columbia, not to speak of those in other lands, the courses on Dante +attract an unusually large number of students. Outside<a name="page53" id="page53" ></a><span class="pagenum">53</span> of the academic +atmosphere there are thousands of readers who still find in his +writings, a solace in grief, a strength in temptation, a deep sense of +reality, permanent though unseen, of the love of God and of His justice. +The reasons are not far away.</p> + +<p>"Our poet," says Grandgent "was a many sided genius who has a message +for nearly everyone."</p> + +<p>Dante's compelling renown among us, is due says Dr. Frank Crane both "to +the intrinsic greatness of the man's personality and to the sheer beauty +of his craftsmanship."</p> + +<p>"The secret of Dante's power" writes James Russell Lowell "is not far +to seek. Whoever can express <i>himself</i> with the full force of +unconscious sincerity will be found to have uttered something ideal +and universal."</p> + +<p>Whether one or all these reasons are the true explanation of the +twentieth century's great interest in Dante, the fact remains, as +Tennyson said, that far from being a waning classic, Dante "in power +ever grows," and the interest he calls forth constitutes, as James Bryce +observed in his Lowell Institute lectures "the literary phenomenon of +England and America."</p> + +<p>Now to Dante as the man let us turn. To know the fibre of his manhood +will help us to appreciate the genius of his art. "It is needful to know +Dante as man" wrote Charles Elliot<a name="page54" id="page54" ></a><span class="pagenum">54</span> Norton, "in order fully to +appreciate him as poet." The thought is expressed in another way by +James Russell Lowell: "The man behind the verse is far greater than the +verse itself and Dante is not merely a great poet but an influence, part +of the soul's resources in time of trouble. From him the soul learns +that 'married to the truth she is a mistress but otherwise a slave shut +out of all liberty'" (The Banquet). But that knowledge is dependent upon +our intimacy with the life and spirit of Dante. In many other cases the +knowledge of the life and personality of an author may not be essential +to either our enjoyment or our understanding of his work. In the case of +Dante "he faces his own mirror and so appears in the mid-foreground of +his reflected word." Before looking into that mirror for Dante's +picture, let us first recall some of the established facts in his life +and then see what manner of man he appeared to those who were his +contemporaries or who lived chronologically near him.</p> + +<p>Dante was born in Florence in the year 1265. His father was a notary +belonging to an old but decadent Guelph family, his mother, named Bella, +was a daughter of Durante Abati, a Ghibelline noble. Whether his own +family was regarded among the first families of nobility or not, it is +certain that Dante enjoyed the honor of knowing that one of his +forebears, Cacciaguida, had been<a name="page55" id="page55" ></a><span class="pagenum">55</span> knighted by Emperor Conrad II on the +Second Crusade. Precocious Dante must have been, as a boy, with +faculties and emotions extraordinarily developed, for in his ninth year, +while attending a festal party, he fell in love with a little girl named +Beatrice Portinari, eight years old. "Although still a child" to quote +Boccaccio his earliest biographer "he received her image into his heart +with such affection that from that day forward never so long as he +lived, did it depart therefrom." She became the wife of Simone dei +Bardi, and died in her twenty-fourth year, the subject of many sonnets +from her mystic lover who, if he had never written anything else, would +have been entitled, by his book of sonnets, his New Life, to rank as a +poet of the first class.</p> + +<p>Two years after the death of Beatrice, Dante married Gemma Donati, a +member of an old aristocratic family of Florence and by her had four +children. In the period between the death of Beatrice and his marriage +he had seen military service, having borne arms as a Guelph at the +battle of Campaldino (Purg. V, 91-129) in which the Florentines defeated +the Ghibelline league of Arezzo and he took part at the siege of Caprona +and was present at its surrender by the Pisans (Inf., XXI, 95.) When he +was thirty years old he became a member of the Special Council of the +Republic, consisting of eight of the best<a name="page56" id="page56" ></a><span class="pagenum">56</span> and most influential citizens +and in 1300, at the age of thirty-five, midway in the journey of his +life, he was elected one of the six Priors (chief magistrates of his +city) for the months of June and July. Shortly after this Dante with +three others went to Rome on an embassy to Pope Boniface VIII to get +that pontiff's veto to the intervention of Charles de Valois, brother +of Philip IV of France, in the affairs of Florence. But there was delay +in the transaction of the business and that gave the stranger time to +win the city by treachery. When the news reached Dante, he hurried +homeward. At Sienna he learned that his house had been pillaged and +burned and he himself had been accused of malfeasance in office. Without +a trial he was condemned to a heavy fine and to perpetual banishment +under penalty that if he returned he would be burned alive. Then began +his twenty years' exile—years in which he went sometimes almost begging +and at all times even when he was an honored guest in the home of +nobility—knowing as only an exile can know "how bitter is the bread of +dependence and how steep the stranger's stairs." It was during his exile +that Dante completed his immortal Divina Commedia, the child of his +thought "cradled into poetry by wrong." Dante never again saw Florence +for which he yearned with all the intensity of the Hebrew captives weeping +on the rivers of Babylon<a name="page57" id="page57" ></a><span class="pagenum">57</span> for a sight of Jerusalem. Death came to free his +undaunted soul in the year 1321 while he was a guest at Ravenna of Guido +Novello da Polenta, a nephew of Francesca da Rimini. At Ravenna the last +seat of Roman arts and letters, in a sepulchre attached to the convent +of the Franciscan monks, he was buried with the honors due to a saint +and a sage. The inscription on his epitaph said to have been composed by +him on his deathbed, is paraphrased by Lowell in the following words:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"The rights of Monarchy, the Heavens, the stream of Fire, the Pit</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In vision seen, I sang as far as to the Fates seemed fit.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But since my soul, an alien here, hath flown to nobler wars,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And happier now, hath gone to seek its Maker with the stars,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Here am I, Dante, shut, exiled from the ancestral shore</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Whom Florence, the fairest of all-least-loving mothers, bore."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Such is the brief outline of the outward life of him of whom +Michelangelo declared:</p> + +<p>"Ne'er walked the earth a greater man than he."</p><p><a name="page58" id="page58" ></a><span class="pagenum">58</span></p> + +<p>It will help us to a better understanding of that man if his likeness is +impressed upon our memory. The portrait made by his friend Giotto, shows +him as a young man perhaps of twenty to twenty-five years, with a face +noble, beardless, strong, intelligent and pensive—a face which would +not lead one to suspect an appreciation of humor. Yet writers find two +distinct forms of that quality—a playfulness in his eclogues and a +grotesqueness in certain of his assignments to punishments in Hell. +Contrasting with this picture of his early life is the face of his death +mask and of the Naples bust, suggesting the lines</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"How stern of lineament, how grim</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The father was of Tuscan song."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Here we see him mature with strength of character in every feature and a +seriousness of mien which shows a man with whom one might not take +liberties. It was of Dante in mature life that Boccaccio wrote: "Our +poet was of moderate height and after reaching maturity was accustomed +to walk somewhat bowed with a slow and gentle pace, clad always in such +sober dress as befitted his ripe years. His face was long, his nose +aquiline and his eyes rather large than small. His jaws were large and +his lower lip protruded beyond the upper. His complexion<a name="page59" id="page59" ></a><span class="pagenum">59</span> was dark and +his expression very melancholy and thoughtful. His manners, whether in +public or at home, were wonderful, composed and restrained, and in all +ways he was more courteous and civil than any one else."</p> + +<p>Bruni, on the other hand, who wrote a century later describes Dante as +if he had in mind Giotto's fresco of the poet. This is Bruni's +word-picture: "He was a man of great refinement, of medium height and +a pleasant but deeply serious face. It was remarkable that although he +studied incessantly, none would have supposed from his happy manner and +youthful way of speaking that he had studied at all." However well these +pictures may visualize the poet for us, I cannot help thinking that +Dante himself, after the manner of great artists who paint their own +pictures, gives us a far better portrait of himself. What we know of him +from others is as nothing compared to the revelation he has made of +himself in his writings. For, as Dr. Zahm, in his Great Inspirers, has +said: "Dante, although the most concealing of men was, paradoxical as it +may seem, the most self-revealing." The indirect recorder of his own +life, he discloses to us an intimate view of his spiritual struggles, of +the motives which actuated him, of the passions he experienced, not to +speak of the judgments he formed upon all great questions. "So true is +this that if it were possible to<a name="page60" id="page60" ></a><span class="pagenum">60</span>> meet him, we should feel that he was +an intimate friend who had never concealed anything from us—who had +discoursed with us on all subjects; science, literature, philosophy, +theology, love, poetry, happiness, the world to come and all that of +which it most imports us to have accurate knowledge." Let us then see +the man as reflected in his writings.</p> + +<p>First of all he reveals himself as a man profoundly animated by +religion. He is not a Huysmanns or a François Coppée, a Brunetiere, +a Paul Bourget, forsaking the religious teachings of his youth only to +embrace them in mature life. Never for a moment did he deflect from the +Catholic doctrine, though his studies led him to the consideration of +the most subtle arguments raised against it. He was indeed the defender +and champion of faith, having no sympathy for a mind which would lose +itself in seeking the solution of the incomprehensible mysteries of +religion. So he has Virgil say:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Insensate he who thinks with mortal ken</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To pierce Infinitude which doth enfold</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Three persons in one substance. Seek not, then,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">O Mortal race, for reasons, but believe</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And be content, for had all been seen</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No need there was for Mary to conceive.</span><br /><a name="page61" id="page61" ></a><span class="pagenum">61</span> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Men have ye known who thus desired in vain</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And whose desires, that might at rest have been,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Now constitute a source of endless pain.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Plato, the Stagerite, and many more</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I here allude to. Then his head he bent,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Was silent and a troubled aspect wore."</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(Purg., III, 34.)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Guided by the wisdom he thus enunciated Dante from youth to death +maintained a child-like faith that satisfied his intellect and animated +his sentiments. His faith really grew into a passion. His fidelity to +the truth of the doctrines of the Church or to the sacred offices of the +papacy was never shaken either by the scandals of clerical life or the +opposition of different popes to his political ideals. Frequently he +raised his voice in protest yet, notwithstanding his censures against +what he considered abuses in the external administration of the Church +and the policy of her popes, on his part there was not the least +suspicion of unsettled faith or revolutionary design. Strongly convinced +of the divinity of the Church, his passionate nature could not help +execrating the human element that would weaken her influence. "He +teaches that the mystical Vine of the Church still grows and Peter and +Paul who died for it, still live. He holds by that Church. He<a name="page62" id="page62" ></a><span class="pagenum">62</span> begs +Christians not to be moved feather-like by every wind of doctrine. 'You +have' he tells them 'the Old Testament and the New. The Pastor of the +Church guides you, let this suffice for your salvation'" (Brother +Azarias). In his devotional life Dante is just as ardent as he is firm +in his adherence to dogma. While all Catholics are held to profess a +common creed, each may follow the bent of his disposition and sympathy +in pious practices, theologically called devotions. It seems to me that +Dante had three such devotions which he practised intensely in his inner +life.</p> + +<p>First, devotion to the sacred Humanity of Christ. In eleven places does +he speak at length of Christ's two-fold nature as God and Man; in ten +places does he refer to Christ as the Second Person of the Blessed +Trinity, and wherever Cristo occurs at the end of a line, Dante out of +reverence for the Sacred Person does not rime with it, but repeats the +name itself. The climax of the Purgatorio is the apparition of the +Griffin, the symbol of Christ. Further, on the stellar white cross of +red-glowing Mars the poet shows the figure of the Redeemer. In the +Empyrean Christ is represented in the unveiled glory of His human and +divine natures. So teaching the doctrine of the Incarnation most clearly +and most<a name="page63" id="page63" ></a><span class="pagenum">63</span> ardently Dante seeks to promote this cultus as the soul of the +Catholic religion.</p> + +<p>Dante's second special devotion is to the Blessed Virgin. His Paradiso +contains the best treatise on Mariology. The whole Divine Comedy indeed +is the poet's loving testimonial of gratitude to the Madonna. It was +through Mary that his visionary voyage to the other world was made +possible. She rescued him when he was enslaved by sin and sent as his +successive guides Virgil, Beatrice and St. Bernard. She of all creatures +is proclaimed on every terrace of Purgatory first in virtue and highest +in dignity and her example is exhibited as an unfailing source of +inspiration to the Souls, to endure suffering cheerfully and to make +themselves, like her, the exemplars of goodness in the highest degree. +In Paradiso she is seen by the poet in all her unspeakable loveliness +and beatitude and as Queen of Angels and of Saints her intercession is +favorably invoked that Dante might enjoy the Vision of God himself. In +the last canto of the poem her super-eminence and incomparable +excellence are sung "with a sweetness of expression, a depth of +philosophy and a tenderness of feeling that have never been surpassed +in human language."</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Thou Virgin Mother, daughter of thy Son,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Humble and high beyond all other creatures,</span><br /><a name="page64" id="page64" ></a><span class="pagenum">64</span> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The limit fixed of the eternal counsel;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thou art the one who such nobility</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To human nature gave that its Creator</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Did not disdain to make Himself its creature.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Within thy womb rekindled was the love</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">By heat of which in the eternal peace,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">After such wise, this flower was germinated.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Here unto us thou art a noonday torch</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of charity, and below there among mortals</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thou art the living fountainhead of hope.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lady, thou art so great and so prevailing,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That he who wishes grace nor runs to thee,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">His aspirations without wings would fly.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Not only thy benignity gives succor</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To him who asketh it, but oftentimes</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Forerunneth of its own accord the asking.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In thee compassion is, in thee is pity,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In thee magnificence; in thee unites</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Whatever of goodness is in any creature."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>The third private devotion of Dante is devotion to the Souls in +Purgatory—a pious practice founded upon the scriptural words: "It is a +holy and a wholesome thought to pray for the dead that they may be +loosed from their sins." Not only does Dante answer the objection raised +as to the efficacy of prayer offered for the souls in Purgatory (VI, 28) +but in many passages he<a name="page65" id="page65" ></a><span class="pagenum">65</span> promises his own prayers and works and seeks to +arouse in others on earth a helpful sympathy for those souls. "Truly" he +says, "we ought to help them to wash away their stains which they have +borne hence, so that, pure and light, they may go forth to the starry +spheres," (Purg. VI, 34.)</p> + +<p>To sum up Dante's attachment to his religion we can truly say not only +his life but his great poem radiates the spirit and doctrine of the +Church. Hettinger says of Dante: "In truth he anticipated the most +pregnant developments of Catholic doctrine, mastered its subtlest +distinctions and treated its hardest problems with almost faultless +accuracy. Were all the libraries in the world destroyed and the Sacred +Scripture with them, the whole Catholic system of doctrine and morals +might be almost reconstructed out of the Divina Commedia."</p> + +<p>Intensity, indeed, is the characteristic of Dante's spiritual life. In +bringing that quality to his faith and religious practice he was only +manifesting the operation of the dominating quality which regulated his +whole life and shaped all his mental and emotional habits. The realm of +his thought and feeling was truly the land of the strenuous life. Having +once set out to say of Beatrice what had never been said of any woman, +Dante applied himself to his prodigious task with a consistency of +purpose that was unmoved by persecution and<a name="page66" id="page66" ></a><span class="pagenum">66</span> unshaken by time. In all +the years that he spent in the composition of the Divina Commedia there +was no flagging of interest, no indication of weakness. No one ever +applied himself with more complete absorption or with greater power +of unfaltering concentration, just as no one ever felt more deeply +the outrageous arrows of fortune or the transcendent supremacy of love. +It is precisely because of this intensity that his thoughts and feelings +affect us so profoundly six centuries later.</p> + +<p>Intense in his own life Dante had no sympathy with slackers or the +lukewarm whom he characterizes as never having been alive, i.e. of never +having awakened to responsibility to take part in good or evil. As a +consequence they never contributed anything to society. Because in this +life they shifted from one side to another, they are now depicted +running perpetually after an aimlessly dodging banner. Here is the +description of the punishment of the lukewarm:</p> + +<p>"Now sighs, cries, and shrill shrieks rang through the starless air: +Whereat at first I began to weep, strange tongues, hurried speech, words +of pain, accents of wrath, voices loud and weak, and the sound of hands +accompanying them, made a tumult which revolves forever in that air +endlessly dark, like sands blowing before a whirlwind. And I, whose head +was hooded with horror,<a name="page67" id="page67" ></a><span class="pagenum">67</span> exclaimed: 'Master, what is it I hear? What +kind of people is it that seems so vanquished by grief? And he replied: +'This is the miserable way followed by the sorry souls of those who +lived without infamy and without glory. They are mingled with the mean +choir of those angels who were not rebels and were not faithful to God, +but were for themselves. Heaven cast them out lest its beauty should be +spoiled; and deep Hell will not receive them, because the damned might +derive some satisfaction from them.'</p> + +<p>"'Master,' I said, 'what is so grievous to them which makes them +complain so loud?' 'I shall tell thee right briefly' he answered. 'These +people have no hope of death and their blind life's so vile that they +are envious of any other lot. The world allows no report of them to +last: mercy and justice disdain them. Let us not speak of them but look +and pass by!' And I, looking, saw a banner which ran circling so swift +that it seemed scornful of all rest: and after it there came trailing +such a long train of people that I should never have thought death had +undone so many. When I had made out one or two of them I saw and +recognized the shade of him who, for cowardice, made the great refusal. +Forthwith I understood and was convinced that this was the sect of +poltroons, obnoxious both to God and to God's enemies.<a name="page68" id="page68" ></a><span class="pagenum">68</span> These luckless +creatures who never had been really alive, were naked and badly stung +by flies and wasps which were there. These insects streaked their faces +with blood which, mixed with tears, was caught by disgusting worms at +their feet—" (Inferno III, 33. Grandgent's translation.) In reading +that description of the punishment of the lukewarm, one cannot fail to +observe that not one is called by name. Because they "lived without +infamy and without glory" their name deserves to be lost forever to +the world.</p> + +<p>Of the renown of Dante's own name our poet has no misgivings. He reveals +himself as a man having supreme confidence in his own powers. Boccaccio +represents him as saying when he was with his party at the head of the +government of the republic of Florence, and when there was question of +sending him on an embassy to Rome, "If I go, who stays? And if I stay, +who goes?" "As if he alone," is the comment of Boccaccio, "was worth +among them all, and as if the others were nothing worth except through +him." It is certain that Dante put a high valuation upon his genius, an +estimate due, perhaps, to the belief he held, like Napoleon, in the +potency of his star. He was born under the constellation of the Gemini +and to them in gratitude for his self-recognized talent he gives praise:</p> +<p><a name="page69" id="page69" ></a><span class="pagenum">69</span></p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"O glorious stars, O light impregnated</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With mighty virtue, from which I acknowledge</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">All of my genius whatso'er it be,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With you was born, and hid himself with you,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">He who is father of all mortal life,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">When first I tasted of the Tuscan air."</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(Par. XXII, 112)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Certain it is that Dante acted on the counsel which, addressed to +himself, he puts into the mouth of his beloved teacher, Brunetto Latini, +"Follow thy star and thou cans't not miss the glorious port." (Inf., XV, +55.) In Purgatorio Dante says: "My name as yet marks no great sound," +but he boasts that he will surpass in fame the Guidos, writers of verse: +"Perchance some one is already born who will drive both from out the +nest." He is so sure that posterity will confer immortality upon his +work that he does not hesitate to make himself sixth among the greatest +writers of the world. This passage occurs when he enters Limbus +accompanied by Virgil to whom a group of spirits, Homer, Horace, Ovid, +and Lucan, make salutation. (Inf., IV, 76.) Posterity has bestowed +greater renown on Dante's name than even he presumed to hope, for it +has placed him in the Court of Letters with only<a name="page70" id="page70" ></a><span class="pagenum">70</span> one of the writers +of antiquity, Homer, and with two subsequent writers, Cervantes +and Shakespeare.</p> + +<p>Naturally we think that a writer who was so positively confident and +boastful of his powers must have been given to pride and Dante indeed +plainly indicates to us that he was guilty of this. But it was pride, +we think, that was honorable and not a vice, a pride of which a lesser +light, Lacordaire says, "By the grace of God, I abhor mediocrity." In +the dark wood Dante represents the Lion (Pride) as preventing him from +ascending the mountain—"He seemed to be coming to me with head upreared +and with such raging hunger, that the air appeared to be in fear of +him." (Inf., I, 43.)</p> + +<p>And that the poet's trepidation was justified he later makes known +(Purg. XI, 136) when he expresses the fear that for pride he may be +eternally punished. Perhaps it was because Dante recognized the pride of +his learning, of his ancestry, of his associations with distinguished +personages as his besetting sin that he exercised his skill as a master +in showing us profound imagery representing the characteristics of +pride. Carved out of the mountain in the first circle of a terrace of +Purgatory are scenes illustrative of humility. While looking on these +scenes, which seem to live and speak in their beautiful and<a name="page71" id="page71" ></a><span class="pagenum">71</span> compelling +reality, the poet turns and sees approaching the forms of the proud. On +earth they had exalted themselves as if they had the weight of the world +on their shoulders, so now they are seen bent under huge burdens of +stone, crumpled up in postures of agonizing discomfort. The poet, to let +us know that he shares in their punishment, says:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"With equal pace as oxen in the yoke,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I, with that laden spirit, journey'd on</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Long as the mild instructor suffer'd me."</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(Purg. XII-I)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>He apostrophizes them, but the words are really an upbraiding of himself +for pride.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"O ye proud Christians, wretched weary ones,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Who in the vision of the mind infirm,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Confidence have in your backsliding steps,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Do ye not comprehend that we are worms</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Born to bring forth the angelic butterfly</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That flieth unto judgment without screen?</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Who floats aloft your spirit high in air?</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Like are ye unto insects undeveloped</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Even as the worm in whom formation fails!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">As to sustain a ceiling or a roof</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In place of corbel, sometimes a figure</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Is seen to join unto its knees its breast</span><br /><a name="page72" id="page72" ></a><span class="pagenum">72</span> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Which makes of the unreal, real anguish</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Arise in him who sees it: fashioned thus</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Beheld I these, when I had ta'en good heed</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">True is it, they were more or less bent down</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">According as they were more or less laden</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And he who had most patience on his looks</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Weeping did seem to say I can no more."</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(Purg. X, 121)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Like all great men of undoubted sincerity Dante was intellectually big +enough to change his mind when a new view presented itself in +condemnation of an earlier judgment. So his "Vernacular Composition" +retracts a statement he had made in the New Life where he had held that +as amatory poems were addressed to ladies ignorant of Latin, Love should +be the only subject the poet ought to present in the vernacular. He +learned later and published his new view that there is good precedent +for treating in the vulgar tongue not only Love but also Righteousness +and War.</p> + +<p>Other examples of his honesty of mind are furnished in the Paradise +where he expresses through the mouths of his disembodied teachers views +opposed to those he had already advanced in his other works. Thus his +theory of the spots on the moon, his statement as to the respective rank +of the angelic orders, his assumption that Hebrew was the language of +Adam and Eve—all yield<a name="page73" id="page73" ></a><span class="pagenum">73</span> to a maturer conception in contradiction to his +original views. He is, it is true, sometimes blinded by partisanship or +lacking in the historical perspective necessary for a true judgment of +his contemporaries—but Dante is naturally so sincere a man that he is +eager to be just to every one. Perhaps there is no better instance of +the exercise of this quality than in his assigning to the heaven of +Jupiter, Constantine, to whose supposed donation of vast territories, +then regarded as genuine, Dante ascribes the corruption of the Church.</p> + +<p>Many readers, whose acquaintance with our poet does not extend beyond +the Inferno, see in him only the incarnation of savagery and scorn. They +fail to pay tribute to the wonderful power of his friendship or to +recognize that his sufferings of adversity and injustice gave birth to +deep passion. To them he seems only to place his few friends in Heaven +and in Hell to roast all his enemies. It must be at once confessed that +there are instances in the Divina Commedia which, taken by themselves, +would lead one to so superficial an estimate of the man. In Canto VIII +of the Inferno Dante with his guide, Virgil, enters a bark on the Styx +and sails across the broad marsh. During the passage a spirit all +covered with mud addresses Dante, who recognizes him as Filippo Argenti, +a Florentine notorious for his arrogance and brutal violence. "Master," +says Dante to<a name="page74" id="page74" ></a><span class="pagenum">74</span> Virgil, "I should be glad to see him dipped in this swill +ere we quit the lake." And he to me, 'Before the shore comes to thy view +thou shalt be satisfied.' A little while after this I saw the muddy +people make such a rending of him that even now I praise and thank God +for it. Such gloating over suffering surely seems to say to you: Here +we have a man of a cruel vindictive nature.</p> + +<p>Again, in the ice of Caina, the region where traitors are immersed up to +their heads, Dante hits his foot violently against the face of Bocca +degli Abati who betrayed the Florentines at the crucial battle of +Montaperti. "Weeping it cried out to me: 'Why tramplest thou on me? If +thou comest not to increase the vengeance for Montaperti, why dost thou +molest me?' I said: 'What art thou who thus reproachest others?' 'Nay +who art thou' he answered 'that through the Antenora goest, smiting the +cheeks of others, so that if thou wert alive, it were too much.' 'I am +alive' was my reply 'and if thou seekest fame, it may be precious to +thee, that I put thy name among the other notes.' And he to me. 'The +contrary is what I long for, take thyself away!' Then I seized him by +the afterscalp and said: 'It will be necessary that thou name thyself or +that not a hair remain upon thee here.' Whence he to me: 'Even if thou +unhair me I will not tell thee who I am.' I already had his hair coiled +on my hand<a name="page75" id="page75" ></a><span class="pagenum">75</span> and had plucked off more than one tuft of it, he barking and +keeping down his eyes, when another cried, 'What ails thee Bocca?' +Having thus learned the sinner's name, the poet releases him, saying: +'accursed traitor I do not want thee to speak, for to thy shame I will +bear true tidings'" (Inf., XXXII, 97.) Some may say that it is to Dante's +shame that he shows himself so devoid of pity.</p> + +<p>Another example would seem to confirm this startling view of Dante's +character. At the bottom of Hell, eager to learn the identity of a +reprobate, a certain Friar Albergo, the poet promises him in return for +the desired information to remove the ice from his eyes so that he may +have "the poor consolation of grief unchecked."</p> + +<p>"Remove the hard veils from my face that I may vent the grief which +stuffs my heart, a little ere the weeping freeze again! Wherefore I said +to him. 'If thou woulds't have me aid thee, tell me who thou art, and if +I do not extricate thee, may I have to go to the bottom of the ice.'" +The poet of course knows that he must go thither to continue his journey +to Purgatory, but the reprobate soul is unaware of such a course, and +believes that the visitor has fortified his promise with a true oath. +Both his name and the damning story of his life are soon told by the +poor wretch, who<a name="page76" id="page76" ></a><span class="pagenum">76</span> then asks Dante for the fulfillment of the +promise—the removal of the ice so that sight may be restored even for a +minute. "'Open my eyes' he said—but I opened them not, to be rude to +him was courtesy" (Inf., XXXIII, 148.) Does not Dante by his own words +show himself deep-dyed in hatred and cruelty?</p> + +<p>"The case against him" says Dinsmore, "is not so bad as the first +reading would indicate. Part of the explanation of his apparent cruelty +undoubtedly lies in the fact that the poet would teach us that character +is influenced by environment. In the circle of wrath, he is wrathful, in +the pit of traitors he is false. Then we are to recall that Dante +undoubtedly laid to heart Virgil's reproof, when he wept at the sad +punishment of the soothsayers: 'Who is more wicked than he who feels +compassion at the Divine Judgment.' Passionate love of God, Dante holds, +implies passionate hatred of God's enemies. That is a thought expressed +by the Psalmist. 'Lord, have I not hated them that hate thee and pined +away because of thy enemies? I have hated them with a perfect hatred and +they are become enemies to me' (CXXXVIII, 21). So it may be said that +Dante has the spirit of the psalmist and seeks to love, as God loves, +and to hate as God hates."</p> + +<p>Whether that explanation satisfy my readers<a name="page77" id="page77" ></a><span class="pagenum">77</span> or not, there is another +side to Dante's character that is most attractive. "Dowered with the +hate of hate, the scorn of scorn," he was a paradox,—gentle and tender. +Failure to see this phase of Dante's nature led Frederick Schlegel to +declare that Dante's "chief defect is the want of gentle feelings"—a +statement that called forth this exclamation from Lord Byron: "Of gentle +feelings. And Francesca of Rimini and the father's feelings in Ugolino +and Beatrice and the Pia! Why there is a gentleness in Dante above all +gentleness when he is tender!"</p> + +<p>Let us see some examples of this tender quality in our poet. Only one +endowed with gentleness and beauty of soul, could have conceived a +Purgatory "not hot with sulphurous flames" remarks Dinsmore, "but +healing the wounded spirit with the light of shimmering sea, the glories +of morning, the perfume of flowers, the touch of angels, the living +forms of art and the sweet strains of music."</p> + +<p>Only a man of warm-heartedness and delicate susceptibility at the sight +of a row of souls, temporarily blinded, would have been touched to such +an extent that he would be filled with anxiety lest in looking upon them +and silently passing them by who could not return his gaze, he would +show them some discourtesy.</p><p><a name="page78" id="page78" ></a><span class="pagenum">78</span></p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"It were a wrong, methought, to pass and look</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">On others, yet myself, the while unseen,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To my sage counsel therefore did I turn."</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(Purg. XIII,73)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Gentleness also reveals itself in lovely lines wherein the poet speaks +of the relations of parent and child. He tells us, for instance, how</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"An infant seeks his mother's breast</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">When fear and anguish vex his troubled heart."</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(Purg. XXX.)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>He recalls how he himself with child-like sorrow stood confessing his +sins:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"As little children, dumb with shame's keen smart,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Will listening stand with eyes upon the ground</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Owning their faults with penitential heart</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">So then stood I."</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(Purg. XXXI, 66)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>When overcome by the splendor of the heaven Saturn it is as a child he +turns to Beatrice for assurance:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Oppressed with stupor, I unto my guide</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Turned like a little child who always runs</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For refuge there where he confideth most,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And she, even as a mother who straightway</span><br /><a name="page79" id="page79" ></a><span class="pagenum">79</span> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gives comfort to her pale and breathless boy</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With voice whose wont is to reassure him,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Said to me: 'Knowest thou not thou art in heaven?'"</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(Par. XXII, 1)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Again, it is the gentle heart of a fond father who speaks in the +following lines:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Awaking late, no little innocent</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">So sudden plunges towards its mother's breast</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With face intent upon its nourishment</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">As I did bend."</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(Par. XXX, 85, Grandgent's trans.)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Another figure of beautiful imagery makes us appreciate Dante's +understanding of infantile emotion. He is eager to tell us how bright +souls flame upward towards the Virgin Mother and here is the simile:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"And as a babe which stretches either arm</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To reach its mother, after it is fed</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Showing a heart with sweet affection warm,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thus every flaming brightness reared its head</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And higher, higher straining, by its act</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The love it bore to Mary plainly said."</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(Par. XXIII, 121 Grandgent's trans.)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Perhaps the most appealing example of Dante's kindly love for children +springs from the fact<a name="page80" id="page80" ></a><span class="pagenum">80</span> that instead of following the teaching of St. +Thomas Aquinas, who holds that in heaven the risen bodies of baby +children will appear in the aspect of the prime of life, our poet +discloses them with the charm of babyhood carrolling, as it were, the +nursery songs of Heaven. Of those blessed infants he speaks:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Their youth, those little faces plainly tell,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Their childish treble voices tell it, too,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">If thou but use thine eyes and listen well."</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(Par. XXXII, 46. Grandgent's trans.)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Seeing so many examples of Dante's love for motherhood and children, one +naturally wonders why he makes no mention of his own wife and children. +But we have only to remember that a nice sense of delicacy may have +restrained him from speaking of the sacredness of his family life. In +this matter he exhibited the wisdom of the gentleman-Saint, Francis de +Sales, who used to say, "Without necessity never speak of yourself well +or ill." It was indeed a principle of propriety with our poet that +talking about one's self in public is to be avoided as unbecoming unless +there is need of self vindication or edification of others. Only once in +the Divine Comedy does he mention his own name and at once he apologizes +for the intrusion. It is true that the poem<a name="page81" id="page81" ></a><span class="pagenum">81</span> is autobiographical but it +is that in so far as it concerns matters of universal interest from +which the poet may draw the moral that what God has done for him He will +do for all men if they will but let Him. That being so it was not +necessary for him to exploit his family affairs.</p> + +<p>Out of the kindly heart of Dante sprang gratitude, one of the strongest +virtues of his being. He never wearies in pouring forth thanks to his +Maker for the gift of creation and His fatherly care of all beings in +the universe. He is filled with unbounded gratitude to the Saviour for +having become man and for having suffered and died for our salvation +instead of taking an easier way of satisfying divine justice. In his +works he mentions the name or the offices of the Holy Ghost eight times. +To the Blessed Virgin, the saints and especially to Beatrice for their +virtuous example and loving protection he is heartily grateful. His +thankful affection is extended to those who showed him kindness +particularly during the years of his homeless poverty. To them he offers +the only thing he has to give—an undying tribute of praise. Tenderly he +makes known his obligations to all those who taught him, both the +teachers of his own day and the masters of past ages. But it is to +Virgil, his ideal author, the guide whom he has chosen for his journey +through Hell and Purgatory, that he offers his most touching<a name="page82" id="page82" ></a><span class="pagenum">82</span> tribute of +gratitude. The occasion arises when he discovers his beloved Beatrice in +the Garden of Eden and turns to Virgil to tell him of his overwhelming +joy. But behold! his guide has vanished, his mission fulfilled. And all +the joys of the earthly Paradise, originally forfeited by the sin of +Eve, cannot compensate the disciple for the loss of his great master. In +loneliness he weeps, staining again his face that had been washed clean +with dew by Virgil when they emerged from Hell. Is there not genuine +pathos in these lines?</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Virgil was gone! and we were all bereft!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Virgil my sweetest sire! Virgil who led</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">My soul to safety, when no hope was left.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Not all our ancient mother forfeited,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">All Eden, could prevent my dew cleansed cheek</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">From changing whiteness to a tearful red."</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(Purg. XXX, 45, Grandgent's trans.)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>One quality is still necessary to complete the picture which our poet +gives of himself. So far we see him as a man of strong faith, of abiding +intensity—a man having supreme confidence in himself with resulting +pride of life, a man big with splendid sincerity and dowered with deep +passion, yet manifesting a gentle, gracious and<a name="page83" id="page83" ></a><span class="pagenum">83</span> grateful spirit. So +composed, he is a combination of virtues that may inspire and traits +that may attract many readers. But this is not the finished picture of +the strangely fascinating man who has for six hundred years exercised an +irresistible sway over hearts and minds. What feature is lacking? The +one which has made him master over willing subjects who love and admire +him whether they live in a monarchy or republic, a hovel or a palace, +whether they are of his faith or alien to it. Because the world ever +loves a lover, and because Dante is The Lover <i>par excellence</i> whose +love-story is one "to which heaven and earth have put their hand," he +stands forth with a hold on humanity that is both enduring and supreme.</p> + +<p>Love as a passion and a principle of action never left him to his dying +day, from the time when he, a boy of nine years of age, became attracted +by the sweet little girl Beatrice. "She appeared to me" he says, +"clothed in a most noble color, a modest and becoming crimson, and she +was girt and adorned in such wise as befitted her very youthful age." If +we add to those few lines the brief statements made later in the <i>New +Life</i> that her hair was light and her complexion a pearl-pink and that +when he saw her as a maiden she was dressed in white, we have the only +description that Dante ever gave of her personal appearance.<a name="page84" id="page84" ></a><span class="pagenum">84</span> It was +love at sight. "I truly say that at that instant the spirit of life +which dwells in the most secret chamber of the heart, said these words: +'Behold a god stronger than I, who coming shall rule over me.' From that +time forward Love lorded it over my soul which had been so speedily +wedded to him and he began to exercise over me such control and such +lordship, through the power which my imagination gave him, that it +behooved me to do completely all his pleasure."</p> + +<p>If we are disposed to doubt Dante's capability of deep emotion at so +tender an age we have only to remember that Cupid's darts pierced at an +early age the hearts of others of precocious sensibilities. The love +experience of Lord Byron, Victor Hugo, and Canova the sculptor, when +they too were only children is a matter of history. This statement we +shall the more readily accept if we recall the dictum of Pascal: "The +passions are great in proportion as the intelligence is great. In a +great soul everything is great." In the light of that principle we must +say that if Dante's love attachment in early life runs counter to the +experience of mankind, he is, even as a boy, exceptional in the power of +imagination and peculiarly sensitive to heart impressions.</p> + +<p>His experience as a nine year old boy loving with a depth of increasing +emotion a girl with whom there probably had never been any +communication<a name="page85" id="page85" ></a><span class="pagenum">85</span> except a mere greeting, a love reverential, persisting, +even after her marriage to another, continuing through the married life +of the poet himself, a love, the story of which is celebrated in +matchless verse,—all that is so unique a thing that critics have been +led to deny the very existence of Beatrice or to see in the story an +allegory which may be interpreted in various ways.</p> + +<p>Some critics see in Beatrice only the ideal of womanhood; others make +her an allegory of conflicting things. Francesco Perez holds that +Beatrice is only the figure of Active Intelligence, while Dante Gabriel +Rossetti advances the fantastic theory that she is the symbol of the +Roman Empire, and love—the anagram of Roma—on Dante's part is only +devotion to the imperial cause. According to Scartazzini, Beatrice is +the symbol of the Papacy. Gietmann denies the historicity of Beatrice +and declares that she typifies the Church. The argument for this theory +expressed by a sympathetic reviewer of Gietmann's book, "Beatrice, Geist +und Kern der Danteshen Dichtung," follows: "Beatrice is the soul and +center of the poet's works, his inspiring genius, the ideal which moulds +his life and character. If we consider her as a mere historical personage +we must look upon those works as silly and meaningless romances, and on +the poet himself as a drivelling day-dreamer.<a name="page86" id="page86" ></a><span class="pagenum">86</span></p> + +<p>"But if we are able to assign to Dante's beloved an appropriate and +consistent allegorical character, in keeping with the views of the +poet's time, and with the quality of the varied material which goes to +build up his poetic structures, his creations will appear not only +intelligible and natural, but unfold a treasure of thought and beauty +nowhere else to be found, while the poet himself will be shown to be not +only one of the greatest masters of thought and imagination, but one of +the noblest and loftiest minds to be met with in the history of letters" +(John Conway, Am. Cath. Quar. Review, April, 1892).</p> + +<p>The editor of the English Quarterly Review (July, 1896, p. 41) while not +denying the real existence of Beatrice argues that she represents Faith, +and affirms that the story of Dante's love for her, a love wavering at +times, represents the conflict of Faith and Science. You will be +interested in seeing, as a curiosity of literature, how that author +attempts the translation into allegory of Dante's account of his first +meeting with Beatrice.</p> + +<p>This is the translation—Dante speaking in the first person says: "At +the close of my ninth year I experienced strong impressions of religion. +This was the time of my Confirmation and my First Communion. I was +filled with reverence for the wondrous truths instilled into my mind<a name="page87" id="page87" ></a><span class="pagenum">87</span> by +those whom I loved best: and my whole being glowed with the roseate glow +of a first love. My feelings were rapturous yet constant; and from that +time I date the beginning of a New Life. From that time forward I was so +completely under the influence of this divine principle that my soul +was, as it were, espoused to heavenly love, and it was in the precepts +and ordinances of the Church that this passion found its proper +satisfaction. Often and often did it lead me to the congregation of the +faithful, where I had meetings with my youthful angel and these were so +gratifying that all through my boyhood I would frequently go in search +of a repetition of those pleasures and I perceived her so noble and +admirable in all her bearings, that of her might assuredly be said that +saying of Homer: 'She seemed no daughter of mortal man but of God.'"</p> + +<p>We need not be surprised that there is such divergence of opinion among +critics as to the interpretation of Dante. He himself in The Banquet +(bk. II, ch. 15), written some years after his New Life, tells us that +there is a hidden meaning back of the literal interpretation of his +words. That is especially true of the Divine Comedy, as he writes to Can +Grande in explanation of the purpose of the poem. In the Paradiso he +bids this lacking in power of penetration to pierce the<a name="page88" id="page88" ></a><span class="pagenum">88</span> symbolism, to +accompany him no longer on his journey through the invisible world.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"O ye who in some pretty little boat</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Eager to listen, have been following</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Behind my ship, that singing sails along,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Turn back to look again upon your shores,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Do not put out to sea, lest, peradventure,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In losing me, you might yourselves be lost."</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(Par. bk. II, I.)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>With obscurity thus acknowledged, is it any wonder that Dante is +subjected to prolonged controversy by historical criticism which has not +hesitated to cast doubt upon the authorship of the Iliad and the Synotic +Gospels? In the face of this obscurity it is the opinion of such well +known Dantian scholars as D'Ancona, Charles Eliot Norton, John Addington +Symonds, Dean Plumtre, Edmund Gardiner, W.W. Vernon, Paget Toynbe, C.H. +Grandgent, Jefferson B. Fletcher, James Russell Lowell—that Beatrice is +both a real human being and a symbol.</p> + +<p>The direct testimony, not to urge the subtle arguments furnished by +internal evidence of Dante's works, as to the reality of Beatrice +Portinari as the beloved of our poet is offered first by Boccaccio who +was acquainted with Dante's daughter Beatrice, a nun who lived near +enough<a name="page89" id="page89" ></a><span class="pagenum">89</span> to the poet to get information from the Portinari family. +Certainly Boccaccio did not hesitate when chosen in 1373 by the +Florentines to lecture on Dante, to make the very positive statement +that the boy Dante, "received the image of Beatrice Portinari into his +heart with such affection that from that day forward as long as he lived +it never departed from him." That statement was doubtless made within +the hearing of many relatives and friends of the families concerned, the +Alighieri, the Portinari, the Bardi. "If the statement was false," +argues Dr. Edward Moore, England's foremost Dantian scholar, "it must +have been so glaring and palpable that its assertion could only have +covered Boccaccio with ridicule." The second authority for the statement +that Beatrice Portinari had a real existence and was the object of +Dante's love is furnished by Dante's own son Pietro, who wrote a +commentary on the Divine Comedy nineteen years after his father's +demise—a commentary in which he declares "because mention is here first +made of Beatrice of whom so much has been said, especially in the third +book of the Paradiso, it is to be premised that there really was a lady +Beatrice by name, greatly distinguished for her beauty and virtues who, +in the time of the author, lived in the city of Florence and who was of +the house of certain Florentine citizens called the Portinari,<a name="page90" id="page90" ></a><span class="pagenum">90</span> of whom +the author Dante was a suitor. During the life of the said lady, he was +her lover and he wrote many ballads to her honor. After her death in +order that he might make her name famous, he, in this his poem, +frequently introduced her under the allegory and style of theology."</p> + +<p>The third witness quoted by W.W. Vernon, is Benvenuto da Imola who +attended the lectures of Boccaccio and succeeded him as incumbent of the +chair of Dantian literature, established by the government of Florence. +This Florentine professor whose "commentary on Dante was written only +fifty years after the death of the poet, expressly states that this +Beatrice (he does not mention her family name) was really and truly a +Florentine of great beauty and most honorable reputation. When she was +eight years old she so entered into Dante's heart that she never went +out from it and he loved her passionately for sixteen years, at which +time she died. His love increased with his years: he would follow her +where-ever she went and always thought that in her eyes he could behold +the summit of human happiness. Dante in his works, at one time, takes +Beatrice as a real personage and at another in a mysterious sense as +Sacred Theology" (Readings on Inf., I, 61.)</p> + +<p>The question now arises: Did Beatrice know<a name="page91" id="page91" ></a><span class="pagenum">91</span> of Dante's love and did she +reciprocate his passion? Many critics answer in the negative, believing +that an affirmative view must premise a guilty love since Beatrice was +married to Simone de Bardi and Dante to Gemma Donati. But an opposite +view holds that such a deduction overlooks the unique fact that the love +of Dante and Beatrice was purely spiritual and mystical. Doctor Zahm +says that Dante's passion was "a species of homage to the beloved which +was common during the age of the troubadours but which has long since +disappeared—a chivalrous devotion to a woman, neither wife nor +mistress, by means of which the spirit of man, were he knight or poet, +was rendered capable of self-devotion, and of noble deeds and of rising +to a higher ideal of life" (Great Inspirers, p. 245.)</p> + +<p>In any event we know that it was a most noble, exalting sentiment and if +we accept the statement of Bishop de Serravalle, the love was mutual and +lasting. This ecclesiastic while attending the council of Florence in +1414 was asked by the Bishops of Bath and Salisbury, England, to make a +Latin translation of the Divine Comedy. In the preamble to his +translation he not only declares that Dante historically and literally +loved Beatrice (<i>"Dantes delexit hanc puellam historice et +literaliter"</i>) but he affirms that the love was reciprocal and that it +lasted during the lifetime of Beatrice,<a name="page92" id="page92" ></a><span class="pagenum">92</span> ("<i>Philocaptus fuit de ipsa et +ipsa de ipso, qui se invicem dilexerunt quousque vixit ipsa puella</i>").</p> + +<p>Only by holding such a view can we really appreciate the significance +and beauty of that episode in Purgatorio depicting the first meeting of +the lovers in the invisible world after ten years' separation—a meeting +said to be "one of the most touching and beautiful episodes in all +literature."</p> + +<p>In the Terrestrial Paradise a voice is heard after the sudden departure +of Virgil. "Dante" it says "though Virgil leave thee, weep not, weep not +yet, for thou must weep for a greater wound. I beheld that Lady who had +erst appeared to me under a cloud of flowers cast by angel's hands: and +she was gazing at me across the stream ... 'Look at us well. We are, +indeed Beatrice. Hast thou then condescended to come to the mountain?' +(the mountain of discipline)—Shame weighed down my brow. The ice that +had collected about my heart, turned to breath and water and with agony +issued from my breast through lips and eyes." Beatrice then proceeds to +tell the angels of her love for the poet and of his faithlessness to +her. "For some time I sustained him with the sight of my face. Showing +to him my youthful eyes I led him toward the right quarter. As soon as I +reached the threshold of the second age of man and passed from mortal to +eternal life he<a name="page93" id="page93" ></a><span class="pagenum">93</span> took himself from me and gave himself to another."</p> + +<p>Beatrice now turns to Dante and rebukes him: "In order the more to shame +thee from thine error and to make thee stronger, never did nature and +art present to thee a charm equal to that fair form now scattered in +earth with which I was enclosed. And if this greatest of charms so +forsook thee at my death, what mortal thing should thereafter have led +thee to desire it? Verily at the first hour of disappointment over +elusive things, thou shouldst have flown up after me who was no longer +of them. Thou shouldst not have allowed thy wings to be weighed down to +get more wounds, either by a little maid or by any other so short lived +vanity." The effect of her rebuke is the overwhelming of his heart with +shame and contrition. "So much remorse gnawed at my heart that I fell +vanquished and what I then became she knoweth who gave me the cause" +(Purg. XXXI, 49). He arose forgiven, the memory of his sin removed by +the waters of Lethe. Then drinking of the waters of Eunoe he was made +fit to ascend to Heaven.</p> + +<p>To understand the allusion to his defection and to see the progressive +development of his love of Beatrice as a woman, then as a living ideal +and finally as an animated symbol—the various transfigurations in which +Beatrice appears to him, we<a name="page94" id="page94" ></a><span class="pagenum">94</span> must go back to his New Life—the book of +which Charles Eliot Norton says—"so long as there are lovers in the +world and so long as lovers are poets this first and tenderest +love-story of modern literature will be read with appreciation and +responsive sympathy."</p> + +<p>It is hardly to be supposed that the nine year old lover noted with +minute care in his diary, his first meeting of Beatrice Portinari but as +he looked back on the event years later he saw that the vision had been +the the greatest crisis in his mental, moral and spiritual history. The +story begins in the first page of the New Life. A real living child +familiarly called Bice, the diminutive for Beatrice, enamoured Dante +with a real, genuine love. "After that meeting," says the poet, "I in my +boyhood often went seeking her and saw her of such noble and +praiseworthy deportment that truly of her might be said the word of the +poet Homer: 'She seems not the daughter of mortal man but of God.'" Nine +years passed and the child, now a maiden, "blooming in her beauty's +spring, saluted me with such virtue that it seemed to me that I saw all +the bounds of bliss. Since it was the first time her words came to my +ears I took in such sweetness that, as it were intoxicated, I turned +away from the folk and betaking myself to the solitude of my own +chamber<a name="page95" id="page95" ></a><span class="pagenum">95</span> I sat myself down to think of this most courteous lady."</p> + +<p>A little later the wrapt expression of his loving eyes as he looks at +Beatrice attracts the attention of others and to misdirect them, he +feigns love for the lady he calls the screen of truth and writes verses +in her honor. On the part of Beatrice there is misunderstanding of the +amatory verses he writes at this period and she withholds her greeting. +Then, more than ever, he realizes what that salutation meant to him. +Deprived of it now, he dwells upon the sweet memory of the salutation: +"In the hope of her marvelous salutation there no longer remained to me +an enemy, nay, a flame of charity possessed me which made me pardon +everyone who had done me wrong." Under the influence of her salutation, +Dante tells us that he devised this sonnet:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"So gentle and so gracious doth appear</span> <br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">My lady when she giveth her salute</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That every tongue becometh, trembling, mute:</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Nor do the eyes to look upon her dare</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Although she hears her praises, she doth go</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Benignly vested with humility:</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And like a thing come down, she seems to be,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">From heaven to earth, a miracle to show.</span><br /><a name="page96" id="page96" ></a><span class="pagenum">96</span> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">So pleaseth she whoever cometh nigh.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">She gives the heart a sweetness through the eyes,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Which none can understand who doth not prove</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And from her countenance there seems to move</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A spirit, sweet, and in Love's very guise,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Who to the soul, in going sayeth: 'Sigh.'"</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(Norton's translation.)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Because she now denies to him the bliss of salutation he says: "I went +into a solitary place to bathe the earth with most bitter tears." But +this misunderstanding is not his only torment. Almost from his second +meeting he fears that his beloved will soon die. His prophetic vision +becomes an agonising reality when in 1290 in her twenty-fourth year, the +eyes that radiated bliss are closed in death.</p> + +<p>So stunned was he by the blow that his life was despaired of. When he +recovered it seemed to him that Florence had lost her gaiety and +desolate is mourning the loss of his beloved one. Pilgrims passing on +their way to Galicia do not appear to share the general grief. To arouse +their sympathy in the loss which the city has sustained the heart-broken +poet lover devises a sonnet "in which I set forth that which I had said +to myself.<a name="page97" id="page97" ></a><span class="pagenum">97</span></p> +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Pilgrims:</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">If through your will to hear, awhile ye stay,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Truly my heart with sighs declare to me</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That ye shall afterwards depart in tears.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Alas her Beatrice now lost hath she.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And all the words that one of her way may say</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Have virtue to make weep whoever hears."</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(Norton's translation.)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>In his great affliction his grieving heart is sustained by his belief in +immortality. His vision penetrates the skies and he sees his 'lady of +virtue' in glory in the regions of the eternal.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"The gentle lady to my mind had come</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Who, for the sake of her exceeding youth,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Had by the Lord most High been ta'en from earth</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To that calm heaven where Mary hath her home."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>In heaven indeed more than upon earth she enamours the poet. There +divested of her mortal veil, to his eyes she</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"grew perfectly and spiritually fair,"</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>leading him to fit himself to put on immortality. The passion of his +boyhood has now become the ennobling ideal of his life. Sustaining and +stimulating<a name="page98" id="page98" ></a><span class="pagenum">98</span> him, saving him from himself, ever leading him upward and +onward, his angelicized lady is an abiding presence with him whether he +is deep in the contemplation of the study of philosophy and the learning +of the ancients, or engaged in the activity of military or political +life, or as homeless wayfarer in exile, making his way from place to +place. When he falls from grace it is Beatrice who disturbs his peace of +mind by "a battle of thoughts." It is the "strong image" of Beatrice who +comes to him as he had seen her as a child, raises him from moral +obliquity, fills him with the very essence of the spiritual. Then he has +a wonderful vision—"a vision in which I saw things which made me +resolve to speak no more of this blessed one (Beatrice) until I could +more worthily treat of her. And to attain to this I study to the utmost +of my power as she truly knows: So that if it shall please Him through +whom all things live that my life be prolonged for some years, I hope to +say of her what was never said of any woman."</p> + +<p>That promise, involving years of intense study and increasing devotion +to his beloved, Dante kept. The Divine Comedy is his matchless monument +to her who is the protagonist and muse of his poem and the love of his +heart. "Not only has the poet made her" says Norton, "the loveliest and +most womanly woman of the Middle<a name="page99" id="page99" ></a><span class="pagenum">99</span> Ages at once absolutely real and truly +ideal," but he has done what no poet had ever before conceived, thereby +achieving something unique in the whole range of literature—he has +"imparadised" among the saints and angels his lovely wonder, Beatrice, +"that so she spreads even there a light of love which makes the angels +glad and even to their subtle minds can bring a certain awe of profound +marvelling." He has given to her such a glorious exaltation that after +Rachel and Eve she of all women is enthroned in the glowing Rose of +Heaven next to the Virgin Mother, "our tainted nature's solitary boast," +and so enthroned, Beatrice is at once his beloved and the symbol of +revelation, the heavenly light that discloses to mankind both the true +end of our being and the realities of Eternity.</p> + +<p>Now with tremulous delight in his heart, admiration on his lips, ecstasy +in his soul, he is able to render her perhaps the very purest tribute of +praise and gratitude that ever came out of a human soul:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"O Lady, thou in whom my hope is strong</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And who, for my salvation, didst endure</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In Hell to leave the imprint of thy feet,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of whatsoever things I have beheld,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">As coming from thy power and from thy goodness</span><br /><a name="page100" id="page100" ></a><span class="pagenum">100</span> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I recognize the power and the grace.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thou from a slave hast brought me unto freedom,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">By all those ways, by all the expedients,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Whereby thou hast the power of doing it.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Preserve towards me thy magnificence</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">So that this soul of mine, which thou hast healed</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Pleasing to thee be loosened from the body."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Norton says: "It is needful to know Dante as a man in order fully to +appreciate him as poet."</p> + +<p>What manner of man then was he? Redeemed by love, he was, to quote John +Addington Symonds, "the greatest, truest, sincerest man of modern +Europe."</p><p><a name="page101" id="page101" ></a><span class="pagenum">101</span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="page102" id="page102" ></a><span class="pagenum">102</span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="DANTES_INFERNO" id="DANTES_INFERNO"></a>DANTE'S INFERNO</h2> + + +<p><a name="page103" id="page103" ></a><span class="pagenum">103</span>At no period of modern times do we find that literature showed an +interest more keen in the Hereafter than at the present day. Religion +has always used both pen and voice to direct men's thoughts towards +eternity, but now it is literature that goes for subject-matter to +religion. This change of attitude is due, no doubt, to the fact that +several factors in present-day life—factors that literature cannot +ignore, have turned popular thought to religion. The World-war has +disciplined the character of men by the unspeakable experiences of +contact with shot, shell and shrapnel and the result has been that +countless numbers have turned to religion for strength and consolation. +Countless thousands whose dear ones made the supreme sacrifice for the +ideals of patriotism, also find in religion their only solace.</p> + +<p>Those who have not this refuge turn to spiritualism and psychical +research in a futile effort to find a satisfactory solution of the +problem of the Hereafter. Again and again we see the unrest of the +ever-questioning soul depicted in the drama and the literature of the +day as it seeks<a name="page104" id="page104" ></a><span class="pagenum">104</span> enlightenment on the potentiality of the future life. +The stage presents plays based on spiritualistic manifestations or upon +supernatural healing or miraculous intervention. Many recent novels have +either psychical phenomena for their central interest or plots evolved +out of the miraculous in religion. As exponents of psychical research, +Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, W.T. Stead and Sir Oliver Lodge make an appeal +to readers to accept as scientific truths, the psychical manifestations +of the unseen world. A typical answer is given to that appeal by a +distinguished writer, Doctor Inge, Dean of St. Paul's, London, who +declares: "If this kind of after-life were true, this portrayed in the +pitiable revival of necromancy in which many desolate hearts have sought +spurious satisfaction, it would, indeed, be a melancholy postponement or +negation of all we hope and believe about our dead."</p> + +<p>Prescinding from any attempt to discuss the occult phenomena evoked, +observed and studied in our day or to treat of the matters involved in +the supernatural in the books of the day, one may state as a fact that +the whole tendency of present day literature is to show a yearning for +light on a subject of fundamental importance to human nature. Far back +in the history of the race Job gave voice to the spiritual problems that +are today engaging the attention of the world. Some<a name="page105" id="page105" ></a><span class="pagenum">105</span> fifteen hundred +years ago, St. Augustine proposed to himself the question which so +generally concerns the twentieth century: "On what matter of all those +things of which thou art ignorant, hast thou the greatest desire for +enlightenment?" The great Bishop of Hippo becomes the spokesman of +humanity when he answers his own question by proposing another: "Am I +immortal or not?" (Soliloquia 2d).</p> + +<p>In the realms of literature no work of man has answered that question +with greater vividness of imagery, intensity of concentration, beauty of +description—all based in a large measure on the teachings of +Christianity—than has Dante in his Divine Comedy. Devised as a love +offering to the memory of his beloved Beatrice who in the work is +symbolized as Heavenly Light on the things hidden from man, the poem +leads the reader through the dark abyss of Hell, the patient abode of +Purgatory, the glorious realm of Heaven as if the poet had seen Eternity +in reality instead of in imagination. Not only the state and the +conditions of the soul after death does he visualize with the precision +of Euclid, but as a philosopher and a theologian he proposes for our +instruction in the course of the journey many questions of dogmatic and +speculative thought affecting the Hereafter. He believes himself called +to be not simply a poet to entertain his<a name="page106" id="page106" ></a><span class="pagenum">106</span> readers, but a prophet and a +preacher with burning fire to deliver a message for man's salvation. So +he asks the help of Heaven:</p> + +<p>"O Supreme Light that so high upliftest Thyself from mortal conceptions, +re-lend a little to my mind of what Thou didst appear and make my tongue +so powerful that it may be able to leave one single spark of Thy glory, +for the future people: for by returning to my memory and by sounding a +little in these verses, more of Thy victory shall be conceived" (Par. +XXXIII, 67).</p> + +<p>Comedy is the title which Dante gives to his trilogy and posterity has +added the prefix adjective divine. The term comedy however is not used +in the modern sense which suggests to us a light laughable drama written +in a familiar style. "Comedy" Dante himself explains in his dedication +of the poem, "is a certain kind of poetical narrative which differs from +all others. It differs from tragedy in its subject matter in this way, +that tragedy in the beginning is admirable and quiet, in its ending or +catastrophe foul and horrible ... Comedy on the other hand, begins with +adverse conditions, but its theme has a happy termination. Likewise they +differ in their style of language, for tragedy is lofty and sublime, +comedy lowly and humble.</p> + +<p>"From this it is evident why the present work is<a name="page107" id="page107" ></a><span class="pagenum">107</span> called a comedy, for +if we consider the theme in its beginning it is horrible and foul +because it is Hell; in its ending fortunate, desirable and joyful +because it is Paradise: and if we consider the style of language the +style is lowly and humble because it is the vulgar tongue in which even +housewives hold converse."</p> + +<p>The theme of the poem Dante himself explains: "The subject of the work +literally taken is the state of souls after death; this is the pivotal +idea of the poem throughout its entire course. In the allegorical sense +the poet treats of the hell of this world through which we are +journeying as pilgrims, with the power of meriting and demeriting, and +the subject is man, in as much as by his merits and demerits he is +subject to divine Justice, remunerative or retributive" (Epis. dedicat. +ad Can Grande).</p> + +<p>One of the earliest commentators amplifies the poet's statement. +Benvenuto da Imola writes: "The matter or subject of this book is the +state of the human soul both as connected with the human body and as +separated from it. As the state of the whole is threefold, so does the +author divide his work into three parts. A soul may be in sin; such a +one even while it lives with the body, is morally speaking dead, and +hence it is in moral Hell; when separated from the body, if it died +incurably obstinate, it is in the actual Hell. Again<a name="page108" id="page108" ></a><span class="pagenum">108</span> a soul may be +receding from vice: such a one while still in the body is in the moral +Purgatory, or in the act of penance in which it purges away its sin; if +separated, it is in the actual Purgatory. Yet even while living in the +body, a soul is already in a manner in Paradise, for it exists in as +great felicity as is possible in this life of misery: separated from the +body, it is in the heavenly Paradise where there is true and perfect +happiness, where it enjoys the vision of God." (Ozanam, Dante, p. 129.)</p> + +<p>This testimony as to the subject matter of the Divine Comedy is brought +forth to offset the statements not infrequently made by expositors who +deny or ignore the supernatural that Dante's full thought can be +realized even if the reader rejects the poet's spiritual teaching, +especially his doctrine of the existence of a real Heaven and a real +Hell. It is true that Dante is "such a many-sided genius that he has a +message for almost every person." It is likewise true that an +allegorical interpretation may be adopted with no belief in the +Hereafter and it may open up many fruitful lessons for the reader. That +being granted, one may still ask whether one can ignore Dante's doctrine +of future rewards and punishment and so get full satisfaction from +treating the poet's conception of the Hereafter as a mere allegory.</p> + +<p>The allegory presupposes that sin inevitably<a name="page109" id="page109" ></a><span class="pagenum">109</span> brings its own penalty. +But in this life virtue does not always bear its own reward nor is evil +always followed by retribution. Dante as the prophet and the preacher of +Christianity would have us understand, as Benvenuto da Imola points out, +that if the moral law is not vindicated in this life it will be in the +Hereafter, for our acts make our eternity. So the poet holds that while +this life according as it shows the soul in sin, in repentance or in +virtue may be considered allegorically Hell, Purgatory or Heaven, before +the Last Judgment a real Hell, a real Purgatory, a real Heaven is the +abode of disembodied spirits according to their demerits or merits and +after the Last Judgment, Purgatory no longer existing, souls will be in +eternal suffering in Hell or in unending joy in Heaven.</p> + +<p>It is not to be expected that any reader will believe that Dante's Hell +is a photograph of reality. It is a Hell largely fashioned by poetic +visions and political theories, peopled in a great measure by those who +stand in opposition to the poet's theory of government. It is not, as is +sometimes asserted, a place to which the poet consigns his personal +enemies. As Dinsmore says: "Dante had too much greatness in his soul and +too much pride (it may be) to make revenge a personal matter: he had +nothing but contempt for his own enemies and never except in the case of +<a name="page110" id="page110" ></a><span class="pagenum">110</span>Boniface VIII ... did he place a single one of them in the Inferno, not +even his judge Cante Gabriella."</p> + +<p>Though largely colored by his political theories Dante's Hell is also a +theological conception based on the teaching of the Catholic Church that +Hell exists as a place or state of punishment for the rebel angels and +for man dying impenitent, that is, for man in whom sin has become so +humanized that death finds him not simply in the act or habit of sin but +so transformed that in the striking words of Bossuet, "he is man made +sin." Dante fully accepted that doctrine which had been the constant +tradition and faith of the Church and had been reaffirmed in the second +ecumenical Council of Lyons held when Dante was a boy, nine years of +age.</p> + +<p>It is not unlikely with his precocity for knowledge and sentiment at +that age that he was deeply impressed with the history of that council +especially as its legislation also dealt with the Crusades, the union of +Churches, the reform of the Church, the appointment of a king of the +Romans and an emperor—matters of vital importance to him later. He must +have recalled that Council also with special interest, for two of his +ideal personages, Thomas Aquinas and Bonaventure met their death, one on +his way to the Council, the other while actually attending its sessions.</p> + +<p>In any event Dante firmly believed the doctrine<a name="page111" id="page111" ></a><span class="pagenum">111</span> of the Hereafter "that +they that have done good shall go into life everlasting and they that +have done evil, into everlasting fire." He held that the punishment of +the damned is two-fold. The greater punishment, called the pain of loss, +consists in the loss of the Beatific Vision, a suffering so great that +the genius of St. Augustine can hardly translate it in human language. +"To be separated from God," he says, "is a torment as great as the very +greatness of God." The other pain of the reprobate consists in the +torment of fire so frequently mentioned in Holy Writ. "According to the +greater number of theologians the term fire denotes a material and so a +real fire ... (but) there have never been wanting theologians who +interpret the scriptural term fire metaphorically as denoting an +incorporeal fire and thus far the Church has not censured their opinion" +(Cath. Encyclo., VIII, 211.)</p> + +<p>While the pain of loss and the pain of sense constitute the very essence +of the punishment of Hell, theologians teach that there are other +sufferings called accidental. The reprobate never experience v.g. the +least real pleasure nor are they ever free from the hideous presence of +one another. After the Last Judgment the lost souls will also be +tormented by union with their bodies, a union bringing about a fresh +increase of punishment. On this subject, for our information Dante<a name="page112" id="page112" ></a><span class="pagenum">112</span> +addresses Virgil his guide through Hell: "Master, will these torments +after the great sentence increase or diminish?" Virgil explains that +they will become worse because when the soul is united again to the body +there will be perfection of being and the resulting sensitiveness will +be the more intense.</p> + +<p>"Return unto thy science," answers Virgil, "which wills that as a thing +more perfect is the more it feels of pleasure and of pain." (Inf., VI, +40.)</p> + +<p>Dante also holds that only by way of exception is there any escape from +Hell once a soul is condemned. Following a legend commonly believed in +the Middle Ages that in answer to the prayers of Pope Gregory the Great, +the soul of the Emperor Trajan was delivered from Hell, Dante assumes +that God who could not save Trajan against his will, allowed his soul to +"come back to its bones" and while thus united to use its will for +salvation. So regenerated Trajan is placed by Dante, in the Heaven of +Jupiter (Par. XX 40, 7). Referring to this incident the Catholic +Encyclopedia says: "In itself it is no rejection of Catholic dogma to +suppose that God might at times by way of exception, liberate a soul +from Hell. Thus some argued from a false interpretation of I Peter III, +19 seq. that Christ freed several damned souls on the occasion of<a name="page113" id="page113" ></a><span class="pagenum">113</span> His +descent into Hell. Others were led by untrustworthy stories into the +belief that the prayers of Gregory the Great rescued the Emperor Trajan +from Hell but now theologians are unanimous in teaching that such +exceptions never take place and never have taken place" (VIII, 209.)</p> + +<p>As to the location of Hell it is the poet Dante and not Dante the +theologian, as we shall see later, who gives definite place and +boundaries to Hell. He knows that on this subject the Church has decided +nothing, holding to the statement of St. Augustine: "It is my opinion +that the nature of hell-fire and the location of Hell are known to no +man unless the Holy Ghost made it known to him by a special revelation."</p> + +<p>Dante makes his Hell big enough to hold the majority of mankind. He +thinks that the elect will be comparatively few—just numerous enough to +fill those places in heaven forfeited by the rebel angels who formed +according to his conjecture, about a tenth of the angelical host. That +their places in Heaven are already nearly filled leaving little room for +future generations Dante makes known in the words of Beatrice:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Behold our City's circuit, oh how vast</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Behold our benches now so full that few</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Are they who are henceforth lacking here."</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(Par. XXX, 130.)<br /></span> <a name="page114" id="page114" ></a><span class="pagenum">114</span></p> + +<p>His theory of restrictive salvation, it may be noted, is not in accord +with the teaching of the Church which holds that to every man God gives +grace sufficient for salvation. That is true even as affecting the +heathen and those living in place or in time far removed from the Cross. +St. Thomas Aquinas expresses this doctrine of the Church when he writes: +"If anyone who is born in a barbaric nation does what lieth in him, God +will reveal what is necessary for salvation, either by internal +inspiration or by a teacher."</p> + +<p>The farcical element is not wanting in the Inferno, a fact proving that +our poet, in furnishing the episodes, not superior to his age which +demanded especially in the religious plays presented in the public +square the sight of the discomfiture of the devil in scenes provoking +the audience to laughter. The best example of such farcicality occurs in +the eighth circle, fifth bolgia, where officials, traffickers in public +offices, or unjust stewards are immersed in boiling pitch. From time to +time when the fiends are not alert the reprobate here come to the +surface for a breathing or cooling spell, like dolphins on the approach +of a storm darting in the air and diving back again or like frogs with +their muzzles alone exposed and their bodies covered by the water, +resting on the banks of a stream into which they drop at the first +approach of danger.</p><p><a name="page115" id="page115" ></a><span class="pagenum">115</span></p> + +<p>Getting in this way momentary relief from suffering a grafter named +Ciampolo, a former retainer of King Thibaut II of Navarre, lingered too +long and was deftly hooked by Graffiacane amid the savage exultations of +the other fiends, who proceed to maltreat the unfortunate wretch. The +hideous confusion of attacks by the demons is stopped long enough for +the poet to learn his history, and also what is more interesting to +Dante, the names of two Italians, Friar Gomita and Michel Zanche who are +likewise suffering in the boiling pitch. Ciampolo, to save himself from +further maltreatment and to escape from his captors, now has recourse to +stratagem. He promises that if they consent to withdraw out of sight he +will whistle a signal that will be recognized only by his hapless +comrades; the two Italians and five others will then come to the surface +for cool air. The fiends may then have not one, but seven to rend! The +crafty plan succeeds. The demons withdraw behind the crags and then +Ciampolo plunges deeply into the boiling pitch. Two devils, endeavoring +to swoop down upon him now beyond their reach, fall upon each other in +brutal fury, while the rest of the troop hurry to the opposite shore to +rescue the belimed pair. Here is Dante's description of the farce:</p> + +<p>"As dolphins, when with the arch of the back;<a name="page116" id="page116" ></a><span class="pagenum">116</span> they make sign to +mariners that they may prepare to save their ship: so now and then, to +ease the punishment, some sinner showed his back and hid in less time +than it lightens. And as at the edge of the water of a ditch, the frogs +stand only with their muzzles out, so that they hide their feet and +other bulk: thus stood on every hand the sinners; but as Barbariccia +approached, they instantly retired beneath the seething. I saw, and my +heart still shudders thereat, one linger so, as it will happen that one +frog remains while the other spouts away; and Graffiancane, who was +nearest to him, hooked his pitchy locks and haled him up, so that to me +he seemed an otter.</p> + +<p>"I already knew the name of every one, so well I noted them as they were +chosen, and when they called each other, listened how. 'O Rubicante, see +thou plant thy clutches on him, and flay him!' shouted together all the +accursed <i>crew</i>. And I: 'Master, learn if thou canst, who is that +piteous <i>wight</i>, fallen into the hands of his adversaries.' My Guide +drew close to (his side) and asked him whence he came; and he replied: +'I was born in the kingdom of Navarre. My mother placed me as servant of +a lord; for she had borne me to a ribald master of himself and of his +substance. Then I was domestic with the good King Thibault; here I set +myself to doing barratry, of which I render reckoning in this heat.' And +Ciriatto, from whose mouth on either side came<a name="page117" id="page117" ></a><span class="pagenum">117</span> forth a tusk as from a +hog, made him feel how one of them did rip. Amongst evil cats the mouse +had come; but Barbariccia locked him in his arms, and said: 'Stand off +whilst I enforke him!' And turning his face to my Master: 'Ask on,' he +said, 'if thou wouldst learn more from him, before some other undo him.'</p> + +<p>"The Guide therefore: 'Now say, of the other sinners knowest thou any +that is a Latian, beneath the pitch?' And he: 'I parted just now from +one who was a neighbour of theirs (on the other side); would I still +were covered with him, for I should not fear claw nor hook!' And +Libicocco cried: 'Too much have we endured,' and with the hook seized +his arm and mangling carried off a part of brawn. Draghignazzo, he too, +wished to have a catch at the legs below; whereat their decurion wheeled +around around with evil aspect. When they were somewhat pacified, my +Guide, without delay, asked him that still kept gazing on his wound: +'Who was he, from whom thou sayest that thou madest an ill departure to +come ashore?' And he answered: 'It was Friar Gomita, he of Gallura, +vessel of every fraud, who had his master's enemies in hand, and did so +to them that they all praise him for it: money took he for himself, and +dismissed them smoothly, as he says; and in his other offices besides, +he was no petty but a sovereign barrator. With him keeps company Don +Michel Zanche<a name="page118" id="page118" ></a><span class="pagenum">118</span> of Logodoros; and in speaking of Sardinia the tongues of +them do not feel weary. Oh me! see that other grinning; I would say +more; but fear he is preparing to claw my scurf.' And their great +Marshal, turning to Farfarello, who rolled his eyes to strike, said: +'Off with thee, villainous bird!' 'If you wish to see or hear Tuscans or +Lombards,' the frightened sinner then resumed, 'I will make them come. +But let the (evil claws hold back) a little, that they may not fear +their vengeance; and I, sitting in this same place, for one that I am, +will make seven come, on whistling, as is our wont to do, when any of us +gets out.'</p> + +<p>"O Reader, thou shalt hear new sport! All turned their eyes toward the +other side, he first who had been most unripe for doing it. The +Navarrese chose well his time; planted his soles upon the ground, and in +an instant leapt and from their purpose freed himself. Thereat each was +stung (with guilt); but he most who had been the cause of the mistake; +he therefore started forth, and shouted: 'Thou'rt caught!' But little it +availed (him); for wings could not outspeed the terror; the <i>sinner</i> +went under; and he, flying, raised up his breast: not otherwise the duck +suddenly dives down, when the falcon approaches, and he returns up angry +and defeated.</p> + +<p>"Calcabrina, furious at the trick, kept flying<a name="page119" id="page119" ></a><span class="pagenum">119</span> after him, desirous that +the sinner might escape, to have a quarrel. And, when the barrator had +disappeared, he turned his talons on his fellow, and was clutched with +him above the ditch. But the other was indeed a sparrowhawk to claw him +well; and both dropt down into the middle of the boiling pond. The heat +at once unclutched them; but rise they could not, their wings were so +beglued. Barbariccia with the rest lamenting, made four of them fly over +to the other coast with all their drags; and most rapidly on this side, +on that, they descended to the stand; they stretched their hooks towards +the limed pair, who were already scalded within the crust; and we left +them thus embroiled." (XXII, 19.)</p> + +<p>The grotesque, also, plays a part in the Inferno appearing not only in +the demons taken from classical legend and deformed into caricatures, +but also in the punishment of crimes, v.g. simony and malfeasance in +public office, regarded by our poet as malicious in themselves and +grotesque in their perversity.</p> + +<p>Readers who regard the grotesque as a repelling element in the Inferno +may be surprised to learn that Ruskin considers this feature of Dante's +writings an expression of the highest human genius. The great English +critic writes:</p> + +<p>"I believe that there is no test of greatness in nations, periods, nor +men more sure than the development,<a name="page120" id="page120" ></a><span class="pagenum">120</span> among them or in them of a noble +grotesque, and no test of comparative smallness or limitation, of one +kind or another, more sure than the absence of grotesque invention or +incapability of understanding it. I think that the central man of all +the world, as representing in perfect balance and imaginative, moral and +intellectual faculties, all at their highest is Dante; and in him the +grotesque reaches at once the most distinct and the most noble +development to which it was ever brought in the human mind. Of the +grotesqueness of our own Shakespeare I need hardly speak, nor of its +intolerableness to his French critics; nor of that of Æschylus and +Homer, as opposed to the lower Greek writers; and so I believe it will +be found, at all periods, in all minds of the first order."</p> + +<p>Dante's doctrine of punishment presupposes certain primary truths which +the Church proclaims today as she did in Dante's day. According to the +Florentine's creed, man must answer to God for his moral life because he +has free will. He cannot excuse his evil deed on the ground of +necessity. Even in the face of planetary influence and of temptation +from within, by his evil inclinations, and from without by solicitation +of other agents man has still such discernment between good and evil and +such power to make choice freely, that moral judgment with him is<a name="page121" id="page121" ></a><span class="pagenum">121</span> free. +"Who hath been tried thereby and made perfect," says Holy Writ, "he +shall have glory everlasting. He that could have transgressed, and hath +not transgressed and could do evil things, and hath not done them." +(Eccli., XXXI, 10.)</p> + +<p>Against this doctrine of free will the sociology, the philosophy and the +medical science of the present day contend with a theory which minimizes +man's accountability for sin if it does not wholly excuse him as the +victim of heredity, environment or society. Literature also, as +reflected not only in the Greek tragedies but in the writings of authors +from Shakespeare to Shaw portray the evil doer as the victim of fate or +determinism.</p> + +<p>Against all such theories and views Dante appears as the fearless, +uncompromising champion of the doctrine of the greatness of man in the +exercise of the divine gift of Free Will. His own life, showing how he +had won victory over the forces of poverty and persecution, is symbolic +of the glorious truth he would teach; viz., that man, endowed with free +will and animated with the grace of God, is master of his destiny and +cannot be defeated even by principalities and powers. So he tells us, +"And free will which if it endure fatigue in the first battles with the +heavens, afterwards if it be well nurtured, conquers everything." +(Purg., XVI, 76.) He makes Beatrice<a name="page122" id="page122" ></a><span class="pagenum">122</span> testify to the supremacy of the +will: "The greatest gift which God in His bounty bestowed in creating +and that which He prizes most, was the freedom of will with which the +creatures that have intelligence—they all and they alone—were +endowed." (Cf. Purg., XVIII, 66-73.)</p> + +<p>But such a distinctive endowment may be the the curse of man if he fails +to use it rightly. Like Job, Dante insists that life is a warfare. +Victory is possible only by the right exercise of the will enlightened +by God. Defeat is sure if the will embraces sin. To Dante sin is not a +mere vulgarity or the violation of a social convention or "a soft +infirmity of the blood." "Very hateful to his fervid heart and sincere +mind," says James Russell Lowell, "would have been the modern theory +which deals with sin as involuntary error." To Dante sin is the greatest +evil of the world—not only because it is the source of all other evils, +but because it is at once the denaturing of man—the damned are +characterized as "the woeful people who have lost the good of the +understanding" (Inf., III, 18), and it is also a defiance of God. Sin, +then, is Atheism—a rejection of God, with a conviction that pleasure or +happiness can be attained outside of God, independent of God and in +opposition to God. Apart from the inspired writers of Holy Writ it is +doubtful whether any other writer ever had such an<a name="page123" id="page123" ></a><span class="pagenum">123</span> + awful sense of sin +and such a vivid vision of sin and its consequences as Dante has given +to the world in a picture which has burned terror into the thought of +man.</p> + +<p>To show us that life is a warfare against sin, Dante gives us several +striking pictures of temptation and heavenly deliverance from evil. At +the very beginning of the Divine Comedy, we see his ascent to the +mountain of the Lord barred by Lust, Pride and Avarice represented by a +leopard, a lion, and a wolf. He is victorious over those enemies of his +salvation because Reason (Virgil) and Beatrice (Revelation) come to his +aid. Temptation is also exhibited in Ante-Purgatorio and that is the +more remarkable because both as a theologian and a poet Dante holds that +the present life is the end of man's probation and that as a +consequence, temptation is not to be encountered in the next life. Why +it is put forth in Ante-Purgatorio is explained by the theory that our +poet here nods, that he means, not the actual Purgatory of disembodied +spirits, but moral Purgatory, <i>i.e.</i>, the present life wherein man, +striving upward, is attacked by temptation to keep him from the end for +which God created him.</p> + +<p>Showing temptation in Ante-Purgatorio, the poet gives us a picture of +souls protected by two angels against the serpent. Here is the scene:</p><p><a name="page124" id="page124" ></a><span class="pagenum">124</span></p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Now was the hour that wakens fond desire</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In men at sea, and melts their thoughtful heart</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Who in the morn have bid sweet friends farewell,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And pilgrim newly on his road with love</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thrills, if he hear the vesper bell from far,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That seems to mourn for the expiring day":</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A band of souls approach:</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"I saw that gentle band silently next</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Look up, as if in expectation held,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Pale and in lowly guise; and, from on high,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I saw, forth issuing descend beneath,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Two angels, with two flame-illumined swords,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Broken and mutilated of their points.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Green as the tender leaves but newly born,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Their vesture was, the which, by wings as green</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Beaten, they drew behind them, fann'd in air.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A little over us one took his stand;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The other lighted on the opposing hill;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">So that the troop were in the midst contain'd.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But in their visages the dazzled eye</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Was lost, as faculty that by too much</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Is overpower'd. 'From Mary's bosom both</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Are come,' exclaimed Sordello, 'as a guard</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Over the vale, 'gainst him, who hither tends,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The serpent.' Whence, not knowing by which path</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">He came, I turn'd me round; and closely press'd,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">All frozen, to my leader's trusted side."</span><br /> +</p><p><a name="page125" id="page125" ></a><span class="pagenum">125</span></p> + +<p>After describing an interview with one of the souls, the poet continues +his narrative:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"While yet he spoke, Sordello to himself</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Drew him, and cried: 'Lo there our enemy!'</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And with his hand pointed that way to look</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Along the side, where barrier none arose</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Around the little vale, a serpent lay,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Such haply as gave Eve the bitter food.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Between the grass and flowers, the evil snake</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Came on, reverting oft his lifted head;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And, as a beast that smooths its polish'd coat.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Licking his back. I saw not, nor can tell,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">How those celestial falcons from their seat</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Moved, but in motion each one well described.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hearing the air cut by their verdant plumes,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The serpent fled; and, to their stations, back</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The angels up return'd with equal flight."</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(Purg., VIII.)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>A third picture of temptation is furnished by the episode of one of the +Sirens who appears first repulsive and then seems to the poet sweet and +alluring. Only when Virgil discloses her hideous nature does Dante see +how easily he might have fallen a victim to her wiles. He tells us that +in his sleep there appeared to him a woman with stammering utterance, +squinting eyes, deformed hands. "I gazed at her, and as the sun restores +the cold limbs made heavy by night, thus my look<a name="page126" id="page126" ></a><span class="pagenum">126</span> loosened her tongue, +then straightened her all out in a little while and colored her wan face +as love demands. When her speech was thus unbound she began to sing so +that I could hardly have turned my attention from her. 'I am,' she sang, +'I am sweet Siren who bewitch sailors by mid-sea, so full am I of charm +to hear. By my song I turned Ulysses from his wandering way. And +whosoever abides with me seldom departs, so wholly do I satisfy him.' +Her lips were not yet closed when a lady, swift and holy, appeared at my +side to confound the other. 'O Virgil, Virgil, who is this?' she said +proudly; and he advanced with his eyes fixed only on this modest woman." +Virgil (Reason called by Conscience) comes to the rescue of the +entranced poet and reveals the Siren in all her foul ugliness. At that +Dante awakes from his dream more than ever convinced of the evil of sin +and its hideousness. (Purg., XIX, 9.)</p> + +<p>Our poet, as we said, is firmly convinced that sin will be punished in +Hell. But where is Hell? Popular tradition attributing an infernal +connection with volcanic phenomena and moved by those passages in Holy +Scripture which describe Hell as a place to which the reprobate descend, +locates Hell in the interior of the earth. Dante not only follows this +tradition for his Hell, but he does what no other writer before or after +him ever did—he<a name="page127" id="page127" ></a><span class="pagenum">127</span> constructs a Hell with such rare architectural skill +that the awful structure stands forth in startling reality, visualized +easily as to form an atmosphere, and with a finish of detail that is +amazing. Covered by a crust of earth it is situated under Jerusalem and +extends in funnel shape to the very center of the earth.</p> + +<p>How it got this shape is told by the poet. When Lucifer was hurled from +Heaven by the justice of God, he kept falling until he reached the +center of earth, whence further motion downward was impossible. At the +approach of Lucifer the earth is represented as recoiling and so making +the cavity of Hell. The earth dislodged by the cataclysm was forced +through an opening, a kind of nozzle of the funnel of Hell, to the +antipodes and it there emerged, forming a mountain, which became the +site of the Garden of Eden and Purgatory. The phenomenon made land in +the northern and water in the southern hemisphere. Here is the +description:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Upon this side he fell down out of heaven</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And all the land, that whilom here emerged</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For fear of him made of the sea a veil</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And came to our hemisphere; and peradventure</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To flee from him, what on this side</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Left the place vacant here and back recoiled."</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(Inf., XXXIV, 121.)</span><br /> +</p><p><a name="page128" id="page128" ></a><span class="pagenum">128</span></p> + +<p>The material structure of the Inferno is a series of nine concentric +circles—darkness brooding over the whole region,—with ledges, chasms, +pits, swamps and rivers. The rivers, though different in name and +aspect, appear to be one and the same stream winding its way through the +various circles. We see it first as the boundary of Hell proper and it +is known as the Acheron. It comes again to view in the fourth circle and +is called the Styx. In the seventh circle, second round, it emerges as +the red blood stream of Phlegethon. In the very depths of Hell it forms +the frozen lake of Cocytus. The circles of Hell, distant from one +another, decrease in circumference as descent is made—the top circle +being the widest. Galileo estimates that Dante's Hell is about 4,000 +miles in depth and as many in breadth at its widest diameter. Its +opening is near the forest at the Fauces Averni, near Cuma, Italy, where +Virgil places the site of the entrance of his Inferno.</p> + +<p>Dante's Hell in its moral aspect is Aristotelian. Sins are divided into +three great classes, incontinence, bestiality and malice. Incontinence +is punished in the five upper circles; bestiality and malice in the City +of Dis, lower Hell. More particularly stated, Dante's scheme of +punishment in the underworld, not considering the vestibule of Hell, +where neutrals are confined, is as follows: 1, Limbo; 2, The Circle of +Lust; 3, Gluttony; 4,<a name="page129" id="page129" ></a><span class="pagenum">129</span> Avarice and Prodigality; 5, Anger, Rage and Fury; +6, Unbelief and Heresy; 7, Violence; 8, Fraud; 9, Treason.</p> + +<p>In regard to this plan of punishment three things are to be noted: (a) +Though generally following the teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas, here +Dante, in his conception of Limbo, differs from his master. Our poet's +Limbo, wherein are the souls of unbaptized children and others who died +stained with original sin, but without personal grievous guilt, is a +much more severe abode than that of the Angelic Doctor. The latter +teaches that Limbo is a place or a state, not merely of exemption from +suffering and sorrow, but of perfect natural happiness unbroken even by +a knowledge of a higher, a supernatural destiny that has never been +given. Dante's Limbo, on the other hand, represents the souls in sadness +brought about by their constant desire and hope never realizable, of +seeing God. They suffer no pain of sense, but they are baffled in their +endless yearning for the Beatific Vision. To quote Dante:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"There, in so far as I had power to hear,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Were lamentations none, but only sighs</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That tremulous made the everlasting air.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And this arose from sorrow without torment,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Which the crowds had, that many were and great,</span><br /><a name="page130" id="page130" ></a><span class="pagenum">130</span> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of infants and of women and of men.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To me the Master good: 'Thou dost not ask</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">What spirits these may be, which thou beholdest?</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Now will I have thee know, ere thou go farther,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That they sinned not; and if they merit had,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'T is not enough, because they had not baptism,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Which is the portal of the Faith thou holdest;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And if they were before Christianity,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In the right manner they adored not God;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And among such as these am I myself.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For such defects, and not for other guilt,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lost are we, and are only so far punished,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That without hope we live on in desire.'"</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(IV, 25.)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>(b) Our poet represents a soul as punished but for one sin, though it +may be guilt-dyed by its having broken all the commandments. Even so, it +is placed in one particular circle wherein a certain sin is punished and +we are not told that it passes to other circles. In explanation of this +we have only to remember that Dante, for our instruction, is showing us +object lessons of evil, types of certain sins. Judas, for example, whose +name is synonymous with traitor, is exhibited as suffering in the ninth +circle, the circle of treason, the poet<a name="page131" id="page131" ></a><span class="pagenum">131</span> taking no notice of other sins, +v.g., sacrilege, avarice, suicide, of which the fallen apostle may have +been guilty. Furthermore, Dante as a master psychologist and moralist +would teach us the lesson that the evil doer may come to damnation +through one sin if that acquires such an ascendency over his will as to +become a capital sin or predominant passion of his life. Then the +besetting passion is the father of an innumerable progeny of evil. This +is seen (Purg., XX, 103) in the case of Pygmalion, whose predominant +passion, avarice, made him a traitor, a thief and a parricide.</p> + +<p>(c) Let us not be surprised that Dante is so lenient in the punishment +of carnal sinners. He assigns a lighter punishment to the unchaste than +to the unjust. Back of his plan is a sound theological doctrine. Guilt +is to be estimated not simply from the gravity of the matter prohibited +to conscience and the knowledge that one has of the evil, but more +especially from the malice displayed by the will in its voluntary +choosing and embracing the evil. Now impurity, it is held, is often a +sin of impulse. It springs from concupiscence, a common human +inclination, wrong only when there is inordinateness. Then though a man +freely consents to the temptation and thereby commits a grievous sin, +his will generally is not overcast with perversion or affected with<a name="page132" id="page132" ></a><span class="pagenum">132</span> +malice. That being so, Dante in assigning punishment for sins against +the virtue of purity is moved by the thought that such sins deserve a +milder punishment in Hell, because they may be oftener surprises than +infidelities.</p> + +<p>To make known the nature of the particular sin he depicts Dante shows us +the evil in various phases. First of all it is personified in repulsive +demons, the guardians of the circles of Hell. At the very entrance, +sits, symbolizing the evil conscience, the sinners' judge "Minos +horrific and grins. The ill-born spirit comes before him, confesses all +and that sin-discerner (Minos) sees what place in Hell is for it, and +with his tail makes as many circles round himself as the degrees he will +have it descend." (Inf., V, 2.) In the circle of Gluttony, the sin is +symbolized by the three-headed monster Cerberus, "who clutches the +spirits, flays and piecemeal rends them."</p> + +<p>Plutus, the ancient god of riches—"a cursed wolf"—commands the circle +of Avarice. Phlegyas, who in fury set fire to Apollo's temple, is head +of the circle of Anger. Symbolizing remorse, the three Furies, in the +semblance of women girt with green water snakes, with snakes for hair, +and the Gorgon Medusa, representing the heart-hardening effect of +sensual pleasures, are found on the fire-glowing towers of the City of +Dis, Inner Hell. In the seventh circle presides<a name="page133" id="page133" ></a><span class="pagenum">133</span> Minotaur, half-man, +half-bull, the symbol of bloodthirsty violence and brutal lust.</p> + +<p>Fraud is typified by Geryon, having the face of an honest man and the +body of a dragon. Further down giants are seen, emblematic of the +enormity of crime. At the very lowest point of Hell is Lucifer, "emperor +of the Realm of Sorrow." A gigantic monster, he is imprisoned in ice +formed from rivers which freeze by the movements of his bat-like wings +flapping in vain efforts to raise himself. To him, as to the source of +all evil, flow back all the streams of guilt. As he sinned against the +Tri-une God, he is represented with three faces, one crimson, another +between white and yellow, and the third black. (XXXIV, 55.)</p> + +<p>Not only by such terrible monsters, but by the environment of the +condemned sinner, does our poet reveal the hideousness of sin. To +mention only the three great divisions of Hell, the abodes of +incontinence, bestiality and malice, we find in murky gloom the +incontinent whose sin had darkened their understanding. In the City of +Dis, red with fire, are the violent and the bestial, who in this life +had burned either with consuming rage or unnatural passion; in the +frozen circle of malice are those whose sins had congealed human sympathy +and love into cold, calculating destruction of trust reposed in them.<a name="page134" id="page134" ></a><span class="pagenum">134</span></p> + +<p>But it is principally by depicting the intellectual, the moral and the +physical sufferings of the damned that Dante would teach us the nature +of sin. To depict physical sufferings the poet was under the necessity +of creating provisional bodies for his damned. Without such a poetic +device the souls of the reprobate before the resurrection of their +bodies cannot be conceived to suffer physically, since they lack the +senses and organs of pain. So Dante pictures the damned united to forms +shadowy yet real, palpable and visible. They sometimes lose the human +semblance and assume more sinister shapes, grovelling as hideous +serpents, bleeding and wailing from shrubs and trees, or bubbling in a +slushing stream.</p> + +<p>In such forms the souls are seen in punishment fitting their sin, on the +principle that "by what things a man sinneth by the same he is +tormented." (Wisdom XI, 17.) The unchaste because they allowed their +reason to be subjected to the hot blasts of passion are now driven by "a +hellish storm which never rests; whirling and smiting, it vexes them." +(Inf., V, 31.) The gluttonous howl like dogs as hail and rain and snow +beat down upon them and Cerberus attacks and rends them. The misers and +spendthrifts to whom money was king, now are occupied in rolling huge +stones in opposite directions. The wrathful, all muddy and naked, assail +and tear one another.</p><p><a name="page135" id="page135" ></a><span class="pagenum">135</span></p> + +<p>The sullen are fixed in slime and gurgle a dismal chant. The materialist +and the heretic, whose existence, Dante holds, was only a living death, +are confined in blazing tombs. Murderers and tyrants are immersed in +boiling blood.</p> + +<p>With poetic justice, suicides are represented as stunted trees lacerated +by the beaks of foul harpies. The violent lie supine on a plain of dry +and dense sand, upon which descend flakes of fire like "snow in the +Alps, without a wind." Usurers—should we call them profiteers?—suffer +also from a rain of fire and carry about their necks money bags stamped +with armorial designs. Thieves, to remind them of their sneaking trade, +are repeatedly transformed from men into snakes, hissing and creeping. +Hypocrites march in slow procession with faces painted and with leaden +cloaks all glittering with gold on the outside. With such realism does +Dante declare the nature of sin and its inevitable consequences.</p> + +<p>Let us now accompany Dante through the Underworld. The scene opens at +dawn in a dark and tangled wood. Dante, the type of humanity, is unable +to ascend the Hill of the Lord, as we said before, because his way is +barred successively by a leopard, a lion and a wolf, representing the +passions of life. Virgil (Reason), sent by Beatrice (Revelation), offers +to conduct the poet by another road. It is a way which leads through<a name="page136" id="page136" ></a><span class="pagenum">136</span> +Hell and Purgatory. Through the heavens Beatrice herself will be the +guide. Descending through the earth the two poets come to the Vestibule +of Hell. On the gate appears this inscription:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Through me you pass into the city of woe</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Through me you pass into eternal pain</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Through me among the people lost for aye</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Justice, the founder of my fabric, moved</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To rear me was the task of Power divine,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Supremest wisdom and primeval Love</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Before me things create were none, save things</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Eternal, and eternal I endure.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">All hope abandon, ye who enter here."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>It may be said in passing that in these nine lines Dante attains an +effect for which Milton, with all his heavy description of the gateway +of Hell, labors in vain. Contrast with the Florentine's the words of the +author of Paradise Lost:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Hell bounds high reaching to the horrid roof</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And thrice three fold the gates: three folds were brass,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Three iron, three of adamantine rock.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Impenetrable, impaled with circling fire,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Yet unconsumed. Before the gate there sat</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">On either side a formidable shape," etc.</span><br /> +</p><p><a name="page137" id="page137" ></a><span class="pagenum">137</span></p> + +<p>Not by gigantic images which only astonish the reader, but by words +which burn into the brain and leave him dismayed, does our poet drive +home his thought.</p> + +<p>Passing through a crowd of neutrals the poets come to the river Acheron, +where assemble those who die in mortal sin, to be ferried over by the +demon Charon. He refuses passage to Dante: "By other ways, by other +ferries, shalt thou pass over, a lighter boat must carry thee." (Inf., +III, 91.) An earthquake occurs, accompanied with wind and lightning, and +Dante falls into a state of insensibility. Upon coming to consciousness +he finds himself on the brink of the Abyss, whence the poets enter +Limbo. Here Christ descended, Virgil says, and "drew from us the shade +of our first parent, of Abel, his son; that of Noah, of Moses, the +lawgiver, the obedient; patriarch Abraham and King David; Israel, with +his father, and with his sons and with Rachel, for whom he wrought much, +and many others and made them blessed." (Inf., IV, 55.)</p> + +<p>In the second circle, where carnal sinners are punished, Dante sees, +among others, Semiramis, Dido, Cleopatra, Helen, Achilles, Paris. The +poet's attention is suddenly attracted by two spirits, who prove to be +Francesca da Rimini and her lover, Paolo, murdered by her husband when +Dante was twenty-four years old. The scandal<a name="page138" id="page138" ></a><span class="pagenum">138</span> of their illicit love and +the penalty they paid by their lives must have been so generally known +that Dante, though attached to her family by the memory of hospitality +received from her nephew, Guido Novello da Polenta, the lord of Ravenna, +is dominated by the necessity of declaring in Francesca and Paolo the +operation of the unalterable law which rules the terrible consequences +of crime unforgiven by Heaven. Was it gratitude for kindness extended to +him, an exile, by the Lord of Ravenna, or was it the memory of +association with the brother of Francesca, at the battle of Campaldino, +that led our poet to treat the whole episode of the fatal liaison with +such tender sympathy for the unfortunate lady that he hoped to +rehabilitate her memory? In any event, the poet represents himself as +gracious and benign when addressing Francesca, and she, moved by his +friendly attitude, tells the story of her intrigue, in lines justly +regarded as the most beautiful ever written in verse. The reader will +not fail to observe that the fatal denouement is only hinted, not +told—the line, "that day we read no more," making what is admitted to +be the finest ellipsis in all the literature of the world.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Then turning, I to them, my speech address'd</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And thus began: 'Francesca! Your sad fate</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Even to tears my grief and pity moves.</span><br /><a name="page139" id="page139" ></a><span class="pagenum">139</span> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But tell me, in the time of your sweet sighs,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">By what and how Love granted that ye knew</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Your yet uncertain wishes.' She replied:</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'No greater grief than to remember days</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of joy, when misery is at hand. Yet so eagerly</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">If thou art bent to know the primal root</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">From whence our love gat being, I will do</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">As one who weeps and tells his tale. One day</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For our delight, we read of Lancelot,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">How him love thrall'd. Alone we were, and no</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Suspicion near us. Oft times by that reading</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Our eyes were drawn together, and the hue</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Fled from our alter'd cheek. But at one point</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Alone we fell. When of that smile, we read,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The wish'd smile so rapturously kiss'd</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">By one so deep in love, then he who ne'er</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">From me shall separate, at once my lips</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">All trembling kiss'd. The book and writer both</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Were love's purveyors. In its leaves that day</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">We read no more.' While thus one spirit spake,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The other wail'd so sorely, that heart-struck</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I through compassion fainting, seem'd not far</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">From death, and like a corse fell to the ground."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>In the next circle where, with faces to the ground, the gluttons suffer +in a ceaseles storm, the shade of Ciacco, the Florentine, sits up as he +recognizes a fellow-citizen:</p> + +<p><a name="page140" id="page140" ></a><span class="pagenum">140</span> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"He said to me: 'Thy City which is filled</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With envy, like a sack that overflows,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Once held me in its tranquil life, well skilled</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In dainties, and a glutton, and by those</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Who dwelt there Ciacco called, but now the blows</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of this fierce rain avenge my wasteful sin.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sad as I am, full many another knows</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For a like crime like penalty within</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">This circle', and more word he spake not." (VI, 49.)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>In the fourth circle the poet sees the souls of the prodigal and +avaricious rolling heavy stones, against each other with mutual +recriminations:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Almighty Justice! in what store thou heap'st</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">New pains, new troubles, as I here beheld,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Wherefore doth fault of ours bring us to this?</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">E'en as a billow, on Charybdis rising</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Against encountered billow dashing breaks;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Such is the dance this wretched race must lead</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Whom more than elsewhere numerous here I found."</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(VII, 19.)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>The next is the circle of the wrathful and the sullen. Following is the +circle of the materialists and heretics, all covered with burning +sepulchres:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Soon as I was within, I cast around</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">My eyes and saw extend on either hand</span><br /><a name="page141" id="page141" ></a><span class="pagenum">141</span> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A spacious plain, that echoed to the sound</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of grief and torment sore; as o'er the land</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">At Aries where Rhone's vast waters stagnant stand</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Or Pola, near Quarnero Bay, that bounds</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And bathes the line of Italy, expand</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Plains rough and heaving with supulchral mounds,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'Tis thus the plain, wherein I stood, with tombs abounds,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Save that the buried were more grimly treated.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For twixt the graves were scattered tongues of fire</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">By which to such a pitch the place was heated</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That iron could no fiercer flame require</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For art to mould it: lamentation dire</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Issued from each unlidded vault, and seemed</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The voice of those in torment."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>From one of these fiery tombs, the Florentine freethinker, the haughty +Farinata, rises "with breast and brow erect, as holding Hell in great +contempt," and tells Dante that the souls of the lost have no knowledge +concerning things that are actually passing on earth, though they know +the past and see the future. He foretells the duration of the poet's +exile and boasts that he himself saved Florence from being razed to the +ground.</p><p><a name="page142" id="page142" ></a><span class="pagenum">142</span></p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"When all decreed that Florence should be laid</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in ruin I alone with fearless face defended her."</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(X, 91.)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>In the seventh circle Virgil leads Dante to the river of blood, "in +which boils every one who by violence injures others." Centaurs, half +horses and half men, are there. "Around the fosse they go by thousands, +piercing with their arrows whatever spirit wrenches itself out of the +blood farther than its guilt has allotted for it." (XII, 73.) With +characteristic realism the poet describes Chiron, one of the leaders of +the Centaurs, pushing back with an arrow his beard as he prepares to +speak:</p> + +<p>"Chiron took an arrow, and with the notch put back his beard upon his +jaws. When he had uncovered his great mouth, he said to his companions: +'Have ye perceived that the one behind (Dante) moves what he touches? +The feet of the dead are not wont to do so.'" (XII, 76.)</p> + +<p>In the third round of Circle VII Dante meets his friend Brunetto Latini, +punished for unnatural offences.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"I remembered him and toward his face</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">My hand inclining, answered: Ser Brunetto!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And are ye here? He thus to me: 'My son!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Oh let it not displease thee, if Brunetto</span><br /><a name="page143" id="page143" ></a><span class="pagenum">143</span> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Latini but a little space with thee</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Turn back, and leave his fellows to proceed.'</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I thus to him replied: 'Much as I can,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I thereto pray thee: and if thou be willing</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That I here seat me with thee, I consent:</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">His leave with whom I journey, first obtain'd.'</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'O Son,' said he, 'whoever of this throng</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">One instant stops, lies then a hundred years,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No fan to ventilate him, when the fire</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Smitest sorest. Pass thou therefore on. I close</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Will at thy garments walk and then rejoin</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">My troup, who go mourning their endless doom.'"</span><br /> +</p> +<hr style="width: 35%;" /> +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Were all my wish fulfill'd," I straight replied,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thou from the confines of man's nature yet</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hadst not been driven forth; for in my mind</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Is fix'd, and now strikes full upon my heart,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The dear, benign, paternal image, such</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">As thine was, when so lately thou didst teach me</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The way for man to win eternity:</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And how I prized the lesson, it behoves,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That, long as life endures, my tongue should speak.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(XV, 28.)<br /></span> +</p> + +<p>The eighth circle is known as Malebolge, Evil Pouches, of which there +are ten. Here are punished differently panders, seducers, flatterers,<a name="page144" id="page144" ></a><span class="pagenum">144</span> +simonists, magicians, cheats, hypocrites, thieves, evil-counsellors, +forgers.</p> + +<p>In the ninth circle, the abode of traitors, which comprises four +divisions, named respectively after Cain (Caina), Antenor of Troy +(Antenora), Ptolemy of Jericho (Tolomea), and Judas Iscariot (Giudecca), +Dante sees in the second division, Antenora, the shade of the traitor +Ugolino imprisoned in ice with his enemy, Archbishop Ruggieri, by whom +he was betrayed. Ugolino, with his two sons and two grandsons, were +locked in the Tower of Famine at Pisa, the key of the prison was thrown +into the river and the prisoners began their term of starvation ending +in death. The story of the imprisonment and the death of the five +prisoners is one of the most tragic recitals in the domain of +literature. In the passage I quote, Ugolino is relating his feelings +when he finds himself imprisoned with his sons and grandsons in the +Tower of Famine.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"When I awoke before the morn, that day,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I heard my little sons, who shared my cell,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For bread, even in their slumber, moaning pray;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hard art thou, if unmoved thou hearest me tell</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The message that my heart had guessed too well!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">If this thou feel not, what can make thee feel?</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And when we all were risen, the hour befell</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">At which was brought to us the morning meal,</span><br /><a name="page145" id="page145" ></a><span class="pagenum">145</span> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Yet each one doubted sore what might their dreams reveal.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And as the locking of the gate I heard</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Beneath that terrible tower, I gazed alone</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Into my children's faces, without a word.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I wept not, for within I turned to stone;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But saw that they were weeping every one;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'Twas then my darling little Anselm cried:</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'You look so, father! Say, what have they done?'</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Still not a tear I shed, nor word replied</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That day, nor till that night in next day's dawning died.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And as there shot into this prison drear</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A little sunbeam, by whose light I caught</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">My look upon four faces mirrored clear;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Both of my hands I bit, by grief o'erwrought.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Then suddenly they rose as if they thought</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I did it hungering; 'Less our misery,'</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">They cried, 'Should'st thou on us feed, who are nought</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But creatures vested in our flesh by thee:</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Then strip away the weeds that still thine own must be.'</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">It calmed me to make them feel less their fate;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Two days we spent in silence all forlorn;</span><br /><a name="page146" id="page146" ></a><span class="pagenum">146</span> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Earth, Earth, oh wherefore wert thou obdurate,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And would'st not open! On the following morn</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gaddo, before my face, from life was torn!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'Can you not help me, father?' first he cried,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And perished; then, I saw the younger born,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Three, one by one, fall ere the sixth day sped—</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Plainly as you see me, and this accursed head.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'Already blind, I fondly grope my way</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To them, and for three days their names I call</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">After their death; then famine found its prey</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And did what sorrow could not.' This was all</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">He said."</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(XXXIII, 35.)</span><br /></p> + +<p>And now we come with the poets to the lowest depths of Hell, where we +see imprisoned in ice Lucifer, huge and hideous. As we gaze on mankind's +enemy, an archangel fallen and punished for sin, the words of Isaias +come to mind: "How art thou fallen from Heaven, O Lucifer, who did'st +rise in the morning! How art thou fallen to the earth, that did'st wound +the nations. And thou saidst within thy heart, 'I will ascend into +Heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God—I will be like +the most High. But yet thou shalt be brought down to Hell, into the very +depth of the pit." (Is., XIV, 12.)</p><p><a name="page147" id="page147" ></a><span class="pagenum">147</span></p> + +<p>Let us see how Dante puts Lucifer "into the very depth of the pit."</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"The lamentable kingdom's emperor</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Issued from out the ice with half his breast;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And with a giant more do I compare</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Than with his arms do giants; therefore see</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">How great must be that whole which corresponds</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Unto a part so fashioned. If he was</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">As beautiful as he is ugly now,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And raised his brows against his Maker, sure</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">All sorrowfulness must proceed from him.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ah! how great marvel unto me it seemed</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">When I beheld three faces to his head!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The one before, and that was vermeil-hue;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Two were the others which adjoined to this,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Over the midst of either shoulder, and</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">They made the joining where the crown is placed.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And between white and yellow seemed the right;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The left was such an one to be beheld</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">As come from there wherein the Nile is sunk.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">There issued under each two mighty wings,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Such as 'twas fitting for so great a bird:</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I never saw the sails of shipping such.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">They had not feathers, but the mode thereof</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Was like a bat's; and these he fluttered so</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That from him there was moved a threefold wind:</span><br /><a name="page148" id="page148" ></a><span class="pagenum">148</span> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cocytus all was frozen over hence.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With six eyes wept he, and three chins along</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The weeping trickled, and a bloody foam.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">At every mouth he shattered with his teeth</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A sinner, in the manner of a brake,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">So that he thus made woful three of them.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The biting for the foremost one was nought</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Unto the scratching, for at times the spine</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Remained of all the skin completely stripped.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'That soul above which has most punishment</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Is,' said my lord, 'Judas Iscariot,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Who has his head within, and outside plies</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">His legs. O' the other two, whose head is down,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Brutus is he who from the black head hangs;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">See how he writhes, and does not speak a word:</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The other's Cassius, who appears, so gaunt,'"</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(XXXIV, 28-67)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Now that the lesson is learned that the wages of sin is death, that sin +will find a man out and bring him to the judgment of God, the gracious +guide can release his companion from his awful contemplation.</p> + +<p>"Now it is time for us to go," says Virgil, "for we have seen all." By a +secret path leading to Purgatory the pilgrims make their way through the +darkness, guided by the encouraging murmur of running water. It is a +streamlet of discarded sin, flowing constantly from Purgatory,<a name="page149" id="page149" ></a><span class="pagenum">149</span> whence +wickedness is washed down to its original Satanic source.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"By that hidden way</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">My guide and I did enter, to return</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To the fair world; and heedless of repose</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">We climb'd, he first, I following his steps,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Till on our view the beautiful lights of Heaven</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dawn'd through a circular opening in the cave</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thence issuing we again beheld the stars."</span><br /> +</p><p><a name="page150" id="page150" ></a><span class="pagenum">150</span></p><br /> +<p><a name="page151" id="page151" ></a><span class="pagenum">151</span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="page152" id="page152" ></a><span class="pagenum">152</span></p> +<br /><p><a name="page153" id="page153" ></a><span class="pagenum">153</span></p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="DANTES_PURGATORIO" id="DANTES_PURGATORIO"></a>DANTE'S PURGATORIO</h2> + + +<p>Purgatory, as a doctrine, is peculiar to the Catholic Church; Purgatory, +as a discipline from sin to virtue, is a practice followed by a large +portion of humanity. The latter fact explains why so many who reject the +dogma, still love and admire Dante's Purgatorio, which, while it teaches +the doctrine of the intermediate state, also serves as an allegory, the +most helpful and beautiful allegory, perhaps, in the literature of the +world. In the opinion of Dean Stanley, it is the most religious book he +ever read. It makes a peculiar appeal to the modern mind because, as +Grandgent says: "It's theme is betterment, release from sin and +preparation for Heaven" ... (and) "its atmosphere is rightly one of hope +and progress."</p> + +<p>Dinsmore declares: "Purgatory as a place may not exist in our system of +thought, but life is a cleansing process if we take its hardships in a +proper spirit." In another place he asserts: "In pondering the way of +life by which this high priest of the Middle Ages (Dante) proclaims that +men attain perfect liberty, we cannot but remark the<a name="page154" id="page154" ></a><span class="pagenum">154</span> stress he lays +upon a principle which has well-nigh faded from the Protestant mind. It +is that of expiation—(and) expiation is no musty dogma of the +schoolmen, but a living truth.... Dante placed more emphasis on the +human side of the problem than we, and for this reason he deserves +attentive study, having portrayed most powerfully some truths which our +age, so eager to break from the narrowness of the past, has overlooked."</p> + +<p>In agreement with this statement of the learned Congregational divine is +William T. Harris, former United States Commissioner of Education, who +observes in his "Spiritual Sense of the Divina Commedia," that if +Purgatory is absent from the Protestant creed, the thought of which +Purgatory in this life is the symbol, is not uncommon in non-Catholic +literature. His exact words are: "If Protestantism has omitted Purgatory +from its religion, certainly Protestant literature has taken it up and +absorbed it entire," and for proof he points to the moral, among other +books, of The Scarlet Letter, The Marble Faun, Adam Bede and Romola, all +showing</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"That men may rise on stepping stones</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of their dead selves to higher things."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Dante, the theologian, makes his allegory grow out of the doctrine of +Purgatory. According to<a name="page155" id="page155" ></a><span class="pagenum">155</span> the teaching of the Catholic Church, temporal +punishment is connected with sin. Even when the guilt of sin is +forgiven, the justice of God in most cases calls for amends by means of +the temporal punishment of the sinner. Holy Writ gives us instances of +the operation of this law. Adam, though brought out of his disobedience +(Wisdom X, 2) was condemned "to eat bread in the sweat of his face" +(Gen. III, 19) to his dying day. Moses and Aaron were forgiven for their +sin of incredulity, but they were punished by being deprived of the +glory of entering "the Land of Promise." (Num., XX, 12.) To King David, +perfectly contrite, the prophet Nathan announces in the name of God, the +forgiveness of the guilt of adultery and murder, yet he must suffer for +his sin. "Nathan said to David: 'The Lord also hath taken away thy sin. +Thou shalt not die. Nevertheless, because thou hast given occasion to +the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme for this thing, the child shall +die,' and it came to pass on the seventh day that the child died" (II +Kings XII, 13.)</p> + +<p>From these instances it is evident that when God forgives the guilt of +sins and the eternal punishment due to such of them as are mortal, He +does not remove the temporal punishment which must be satisfied in this +life or in the life to come. That is true, the Church teaches, even of +unrepented<a name="page156" id="page156" ></a><span class="pagenum">156</span> venial sin with its debt of temporal punishment. While +venial sin does not destroy the supernatural life of the soul and while, +therefore, it is not said to be punishable in Hell, still it is sin in +the sight of Him "whose eyes are too pure to behold evil." (Hab., I, +13.) Now the Church has ever held that into Heaven "there shall not +enter anything defiled." (Apoc., XXI, 27.) Likewise, she has taught that +Hell is the eternal punishment of souls whose grievous guilt has not +been forgiven. It follows, therefore, according to her teachings, that +there must be a middle state for the cleansing of unrepented venial sins +and for the satisfaction of sins already forgiven but not wholly +expiated.</p> + +<p>This state or place is called Purgatory, the belief in the existence of +which is confirmed by the practice of praying for the dead, a practice +based on the teachings of the Old and of the New Testament. In the +second book of Maccabees (XII, 43, 46) we read that Judas, the general +of the Hebrew army, "sent twelve thousand drachms of silver to Jerusalem +for sacrifice to be offered for the sins of the dead, thinking well and +religiously concerning the resurrection. (For if he had not hoped that +they that were slain should rise again, it would have seemed superfluous +and vain to pray for the dead.) And because he considered that they who +had fallen<a name="page157" id="page157" ></a><span class="pagenum">157</span> asleep with godliness had great grace laid up for them. It +is, therefore, a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead that +they may be loosed from sins."</p> + +<p>This doctrine presupposes that the dead for whom prayer is profitable +are neither in Heaven, the abode of the elect, nor in Hell, from which +release is not possible, but in a state of purification, lasting for a +time. The New Testament alludes to that state. Christ declares: "And +whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of Man, it shall be +forgiven him; but he that shall speak against the Holy Ghost, it shall +not be forgiven him, neither in this world nor in the world to come." +(Matt., XII, 32.) These words imply that there is a future state in +which some sins are purged away, while there is another state (Hell) in +which the punishment is eternal. The words of St. Paul: "If any man's +work burn, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so +as by fire" (1 Cor., III, 15), are interpreted to mean the existence of +a middle state in which unforgiven venial sins and the temporal +punishment due to sin will be burnt away and the soul thus purified will +attain eternal life.</p> + +<p>To state the doctrine of the Church briefly, let it be said that the +Church has defined that there is a Purgatory and that the souls in +Purgatory are helped by the suffrages of the faithful.</p><p><a name="page158" id="page158" ></a><span class="pagenum">158</span></p> + +<p>Out of facts so general, Dante the poet, has created a Purgatory wholly +unique in the realms of literature, and amazingly definite as to place, +form, atmosphere, inhabitants and their activities. In the southern +hemisphere, at the very antipodes of Jerusalem, out of an ocean on which +there is no other land (according to Dante's system of cosmography) +springs the island of Purgatory, redolent with flowers, lovely with +music, peace keeping pace with penance over all the region. Not a flat, +unbroken plain is this island, but a mountain whose shores are washed by +the ocean, from which the earth forced from the interior by Lucifer's +fall, rises in a truncated conical structure. While its coast and the +land below the terraces are within the zone of air, its heights extend +into the sphere of fire and its crown is the Garden of Eden. The lowest +part of the mountain called Ante-Purgatorio is the abode of the +procrastinators and the excommunicated who put off their repentance to +the end and now must suffer a proportionate delay before they are +permitted to begin their ascent, their work of purification.</p> + +<p>Purification begins only after the soul passes into Purgatory proper. At +the entrance is St. Peter's gate, guarded by an angel, who, with his +sword inscribes on the brow of the penitent seven times the letter P, +the first letter of the word Peccatum, signifying sin. These seven P's, +outward<a name="page159" id="page159" ></a><span class="pagenum">159</span> signs of inward evil, represent the seven capital sins, the P's +of which are removed in succession by an angel as penance is done for +each sin on its corresponding terrace. The seven terraces which run +around the mountain, rise in succession with lessening circuit as ascent +is made, their width being about seventeen or eighteen feet. Connecting +each terrace and cut out of solid rock is a narrow stairway, guarded by +an angel. The steps of each successive stairway become less steep as +each terrace is attained. Crowning the mountain is the Garden of Eden, +lonely and deserted since Adam and Eve, after six hours of occupancy, +were forced from its confines. Its herbage is still luxuriant, its +flowers endless and fragrant, its trees, melodious with birds, rustle +with the balmy wind, its waters serve to irrigate the garden as well as +to help the soul. These waters, the rivers Lethe and Eunoe, are produced +from heavenly sources and have miraculous powers. The former removes the +memory of sin; the latter restores the recollection of virtuous deeds, a +poetical way of expressing the Catholic dogma, that with the revival of +grace in the heart of the converted sinner comes back the merit that had +been acquired by moral acts.</p> + +<p>The problem which Dante sets out to solve in his Purgatory is this: +Assuming that the sinner has been baptized, how can he break his +shackles and attain to the liberty of the children of God?<a name="page160" id="page160" ></a><span class="pagenum">160</span> The literal +narrative of Dante's Purgatory presupposing that the soul at the hour of +death is in the state of grace, now shows us that soul working towards +perfection by way of expiation for unforgiven venial sin and for the +temporal punishment due to sin. It is the only way by which it can again +attain its pristine dignity. "And to his dignity he never returns," says +Dante, "unless where sin makes void, he fill up for evil pleasures just +penalties."</p> + +<p>The rule holds good, also, for salvation in this world. The thin veil of +allegory enables us to penetrate Dante's teaching that this life also is +a Purgatory, and here, too, we may cast off the defilement of sin by +means of repentance and expiation. But first the soul must be girt with +the rush of humility, and have perfect contrition represented by its +being washed with the dew, the moisture that descends from Heaven. To +Virgil (Reason guided by Heaven) says Cato (the symbol of Liberty), "Go, +then, and see that thou gird this man with a smooth rush and that thou +wash his face (with dew) so that thou efface from it all foulness, for +it would not be fitting to go into the presence of the first Minister, +who is of those of Paradise, with eyes dimmed by any mist." (1, 95.)</p> + +<p>But even if the soul, by perfect contrition, is freed from its guilt of +mortal sin, it must<a name="page161" id="page161" ></a><span class="pagenum">161</span> according to the mind of Christ, who instituted the +sacrament of Penance for the remission of sin, submit to the power of +the keys committed to the priesthood and that will be the more necessary +if its contrition is imperfect. While perfect contrition without the +sacrament of Penance may remit sin, if the supernatural motive of sorrow +is not the love of God, but a motive less worthy, <i>e.g.</i>, fear of +punishment, forgiveness is to be obtained only by the worthy reception +of Penance. In other words, the penitent must confess his sin to a duly +authorized priest, express his contrition, accept the penance enjoined +by the confessor for the satisfaction of sin and be absolved by virtue +of the words of Christ: "Whose sins you shall forgive they are forgiven +and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained."</p> + +<p>All this is most beautifully expressed by Dante in his description of +the Gate of St. Peter and its angelic keeper:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"The lowest stair was marble white, so smooth</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And polish'd that therein my mirror'd form</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Distinct I saw. The next of hue more dark</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Than sablest grain, a rough and singed block,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cracked lengthwise and across. The third, that lay</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Massy above, seemed prophyry, that flam'd</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Red as the life-blood spouting from a vein.</span><br /><a name="page162" id="page162" ></a><span class="pagenum">162</span> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">On this God's angel either foot sustain'd,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Upon the threshold seated, which appear'd</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A rock of diamond. Up the trinal steps</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">My leader cheerly drew me. 'Ask,' said he,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'With humble heart, that he unbar the bolt.'</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Piously at his holy feet devolv'd</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I cast me, praying him for pity's sake</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That he would open to me: but first fell</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thrice on my bosom prostrate. Seven times</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The letter, that denotes the inward stain,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">He on my forehead with the blunted point</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of the drawn sword inscrib'd. And 'Look,' he cried,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'When enter'd, that thou wash these scars away.'</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ashes, or earth ta'en dry out of the ground,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Were of one colour with the robe he wore.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">From underneath that vestment forth he drew</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Two keys of metal twain: the one was gold,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Its fellow silver. With the pallid first,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And next the burnish'd, he so ply'd the gate,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">As to content me well. 'Whenever one</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Faileth of these, that in the keyhole straight</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">It turn not, to this alley then expect</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Access in vain.' Such were the words he spake,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'One is more precious; but the other needs</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Skill and sagacity, large share of each,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ere its good task to disengage the knot</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Be worthily perform'd. From Peter these</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I hold, of him instructed, that I err</span><br /><a name="page163" id="page163" ></a><span class="pagenum">163</span> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Rather in opening than in keeping fast,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">So but the suppliant at my feet implore.'</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Then of that hallow'd gate he thrust the door,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Exclaiming, 'Enter, but this warning hear:</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">He forth again departs who looks behind.'"</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(IX, 75.)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>The allegory back of these words is put forth in clear language by Maria +F. Rossetti. "We need hardly to be told" she writes in her Shadow of +Dante (pp. 112-13) "that the Gate of St. Peter is the Tribunal of +Penance. The triple stair stands revealed as candid Confession mirroring +the whole man, mournful Contrition breaking the hard heart of the gazer +on the Cross, Love all aflame offering up in Satisfaction the lifeblood +of body, soul, and spirit:—the adamantine threshold-seat as the +priceless merits of Christ the Door, Christ the Rock, Christ the sure +Foundation and the precious Corner-Stone. In the Angel of the Gate, as +in the Gospel Angel of Bethesda, is discerned the Confessor; in the +dazzling radiance of his countenance, the exceeding glory of the +ministration of righteousness; in the penitential robe, the sympathetic +meekness whereby, restoring one overtaken in a fault, he considers +himself lest he also be tempted; in the sword, the wholesome severity of +his discipline; in the golden key, his divine authority; in the silver, +the discernment<a name="page164" id="page164" ></a><span class="pagenum">164</span> of spirits whereby he denies absolution to the +impenitent, the learning and discretion whereby he directs the +penitent."</p> + +<p>Dante's plan of Purgatorial punishment makes no distinction between the +punishment put forth for unforgiven venial sin and that due in +satisfaction for the violation of the moral order by one whose guilt has +been remitted. Both partake of the same penalty. Is that because the +poet thinks that if forgiveness is finally won by sorrow and suffering, +expiation for the offence is still to be made? Or does he hold that the +seven capital sins entailing temporal punishment either operate +effectively in every soul, or exist at least radically according to the +principle voiced by Hamilton Wright Mabie: "The man who slowly builds +Heaven with him, has constantly the terrible knowledge that he has only +to put his hand forth in another direction in order to build Hell?"</p> + +<p>In any event Dante, who shows in Hell how men are made sin eternally, in +Purgatory exhibits the sinful disposition more or less under the control +of the will, yet of such a nature that only the grace of God held the +soul back from the Abyss. It must be purged of all tendency to evil so +as to be made "pure and ready to mount to the stars." (XXXIII, 140.) The +purgation is seen in process in a threefold manner according to Dante. A +material punishment is inflicted to mortify the<a name="page165" id="page165" ></a><span class="pagenum">165</span> evil passion and to +incite the soul to virtue; the soul meditates upon the capital sin and +its opposite virtue, moved to abhorrence of the evil and to admiration +of the good by examples drawn from sacred and profane history; vocal +prayer is addressed to God and it brings forth grace to purify and +strengthen the soul. Hard in the beginning is this work of repentance, +but it becomes easy as the habit of virtue is formed.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"The mountain is such, that ever</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">At the beginning down below, 'tis tiresome</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And aye the more one climbs, the less it hurts."</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(IV, 90.)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>As purification from each capital sin is effected, the soul experiences +the removal of a heavy burden and the consequent enjoyment of new +liberty, Dante, purified from pride, asks Virgil: "Master, say what +heavy thing has been lifted from me, that scarce any toil is perceived +by me in journeying." He answered "When the P's which have remained +still nearly extinguished on thy face, shall like the one be wholly +rased out, thy feet shall be so vanquished by goodwill, that not only +will they feel it no toil, but it shall be a delight to them to be urged +upward." (XII, 118).</p> + +<p>Mention was made of the material punishment of the souls in Purgatory. +Unlike the retributive<a name="page166" id="page166" ></a><span class="pagenum">166</span> penalties inflicted in Hell, this punishment is +reformative, confirming the penitent in good habits of thought and deed. +The proud here realize the irrevocable sentence "everyone who exalteth +himself shall be humbled." They creep round with huge burdens of stone +bowing them down to the very dust and so abased their hearts are turned +to humility.</p> + +<p>The envious sing the praises of generosity while their eyes, the seat of +their sins, are tortured by sutures of wire shutting out the light.</p> + +<p>The slothful cannot be restrained in their hurry forward, the leaders, +shouting with tears, examples of diligence, a pair in the rear crying +out instances of sloth.</p> + +<p>Penitents expiating the sins of avarice and prodigality lie prostrate +and motionless bound hand and foot, with their faces to the ground, +murmuring the words of the psalmist: "My soul hath cleaved to the +pavement" (Ps., 118, 25.) During the day they eulogize the liberal; +during the night they denounce instances of avarice.</p> + +<p>The gluttonous suffer so much from hunger and thirst that they are +reduced to a state of pitiable emaciation. All the while hungering for +righteousness, they glory in crucifying the old Adam in them.</p> + +<p>The unchaste purify their passion in hot flames while other penitents +sing the loveliness of chastity<a name="page167" id="page167" ></a><span class="pagenum">167</span> and proclaim many examples of that +virtue.</p> + +<p>Through this purification by suffering, the spirits not only submit +willingly but they exhibit real contentment if not actual love of the +chastisement imposed upon them. The unchaste not only heedfully keep +within the flames but gladly endure the fire because they are convinced +"with such treatment and with such diet must the last wound be healed" +(XXV, 136). And most beautiful and enlightening of all, one of the souls +tells Dante that the same impulse which brought Christ gladly to the +agony of the Cross throws them upon their sufferings. Forese, speaking +for the gluttonous, says that the mood in which they accept the +penitential pains is one of submission as well as of solace. "And not +only once, while circling this road, is our pain renewed. I say pain and +ought to say solace, for that desire leads us to the tree which led glad +Christ to say, 'Eli,' when He made us free with his blood." (XXIII, 71). +The avaricious confess "so long as it shall be the pleasure of the just +Lord, so long shall we lie here motionless and outstretched" (XIX, 125). +Among the envious, Guida del Duca prays Dante to continue his journey +instead of stopping to interrogate him, for he himself "delights far +more to weep than to talk" (XIV, 125). The slothful in their eagerness +not to interrupt their diligence in penance, by their conversing with +Virgil, entreat him<a name="page168" id="page168" ></a><span class="pagenum">168</span> not to ascribe this attitude to discourtesy, "We +are so filled with desire to speed on" they tell the poets "that stay we +cannot, therefore forgive if thou hold our penance for rudeness." +(XVIII, 115).</p> + +<p>By such instances and by many others does our poet show the contented +spirit prevailing in Purgatory. He makes it, indeed, a realm whose very +atmosphere is one of peace, because the will of God is done there even +in the midst of suffering. The greeting there is "My brothers, may God +give us peace" (XXI, 13). The penitents pray for a far greater measure +of peace: "Voices I heard and every one appeared to supplicate for peace +and misericord the Lamb of God who takes away our sins" (XVI, 15). When +the wrathful finish their penance an angel says to them, "Blessed are +the peacemakers who are without ill anger" (XVII, 68).</p> + +<p>The waters of Purgatory are called "the waters of peace which are the +souls diffused from the eternal fountain" (XVI, 133). Dante addresses +the souls as certain of gaining the unending peace of Paradise. "O +Souls, sure in the possession whenever it may be of a state of peace" +(XXVI, 54). And when the day of release comes on which a soul attains +perfect peace, the whole mountain of Purgatory literally thrills with +joy and every voice is raised<a name="page169" id="page169" ></a><span class="pagenum">169</span> to join the harmonious concert of the +angelic hymn first sung at Bethlehem, <i>Gloria in Excelsis Deo</i>. In this +way does the poet teach us the lesson that both Purgatory proper and the +penitential discipline of life give us a peace wholly in contrast with +the uproar of sin whether heard in the halls of conscience or in the +eternal Hereafter. "How different are those openings from those in +Hell," he says, "for here we enter through songs and down there through +fierce wailings" (XII, 112).</p> + +<p>Although our poet, imbued with the Catholic doctrine, teaches that +intercessory prayer helps the soul to shorten its term in Purgatory—a +doctrine bound up with the doctrine of the Communion of Saints—it must +never be forgotten that Dante is a Catholic preacher when he insists +that personal effort aided by God's grace, is the thing of supreme +importance in the matter of salvation and purification. Neither +lip-sorrow nor the sacraments themselves unless accompanied by true +sorrow and repentance, can profit the soul. "He cannot be absolved who +doth not first repent, nor can he repent the sin and will it at the same +time, for this were contradiction to which reason cannot assent" (Inf., +XXVII, 118.) Prayer can help the soul struggling in life or in Purgatory +proper, but the assistance derived from prayer can never do away with +the necessity of personal penance.<a name="page170" id="page170" ></a><span class="pagenum">170</span> "Conquer thy panting with the soul +that conquers every battle if with its heavy body it sinks not down."</p> + +<p>Let us now hear how Dante sings "of that second realm in which the human +soul is purified and becomes worthy to ascend to Heaven" (I, 5). Coming +out of the blackness of Hell just before dawn on Easter Sunday, Virgil +and Dante are entranced at the beautiful scene before them. Through a +cloudless sky of that deep blue for which the sapphire is noted, shines +Venus, the morning star; in the south appear four wonderful stars of +still greater brilliancy, seen before only by our first parents.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Sweet sheen of oriental sapphire hue</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That, mantling in the aspect calm and bright</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of the pure air, to the primal circle grew,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Began afresh to give my eyes delight</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Soon as I issued from the deathful air</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That had cast sadness o'er my mind and sight,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The beauteous planet that for love takes care</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Was making the East laugh through all its span,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Veiling the Fish, that in its escort were</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Turned to the right, I set my mind to scan</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The other pole; and four stars met my gaze</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ne'er seen before, except by primal man</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Heaven seemed rejoicing in their flaming rays."</span><br /> +</p><p><a name="page171" id="page171" ></a><span class="pagenum">171</span></p> + +<p>The two poets looking to the north see Cato the Warder of Purgatory, his +face illuminated by the four stars, typical of the cardinal virtues, +Prudence, Justice, Fortitude and Temperance. Is Dante's selection of +Cato, the pagan suicide, as the guardian of Christian Purgatory, to be +taken as an example of the broadmindedness of the poet who believes "so +wide arms hath goodness infinite, that it receives all who turn to it?" +Or is it an instance showing how the leaven of the old Roman spirit in +the poet—a spirit which justifies suicide, prevails with his profession +of Christianity which condemns the taking of one's life? Whatever be the +answer "Cato's taking his own life rather than renounce liberty is +symbolical of the soul, destroying all selfishness that it may attain +the light and freedom of spiritual life." In the poem Cato is +represented as challenging the poets as if they were fugitives from +Hell. When he is told that it is by divine decree that the pilgrims are +making the journey, he bids Virgil cleanse Dante with dew and gird him +with a rush and he concludes by saying: "then be not this way your +return, the sun which now is rising, will show you how to take the mount +at an easier ascent"—words whose spiritual sense would seem to be that +once the soul has turned to virtue, it must never go back to sin and in +its upward path to perfection it will be guided by the rays of<a name="page172" id="page172" ></a><span class="pagenum">172</span> divine +grace (the sun) whose enlightenment will make the ascent easier.</p> + +<p>While lingering on the shore, undecided which way to turn, the poets see +a great marvel. Over the water dancing with sunlight comes a white boat +propelled by the white wings of an angel called the Divine Bird, red +with flame and bringing from the banks of the Tiber, the bosom of the +Church, over a hundred souls to begin their term in Purgatory. In +Charon's bark the reprobate souls fill the air with their imprecations; +in the angel-steered boat the spirits coming to Purgatory devoutly +chant: "When Israel went out of Egypt," the psalm so fittingly +descriptive of their own liberation from guilt and their coming into +peace. Here is the description of the scene:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"And lo! as when, upon the approach of morning,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Through the gross vapours Mars grown fiery red</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Down in the West upon the ocean floor,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Appeared to me—may I again behold it!—</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A light along the sea so swiftly coming,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Its motion by no flight of wing is equalled;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">From which when I a little had withdrawn</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mine eyes, that I might question my Conductor,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Again I saw it brighter grown and larger.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Then on each side of it appeared to me</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I knew not what of white, and underneath it</span><br /><a name="page173" id="page173" ></a><span class="pagenum">173</span> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Little by little there came forth another.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">My Master yet had uttered not a word</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">While the first whiteness into wings unfolded;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But when he clearly recognized the pilot,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">He cried: 'Make haste, make haste to bow the knee!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Behold the Angel of God! fold thou thy hands!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Henceforward shalt thou see such officers!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">See how he scorneth human arguments,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">So that nor oar he wants, nor other sail</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Than his own wings, between so distant shores.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">See how he holds them pointed up to heaven,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Fanning the air with the eternal pinions,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That do not mount themselves like mortal hair!'</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Then as still nearer and more near us came</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The Bird Divine, more radiant he appeared,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">So that near by the eye could not endure him,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But down I cast it; and he came to shore</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With a small vessel, very swift and light,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">So that the water swallowed naught thereof.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Upon the stern stood the Celestial Pilot;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Beatitude seemed written in his face,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And more than a hundred spirits sat within."</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(II, 13.)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>And now occurs a touching episode which shows how deep and rich is +friendship in Dante's heart. One of the shades recognizing him, steps +forward with a look so full of affection to embrace him<a name="page174" id="page174" ></a><span class="pagenum">174</span> that the poet +is moved to do likewise. Amazement ensues on both sides. The spirit +finds Dante alive in the flesh and he in turn on account of the +impalpability of the shade clasps only empty air. But there is mutual +recognition. Dante asks his newly-found friend Casella, the musician, to +sing as he used to do when his sweet voice soothed the troubled heart of +the poet and banished his cares. "May it please thee therewith to solace +awhile my soul that with its mortal form, journeying here, is sore +distressed." Casella's answer is as loving as it is surprising. He sings +one of Dante's canzoni and the whole party listen with intent delight +finally broken by the chiding words of Cato:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"What is this ye laggard spirits?</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">What negligence, what standing still is this?</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Run to the mountain to strip off the slough</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That lets not God be manifest to you."</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(II, 117.)</span><br /> +</p> + + +<p>At the foot of the mountain the poets meet a troop of spirits who, +though excommunicated, died contrite. For their delay in submitting to +the Church for absolution they must wait thirty times as long as the +period of their excommunication. One of them, King Manfred, Chief of the +Ghibellines, son of Emperor Frederick II,<a name="page175" id="page175" ></a><span class="pagenum">175</span> tells of his last moment +conversion and also how the Bishop of Cosenza at the word of Pope +Clement IV, enforcing the penalty of excommunication against the corpse +of the king, had it removed from the Papal realm and thrown into the +river Verde.</p> + +<p>In narrating how a Christian may be saved even if he died under the ban +of the Church, Dante is only expressing what every Catholic knows as to +the effect of excommunication. This ecclesiastical censure incurred by a +contumacious member of the Church, a censure entailing forfeiture of all +rights and privileges common to a Christian, such as the right to the +sacraments,—a right restored through the confessor, however, whenever +there is danger of death—the right to public service and prayers, the +right to jurisdiction, and to benefices, the right to the canonical +forum, to social intercourse and to Christian burial, this censure of +excommunication does not in the mind of the Church carry with it +exclusion from Purgatory or Heaven.</p> + +<p>According to a principle of canon law applied to censures, <i>Ecclesia de +internis non judicat</i>, the Church in the matter of crime does not +concern itself with interior dispositions, excommunication far from +being a sentence of damnation in the next world, is a penalty pertaining +to the external forum of the Church in this life. Even if the<a name="page176" id="page176" ></a><span class="pagenum">176</span> penalty +follows the corpse so far as to exclude it from Christian burial, even +here the purpose of the Church is not to pronounce a verdict of the loss +of the contumacious soul in the Hereafter, but to stigmatize among the +living, the memory of the person and so to inspire in them a hatred of +the evil condemned and a respect for law. The story of Manfred now +follows:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"And one of them began: 'Whoe'er thou art,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thus going turn thine eyes, consider well</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">If e'er thou saw me in the other world'</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I turned me tow'rds him, and looked at him closely;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Blond was he, beautiful, and of noble aspect,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But one of his eyebrows had a blow divided.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">When with humility I had disclaimed</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">E'er having seen him, 'Now behold,' he said.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And showed me high upon his breast a wound.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Then said he with a smile: 'I am Manfredi,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The grandson of the Empress Costanza;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Therefore, when thou returnest, I beseech thee</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Go to my daughter beautiful, the mother</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of Sicily's honor and of Aragon's,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And the truth tell her, if aught else be told.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">After I had my body lacerated</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">By these two mortal stabs, I gave myself</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Weeping to Him, who willingly doth pardon.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Horrible my iniquities had been;</span><br /><a name="page177" id="page177" ></a><span class="pagenum">177</span> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But Infinite Goodness hath such ample arms,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That it receives whatever turns to it,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Had but Cosenza's pastor, who in chase</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of me was sent by Clement at that time,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In God read understandingly this page,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The bones of my dead body still would be</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">At the bridge-head, near unto Benevento,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Under the safeguard of the heavy cairn.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Now the rain bathes and moveth them the wind,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Beyond the realm, almost beside the Verde,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Where he transported them with tapers quenched.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">By malison of theirs is not so lost</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Eternal Love, that it cannot return,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">So long as hope has anything of green.'"</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(III, 105.)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Following the directions given by Manfred and his companions our +travelers continue their way upward until they reach a broad ledge cut +out in the side of the mountain. While resting here Dante sees a spirit +whom he recognizes as Balaqua, a maker of musical instruments, whose +laziness was a byword in Florence. Our poet who knew the man intimately +had often upbraided him for his indolence. It is said that to excuse +himself in the days of his mortal life, Balaqua quoted a line of +Aristotle: "By sitting down and resting the soul is rendered wise," to +which Dante retorted:<a name="page178" id="page178" ></a><span class="pagenum">178</span> "Certainly if one becomes wise by sitting down +none was ever so wise as thou." Now in Purgatory there is amused +indulgence upon Dante's part as he addresses his former fellow citizen +"sitting and clasping his knees, holding his face down between them, +lazier than if sloth were his very sister" (IV, 10).</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"His sluggish attitude and his curt words</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A little unto laughter moved my lips</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Then I began: 'Balaqua I grieve not</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For thee henceforth; but tell me wherefore seated</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In this place art thou? Waitest thou an escort?</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Or has thy usual habit seized upon thee?'</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And he: 'O brother, what's the use of climbing?</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Since to my torment would not let me go</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The angel of the Lord who sitteth at the gate.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">First heaven must needs so long revolve me round</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Outside thereof, as in my life it did,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Since the good sighs I to the end postponed,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Unless e'er that some prayer may bring me aid</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Which rises from a heart that lives in grace."</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(IV, 120.)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Unless assisted by the prayer of the sinless faithful upon earth, +Balaqua and his class must stay in Outer-Purgatory, each for a term +equal<a name="page179" id="page179" ></a><span class="pagenum">179</span> to the period of his natural life. The third and the fourth +classes in Outer-Purgatory, viz., those who died of violence, deferring +their repentance to the last hour, and kings and princes who because of +temporal concerns of state put off their conversion to the last—all +those also must remain in Outer-Purgatory for a period equal to that of +their lives upon earth, unless the time be shortened by intercessory +prayer. It is to be noted that the souls of the violently slain press so +closely and so insistently about Dante in their eagerness to obtain his +good offices in favor of prayerful intercession for them by their +friends upon earth that he has great difficulty in getting away from +these souls. He succeeds by making promises to execute their +desires—comparing his difficulty of advancing to the trouble a winner +at dice experiences when bystanders crowd about him in obstructive +congratulations and make his way impracticable until he gives some of +his winnings to this one, and some to that one.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"When from their game of dice men separate</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">He who hath lost remains in sadness fix'd,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Revolving in his mind what luckless throws</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">He cast; but meanwhile all the company</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Go with the other; one before him runs,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And one behind his mantle twitches, one</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Fast by his side bids him remember him,</span><br /><a name="page180" id="page180" ></a><span class="pagenum">180</span> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">He stops not, and each one to whom his hand</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Is stretch'd, well knows he bids him stand aside,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And thus he from the crowd defends himself.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">E'en such was I in that close-crowding throng;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And turning so my face around to all,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And promising, I 'scaped from it with pains."</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(VI, 1.)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Higher up the mountain occurs a touching instance of love of country. +Virgil draws near a spirit "praying that it would show us the best +ascent"; and that spirit answered not his demand but of our country and +of our life did ask us. And the sweet Leader (Virgil) began "Mantua ..." +And the shade all rapt in self leaped toward him saying, "O Mantuan, I +am Sordello of thy city. And one embraced the other" (VI, 67). This +episode gives to Dante the opportunity to contrast on the one hand the +love of those two fellow citizens drawn together by no other bond than +affection for their native place and on the other hand hatred with which +living contemporaries rend one another.</p> + +<p>"Ah Italy, thou slave, that gentle spirit was thus quick, merely at the +sweet name of his city, to give greeting there to his fellow citizen and +now in thee thy living abide not without war and one doth rend the other +of those that one wall and one foss shuts in" (VI, 79).</p><p><a name="page181" id="page181" ></a><span class="pagenum">181</span></p> + +<p>As night approaches Sordello leads the poets to the angelically +protected Flowery Valley wherein are found the souls of those rulers who +were negligent of the spiritual life. Many of them were once old enemies +but now they not only sing together but live in harmony, united also in +paying tributes to the worth of some reigning monarchs or in expressing +denunciation at the degeneracy of others. Here in the Valley of the +Princes, while sleeping on the grass and among the flowers, Dante has a +strange dream indicative of a near episode in his journey. He sees an +eagle in the sky with wings wide open and intent upon swooping</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Then wheeling somewhat more, it seemed to me</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Terrible as the lightning he descended</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And snatched me upward even to the (sphere of) fire</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Therein it seemed that he and I were burning,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And the imagined fire did scorch me so</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That of necessity my sleep was broken."</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(IX, 28.)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>He awakes to find himself actually transported up the perpendicular wall +to the entrance Gate of Purgatory. Virgil interprets the dream, pointing +out that the eagle represents Lucia (Illuminating Grace) who has carried +the poet to St. Peter's Gate.</p><p><a name="page182" id="page182" ></a><span class="pagenum">182</span></p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Thou hast at length arrived at Purgatory;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">See there the cliff that closeth it around;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">See there the entrance, where it seems disjoined.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">While at dawn, which doth precede the day,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">When inwardly thy spirit was asleep</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Upon the flowers that deck the land below,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">There came a Lady and said: 'I am Lucia;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Let me take this one up, who is asleep;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">So will I make his journey easier for him.'</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sordello and the other noble shapes</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Remained; she took thee, and, as day grew bright,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Upward she came, and I upon her footprints.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">She laid thee here; and first her beauteous eyes</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That open entrance pointed out to me;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Then she and sleep together went away."</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(IX, 49.)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>The poet, as we said before, cannot enter Purgatory until he mounts the +three steps of confession, contrition and satisfaction. Moreover, he +must receive absolution from the angel-keeper, typical of the priestly +confessor, and he must have seven P's branded upon his forehead. When +this is done the angel opens the gate and Dante enters to the sound of a +thunder-peal from the organ of Heaven, and of voices expressing the joy +of Heaven upon the sinner's doing penance.</p> + +<p>Dante's description, which now follows, of the<a name="page183" id="page183" ></a><span class="pagenum">183</span> lovely art displayed on +the terrace of Pride leads to the reflection that he must have been a +matchless master of visual instruction or at least the representative of +his times, which, before the age of printing, taught the people by means +of pictures painted upon canvas, burnt in glass or chiseled in stone. +Certain it is that the people of Dante's day from seeing the productions +of art knew the Bible and sacred and profane history so well as to amaze +subsequent generations taught from the printed page. Be that as it may, +the power and beauty of Dante's pictures on the terraces of Purgatory +show his consummate knowledge of a principle of psychology very much +operative in our day, a principle which makes character by educating the +will far better than any other pedagogical method. <i>Verba movent, +exampla trahunt</i>, is a principle which Dante illustrates on every +terrace of Purgatory.</p> + +<p>On the terrace of Pride the penitent sees examples of humility carved of +white marble out of the mountain side like Thorwaldsen's Lion, at +Lucerne, Switzerland. Their reality is so compelling that, "not only +Polycletus (the great Greek sculptor) but Nature there would be put to +shame." First to meet the penitent's eyes is the scene of the +Annunciation—the angel Gabriel saluting the Blessed Virgin and +unfolding to her God's plan of making her the Mother of His Son<a name="page184" id="page184" ></a><span class="pagenum">184</span> for the +salvation of mankind. In humility she gives her consent in the words: +"Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to thy +word." That is the attitude in which she is represented in sculpture, +says Dante, an attitude "imprinting those words as expressly as a figure +is stamped in wax" (X, 44). Near that work of art David stands forth in +marble, dancing before the Ark of the Covenant. Trajan, the Roman +emperor, is also seen, interrupting affairs of state to grant a poor +woman a favor. Not only of humility but also of pride are examples +given. Looking down on the pavement over which they slowly walk with +their heavy burdens, the proud have before their eyes the sculptured +punishment of pride as committed by Satan, Briareus, the Giants, Nimrod, +Niobe, Saul and others. Meditating on the loveliness of humility and the +hatefulness of pride, as suggested by those examples and bearing with +prayer the heavy weights imposed upon them for their humiliation and +penance, the proud experience a transformation of disposition wholly +alien to them in the days of their mortality. Among the souls in this +first terrace is Oderisi, who attained such renown as an illuminator of +manuscripts and a painter of miniatures that he boasted that no one +could surpass him. Now he not only is conscious of his former blatant +pride, but in proof of his change of heart he gives full credit<a name="page185" id="page185" ></a><span class="pagenum">185</span> for +superiority to his former pupil and subsequent rival, Franco Bolognese;</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"O," asked I him, "art thou not Oderisi,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Agobbio's honor and honor of that art</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Which is in Paris called illuminating?</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'Brother,' said he, 'more laughing are the leaves</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Touched by the brush of Franco Bolognese.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">All his the honor now, and mine in part,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In sooth I had not been so courteous</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">While I was living, for the great desire</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of excellence on which my heart was bent.'"</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(XI, 79.)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Dante sees here another spirit, Provenzano Salvani. His rapid advance +from Outer Purgatory to Purgatory was due to the merit of a +self-humiliating act performed in favor of a friend. This friend had +been taken prisoner by King Charles of Anjou and was held for ransom of +a thousand florins of gold, the threat being made that if the amount was +not raised within a month he would be put to death. It speaks well for +the tender friendship of Salvani that he put aside all his pride and +arrogance while he took his place in the market square to beg alms with +which to liberate his friend. Dante relates the incident in the +following words; "When he was living in highest glory, in the market +place of Sienna he<a name="page186" id="page186" ></a><span class="pagenum">186</span> stationed himself of his own free will and put away +all shame and there to deliver his friend from the pains he was +suffering in Charles' prison, he brought himself to tremble in every +vein" (XI, 133).</p> + +<p>As the poets enter the terrace of Envy aerial voices proclaim examples +of Brotherly Love. First are heard the words of the Blessed +Virgin:—"They have no wine," words in favor of those who were in need +at the marriage feast, which led Christ to perform his first miracle. +Then as an example of exposing one's self to death for the sake of +another, the incident is recalled of the pagan Pylades feigning himself +to be Orestes to save the latter from death. The voice saying, "Love +those from whom ye have had evil," is an exhortation to the heroic act +of charity of returning good for evil. In contrast with those counsels +of charity, other voices call out direct warnings against envy.</p> + +<p>On this terrace is neither beauty nor art but envy's own color. A livid +hue is the whole landscape. Of this color also are the garments of the +suffering souls. They are depicted one leaning against the other in +mutual love and for mutual support, like beggars sitting at the entrance +of a church to which crowds go for the gaining of an Indulgence. +Pitiable is the scene, for the envious<a name="page187" id="page187" ></a><span class="pagenum">187</span> in expiation for their sin, +which entered their soul through its windows, the eyes, are deprived of +sight, their lids being fastened by a wire suture such as is used for +the taming of a hawk. Dante says of them:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">"I saw,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Shadows with garments dark as was the rock;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And when we pass'd a little forth, I heard</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A crying, 'Blessed Mary! pray for us,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Michael and Peter! all ye saintly host!'</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I do not think there walks on earth this day</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Man so remorseless, that he had not yearn'd</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With pity at the sight that next I saw.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mine eyes a load of sorrow teem'd, when now</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I stood so near them, that their semblance</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Came clearly to my view. Of sackcloth vile</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Their covering seem'd; and, on his shoulder, one</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Did stay another, leaning; and all lean'd</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Against the cliff. E'en thus the blind and poor,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Near the confessionals, to crave an alms,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Stand, each his head upon his fellow's sunk;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">So most to stir compassion, not by sound</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of words alone, but that which moves not less,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The sight of misery. And as never beam</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of noonday visiteth the eyeless man,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">E'en so was heaven a niggard unto these</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of this fair light: for, through the orbs of all,</span><br /><a name="page188" id="page188" ></a><span class="pagenum">188</span> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A thread of wire, impiercing, knits them up,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">As for the taming of a haggard hawk."</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(Canto, XIII, 42.)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>As the poets continue their way over the second terrace Virgil explains +an obscure phrase uttered by Guido del Duca, a soul punished for the sin +of envy. That spirit speaking to Dante reproached mankind for setting +its heart upon material things; "The heavens are calling to you and +wheel around you, displaying unto you their eternal beauties and your +eye gazes only on earth." Envy is consequently engendered because as the +spirit says: "Mankind sets its heart there where exclusion of +partnership is necessary." (XV, 43). "What meant the spirit from Romagna +by mentioning exclusion and partnership?" asks Dante. Virgil proceeds to +tell him that companionship in earthly possessions is not possible, for +the more of any material thing a person has, the less of it remains for +others. Hence envy arises from the very nature of the object which +excludes partnership. On the other hand the more of the spiritual life +one has, the more others participate in knowledge, peace and love, and +this is especially true of the angels and the elect. The greater their +number, the greater is the sum total of grace bestowed by God and the +more each spirit shares his love with others. "The more<a name="page189" id="page189" ></a><span class="pagenum">189</span> spirits there +on high yonder who love, the more there are to love perfectly and the +more do they love each other and as a mirror one reflects back to the +other" (XV, 75).</p> + +<p>This doctrine is expounded until the poets reach the third terrace, +where wrath is punished. Here Dante represents himself as having a +vision wherein he beholds examples of meekness and patience. First he +sees the Finding of the Boy Christ in the temple and hears Mary's gentle +complaint. Then follows the scene of Pisistratus refusing to condemn a +youth for insulting his daughter. The third picture is that of the +stoning of St. Stephen.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Then suddenly I seem'd</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">By an ecstatic vision wrapt away:</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And in a temple saw, methought, a crowd</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of many persons; and at the entrance stood</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A dame, whose sweet demeanor did express</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Another's love, who said, 'Child! why hast thou</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dealt with us thus? Behold thy sire and I</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sorrowing have sought thee;' and so held her peace;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And straight the vision fled. A female next</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Appear'd before me, down whose visage coursed</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Those waters, that grief forces out from one</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">By deep resentment stung who seem'd to say:</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'If thou, Pisistratus, be lord indeed</span><br /><a name="page190" id="page190" ></a><span class="pagenum">190</span> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Over this city, named with such debate</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of adverse gods, and whence each science sparkles,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Avenge thee of those arms, whose bold embrace</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hath clasp'd our daughter;' and to her, me seem'd,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Benigh and meek, with visage undisturb'd,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Her sovereign spake: 'How shall we those requite</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Who wish us evil, if we thus condemn</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The man that loves us?' After that I saw</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A multitude, in fury burning, slay</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With stones a stripling youth, and shout amain</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'Destroy, destroy'; and him I saw, who bow'd</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Heavy with death unto the ground, yet made</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">His eyes, unfolded upward, gates to heaven,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Praying forgiveness of the Almighty Sire,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Amidst that cruel conflict, on his foes,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With looks that win compassion to their aim."</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(Canto, XV, 84.)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>The wrathful are punished by being enveloped in a dense pungent smoke, +emblematic of the stifling caused by angry passions.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Darkness of hell, and of a night deprived</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of every planet under a poor sky,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">As much as may be tenebrous with cloud,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ne'er made unto my sight so thick a veil,</span><br /><a name="page191" id="page191" ></a><span class="pagenum">191</span>> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">As did that smoke which there enveloped us,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Nor to the feeling of so rough a texture;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For not an eye it suffered to stay open;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Whereat mine escort, faithful and sagacious,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Drew near to me and offered me his shoulder.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">E'en as a blind man goes behind his guide,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lest he should wander, or should strike against</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Aught that may harm or peradventure kill him,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">So went I through the bitter and foul air,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Listening unto my Leader, who said only,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'Look that from me thou be not separated.'</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Voices I heard, and every one appeared</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To supplicate for peace and misericord</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The Lamb of God who takes away our sins.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Still <i>Agnus Dei</i> their exordium was;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">One word there was in all, and metre one,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">So that all harmony appeared among them.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'Master,' I said, 'are spirits those I hear?'</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And he to me: 'Thou apprehendest truly,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And they the knot of anger go unloosing.'"</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(Canto, XVI, 1.)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Soon after this our poet hears one of the spirits of the wrathful, +discoursing on the degeneracy of human life and sees in a second series +of visions, historic instances of wrath and its punishment. He is +awakened from his trance by the shining light and the glad summons of the +Angel of meekness, who is at the stair leading to the next terrace.<a name="page192" id="page192" ></a><span class="pagenum">192</span></p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"This is a spirit divine who in the way</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of going up directs us without asking</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And who with his own light himself conceals.</span><br /> +<br /></p> +<hr /> +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Accord we our feet, to such inviting</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Let us make haste to mount ere it grow dark;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For then we could not till the day return."</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(XVII, 55.)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Lightened of the third P the poet passes from the circle of the wrathful +up the fourth stairway. Here he takes the opportunity to engage Virgil +in conversation regarding love as the seed of the capital sins. These +sins, it may be remarked in passing, are not always mortal sins, though +many Dantian editors make the mistake of so classifying them. It is to +be observed that on all the stairways of Purgatory there is a conference +between the two poets on things likely to be of interest to Dante, in +the matter of his salvation. At the end of the present conference Dante +falls into slumber, from which he is aroused by the racing activity of +the souls of the slothful, shouting instances of zeal and energy.</p> + +<p>Sloth is defined by St. Thomas Aquinas as sadness and torpor in the face +of some spiritual good which one has to achieve, and a preacher of our +day modernizes that definition to mean, the "don't-care-feeling" in the +presence of duty. The<a name="page193" id="page193" ></a><span class="pagenum">193</span> sin is unlisted in modern treatises on Ethics, +the writers of which see in its symptoms only indications of +melancholia, neurasthenia or pellagra. But according to the scholastic +classification still followed in this matter by the Catholic Church, +sloth is to be considered as a specific vice opposed to the great +commandment to love God with our whole heart.</p> + +<p>So Dante estimates it in his scheme of punishment, representing the +souls crying out in their diligence, "Haste, haste, let no time be lost +through little love." These souls are condemned to rush round and round +at the topmost speed, those in front proclaiming instances of alacrity, +viz., how the Blessed Virgin hastened to the hill country to visit +Elizabeth and how Julius Caesar hurried to subdue Lerida. Those in the +rear recall examples of sloth, viz., how the Israelites through +wandering in the desert lost the Promised Land, and how the Trojans who +dallied in Sicily gave themselves up to a life inglorious. Dante's +slothful souls are startlingly swift in their action. One of them, the +Abbot Zeno giving directions for ascent to Virgil and reprobating the +sins of his successors in the monastery is out of hearing as soon as he +speaks: "If more be said or if he was silent I know not, so far already +had he raced beyond us" (XVIII, 127).</p> + +<p>The reader will not fail to note that the terrace<a name="page194" id="page194" ></a><span class="pagenum">194</span> of the slothful is +the only circle of Purgatory where there is no request for intercessory +prayer and that Dante here never speaks to any of those souls. Is that +because the poet wishes us to understand that his own sentiment is that +they do not deserve to be prayed for who neglected through sloth to pray +for themselves and that his own silence in their presence is indicative +of his disregard for souls so stained?</p> + +<p>To foreshow the sins to be treated on the three upper terraces, where +are punished those who yielded to the sins of the body, Dante represents +himself as tempted by a Siren. She is described as ugly and repulsive +and then becoming, under the gaze of the beholder, fair and alluringly +attractive—a description, perhaps, unconsciously reproduced by Pope +when he wrote:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Vice is a monster of so frightful mien</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">As to be hated needs but to be seen.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">We first endure, then pity, then embrace."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Saved from the Siren by a noble lady (perhaps Lucia, Illuminating Grace) +and Virgil, the poet is brooding upon the dream which has brought to his +senses the pleasures of the world, when his guide admonishes him how +salvation from sin's seduction is to be had—viz., by using worldly<a name="page195" id="page195" ></a><span class="pagenum">195</span> +things as things to be trodden under foot, while the mind is raised to +Heaven, God's lure to draw it upward.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Didst thou behold, that old enchantress</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Who sole above us henceforth is lamented?</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Didst thou behold how man is free from her?</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Suffice it thee, and smite earth with thy heels,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thine eyes lift upward to the lure, that whirls</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The Eternal King with revolutions vast."</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(XIX, 58.)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>On the fifth terrace our poets find the shades of the avaricious and the +prodigals. They lie face to the ground, bound hand and foot, recalling +during the night instances of avarice and during the day proclaiming the +praise of liberality, as manifested in the Blessed Virgin, the pagan +Fabricius and St. Nicholas. The latter is identified in the United +States and some other countries, with the popular Santa Claus. Dante +says of St. Nicholas that "the spirit went on to speak of the bounty +which Nicholas gave to the maidens, to lead their youth to honor" (XX, +32). The allusion is to the legend that this Bishop of Myra secretly +threw at different times into the windows of the home of three destitute +maidens, bags of gold sufficient to provide them with dowries without +which they would have been forced by poverty to a life of shame.<a name="page196" id="page196" ></a><span class="pagenum">196</span></p> +<p>In therealm of the avaricious and the prodigals, Dante addresses one of the +repentent souls: "Spirit, who thou wast and why ye have your backs +turned upward, tell me" (XX, 94).</p> + +<p>The answer of the shade of Pope Adrian IV, who died thirty-nine days +after his election to the supreme pontificate without having been +crowned, is one of the fine passages of the poem.</p> + +<p>"And he to me: 'Why Heaven makes us turn our backs to it, thou +shalt learn: but first know that I was the successor of Peter. +Between Siestri and Chiaveri there rushes down a fair river and +from its name the title of my race takes its proudest distinction. +For one month and a little more I experienced how heavily the great +mantle weighs on him who keeps it out of the mire, so much so that +all the other burdens seem but feathers. My conversion alas! was +tardy; but when I had become the Roman pastor then I discovered how +false life is. In it I found that the heart had no repose nor was +it possible to rise higher in that life; wherefore the desire for +this (immortal life) was kindled in me. Up to that time, I was a +wretched soul and severed from God, wholly given up to Avarice. Now +as thou seest I am punished for it here. What is the effect of +Avarice is here made manifest in the purgation of the converted +souls, and the mountain<a name="page197" id="page197" ></a><span class="pagenum">197</span> has no more bitter penalty, as our eyes +fixed on earthly things, were not lifted up on high, even so has +justice sunk them to the ground in this place. Even as Avarice +quenched our love for every good, wherefore our works were lost, so +justice doth hold us fast, bound and seized by feet and hands; and +so long as it shall be the pleasure of the just Lord, so long shall +we lie here motionless and outstretched.'" (XIX, 97.)</p> + +<p>At this point occurs one of those delightful surprises full of realism, +that Dante uses from time to time to heighten the reader's interest. The +poet has just learned that the spirit before him is Pope Adrian IV. At +once Dante falls on his knees to pay homage to the high office of the +Roman Pontiff, and he is about to say according to the conjecture of +Benvenuto "Holy Father, I entreat your holiness to excuse my natural +ignorance, for I was not aware of your being Pope." But the spirit bids +the poet arise, telling him that in the spirit world the dignities and +relations of this life are abolished.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"I on my knees had fallen and wished to speak;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But even as I began and he was aware,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Only by listening, of my reverence,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'What cause,' he said, 'has downward bent thee thus?'</span><br /><a name="page198" id="page198" ></a><span class="pagenum">198</span> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And I told him: 'For your dignity,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Standing, my conscience stung me with remorse.'</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'Straighten thy legs, and upward raise thee, brother,'</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">He answered, 'Err not, fellow servant am I</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With thee and with the others to one power</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">If e'er that holy, evangelic sound</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Which sayeth <i>neque nubent</i>, thou hast heard</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Well canst thou see why in this wise I speak.'"</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(XIX, 127.)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>In this part of Purgatory Dante treats his readers to two other +instances of surprise. The first case which also makes use of the +dramatic quality of suspense, postponing the explanation to the +following canto in order to prolong the eager expectation of the reader, +narrates the occurrence of a wonderful phenomenon, the shaking of the +mountain of Purgatory, accompanied by a harmonious outburst of joyful +thanksgiving.</p> + +<p>"We were striving to surmount the way so far as was permitted to our +power when I felt the mountain quake like a thing which is falling; +whereupon a chill gripped me, as is wont to grip him who is given to +death. Of a surety Delos was not shaken so violently ere Latona made her +nest therein to give birth to heaven's two eyes. Then began on all sides +a shout, such that the<a name="page199" id="page199" ></a><span class="pagenum">199</span> Master drew toward me saying: 'Fear not while I +do guide thee.' <i>Gloria in Excelsis Deo</i> all were saying, by what I +understood from those near by, whose cry could be heard. Motionless we +stood and in suspense, like the shepherds who first heard that hymn, +until the quaking ceased and it was ended. Then we took up again our +holy way, looking at the shades, that lay on the ground already returned +to their wonted plaint. No ignorance, if my memory err not in this, did +ever with so great assault give me yearning for knowledge, I then seemed +to have while pondering: nor by reason of our haste was I bold to ask; +nor of myself could I see aught there; thus I went on timid and +pensive."</p> + +<p>His curiosity is satisfied in an unexpected way. "The natural thirst +which never is sated, save with the water whereof the poor Samaritan +woman asked the grace, was burning within me—and lo, even as Luke +writes to us that Christ appeared to the two who were on the way, +already risen from the mouth of the tomb, a shade appeared to us saying: +'My brothers God give you peace.' Quickly we turned us and Virgil gave +back to him the sign that is fitting thereto. Then began, 'May the true +court that binds me in eternal exile, bring thee peace to the council of +the blest.' 'How,' said he, and meantime we met sturdily, 'If ye are +shades that God deigns not above, who<a name="page200" id="page200" ></a><span class="pagenum">200</span> hath escorted you so far by his +stairs'? And my Teacher: 'If thou lookest at the marks which this man +bears and which the angel outlines clearly wilt thou see 'tis meet he +reign with the good.... Wherefore I was brought from Hell's wide jaws to +guide him and I will guide him onward, so far as my school can lead him. +But tell us, if thou knowest, why the mount gave before such quakings +and wherefore all seemed to shout with one voice down to its soft +base.'"</p> + +<p>It was the very question Dante had been yearning to utter.</p> + +<p>"Thus, by asking did he thread the very needle of my desire and with the +pope alone my thirst was made less fasting."</p> +<hr /> +<p>The spirit, Statius by name, who has just obtained his release from +Purgatorial confinement to ascend to Heaven, states that the earthquake +was not due to natural causes, such as strong dry vapors producing wind, +but was caused by spiritual elements operative upon a soul's completing +the penance and term assigned.</p> + +<p>"It quakes here when some soul feeleth herself cleansed, so that she may +rise up or set forth, to mount on high, and such a shout follows her. Of +the cleansing the will alone gives proof, which fills the soul, all free +to change her cloister, and avails her to will.... And I who have lain<a name="page201" id="page201" ></a><span class="pagenum">201</span> +under this torment five hundred years and more, only now felt free will +for a better threshold. Therefore didst thou feel the earthquake and +hear the pious spirits about the mount give praises to the Lord."</p> +<hr /> +<p>This Statius was a Roman poet who died in the year 96. His term in +Purgatory therefore has lasted a little more than eleven centuries. The +next longest period mentioned by Dante is that of Duke Hugh Capet who +has been in Purgatory over 350 years with his purification still +incomplete. Statius by Dante's poetic invention is represented first as +saved through the influence of Virgil's poems and then is shown to be a +Christian, having been led to embrace Christianity both from the heroic +example of the martyrs and from his meditation on Virgil's prophecy of +the Cumæan Sibyl interpreted in the Middle Ages to refer to Christ. In +the Divina Commedia Statius pays a glowing tribute to the Æneid and its +author, wholly ignorant that he is addressing Virgil himself. "Of the +Æneid I speak which was a mother to me and was to me a nurse in poesy +... and to have lived yonder when Virgil was alive, I would consent to +one sun more than I need perform." Dante is all aquiver to surprise +Statius with the information that Virgil is at hand, "but Virgil turned +to me with a look that silently said, 'be silent.'"<a name="page202" id="page202" ></a><span class="pagenum">202</span></p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">"But the power which wills</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bears not supreme control: laughter and tears</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Follow so closely on the passion prompts them,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">They wait not for the motions of the will</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In nature most sincere. I did but smile,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">As one who winks; and thereupon the shade</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Broke off, and peer'd into mine eyes, where best</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Our looks interpret. 'So to good event</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mayst thou conduct such great emprize,' he cried,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'Say, why across thy visage beam'd, but now,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The lightning of a smile.' On either part</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Now am I straiten'd; one conjures me speak,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The other to silence binds me; whence a sigh</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I utter, and the sigh is heard. 'Speak on,'</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The teacher cried 'and do not fear to speak:</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But tell him what so earnestly he asks.'</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Whereon I thus: 'Perchance, O ancient spirit</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thou marvel'st at my smiling. There is room</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For yet more wonder. He, who guides my ken</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">On high, he is that Mantuan, led by whom</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thou didst presume of men and gods to sing.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">If other cause thou deem'dst for which I smiled,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Leave it as not the true one: and believe</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Those words, thou spakest of him, indeed the cause.'</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Now down he bent to embrace my teacher's feet;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But he forbade him: 'Brother! do it not:</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thou art a shadow, and behold'st a shade.'</span><br /><a name="page203" id="page203" ></a><span class="pagenum">203</span> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">He, rising, answer'd thus: 'Now hast thou proved</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The force and ardor of the love I bear thee,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">When I forget we are but things of air,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And, as a substance, treat an empty shade.'"</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(XXI, 106.)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>On the sixth terrace Dante with five P's removed, accompanied by Virgil +sees the souls of those who sinned by gluttony. They are an emaciated +crowd obliged to pass and repass before a fruit-laden tree bedewed with +clear water from a fountain, without being able to satisfy their hunger +or quench their thirst. Voices from this tree proclaim examples of +temperance; voices from another tree equally tantalizing, declare +examples of gluttony.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"People I saw beneath it (the tree) lift their hands</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And cry I know not what towards the leaves,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Like little children eager and deluded,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Who pray, and he they pray to doth not answer</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But, to make very keen their appetite</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Holds their desire aloft and hides it not.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Then they departed as if undeceived."</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(XXIV, 106.)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Here Dante recognizes among the gaunt attenuated figures of the +penitents, Forese Donati, his<a name="page204" id="page204" ></a> +<span class="pagenum">204</span> intimate friend and kinsman of his wife +Gemma. Our poet was surprised to find him so soon after his death on one +of the terraces of Purgatory, the assumption being that because of his +delay of conversion to the end of his life Forese would be in Outer +Purgatory for a term equal in duration to the length of his life on +earth. But the reason he had come so quickly to Purgatory is to be found +in the efficacy of the prayers of his widow for the repose of his +soul.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Then answered he: 'That now I wander reaping</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The bitter sweat of all this punishment</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">My Nella gained for me, her vigil keeping</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In prayer devout and infinite lament.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thus, here, beyond that shore of waiting sent,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I landed, from the lower circles freed.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And that more dear to God omnipotent</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lives on my little widow, is the meed</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of the lone life she spends in many a saintly deed.'"</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(XXXIII, 85.)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Before ascending to the seventh and last terrace Dante describes how +the angel of abstinence removed the sixth P.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"And as the harbinger of early dawn,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The air of May doth move and breathe out fragrance</span><br /><a name="page205" id="page205" ></a><span class="pagenum">205</span> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Impregnate all with herbage and with flowers,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">So did I feel a breeze strike in the midst</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">My front, and felt the moving of the plumes</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That breathed around an odor of ambrosia;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And heard it said; Blessed are they whom grace</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">So much illumines that the love of taste</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Excites not in their breasts too great desire,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hungering at all times so far as is just."</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(XXIV, 145.)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>And now our penitent as he reaches the seventh terrace, where sins +against the virtue of purity are expiated, enters upon the last stage of +his purification. Here the spirits pass and repass through the midst of +intensely hot flames, proclaiming examples of chastity. It is worthy of +note that this terrace is the only place in Dante's Purgatory where fire +is the punitive agent—a conception of our poet all the more remarkable +because it runs counter to the view commonly held by the churchmen in +the West, including St. Augustine, St. Gregory the Great, St. Thomas +Aquinas, St. Bonaventure, who teach that fire is the cleansing element +of all Purgatory. That indeed is only a theological opinion. The Church +itself, as the Greeks were assured at the Council of Florence, has never +put forth any dogmatic decree on the subject.</p> + +<p>Bidden by the angel to enter the fire, Dante<a name="page206" id="page206" ></a><span class="pagenum">206</span> draws back paralysed with +fear. Scenes of burning at the stake come with horror to his mind. He +probably recalls also that Florence had condemned him to be burned +alive. So, for the first time in Purgatory he recoils at the penance he +must perform. Impassionately Virgil exhorts him. The stubborn pupil +yields only at the utterance of Beatrice's name. For love of her he will +endure the flame.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"The Mantuan spake: 'My son,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Here torment thou mayst feel, but canst not death.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Remember thee, remember thee, if I</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Safe e'en on Geryon brought thee; now I come</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">More near to God, wilt thou not trust me now?</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of this be sure; though in its womb that flame</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A thousand years contain'd thee, from thy head</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No hair should perish. If thou doubt my truth,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Approach; and with thy hands thy vesture's hem</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Stretch forth, and for thyself confirm belief.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lay now all fear, oh! lay all fear aside.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Turn hither, and come onward undismay'd.'</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I still, though conscience urged, no step advanced.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">When still he saw me fix'd and obstinate,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Somewhat disturb'd he cried: 'Mark now, my son,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">From Beatrice thou art by this wall</span><br /><a name="page207" id="page207" ></a><span class="pagenum">207</span> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Divided.' As at Thisbe's name the eye</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of Pyramus was open'd (when life ebb'd</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Fast from his veins) and took one parting glance,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">While vermeil dyed the mulberry; thus I turned</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To my sage guide, relenting, when I heard</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The name that springs for ever in my breast.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">He shook his forehead; and, 'How long,' he said,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'Linger we now'? then smiled, as one would smile</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Upon a child that eyes the fruit and yields.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Into the fire before me then he walk'd;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And Statius, who erewhile no little space</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Had parted us, he pray'd to come behind,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I would have cast me into molten glass</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To cool me, when I entered; so intense</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Raged the conflagrant mass. The sire beloved,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To comfort me, as he proceeded, still</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of Beatrice talk'd. 'Her eyes,' saith he,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'E'en now I seem to view.' From the other side</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A voice, that sang did guide us; and the voice</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Following, with heedful ear, we issued forth,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">There where the path led upward. 'Come,' we heard,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'Come blessed of my Father.'"</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(Canto, XXVII, 20.)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>On emerging from the fire and on the very threshold of the Garden of +Eden, Dante is addressed<a name="page208" id="page208" ></a><span class="pagenum">208</span> by Virgil, no longer competent to guide him +higher. The Mantuan in touching words tells his disciple that having +passed through Purgatory he needs no other guide than his own will, +upright and sound, until he passes under the tutelage of Beatrice.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"The temporal fire and the eternal</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Son, thou hast seen, and to a place art come</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Where of myself no farther I discern.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">By intellect and art I here have brought thee;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Take thine own pleasure for thy guide henceforth;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Beyond the steep ways and the narrow art thou.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Expect no more or word or sign from me;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Free and upright and sound is thy free will,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And error were it not to do its bidding</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thee o'er thyself I therefore crown and mitre."</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(XXVII, 127.)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Brother Azarias gives us the mystical sense of this passage. "The soul +has conquered; therefore Virgil leaves the poet free from the dominion +of his passions; more than free, a king crowned triumphant over himself; +more than a king, a mitred priest, ruling the cloister of his heart, his +thoughts and his affections and mediator and intercessor before Divine +Mercy for himself and<a name="page209" id="page209" ></a><span class="pagenum">209</span> those commending themselves to his prayers."</p> + +<p>So crowned and mitred over himself Dante now enters the Garden of Eden.</p> + +<p>"Here did the parents of mankind dwell in innocence; here is there +perpetual spring and every fruit."</p> + +<p>In the forest of Eden is a pure stream with two currents, Lethe and +Eunoe, "the first has the power of all past sins the memory to erase, +the other can restore remembrance of good deeds and pious days." On the +banks of this stream the poet sees Matilda, who represents the Active +Life.</p> + +<p>"There appeared to me a lady all alone who went along singing and +selecting from among the flowers wherewith all her path was enamelled" +... suddenly "the lady turned completely round towards me, saying, 'My +Brother, look and listen'" (XXIX, 15). A solemn chant is heard, a +wonderful light is seen. It is a pageant representing the return of +mankind to Eden through membership in the Church.</p> + +<p>First come, shedding heavenly light, the seven mystical candlesticks, +symbolic of the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost or the seven sacraments of +the Church. Next follow twenty-four ancients representating the books of +the Old Testament. Then are seen the four prophetic animals symbolizing +the four Evangelists. Christ drawing a chariot representing the Church, +the<a name="page210" id="page210" ></a><span class="pagenum">210</span> central figure of the pageant, advances under the form of the +fabulous griffin, half eagle and half lion, typifying the two-fold +nature of our Lord. On the right side of the chariot, dancing are three +nymphs, the theological virtues, Faith, Hope and Charity. On the left +side are four other nymphs—the cardinal virtues, Prudence, Justice, +Fortitude and Temperance. Next come two old men, dignified and grave, +St. Paul and St. Luke, who are followed by four others representing +other books of the New Testament viz., the Epistles of St. James, St. +Peter, St. John and St. Jude. The rear guard is an aged Solitary +symbolic of the Apocalypse.</p> + +<p>"And when the chariot was opposite to me" writes Dante, "a clap of +thunder was heard; and those worthy folk seemed to have their further +march forbidden, and halted there with the first ensign" (XXIX, 153).</p> + +<p>What is the meaning of this symbolic procession so common to Dante's +day, so alien to ours? We have already said that it is a dramatic +representation of the human race finding happiness, finding its Eden in +its membership in the Church. But it, also, is a symbolic lesson for the +individual. Dante, the type of humanity having done penance for his +sins, is about to be received through the sacrament of penance into the +soul of the Church i.e. into the full communion of grace. It is +fitting,<a name="page211" id="page211" ></a><span class="pagenum">211</span> therefore, that the Church should advance to meet him, the +repentant sinner, and should reveal itself to him before receiving him +into its bosom.</p> + +<p>If objection be made that Dante already has been absolved from sin and +in Purgatory has made expiation for his offences, the answer is given by +Ozanam; "At the term of the expiatory course, as at its beginning, to +quit it as well as to enter upon it, we must render submission to a +religious authority and fulfill the conditions without which God does +not treat with us—confession for oblivion, fears for consolation and +shame for definitive rehabilitation." When the pageant comes to a halt +the participants group themselves about the Griffin and the Chariot, by +that act declaring that the goal and object of their desires are +centered in Christ and His Church. Then one of the company by divine +command calls aloud three times to a heavenly being, the spouse of the +Church, to appear and the cry is repeated by the whole company. From the +Chariot arise, as will arise the dead from their graves, a hundred +angels scattering flowers over and around the Chariot and also raising +their voices in the call for the Heavenly Bride. They first sing the +words of the Canticle of Palm Sunday. <i>Benedictus qui venis</i> (Blessed +art thou who comest) and then the beautiful line from the Aeneid: +<i>Manibus o date lilia plenis</i> (Oh! give lilies with full hands).<a name="page212" id="page212" ></a><span class="pagenum">212</span> Then +comes from the clouds through the midst of the flowers showering down +again within and without the Chariot, arrayed in the colors of the three +theological virtues, the object of the invocation.</p> + +<p>"Crowned with olive over a white veil a Lady appeared to me, vestured in +hue of living flame under a green mantle." It is Beatrice, Dante's +beloved, now apotheosized in the personification of Revelation. What +other poet ever dreamed of so glorifying his beloved that for her coming +the natural virtues prepare the way, the supernatural virtues, as +handmaids accompany her to assist us to the understanding of her +doctrine, the angels sing her laudation and she herself in the role both +of unveiler of the Scriptures of the Prophets and the Apostles and the +mystical Bride of the Canticles is worthy to be called "O Light, O Glory +of the human race?"</p> + +<p>Dante before seeing her face, recognizes her by some mysterious instinct +of love, recognizes her after a lapse according to fiction of ten years, +but in reality of twenty-four years since her death.</p> + +<p>To Virgil, Dante turns to tell the joyous news but Virgil has gone and +tears course down the face of his disciple.</p> + +<p>"Dante," says Beatrice, "weep not that Virgil leaves thee, nay weep thou +not yet, for thou wilt have to weep for another wound." Awed by her<a name="page213" id="page213" ></a><span class="pagenum">213</span> +appearance, he is taken back by her greeting. The mere thought of her +loveliness uplifted him in the world. The hope of seeing her carried him +through the horrors of Hell and the penance of Purgatory. Crowned and +mitred over himself he came to Eden to meet her. And she has only +reproaches for him. Particularly to the angels does she tell the story +of his defection from the high ideals which she inspired in him. "This +man was such in his new life potentially that every good talent would +have made wondrous increase in him—(but) so low sank he that all means +for his salvation were already short save showing him the lost people. +For this I visited the portal of the dead and to him who has guided him +up hither, weeping my prayers were borne. God's high decree would be +broken if Lethe were passed and such viands were tasted, without some +sort of penitence that may shed tears."</p> + +<p>To her lover she turns for confirmation of the truth of her words: "Say, +say if this is true; to such accusation thy confession must be joined."</p> + +<p>"Confusion and fear together mingled, drove forth from my mouth a +'Yea,'" a monosyllable of confession which showed the depth of his +shame.</p> + +<p>But it is the sight of the superhuman beauty of Beatrice which completes +his contrition and resuscitates<a name="page214" id="page214" ></a><span class="pagenum">214</span> his love so as to fit him to pass +through the waters of the Lethe.</p> + +<p>"My eyes beheld Beatrice, turned toward the animal (the Griffin) that is +One Person only (Christ) in twofold nature (i.e. God and man). Under her +veil and on the far side of the stream she seemed to me to surpass more +her ancient self, than she surpassed the others here when she was with +us. So much remorse gnawed at my heart that I fell vanquished and what I +then became she knoweth who gave me the cause." (XXXI, 82.)</p> + +<p>When he recovers consciousness he finds his immersion in the Lethe in +progress by Matilda. Then he is led to Beatrice by the four nymphs (the +cardinal virtues) and at the request of the three nymphs who typify the +theological virtues she smiles upon him.</p> + +<p>"The fair lady (Matilda) dipped me where I must needs swallow of the +water, then drew me forth and led me, bathed, within the dance of the +four fair ones, and each did cover me with her arm. 'Here we are nymphs +and in heaven are stars. Ere Beatrice descended to the world, we were +ordained for her handmaids: we will lead thee to her eyes: but the three +on the other side who deeper gaze will sharpen thine eyes to the joyous +light that is within."</p> + +<p>Beholding the glorified beauty of Beatrice<a name="page215" id="page215" ></a><span class="pagenum">215</span> wholly inexpressible, Dante +is in such rapture that he is oblivious of everything else.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Mine eyes with such an eager coveting</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Were bent to rid them of their ten years' thirst</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No other sense was waking; and e'en they</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Were fenced on either side from heed of aught:</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">So tangled, in its custom'd toils, that smile</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of saintly brightness drew it to itself."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>When our poet comes out of his rapture, the Chariot and the mystical +company are moving to a tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil +which according to a beautiful tradition has become the Cross of Christ, +the tree of salvation. To that tree is attached the Chariot which Christ +(the Griffin) now leaves to enter Heaven again with the ancients and the +angels. Beatrice remains with the seven nymphs to guard the Chariot (the +Church). Up to this point the picture of the Church has been one of +peace and happiness. Now with prophetic eye the poet beholds the +tribulations which the Church will suffer from without and within. The +description of the vision and the explanation of the symbolism are so +well set forth by Ozanam that I quote his words unable to improve upon +them, as I also share his<a name="page216" id="page216" ></a><span class="pagenum">216</span> view as to the unwarranted severity here of +Dante's censures of the Church.</p> + +<p>"An eagle falls like lightning upon the tree, from which he tears the +bark, and upon the car, which bends beneath his weight. Then comes a fox +which finds its way within, and then a portion is torn off by a dragon +that issues from the gaping earth. Thus far it is easy to recognize the +persecutions of the Roman emperors which so harried the Church, the +heresies by which it was desolated, and the schisms by which it was +torn. Soon, the eagle reappeared, less menacing but not less dangerous; +he shook his plumes above the sacred car, which speedily underwent a +monstrous transformation. From divers parts of it arose seven heads +armed with ten horns; a courtesan was seated in the midst; a giant stood +at her side, exchanging with her impure caresses which he interrupted to +scourge her cruelly. Then, cutting loose the metamorphosed car, he bears +it away, and is lost with it in the depths of the forest.</p> + +<p>"Is not this again the Church, enriched, by the gifts of princes who +have become her protectors, sadly marred in appearance, sundry of her +members defiled by the taint of the seven capital sins, and herself +ruled over by unworthy pontiffs? Is not this the court of Rome, +exchanging criminal flatteries with the temporal power, which flatteries +are to be followed by cruel injuries, when the<a name="page217" id="page217" ></a><span class="pagenum">217</span> Holy See, torn from the +foot of the cross of the Vatican, is transferred to a distant land, on +the banks of a foreign river? But these ills will not be without end nor +without retribution. The tree that lost and that saved the world cannot +be touched with impunity, and if the Church has been made militant here +below, it is with the liability of suffering from passing reverses, but +also with the assurance of final victory."</p> + +<p>Dante's own eternal victory is now assured, Beatrice directs Matilda to +lead him to the Eunoe, whose waters will regenerate him and fit him to +ascend to Paradise. "Behold, Eunoe which gushes forth yonder, lead him +thereto and as thou art wont, revive in him again his fainting powers."</p> + +<p>The poem closes with an address to the reader:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"If, Reader, I possessed a longer space</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For writing it, I yet would sing in part</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of the sweet draught that ne'er would satiate me;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But inasmuch as full are all the leaves</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Made ready for this second canticle,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The curb of art no farther lets me go.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">From the most holy water I returned</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Regenerate, in the manner of new trees</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That are renewed with a new foliage,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Pure and disposed to mount unto the stars."</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(Purg., XXXIII, 136.)</span><br /> +</p><p><a name="page218" id="page218" ></a><span class="pagenum">218</span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="page219" id="page219" ></a><span class="pagenum">219</span></p> +<br /><p><a name="page220" id="page220" ></a><span class="pagenum">220</span></p> + +<h2><a name="DANTES_PARADISO" id="DANTES_PARADISO"></a>DANTE'S PARADISO</h2> +<p><a name="page221" id="page221" ></a><span class="pagenum">221</span></p> +<p>Of Dante's trilogy the Paradiso is truly his "medieval miracle of song," +the supreme achievement of his genius. Here the poetry of the sublime +reaches its highest point—the summit on which Dante is a lonely and +unchallenged figure. "No uninspired hand," says Cardinal Manning, "has +ever written thoughts so high in words, so resplendent, as the last +stanza of the Divina Commedia." It was said of St. Thomas: "<i>Post Summam +Thomæ nihil restat nisi lumen gloriæ</i>." It may be said of Dante: "<i>Post +Dantis Paradisum nihil restat nisi visio Dei.</i>" ("After Dante's Paradiso +nothing remains but the vision of God.")</p> + +<p>Shelley's tribute to the supremacy of Dante's Heaven is no less +beautiful: "Dante's apotheosis of Beatrice and the gradations of his own +love and her loveliness by which, as by steps, he feigns himself to have +ascended to the throne of the Supreme Cause, is the most glorious +imagination of modern poetry."</p> + +<p>Ruskin says: "Every line of the Paradiso is full of the most exquisite +and spiritual expressions of Christian truths and the poem is only less +read<a name="page222" id="page222" ></a><span class="pagenum">222</span> than the Inferno because it requires far greater attention and +perhaps, for its full enjoyment, a holier heart."</p> + +<p>That Dante's Inferno is more popular reading than his Paradiso is due to +the fact that evil and its consequences offer to the artist richer +material for dramatic fascination and to the reader more lively interest +in characters intensely human, than does the less sensational story of +the Elects finding peace and happiness in a realm transcending the +experiences of human nature. Dante's Purgatorio also finds a wider +circle of readers because his penitents, suffering, struggling and +aspiring, like people upon earth, have more human traits and exhibit +more human interest than the saints confirmed in grace against human +weakness.</p> + +<p>Another reason for lesser interest manifested in this part of the Divina +Commedia is the difficulty and obscurity of the Paradiso. It is not easy +reading, because it requires study, repetition, concentration, +meditation, qualities absent from the art of reading as it prevails +today. If we ever have time to look at a book, the habit of skimming +with inattentive rapidity so urges us onward that we find ourselves +flitting from page to page, from chapter to chapter, panting and +uninstructed. And if we belong to the bookless majority who have no time +to read, we rush to the moving picture theatre to get our mental +pabulum—often a<a name="page223" id="page223" ></a><span class="pagenum">223</span> season's best seller—boiled down, served in +rapid-fire order and bolted in the twinkling of an eye. For all such +Dante's Paradiso is an intellectual as well as a spiritual impossibility +and the poet begs such not to follow him on his voyage to the eternal +kingdom.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Oh ye who in some pretty little boat</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Eager to listen, have been following</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Behind my ship, that singing sails along,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Turn back to look again upon your shores;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In losing me, you might yourselves be lost.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The sea I sail has never yet been passed.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Minerva breathes, and pilots me Apollo,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And Muses nine point out to me the Bears.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ye other few, who have the neck uplifted</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Betimes to th' bread of Angels upon which</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">One liveth here and grows not sated by it,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Well may you launch upon the deep salt-sea</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Your vessel, keeping still my wake before you</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Upon the water that grows smooth again.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Those glorious ones who unto Colchos passed</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Were not so wonder-struck as you shall be,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">When Jason they beheld a ploughman made."</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(II, 1.)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>The song which Dante sings in the Paradiso is the eternal happiness of +man in vision, love and<a name="page224" id="page224" ></a><span class="pagenum">224</span> enjoyment united to his Creator. In preparation +for this final consummation the poet, as he ascends to the Empyrean, +gives a most beautiful epitome of the principal mysteries of religion +and of some of the tenets of scholastic philosophy, treating especially +the Fall of Man, Predestination, Free Will, the Redemption, the +Immortality of the Soul and the theory of Human Knowledge. Allegorically +considered, the poem is a veil, under which we see the ideal life of man +upon earth, exercising virtue and gaining virtue's rewards.</p> + +<p>To exhibit man's supreme, happiness in the next life, the Christian +poet, insisting that his purpose is the inculcation of truth, both to +save and to adorn the soul, must base his theme upon the doctrines of +the Church. The definition of some of those dogmas Dante anticipated. +All may be summed up in the following statement:</p> + +<p>"It is of Catholic faith that the souls of the blessed see God directly +and face to face and this vision is Supernatural; that there are degrees +of this vision, corresponding to the merits of the elect; that to see +God in His Essence, the intellect is supernaturally perfected; that the +Beatific Vision is not deferred to the Day of Judgment, but is possessed +at once after death but the Just, in whom there is no stain of sin or +who have no temporal punishment to be expiated; and, furthermore,<a name="page225" id="page225" ></a><span class="pagenum">225</span> that +all human beings at the end of the world will arise with their own +bodies."</p> + +<p>How will the poet bring home those incomprehensible truths to his +readers? He has to treat a subject wholly transcendent and supernatural. +Though his vision be celestial, his langauge must be terrestrial. He +must visualize states of the soul which are alien to the eyes of the +body and translate into terms of the senses things which are wholly +non-sensuous. Dante is aware that no poet ever essayed that feat before: +"The sea I sail has never yet been passed." (1, 8.) He knows, also, that +shoals and rocks, seemingly impassable and a sea which may engulf his +genius, are before him. "It is no coastwise voyage for a little barque, +this sea through which the intrepid prow goes cleaving nor for a pilot +who would spare himself." (XXIII, 67.)</p> + +<p>And yet he will attempt the impossible, he will endeavor to sing not of +the scenes but of the states of suprasensible spiritual joys—joys which +Bishop Norris says "are without example, above experience and beyond +imagination, for which the whole creation wants a comparison, we an +apprehension and even the word of God, a revelation." Conscious of all +that, Dante confesses the impotency of speech, the inadequacy of memory, +the helplessness of imagination for the task to which he sets himself. +He tells us<a name="page226" id="page226" ></a><span class="pagenum">226</span> + that the sublime songs of the elect "have lapsed and fallen +out of my memory"—"that to represent and transhumanize in words +impossible were." (I, 71.)</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"And what was the sun wherein I entered,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Apparent, not by color, but by light</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I, though I call on genius, art and practice</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cannot so tell that it could be imagined."</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(X, 41.)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>So by the very nature of the subject visualization can be only +partial—only "the shadow of the blessed realm," can be shown. But what +human nature can do, even if its feat seems solitary and unique, Dante +has accomplished in a failure which constitutes the most wonderful +achievement in the domain of the sublime in literature, an achievement +leaving us with a sense of his own ineffable bliss and of the +inexpressible joys of the Elect—an achievement which came to pass, say +some readers, because his poem is an account of a supernatural +vision—and Dante hints that he thinks he was so favored, or because it +is a work to which both heaven and earth have set their hand, showing +him, as Emerson observes, "all imagination," or, as James Russell Lowell +says, "The highest spiritual nature which has expressed itself in +rhythmical form."<a name="page227" id="page227" ></a><span class="pagenum">227</span> +</p> + +<p>There are two methods of representing man's supreme happiness, relative +and absolute: one is to depict nature at her best, untouched by sin, and +to show man free from every defect and blemish, in the full perfection +of his being. Naturally the imagery in this case is the imagery born of +finite human experiences. The other method describes, as we said, not +scenes of happiness but transcendent conditions of the soul as it is +brought into ultimate communion with Supreme Goodness—the finite +possessing and enjoying the Infinite. Here the human mind, let us repeat +it, finds earthly images powerless to translate its thought, for it hath +not entered into the heart of man to conceive the glory of the spiritual +world. These two methods Dante follows successively.</p> + +<p>His Eden on the summit of Purgatory is literally the earthly Paradise of +Adam and Eve. It is pictured in moving imagery as man's "native country +of delights," a "lofty garden" of ineffable loveliness, high above all +the physical and moral disturbances of earth, its waters, its winds, its +flowers and its music all coming from supernatural sources, its bliss +springing from the perfect harmony of man's animal, intellectual and +spiritual powers in full and perfect accord with reason. It is Paradise +Regained by man's climbing the mountain of Purgatory, and its +significance is understood if we remember that Dante would teach<a name="page228" id="page228" ></a><span class="pagenum">228</span> + us +that the present life can be made dual, a life worth while in itself, +full of service and godliness as well as a preparation for the unending +life of Heaven.</p> + +<p>For Dante there must be, also, the Celestial Paradise where man's +supernatural destiny will be realized in joys which the eye has not seen +and in music which the ear has not heard. His Paradiso has been called +the Ten Heavens, but in reality there is in his plan only one Heaven, +the Empyrean, the abode of the angels, of the blessed spirits and of +God. It is high above the planets and the stars, beyond time and space. +The Church has never answered the question: Where is Heaven? +Theologians, however, have put forth various opinions. "Some say," +writes Father Honthein, that "Heaven is everywhere, as God is +everywhere, the blessed being free to move freely in every part of the +universe while still remaining with God and seeing Him everywhere." +Others hold that Heaven is "a special place with definite limits. +Naturally this place is held to exist, not within the earth, but in +accordance with the expressions of Scripture, 'without and beyond its +limits.'" (Cath. Encycl., VII, 170.)</p> + +<p>According to Dante's conception, Heaven, being non-spatial and +non-temporal, is not a place but a state of spiritual life. As an aid in +depicting that state he makes use of a unique literary<a name="page229" id="page229" ></a><span class="pagenum">229</span> + device. He +poetically creates nine Heavens, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, +Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, the Fixed Stars, the Primum Mobile or First +Movement. These, according to the Ptolemaic system which our poet +follows, are concentric with the earth, around which as their center +they revolve, while the earth remains fixed and motionless. The motion +of each of these nine spheres, originally coming from the Primum Mobile, +is communicated to it by the love of the angelic guardians, a literal +application of the common saying that "love makes the world go around."</p> + +<p>As a poetic fiction necessary for him to enter finally the true Heaven +Dante is required to pass through these nine spheres, the fiction being +used by him as an artist to declare the glories of the heavens and as a +teacher to inculcate doctrines for the instruction and edification of +mankind. In each of the nine Heavens groups of the blessed are +represented as coming to meet him "as he returns to God as to the port +whence (he) set out when (he) first entered upon the sea of this life."</p> + +<p>This peerless rhetorical figure is explained in the Banquet, where he +says: "As his fellow-citizens come forth to meet him who returns from a +long journey even before he enters the gates of his city; so to the +noble soul come forth the citizens of the eternal Life." This apparition +of the blessed spirits to greet the mystic traveller as he<a name="page230" id="page230" ></a><span class="pagenum">230</span> + mounts from +sphere to sphere has several advantages: "it peoples with hosts of +spirits, the immense lonely spaces through which the journey lies"; it +affords the poet the opportunity of asking them "many things which have +great utility and delight"; it finally gives him a sensible sign of the +degree of beatitude which they possess in that realm of many mansions +where each is rewarded according to his merit and capacity, the capacity +of each spirit being in proportion to its degree of knowledge and love. +This is stressed by the poet's representing the apparitions first as +faint yet beautiful outlines of human features, then as ascent is made +to the other Heavens, the spirits make themselves known by increasing +manifestations of light so dazzling finally that the splendor would +blind Dante if his vision were not divinely adapted to its supernatural +needs.</p> + +<p>The inequalities of bliss are also symbolized by the sphere in which the +spirits appear to him; those in the sphere of the moon, e.g., are less +favored than those in the Heaven of Mercury. The inequality of merit, +and therefore of reward, is also declared by the difference in both the +quickness of the spirits' movement and their clearness of vision into +the essence of God. The Empyrean, it is worth while repeating, is the +only true Paradise, the nine Heavens being only myths or poetic devices. +If<a name="page231" id="page231" ></a><span class="pagenum">231</span> + spirits are seen there, they have come forth only from the Empyrean +and will quickly return there after preparing the poet for the eternal +Light of Light.</p> + +<p>The materials out of which Dante constructs his Paradiso are not, as we +are already aware, fantastic images such as he employed for the first +two parts of the Divina Commedia, but are things of the spirit, viz., +knowledge, beauty, faith, love, joy; and he is aided in making visible +those invisible entities of the spiritual life by such intangible things +as sound, motion and light.</p> + +<p>Light, indeed, is one of the leading elements in the Paradiso. The poem +begins with a reference to the light of God's glory, and its last line +speaks of "the Love which moves the Sun and the other stars." And +between this beginning and this end in thirty-three cantiche light is +represented not only by degrees of increasing intensity and variety of +unlocked for movements but as surrounding the spirits, living flames, +and constituting, symbolically, the beatitude of Heaven.</p> + +<p>Dean Church, in his classic essay on Dante, has a beautiful paragraph +that here calls for quotation: "Light in general is his special and +chosen source of poetic beauty. No poet that we know has shown such +singular sensibility to its varied appearances.... Light everywhere—in +the sky and earth and sea—in the stars, the flames, the lamp, the +gems—broken in the water, reflected<a name="page232" id="page232" ></a><span class="pagenum">232</span> + from the mirror, transmitted +through the glass, or colored through the edge of the fractured +emerald—dimmed in the mist. The halo, the deep water—streaming through +the rent cloud, glowing in the coal, quivering in the lightning, +flashing in the topaz and the ruby, veiled behind the pure alabaster, +mellowed and clouding itself in the pearl-light contrasted with shadow, +shading off and copying itself in the double rainbow like voice and +echo—light seen within light—light from every source and in all its +shapes illuminates, irradiates, gives glory to the Commedia.... And when +he (Dante) rises beyond the regions of earthly day, light, simple and +unalloyed, unshadowed and eternal, lifts the creations of his thought +above all affinity to time and matter; light never fails him, as the +expression of the gradations of bliss; never reappears the same, never +refuses the new shapes of his invention, never becomes confused or dim, +though it is seldom thrown into distinct figure and still more seldom +colored."</p> + +<p>In making light such a central feature of Heaven and symbolically in +identifying light with God and the angels and the blessed, Dante is only +expressing—but expressing beautifully and supremely—the thought which +pagan oracles proclaimed and Holy Writ and the Church made known. From +the earliest ages the sun which vivifies and illuminates the world was +regarded by<a name="page233" id="page233" ></a><span class="pagenum">233</span> + many nations as the symbol of the Deity—and by still other +nations it was adored. The psalmist, addressing God, says: "Thou art +clothed with light as with a garment." (Ps., CIII, 2.) St. Paul declares +that the Lord of Lords "inhabiteth light inaccessible." (1 Tim., VI, +16.) The Seer of Patmos tells us that the heavenly Jerusalem has no need +of the light of the sun and the moon to shine upon it, "for the glory of +God hath enlightened it and the Lamb is the lamp thereof." (Apoc., XX, +23.) "I am the light of the world," declares Christ, and with that +revelation ringing in his ears the Beloved Disciple does not hesitate to +say: "and this is the declaration which we have heard—that God is +light." (I John, I, 5.) In narrating his vision of Heaven, Ezechial +compares the light emanating from and enveloping the Deity, to fire. "I +saw the likeness as of the appearance of fire, as the appearance of +brightness." (XXIV, 17.) Moses on the mountain saw the Lord in the midst +of fire, and on another mountain Christ, "the brightness of his Father's +glory was transfigured before his apostles and his face did shine as the +Sun and his garments became shining or glittering." (Matt., XVII, 2.) +Small wonder then that the Nicaean creed declares that Christ is "God of +God, Light of light." Not only with God, but with His saints is the idea +of visible light<a name="page234" id="page234" ></a><span class="pagenum">234</span> + intimately associated. The prophet Daniel tells us +that "They that are learned shall shine as the brightness of the +firmament, and they that instruct many unto justice, as stars to all +eternity." (XII, 3.) And it is Christ Himself who says: "Then shall the +just shine as the sun, in the kingdom of their Father." (Matt., XIII, +43.)</p> + +<p>In using such a subtle, dazzling element as light so generally and in +such countless varieties throughout his Paradiso, Dante is exposed to +the danger of palling his readers with brightness and making them lose +interest in things glorious and supernal. But the genius of the man +saves the artist. By a conception of matchless beauty he binds the light +of heaven to the human, making the smile in the eye of his beloved +guide, Beatrice, express his own personal heaven, in the light that +enters his mind and the ardor which quickens his heart. As he mounts +with her the stairway of the heavens leading to the Eternal Palace and +his motion is brought about simply by his gazing into her eyes, she +makes known to him by her increasing brightness both his own mounting +knowledge and his ascent nearer the Empyrean.</p> + +<p>As Dante represents the increase of light and love deepening and +expanding in him as he rises empyreanward all by the loved smile of his +beloved Beatrice, it is well that we bear in mind the significance of +the symbolism as expounded by the<a name="page235" id="page235" ></a><span class="pagenum">235</span> + poet in his Banquet. (III, 15.) +Beatrice being Revelation or Wisdom made known to the world, "in her +face appear things that tell of the pleasures of Paradise and ... the +place wherein this appears is in her eyes and her smile. And here it +should be known that the eyes of Wisdom are the two demonstrations by +which is seen the truth most certainly; and her smile is her persuasion +by which is shown forth the interior light of Wisdom under some veil; +and in these two things is felt the highest pleasure of beatitude, which +is the greatest good of Paradise."</p> + +<p>Beatrice—Revealed Truth—remains the poet's guide until he comes to +behold the Beatific Vision. Then, no longer needed, she withdraws in +favor of the contemplative St. Bernard as guide, just as Virgil had +withdrawn when he was powerless and when Beatrice was needed.</p> + +<p>The question here presents itself: In what does Dante place the +happiness of Heaven? Does he paint such a Heaven that it shows +principally the rectifications of the inequalities of this life—a +Heaven of such happiness, e.g., that the poor will love poverty or be +resigned to it in the hope of possessing the riches of this Eternity? Is +Dante's Heaven one in which happiness is so alluring that innocence will +gladly submit to calumny and faith will lovingly welcome the sword or +stake, in the certain confidence of gaining unending<a name="page236" id="page236" ></a><span class="pagenum">236</span> + glory or bliss? +The Paradiso does reward poverty, crown innocence, glorify martyrdom, +but it was never intended to be an account of what takes place in the +real Heaven, or to be a description of the particular acts of goodness +which win Heaven for the soul, or a rapturous picture appealing to the +emotions of the believer and alluring him from earth.</p> + +<p>Does Dante place the happiness of Heaven in the bliss and glorification +of family reunion?</p> + +<p>He is too good a theologian to place the essential happiness of Heaven +merely in the joy of family reunion. He does not ignore that feature of +eternity, but he does not stress it, because temperamentally he is moved +less by sentiment of family and ties of friendship than by his curiosity +for knowledge, by his yearnings to behold Eternal Wisdom. Only once does +he mention Heaven as the state of reunion of families and friends, and +that is when he comments upon the action of the twenty-three spirits in +the Heaven of the Sun, in expressing their agreement with Soloman's +discourse as to the participation which the human body will have, after +the Resurrection in the glories of Paradise:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"So ready and so cordial an Amen</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Follow'd from either choir, as plainly spoke</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Desire of their dead bodies; yet perchance</span><br /><a name="page237" id="page237" ></a><span class="pagenum">237</span> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Not for themselves, but for their kindred dear,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mothers and sires and those whom best they loved,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ere they were made imperishable flames."</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(XIV, 65.)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>For Dante, Heaven must be the beatitude of the intellect and that +primarily by the intellect's having an intuition full of joy in the +Divine Essence, and secondly by its possessing full light on all those +vexatious problems and mysteries which baffle us in this life.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Well I perceive that never sated is</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Our intellect unless Truth illumines it,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Beyond which nothing true expands itself.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">It rests therein, as wild beast in his lair</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">When it attains it and it can attain it."</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(IV, 125.)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>In insisting upon the power of the mind to know the truth and to find +perfect happiness in the supernatural act of beholding God face to face, +Dante is not in agreement with Pragmatism, Hegelianism and the "new +Realist" theory—all which make truth elusive to the mind; but he is in +full accord with the teaching of the Catholic Church, which defends the +rights of reason holding, e.g., that "by the natural light of reason +God<a name="page238" id="page238" ></a><span class="pagenum">238</span> + can be known with certainty, by means of created things" (Vatican +Council), and proclaiming that "all the saints in Heaven have seen and +do see the Divine Essence by direct intuition and face to face in such +wise that nothing created intervenes as an object of vision; ... that +the Divine Essence presents itself to their immediate gaze, unveiled, +clearly and openly; that in this vision they enjoy the Divine Essence, +and in virtue of this vision and this enjoyment they are truly blessed +and possess eternal life and eternal rest." (Benedict XII, Cath. +Encycl., VII, 171.)</p> + +<p>It is interesting to see how Dante's Master, St. Thomas Aquinas, +demonstrates the proposition that the beatitude of man consists in the +vision of the Divine Essence. With his usual lucidity of thought he +writes: "The last and perfect happiness of man cannot be otherwise than +in the vision of the Divine Essence. In evidence of this statement two +points are to be considered: first, that man is not perfectly happy so +long as there remains anything for him to desire and seek; secondly, +that the perfection of every power is determined by the nature of its +object. Now the object of the intellect is the essence of a thing; hence +the intellect attains to perfection so far as it knows the Essence of +what is before it. And therefore, when a man knows an effect and knows +that it has a cause, there is in him an outstanding<a name="page239" id="page239" ></a><span class="pagenum">239</span> + natural desire of +knowing the essence of the cause. If, therefore, a human intellect knows +the essence of a created effect without knowing aught of God beyond the +fact of His existence, the perfection of that intellect does not yet +adequately reach the First Cause, but the intellect has an outstanding +natural desire of searching into the said Cause; hence it is not yet +perfectly happy. For perfect happiness, therefore, it is necesary that +the intellect shall reach as far as the very essence of the First +Cause." (Rickaby, Aquinas Ethicus I, 2 q., 3 a, 8.)</p> + +<p>This masterly exposition is after all only the philosophical development +of what every Catholic child learns from one of the first questions of +the little Catechism: "Why did God make you? God made me to know Him, to +love Him, and to serve Him in this life, and to be happy with Him +forever in the next." With the satisfaction of the intellect's boundless +yearning for knowledge attained by intuition of the Essence of God, a +consummation that will somewhat deify us—"Who shall be made like to +him, because we shall see him as he is" (I John, III, 2.), the happiness +of man will be primarily intellectual, being as Dante beautifully says: +"Light intellectual full of love, love of the true good, full of joy, +joy that transcendeth all sweetness." (XXX, 40.)</p> + +<p>His Heaven, then, is no Nirvana, for each spirit<a name="page240" id="page240" ></a><span class="pagenum">240</span> + will for eternity have +its individuality, and its activity will be unremitting in seeing God +face to face—a vision that will cause the spirit increasing wonder in +an act that will have no flagging nor satiety. "What, after all, is +Heaven," says Bulwer Lytton, "but a transition from dim guesses to the +fullness of wisdom, from ignorance to knowledge, but knowledge of what +order?" To that exclamation of the nineteenth century writer the +medieval seer answers with conviction that the <i>summum bonum</i> is to be +found only in the intellect's attaining Truth.</p> + +<p>Let us now join Dante in his mystic journey to the Heavenly Kingdom. We +left him after three days and three nights in Purgatory, standing with +Beatrice on the summit of the mountain in the Earthly Paradise, where he +remained six hours. At noon he begins his ascent through space, a feat +accomplished by Beatrice's looking up to the Heavens and by Dante's +fixing his eyes upon her. At once his human nature is supposed to take +on agility, the supernatural quality which makes the body independent of +space, and he begins to rise with incomprehensible velocity. Though they +are travelling without conscious movement at the rate of 84,000 miles a +second, there is time for Dante's mind to operate in desire to know how +he can ascend counter to gravitation and for Beatrice to discourse upon +<a name="page241" id="page241" ></a><span class="pagenum">241</span> +the law—Dante's invention—of universal (material and spiritual) +gravitation.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"The newness of the sound and the great light</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Kindled in me a longing for their cause</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Never before with such acuteness felt.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And she began: 'Thou makest thyself so dull</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With false imagining, that thou sees not</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">What thou wouldst see if thou hadst shaken it off.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thou are not upon earth as thou believest;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But lightning, fleeing its appropriate site,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ne'er ran as thou, who thitherward returnest.'"</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(I, 88.)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>She explains the order established by Providence by force of which +created beings seek their natural habitat, earthly things being +attracted downward, spiritual entities being drawn upward irresistibly +if they do not oppose this innate inclination to good. "It is as natural +for a man purged of all evil to ascend to God," she declares, "as it is +for a stream from a mountain height to fall into a valley."</p> + +<p>Very shortly after this, the first stage of the celestial journey is +reached. "Direct thy mind to God in gratitude," she said, "who hath +united us with the first star." "Me seemed a cloud enveloped us, shining +dense, firm and polished like<a name="page242" id="page242" ></a><span class="pagenum">242</span> + a diamond smitten by the sun. Within +itself the eternal pearl received us, as water doth receive a ray of +light, though still itself uncleft." This is the Heaven of the Moon, the +planet farthest removed from the Empyrean and therefore the sphere where +not only motion but also beatitude are least in the heavenly bodies. The +sphere of the Moon, indeed with those of Mercury and of Venus, is held +by Dante's cosmography to be within the shadow cast by the earth. +Consequently, the spirits in those three lowest Heavens are represented +as less perfect than those in the higher spheres, because in the moral +sense the shadow of earth fell upon their lives making them imperfect +through inconstancy, vain glory or unlawful love.</p> + +<p>In the Heaven of the Moon a long disquisition is carried on by Beatrice +in explanation of Dante's question as to why there are spots on the +moon. It is very likely that this matter of apparent irrelevance in the +heavenly realms is introduced here at the very first stage of the ascent +to give the poet the opportunity of proclaiming that the first thing one +must learn in his passage heavenward—even if this is to be understood +in an allegorical sense—is that the laws of the laboratory are not the +<i>rationale</i> of the heavenly world and that to employ them to explain the +supernal is to violate the very science of these<a name="page243" id="page243" ></a><span class="pagenum">243</span> + laws, in an +application of scope to which in their very nature they protest. This +point of seeing natural causes for the unexplainable phenomenon of +Heaven and especially of relying upon the testimony of the senses is +soon brought out by Beatrice reproving Dante for thinking that the +spirits whom he now sees are only reflections of the human face:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Marvel thou not," she said to me, "because</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I smile at this thy puerile conceit,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Since on the truth it trusts not yet its foot,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But turns thee, as 'tis wont, on emptiness.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">True substances are these which thou beholdest,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Here relegate for breaking of some vow.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Therefore speak with them, listen and believe."</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(III, 25.)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>So directed, the poet gazes again upon the faint forms appearing like +reflections seen in a plate of glass or in a dark, shallow pool. These, +the first spirits he meets, are apparitions in human form. In the other +spheres all that he will see of the souls will be the light which +envelopes them and which seemingly is identified with them, but here he +sees beautiful women divinely glorious even in their dim outline, who as +nuns had violated their vow of perpetual chastity. In the Inferno the +poet, to lead the reprobate soul to speak to him,<a name="page244" id="page244" ></a><span class="pagenum">244</span> + promised earthly +fame; in Purgatorio there was the offer of intercessory prayer, here in +the first Heaven there is only an appeal to the charity which inflames +the spirit. All eagerness, Dante now addresses the spirit, who appears +most desirous to converse with him. This is Piccarda, kinswoman of his +wife and sister of his friend Forese (Purg. XXIII, 40), a Poor Clare +nun, who was compelled by her brother, Corse, to leave her convent and +marry Rossellino della Tosa in the expectation that the marriage would +promote a political alliance. So sacrificed, the young virgin sister of +lofty ideals and delicate spiritual sensibility, experienced +unhappiness, the intensity of which is revealed by the ellipsis +contained in the magic line: "And God doth know what my life became." +Dante addresses Piccarda:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"'O well-created spirit, who in the rays</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of life eternal dost the sweetness taste</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Which being untasted ne'er is comprehended,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Grateful 'twill be to me, if thou content me</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Both with thy name and with your destiny.'</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Whereat, she promptly and with laughing eyes:</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'Our charity doth never shut the doors</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Against a just desire, except as she</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Who wills that all her court be like herself.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I was a virgin sister in the world;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And if thy mind doth contemplate me well,</span><br /><a name="page245" id="page245" ></a><span class="pagenum">245</span> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The being more fair will not conceal me from thee,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But thou shalt recognize I am Piccarda,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Who, stationed here among these other blessed,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Myself am blessed in the lowest sphere.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">All our affections, that alone inflamed</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Are in the pleasure of the Holy Ghost,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Rejoice at being of his order formed;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And this allotment, which appears so low,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Therefore is given us, because our vows</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Have been neglected and in some part void.'</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Whence I to her: 'In your miraculous aspects</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">There shines I know not what of the divine,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Which doth transform you from our first conceptions.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Therefore I was not swift in my remembrance;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But what thou tellest me now aids me so,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That the refiguring is easier to me.'"</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(III, 37.)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Dante, you recall, had found the souls in Purgatory contented with their +lot, though they were enduring great suffering; in Heaven he is eager to +learn in the very beginning whether the Elect are satisfied with the +decree which awards to them happiness in unequal measure. So he asks +Piccarda whether she and the other spirits in this lowest sphere are not +eager for a higher place. The answer is one of the most touching and +beautiful<a name="page246" id="page246" ></a><span class="pagenum">246</span> + passages in the poem, summing up in language of radiant +gladness the law of Heaven that in "God's will is our peace," words +which Gladstone says "appear to have an unexpressible majesty of truth +about them, to be almost as if they were spoken from the very mouth of +God."</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"'But tell me, ye who in this place are happy,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Are you desirous of a higher place,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To see more or to make yourselves more friends?'</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">First, with those other shades, she smiled a little;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thereafter answered me so full of gladness,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">She seemed to burn in the first fire of love:</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'Brother, our will is quieted by virtue</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of charity, that makes us wish alone</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For what we have, nor gives us thirst for more.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">If to be more exalted we aspired,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Discordant would our aspirations be</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Unto the will of Him who here secludes us;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Which thou-shalt see finds no place in these circles,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">If being in charity is needful here,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And if thou lookest well into its nature;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Nay 'tis essential to this blest existence</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To keep itself within the will divine,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Whereby our very wishes are made one;</span><br /><a name="page247" id="page247" ></a><span class="pagenum">247</span> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">So that, as we are station above station</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Throughout this realm, to all the realm 'tis pleasing,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">As to the King, who makes His will our will.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And His will is our peace; this is the sea</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To which is moving onward whatsoever</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">It doth create, and all that nature makes.'</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Then it was clear to me how everywhere</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In Heaven is Paradise, although the grace</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of good supreme there rain not in one measure."</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(III, 64.)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Piccarda then tells the moving story of her life, how as a girl she +entered the order of St. Clare, only to be torn from the nunnery and +given into marriage.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"A perfect life and merit high in Heaven</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A lady o'er us," said she, "by whose rule</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Down in your world they vest and veil themselves,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That until death they may both watch and sleep</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Beside that Spouse who every vow accepts</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Which charity conformeth to his pleasure.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To follow her, in girlhood from the world</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I fled, and in her habit shut myself,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And pledged me to the pathway of her sect.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Then men accustomed unto evil more</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Than unto good, from the sweet cloister tore me;</span><br /><a name="page248" id="page248" ></a><span class="pagenum">248</span> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">God knows what afterward my life became."</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(III, 97.)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Certain questions interesting to a seeker of truth grow out of +Piccarda's statement and these Beatrice proceeds to solve for the +edification of Dante. The first question asks whether in the assignment +to the lowest sphere of souls who violated their vows, there is divine +Justice; the second concerns Plato's teaching that souls really come +from the stars and return thither; the third is about the loss of merit +through coercion of the will, as exemplified in the case of Piccarda. +The solution of these difficulties need not detain us if only we +remember Dante's view that "the theories maintained by him in the Heaven +of the Moon are intended to manifest," as Gardner and Scartazzini point +out, "the moral freedom of man and to show that no external thing can +interfere with the soul that is bent upon attaining the end for which +God has destined it."</p> + +<p>To the next Heaven, the sphere of Mercury, Beatrice and Dante soar more +swiftly than an arrow attains its mark while the bow is still vibrating. +Increasing in loveliness as she ascends, Beatrice, in the second realm, +radiates such splendor that Mercury itself, apart from its own light, +gains such glory from her that it seems to glitter or smile from very +gladness.</p> +<p><a name="page249" id="page249" ></a><span class="pagenum">249</span> +</p> +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"My lady there so joyful I beheld</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">As unto the brightness of that heaven she entered</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">More luminous thereat the planet grew,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And if the star itself was changed and smiled</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">What became I who by my nature am</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Exceeding mutable in every guise?"</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(V, 97.)<br /> </span></p> + +<p>Greeting the travellers, more than a thousand spirits joyfully exclaim: +"Lo, one who shall increase our loves!" The Saints in Mercury thus +testify to their delight that one (Dante) has come to be the fresh +object of their love, just as it is said that "there shall be joy before +the angels of God upon one sinner doing penance." (Luke XV, 10.) These +splendors in Mercury are the souls of those in whose virtue there was +the alloy of ambition and vainglory—a combination, according to Dante, +which makes "the rays of true love less vividly mount upwards." The poet +is addressed by a spirit who bids him ask any question he will and +Beatrice confirms the invitation. "Speak, speak with confidence and +trust them even as gods." All eagerness for knowledge, Dante inquires of +the friendly splendor who he is and why he is in this particular Heaven.</p> + +<p>The story told by the spirit of Emperor Justinian is a brief sketch of +his own life, with reference to his conversion from heresy by Pope +Agapetus,<a name="page250" id="page250" ></a><span class="pagenum">250</span> + to the victories of his general, Belisarius, and to his own +great work of the codification of the Roman law. He then traces the +history of Rome from the time of Æneas to the thirteenth century, bent +upon showing that the Roman Empire, as a world-power over governments +and peoples, is divine in its institution and providentially protected +in its course. Two facts are adduced in crowning proof of this audacious +statement, viz., Christ's choosing to be born and to be registered as a +subject of Cæsar and His crucifixion under Tiberius, acting through +Pontius Pilate as the divinely constituted instrument of eternal justice +exercised by the Heavenly Father against His Son, at once the victim of +sin and its atonement.</p> + +<p>Dante enlarges on this point in his Monarchia. "If the Roman Empire did +not exist by right, the sin of Adam was not punished in Christ.... If, +therefore, Christ had not suffered by the sentence of a regular judge, +the penalty would not have been properly punished; and none could be a +regular judge who had not jurisdiction over all mankind, for all mankind +was punished in the flesh of Christ, who 'hath borne our infirmities and +carried our sorrows,' as said the prophet Isaias. And if the Roman +Empire had not existed by right, Tiberius Cæsar, whose vicar was Pontius +Pilate, would not have had jurisdiction<a name="page251" id="page251" ></a><span class="pagenum">251</span> + over all mankind." To us both +the argument and its conclusion are wholly indefensible. It seems indeed +a mockery and a blasphemy to attribute to such a monster as Tiberius +Cæsar glory because Christ was crucified in his reign. Dante's words, +however, as spoken by Justinian, leave no room for doubt that the poet +was convinced that all the ancient celebrity of Rome was insignificant +as compared to the glory that would come to it because it would carry +out the crucifixion of Christ.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"But what the standard that has made me speak</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Achieved before, and after should achieve</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Throughout the mortal realm that lies beneath,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Becometh in appearance mean and dim</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">If in the hand of the third Cæsar seen</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With an eye unclouded and affection pure</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Because the living Justice that inspires me</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Granted it, in the hand of him I speak of</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The glory of doing vengence for its wrath."</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(VI, 82.)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Shining among the splendors of Mercury is a spirit who, though he was +not a lawmaker like Justinian, attained earthly renown by arranging the +marriages of four Kings. Known by the name of Romeo, a word meaning a +pilgrim of Rome, this man came a stranger to the Court of Raymond<a name="page252" id="page252" ></a><span class="pagenum">252</span> +Berenger, Court of Provence, multiplied the income without lessening the +grandeur of his master and brought about the marriages to royalty of the +four daughters of the household—Margaret to St. Louis of France, +Eleanor to Henry III of England, Sanzia to Richard, Earl of Cornwall +(brother of Henry III), elected King of the Romans, Beatrice to Charles +of Anjou, later by Papal investiture, King of Naples. Charged by jealous +barons with having wasted his master's goods, Romeo established his +innocence and then departed as he came, on a mule and with a pilgrim's +staff. From affluence he goes a-begging and this is so much like Dante's +own case that the poet's sympathy goes out to the calumniated man, and +he says with touching simplicity:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"If the world could know the heart he had</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In begging bit by bit his livelihood,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Though much it laud him, it would laud him more."</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(VI, 140.)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Justinian's words as to the crucifixion of Christ suggest to Dante this +question: Why was man's redemption effected by the death of Christ upon +the Cross rather than by some other mode? Investing the argumentative +propositions of St. Thomas with poetic beauty, Dante shows that while +God might have freely pardoned man without<a name="page253" id="page253" ></a><span class="pagenum">253</span> + exacting any satisfaction, +on the hypothesis that He had chosen to restore mankind to His favor and +at the same time to require full satisfaction as a condition of pardon +and deliverance, there was only one way for the accomplishment of this +reconciliation and that was by the atonement of One who was both God and +Man. For sin, inasmuch as it is an act against the Infinite Being, +requires a satisfaction of infinite value. Man being finite is incapable +of adequately making such satisfaction. But the Word was made flesh that +by His atonement on the Cross Mercy would be declared and Justice would +be satisfied.</p> + +<p>"Your nature, when it sinned in its totality in its first seed, from +these dignities, even as from Paradise, was parted; nor might they be +recovered, if thou look right keenly, by any way save passing one or the +other of these fords: either that God, of his sole courtesy, should have +remitted; or that man should of himself have given satisfaction for his +folly. Man had not power, within his own boundaries, even to render +satisfaction, since he might not go in humbleness by after-obedience so +deep down as in disobedience he had framed to exalt himself on high; and +this is the cause why from the power to render satisfaction by himself +man was shut off. Wherefore needs must God with his own ways reinstate +man in his unmaimed life, I mean with one way or with both the two. But +because<a name="page254" id="page254" ></a><span class="pagenum">254</span> + the doer's deed is the more gracious the more it doth present +us of the heart's goodness whence it issued, the divine Goodness which +doth stamp the world, deigned to proceed on all his ways to lift you up +again; nor between the last night and the first day was, nor shall be, +so lofty and august a progress made on one or on the other, for more +generous was God in giving of himself to make man able to uplift himself +again, than had he only of himself granted remission; and all other +modes fell short of justice, except the Son of God had humbled him to +become flesh." (VII, 85.)</p> + +<p>From Mercury to Venus the ascent has been so rapid that Dante is unaware +that he has reached the third Heaven until he sees the greater +loveliness of Beatrice represented by her greater radiance. As ascent is +made heavenward it will also be found that the spirits are seen not as +human faces, as was the case in the Heaven of the Moon, but as lights +increasing in intensity and manifesting a movement of greater speed to +the accompaniment of diverse music. It is necessary to keep in mind this +plan of the poet lest thinking the lovely lights, and lovely sounds and +lovely movements are only terms descriptive of physical, though +impalpable phenomena, we lose the deep and beautiful symbolism that is +the magic secret of the seraphic poesy of the Paradiso. Of the +brilliancy<a name="page255" id="page255" ></a><span class="pagenum">255</span> + and movement of the spirits of the Sphere of Venus—spirits +who in this life failed in Christian ideals because of their amours, +Dante says, and his description is that of an expert musician +distinguishing between the singing of one who sustains the main-theme +and that of other voices rising and falling in subordination to the +principal melody:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"And as within a flame a spark is seen,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And as within a voice discerned,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">When one is steadfast, and one comes and goes,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Within that light beheld I other lamps</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Move in a circle, speeding more and less,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Methinks in a measure of their inward vision.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">From a cold cloud descended never winds,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Or visible or not, so rapidly</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">They would not laggard and impeded seem</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To any one who had those lights divine</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Seen come towards us, leaving the gyration</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Begun at first in the high Seraphim.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And behind those that most in front appeared</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sounded 'Osanna!' so that never since</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To hear again was I without desire.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Then unto us more nearly one approached,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And it alone began: 'We all are ready</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Unto thy pleasure, that thou joy in us.</span><br /><a name="page256" id="page256" ></a><span class="pagenum">256</span> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">We turn around with the celestial Princes,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">One gyre and one gyration and one thirst,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To whom thou in the world didst say,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Ye who, intelligent, the third heaven are moving;"</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And are so full of love, to pleasure thee</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A little quiet will not be less sweet.'"</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(VIII, 16.)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>The speaker discloses himself to be Charles Martel, once titular King of +Hungary, who on the occasion of a nineteen days' visit to Florence, +formed an intimate friendship with the poet. For the latter's +edification the spirit expounds the problem: Why from the same parents, +children grow up different in disposition, talent and career, a problem +just as interesting to the twentieth as the thirteenth century. We +account for the difference according to the principles of variation, +heredity and environment, but to stellar influence intent upon securing +the fulfillment of the law of individuality, was the difference +attributed by the medieval mind, which regarded the stars and planets +not as soulless spheres, but as orbs palpitating with the life of +angelic intelligences and radiating their influence upon the people of +the earth.</p> + +<p>Hence it was held that the Heavens affected the diversity of the +characters of children<a name="page257" id="page257" ></a><span class="pagenum">257</span> + who otherwise would be cut out the exact pattern +of their parents. "The begotten nature would ever take a course like its +begetters, did not divine provision overrule." (VIII, 136.) The +necessity for diversity in man's life is deduced from the fact that in +society men are providentially destined for different vocations. +"Wherefore is one born Solon (a legislator), another Xerxes (a soldier), +another Melchisedech (a priest), and the man who soaring through the +welkin lost his son." (Daedalus, the typical mechanician.) But stellar +influence always controlled by man's free will is often ignored, +especially when we put into the sanctuary one who should be on the +battle field and when we gave a throne to him whose right place is in +the pulpit.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"And if the world below would fix its mind</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">On the foundation which is laid by nature,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Pursuing that, 't would have the people good.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But you into religion wrench aside</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Him who was born to gird him with the sword,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And make a king of him who is for sermons;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Therefore your footsteps wander from the road."</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(VIII, 142.)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>The next four spheres being beyond the earth's shadow are for spirits +whose virtue was undimmed<a name="page258" id="page258" ></a><span class="pagenum">258</span> + by human infirmity and whose place in eternal +life is consequently one of greater vision and bliss. In the first of +these higher spheres, the Sphere of the Sun, the fourth Heaven, Dante +sees the spirits of great theologians and others who loved wisdom—great +teachers of men. Around him and Beatrice, as their center, twelve of +them appear in one circle and twelve in another, while behind those +dazzling splendors of spirits are other vivid lights probably +representing authors whom the poet had not read or comprehended or +symbolizing the men of science, the lovers of wisdom, who in the future +by their discoveries would add to our knowledge of truth. As one of the +basic truths of Revelation is the mystery of the Blessed Trinity, here +in the Heaven of the Doctors the dogma is made prominent by special +frequency of reference and symbolism. The Creation, as an act of the +Three Divine Persons, is mentioned in lines of exquisite grace:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Looking into His Son with all the Love</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Which each of them eternally breathes forth</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The primal and unutterable Power</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Whate'er before the mind or eye revolves</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With so much order made, there can be none</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Who thus beholds, without enjoying it."</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(X, 1.)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Not only by thought, but by dancing, is the same truth expressed: "those +burning suns round about<a name="page259" id="page259" ></a><span class="pagenum">259</span> + us whirled themselves three times." (X, 76.) +Again in song they proclaim the mystery of the Holy Trinity:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"The One and Two and Three who ever liveth</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And reigneth ever in Three and Two and One</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Not circumscribed and all circumscribing</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Three several times was chanted by each one</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Among those spirits, with such melody</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That for all merit it were just reward."</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(XIV, 27.)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>In this Heaven we hear the eulogy of St. Francis of Assisi pronounced +by a Dominican and the praises of St. Dominic sung by a +Franciscan—consummate art that is an indirect invitation to the +two orders of monks upon earth to avoid jealousy and to practice mutual +respect. It has been said that these narratives give us the essence of +what constitutes true biography, viz., a picture of the spiritual +element in man drawn in such words as ever to command the understanding +and elicit the respect of the reader of every period. The first speaker +is St. Thomas Aquinas, and his reference to the mystical marriage of St. +Francis and Lady Poverty will be the better understood if we have before +the mind's eye Giotto's painting which hangs over the tomb of the +founder of the Franciscans. The figures in the pictures<a name="page260" id="page260" ></a><span class="pagenum">260</span> + are described +by Gardiner (Ten Heavens, p. 113): Christ, standing upon a rock, unites +St. Francis to his chosen bride, who is haggard and careworn, clothed in +ragged and patched garments, barefooted and girded with a cord. Roses +and lilies spring up behind her and encircle her head; she wears the +aureole and has wings, though weak; but thorns and briars are around her +feet. Hope and Love are her bridesmaids; Hope clothed in green with +uplifted hand and Love with flame-colored flowers and holding a burning +heart. A dog is barking at the Bride and boys are assaulting her with +sticks and stones, but all around are bands of angelic witnesses, their +flowing raiment and mighty wings glowing with rainbow hues. In these +days when money seems the ideal of thousands, Poverty, whose mystical +appeal is so glowingly painted, still speaks to great numbers of men and +women who give up material comforts and ease to embrace as monks and +nuns the state of voluntary poverty. Let us now hear how St. Thomas +recounts the life and work of St. Francis of Assisi:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"He was not yet much distant from his rising,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">When his good influence 'gan to bless the earth.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A dame, to whom one openeth pleasure's gate</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">More than to death, was 'gainst his father's will,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">His stripling choice; and he did make her his,</span><br /><a name="page261" id="page261" ></a><span class="pagenum">261</span> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Before the spiritual court, by nuptial bonds,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And in his father's sight: from day to day,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Then loved her more devoutly. She, bereaved</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of her first husband, slighted and obscure,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thousand and hundred years and more, remain'd</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Without a single suitor, till he came.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">There concord and glad looks, wonder and love,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And sweet regard gave birth to holy thoughts,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">So much that venerable Bernard first</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Did bare his feet, and, in pursuit of peace</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">So heavenly, ran, yet deem'd his footing slow.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">O hidden riches! O prolific good!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Egidius bares him next, and next Sylvester,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And follow, both, the bridegroom: so the bride</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Can please them. Thenceforth goes he on his way</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The father and the master, with his spouse,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And with that family, whom now the cord</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Girt humbly: nor did abjectness of heart</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Weigh down his eyelids, for that he was son</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of Pietro Bernardone, and by men</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In wondrous sort despised. But royally</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">His hard intention he to Innocent</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Set forth; and, from him, first received the seal</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">On his religion. Then, when numerous flock'd</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The tribe of lowly ones, that traced <i>his</i> steps,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Whose marvelous life deservedly were sung</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In heights empyreal; through Honorius' hand</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A second crown, to deck their Guardian's virtues,</span><br /><a name="page262" id="page262" ></a><span class="pagenum">262</span> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Was by the eternal Spirit inwreathed: and when</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">He had, through thirst of martyrdom, stood up</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In the proud Soldan's presence, and there preach'd</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Christ and his followers, but found the race</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Unripen'd for conversion; back once more</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">He hasted (not to intermit his toil),</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And reap'd Ausonian lands. On the hard rock,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'Twixt Arno and the Tiber, he from Christ</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Took the last signet, which his limbs two years</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Did carry. Then, the season come that he,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Who to such good had destined him, was pleased</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To advance him to the meed, which he had earn'd</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">By his self-humbling; to his brotherhood,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">As their just heritage, he gave in charge</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">His dearest lady: and enjoin'd their love</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And faith to her; and, from her bosom, will'd</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">His goodly spirit should move forth, returning</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To its appointed kingdom; nor would have</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">His body laid upon another bier."</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(XI, 55.)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>At the conclusion of this discourse the spirits in both circles, +arranged like the concentric circles of a double rainbow, express their +joy by a gyrating dance and song.</p> + +<p>If St. Francis was "a sun upon the world," St. Dominic is shown by the +next speaker, St. Bonaventure, to be "a splendor of cherubic delight."<a name="page263" id="page263" ></a><span class="pagenum">263</span> +"In happy Callaroga was born the passionate lover of the Christian +faith, the holy champion, gentle to his own, and without mercy to his +enemies. As soon as his soul had been created it was so replete with +energy that, within his mother's womb, it made her a prophetess. When +the pledges for his baptism had been given at the sacred font, and he +and Faith had become one, dowering each other with salvation, the lady +who had given assent for him, beheld in her sleep the wonderful fruit +which would one day come of him, and of his heirs. He was named Dominic. +I speak of him as the husbandman whom Christ chose to assist Him with +His garden. Of a truth did he seem Christ's messenger and friend, for +the very first inclination which he manifested was to follow the first +percept which Christ gave. Not for the world, love of which at present +makes men toil, but for love of the true manna, did he, in short while, +become a mighty teacher, such that he set about pruning the vineyard of +the church, which soon runs wild if the vinedresser be negligent.</p> + +<p>"From the Papal chair which, in former days, was more generous to the +righteous poor, not because it has grown degenerate in itself, but +because of the degeneracy of him who sits upon it, Dominic begged not to +be allowed to dispense to the poor only two or three where six was due, +nor<a name="page264" id="page264" ></a><span class="pagenum">264</span> + sought the first vacant benefice, the tithes of which belong to +God's poor. He begged rather for leave to fight against the erring world +in behalf of the seed of true faith, four and twenty plants of which +encircle you. Then, armed with doctrine and firm determination, together +with the sanction of the Papacy, he issued forth like a torrent from on +high, and on heretics his onslaught smote with greatest force where was +most resistance. Afterward, from him there burst forth various streams +by which the Catholic garden is watered so that the plants in it are +becoming vigorous." (XII, 48.)</p> + +<p>Transported into the Heaven of Mars Dante is made aware of his ascent +thither only by the glow of the ruddy planet, so different from the +white sheen of the sun. At once he beholds a spectacle far more +marvelous than the circles of dancing lights he has just seen. It fills +him with such wonder and bliss that he falls into an ecstasy and only +after that does he look into the eyes of Beatrice, now more lovely than +ever. What is the new marvel? A starry cross traversing the sphere—a +cross, the arms and body of which, each like a Milky Way, are made up of +dazzling lights of the souls of those who laid down their lives for the +Faith. On the Cross is flashed the blood red image of the Crucified, +likewise formed by glowing stars, the souls of Christian warriors.<a name="page265" id="page265" ></a><span class="pagenum">265</span> + Not +stationary do the splendors remain, but through the glittering mass they +dart to and fro like motes in a sunbeam that finds its way through a +shutter or screen. With eyes amazed the poet now hears such a wondrous +melody that he says: "I was so much enamoured therewith that up to this +point there had not been anything which bound me with fetters of such +delight." (XIV, 128.)</p> + +<p>The names of some of the spirits forming the Stellar Cross are made +known to the poet—Joshua and Judas Maccabaeus, the intrepid heroes of +the Old Testament, the Christian Knights, Charlemagne and Orlando the +Paladin, William of Aquitaine and Rainouart, Godfrey de Bouillon, +conqueror of Jerusalem, Robert Guiscard, military executor of Pope +Hildebrande.</p> + +<p>Darting along the arm of the Stellar Cross and coming to its foot is a +splendor who greets Dante with warm affection. This is the spirit of his +great-great-grandfather, Cacciaguida, who sings the glory of ancient +Florence the better to describe the deterioration of the city in Dante's +day and to censure its people for their civil feuds, corruption and +opposition to the Imperial Eagle. Then at Dante's request the crusader +spirit interprets for his descendant the various predictions made to the +latter during his passage through Hell and Purgatory. Evil days will +come upon him<a name="page266" id="page266" ></a><span class="pagenum">266</span> + (it must be remembered that this prophecy by Cacciaguida +is supposed to occur a year or two before Dante's exile), he will be +exiled from Florence and will become a homeless wanderer.</p> + +<p>Let him, however, write his poem and declare his vision, no matter if +offense will be taken by the high ones of the earth. He, having a +prophet's work to do, must speak with all the boldness of a prophet +without fear or dissimulation. The words, while assuring the poet of the +sweetness of everlasting fame, bring to his mind, also, the bitterness +of the injustice of his exile and suffering, and apparently he harbors +the thought of vengeance upon his enemies. Beatrice, however, checks his +resentment, assuring him that she, so near to God, will assist him—a +most beautiful passage showing the relations between her and the poet, +whether the words are taken literally as exhibiting her as his +intercessor before the throne of the Most High, or allegorically +considered as declaring that Revealed Truth takes from man the desire of +vengeance and places his case in the hands of Him who has said: +"Vengeance is mine, I will repay." For Dante's spiritual perfection his +lovely guide bids him not simply look into her her eyes (allegorically +meaning not merely to contemplate theological truth) but follow the +example of men sturdy of faith and valiant of deed. The passage here +follows:</p> + +<p><a name="page267" id="page267" ></a><span class="pagenum">267</span> + +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Now was alone rejoicing in its word</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That soul beatified, and I was tasting</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">My own, the bitter tempering with the sweet,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And the Lady who to God was leading me</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Said: 'Change thy thought; consider that I am</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Near unto Him who every wrong disburdens.'</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Unto the loving accents of my comfort</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I turned me round, and then what love I saw</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Within those holy eyes I here relinquish</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Not only that my language I distrust,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But that my mind cannot return so far</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Above itself, unless another guide it.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thus much upon that point can I repeat.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That, her again beholding, my affection</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">From every other longing was released.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">While the eternal pleasure, which direct</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Rayed upon Beatrice, from her fair face</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Contented me with its reflected aspect,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Conquering me with the radiance of a smile</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">She said to me, 'Turn thee about and listen;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Not in mine eyes alone is Paradise.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Here are blessed spirits that below, ere yet</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">They came to Heaven, were of such great renown</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That every Muse therewith would affluent be</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Therefore look thou upon the cross' horns.'"</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(XVIII, 4.)</span><br /> +</p> +<p> +Now rising to Jupiter, where appear the spirits of those who upon earth<a name="page268" id="page268" ></a><span class="pagenum">268</span> +in a signal manner loved and rightly administered justice, Dante isgain made aware of his uplifting by the increased beauty of Beatrice, +by the new light different from that of ruddy Mars, which envelopes him +and by the perception of his own increase of virtue and power. Here the +poet has recourse to a most ingenious system of symbols to give variety +to his descriptions and doctrine, and so to sustain the interest of the +reader. Many hundreds of the souls of the just appear as golden lights +and so group themselves as to spell against the glowing white background +of the light of the planet, the maxim from the Book of Wisdom: +"<i>Diligite justitiam qui judicatis terram</i>" (Love justice ye who judge +the earth.) Then fade away all the letters except the last one, the M of +terram, M, symbol of Monarchy, and that M stands out in general outline +somewhat like the Florentine lily, the armorial sign of Florence. And +now other golden lights come from the Empyrean and transform the M into +the figure of an eagle, the bird of Jove, with outstretched wings. But +the marvel is only partly revealed, for soon the Eagle speaks and its +voice, though made up of a thousand voices of the Just, comes forth a +single sound, like a single heat that comes from many brands or the one +odor that is exhaled from many flowers.</p> +<p> +What a startling spectacle it must have been to the mind of the +thirteenth century, used to candles as the ordinary means of<a name="page269" id="page269" ></a><span class="pagenum">269</span> +illumination, to have visualized before it the blessed spirits in the +light of Heaven, dancing, whirling, circling in perfect harmony and +making more formal designs to express their bliss by the rapidity of +their rhythmical movements! Even though exquisitely quaint as the +picture may appear to us, it has been executed so reverently that +criticism has rarely if ever attacked this conception of our poet. With +light as his principal material to make known to us the joys of Heaven, +he has to paint everything in high light, using no shadows and he solves +his artistic problem by the variety of his "splendors" and by the deep +symbolism of their action. His nine Heavens are not meant to be a +picture true to reality of what the Souls in Heaven are doing. These +nine Heavens, as we said before, are only myths to which from the +Empyrean come forth the Elect in condescension to Dante's sense-bound +faculties, in order to symbolize certain truths. So in this sixth sphere +the poet would teach us that the Heaven of Jupiter represents justice on +earth and on the screen of this sphere he would put forth by means of +the Imperial Eagle the arguments he has already advanced in his +Monarchia that the Roman Empire is divine in its origin—that only from +such an institution can human justice proceed from civil government. He +represents unity coming from the Roman Empire by his showing to us the <a name="page270" id="page270" ></a><span class="pagenum">270</span> +unison with which all the splendors of the Eagle speak in a voice +blended as one sound—clearly also an allegory for the Guelf forces to +become an integral part of the Universal Monarchy.</p> +<p> +Justice is the quality which this Heaven symbolizes and the Eagle reads +in Dante's mind a doubt against the operation of justice and proceeds to +dispel it.</p> +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"For saidst thou: 'Born a man is on the shore</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of Indus, and is none who there can speak</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of Christ, nor who can read, nor who can write;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And all his inclinations and his actions</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Are good, so far as human reason sees,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Without a sin in life or in discourse:</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">He dieth unbaptized and without faith;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Where is this justice that condemneth him?</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Where is his fault, if he do not believe?'"</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(XIX, 70.)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>The question is answered both directly and indirectly. The exclusion of +the virtuous pagan from Heaven is assumed to be an act of injustice "but +who art thou who wouldst set upon the seat to judge at a thousand miles +away with the short sight that carries but a span?" (XIX, 79.) As our<a name="page271" id="page271" ></a><span class="pagenum">271</span> +very idea of justice comes from God all just and all wise, that thought +ought to assure us that not even the virtuous heathen will be excluded +from Heaven. Faith indeed is required for salvation, but many having +faith will be condemned, while many seemingly without it will be +admitted into Heaven.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"But look thou, many crying are, 'Christ, Christ'!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Who at the judgment will be far less near</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To him than some shall be who knew not Christ.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Such Christians shall the Ethiop condemn</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">When the two companies shall be divided,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The one forever rich, the other poor."</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(XIX, 106.)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>The indirect answer to Dante's objection as to the exclusion of the +virtuous heathen from Heaven is given by the poet speaking through the +beak of the Eagle and showing in this Heaven as one of the lights of the +Eagle itself, the soul of Rhipeus mentioned by Æneas "as above all +others the most just among the Trojans and the strictest observer of +right." "So now," says Benvenuto, the fourteenth century lecturer on +Dante, "our author fitly introduces a pagan infidel in the person of +Rhipeus, of whose salvation there would seem the very slightest chance +of all; by reason of the time, so many centuries before the advent of<a name="page272" id="page272" ></a><span class="pagenum">272</span> +Christ; by reason of the place, for he was of Troy where exceeding pride +was then paramount; by reason of the sect, for he was a pagan and +gentile, not a Jew. Briefly then our author wishes us to gather from +this fiction—this conclusion,—that even such a pagan of whose +salvation no one hoped, is capable of salvation."</p> + +<p>In the Heaven of Saturn, Beatrice tells the poet that she does not smile +out of regard for his human vision not powerful enough to sustain her +excess of beauty. The lovely symphonies of Paradise are also silent for +the same reason. This in effect is a poetical way of saying that the +bliss and glory in Saturn are greater than any beatitude in the lower +spheres.</p> + +<p>This seventh Heaven is the Heaven where appear saints distinguished for +contemplation, the principle representatives being St. Peter Damian and +St. Benedict. The latter wrote a treatise in which he likened the rule +of his order to a ladder having twelve rungs by means of which the +mystic might mount to Heaven. The second rung in that ladder is silence. +If Dante was familiar with the Benedictine treatise, the significance of +silence in Saturn is at once suggested. The figure of a ladder is a very +common one in mystical theology, which borrows the conception from the +experience of Jacob (Gen. XXVIII, 12). "And he saw in his sleep a ladder +standing upon the earth and<a name="page273" id="page273" ></a><span class="pagenum">273</span> + the top thereof touching heaven, the angels +also of God ascending and descending." To symbolize the truth that +Heaven is to be reached through the Church by means of the contemplation +of eternal things Dante now shows us the Golden Ladder, down which gleam +so many radiant spirits that it seems as if all the stars of Heaven are +approaching.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Colored like gold, on which the sunshine gleams,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A stairway I beheld to such a height</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Uplifted, that mine eye pursued it not.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Likewise beheld I down the steps descending</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">So many splendors, that I thought each light</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That in the heaven appears was there diffused."</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(XXI, 28.)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>In the Heaven of the Fixed Stars the triumph of Christ gladdens the +wondering eyes of the poet:</p> + +<p>"Behold the hosts of Christ's triumphal march and all the fruit +harvested by the rolling of these spheres."</p> + +<p>At these words of Beatrice Dante turns and beholds all the saints seen +in the other spheres and many other spirits gathered round the God-man +to praise Him for the Redemption and Atonement. Christ here reveals +Himself in the form of a gorgeous Sun surrounded by those countless +spirits, appearing as lights or flowers.<a name="page274" id="page274" ></a><span class="pagenum">274</span> + Apparently the poet gets just +a momentary glimpse of the glorified humanity of the Saviour. The direct +rays of the divine splendor cannot long be endured, so, in condescension +to Dante's weakness of vision, a cloudy screen permits the poet to +sustain the Vision now irradiating its light on the living, spiritual +flowers.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Saw I, above the myriad of lamps,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A sun that one and all of them enkindled,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">E'en as our own doth the supernal sights,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And through the living light transparent shone</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The lucent substance so intensely clear</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Into my sight, that I sustained it not.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'O Beatrice, thou gentle guide and dear!'</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To me she said: 'What overmasters thee</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A virtue is from which naught shields itself.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">There are the wisdom and the omnipotence</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That ope the thoroughfares 'twixt heaven and earth</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For which there erst had been so long a yearning.'"</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(XXIII, 28.)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>After Christ withdraws to the Empyrean the poet finds that he has been +so much strengthened and enlightened by the Vision that increased power +of sight is given to him again to behold the smile of his guide. She +says to him:</p> +<p><a name="page275" id="page275" ></a><span class="pagenum">275</span> +</p> +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Open thine eyes and look at what I am</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thou has beheld such things, that strong enough</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hast thou become to tolerate my smile."</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(XXIII, 46.)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>He continues in ecstasy to gaze upon her surpassing beauty until she +bids him look upon the "meadow of flowers," the angels and saints:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Why doth my face so much enamor thee,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That to the garden fair thou turnest not,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Which under the rays of Christ is blossoming?</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">There is the Rose in which the Word Divine</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Became incarnate; there the lilies are</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">By whose perfume the good way was discovered."</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(XXIII, 70.)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>The lilies are the apostles, the Rose the Blessed Virgin Mary. "Mary," +says Cardinal Newman, "is the most beautiful flower that ever was seen +in the spiritual world. She is the Queen of spiritual flowers and +therefore she is called Rose, for the rose is fitly called of all +flowers that most beautiful." Dante says: "The name of the fair flower +that I e'er invoke morning and night utterly enthralled my soul to gaze +upon the greater fire." Now with joy the poet sees the coronation by the +spirits of Mary, Mystical Rose, and then<a name="page276" id="page276" ></a><span class="pagenum">276</span> + his eyes follow her as she +mounts to the Empyrean in the wake of her divine Son while the gleaming +saints sing her praises in the <i>Regina Coeli</i>.</p> + +<p>The eight Heavens through which the poet has come, have been so many +stages of preparation for the final vision of Paradise. His eyes have +been gradually gaining strength by gazing upon miracles of light and +beauty and by seeing truth embodied in many representative forms to fit +him finally to see God in His Essence. Before that consummation, +however, one more preparatory vision is necessary. The poet must first +see the symbolic image of God. "What!" you may exclaim, "will Dante be +audacious enough to attempt to picture the Invisible Himself? Granted +that 'he is all wings and pure imagination' can he hope to image the +Incomprehensible Being 'who only hath immortality and inhabiteth light +inaccessible, whom no man hath seen nor can see?' (I Tim. VI, 16). Will +he not defeat his purpose by employing a symbol circumscribing Him who +is beyond circumscription?" But the genius of Dante does not fail him in +his daring undertaking, and this is the more remarkable because instead +of selecting as a symbol something infinitely large, he choses something +atomically small. In the ninth Heaven surrounded by the nine orders of +pure spirits God is represented "as an indivisible atomic Point +radiating<a name="page277" id="page277" ></a><span class="pagenum">277</span> + light and symbolizing the unity of the Divinity as a fitting +prelude to the more intimate vision of the Blessed Trinity which will be +vouchsafed in the Empyrean." "A Point I saw that darted light so sharp +no lid unclosing may bear up against its keenness. On that Point depend +the heavens and the whole of nature" (XXXVIII, 16).</p> + +<p>On the appropriateness of this symbol Ozanam makes this interesting +comment: "God reveals Himself as necessarily indivisible and +consequently incapable of having ascribed to Him the abstraction of +quantity and quality by which we know creatures: indefinable, because +every definition is an analysis which decomposes the subject defined; +incomparable because there are no terms to institute a comparison; so +that one may say, giving the words an oblique meaning, that He is +infinitely little, that He is nothing. But on the other hand, that which +is without extension, moves without resistance; that which is not to be +grasped, cannot be contained; that which can be enclosed within no +limits, either actual or logical is by that very fact limitless. The +infinitely little is then also the infinitely great and we may say that +it is all." The indivisible atomic Point of intensest light as a symbol +of God is indeed a sublime conception of faith and genius that appeals +equally to the child, the philosopher and the mystic.</p> + +<p>The supreme thing still necessary for the consummation<a name="page278" id="page278" ></a><span class="pagenum">278</span> + of Dante's +pilgrimage is the Beatific Vision of God. That occurs in the Empyrean +where symbol gives way to reality, where the Elect are seen no longer in +forms veiled in light but in the glorified semblance of their earthly +bodies, where contemplation gives direct vision of God in His essence. +How will the poet, while still in the flesh, endure this vision of the +Infinite, Incomprehensible Eternal God? Prepared as he has been by the +experiences of the nine Heavens, he has still further need of +supernatural assistance. That is now given to him by means of a flash +wrapping him in a garment of light, which blinds him and then +illuminates his sight and intellect and enables him to see a more +complete foreshadowing of truth dissolving into Divine Wisdom.</p> + +<p>The spectacle he now beholds, perhaps suggested to the poet by the +passage from the Apocalypse (XXII, 1). "And he showed me a river of +water of life, clear as crystal proceeding from the throne of God and of +the Lamb,"—the spectacle which now presents itself is that of a river +of light flowing between two banks of flowers and vivid with darting +sparks. The river represents illuminating grace, the sparks angels, the +flowers saints. This river of light wherein are reflected the Elect, as +verdure and flowers on a hillside are mirrored in a limpid stream at +its<a name="page279" id="page279" ></a><span class="pagenum">279</span> + foot, is poetically represented as having the effect of a +sacrament. It bestows grace and that grace called <i>lumen gloriae</i>, light +of glory, endowing the soul with a faculty beyond its natural needs or +merits, so disposes the soul that it becomes deiform and is rendered +capable of immediate intuition of the Divine Essence.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"There is a light above, which visible</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Makes the Creator unto every creature</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Who only in beholding Him, has peace."</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(XXX, 100.)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Beatrice tells Dante that he must drink his fill of the stupendous +splendor by gazing intently on the river of pure light, so that he may +be able to contemplate the whole unveiled glory and then see God +directly.</p> + +<p>As Dante gazes on the illuminating stream it undergoes a marvelous +transformation, taking the form of a Rose the center of which is a sea +of radiance.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"And even as the penthouse of mine eyelids</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Drank of it, it forthwith appeared to me</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Out of its length to be transformed to round.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Then as a folk who have been under masks</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Seem other than before, if they divest</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The semblance not their own they disappeared in,</span><br /><a name="page280" id="page280" ></a><span class="pagenum">280</span> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thus into greater pomp were changed for me</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The flowerets and the sparks, so that I saw</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Both of the Courts of Heaven made manifest."</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(XXX, 87.)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>The two courts of Heaven, angels and saints, are made manifest in the +Rose which spreads out like a vast amphitheatre the lowest circle of +which is wider than the circumference of the sun. Above the center of +the Rose as the Point of light, is God in all His glory and love, adored +in blissful raptures by the saints who form the petals of the heavenly +flower. Angels with faces aflame, in white garments and with golden +wings fly down to the petals as bees to flowers, bringing God's +blessings to the saints and fly back to God as bees to their hive, +carrying the adoration of the Elect.</p> + +<p>Beatrice leads the poet into the center of the Heavenly Rose.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Into the yellow of the Rose Eternal</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That spreads, and multiplies, and breathes an odor</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of praise unto the ever-vernal Sun,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">As one who silent is and fain would speak,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Me Beatrice drew on, and said: 'Behold</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of the white stoles how vast the convent is!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Behold how vast the circuit of our city!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Behold our seats so filled to overflowing,</span><br /><a name="page281" id="page281" ></a><span class="pagenum">281</span> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That here henceforward are few people wanting!'"</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(XXX, 124.)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>While Dante gazes on the supernatural spectacle Beatrice slips away to +take her place the third seat below the throne of the Blessed Virgin. As +his guide she has led him to the highest Heaven and has instructed him +in all that concerns God and His attributes. Her mission as Revelation +or Divine Science being finished, she withdraws and sends St. Bernard to +bring the poet into intimate union with the Godhead.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"The general form of Paradise already</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">My glance had comprehended as a whole,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In no part hitherto remaining fixed,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And round I turned me with rekindled wish</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">My lady to interrogate of things</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Concerning which my mind was in suspense.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">One thing I meant, another answered me;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I thought I should see Beatrice, and saw</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">An Old Man habited like the glorious people.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">O'er flowing was he in his eyes and cheeks</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With joy benign, in attitude of pity</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">As to a tender father is becoming.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And 'She, where is she?' instantly I said;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Whence he: 'To put an end to thy desire,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Me Beatrice hath sent from mine own place.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And if thou lookest up to the third round</span><br /><a name="page282" id="page282" ></a><span class="pagenum">282</span> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of the first rank, again shalt thou behold her</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Upon the throne her merits have assigned her.'</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Without reply I lifted up mine eyes,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And saw her, as she made herself a crown</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Reflecting from herself the eternal rays.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Not from that region which the highest thunders</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Is any mortal eye so far removed,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In whatsoever sea it deepest sinks,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">As there from Beatrice my sight; but this</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Was nothing unto me; because her image</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Descended not to me by medium blurred."</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(XXXI, 52.)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>St. Bernard, the mystic, celebrating the Blessed Virgin's praises in a +marvelous outburst of song, unsurpassed for lyrical beauty, beseeches +her intercession that Dante may see God face to face.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Now doth this man, who from the lowest depth</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of the universe as far as here has seen</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">One after one the spiritual lives,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Supplicate thee through grace for so much power</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That with his eyes he may uplift himself</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Higher towards the uttermost salvation.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And I, who never burned for my own seeing</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">More than I do for his, all of my prayers</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Proffer to thee, and pray they come not short,</span><br /><a name="page283" id="page283" ></a><span class="pagenum">283</span> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That thou wouldst scatter from him every cloud</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of his mortality so with thy prayers,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That the Chief Pleasure be to him displayed.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Still farther do I pray thee, Queen, who canst</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Whate'er thou wilt, that sound thou mayst preserve</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">After so great a vision his affections.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Let thy protection conquer human movements;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">See Beatrice and all the blessed ones</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">My prayers to second clasp their hands to thee!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The eyes beloved and revered of God,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Fastened upon the speaker, showed to us</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">How grateful unto her are prayers devout;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Then unto the Eternal Light they turned,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">On which it is not credible could be</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">By any creature bent an eye so clear."</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(XXXIII, 22.)</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>The prayer is granted. "My vision becoming undimmed, more and more +entered the beam of light which in itself is Truth." (XXXIII, 52.) The +veil is removed. He gazes into the limitless depths of the Divinity. He +enjoys the Beatific Vision.</p> + +<p>First he sees by immediate intuition the Divine Essence in its creative +power, the examplar of all substances, modes and accidents united in +harmony and love; then he beholds the Creator Himself<a name="page284" id="page284" ></a><span class="pagenum">284</span> + and all the +divine perfections and all the eternal plans of God. Clear to the poet +now is the truth of the mystery of the Blessed Trinity unveiled in +circles of light like rainbows of green, white and red of equal +circumference, the Second being as it were the splendor of the First and +the Third emanating from the two others. Unravelled also is the mystery +of the two natures human and divine, in the divine person of Christ seen +in human form in the second luminous circle. But the Vision is so far +above the poet's memory to retain or his speech to express that he +cannot find words to make intelligible the splendor he beholds or the +rapture he experiences.</p> + +<p>"Oh grace abounding, wherein I presumed to fix my look on the eternal +light so long that I consumed my sight thereon! Within its depths I saw +ingathered, bound by love in one volume, the scattered leaves of all the +universe; substance and accidents and their relations, as though +together fused, after such fashion that what I tell of is one simple +flame.</p> + +<p>"In the profound and shining being of the deep light appeared to me +three circles, of three colours and one magnitude; one by the second as +Iris by Iris seemed reflected, and the third seemed a fire breathed +equally from one and from the other. Oh, but how scant the utterance, +and how faint, to my conceit! and it, to what I saw, is such that<a name="page285" id="page285" ></a><span class="pagenum">285</span> + it +sufficeth not to call it little. O light eternal who only in thyself +abidest, only thyself dost understand, and to thyself, self-understood, +self-understanding, turnest love and smiling! That circling which +appeared in thee to be conceived as a reflected light, by mine eyes +scanned some little, in itself, of its own colour, seemed to be painted +with our effigy, and thereat my sight was all committed to it.</p> + +<p>"To the high fantasy here power failed; but already my desire and will +were rolled—even as a wheel that moveth equally—by the Love that moves +the sun and the other stars." (XXXIII, 82.)</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DANTE: "THE CENTRAL MAN OF ALL THE WORLD"***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 16978-h.txt or 16978-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/6/9/7/16978">https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/9/7/16978</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution.</p> + + + +<pre> +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +<a href="https://gutenberg.org/license">https://gutenberg.org/license)</a>. + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS,' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: +https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Each eBook is in a subdirectory of the same number as the eBook's +eBook number, often in several formats including plain vanilla ASCII, +compressed (zipped), HTML and others. + +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks replace the old file and take over +the old filename and etext number. The replaced older file is renamed. +VERSIONS based on separate sources are treated as new eBooks receiving +new filenames and etext numbers. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + +<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">https://www.gutenberg.org</a> + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + +EBooks posted prior to November 2003, with eBook numbers BELOW #10000, +are filed in directories based on their release date. If you want to +download any of these eBooks directly, rather than using the regular +search system you may utilize the following addresses and just +download by the etext year. + +<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext06/">https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext06/</a> + + (Or /etext 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00, 99, + 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90) + +EBooks posted since November 2003, with etext numbers OVER #10000, are +filed in a different way. The year of a release date is no longer part +of the directory path. The path is based on the etext number (which is +identical to the filename). The path to the file is made up of single +digits corresponding to all but the last digit in the filename. For +example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at: + +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/0/2/3/10234 + +or filename 24689 would be found at: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/4/6/8/24689 + +An alternative method of locating eBooks: +<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/GUTINDEX.ALL">https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/GUTINDEX.ALL</a> + +*** END: FULL LICENSE *** +</pre> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/16978.txt b/16978.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d3da64c --- /dev/null +++ b/16978.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6689 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Dante: "The Central Man of All the World", by +John T. Slattery, et al + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Dante: "The Central Man of All the World" + A Course of Lectures Delivered Before the Student Body of the New York State College for Teachers, Albany, 1919, 1920 + + +Author: John T. Slattery + + + +Release Date: November 1, 2005 [eBook #16978] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DANTE: "THE CENTRAL MAN OF ALL THE +WORLD"*** + + +E-text prepared by David Garcia, Bethanne M. Simms, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net/) + + + +DANTE: "THE CENTRAL MAN OF ALL THE WORLD." + +A Course of Lectures Delivered Before the Student Body of the +New York State College for Teachers, Albany, 1919, 1920 + +by + +JOHN T. SLATTERY, Ph.D. + +With a Preface by John H. Finley, L.H.D. + + + + + + + +New York +P. J. Kenedy & Sons +1920 +Copyright, 1920, by +P. J. Kenedy & Sons, New York +Printed in U.S.A. + + + + + +DEDICATION + +THIS MODEST WORK OWES ITS +PUBLICATION TO THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF + +PRESIDENT ABRAM R. BRUBACHER + +AND + +DEAN HARLAN H. HORNER + +OF THE STATE COLLEGE FOR TEACHERS, ALBANY, N.Y. + + WHERE MANY PLEASANT HOURS WERE PASSED IN + DELIVERING THESE LECTURES. TO THESE FRIENDS + AND TO THE STUDENT-BODY OF THE COLLEGE THE + AUTHOR HAS THE HONOR OF DEDICATING THIS BOOK + + + + + +PREFACE + + +I stand as does the reader at the entrance to this book which I have not +as yet entered myself. I have before me the journey through the Inferno +and Purgatorio, into Paradise, with a new companion. I have made the +journey before many times with others, or with Dante and Virgil alone, +but I know that I shall enjoy especially the companionship and comment +of one with whom I have had such satisfaction of comradeship in our +journey as neighbors for a little way across this earth. I invite +others, and I hope they may be many, to make this brief journey with +us, not because I know specifically what Dr. Slattery will say along +the way, but because whatever he says out of his deep and reverent +acquaintance with the Divine Comedy will help us all who follow him, +whether we are of his particular faith or not, to an appreciation of +the meaning of this immortal poem, and make us desire to go again and +again in our reading through these spaces of the struggles of human souls. + +A world-literary-movement will commemorate in 1921 the six hundredth +anniversary of the death of the immortal Dante. That a medievalist +should call forth the homage of the twentieth century to the extent of +being honored in all civilized lands and by cultured peoples who, for +the most part, do not know the language spoken by him, or who do not +profess the religion of him who wrote the most religious book of +Christianity, is a marvel explainable by the fact that the Divine Comedy +is a drama of the soul,--the story of a struggle which every man must +make to possess his own spirit against forces that would enslave it. The +central interest of the poem is in the individual who may be you or I +instead of Dante the subject of the work, and that fact exalts the +personal element and gives the spiritual value which we of modern times +appreciate as well as did the thirteenth century. + +The Divine Comedy is attractive for other reasons. It may appeal to us +as it did to Tennyson, because of "its divine intensity," or it may +affect us as it did Charles Eliot Norton by "its powerful exposition of +moral penalties and rewards," showing that righteousness is inexorable; +or it may interest us because of its solid realism, its pure strength of +conception, its surpassing beauty, its vivid imaginative power, its +perfection of diction "without superfluousness, without defect." +Whatever be the reason of our interest in Dante, the study of his Divine +Comedy will ever be both a discipline "not so much to elevate our +thoughts," says Coleridge, "as to send them down deeper," and a delight +calling forth the deepest emotions of our being. + +JOHN H. FINLEY. + + + + +CONTENTS + + PAGE + + Dante and His Time 1 + + Dante, The Man 49 + + Dante's Inferno 101 + + Dante's Purgatorio 151 + + Dante's Paradiso 219 + + + + + +DANTE AND HIS TIME + + + + +DANTE AND HIS TIME + + +To know Dante we must know the age which produced Christianity's +greatest poet, he whom Ruskin calls "the central man of all the world, +as representing in perfect balance the imaginative, moral and +intellectual faculties, all at their highest." Other writers are not so +dependent upon their times for our clear understanding of their books. +Dante to be intelligible to the modern mind, cannot be taken out of the +thirteenth century. "Its contemporary history and its contemporary +spirit" says Brother Azarias in his Phases of Thought and Criticism, +"constitute his clearest and best commentary." Only in the light of this +commentary can we hope to know his message and realize its supremacy. +And that it is worth while to make the study there can be no doubt upon +the part of any seeker of truth and admirer of beauty. + +Emerson said: "I think if I were a professor of rhetoric I should use +Dante for my text-book. Dante is the rhetorician. He is all wings, pure +imagination and he writes like Euclid." James Russell Lowell told his +students in answer to the question as to the best course of reading to +be followed: "If I may be allowed a personal illustration, it was my +own profound admiration for the Divina Commedia of Dante that lured me +into what little learning I possess." Gladstone declared: "In the school +of Dante I learned a great part of that mental provision ... which has +served me to make the journey of human life." It surely must be of +inestimable advantage to sit under the instruction of one of the race's +master teachers who stimulates one to lofty thinking and deep feeling, +leads one into realms of wider knowledge and helps one to know his own +age by revealing a mighty past. + +To see that mighty past, to live again with Dante in the thirteenth +century is possible only after we have cleared the way with which +ignorance and misrepresentation have encumbered the approach. Here, +perhaps, more than in any other period of civilization is the dictum +true that history is often a conspiracy against the truth. We moderns +who are not only obsessed with the theory of evolution, but are +dominated by the idea that nothing of permanent value can come from +medievalism, arrogantly proclaim that ours is the greatest of centuries +because we have not only what all other centuries had, but something +else distinctively our own--a vast contribution to the world's progress. +This self-complacency makes us forget that whatever truth there may be +in the great theory of evolution, certainly the validity of the theory +is not confirmed by the intellectual history of the human race. As was +said of the Patriarchal Age so we may say of Dante's times "there were +giants in those days" which we presume to ignore. Homer, Shakespeare, +Dante, indeed stand forth in irrefutable protest against the +questionable assertion of evolution that the present is intellectually +superior to the past. + +The evolutionary theory prejudices our age against acknowledging the +high accomplishments of the past. So to know the truth we must overcome +the conspiracy with which so-called history has enveloped the past, +especially those generations immediately prior to Dante's. How that +ignorance of the history and spirit of that period can blind even a +great writer to the wonderful feats inherited from the centuries +immediately preceding the thirteenth, is revealed by the assertion of +Carlyle that "in Dante ten _silent_ centuries found a voice." To +state what history now regards as fact, it must be said that while Dante +by his giant personality and sublime poetic genius could alone ennoble +any epoch he was not "a solitary phenomenon of his time but a worthy +culmination of the literary movement which, beginning shortly before +1200, produced down to 1300 such a mass of undying literature" that +subsequent generations have found in it their model and inspiration +and have never quite equalled its originality and worth. + +In verification of this statement I have only to mention to you the +names of the Cid of Spain, the Arthurian Legends of England, the +Nibelungen Lied of Germany and the poems of the Meistersingers, the +Trouveres and the Troubadours. The authors of these works had been +taught to make themselves eternal as Dante says Brunetto Latini taught +him. They are proof against the alleged dumbness of the ages just +preceding Dante's. Of those times speaks Dr. Ralph Adams Cram, renowned +equally for historical study and for architectural ability: "The twelfth +was the century of magnificent endeavors and all that was great in its +successor is here in embryo not only in art but in philosophy, religion +and the conduct of life. The eleventh century is a time of aspiration +and vision, of the enunciation of new principles and of the first shock +of the contest between the old that was doomed and the new that was +destined to unprecedented victories." (The Substance of Gothic, p. 69.) + +Let us now make a general survey of Dante's century and then consider +the more particular events and circumstances of his environment. + +It may be a surprise to you to know that there is a book entitled The +Thirteenth, the Greatest of Centuries by Dr. James J. Walsh, in its +fifth edition with a sale of 70,000 copies. He indeed is not the only +man of letters who signalizes that century for its greatness. To confine +the quotations to two writers well known in our day, I find that Fiske +in his Beginnings of New England says of the thirteenth century: "It was +a wonderful time but after all less memorable as the culmination of +medieval empire and medieval church than as the dawning of the new era +in which we live today." Frederic Harrison, in his Survey of the +Thirteenth Century says, "Of all the epochs of effort after a new life +that ... is the most spiritual, the most really constructive and indeed +the most truly philosophic. It had great thinkers, great rulers, great +teachers, great poets, great artists, great moralists, and great +workmen. It could not be called the material age, the devotional age, +the political age or the poetic age in any special degree. It was +equally poetic, political, industrial, artistic, practical, intellectual +and devotional. And these qualities acted on a uniform conception of +life with a real symmetry of purpose." + +Ours is an age of thought but of thought finding concrete expression +in practical invention and especially in activities in the line of +manufacture and commerce. Posterity will probably characterize our age +as the Industrial Age, a phrase that will signalize our period both for +the development of industries not thought possible a century ago and +for the evolution of the industrial worker to a position of striking +importance and power. For the first time in the history of humanity the +workman's status is the subject of international agreement. The League +of Nations promises to treat Labor from a humanitarian point of view +and so to place it on the broad, firm pathway leading to industrial +peace and economical solidarity for the common good. That would seem +a necessity in view of the strides of progress in other directions. + +Now wireless telegraphy crosses oceans and unites continents. The +wireless telephone between ships and shore is in operation. It has been +found practicable to transport by submarine a cargo from Bremen to +Baltimore. In aircraft the development has been just as wonderful. Less +than ten years ago the world's record for long flight by aeroplane was +made, with no regard for time, with two stops between Albany and New +York. In July, 1919, an aeroplane making no stop covered the distance +between New York and Chicago in some six hours. Furthermore an American +seaplane, in three stages made the trip from New York to England and +then a British Dirigible without making a stop came from England to +Long Island in ninety-six hours. "This is the end and the beginning of +an age" says the author of Mr. Brittling Sees It Through. "This is +something far greater than the French Revolution or the Reformation +and we live in it." + +We indeed consider it the age of "big things." Dynasties fall and +republics spring up. When war breaks out it is a World War involving +twenty-four nations and causing 7,781,806 deaths (Nelson's Encyclopedia, +V. iv, p. 519) and costing $200,000,000,000. In the first year in which +we were at war, our country spent more than had been the cost of +conducting the government for 124 years, including the expenses of + the Civil and the Spanish-American Wars. Yes, it is an age of "big +things." The Allies in the Champagne offensive of September, 1915, +threw 50,000,000 shells into the German lines in three days. Was it one +out of sympathy with "big things," one intent on the quiet of the higher +life as contrasted with the din of the day, who said that "modern +civilization is noise and the more civilization progresses, the greater +will be the noise?" In any event the muses who inspired Dante, are +almost dumb. Now the captains of industry are the commanding figures of +the day and the student, the poet, the philosopher, the statesman have +gone into innocuous desuetude. Amy Lowell is preferred to Longfellow: +Charlie Chaplin draws bigger crowds than Shakespeare can interest. +Trainmen get wages higher than are the salaries of some of our +governors. Unskilled labor is paid more than the teachers of our youth +receive. The cost of living was never higher in the history of mankind. + +How illuminating to turn from this picture to that of Dante's age. Then +in Florence, a bushel of wheat cost about fifteen cents, a carpenter +could buy a broad ax for five cents, a saw for three cents, a plane +for four cents, a chisel for one cent. The average daily wage of a +woolworker was about thirty-six cents. In view of the high purchasing +power of money in Dante's age, the fact that he borrowed at least seven +hundred and fifty seven and a half golden florins, a debt that was not +paid until after his death, leads one to think that he must have been +regarded by his contemporaries as prodigal in the use of money. His +financial difficulties must have given him an uneasy conscience for he +insists repeatedly on the wickedness of prodigality. In fact he makes +the abuse of money on the part either of a miser or of a spendthrift a +sin against the social order punishable according to the gravity of the +offence in Hell or Purgatory. + +To return to the matter of prices in Dante's day. In England a goose +could be bought for two and a half pence. A stall-fed ox commanded +twenty-four shillings while his fellow brought up on grass was sold for +sixteen shillings. A fat hog, two years old,--and this is interesting to +us who pay seventy-five cents a pound for bacon--a fat hog two years old +cost only three shillings four pence and a fat sheep shorn, one shilling +and two pence. A gallon of oysters was purchasable for two pence, a +dozen of the best soles for three pence. A yard of broadcloth cost only +one shilling one pence, a pair of shoes four pence. These figures of +English money are taken from an act of Edward III of England who was +born seven years after Dante's death. Parliamentarian enactment under +the same king fixed a table of wages. + +For a day's work at haymaking or weeding of corn, for instance, a woman +got one penny. For mowing an acre of grass or threshing a quarter of +wheat a man was paid four pence. The reaper received also four pence for +his day's labor. Eight hours constituted a working day. The people of +the Middle Ages not only had the Saturday half-holiday but they enjoyed +release from work on nearly forty vigils of feast days during the year. +That they were as well off, e.g. as the unskilled laborer of our day, +who demands from four to eight dollars a day as a wage, is evident from +the fact that while he has to pay forty cents a pound for mutton, the +workman of Edward the Third's day earned enough in four days to buy a +whole sheep and a gallon of ale. So plentiful was meat in England that +it was the ordinary diet of the poor. A preamble of an act of Parliament +of the fourteenth century in specifying beef, pork, mutton and veal +declares that these are "the food of the poorer sort." (The Thirteenth, +the Greatest of Centuries, p. 479.) + +Speaking of live-stock leads to the observation that the people of +Dante's time for the most part lived in the country. Cities had not yet +become magnets. London is supposed to have had a population of +twenty-five thousand, York ten thousand four hundred, Canterbury, four +thousand seven hundred, Florence, in the year 1300, according to +Villani, a contemporary of Dante, had "ninety thousand enjoying the +rights of citizenship. Of rich Grandi, there were fifteen hundred. +Strangers passing through the city numbered about two thousand. In +the elementary schools were eight thousand to ten thousand children." +(Staley's Guilds of Florence, p. 555.) + +The means of travel and communication, of course, were few and +difficult. The roads were bad and dangerous. In France, Germany and +Italy there were so many forms of government, dukedoms, baronies, +marquisates, signories, city republics, each with its own custom +regulations, not to speak of each having its own coinage and language, +that travelers encountered obstacles almost at every step. For the most +part, journeys had to be made afoot and a degree of safety was attained +only if the traveler joined a large trade caravan, a pilgrimage or a +governmental expedition. Night often found the party far from a hospice +or inn and so they were obliged for shelter to camp on the highway or +in the fields. Necessarily the traveler was subjected to innumerable +privations and sufferings. + +I have not been able to get accurate information as to the exact length +of time required to make a trip, say from London to Paris--a distance +covered the other day by an aeroplane in eighty minutes. But, the +"Consuetudines" of the Hereford Cathedral, England, afford us some data +upon which to base the conclusion that six weeks were necessary for +such a trip, allowing another week for religious purposes. The +"Consuetudines" after specifying that no canon of the cathedral was to +make more than one pilgrimage beyond the seas in his lifetime, allows +the clergyman seven weeks' absence to go abroad to the tomb of St. Denis +in the suburbs of Paris, sixteen weeks to Rome and a year to Jerusalem. + +A table of time limits between Florence and the principal cities of +Europe and the East made by the Florentine Banking houses in Dante's +day, showed the number of days required for consignments of specie and +goods to reach their destination. Rome was reached in fifteen days, +Venice and Naples in twenty days, Flanders in seventy days, England and +Constantinople in seventy-five days, Cyprus in ninety days. How long it +took Dante to make the trip from Florence to Rome, we do not know but +history tells us that he went to the Eternal City in the year 1300. He +was indeed a great traveler. During his twenty years' exile, we know +that our poet's itinerary led him among other places to Padua, Venice, +Ravenna, Paris and there is good reason to believe, as Gladstone +contends, that he went for study to Oxford. The regret is permissible +that he did not leave us an account of his journeyings. "Had he given us +pictures--as he alone could have painted them--of scenes by the wayside +and of the courts of which he was an honored guest," says Dr. J.A. Zahm +in his Great Inspirers, "we should have had the most interesting +and the most instructive travel book ever written." + +We cannot but notice one great effect brought about by traveling in +those days, especially by pilgrimages and by the Crusades formed in +defence of pilgrimages to the Holy Land and that is, that there arose on +all sides a desire for liberty and the growth of a spirit of nationality +that worked to the destruction of absolute government. The power of the +common people began to assert itself. In 1215, England forced from John +Lackland the Magna Charta, the foundation of all the liberty of English +speaking people even in modern times. The very year in which Dante was +born, representatives of the townspeople were admitted as members of the +English Parliament. In France, during the thirteenth century, the +centralization of power in the hands of the kings went forward with the +gradual diminution of the influence of the nobility--a fact operating to +the people's advantage. + +In 1222 the nobles forced Andrew II of Hungary to issue the Golden Bull, +the instrument which Blackstone later declared turned "anarchy into +law." In Germany and Sicily Frederick II published laws giving a larger +measure of popular freedom. In Italy, the existence of the city +republics--especially those of Florence, Sienna, Pisa--showed how +successfully the ferment of liberty had penetrated the mass of the +body-politic. + +Coming now to regard the characteristics of Dante's age we must say that +the first big thing that looms in sight is the fact that this was the +golden age of Christian faith. Everywhere the Cross, the symbol of +salvation, met the eye. It was the age when men lived in one faith, used +one ritual, professed one creed, accepted a common doctrine and moral +standard and breathed a common religious atmosphere. Heresy was not +wholly absent but it was the exception. Religion regarded then not as an +accident or an incident of life but as a benign influence permeating +the whole social fabric, not only cared for the widow and orphan and +provided for the poor, but it shaped men's thoughts, quickened their +sentiments, inspired their work and directed their wills. These men +believed in a world beyond the grave as an ever present reality. Hell, +Purgatory, Heaven were so near to them that they, so to speak, could +touch the invisible world with their hands. To them, as to Dante, "this +life was but a shadowy appearance through which the eternal realities of +another world were constantly betraying themselves." Of the intensity +and universality of faith in that life beyond death, Dante is not the +exception but the embodiment. His poem has no such false note of +scepticism as we detect in Tennyson's In Memoriam. Note the words of the +modern poet: + + "I falter where I firmly trod + And falling with my weight of cares + Upon the great world's altar stairs + That slope through darkness up to God, + I stretch lame hands of faith and grope + And gather dust and chaff and call + To what I feel is Lord of all + And faintly trust the larger hope." + +Not thus does Dante speak. As the voice of his age he begins with faith, +continues with faith and leads us to the unveiled vision of God. He +both shows us his unwavering adherence to Christian doctrine in that +scene in Paradiso where he is examined as to his faith by St. Peter and +he teaches us that the seen is only a stepping stone into the unseen. It +has been said of him in reference to his Divina Commedia, "The light of +faith guides the poet's steps through the hopeless chambers of Hell with +a firmness of conviction that knows no wavering. It bears him through +the sufferings of Purgatory, believing strongly fits reality: it raises +him on the wings of love and contemplation into Heaven's Empyrean, where +he really hopes to enjoy bliss far beyond that whereof he says." +(Brother Azarias.) + +Leading the religious awakening of the thirteenth century and making +possible Dante's work at the end of the century were two of the world's +greatest exponents of the spiritual life, both signalized in the +Paradiso. St. Dominic characterized by Dante (Par. XII, 56) as "a +jealous lover of the Christian faith with mildness toward his disciples +but formidable to his foes," founded an order to be "the champions of +Faith and the true lights of the world." Even in its early days it gave +to the world eminent scholars such as Albertus Magnus and St. Thomas +Aquinas, and it has never ceased to number among its members great +thinkers, ardent apostles, stern ascetics and profound mystics. In +Dante's time it was the only order specially charged with the office of +preaching and from its founder's time down to the present day the one +who acts as the Pope's Theologian has been taken from the ranks of this +order. Besides preaching to all classes of Christian society and +evangelizing the heathen, the Dominicans in Dante's day fought against +heresy and schism, lectured in the universities, toiled among the poor, +activities in which the order is still engaged. + +But perhaps the man whose spiritual influence was greatest in +medievalism, if not in all the history of Christianity, was Francis of +Assisi, who "all seraphical in order rose a sun upon the world." (Par. +XI, 37.) Born at Assisi in Umbria in 1182, the son of a wealthy cloth +merchant and of Pica, a member of a noble family of Provence, Francis +grew up a handsome, gay and gallant youth "the prime favorite among the +young nobles of the town, the foremost in every feat of arms, the leader +of civil revels, the very king of frolic." A low fever contracted when +with his fellow citizens he fought against the Perugians turned his +thoughts to the things of eternity. Upon his recovery he determined to +devote himself to the service of his fellow man for the honor of God. + +His renunciation of the things of this life was dramatic. To swerve him +from the new life his father had cited him to appear before the Bishop. +Francis, unmoved by the appeal of his father persisted in his +resolution. Stripping himself of the clothes he wore, the Bishop +covering his nakedness, Francis gave his clothes to his father saying, +"Hitherto I have called you Father, henceforth I desire to say only Our +Father who art in heaven." Then and there as Dante sings, were +solemnized Francis' nuptials with his beloved Spouse, the Lady Poverty, +under which name, in the mystical language afterwards so familiar to +Francis, "he comprehended the total surrender of all wordly goods, +honors and privileges." He went forth and attracted disciples. With +these partaking of his zeal and animated by his charity, he labored to +make his generation turn from the sordid to the spiritual, diffusing +over all the people a tender love of nature and God. + +Among his disciples--great minds of the time--were Thomas of Celano, one +of the literary geniuses of the day, the author of the sublime Dies +Irae--a religious poem chanted to this day at every funeral high mass +in the Catholic Church, and frequently sung or played in great opera +houses,--Bonaventure, professor of philosophy and theology at the +university of Paris, Roger Bacon, the friar, the renowned teacher at +Paris and Oxford, Duns Scotus, the subtile doctor. In the Third Order +established for those not following the monastic life the membership, +in the course of time, embraced among others St. Louis, King of France, +St. Elizabeth of Hungary, and Dante. + +He, towards the end of his exile, footsore, weary and discouraged, +buffeted by the adverse winds of fortune knocked, a stranger, at the +gates of the Franciscan monastery at Lunigiana. "As neither I nor any of +the brothers recognized him," writes Brother Hilary, the Prior, "I asked +him what he wished. He made no answer but gazed silently upon the +columns and galleries of the cloister. Again I asked him what he wished +and whom he sought and slowly turning his head and looking around upon +the brothers and me, he answered 'Peace.'" + +The monks spoke gently to him, ministered with kindly and delicate +sympathy to his bodily and spiritual needs. His reticence left him and +his reserve melted away. Here the object of loving hospitality, he +remained finding means and opportunity for profound study. Before he +departed he drew from his bosom a part of the precious manuscript of +Divina Commedia and trustingly giving it into the hands of the Prior +said, "Here, Brother, is a portion of my work which you may not have +seen: this remembrance I leave with you: forget me not." + +That he himself was not unforgetful of the sympathy of the simple and +warm-hearted followers of St. Francis is evident from the fact that he +gloried in his membership of the Third Order, wearing about his body the +Franciscan cincture for chastity and it is not unlikely that at Ravenna +before he finally closed his eyes upon the turmoil of the world full of +vicissitudes, he modestly requested that he be buried in the simple +habit of the order and be laid to rest in a tomb attached to their +monastery. In any event such was his burial. + +For our sympathetic understanding of the supremacy of religion in +Dante's day, may I again quote Ralph Adams Cram, whose words on the +eleventh century are equally applicable to the era of our Florentine and +to his country? Dr. Cram writes: "It is hard for us to think back into +such an alien spirit and time as this and so understand how with +one-tenth of its present population England could support so vast and +varied a religious establishment, used as we are to an age where +religion is only a detail for many and for most a negligible factor. We +are only too familiar with the community that could barely support one +parish church, boasting its one-half dozen religious organizations, all +together claiming the adherence of only a minority of the population, +but in the Middle Ages, religion was not only the most important and +pervasive thing, it was a moral obligation on every man, woman and +child, and rejection or even indifference was unthinkable. If once we +grasp this fact," continues Cram, "we can understand how in the eleventh +century, the whole world should cover itself with 'its white robe of +churches.'" + +The second great fact observable in the times of Dante is that it was an +age of inquiry and of efficient craftsmanship. Many of our generation +think that Dante's day being so far removed from the age of printing and +the spirit of positivism, and being given to the upholding of authority +almost as an unexhaustible source of knowledge, was wholly unacquainted +with scientific research. Furthermore they declare that education then +was almost at its minimum stage. A little study will show that the +people of that era were not unacquainted with the scientific spirit and +it will also prove that if education did not prevail, in the sense that +everybody had an opportunity to read and write--a consummation hardly to +be expected--education in the sense of efficiency--education in the +etymological sense, i.e. the training of the faculties so that the +individual might develop creative self-expression and especially that he +might bring out what was best in him, all which meant knowledge highly +useful to himself and others--that kind of education was not uncommon. + +To give an idea of the scientific inquiry and sharp observation of mind +in those days, I might cite Dante as a master exponent of nature study, +and adept of science. Passing over his experiment in optics given in +Paradiso, given so naturally as to justify the inference that +investigation in physics was then not an uncommon mode of gaining +knowledge, I call your attention to an observation made by Alexander +Von Humboldt, the distinguished scientist, to prove that nothing escaped +the eyes of Dante, intent equally upon natural phenomena and the things +of the soul. Von Humboldt suggests that the rhetorical figure employed +by Dante in his description of the River of Light with its banks of +wonderful flowers (Par. XXX, 61) is an application of our poet's +knowledge of the phosphorescence of the ocean. If you have ever looked +down the side of a steamship at night as it ploughed its way forward, +and if you have ever observed in the sea the thousand darting lights +just below the water line your enjoyable experience will enable you +to appreciate the beauty of this passage. I now quote: + + "I saw a glory like a stream flow by + In brightness rushing and on either side + Were banks that with spring's wondrous hues might vie + And from that river living sparks did soar + And sank on all sides in the flow'rets bloom + Like precious rubies set in golden ore + Then as if drunk with all the rich perfume + Back to the wondrous torrent did they roll + And as one sank another filled its room." + +Commenting on this passage, Von Humboldt says "It would seem as if this +picture had its origin in the poet's recollection of that peculiar and +rare phosphorescent condition of the ocean in which luminous points +appear to rise from the breaking waves and, spreading themselves over +the surface of the waters, convert the liquid plain into a moving sea of +stars." This mention of a sea brings to mind the striking fact that Dean +Church has pointed out, viz., when Dante speaks of the Mediterranean, he +speaks not as a historian or an observer of its storms or its smiles but +as a geologist. The Mediterranean is to him: "The greatest _valley_ +in which water stretcheth." (Par. IX, 82.) + +So also when he speaks of light he regards it not merely in its +beautiful appearances but in its natural laws (Purg. XV). And when Dante +comes to describe the exact color, say of an apple blossom, his splendid +and unequalled power as a scientific observer of Nature and a poet is +most evident. Ruskin (Mod. Painters III, 226) commenting on the passage: +flowers of a color "less than that of roses but more than that of +violets" (Purg. XXXII, 58) makes this interesting remark: "It certainly +would not be possible in words, to come nearer to the _definition_ +of the exact hue which Dante meant--that of the apple blossom. Had he +employed any simpler color phrase, as 'pale pink' or 'violet pink' or +any other such combined expression, he still could not have completely +got at the delicacy of the hue; he might, perhaps, have indicated its +kind, but not its tenderness; but by taking the rose-leaf as the type +of the delicate red, and then enfeebling this with the violet gray he +gets, as closely as language can carry him to the complete rendering of +the vision although it is evidently felt by him to be in its perfect +beauty ineffable." + +These examples of Dante's interest in scientific observation prove his +fitness to be considered a representative of his age in its love for +science. Instead, however, of proposing Dante as a typical example of +the experimental inquiry of his age--you may say that he is _sui +generis_--I shall call forth other witnesses. + +First let Albertus Magnus speak. He was distinguished as a theologian +and philosopher and was also renowned as a scientist. In his tenth book +after describing all the trees, plants and herbs then known, he says: +"All that is here set down is the result of our own observation or has +been borrowed from others whom we have known to have written what their +personal experience has confirmed, for in these matters, experience +alone can give certainty (_experimentum solum certificat in talibus_)." + +We may be sure that such an investigator showing in his method a +prodigious scientific progress was on the line so successfully followed +by modern natural philosophy. This conclusion is confirmed by evidence +from his other books showing that he did a great deal of experimental +work, especially in chemistry. In his treatise De Mineralibus, Albertus +Magnus keen to observe natural phenomena, enumerates different +properties of natural magnets and states some of the properties commonly +attributed to them. + +In his book on Botany he treats of the organic structure and physiology +of plants so accurately as to draw from Meyer, a botanist of the +nineteenth century, this appreciative tribute. "No botanist who lived +before Albert can be compared to him unless Theophrastus, with whom he +was not acquainted: and after him none has painted nature with such +living colors or studied it so profoundly until the time of Conrad +Gesner and Cesalpino"--a high compliment indeed for Albertus for +leadership in science for three centuries. To quote Von Humboldt again, +"I have found in the book of Albertus Magnus, De Natura Locorum, +considerations on the dependence of temperature concurrently on latitude +and elevation and on the effect of different angles of incidence of the +sun's rays in heating the ground, which have excited my surprise." + +Albertus Magnus gains renown also from his distinguished pupil Roger +Bacon who, some think, should have the honor of being regarded as the +father of inductive science--an honor posterity has conferred upon +another of the same family name who lived 300 years later. We, who wear +eye-glasses would be willing, I think, to vote the honor to the elder +Bacon, because if we do not owe to him the discovery of lenses, we are +his debtors for his clarification of the principles of lenses and for +his successful efforts in establishing them on a mathematical basis. In +any event, he was a pioneer in inductive science. + +Before gunpowder is known to have been discovered in the West, the friar +Roger Bacon must have made some interesting experiments along the line +of explosives, else he could not have made the following remarkable +statement as to the property of gunpowder: "One may cause to burst from +bronze, thunderbolts more formidable than those produced by nature. A +small quantity of prepared matter causes a terrible explosion +accompanied by a brilliant light. One may multiply this phenomenon so +far as to destroy a city or an army." Anticipating the use of even motor +boats and automobiles driven by gasoline, this thirteenth century +scientist wrote: "Art can construct instruments of navigation such that +the largest vessels governed by a single man will traverse rivers and +seas more rapidly than if they were filled with oarsmen. One may also +make carriages which, without the aid of any animal, will run with +remarkable swiftness." This man whose clarity of vision anticipated +those discoveries of the nineteenth century, left three disciples after +him,--John of Paris, William of Mara and Gerard Hay--who followed their +master's methods, especially of testing by observation and by careful +searching of authorities, every proposition that came up for study. + +Perhaps the most striking argument in favor of the experimental attitude +of Dante's century is that afforded by certain facts in the history of +medicine of that epoch. Then surgery began to make vast strides. Pagel, +regarded in our time as the best informed writer on the history of +medicine, has this to say of the surgery in Dante's age. "The stream of +literary works on surgery flows richer during this period. While +surgeons are far from being able to emancipate themselves from the +ruling pathological theories, there is no doubt that in one department, +that of manual technics, free observation came to occupy the first place +in the effort for scientific progress. Investigation is less hampered +and concerns itself with practical things and not with artificial +theories. Experimental observation was in this not repressed by an +unfortunate and iron-bound appeal to reasoning." (The Popes and Science, +p. 172.) + +As to medical practice in the thirteenth century, interesting data are +furnished by the Bulletin of Johns Hopkins Hospital and the Journal of +the American Medical Association, January, 1908. The former publication +gives us remarkable instances of surgical operations and of the +treatment of Bright's disease, matters which we might have thought +possible only in the nineteenth century; the latter publishes in full +the law for the regulation of the practice of medicine issued by Emperor +Frederick II in 1240 or 1241. According to that law binding on the two +Sicilies, three years of preparatory university work were required +before the student could begin the study of medicine. Then he had to +devote three years to the study of medicine and finally he had to spend +a year under a physician's direction before a license was issued to him. +In connection with this high standard of a medical education, the law +of Frederick II forbade not only the sale of impure drugs under penalty +of confiscation of goods, but also the preparation of them under penalty +of death--stern legislation, anticipating by nearly seven centuries the +American Pure Drug Law. (The Popes and Science, p. 419.) + +Undoubtedly the experimental demonstration and original observation of +Dante's time sprang either from the training or pedagogical methods of +the great universities of that period. There were universities at +Oxford, Paris, Cologne, Montpelier, Orleans, Angers. Spain had four +universities; Italy, ten. The number of students in attendance must +amaze us if we think that higher education did not then prevail. +Professor Thomas Davidson in his History of Education, says: "The number +of students reported as having attended some of the universities in +those early days almost passes belief, e.g. Oxford is said to have had +about 30,000 about the year 1300 and half that number as early as 1224. +The numbers attending the University of Paris were still greater. The +numbers become less surprising when we remember with what poor +accommodations--a bare room and an armful of straw--the students of +those days were content and what numbers of them even a single teacher +like Abelard could, long before, draw into lonely retreats." + +That in the twelfth and following centuries there was no lack of +enthusiasm for study, notwithstanding the troubled conditions of the +times, is very clear. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, +education rose in many European states to a height which it had not +attained since the days of Seneca and Quintilian. + +The curriculum followed by a student in Dante's time embraced the seven +liberal arts of the Trivium and the Quadrivium, namely Grammar, +Dialectic, Rhetoric, Arithmetic, Music, Geometry and Astrology. The +higher education comprised also Physics, Metaphysics, Logic, Ethics, and +Theology. Of the cultural effect of the old education, Professor Huxley +spoke in the highest praise on the occasion of his inaugural address as +rector of Aberdeen University. "I doubt," he said, "if the curriculum +of any modern university shows so clear and generous a comprehension +of what is meant by culture as the old Trivium and Quadrivium does." +(The Thirteenth the Greatest of Centuries, p. 466.) + +Speaking of education in those distant days, one thinks of the supreme +intellect of medieval life, the giant genius St. Thomas Aquinas, whose +philosophy was the food of Dante and became the basis not only of +Dante's great poem but of Christian Apologetics down to our own day, +when Pope Leo XIII directed that all Catholic seminaries and +universities implant the doctrine expounded by Thomas, Angel of the +Schools. A philosopher whose breadth and lucidity of mind gave such +perennial interest to a system of thought that it is still followed more +generally than that of any other school of philosophy--taught in the +regular course even at Oxford, Harvard, Columbia--such a philosopher +could have left the impress of his genius upon seven succeeding +centuries only if his work had been to philosophy what Dante's Divina +Commedia is to literature. + +The subject of scholastic philosophy now more or less claims attention +here, since the coming to our country of the most distinguished exponent +of Neo-scholasticism. Cardinal Mercier before becoming a prince of the +Church, held the chair of neo-scholastic philosophy at Louvain where he +made his department so distinguished for deep scholarship that pupils +came from afar to sit under his instruction or to prepare themselves for +a doctorate of philosophy whose requirements at Louvain were perhaps, +more exacting than at any other modern university. + +In 1889 Bishop John H. Keane engaged in the task of getting together a +faculty for the Catholic University at Washington went to Louvain to see +Dr. Mercier. "I want you to go to Washington and become head of our +school of philosophy," said the visitor. "I am perfectly willing to go, +nothing could please me more. But we must first get the permission of +the Pope," answered the Belgian scholar. Bishop Keane went to Rome and +presented the matter to Leo XIII. "Better leave him where he is," +replied the Pope. "He is more needed in Belgium than in the United +States." So it was owing to the wisdom of Pope Leo in keeping the right +man in the right place that Belgium's strongest man was held for his +country against the evil hour to be a terror to wrongdoers and an +inspiration and object of reverence. + +The World's War revealed Belgium's Primate not only as a great lucid +thinker who shattered the subtilities with which the philosophy of might +tried to confuse the mind of the world, but also as an undaunted leader +who could not be frightened or defeated by all the forces of militarism. +To my mind the secret of the dominating influence working upon Cardinal +Mercier's character and making him a world-hero came from his training +in scholastic philosophy and from his having assimilated the spirit of +the thirteenth century. + +That period indeed not only trained its people to a high spiritual ideal +but gave them golden opportunities to express themselves and to put +forth, under the inspiration of religion, the best that was in them. +The medium was the guild system which, working from a self-protecting +alliance of traders, extended itself to every existing form of industry +and commerce and gave "the workman a position of self-respect and +independence such as he had never held before and has failed to achieve +since" (Cram). + +A remarkable thing about the guild system was that it established and +maintained what we, today, call technical schools for the training of +apprentices. But more remarkable was the spirit which animated the +system. _Operare est orare_ was its principle. As a result of that +teaching that labor is practical prayer, that the worker should labor +not simply for a wage, but for perfection, men with untiring energy +straining for finer and better work came to make the best things their +minds could conceive, their taste could plan, their hands could fashion. +Bell-making in Dante's day attained such perfection that the form and +composition of bells have ever since been imitated. Workers of precious +metals produced such wonderful chalices that succeeding generations have +never equalled the ancient model. The masonry of medievalism has secrets +of construction lost to our age. Mechanical engineering solved without +the use of steel girders problems in the structural work of cathedrals, +palaces, fortresses and bridges that causes open-eyed astonishment in +the twentieth century. Wood carving as seen in many medieval chairs, +tables, and choir equipment is of design so exquisite and of finish of +detail so artistic that it is the despair of the cabinet makers of our +age. + +The beauty of the thirteenth century needlework made into chasubles, +copes, albs, stoles, altar covers,--triumphs of artistic excellence, is +seen in the typical example of the Cope of Ascoli for which Mr. Pierpont +Morgan about ten years ago, paid sixty thousand dollars. So high a price +was paid for this ecclesiastical vestment not because it was an antique +but because marvelous expertness in artcraft had given it such value. Be +it recorded to the honor of the American millionaire, that he returned +the treasure to a church in Italy when he discovered that he had +unknowingly bought stolen property. + +Of iron-mongery of Dante's time, the author of the Thirteenth the +Greatest of Centuries writes as follows: "It is difficult to understand +how one of the village blacksmiths of the time made a handsome gate that +has been the constant admiration of posterity ever since, or designed +high hinges for doors that artists delight to copy, or locks and latches +and bolts that are transported to our museums to be looked at with +interest not only because they are antiques but for the wonderful +combination of the beautiful and the useful which they illustrate. The +surprise grows the greater when we realize that these beautiful objects +were made not only in one place or even in a few places, but in nearly +every town of any size in England, France, Italy, Germany and Spain at +various times during the thirteenth century and that at any time a town +of considerably less than ten thousand inhabitants seemed to be able to +obtain among its own inhabitants, men who could make such works of art +not as copies nor in servile imitation of others, but with original +ideas of their own, and make them in such perfection that in many cases +they have remained the models for many centuries." + +That is especially true of the thirteenth century glass windows as seen, +for example, in the Cathedrals of York, Lincoln, Westminster, +Canterbury, Chartres, Rheims, and in Notre Dame and the Sainte Chapelle, +Paris. Modern art with all its boasting cannot begin to make anything +comparable to that antique glass made and put in place by faith and love +long before Columbus discovered America. There are tiny bits of it in +this country as a result of the relic hunting of our soldiers in the +World's War. Many of them got a fragment of the shattered glass of +Rheims, "petrified color" deep sky blue, ruby, golden green, and sent it +home to a sweetheart, a wife or sister to be mounted on a ring or set in +a pin. + +The donors for the most part of the glass of the thirteenth century +Cathedrals, were guilds at that time. For the Cathedral of Chartres +e.g. the drapers and the furriers gave five windows, the porters one, +the tavern-keepers two, the bakers two. + +In Dante's time glass-making reached its climax and then the curve began +to decline, until in the eighteenth century and in the early part of the +nineteenth century glass-making reached its lowest point. + +Great as was Dante's day in the efficiency and education promoted by the +Guild system--Dante himself was a member of it--the achievement of his +era in architecture was the "most notable perhaps because what happened +there epitomizes all that was done elsewhere and the nature of what was +accomplished is precisely that which informed the whole body of medieval +achievement." (The Substance of Gothic, p. 137.) + +In the course of the century that gave birth to Dante, architecture rose +to a glory never equalled before or after. In France alone between the +years of 1180 and 1270 eighty great cathedrals and five hundred abbey +houses were constructed. It was in this century that Notre Dame, Paris, +arose, "the only un-Greek thing" said R.M. Stevenson, "which unites +majesty elegance and awfulness." But it was not alone. Other Notre Dames +sprung up in Germany, Italy and Spain. In England also, in that period +there were more than twenty cathedrals in the course of construction, +some of them in places as small as Wells, whose population never +exceeded four thousand. + +To look today upon Wells with its facade of nearly three hundred +statues, one hundred and fifty-three of which are life size or heroic +and then to realize that this magnificent poem in stone was composed by +villagers unknown to us and unhonored and unsung, is to open our eyes +to the wonders accomplished by the foremost age of architecture. + +So wonderful are those cathedrals that Ferguson, the standard English +authority on Gothic architecture, does not hesitate to say; "If any one +man were to devote a lifetime to the study of one of our great +cathedrals, assuming it to be complete in all its medieval +arrangements--it is questionable whether he would master all its details +and fathom all the reasonings and experiments which led to the result +before him. + +"And when we consider that not only in the great cities alone, but in +every convent and in every parish, thoughtful men were trying to excel +what had been done and was doing by their predecessors and their +fellows, we shall understand what an amount of thought is built into the +walls of our churches, castles, colleges and dwelling houses. My own +impression is that not one-tenth part of it has been reproduced in all +the works written on the subject up to this day and much of it is +probably lost never again to be recovered for the instruction and +delight of future ages." + +The irreparable shattering of the greatest of these monuments of the +past, occurred in our day. The Cathedral of Rheims, the crowning +perfection of architecture having survived "the ravages of wars, the +brutishness of revolutions, the smug complacency of restoration which +had stripped it of its altars, its shrines and its tombs of unnumbered +kings" was the target for two years of German shell and shrapnel and +today it stands gaunt and scathed in a circle of ruin. But even in its +ruin it shows infinite majesty and if it is left as it is,--and may that +be so--for restoration would only vulgarize its incomparable art, Rheims +will stand as a monument both to the thirteenth century which had made +it the supreme type of the Gothic ideal to raise men's souls to God, and +to the twentieth century against whose materialism it was an offence and +a protest. + +The third characteristic of the age of Dante is its chivalry, which +placed woman on the highest pedestal she had ever occupied. In +literature that unique influence is seen in a new and an exalted +conception of love. Love is now coupled with nobility of life. The +troubadours had sung of love as a quality belonging to gentle folk, +meaning by that phrase the nobility, and nobility had been defined by +the Emperor Frederick II, patron of the troubadours, as a combination +of ancestral wealth and fine manners. In the Banquet (bk. IV) Dante +rejects that definition and transfers nobility from the social to the +moral order holding that "nobility exists where virtue dwells." + +Love, the flowering of this nobility, may be found in the heart of him +even lowest in the social scale provided that he is a virtuous man. It +is not an affair solely of gentle blood. It has no pedigree of birth or +richness. "In this sense the true lover need not be a _gentleman_ +but he must be a _gentle man_, loving not by genteel code of caste +but by gentle code of character." (J.B. Fletcher: Dante p. 27.) + +Thus Dante makes Guido Guinicelli say: "Love and the gentle heart are +one and the same thing." And Dante himself in one of his Canzoni writes: + + "Let no man predicate + That aught the name of gentleman should have + Even in a king's estate + Except the heart there be a gentle man's." + +Love, Then, Became In Literature Such A Refined Emotion That To Quote +Dante: "It Makes Ill Thought To Perish, It Drives Into Foul Hearts A +Deadly Chill" And On The Other Hand It Fills Indeed The Lover With Such +Delicacy Of Sentiment For His Beloved That She Is His Inspiration To +Virtue And The Muse Who Directs His Pen. In Harmony With "The Sweet New +Style" Of Sincerity With Which Dante Treats Of Love, Thomas Bernart De +Ventadorn Sings: + +"It is no wonder if I sing better than any other singer, for my heart +draws near to Love and I am a better man for Love's command." + +Not in literature alone but in actual life did chivalry exalt "the +eternal womanly." In Dante's age, to quote the author of Phases of +Thought and Criticism, "Knights passed from land to land in search of +adventure, vowed to protect and defend the widow and the orphan and the +lonely woman at the hazard of their lives: they went about with a prayer +on their lips and in their hearts the image of the lady-love whom they +had chosen to serve and to whom they had pledged loyalty and fidelity: +they strove to be chaste in body and soul and as a tower of strength for +the protection of this spirit of chastity, they were taught to venerate +the Virgin Mother Mary and cultivate toward her a tender devotion as the +purest and holiest ideal of womanhood. This spirit of chivalry is the +ruling spirit of Dante's life and the inspiration of some of his +sublimest flights." + +All these high achievements of Dante's century are all the more notable +in view of the fact that war with its horror and destruction was never +absent from those times. Every European country was involved often in +war and Asia and Africa were not free from its devastation. + +In such stirring times, Dante was born at Florence. A city of flowers +and gay festivities, the home of a cultured pleasure-loving people, it +was the frequent scene of feuds and factions handed down from sire to +son. The hatred they engendered and the desolation they caused may be +understood from the reading of Romeo and Juliet, a tragedy whose scene +is laid in Verona in the year 1303 and to the families concerned in +which Dante makes allusion in the sixth canto of his Purgatorio. But +Verona and Florence were not the only cities involved by the militarism +of the age. Especially in northern Italy were strife and bloodshed +common. Province, city, town, hamlet and even households were torn by +internal dissensions, which only complicated the main conflict of that +day, viz., the world struggle for supremacy of pope and emperor. + +The imperial party called Ghibellines, composed mainly of aristocrats +and their followers, aimed to break down the barriers which kept the +German Emperor out of Italy, their object being to have him subjugate +the whole country, even the states of the Pope. The papal or popular +party, known as Guelfs, had as its purpose the independence of +Italy--the freedom and alliance of the great cities of the north of +Italy and dependence of the center and southern parts on the Roman See. +A few months after Dante's death, the Ghibellines, the imperial party, +suffered a defeat by the overthrow of King Manfred from which they never +recovered. But in Florence for many years they maintained their +struggle. + +To add to the confusion of the Florentines whose sympathy was mostly +Guelf--i.e. favorable to the papal or popular cause--the Guelf party of +Florence was divided into two factions, the Bianchi and the Neri, the +history of whose tumults often leading to blood and mischief may be +known by the frequent allusions of our poet. Embroiled by those feuds, +Dante is found not only as a prior among the ruling Bianchi but as a +soldier under arms at the battle of Campaldino and at the siege of +Caprona. Later when the Neri were restored to power, Dante was banished +and never again beheld his beloved city. In exile Dante transferred his +allegiance to the Ghibellines though he upheld the Guelf view as to the +primacy of the Church. Subsequently he tried, but in vain, to form a +party independent of Guelf, Ghibelline, Bianchi or Neri. + +May I conclude this chapter by giving you another view of Dante's +environment? To point out the degeneracy of Florence, Dante becomes a +_laudator acti temporis_ in a picture of the earlier Florence that +has never been equalled. + +"Florence was abiding in peace, sober and modest. She had not necklace +or coronal or women with ornamented shoes or girdle which was more to be +looked at than the person. Nor yet did the daughter at her birth give +fear to her father, for the time and dowry did not outrun measure on +this or that side. She had not houses empty of families. I saw +Bellencion Berti go girt with leather and bone and his lady come from +the mirror with unpainted face. I saw him of the Nerlo and him of the +Vecchio satisfied with unlined skin and their ladies with the spindle +and the distaff. O! fortunate women, each was sure of her burial place" +(Paradiso IV, 97). + +But time changed all that. With her population vastly increased in +Dante's day and her commerce on all seas and on every road and her +banking system controlling the markets of Europe and the East, Florence +had become such a mighty city that Pope Boniface VIII could say to the +Florentine embassy who came to Rome to take part in the Jubilee of 1300: +"Florence is the greatest of cities. She feeds, clothes, governs us all. +Indeed she appears to rule the world. She and her people are, in truth, +the fifth element of the universe." (The Guilds of Florence, p. 562.) + +Such greatness was attained according to Dante only at the loss of +pristine simplicity and virtue. So he apostrophizes his native city: +"Rejoice O Florence, since thou art so mighty that thou canst spread +thy wings over sea and land and thy name is known throughout Hell." +Notorious for crime Florence still kept a big place in her life for +religion. There "religion was abused but its beneficial effects +continued to be manifest--vice was flagrant but it never lost the sense +of shame--men were cruel but their cruelty was followed by sincere +regrets--misfortunes were frequent and signal but they were accepted +with resignation or with the hope of retrieval or men gloried in them +on account of the cause in which they suffered." (Brother Azarias.) + +And, meanwhile, side by side with fierce and bloody struggles the +creative forces of art and architecture were making marvelous progress +before the very eyes of Dante. Niccolo Pisano had finished his Sienna +pulpit and with his son was engaged on his immortal works of sculpture. +Orcagna had made a wonderful tabernacle for the Florentine church of San +Michele, Cimabue had painted the Madonna which is now in the Rucellai +chapel. Giotto had completed his work at Assisi and Rome and would soon +give to the world the Florentine Campanile. Fra Sisto and Fra Ristoro +had built the church Santa Maria Novella at Florence and Arnolfo di +Cambio, while Dante was writing sonnets, had begun the duomo or +cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. The stout walls and lofty tower of +the Bargello had sprung into beauteous being. Santa Croce destined to +be the burial place of illustrious Italians, had been built and remains +today one of Florence's greatest churches. St. John's Baptistry, _il +mio bel Giovanni_, had received its external facing of marble, and in +ten years after Dante's death would get its massive bronze doors which +are unparalleled in the world. + +The century closed with the opening of the great Jubilee at Rome. March +twenty-fifth of the following year, 1300, Dante places as the time for +his journey through the realms of the unseen--the story of which is told +in the Divina Commedia. If sympathy with Dante and his work is not +aroused already, perhaps these two quotations may quicken your interest. + +Charles Elliot Norton writes: "There are few other works of man, perhaps +there is no other, which affords such evidence as the Divine Comedy, of +uninterrupted consistency of purpose, of sustained vigor of imagination, +and of steady force of character controlling alike the vagaries of the +poetic temperament, the wavering of human purpose, the fluctuation of +human powers, the untowardness of circumstances. From the beginning to +the end of his work of many years there is no flagging of energy, no +indication of weakness. The shoulders burdened by a task almost too +great for mortal strength, never tremble under their load." + +And Dr. Frank Crane, a foremost writer of the syndicate press, says "I +have put a good deal of hard labor digging into Dante and while I cannot +say that I ever got from him any direct usable material, yet I no more +regret my hours spent with him than I regret the beautiful landscapes I +have seen, the great music I have heard, the wise and noble souls I have +met, the wondrous dreams I have had. These are all a part of one's +education, of one's equipment for life and perhaps the best part." + + + + +DANTE THE MAN + + + + +DANTE THE MAN + + +Fifty-five years ago when called on for a poem to celebrate the sixth +hundredth anniversary of Dante's birth, Tennyson, feeling his own +littleness before "this central man of all the world," wrote: + + "King, that has reigned six hundred years and grown + In power and ever growest + I, wearing but the garland of a day, + Cast at thy feet one flower that fades away." + +New tributes to the genius of Dante will be offered by our generation, +for already great preparations are under way in all parts of Italy and +the literary world to commemorate in 1921, the six hundredth anniversary +of the death of the author of the greatest of all Christian poems. The +question naturally suggests itself: Has not the world moved forward many +centuries from Dante's viewpoint and lost interest in many things +regarded as truths or at least as burning issues by Dante? Who is now +concerned with the Ptolomaic system of astronomy, which is so often the +subject of Dante's thought? Who is now interested in the tragic +jealousies and injustices suffered by the people of Florence which led +to the bitter feuds that helped to make Dante the great poet? Who, in +this twentieth century so intent upon making the world safe for +democracy, has sympathy with Dante's advocated scheme of a world-wide +absolute monarchy as the cure for the ills of the society of his day? +Is this generation which sees Italy united as a result of the overthrow +of the Papal states, so universally concerned with Papal claims which +were matters of vital importance to Dante and his generation? Is our +era, which unfortunately looks upon religion as a negligible factor and +not as the animating principle of life, interested in the golden age of +faith of which Dante is the embodiment, and his message in which the +eternal is the object? + +Yet, Dante's following is today larger than ever before; his empire over +minds and hearts is more extensive. The moving pictures feature his +Inferno; the press issues, even in languages not his own, such a mass of +books and articles concerning him that a specialist can hardly keep +track of the output. In the universities, especially of Harvard, Cornell +and Columbia, not to speak of those in other lands, the courses on Dante +attract an unusually large number of students. Outside of the academic +atmosphere there are thousands of readers who still find in his +writings, a solace in grief, a strength in temptation, a deep sense of +reality, permanent though unseen, of the love of God and of His justice. +The reasons are not far away. + +"Our poet," says Grandgent "was a many sided genius who has a message +for nearly everyone." + +Dante's compelling renown among us, is due says Dr. Frank Crane both "to +the intrinsic greatness of the man's personality and to the sheer beauty +of his craftsmanship." + +"The secret of Dante's power" writes James Russell Lowell "is not far +to seek. Whoever can express _himself_ with the full force of +unconscious sincerity will be found to have uttered something ideal +and universal." + +Whether one or all these reasons are the true explanation of the +twentieth century's great interest in Dante, the fact remains, as +Tennyson said, that far from being a waning classic, Dante "in power +ever grows," and the interest he calls forth constitutes, as James Bryce +observed in his Lowell Institute lectures "the literary phenomenon of +England and America." + +Now to Dante as the man let us turn. To know the fibre of his manhood +will help us to appreciate the genius of his art. "It is needful to know +Dante as man" wrote Charles Elliot Norton, "in order fully to +appreciate him as poet." The thought is expressed in another way by +James Russell Lowell: "The man behind the verse is far greater than the +verse itself and Dante is not merely a great poet but an influence, part +of the soul's resources in time of trouble. From him the soul learns +that 'married to the truth she is a mistress but otherwise a slave shut +out of all liberty'" (The Banquet). But that knowledge is dependent upon +our intimacy with the life and spirit of Dante. In many other cases the +knowledge of the life and personality of an author may not be essential +to either our enjoyment or our understanding of his work. In the case of +Dante "he faces his own mirror and so appears in the mid-foreground of +his reflected word." Before looking into that mirror for Dante's +picture, let us first recall some of the established facts in his life +and then see what manner of man he appeared to those who were his +contemporaries or who lived chronologically near him. + +Dante was born in Florence in the year 1265. His father was a notary +belonging to an old but decadent Guelph family, his mother, named Bella, +was a daughter of Durante Abati, a Ghibelline noble. Whether his own +family was regarded among the first families of nobility or not, it is +certain that Dante enjoyed the honor of knowing that one of his +forebears, Cacciaguida, had been knighted by Emperor Conrad II on the +Second Crusade. Precocious Dante must have been, as a boy, with +faculties and emotions extraordinarily developed, for in his ninth year, +while attending a festal party, he fell in love with a little girl named +Beatrice Portinari, eight years old. "Although still a child" to quote +Boccaccio his earliest biographer "he received her image into his heart +with such affection that from that day forward never so long as he +lived, did it depart therefrom." She became the wife of Simone dei +Bardi, and died in her twenty-fourth year, the subject of many sonnets +from her mystic lover who, if he had never written anything else, would +have been entitled, by his book of sonnets, his New Life, to rank as a +poet of the first class. + +Two years after the death of Beatrice, Dante married Gemma Donati, a +member of an old aristocratic family of Florence and by her had four +children. In the period between the death of Beatrice and his marriage +he had seen military service, having borne arms as a Guelph at the +battle of Campaldino (Purg. V, 91-129) in which the Florentines defeated +the Ghibelline league of Arezzo and he took part at the siege of Caprona +and was present at its surrender by the Pisans (Inf., XXI, 95.) When he +was thirty years old he became a member of the Special Council of the +Republic, consisting of eight of the best and most influential citizens +and in 1300, at the age of thirty-five, midway in the journey of his +life, he was elected one of the six Priors (chief magistrates of his +city) for the months of June and July. Shortly after this Dante with +three others went to Rome on an embassy to Pope Boniface VIII to get +that pontiff's veto to the intervention of Charles de Valois, brother +of Philip IV of France, in the affairs of Florence. But there was delay +in the transaction of the business and that gave the stranger time to +win the city by treachery. When the news reached Dante, he hurried +homeward. At Sienna he learned that his house had been pillaged and +burned and he himself had been accused of malfeasance in office. Without +a trial he was condemned to a heavy fine and to perpetual banishment +under penalty that if he returned he would be burned alive. Then began +his twenty years' exile--years in which he went sometimes almost begging +and at all times even when he was an honored guest in the home of +nobility--knowing as only an exile can know "how bitter is the bread of +dependence and how steep the stranger's stairs." It was during his exile +that Dante completed his immortal Divina Commedia, the child of his +thought "cradled into poetry by wrong." Dante never again saw Florence +for which he yearned with all the intensity of the Hebrew captives weeping +on the rivers of Babylon for a sight of Jerusalem. Death came to free his +undaunted soul in the year 1321 while he was a guest at Ravenna of Guido +Novello da Polenta, a nephew of Francesca da Rimini. At Ravenna the last +seat of Roman arts and letters, in a sepulchre attached to the convent +of the Franciscan monks, he was buried with the honors due to a saint +and a sage. The inscription on his epitaph said to have been composed by +him on his deathbed, is paraphrased by Lowell in the following words: + + "The rights of Monarchy, the Heavens, the stream of Fire, the Pit + In vision seen, I sang as far as to the Fates seemed fit. + But since my soul, an alien here, hath flown to nobler wars, + And happier now, hath gone to seek its Maker with the stars, + Here am I, Dante, shut, exiled from the ancestral shore + Whom Florence, the fairest of all-least-loving mothers, bore." + +Such is the brief outline of the outward life of him of whom +Michelangelo declared: + +"Ne'er walked the earth a greater man than he." + +It will help us to a better understanding of that man if his likeness is +impressed upon our memory. The portrait made by his friend Giotto, shows +him as a young man perhaps of twenty to twenty-five years, with a face +noble, beardless, strong, intelligent and pensive--a face which would +not lead one to suspect an appreciation of humor. Yet writers find two +distinct forms of that quality--a playfulness in his eclogues and a +grotesqueness in certain of his assignments to punishments in Hell. +Contrasting with this picture of his early life is the face of his death +mask and of the Naples bust, suggesting the lines + + "How stern of lineament, how grim + The father was of Tuscan song." + +Here we see him mature with strength of character in every feature and a +seriousness of mien which shows a man with whom one might not take +liberties. It was of Dante in mature life that Boccaccio wrote: "Our +poet was of moderate height and after reaching maturity was accustomed +to walk somewhat bowed with a slow and gentle pace, clad always in such +sober dress as befitted his ripe years. His face was long, his nose +aquiline and his eyes rather large than small. His jaws were large and +his lower lip protruded beyond the upper. His complexion was dark and +his expression very melancholy and thoughtful. His manners, whether in +public or at home, were wonderful, composed and restrained, and in all +ways he was more courteous and civil than any one else." + +Bruni, on the other hand, who wrote a century later describes Dante as +if he had in mind Giotto's fresco of the poet. This is Bruni's +word-picture: "He was a man of great refinement, of medium height and +a pleasant but deeply serious face. It was remarkable that although he +studied incessantly, none would have supposed from his happy manner and +youthful way of speaking that he had studied at all." However well these +pictures may visualize the poet for us, I cannot help thinking that +Dante himself, after the manner of great artists who paint their own +pictures, gives us a far better portrait of himself. What we know of him +from others is as nothing compared to the revelation he has made of +himself in his writings. For, as Dr. Zahm, in his Great Inspirers, has +said: "Dante, although the most concealing of men was, paradoxical as it +may seem, the most self-revealing." The indirect recorder of his own +life, he discloses to us an intimate view of his spiritual struggles, of +the motives which actuated him, of the passions he experienced, not to +speak of the judgments he formed upon all great questions. "So true is +this that if it were possible to meet him, we should feel that he was +an intimate friend who had never concealed anything from us--who had +discoursed with us on all subjects; science, literature, philosophy, +theology, love, poetry, happiness, the world to come and all that of +which it most imports us to have accurate knowledge." Let us then see +the man as reflected in his writings. + +First of all he reveals himself as a man profoundly animated by +religion. He is not a Huysmanns or a Francois Coppee, a Brunetiere, +a Paul Bourget, forsaking the religious teachings of his youth only to +embrace them in mature life. Never for a moment did he deflect from the +Catholic doctrine, though his studies led him to the consideration of +the most subtle arguments raised against it. He was indeed the defender +and champion of faith, having no sympathy for a mind which would lose +itself in seeking the solution of the incomprehensible mysteries of +religion. So he has Virgil say: + + "Insensate he who thinks with mortal ken + To pierce Infinitude which doth enfold + Three persons in one substance. Seek not, then, + O Mortal race, for reasons, but believe + And be content, for had all been seen + No need there was for Mary to conceive. + Men have ye known who thus desired in vain + And whose desires, that might at rest have been, + Now constitute a source of endless pain. + Plato, the Stagerite, and many more + I here allude to. Then his head he bent, + Was silent and a troubled aspect wore." + (Purg., III, 34.) + +Guided by the wisdom he thus enunciated Dante from youth to death +maintained a child-like faith that satisfied his intellect and animated +his sentiments. His faith really grew into a passion. His fidelity to +the truth of the doctrines of the Church or to the sacred offices of the +papacy was never shaken either by the scandals of clerical life or the +opposition of different popes to his political ideals. Frequently he +raised his voice in protest yet, notwithstanding his censures against +what he considered abuses in the external administration of the Church +and the policy of her popes, on his part there was not the least +suspicion of unsettled faith or revolutionary design. Strongly convinced +of the divinity of the Church, his passionate nature could not help +execrating the human element that would weaken her influence. "He +teaches that the mystical Vine of the Church still grows and Peter and +Paul who died for it, still live. He holds by that Church. He begs +Christians not to be moved feather-like by every wind of doctrine. 'You +have' he tells them 'the Old Testament and the New. The Pastor of the +Church guides you, let this suffice for your salvation'" (Brother +Azarias). In his devotional life Dante is just as ardent as he is firm +in his adherence to dogma. While all Catholics are held to profess a +common creed, each may follow the bent of his disposition and sympathy +in pious practices, theologically called devotions. It seems to me that +Dante had three such devotions which he practised intensely in his inner +life. + +First, devotion to the sacred Humanity of Christ. In eleven places does +he speak at length of Christ's two-fold nature as God and Man; in ten +places does he refer to Christ as the Second Person of the Blessed +Trinity, and wherever Cristo occurs at the end of a line, Dante out of +reverence for the Sacred Person does not rime with it, but repeats the +name itself. The climax of the Purgatorio is the apparition of the +Griffin, the symbol of Christ. Further, on the stellar white cross of +red-glowing Mars the poet shows the figure of the Redeemer. In the +Empyrean Christ is represented in the unveiled glory of His human and +divine natures. So teaching the doctrine of the Incarnation most clearly +and most ardently Dante seeks to promote this cultus as the soul of the +Catholic religion. + +Dante's second special devotion is to the Blessed Virgin. His Paradiso +contains the best treatise on Mariology. The whole Divine Comedy indeed +is the poet's loving testimonial of gratitude to the Madonna. It was +through Mary that his visionary voyage to the other world was made +possible. She rescued him when he was enslaved by sin and sent as his +successive guides Virgil, Beatrice and St. Bernard. She of all creatures +is proclaimed on every terrace of Purgatory first in virtue and highest +in dignity and her example is exhibited as an unfailing source of +inspiration to the Souls, to endure suffering cheerfully and to make +themselves, like her, the exemplars of goodness in the highest degree. +In Paradiso she is seen by the poet in all her unspeakable loveliness +and beatitude and as Queen of Angels and of Saints her intercession is +favorably invoked that Dante might enjoy the Vision of God himself. In +the last canto of the poem her super-eminence and incomparable +excellence are sung "with a sweetness of expression, a depth of +philosophy and a tenderness of feeling that have never been surpassed +in human language." + + "Thou Virgin Mother, daughter of thy Son, + Humble and high beyond all other creatures, + The limit fixed of the eternal counsel; + Thou art the one who such nobility + To human nature gave that its Creator + Did not disdain to make Himself its creature. + Within thy womb rekindled was the love + By heat of which in the eternal peace, + After such wise, this flower was germinated. + Here unto us thou art a noonday torch + Of charity, and below there among mortals + Thou art the living fountainhead of hope. + + Lady, thou art so great and so prevailing, + That he who wishes grace nor runs to thee, + His aspirations without wings would fly. + Not only thy benignity gives succor + To him who asketh it, but oftentimes + Forerunneth of its own accord the asking. + In thee compassion is, in thee is pity, + In thee magnificence; in thee unites + Whatever of goodness is in any creature." + +The third private devotion of Dante is devotion to the Souls in +Purgatory--a pious practice founded upon the scriptural words: "It is a +holy and a wholesome thought to pray for the dead that they may be +loosed from their sins." Not only does Dante answer the objection raised +as to the efficacy of prayer offered for the souls in Purgatory (VI, 28) +but in many passages he promises his own prayers and works and seeks to +arouse in others on earth a helpful sympathy for those souls. "Truly" he +says, "we ought to help them to wash away their stains which they have +borne hence, so that, pure and light, they may go forth to the starry +spheres," (Purg. VI, 34.) + +To sum up Dante's attachment to his religion we can truly say not only +his life but his great poem radiates the spirit and doctrine of the +Church. Hettinger says of Dante: "In truth he anticipated the most +pregnant developments of Catholic doctrine, mastered its subtlest +distinctions and treated its hardest problems with almost faultless +accuracy. Were all the libraries in the world destroyed and the Sacred +Scripture with them, the whole Catholic system of doctrine and morals +might be almost reconstructed out of the Divina Commedia." + +Intensity, indeed, is the characteristic of Dante's spiritual life. In +bringing that quality to his faith and religious practice he was only +manifesting the operation of the dominating quality which regulated his +whole life and shaped all his mental and emotional habits. The realm of +his thought and feeling was truly the land of the strenuous life. Having +once set out to say of Beatrice what had never been said of any woman, +Dante applied himself to his prodigious task with a consistency of +purpose that was unmoved by persecution and unshaken by time. In all +the years that he spent in the composition of the Divina Commedia there +was no flagging of interest, no indication of weakness. No one ever +applied himself with more complete absorption or with greater power +of unfaltering concentration, just as no one ever felt more deeply +the outrageous arrows of fortune or the transcendent supremacy of love. +It is precisely because of this intensity that his thoughts and feelings +affect us so profoundly six centuries later. + +Intense in his own life Dante had no sympathy with slackers or the +lukewarm whom he characterizes as never having been alive, i.e. of never +having awakened to responsibility to take part in good or evil. As a +consequence they never contributed anything to society. Because in this +life they shifted from one side to another, they are now depicted +running perpetually after an aimlessly dodging banner. Here is the +description of the punishment of the lukewarm: + +"Now sighs, cries, and shrill shrieks rang through the starless air: +Whereat at first I began to weep, strange tongues, hurried speech, words +of pain, accents of wrath, voices loud and weak, and the sound of hands +accompanying them, made a tumult which revolves forever in that air +endlessly dark, like sands blowing before a whirlwind. And I, whose head +was hooded with horror, exclaimed: 'Master, what is it I hear? What +kind of people is it that seems so vanquished by grief? And he replied: +'This is the miserable way followed by the sorry souls of those who +lived without infamy and without glory. They are mingled with the mean +choir of those angels who were not rebels and were not faithful to God, +but were for themselves. Heaven cast them out lest its beauty should be +spoiled; and deep Hell will not receive them, because the damned might +derive some satisfaction from them.' + +"'Master,' I said, 'what is so grievous to them which makes them +complain so loud?' 'I shall tell thee right briefly' he answered. 'These +people have no hope of death and their blind life's so vile that they +are envious of any other lot. The world allows no report of them to +last: mercy and justice disdain them. Let us not speak of them but look +and pass by!' And I, looking, saw a banner which ran circling so swift +that it seemed scornful of all rest: and after it there came trailing +such a long train of people that I should never have thought death had +undone so many. When I had made out one or two of them I saw and +recognized the shade of him who, for cowardice, made the great refusal. +Forthwith I understood and was convinced that this was the sect of +poltroons, obnoxious both to God and to God's enemies. These luckless +creatures who never had been really alive, were naked and badly stung +by flies and wasps which were there. These insects streaked their faces +with blood which, mixed with tears, was caught by disgusting worms at +their feet--" (Inferno III, 33. Grandgent's translation.) In reading +that description of the punishment of the lukewarm, one cannot fail to +observe that not one is called by name. Because they "lived without +infamy and without glory" their name deserves to be lost forever to +the world. + +Of the renown of Dante's own name our poet has no misgivings. He reveals +himself as a man having supreme confidence in his own powers. Boccaccio +represents him as saying when he was with his party at the head of the +government of the republic of Florence, and when there was question of +sending him on an embassy to Rome, "If I go, who stays? And if I stay, +who goes?" "As if he alone," is the comment of Boccaccio, "was worth +among them all, and as if the others were nothing worth except through +him." It is certain that Dante put a high valuation upon his genius, an +estimate due, perhaps, to the belief he held, like Napoleon, in the +potency of his star. He was born under the constellation of the Gemini +and to them in gratitude for his self-recognized talent he gives praise: + + "O glorious stars, O light impregnated + With mighty virtue, from which I acknowledge + All of my genius whatso'er it be, + With you was born, and hid himself with you, + He who is father of all mortal life, + When first I tasted of the Tuscan air." + (Par. XXII, 112) + +Certain it is that Dante acted on the counsel which, addressed to +himself, he puts into the mouth of his beloved teacher, Brunetto Latini, +"Follow thy star and thou cans't not miss the glorious port." (Inf., XV, +55.) In Purgatorio Dante says: "My name as yet marks no great sound," +but he boasts that he will surpass in fame the Guidos, writers of verse: +"Perchance some one is already born who will drive both from out the +nest." He is so sure that posterity will confer immortality upon his +work that he does not hesitate to make himself sixth among the greatest +writers of the world. This passage occurs when he enters Limbus +accompanied by Virgil to whom a group of spirits, Homer, Horace, Ovid, +and Lucan, make salutation. (Inf., IV, 76.) Posterity has bestowed +greater renown on Dante's name than even he presumed to hope, for it +has placed him in the Court of Letters with only one of the writers +of antiquity, Homer, and with two subsequent writers, Cervantes +and Shakespeare. + +Naturally we think that a writer who was so positively confident and +boastful of his powers must have been given to pride and Dante indeed +plainly indicates to us that he was guilty of this. But it was pride, +we think, that was honorable and not a vice, a pride of which a lesser +light, Lacordaire says, "By the grace of God, I abhor mediocrity." In +the dark wood Dante represents the Lion (Pride) as preventing him from +ascending the mountain--"He seemed to be coming to me with head upreared +and with such raging hunger, that the air appeared to be in fear of +him." (Inf., I, 43.) + +And that the poet's trepidation was justified he later makes known +(Purg. XI, 136) when he expresses the fear that for pride he may be +eternally punished. Perhaps it was because Dante recognized the pride of +his learning, of his ancestry, of his associations with distinguished +personages as his besetting sin that he exercised his skill as a master +in showing us profound imagery representing the characteristics of +pride. Carved out of the mountain in the first circle of a terrace of +Purgatory are scenes illustrative of humility. While looking on these +scenes, which seem to live and speak in their beautiful and compelling +reality, the poet turns and sees approaching the forms of the proud. On +earth they had exalted themselves as if they had the weight of the world +on their shoulders, so now they are seen bent under huge burdens of +stone, crumpled up in postures of agonizing discomfort. The poet, to let +us know that he shares in their punishment, says: + + "With equal pace as oxen in the yoke, + I, with that laden spirit, journey'd on + Long as the mild instructor suffer'd me." + (Purg. XII, 1) + +He apostrophizes them, but the words are really an upbraiding of himself +for pride. + + "O ye proud Christians, wretched weary ones, + Who in the vision of the mind infirm, + Confidence have in your backsliding steps, + Do ye not comprehend that we are worms + Born to bring forth the angelic butterfly + That flieth unto judgment without screen? + Who floats aloft your spirit high in air? + Like are ye unto insects undeveloped + Even as the worm in whom formation fails! + As to sustain a ceiling or a roof + In place of corbel, sometimes a figure + Is seen to join unto its knees its breast + Which makes of the unreal, real anguish + Arise in him who sees it: fashioned thus + Beheld I these, when I had ta'en good heed + True is it, they were more or less bent down + According as they were more or less laden + And he who had most patience on his looks + Weeping did seem to say I can no more." + (Purg. X, 121) + +Like all great men of undoubted sincerity Dante was intellectually big +enough to change his mind when a new view presented itself in +condemnation of an earlier judgment. So his "Vernacular Composition" +retracts a statement he had made in the New Life where he had held that +as amatory poems were addressed to ladies ignorant of Latin, Love should +be the only subject the poet ought to present in the vernacular. He +learned later and published his new view that there is good precedent +for treating in the vulgar tongue not only Love but also Righteousness +and War. + +Other examples of his honesty of mind are furnished in the Paradise +where he expresses through the mouths of his disembodied teachers views +opposed to those he had already advanced in his other works. Thus his +theory of the spots on the moon, his statement as to the respective rank +of the angelic orders, his assumption that Hebrew was the language of +Adam and Eve--all yield to a maturer conception in contradiction to his +original views. He is, it is true, sometimes blinded by partisanship or +lacking in the historical perspective necessary for a true judgment of +his contemporaries--but Dante is naturally so sincere a man that he is +eager to be just to every one. Perhaps there is no better instance of +the exercise of this quality than in his assigning to the heaven of +Jupiter, Constantine, to whose supposed donation of vast territories, +then regarded as genuine, Dante ascribes the corruption of the Church. + +Many readers, whose acquaintance with our poet does not extend beyond +the Inferno, see in him only the incarnation of savagery and scorn. They +fail to pay tribute to the wonderful power of his friendship or to +recognize that his sufferings of adversity and injustice gave birth to +deep passion. To them he seems only to place his few friends in Heaven +and in Hell to roast all his enemies. It must be at once confessed that +there are instances in the Divina Commedia which, taken by themselves, +would lead one to so superficial an estimate of the man. In Canto VIII +of the Inferno Dante with his guide, Virgil, enters a bark on the Styx +and sails across the broad marsh. During the passage a spirit all +covered with mud addresses Dante, who recognizes him as Filippo Argenti, +a Florentine notorious for his arrogance and brutal violence. "Master," +says Dante to Virgil, "I should be glad to see him dipped in this swill +ere we quit the lake." And he to me, 'Before the shore comes to thy view +thou shalt be satisfied.' A little while after this I saw the muddy +people make such a rending of him that even now I praise and thank God +for it. Such gloating over suffering surely seems to say to you: Here +we have a man of a cruel vindictive nature. + +Again, in the ice of Caina, the region where traitors are immersed up to +their heads, Dante hits his foot violently against the face of Bocca +degli Abati who betrayed the Florentines at the crucial battle of +Montaperti. "Weeping it cried out to me: 'Why tramplest thou on me? If +thou comest not to increase the vengeance for Montaperti, why dost thou +molest me?' I said: 'What art thou who thus reproachest others?' 'Nay +who art thou' he answered 'that through the Antenora goest, smiting the +cheeks of others, so that if thou wert alive, it were too much.' 'I am +alive' was my reply 'and if thou seekest fame, it may be precious to +thee, that I put thy name among the other notes.' And he to me. 'The +contrary is what I long for, take thyself away!' Then I seized him by +the afterscalp and said: 'It will be necessary that thou name thyself or +that not a hair remain upon thee here.' Whence he to me: 'Even if thou +unhair me I will not tell thee who I am.' I already had his hair coiled +on my hand and had plucked off more than one tuft of it, he barking and +keeping down his eyes, when another cried, 'What ails thee Bocca?' +Having thus learned the sinner's name, the poet releases him, saying: +'accursed traitor I do not want thee to speak, for to thy shame I will +bear true tidings'" (Inf., XXXII, 97.) Some may say that it is to Dante's +shame that he shows himself so devoid of pity. + +Another example would seem to confirm this startling view of Dante's +character. At the bottom of Hell, eager to learn the identity of a +reprobate, a certain Friar Albergo, the poet promises him in return for +the desired information to remove the ice from his eyes so that he may +have "the poor consolation of grief unchecked." + +"Remove the hard veils from my face that I may vent the grief which +stuffs my heart, a little ere the weeping freeze again! Wherefore I said +to him. 'If thou woulds't have me aid thee, tell me who thou art, and if +I do not extricate thee, may I have to go to the bottom of the ice.'" +The poet of course knows that he must go thither to continue his journey +to Purgatory, but the reprobate soul is unaware of such a course, and +believes that the visitor has fortified his promise with a true oath. +Both his name and the damning story of his life are soon told by the +poor wretch, who then asks Dante for the fulfillment of the +promise--the removal of the ice so that sight may be restored even for a +minute. "'Open my eyes' he said--but I opened them not, to be rude to +him was courtesy" (Inf., XXXIII, 148.) Does not Dante by his own words +show himself deep-dyed in hatred and cruelty? + +"The case against him" says Dinsmore, "is not so bad as the first +reading would indicate. Part of the explanation of his apparent cruelty +undoubtedly lies in the fact that the poet would teach us that character +is influenced by environment. In the circle of wrath, he is wrathful, in +the pit of traitors he is false. Then we are to recall that Dante +undoubtedly laid to heart Virgil's reproof, when he wept at the sad +punishment of the soothsayers: 'Who is more wicked than he who feels +compassion at the Divine Judgment.' Passionate love of God, Dante holds, +implies passionate hatred of God's enemies. That is a thought expressed +by the Psalmist. 'Lord, have I not hated them that hate thee and pined +away because of thy enemies? I have hated them with a perfect hatred and +they are become enemies to me' (CXXXVIII, 21). So it may be said that +Dante has the spirit of the psalmist and seeks to love, as God loves, +and to hate as God hates." + +Whether that explanation satisfy my readers or not, there is another +side to Dante's character that is most attractive. "Dowered with the +hate of hate, the scorn of scorn," he was a paradox,--gentle and tender. +Failure to see this phase of Dante's nature led Frederick Schlegel to +declare that Dante's "chief defect is the want of gentle feelings"--a +statement that called forth this exclamation from Lord Byron: "Of gentle +feelings. And Francesca of Rimini and the father's feelings in Ugolino +and Beatrice and the Pia! Why there is a gentleness in Dante above all +gentleness when he is tender!" + +Let us see some examples of this tender quality in our poet. Only one +endowed with gentleness and beauty of soul, could have conceived a +Purgatory "not hot with sulphurous flames" remarks Dinsmore, "but +healing the wounded spirit with the light of shimmering sea, the glories +of morning, the perfume of flowers, the touch of angels, the living +forms of art and the sweet strains of music." + +Only a man of warm-heartedness and delicate susceptibility at the sight +of a row of souls, temporarily blinded, would have been touched to such +an extent that he would be filled with anxiety lest in looking upon them +and silently passing them by who could not return his gaze, he would +show them some discourtesy. + + "It were a wrong, methought, to pass and look + On others, yet myself, the while unseen, + To my sage counsel therefore did I turn." + (Purg. XIII,73) + +Gentleness also reveals itself in lovely lines wherein the poet speaks +of the relations of parent and child. He tells us, for instance, how + + "An infant seeks his mother's breast + When fear and anguish vex his troubled heart." + (Purg. XXX.) + +He recalls how he himself with child-like sorrow stood confessing his +sins: + + "As little children, dumb with shame's keen smart, + Will listening stand with eyes upon the ground + Owning their faults with penitential heart + So then stood I." + (Purg. XXXI, 66) + +When overcome by the splendor of the heaven Saturn it is as a child he +turns to Beatrice for assurance: + + "Oppressed with stupor, I unto my guide + Turned like a little child who always runs + For refuge there where he confideth most, + And she, even as a mother who straightway + Gives comfort to her pale and breathless boy + With voice whose wont is to reassure him, + Said to me: 'Knowest thou not thou art in heaven?'" + (Par. XXII, I) + +Again, it is the gentle heart of a fond father who speaks in the +following lines: + + "Awaking late, no little innocent + So sudden plunges towards its mother's breast + With face intent upon its nourishment + As I did bend." + (Par. XXX, 85, Grandgent's trans.) + +Another figure of beautiful imagery makes us appreciate Dante's +understanding of infantile emotion. He is eager to tell us how bright +souls flame upward towards the Virgin Mother and here is the simile: + + "And as a babe which stretches either arm + To reach its mother, after it is fed + Showing a heart with sweet affection warm, + Thus every flaming brightness reared its head + And higher, higher straining, by its act + The love it bore to Mary plainly said." + (Par. XXIII, 121 Grandgent's trans.) + +Perhaps the most appealing example of Dante's kindly love for children +springs from the fact that instead of following the teaching of St. +Thomas Aquinas, who holds that in heaven the risen bodies of baby +children will appear in the aspect of the prime of life, our poet +discloses them with the charm of babyhood carrolling, as it were, the +nursery songs of Heaven. Of those blessed infants he speaks: + + "Their youth, those little faces plainly tell, + Their childish treble voices tell it, too, + If thou but use thine eyes and listen well." + (Par. XXXII, 46. Grandgent's trans.) + +Seeing so many examples of Dante's love for motherhood and children, one +naturally wonders why he makes no mention of his own wife and children. +But we have only to remember that a nice sense of delicacy may have +restrained him from speaking of the sacredness of his family life. In +this matter he exhibited the wisdom of the gentleman-Saint, Francis de +Sales, who used to say, "Without necessity never speak of yourself well +or ill." It was indeed a principle of propriety with our poet that +talking about one's self in public is to be avoided as unbecoming unless +there is need of self vindication or edification of others. Only once in +the Divine Comedy does he mention his own name and at once he apologizes +for the intrusion. It is true that the poem is autobiographical but it +is that in so far as it concerns matters of universal interest from +which the poet may draw the moral that what God has done for him He will +do for all men if they will but let Him. That being so it was not +necessary for him to exploit his family affairs. + +Out of the kindly heart of Dante sprang gratitude, one of the strongest +virtues of his being. He never wearies in pouring forth thanks to his +Maker for the gift of creation and His fatherly care of all beings in +the universe. He is filled with unbounded gratitude to the Saviour for +having become man and for having suffered and died for our salvation +instead of taking an easier way of satisfying divine justice. In his +works he mentions the name or the offices of the Holy Ghost eight times. +To the Blessed Virgin, the saints and especially to Beatrice for their +virtuous example and loving protection he is heartily grateful. His +thankful affection is extended to those who showed him kindness +particularly during the years of his homeless poverty. To them he offers +the only thing he has to give--an undying tribute of praise. Tenderly he +makes known his obligations to all those who taught him, both the +teachers of his own day and the masters of past ages. But it is to +Virgil, his ideal author, the guide whom he has chosen for his journey +through Hell and Purgatory, that he offers his most touching tribute of +gratitude. The occasion arises when he discovers his beloved Beatrice in +the Garden of Eden and turns to Virgil to tell him of his overwhelming +joy. But behold! his guide has vanished, his mission fulfilled. And all +the joys of the earthly Paradise, originally forfeited by the sin of +Eve, cannot compensate the disciple for the loss of his great master. In +loneliness he weeps, staining again his face that had been washed clean +with dew by Virgil when they emerged from Hell. Is there not genuine +pathos in these lines? + + "Virgil was gone! and we were all bereft! + Virgil my sweetest sire! Virgil who led + My soul to safety, when no hope was left. + Not all our ancient mother forfeited, + All Eden, could prevent my dew cleansed cheek + From changing whiteness to a tearful red." + (Purg. XXX, 45, Grandgent's trans.) + +One quality is still necessary to complete the picture which our poet +gives of himself. So far we see him as a man of strong faith, of abiding +intensity--a man having supreme confidence in himself with resulting +pride of life, a man big with splendid sincerity and dowered with deep +passion, yet manifesting a gentle, gracious and grateful spirit. So +composed, he is a combination of virtues that may inspire and traits +that may attract many readers. But this is not the finished picture of +the strangely fascinating man who has for six hundred years exercised an +irresistible sway over hearts and minds. What feature is lacking? The +one which has made him master over willing subjects who love and admire +him whether they live in a monarchy or republic, a hovel or a palace, +whether they are of his faith or alien to it. Because the world ever +loves a lover, and because Dante is The Lover _par excellence_ whose +love-story is one "to which heaven and earth have put their hand," he +stands forth with a hold on humanity that is both enduring and supreme. + +Love as a passion and a principle of action never left him to his dying +day, from the time when he, a boy of nine years of age, became attracted +by the sweet little girl Beatrice. "She appeared to me" he says, +"clothed in a most noble color, a modest and becoming crimson, and she +was girt and adorned in such wise as befitted her very youthful age." If +we add to those few lines the brief statements made later in the _New +Life_ that her hair was light and her complexion a pearl-pink and that +when he saw her as a maiden she was dressed in white, we have the only +description that Dante ever gave of her personal appearance. It was +love at sight. "I truly say that at that instant the spirit of life +which dwells in the most secret chamber of the heart, said these words: +'Behold a god stronger than I, who coming shall rule over me.' From that +time forward Love lorded it over my soul which had been so speedily +wedded to him and he began to exercise over me such control and such +lordship, through the power which my imagination gave him, that it +behooved me to do completely all his pleasure." + +If we are disposed to doubt Dante's capability of deep emotion at so +tender an age we have only to remember that Cupid's darts pierced at an +early age the hearts of others of precocious sensibilities. The love +experience of Lord Byron, Victor Hugo, and Canova the sculptor, when +they too were only children is a matter of history. This statement we +shall the more readily accept if we recall the dictum of Pascal: "The +passions are great in proportion as the intelligence is great. In a +great soul everything is great." In the light of that principle we must +say that if Dante's love attachment in early life runs counter to the +experience of mankind, he is, even as a boy, exceptional in the power of +imagination and peculiarly sensitive to heart impressions. + +His experience as a nine year old boy loving with a depth of increasing +emotion a girl with whom there probably had never been any +communication except a mere greeting, a love reverential, persisting, +even after her marriage to another, continuing through the married life +of the poet himself, a love, the story of which is celebrated in +matchless verse,--all that is so unique a thing that critics have been +led to deny the very existence of Beatrice or to see in the story an +allegory which may be interpreted in various ways. + +Some critics see in Beatrice only the ideal of womanhood; others make +her an allegory of conflicting things. Francesco Perez holds that +Beatrice is only the figure of Active Intelligence, while Dante Gabriel +Rossetti advances the fantastic theory that she is the symbol of the +Roman Empire, and love--the anagram of Roma--on Dante's part is only +devotion to the imperial cause. According to Scartazzini, Beatrice is +the symbol of the Papacy. Gietmann denies the historicity of Beatrice +and declares that she typifies the Church. The argument for this theory +expressed by a sympathetic reviewer of Gietmann's book, "Beatrice, Geist +und Kern der Danteshen Dichtung," follows: "Beatrice is the soul and +center of the poet's works, his inspiring genius, the ideal which moulds +his life and character. If we consider her as a mere historical +personage we must look upon those works as silly and meaningless +romances, and on the poet himself as a drivelling day-dreamer. + +"But if we are able to assign to Dante's beloved an appropriate and +consistent allegorical character, in keeping with the views of the +poet's time, and with the quality of the varied material which goes to +build up his poetic structures, his creations will appear not only +intelligible and natural, but unfold a treasure of thought and beauty +nowhere else to be found, while the poet himself will be shown to be not +only one of the greatest masters of thought and imagination, but one of +the noblest and loftiest minds to be met with in the history of letters" +(John Conway, Am. Cath. Quar. Review, April, 1892). + +The editor of the English Quarterly Review (July, 1896, p. 41) while not +denying the real existence of Beatrice argues that she represents Faith, +and affirms that the story of Dante's love for her, a love wavering at +times, represents the conflict of Faith and Science. You will be +interested in seeing, as a curiosity of literature, how that author +attempts the translation into allegory of Dante's account of his first +meeting with Beatrice. + +This is the translation--Dante speaking in the first person says: "At +the close of my ninth year I experienced strong impressions of religion. +This was the time of my Confirmation and my First Communion. I was +filled with reverence for the wondrous truths instilled into my mind by +those whom I loved best: and my whole being glowed with the roseate glow +of a first love. My feelings were rapturous yet constant; and from that +time I date the beginning of a New Life. From that time forward I was so +completely under the influence of this divine principle that my soul +was, as it were, espoused to heavenly love, and it was in the precepts +and ordinances of the Church that this passion found its proper +satisfaction. Often and often did it lead me to the congregation of the +faithful, where I had meetings with my youthful angel and these were so +gratifying that all through my boyhood I would frequently go in search +of a repetition of those pleasures and I perceived her so noble and +admirable in all her bearings, that of her might assuredly be said that +saying of Homer: 'She seemed no daughter of mortal man but of God.'" + +We need not be surprised that there is such divergence of opinion among +critics as to the interpretation of Dante. He himself in The Banquet +(bk. II, ch. 15), written some years after his New Life, tells us that +there is a hidden meaning back of the literal interpretation of his +words. That is especially true of the Divine Comedy, as he writes to Can +Grande in explanation of the purpose of the poem. In the Paradiso he +bids this lacking in power of penetration to pierce the symbolism, to +accompany him no longer on his journey through the invisible world. + + "O ye who in some pretty little boat + Eager to listen, have been following + Behind my ship, that singing sails along, + Turn back to look again upon your shores, + Do not put out to sea, lest, peradventure, + In losing me, you might yourselves be lost." + (Par. bk. II, I.) + +With obscurity thus acknowledged, is it any wonder that Dante is +subjected to prolonged controversy by historical criticism which has not +hesitated to cast doubt upon the authorship of the Iliad and the Synotic +Gospels? In the face of this obscurity it is the opinion of such well +known Dantian scholars as D'Ancona, Charles Eliot Norton, John Addington +Symonds, Dean Plumtre, Edmund Gardiner, W.W. Vernon, Paget Toynbe, C.H. +Grandgent, Jefferson B. Fletcher, James Russell Lowell--that Beatrice is +both a real human being and a symbol. + +The direct testimony, not to urge the subtle arguments furnished by +internal evidence of Dante's works, as to the reality of Beatrice +Portinari as the beloved of our poet is offered first by Boccaccio who +was acquainted with Dante's daughter Beatrice, a nun who lived near +enough to the poet to get information from the Portinari family. +Certainly Boccaccio did not hesitate when chosen in 1373 by the +Florentines to lecture on Dante, to make the very positive statement +that the boy Dante, "received the image of Beatrice Portinari into his +heart with such affection that from that day forward as long as he lived +it never departed from him." That statement was doubtless made within +the hearing of many relatives and friends of the families concerned, the +Alighieri, the Portinari, the Bardi. "If the statement was false," +argues Dr. Edward Moore, England's foremost Dantian scholar, "it must +have been so glaring and palpable that its assertion could only have +covered Boccaccio with ridicule." The second authority for the statement +that Beatrice Portinari had a real existence and was the object of +Dante's love is furnished by Dante's own son Pietro, who wrote a +commentary on the Divine Comedy nineteen years after his father's +demise--a commentary in which he declares "because mention is here first +made of Beatrice of whom so much has been said, especially in the third +book of the Paradiso, it is to be premised that there really was a lady +Beatrice by name, greatly distinguished for her beauty and virtues who, +in the time of the author, lived in the city of Florence and who was of +the house of certain Florentine citizens called the Portinari, of whom +the author Dante was a suitor. During the life of the said lady, he was +her lover and he wrote many ballads to her honor. After her death in +order that he might make her name famous, he, in this his poem, +frequently introduced her under the allegory and style of theology." + +The third witness quoted by W.W. Vernon, is Benvenuto da Imola who +attended the lectures of Boccaccio and succeeded him as incumbent of the +chair of Dantian literature, established by the government of Florence. +This Florentine professor whose "commentary on Dante was written only +fifty years after the death of the poet, expressly states that this +Beatrice (he does not mention her family name) was really and truly a +Florentine of great beauty and most honorable reputation. When she was +eight years old she so entered into Dante's heart that she never went +out from it and he loved her passionately for sixteen years, at which +time she died. His love increased with his years: he would follow her +where-ever she went and always thought that in her eyes he could behold +the summit of human happiness. Dante in his works, at one time, takes +Beatrice as a real personage and at another in a mysterious sense as +Sacred Theology" (Readings on Inf., I, 61.) + +The question now arises: Did Beatrice know of Dante's love and did she +reciprocate his passion? Many critics answer in the negative, believing +that an affirmative view must premise a guilty love since Beatrice was +married to Simone de Bardi and Dante to Gemma Donati. But an opposite +view holds that such a deduction overlooks the unique fact that the love +of Dante and Beatrice was purely spiritual and mystical. Doctor Zahm +says that Dante's passion was "a species of homage to the beloved which +was common during the age of the troubadours but which has long since +disappeared--a chivalrous devotion to a woman, neither wife nor +mistress, by means of which the spirit of man, were he knight or poet, +was rendered capable of self-devotion, and of noble deeds and of rising +to a higher ideal of life" (Great Inspirers, p. 245.) + +In any event we know that it was a most noble, exalting sentiment and if +we accept the statement of Bishop de Serravalle, the love was mutual and +lasting. This ecclesiastic while attending the council of Florence in +1414 was asked by the Bishops of Bath and Salisbury, England, to make a +Latin translation of the Divine Comedy. In the preamble to his +translation he not only declares that Dante historically and literally +loved Beatrice (_"Dantes delexit hanc puellam historice et +literaliter"_) but he affirms that the love was reciprocal and that it +lasted during the lifetime of Beatrice, ("_Philocaptus fuit de ipsa et +ipsa de ipso, qui se invicem dilexerunt quousque vixit ipsa puella_"). + +Only by holding such a view can we really appreciate the significance +and beauty of that episode in Purgatorio depicting the first meeting of +the lovers in the invisible world after ten years' separation--a meeting +said to be "one of the most touching and beautiful episodes in all +literature." + +In the Terrestrial Paradise a voice is heard after the sudden departure +of Virgil. "Dante" it says "though Virgil leave thee, weep not, weep not +yet, for thou must weep for a greater wound. I beheld that Lady who had +erst appeared to me under a cloud of flowers cast by angel's hands: and +she was gazing at me across the stream ... 'Look at us well. We are, +indeed Beatrice. Hast thou then condescended to come to the mountain?' +(the mountain of discipline)--Shame weighed down my brow. The ice that +had collected about my heart, turned to breath and water and with agony +issued from my breast through lips and eyes." Beatrice then proceeds to +tell the angels of her love for the poet and of his faithlessness to +her. "For some time I sustained him with the sight of my face. Showing +to him my youthful eyes I led him toward the right quarter. As soon as I +reached the threshold of the second age of man and passed from mortal to +eternal life he took himself from me and gave himself to another." + +Beatrice now turns to Dante and rebukes him: "In order the more to shame +thee from thine error and to make thee stronger, never did nature and +art present to thee a charm equal to that fair form now scattered in +earth with which I was enclosed. And if this greatest of charms so +forsook thee at my death, what mortal thing should thereafter have led +thee to desire it? Verily at the first hour of disappointment over +elusive things, thou shouldst have flown up after me who was no longer +of them. Thou shouldst not have allowed thy wings to be weighed down to +get more wounds, either by a little maid or by any other so short lived +vanity." The effect of her rebuke is the overwhelming of his heart with +shame and contrition. "So much remorse gnawed at my heart that I fell +vanquished and what I then became she knoweth who gave me the cause" +(Purg. XXXI, 49). He arose forgiven, the memory of his sin removed by +the waters of Lethe. Then drinking of the waters of Eunoe he was made +fit to ascend to Heaven. + +To understand the allusion to his defection and to see the progressive +development of his love of Beatrice as a woman, then as a living ideal +and finally as an animated symbol--the various transfigurations in which +Beatrice appears to him, we must go back to his New Life--the book of +which Charles Eliot Norton says--"so long as there are lovers in the +world and so long as lovers are poets this first and tenderest +love-story of modern literature will be read with appreciation and +responsive sympathy." + +It is hardly to be supposed that the nine year old lover noted with +minute care in his diary, his first meeting of Beatrice Portinari but as +he looked back on the event years later he saw that the vision had been +the the greatest crisis in his mental, moral and spiritual history. The +story begins in the first page of the New Life. A real living child +familiarly called Bice, the diminutive for Beatrice, enamoured Dante +with a real, genuine love. "After that meeting," says the poet, "I in my +boyhood often went seeking her and saw her of such noble and +praiseworthy deportment that truly of her might be said the word of the +poet Homer: 'She seems not the daughter of mortal man but of God.'" Nine +years passed and the child, now a maiden, "blooming in her beauty's +spring, saluted me with such virtue that it seemed to me that I saw all +the bounds of bliss. Since it was the first time her words came to my +ears I took in such sweetness that, as it were intoxicated, I turned +away from the folk and betaking myself to the solitude of my own +chamber I sat myself down to think of this most courteous lady." + +A little later the wrapt expression of his loving eyes as he looks at +Beatrice attracts the attention of others and to misdirect them, he +feigns love for the lady he calls the screen of truth and writes verses +in her honor. On the part of Beatrice there is misunderstanding of the +amatory verses he writes at this period and she withholds her greeting. +Then, more than ever, he realizes what that salutation meant to him. +Deprived of it now, he dwells upon the sweet memory of the salutation: +"In the hope of her marvelous salutation there no longer remained to me +an enemy, nay, a flame of charity possessed me which made me pardon +everyone who had done me wrong." Under the influence of her salutation, +Dante tells us that he devised this sonnet: + + "So gentle and so gracious doth appear + My lady when she giveth her salute + That every tongue becometh, trembling, mute: + Nor do the eyes to look upon her dare + Although she hears her praises, she doth go + Benignly vested with humility: + And like a thing come down, she seems to be, + From heaven to earth, a miracle to show. + So pleaseth she whoever cometh nigh. + She gives the heart a sweetness through the eyes, + Which none can understand who doth not prove + And from her countenance there seems to move + A spirit, sweet, and in Love's very guise, + Who to the soul, in going sayeth: 'Sigh.'" + (Norton's translation.) + +Because she now denies to him the bliss of salutation he says: "I went +into a solitary place to bathe the earth with most bitter tears." But +this misunderstanding is not his only torment. Almost from his second +meeting he fears that his beloved will soon die. His prophetic vision +becomes an agonising reality when in 1290 in her twenty-fourth year, the +eyes that radiated bliss are closed in death. + +So stunned was he by the blow that his life was despaired of. When he +recovered it seemed to him that Florence had lost her gaiety and +desolate is mourning the loss of his beloved one. Pilgrims passing on +their way to Galicia do not appear to share the general grief. To arouse +their sympathy in the loss which the city has sustained the heart-broken +poet lover devises a sonnet "in which I set forth that which I had said +to myself. + + Pilgrims: + If through your will to hear, awhile ye stay, + Truly my heart with sighs declare to me + That ye shall afterwards depart in tears. + Alas her Beatrice now lost hath she. + And all the words that one of her way may say + Have virtue to make weep whoever hears." + + (Norton's translation.) + +In his great affliction his grieving heart is sustained by his belief in +immortality. His vision penetrates the skies and he sees his 'lady of +virtue' in glory in the regions of the eternal. + + "The gentle lady to my mind had come + Who, for the sake of her exceeding youth, + Had by the Lord most High been ta'en from earth + To that calm heaven where Mary hath her home." + +In heaven indeed more than upon earth she enamours the poet. There +divested of her mortal veil, to his eyes she + + "grew perfectly and spiritually fair," + +leading him to fit himself to put on immortality. The passion of his +boyhood has now become the ennobling ideal of his life. Sustaining and +stimulating him, saving him from himself, ever leading him upward and +onward, his angelicized lady is an abiding presence with him whether he +is deep in the contemplation of the study of philosophy and the learning +of the ancients, or engaged in the activity of military or political +life, or as homeless wayfarer in exile, making his way from place to +place. When he falls from grace it is Beatrice who disturbs his peace of +mind by "a battle of thoughts." It is the "strong image" of Beatrice who +comes to him as he had seen her as a child, raises him from moral +obliquity, fills him with the very essence of the spiritual. Then he has +a wonderful vision--"a vision in which I saw things which made me +resolve to speak no more of this blessed one (Beatrice) until I could +more worthily treat of her. And to attain to this I study to the utmost +of my power as she truly knows: So that if it shall please Him through +whom all things live that my life be prolonged for some years, I hope to +say of her what was never said of any woman." + +That promise, involving years of intense study and increasing devotion +to his beloved, Dante kept. The Divine Comedy is his matchless monument +to her who is the protagonist and muse of his poem and the love of his +heart. "Not only has the poet made her" says Norton, "the loveliest and +most womanly woman of the Middle Ages at once absolutely real and truly +ideal," but he has done what no poet had ever before conceived, thereby +achieving something unique in the whole range of literature--he has +"imparadised" among the saints and angels his lovely wonder, Beatrice, +"that so she spreads even there a light of love which makes the angels +glad and even to their subtle minds can bring a certain awe of profound +marvelling." He has given to her such a glorious exaltation that after +Rachel and Eve she of all women is enthroned in the glowing Rose of +Heaven next to the Virgin Mother, "our tainted nature's solitary boast," +and so enthroned, Beatrice is at once his beloved and the symbol of +revelation, the heavenly light that discloses to mankind both the true +end of our being and the realities of Eternity. + +Now with tremulous delight in his heart, admiration on his lips, ecstasy +in his soul, he is able to render her perhaps the very purest tribute of +praise and gratitude that ever came out of a human soul: + + "O Lady, thou in whom my hope is strong + And who, for my salvation, didst endure + In Hell to leave the imprint of thy feet, + Of whatsoever things I have beheld, + As coming from thy power and from thy goodness + I recognize the power and the grace. + Thou from a slave hast brought me unto freedom, + By all those ways, by all the expedients, + Whereby thou hast the power of doing it. + Preserve towards me thy magnificence + So that this soul of mine, which thou hast healed + Pleasing to thee be loosened from the body." + +Norton says: "It is needful to know Dante as a man in order fully to +appreciate him as poet." + +What manner of man then was he? Redeemed by love, he was, to quote John +Addington Symonds, "the greatest, truest, sincerest man of modern +Europe." + + + + +DANTE'S INFERNO + + + + +DANTE'S INFERNO + + +At no period of modern times do we find that literature showed an +interest more keen in the Hereafter than at the present day. Religion +has always used both pen and voice to direct men's thoughts towards +eternity, but now it is literature that goes for subject-matter to +religion. This change of attitude is due, no doubt, to the fact that +several factors in present-day life--factors that literature cannot +ignore, have turned popular thought to religion. The World-war has +disciplined the character of men by the unspeakable experiences of +contact with shot, shell and shrapnel and the result has been that +countless numbers have turned to religion for strength and consolation. +Countless thousands whose dear ones made the supreme sacrifice for the +ideals of patriotism, also find in religion their only solace. + +Those who have not this refuge turn to spiritualism and psychical +research in a futile effort to find a satisfactory solution of the +problem of the Hereafter. Again and again we see the unrest of the +ever-questioning soul depicted in the drama and the literature of the +day as it seeks enlightenment on the potentiality of the future life. +The stage presents plays based on spiritualistic manifestations or upon +supernatural healing or miraculous intervention. Many recent novels have +either psychical phenomena for their central interest or plots evolved +out of the miraculous in religion. As exponents of psychical research, +Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, W.T. Stead and Sir Oliver Lodge make an appeal +to readers to accept as scientific truths, the psychical manifestations +of the unseen world. A typical answer is given to that appeal by a +distinguished writer, Doctor Inge, Dean of St. Paul's, London, who +declares: "If this kind of after-life were true, this portrayed in the +pitiable revival of necromancy in which many desolate hearts have sought +spurious satisfaction, it would, indeed, be a melancholy postponement or +negation of all we hope and believe about our dead." + +Prescinding from any attempt to discuss the occult phenomena evoked, +observed and studied in our day or to treat of the matters involved in +the supernatural in the books of the day, one may state as a fact that +the whole tendency of present day literature is to show a yearning for +light on a subject of fundamental importance to human nature. Far back +in the history of the race Job gave voice to the spiritual problems that +are today engaging the attention of the world. Some fifteen hundred +years ago, St. Augustine proposed to himself the question which so +generally concerns the twentieth century: "On what matter of all those +things of which thou art ignorant, hast thou the greatest desire for +enlightenment?" The great Bishop of Hippo becomes the spokesman of +humanity when he answers his own question by proposing another: "Am I +immortal or not?" (Soliloquia 2d). + +In the realms of literature no work of man has answered that question +with greater vividness of imagery, intensity of concentration, beauty of +description--all based in a large measure on the teachings of +Christianity--than has Dante in his Divine Comedy. Devised as a love +offering to the memory of his beloved Beatrice who in the work is +symbolized as Heavenly Light on the things hidden from man, the poem +leads the reader through the dark abyss of Hell, the patient abode of +Purgatory, the glorious realm of Heaven as if the poet had seen Eternity +in reality instead of in imagination. Not only the state and the +conditions of the soul after death does he visualize with the precision +of Euclid, but as a philosopher and a theologian he proposes for our +instruction in the course of the journey many questions of dogmatic and +speculative thought affecting the Hereafter. He believes himself called +to be not simply a poet to entertain his readers, but a prophet and a +preacher with burning fire to deliver a message for man's salvation. So +he asks the help of Heaven: + +"O Supreme Light that so high upliftest Thyself from mortal conceptions, +re-lend a little to my mind of what Thou didst appear and make my tongue +so powerful that it may be able to leave one single spark of Thy glory, +for the future people: for by returning to my memory and by sounding a +little in these verses, more of Thy victory shall be conceived" (Par. +XXXIII, 67). + +Comedy is the title which Dante gives to his trilogy and posterity has +added the prefix adjective divine. The term comedy however is not used +in the modern sense which suggests to us a light laughable drama written +in a familiar style. "Comedy" Dante himself explains in his dedication +of the poem, "is a certain kind of poetical narrative which differs from +all others. It differs from tragedy in its subject matter in this way, +that tragedy in the beginning is admirable and quiet, in its ending or +catastrophe foul and horrible ... Comedy on the other hand, begins with +adverse conditions, but its theme has a happy termination. Likewise they +differ in their style of language, for tragedy is lofty and sublime, +comedy lowly and humble. + +"From this it is evident why the present work is called a comedy, for +if we consider the theme in its beginning it is horrible and foul +because it is Hell; in its ending fortunate, desirable and joyful +because it is Paradise: and if we consider the style of language the +style is lowly and humble because it is the vulgar tongue in which even +housewives hold converse." + +The theme of the poem Dante himself explains: "The subject of the work +literally taken is the state of souls after death; this is the pivotal +idea of the poem throughout its entire course. In the allegorical sense +the poet treats of the hell of this world through which we are +journeying as pilgrims, with the power of meriting and demeriting, and +the subject is man, in as much as by his merits and demerits he is +subject to divine Justice, remunerative or retributive" (Epis. dedicat. +ad Can Grande). + +One of the earliest commentators amplifies the poet's statement. +Benvenuto da Imola writes: "The matter or subject of this book is the +state of the human soul both as connected with the human body and as +separated from it. As the state of the whole is threefold, so does the +author divide his work into three parts. A soul may be in sin; such a +one even while it lives with the body, is morally speaking dead, and +hence it is in moral Hell; when separated from the body, if it died +incurably obstinate, it is in the actual Hell. Again a soul may be +receding from vice: such a one while still in the body is in the moral +Purgatory, or in the act of penance in which it purges away its sin; if +separated, it is in the actual Purgatory. Yet even while living in the +body, a soul is already in a manner in Paradise, for it exists in as +great felicity as is possible in this life of misery: separated from the +body, it is in the heavenly Paradise where there is true and perfect +happiness, where it enjoys the vision of God." (Ozanam, Dante, p. 129.) + +This testimony as to the subject matter of the Divine Comedy is brought +forth to offset the statements not infrequently made by expositors who +deny or ignore the supernatural that Dante's full thought can be +realized even if the reader rejects the poet's spiritual teaching, +especially his doctrine of the existence of a real Heaven and a real +Hell. It is true that Dante is "such a many-sided genius that he has a +message for almost every person." It is likewise true that an +allegorical interpretation may be adopted with no belief in the +Hereafter and it may open up many fruitful lessons for the reader. That +being granted, one may still ask whether one can ignore Dante's doctrine +of future rewards and punishment and so get full satisfaction from +treating the poet's conception of the Hereafter as a mere allegory. + +The allegory presupposes that sin inevitably brings its own penalty. +But in this life virtue does not always bear its own reward nor is evil +always followed by retribution. Dante as the prophet and the preacher of +Christianity would have us understand, as Benvenuto da Imola points out, +that if the moral law is not vindicated in this life it will be in the +Hereafter, for our acts make our eternity. So the poet holds that while +this life according as it shows the soul in sin, in repentance or in +virtue may be considered allegorically Hell, Purgatory or Heaven, before +the Last Judgment a real Hell, a real Purgatory, a real Heaven is the +abode of disembodied spirits according to their demerits or merits and +after the Last Judgment, Purgatory no longer existing, souls will be in +eternal suffering in Hell or in unending joy in Heaven. + +It is not to be expected that any reader will believe that Dante's Hell +is a photograph of reality. It is a Hell largely fashioned by poetic +visions and political theories, peopled in a great measure by those who +stand in opposition to the poet's theory of government. It is not, as is +sometimes asserted, a place to which the poet consigns his personal +enemies. As Dinsmore says: "Dante had too much greatness in his soul and +too much pride (it may be) to make revenge a personal matter: he had +nothing but contempt for his own enemies and never except in the case of +Boniface VIII ... did he place a single one of them in the Inferno, not +even his judge Cante Gabriella." + +Though largely colored by his political theories Dante's Hell is also a +theological conception based on the teaching of the Catholic Church that +Hell exists as a place or state of punishment for the rebel angels and +for man dying impenitent, that is, for man in whom sin has become so +humanized that death finds him not simply in the act or habit of sin but +so transformed that in the striking words of Bossuet, "he is man made +sin." Dante fully accepted that doctrine which had been the constant +tradition and faith of the Church and had been reaffirmed in the second +ecumenical Council of Lyons held when Dante was a boy, nine years of +age. + +It is not unlikely with his precocity for knowledge and sentiment at +that age that he was deeply impressed with the history of that council +especially as its legislation also dealt with the Crusades, the union of +Churches, the reform of the Church, the appointment of a king of the +Romans and an emperor--matters of vital importance to him later. He must +have recalled that Council also with special interest, for two of his +ideal personages, Thomas Aquinas and Bonaventure met their death, one on +his way to the Council, the other while actually attending its sessions. + +In any event Dante firmly believed the doctrine of the Hereafter "that +they that have done good shall go into life everlasting and they that +have done evil, into everlasting fire." He held that the punishment of +the damned is two-fold. The greater punishment, called the pain of loss, +consists in the loss of the Beatific Vision, a suffering so great that +the genius of St. Augustine can hardly translate it in human language. +"To be separated from God," he says, "is a torment as great as the very +greatness of God." The other pain of the reprobate consists in the +torment of fire so frequently mentioned in Holy Writ. "According to the +greater number of theologians the term fire denotes a material and so a +real fire ... (but) there have never been wanting theologians who +interpret the scriptural term fire metaphorically as denoting an +incorporeal fire and thus far the Church has not censured their opinion" +(Cath. Encyclo., VIII, 211.) + +While the pain of loss and the pain of sense constitute the very essence +of the punishment of Hell, theologians teach that there are other +sufferings called accidental. The reprobate never experience v.g. the +least real pleasure nor are they ever free from the hideous presence of +one another. After the Last Judgment the lost souls will also be +tormented by union with their bodies, a union bringing about a fresh +increase of punishment. On this subject, for our information Dante +addresses Virgil his guide through Hell: "Master, will these torments +after the great sentence increase or diminish?" Virgil explains that +they will become worse because when the soul is united again to the body +there will be perfection of being and the resulting sensitiveness will +be the more intense. + +"Return unto thy science," answers Virgil, "which wills that as a thing +more perfect is the more it feels of pleasure and of pain." (Inf., VI, +40.) + +Dante also holds that only by way of exception is there any escape from +Hell once a soul is condemned. Following a legend commonly believed in +the Middle Ages that in answer to the prayers of Pope Gregory the Great, +the soul of the Emperor Trajan was delivered from Hell, Dante assumes +that God who could not save Trajan against his will, allowed his soul to +"come back to its bones" and while thus united to use its will for +salvation. So regenerated Trajan is placed by Dante, in the Heaven of +Jupiter (Par. XX 40, 7). Referring to this incident the Catholic +Encyclopedia says: "In itself it is no rejection of Catholic dogma to +suppose that God might at times by way of exception, liberate a soul +from Hell. Thus some argued from a false interpretation of I Peter III, +19 seq. that Christ freed several damned souls on the occasion of His +descent into Hell. Others were led by untrustworthy stories into the +belief that the prayers of Gregory the Great rescued the Emperor Trajan +from Hell but now theologians are unanimous in teaching that such +exceptions never take place and never have taken place" (VIII, 209.) + +As to the location of Hell it is the poet Dante and not Dante the +theologian, as we shall see later, who gives definite place and +boundaries to Hell. He knows that on this subject the Church has decided +nothing, holding to the statement of St. Augustine: "It is my opinion +that the nature of hell-fire and the location of Hell are known to no +man unless the Holy Ghost made it known to him by a special revelation." + +Dante makes his Hell big enough to hold the majority of mankind. He +thinks that the elect will be comparatively few--just numerous enough to +fill those places in heaven forfeited by the rebel angels who formed +according to his conjecture, about a tenth of the angelical host. That +their places in Heaven are already nearly filled leaving little room for +future generations Dante makes known in the words of Beatrice: + + "Behold our City's circuit, oh how vast + Behold our benches now so full that few + Are they who are henceforth lacking here." + (Par. XXX, 130.) + +His theory of restrictive salvation, it may be noted, is not in accord +with the teaching of the Church which holds that to every man God gives +grace sufficient for salvation. That is true even as affecting the +heathen and those living in place or in time far removed from the Cross. +St. Thomas Aquinas expresses this doctrine of the Church when he writes: +"If anyone who is born in a barbaric nation does what lieth in him, God +will reveal what is necessary for salvation, either by internal +inspiration or by a teacher." + +The farcical element is not wanting in the Inferno, a fact proving that +our poet, in furnishing the episodes, not superior to his age which +demanded especially in the religious plays presented in the public +square the sight of the discomfiture of the devil in scenes provoking +the audience to laughter. The best example of such farcicality occurs in +the eighth circle, fifth bolgia, where officials, traffickers in public +offices, or unjust stewards are immersed in boiling pitch. From time to +time when the fiends are not alert the reprobate here come to the +surface for a breathing or cooling spell, like dolphins on the approach +of a storm darting in the air and diving back again or like frogs with +their muzzles alone exposed and their bodies covered by the water, +resting on the banks of a stream into which they drop at the first +approach of danger. + +Getting in this way momentary relief from suffering a grafter named +Ciampolo, a former retainer of King Thibaut II of Navarre, lingered too +long and was deftly hooked by Graffiacane amid the savage exultations of +the other fiends, who proceed to maltreat the unfortunate wretch. The +hideous confusion of attacks by the demons is stopped long enough for +the poet to learn his history, and also what is more interesting to +Dante, the names of two Italians, Friar Gomita and Michel Zanche who are +likewise suffering in the boiling pitch. Ciampolo, to save himself from +further maltreatment and to escape from his captors, now has recourse to +stratagem. He promises that if they consent to withdraw out of sight he +will whistle a signal that will be recognized only by his hapless +comrades; the two Italians and five others will then come to the surface +for cool air. The fiends may then have not one, but seven to rend! The +crafty plan succeeds. The demons withdraw behind the crags and then +Ciampolo plunges deeply into the boiling pitch. Two devils, endeavoring +to swoop down upon him now beyond their reach, fall upon each other in +brutal fury, while the rest of the troop hurry to the opposite shore to +rescue the belimed pair. Here is Dante's description of the farce: + +"As dolphins, when with the arch of the back; they make sign to +mariners that they may prepare to save their ship: so now and then, to +ease the punishment, some sinner showed his back and hid in less time +than it lightens. And as at the edge of the water of a ditch, the frogs +stand only with their muzzles out, so that they hide their feet and +other bulk: thus stood on every hand the sinners; but as Barbariccia +approached, they instantly retired beneath the seething. I saw, and my +heart still shudders thereat, one linger so, as it will happen that one +frog remains while the other spouts away; and Graffiancane, who was +nearest to him, hooked his pitchy locks and haled him up, so that to me +he seemed an otter. + +"I already knew the name of every one, so well I noted them as they were +chosen, and when they called each other, listened how. 'O Rubicante, see +thou plant thy clutches on him, and flay him!' shouted together all the +accursed _crew_. And I: 'Master, learn if thou canst, who is that +piteous _wight_, fallen into the hands of his adversaries.' My Guide +drew close to (his side) and asked him whence he came; and he replied: +'I was born in the kingdom of Navarre. My mother placed me as servant of +a lord; for she had borne me to a ribald master of himself and of his +substance. Then I was domestic with the good King Thibault; here I set +myself to doing barratry, of which I render reckoning in this heat.' And +Ciriatto, from whose mouth on either side came forth a tusk as from a +hog, made him feel how one of them did rip. Amongst evil cats the mouse +had come; but Barbariccia locked him in his arms, and said: 'Stand off +whilst I enforke him!' And turning his face to my Master: 'Ask on,' he +said, 'if thou wouldst learn more from him, before some other undo him.' + +"The Guide therefore: 'Now say, of the other sinners knowest thou any +that is a Latian, beneath the pitch?' And he: 'I parted just now from +one who was a neighbour of theirs (on the other side); would I still +were covered with him, for I should not fear claw nor hook!' And +Libicocco cried: 'Too much have we endured,' and with the hook seized +his arm and mangling carried off a part of brawn. Draghignazzo, he too, +wished to have a catch at the legs below; whereat their decurion wheeled +around around with evil aspect. When they were somewhat pacified, my +Guide, without delay, asked him that still kept gazing on his wound: +'Who was he, from whom thou sayest that thou madest an ill departure to +come ashore?' And he answered: 'It was Friar Gomita, he of Gallura, +vessel of every fraud, who had his master's enemies in hand, and did so +to them that they all praise him for it: money took he for himself, and +dismissed them smoothly, as he says; and in his other offices besides, +he was no petty but a sovereign barrator. With him keeps company Don +Michel Zanche of Logodoros; and in speaking of Sardinia the tongues of +them do not feel weary. Oh me! see that other grinning; I would say +more; but fear he is preparing to claw my scurf.' And their great +Marshal, turning to Farfarello, who rolled his eyes to strike, said: +'Off with thee, villainous bird!' 'If you wish to see or hear Tuscans or +Lombards,' the frightened sinner then resumed, 'I will make them come. +But let the (evil claws hold back) a little, that they may not fear +their vengeance; and I, sitting in this same place, for one that I am, +will make seven come, on whistling, as is our wont to do, when any of us +gets out.' + +"O Reader, thou shalt hear new sport! All turned their eyes toward the +other side, he first who had been most unripe for doing it. The +Navarrese chose well his time; planted his soles upon the ground, and in +an instant leapt and from their purpose freed himself. Thereat each was +stung (with guilt); but he most who had been the cause of the mistake; +he therefore started forth, and shouted: 'Thou'rt caught!' But little it +availed (him); for wings could not outspeed the terror; the _sinner_ +went under; and he, flying, raised up his breast: not otherwise the duck +suddenly dives down, when the falcon approaches, and he returns up angry +and defeated. + +"Calcabrina, furious at the trick, kept flying after him, desirous that +the sinner might escape, to have a quarrel. And, when the barrator had +disappeared, he turned his talons on his fellow, and was clutched with +him above the ditch. But the other was indeed a sparrowhawk to claw him +well; and both dropt down into the middle of the boiling pond. The heat +at once unclutched them; but rise they could not, their wings were so +beglued. Barbariccia with the rest lamenting, made four of them fly over +to the other coast with all their drags; and most rapidly on this side, +on that, they descended to the stand; they stretched their hooks towards +the limed pair, who were already scalded within the crust; and we left +them thus embroiled." (XXII, 19.) + +The grotesque, also, plays a part in the Inferno appearing not only in +the demons taken from classical legend and deformed into caricatures, +but also in the punishment of crimes, v.g. simony and malfeasance in +public office, regarded by our poet as malicious in themselves and +grotesque in their perversity. + +Readers who regard the grotesque as a repelling element in the Inferno +may be surprised to learn that Ruskin considers this feature of Dante's +writings an expression of the highest human genius. The great English +critic writes: + +"I believe that there is no test of greatness in nations, periods, nor +men more sure than the development, among them or in them of a noble +grotesque, and no test of comparative smallness or limitation, of one +kind or another, more sure than the absence of grotesque invention or +incapability of understanding it. I think that the central man of all +the world, as representing in perfect balance and imaginative, moral and +intellectual faculties, all at their highest is Dante; and in him the +grotesque reaches at once the most distinct and the most noble +development to which it was ever brought in the human mind. Of the +grotesqueness of our own Shakespeare I need hardly speak, nor of its +intolerableness to his French critics; nor of that of AEschylus and +Homer, as opposed to the lower Greek writers; and so I believe it will +be found, at all periods, in all minds of the first order." + +Dante's doctrine of punishment presupposes certain primary truths which +the Church proclaims today as she did in Dante's day. According to the +Florentine's creed, man must answer to God for his moral life because he +has free will. He cannot excuse his evil deed on the ground of +necessity. Even in the face of planetary influence and of temptation +from within, by his evil inclinations, and from without by solicitation +of other agents man has still such discernment between good and evil and +such power to make choice freely, that moral judgment with him is free. +"Who hath been tried thereby and made perfect," says Holy Writ, "he +shall have glory everlasting. He that could have transgressed, and hath +not transgressed and could do evil things, and hath not done them." +(Eccli., XXXI, 10.) + +Against this doctrine of free will the sociology, the philosophy and the +medical science of the present day contend with a theory which minimizes +man's accountability for sin if it does not wholly excuse him as the +victim of heredity, environment or society. Literature also, as +reflected not only in the Greek tragedies but in the writings of authors +from Shakespeare to Shaw portray the evil doer as the victim of fate or +determinism. + +Against all such theories and views Dante appears as the fearless, +uncompromising champion of the doctrine of the greatness of man in the +exercise of the divine gift of Free Will. His own life, showing how he +had won victory over the forces of poverty and persecution, is symbolic +of the glorious truth he would teach; viz., that man, endowed with free +will and animated with the grace of God, is master of his destiny and +cannot be defeated even by principalities and powers. So he tells us, +"And free will which if it endure fatigue in the first battles with the +heavens, afterwards if it be well nurtured, conquers everything." +(Purg., XVI, 76.) He makes Beatrice testify to the supremacy of the +will: "The greatest gift which God in His bounty bestowed in creating +and that which He prizes most, was the freedom of will with which the +creatures that have intelligence--they all and they alone--were +endowed." (Cf. Purg., XVIII, 66-73.) + +But such a distinctive endowment may be the the curse of man if he fails +to use it rightly. Like Job, Dante insists that life is a warfare. +Victory is possible only by the right exercise of the will enlightened +by God. Defeat is sure if the will embraces sin. To Dante sin is not a +mere vulgarity or the violation of a social convention or "a soft +infirmity of the blood." "Very hateful to his fervid heart and sincere +mind," says James Russell Lowell, "would have been the modern theory +which deals with sin as involuntary error." To Dante sin is the greatest +evil of the world--not only because it is the source of all other evils, +but because it is at once the denaturing of man--the damned are +characterized as "the woeful people who have lost the good of the +understanding" (Inf., III, 18), and it is also a defiance of God. Sin, +then, is Atheism--a rejection of God, with a conviction that pleasure or +happiness can be attained outside of God, independent of God and in +opposition to God. Apart from the inspired writers of Holy Writ it is +doubtful whether any other writer ever had such an awful sense of sin +and such a vivid vision of sin and its consequences as Dante has given +to the world in a picture which has burned terror into the thought of +man. + +To show us that life is a warfare against sin, Dante gives us several +striking pictures of temptation and heavenly deliverance from evil. At +the very beginning of the Divine Comedy, we see his ascent to the +mountain of the Lord barred by Lust, Pride and Avarice represented by a +leopard, a lion, and a wolf. He is victorious over those enemies of his +salvation because Reason (Virgil) and Beatrice (Revelation) come to his +aid. Temptation is also exhibited in Ante-Purgatorio and that is the +more remarkable because both as a theologian and a poet Dante holds that +the present life is the end of man's probation and that as a +consequence, temptation is not to be encountered in the next life. Why +it is put forth in Ante-Purgatorio is explained by the theory that our +poet here nods, that he means, not the actual Purgatory of disembodied +spirits, but moral Purgatory, _i.e._, the present life wherein man, +striving upward, is attacked by temptation to keep him from the end for +which God created him. + +Showing temptation in Ante-Purgatorio, the poet gives us a picture of +souls protected by two angels against the serpent. Here is the scene: + + "Now was the hour that wakens fond desire + In men at sea, and melts their thoughtful heart + Who in the morn have bid sweet friends farewell, + And pilgrim newly on his road with love + Thrills, if he hear the vesper bell from far, + That seems to mourn for the expiring day": + A band of souls approach: + "I saw that gentle band silently next + Look up, as if in expectation held, + Pale and in lowly guise; and, from on high, + I saw, forth issuing descend beneath, + Two angels, with two flame-illumined swords, + Broken and mutilated of their points. + Green as the tender leaves but newly born, + Their vesture was, the which, by wings as green + Beaten, they drew behind them, fann'd in air. + A little over us one took his stand; + The other lighted on the opposing hill; + So that the troop were in the midst contain'd. + But in their visages the dazzled eye + Was lost, as faculty that by too much + Is overpower'd. 'From Mary's bosom both + Are come,' exclaimed Sordello, 'as a guard + Over the vale, 'gainst him, who hither tends, + The serpent.' Whence, not knowing by which path + He came, I turn'd me round; and closely press'd, + All frozen, to my leader's trusted side." + +After describing an interview with one of the souls, the poet continues +his narrative: + + "While yet he spoke, Sordello to himself + Drew him, and cried: 'Lo there our enemy!' + And with his hand pointed that way to look + Along the side, where barrier none arose + Around the little vale, a serpent lay, + Such haply as gave Eve the bitter food. + Between the grass and flowers, the evil snake + Came on, reverting oft his lifted head; + And, as a beast that smooths its polish'd coat. + Licking his back. I saw not, nor can tell, + How those celestial falcons from their seat + Moved, but in motion each one well described. + Hearing the air cut by their verdant plumes, + The serpent fled; and, to their stations, back + The angels up return'd with equal flight." + (Purg., VIII.) + +A third picture of temptation is furnished by the episode of one of the +Sirens who appears first repulsive and then seems to the poet sweet and +alluring. Only when Virgil discloses her hideous nature does Dante see +how easily he might have fallen a victim to her wiles. He tells us that +in his sleep there appeared to him a woman with stammering utterance, +squinting eyes, deformed hands. "I gazed at her, and as the sun restores +the cold limbs made heavy by night, thus my look loosened her tongue, +then straightened her all out in a little while and colored her wan face +as love demands. When her speech was thus unbound she began to sing so +that I could hardly have turned my attention from her. 'I am,' she sang, +'I am sweet Siren who bewitch sailors by mid-sea, so full am I of charm +to hear. By my song I turned Ulysses from his wandering way. And +whosoever abides with me seldom departs, so wholly do I satisfy him.' +Her lips were not yet closed when a lady, swift and holy, appeared at my +side to confound the other. 'O Virgil, Virgil, who is this?' she said +proudly; and he advanced with his eyes fixed only on this modest woman." +Virgil (Reason called by Conscience) comes to the rescue of the +entranced poet and reveals the Siren in all her foul ugliness. At that +Dante awakes from his dream more than ever convinced of the evil of sin +and its hideousness. (Purg., XIX, 9.) + +Our poet, as we said, is firmly convinced that sin will be punished in +Hell. But where is Hell? Popular tradition attributing an infernal +connection with volcanic phenomena and moved by those passages in Holy +Scripture which describe Hell as a place to which the reprobate descend, +locates Hell in the interior of the earth. Dante not only follows this +tradition for his Hell, but he does what no other writer before or after +him ever did--he constructs a Hell with such rare architectural skill +that the awful structure stands forth in startling reality, visualized +easily as to form an atmosphere, and with a finish of detail that is +amazing. Covered by a crust of earth it is situated under Jerusalem and +extends in funnel shape to the very center of the earth. + +How it got this shape is told by the poet. When Lucifer was hurled from +Heaven by the justice of God, he kept falling until he reached the +center of earth, whence further motion downward was impossible. At the +approach of Lucifer the earth is represented as recoiling and so making +the cavity of Hell. The earth dislodged by the cataclysm was forced +through an opening, a kind of nozzle of the funnel of Hell, to the +antipodes and it there emerged, forming a mountain, which became the +site of the Garden of Eden and Purgatory. The phenomenon made land in +the northern and water in the southern hemisphere. Here is the +description: + + "Upon this side he fell down out of heaven + And all the land, that whilom here emerged + For fear of him made of the sea a veil + And came to our hemisphere; and peradventure + To flee from him, what on this side + Left the place vacant here and back recoiled." + (Inf., XXXIV, 121.) + +The material structure of the Inferno is a series of nine concentric +circles--darkness brooding over the whole region,--with ledges, chasms, +pits, swamps and rivers. The rivers, though different in name and +aspect, appear to be one and the same stream winding its way through the +various circles. We see it first as the boundary of Hell proper and it +is known as the Acheron. It comes again to view in the fourth circle and +is called the Styx. In the seventh circle, second round, it emerges as +the red blood stream of Phlegethon. In the very depths of Hell it forms +the frozen lake of Cocytus. The circles of Hell, distant from one +another, decrease in circumference as descent is made--the top circle +being the widest. Galileo estimates that Dante's Hell is about 4,000 +miles in depth and as many in breadth at its widest diameter. Its +opening is near the forest at the Fauces Averni, near Cuma, Italy, where +Virgil places the site of the entrance of his Inferno. + +Dante's Hell in its moral aspect is Aristotelian. Sins are divided into +three great classes, incontinence, bestiality and malice. Incontinence +is punished in the five upper circles; bestiality and malice in the City +of Dis, lower Hell. More particularly stated, Dante's scheme of +punishment in the underworld, not considering the vestibule of Hell, +where neutrals are confined, is as follows: 1, Limbo; 2, The Circle of +Lust; 3, Gluttony; 4, Avarice and Prodigality; 5, Anger, Rage and Fury; +6, Unbelief and Heresy; 7, Violence; 8, Fraud; 9, Treason. + +In regard to this plan of punishment three things are to be noted: (a) +Though generally following the teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas, here +Dante, in his conception of Limbo, differs from his master. Our poet's +Limbo, wherein are the souls of unbaptized children and others who died +stained with original sin, but without personal grievous guilt, is a +much more severe abode than that of the Angelic Doctor. The latter +teaches that Limbo is a place or a state, not merely of exemption from +suffering and sorrow, but of perfect natural happiness unbroken even by +a knowledge of a higher, a supernatural destiny that has never been +given. Dante's Limbo, on the other hand, represents the souls in sadness +brought about by their constant desire and hope never realizable, of +seeing God. They suffer no pain of sense, but they are baffled in their +endless yearning for the Beatific Vision. To quote Dante: + + "There, in so far as I had power to hear, + Were lamentations none, but only sighs + That tremulous made the everlasting air. + And this arose from sorrow without torment, + Which the crowds had, that many were and great, + Of infants and of women and of men. + To me the Master good: 'Thou dost not ask + What spirits these may be, which thou beholdest? + Now will I have thee know, ere thou go farther, + That they sinned not; and if they merit had, + 'T is not enough, because they had not baptism, + Which is the portal of the Faith thou holdest; + And if they were before Christianity, + In the right manner they adored not God; + And among such as these am I myself. + For such defects, and not for other guilt, + Lost are we, and are only so far punished, + That without hope we live on in desire.'" + (IV, 25.) + +(b) Our poet represents a soul as punished but for one sin, though it +may be guilt-dyed by its having broken all the commandments. Even so, it +is placed in one particular circle wherein a certain sin is punished and +we are not told that it passes to other circles. In explanation of this +we have only to remember that Dante, for our instruction, is showing us +object lessons of evil, types of certain sins. Judas, for example, whose +name is synonymous with traitor, is exhibited as suffering in the ninth +circle, the circle of treason, the poet taking no notice of other sins, +v.g., sacrilege, avarice, suicide, of which the fallen apostle may have +been guilty. Furthermore, Dante as a master psychologist and moralist +would teach us the lesson that the evil doer may come to damnation +through one sin if that acquires such an ascendency over his will as to +become a capital sin or predominant passion of his life. Then the +besetting passion is the father of an innumerable progeny of evil. This +is seen (Purg., XX, 103) in the case of Pygmalion, whose predominant +passion, avarice, made him a traitor, a thief and a parricide. + +(c) Let us not be surprised that Dante is so lenient in the punishment +of carnal sinners. He assigns a lighter punishment to the unchaste than +to the unjust. Back of his plan is a sound theological doctrine. Guilt +is to be estimated not simply from the gravity of the matter prohibited +to conscience and the knowledge that one has of the evil, but more +especially from the malice displayed by the will in its voluntary +choosing and embracing the evil. Now impurity, it is held, is often a +sin of impulse. It springs from concupiscence, a common human +inclination, wrong only when there is inordinateness. Then though a man +freely consents to the temptation and thereby commits a grievous sin, +his will generally is not overcast with perversion or affected with +malice. That being so, Dante in assigning punishment for sins against +the virtue of purity is moved by the thought that such sins deserve a +milder punishment in Hell, because they may be oftener surprises than +infidelities. + +To make known the nature of the particular sin he depicts Dante shows us +the evil in various phases. First of all it is personified in repulsive +demons, the guardians of the circles of Hell. At the very entrance, +sits, symbolizing the evil conscience, the sinners' judge "Minos +horrific and grins. The ill-born spirit comes before him, confesses all +and that sin-discerner (Minos) sees what place in Hell is for it, and +with his tail makes as many circles round himself as the degrees he will +have it descend." (Inf., V, 2.) In the circle of Gluttony, the sin is +symbolized by the three-headed monster Cerberus, "who clutches the +spirits, flays and piecemeal rends them." + +Plutus, the ancient god of riches--"a cursed wolf"--commands the circle +of Avarice. Phlegyas, who in fury set fire to Apollo's temple, is head +of the circle of Anger. Symbolizing remorse, the three Furies, in the +semblance of women girt with green water snakes, with snakes for hair, +and the Gorgon Medusa, representing the heart-hardening effect of +sensual pleasures, are found on the fire-glowing towers of the City of +Dis, Inner Hell. In the seventh circle presides Minotaur, half-man, +half-bull, the symbol of bloodthirsty violence and brutal lust. + +Fraud is typified by Geryon, having the face of an honest man and the +body of a dragon. Further down giants are seen, emblematic of the +enormity of crime. At the very lowest point of Hell is Lucifer, "emperor +of the Realm of Sorrow." A gigantic monster, he is imprisoned in ice +formed from rivers which freeze by the movements of his bat-like wings +flapping in vain efforts to raise himself. To him, as to the source of +all evil, flow back all the streams of guilt. As he sinned against the +Tri-une God, he is represented with three faces, one crimson, another +between white and yellow, and the third black. (XXXIV, 55.) + +Not only by such terrible monsters, but by the environment of the +condemned sinner, does our poet reveal the hideousness of sin. To +mention only the three great divisions of Hell, the abodes of +incontinence, bestiality and malice, we find in murky gloom the +incontinent whose sin had darkened their understanding. In the City of +Dis, red with fire, are the violent and the bestial, who in this life +had burned either with consuming rage or unnatural passion; in the +frozen circle of malice are those whose sins had congealed human +sympathy and love into cold, calculating destruction of trust reposed in +them. + +But it is principally by depicting the intellectual, the moral and the +physical sufferings of the damned that Dante would teach us the nature +of sin. To depict physical sufferings the poet was under the necessity +of creating provisional bodies for his damned. Without such a poetic +device the souls of the reprobate before the resurrection of their +bodies cannot be conceived to suffer physically, since they lack the +senses and organs of pain. So Dante pictures the damned united to forms +shadowy yet real, palpable and visible. They sometimes lose the human +semblance and assume more sinister shapes, grovelling as hideous +serpents, bleeding and wailing from shrubs and trees, or bubbling in a +slushing stream. + +In such forms the souls are seen in punishment fitting their sin, on the +principle that "by what things a man sinneth by the same he is +tormented." (Wisdom XI, 17.) The unchaste because they allowed their +reason to be subjected to the hot blasts of passion are now driven by "a +hellish storm which never rests; whirling and smiting, it vexes them." +(Inf., V, 31.) The gluttonous howl like dogs as hail and rain and snow +beat down upon them and Cerberus attacks and rends them. The misers and +spendthrifts to whom money was king, now are occupied in rolling huge +stones in opposite directions. The wrathful, all muddy and naked, assail +and tear one another. + +The sullen are fixed in slime and gurgle a dismal chant. The materialist +and the heretic, whose existence, Dante holds, was only a living death, +are confined in blazing tombs. Murderers and tyrants are immersed in +boiling blood. + +With poetic justice, suicides are represented as stunted trees lacerated +by the beaks of foul harpies. The violent lie supine on a plain of dry +and dense sand, upon which descend flakes of fire like "snow in the +Alps, without a wind." Usurers--should we call them profiteers?--suffer +also from a rain of fire and carry about their necks money bags stamped +with armorial designs. Thieves, to remind them of their sneaking trade, +are repeatedly transformed from men into snakes, hissing and creeping. +Hypocrites march in slow procession with faces painted and with leaden +cloaks all glittering with gold on the outside. With such realism does +Dante declare the nature of sin and its inevitable consequences. + +Let us now accompany Dante through the Underworld. The scene opens at +dawn in a dark and tangled wood. Dante, the type of humanity, is unable +to ascend the Hill of the Lord, as we said before, because his way is +barred successively by a leopard, a lion and a wolf, representing the +passions of life. Virgil (Reason), sent by Beatrice (Revelation), offers +to conduct the poet by another road. It is a way which leads through +Hell and Purgatory. Through the heavens Beatrice herself will be the +guide. Descending through the earth the two poets come to the Vestibule +of Hell. On the gate appears this inscription: + + "Through me you pass into the city of woe + Through me you pass into eternal pain + Through me among the people lost for aye + Justice, the founder of my fabric, moved + To rear me was the task of Power divine, + Supremest wisdom and primeval Love + Before me things create were none, save things + Eternal, and eternal I endure. + All hope abandon, ye who enter here." + +It may be said in passing that in these nine lines Dante attains an +effect for which Milton, with all his heavy description of the gateway +of Hell, labors in vain. Contrast with the Florentine's the words of the +author of Paradise Lost: + + "Hell bounds high reaching to the horrid roof + And thrice three fold the gates: three folds were brass, + Three iron, three of adamantine rock. + Impenetrable, impaled with circling fire, + Yet unconsumed. Before the gate there sat + On either side a formidable shape," etc. + +Not by gigantic images which only astonish the reader, but by words +which burn into the brain and leave him dismayed, does our poet drive +home his thought. + +Passing through a crowd of neutrals the poets come to the river Acheron, +where assemble those who die in mortal sin, to be ferried over by the +demon Charon. He refuses passage to Dante: "By other ways, by other +ferries, shalt thou pass over, a lighter boat must carry thee." (Inf., +III, 91.) An earthquake occurs, accompanied with wind and lightning, and +Dante falls into a state of insensibility. Upon coming to consciousness +he finds himself on the brink of the Abyss, whence the poets enter +Limbo. Here Christ descended, Virgil says, and "drew from us the shade +of our first parent, of Abel, his son; that of Noah, of Moses, the +lawgiver, the obedient; patriarch Abraham and King David; Israel, with +his father, and with his sons and with Rachel, for whom he wrought much, +and many others and made them blessed." (Inf., IV, 55.) + +In the second circle, where carnal sinners are punished, Dante sees, +among others, Semiramis, Dido, Cleopatra, Helen, Achilles, Paris. The +poet's attention is suddenly attracted by two spirits, who prove to be +Francesca da Rimini and her lover, Paolo, murdered by her husband when +Dante was twenty-four years old. The scandal of their illicit love and +the penalty they paid by their lives must have been so generally known +that Dante, though attached to her family by the memory of hospitality +received from her nephew, Guido Novello da Polenta, the lord of Ravenna, +is dominated by the necessity of declaring in Francesca and Paolo the +operation of the unalterable law which rules the terrible consequences +of crime unforgiven by Heaven. Was it gratitude for kindness extended to +him, an exile, by the Lord of Ravenna, or was it the memory of +association with the brother of Francesca, at the battle of Campaldino, +that led our poet to treat the whole episode of the fatal liaison with +such tender sympathy for the unfortunate lady that he hoped to +rehabilitate her memory? In any event, the poet represents himself as +gracious and benign when addressing Francesca, and she, moved by his +friendly attitude, tells the story of her intrigue, in lines justly +regarded as the most beautiful ever written in verse. The reader will +not fail to observe that the fatal denouement is only hinted, not +told--the line, "that day we read no more," making what is admitted to +be the finest ellipsis in all the literature of the world. + + "Then turning, I to them, my speech address'd + And thus began: 'Francesca! Your sad fate + Even to tears my grief and pity moves. + But tell me, in the time of your sweet sighs, + By what and how Love granted that ye knew + Your yet uncertain wishes.' She replied: + 'No greater grief than to remember days + Of joy, when misery is at hand. Yet so eagerly + If thou art bent to know the primal root + From whence our love gat being, I will do + As one who weeps and tells his tale. One day + For our delight, we read of Lancelot, + How him love thrall'd. Alone we were, and no + Suspicion near us. Oft times by that reading + Our eyes were drawn together, and the hue + Fled from our alter'd cheek. But at one point + Alone we fell. When of that smile, we read, + The wish'd smile so rapturously kiss'd + By one so deep in love, then he who ne'er + From me shall separate, at once my lips + All trembling kiss'd. The book and writer both + Were love's purveyors. In its leaves that day + We read no more.' While thus one spirit spake, + The other wail'd so sorely, that heart-struck + I through compassion fainting, seem'd not far + From death, and like a corse fell to the ground." + +In the next circle where, with faces to the ground, the gluttons suffer +in a ceaseles storm, the shade of Ciacco, the Florentine, sits up as he +recognizes a fellow-citizen: + + "He said to me: 'Thy City which is filled + With envy, like a sack that overflows, + Once held me in its tranquil life, well skilled + In dainties, and a glutton, and by those + Who dwelt there Ciacco called, but now the blows + Of this fierce rain avenge my wasteful sin. + Sad as I am, full many another knows + For a like crime like penalty within + This circle', and more word he spake not." (VI, 49.) + +In the fourth circle the poet sees the souls of the prodigal and +avaricious rolling heavy stones, against each other with mutual +recriminations: + + "Almighty Justice! in what store thou heap'st + New pains, new troubles, as I here beheld, + Wherefore doth fault of ours bring us to this? + E'en as a billow, on Charybdis rising + Against encountered billow dashing breaks; + Such is the dance this wretched race must lead + Whom more than elsewhere numerous here I found." + (VII, 19.) + +The next is the circle of the wrathful and the sullen. Following is the +circle of the materialists and heretics, all covered with burning +sepulchres: + + "Soon as I was within, I cast around + My eyes and saw extend on either hand + A spacious plain, that echoed to the sound + Of grief and torment sore; as o'er the land + At Aries where Rhone's vast waters stagnant stand + Or Pola, near Quarnero Bay, that bounds + And bathes the line of Italy, expand + Plains rough and heaving with supulchral mounds, + 'Tis thus the plain, wherein I stood, with tombs abounds, + Save that the buried were more grimly treated. + For twixt the graves were scattered tongues of fire + By which to such a pitch the place was heated + That iron could no fiercer flame require + For art to mould it: lamentation dire + Issued from each unlidded vault, and seemed + The voice of those in torment." + +From one of these fiery tombs, the Florentine freethinker, the haughty +Farinata, rises "with breast and brow erect, as holding Hell in great +contempt," and tells Dante that the souls of the lost have no knowledge +concerning things that are actually passing on earth, though they know +the past and see the future. He foretells the duration of the poet's +exile and boasts that he himself saved Florence from being razed to the +ground. + + "When all decreed that Florence should be laid + in ruin I alone with fearless face defended her." + (X, 91.) + +In the seventh circle Virgil leads Dante to the river of blood, "in +which boils every one who by violence injures others." Centaurs, half +horses and half men, are there. "Around the fosse they go by thousands, +piercing with their arrows whatever spirit wrenches itself out of the +blood farther than its guilt has allotted for it." (XII, 73.) With +characteristic realism the poet describes Chiron, one of the leaders of +the Centaurs, pushing back with an arrow his beard as he prepares to +speak: + + "Chiron took an arrow, and with the notch put back his beard upon + his jaws. When he had uncovered his great mouth, he said to his + companions: 'Have ye perceived that the one behind (Dante) moves + what he touches? The feet of the dead are not wont to do so.'" + (XII, 76.) + +In the third round of Circle VII Dante meets his friend Brunetto Latini, +punished for unnatural offences. + + "I remembered him and toward his face + My hand inclining, answered: Ser Brunetto! + And are ye here? He thus to me: 'My son! + Oh let it not displease thee, if Brunetto + Latini but a little space with thee + Turn back, and leave his fellows to proceed.' + I thus to him replied: 'Much as I can, + I thereto pray thee: and if thou be willing + That I here seat me with thee, I consent: + His leave with whom I journey, first obtain'd.' + 'O Son,' said he, 'whoever of this throng + One instant stops, lies then a hundred years, + No fan to ventilate him, when the fire + Smitest sorest. Pass thou therefore on. I close + Will at thy garments walk and then rejoin + My troup, who go mourning their endless doom.'" + + * * * * * + + "Were all my wish fulfill'd," I straight replied, + Thou from the confines of man's nature yet + Hadst not been driven forth; for in my mind + Is fix'd, and now strikes full upon my heart, + The dear, benign, paternal image, such + As thine was, when so lately thou didst teach me + The way for man to win eternity: + And how I prized the lesson, it behoves, + That, long as life endures, my tongue should speak. + (XV, 28.) + +The eighth circle is known as Malebolge, Evil Pouches, of which there +are ten. Here are punished differently panders, seducers, flatterers, +simonists, magicians, cheats, hypocrites, thieves, evil-counsellors, +forgers. + +In the ninth circle, the abode of traitors, which comprises four +divisions, named respectively after Cain (Caina), Antenor of Troy +(Antenora), Ptolemy of Jericho (Tolomea), and Judas Iscariot (Giudecca), +Dante sees in the second division, Antenora, the shade of the traitor +Ugolino imprisoned in ice with his enemy, Archbishop Ruggieri, by whom +he was betrayed. Ugolino, with his two sons and two grandsons, were +locked in the Tower of Famine at Pisa, the key of the prison was thrown +into the river and the prisoners began their term of starvation ending +in death. The story of the imprisonment and the death of the five +prisoners is one of the most tragic recitals in the domain of +literature. In the passage I quote, Ugolino is relating his feelings +when he finds himself imprisoned with his sons and grandsons in the +Tower of Famine. + + "When I awoke before the morn, that day, + I heard my little sons, who shared my cell, + For bread, even in their slumber, moaning pray; + Hard art thou, if unmoved thou hearest me tell + The message that my heart had guessed too well! + If this thou feel not, what can make thee feel? + And when we all were risen, the hour befell + At which was brought to us the morning meal, + Yet each one doubted sore what might their dreams reveal. + + And as the locking of the gate I heard + Beneath that terrible tower, I gazed alone + Into my children's faces, without a word. + I wept not, for within I turned to stone; + But saw that they were weeping every one; + 'Twas then my darling little Anselm cried: + 'You look so, father! Say, what have they done?' + Still not a tear I shed, nor word replied + That day, nor till that night in next day's dawning died. + + And as there shot into this prison drear + A little sunbeam, by whose light I caught + My look upon four faces mirrored clear; + Both of my hands I bit, by grief o'erwrought. + Then suddenly they rose as if they thought + I did it hungering; 'Less our misery,' + They cried, 'Should'st thou on us feed, who are nought + But creatures vested in our flesh by thee: + Then strip away the weeds that still thine own must be.' + + It calmed me to make them feel less their fate; + Two days we spent in silence all forlorn; + Earth, Earth, oh wherefore wert thou obdurate, + And would'st not open! On the following morn + Gaddo, before my face, from life was torn! + 'Can you not help me, father?' first he cried, + And perished; then, I saw the younger born, + Three, one by one, fall ere the sixth day sped-- + Plainly as you see me, and this accursed head. + + 'Already blind, I fondly grope my way + To them, and for three days their names I call + After their death; then famine found its prey + And did what sorrow could not.' This was all + He said." + (XXXIII, 35.) + +And now we come with the poets to the lowest depths of Hell, where we +see imprisoned in ice Lucifer, huge and hideous. As we gaze on mankind's +enemy, an archangel fallen and punished for sin, the words of Isaias +come to mind: "How art thou fallen from Heaven, O Lucifer, who did'st +rise in the morning! How art thou fallen to the earth, that did'st wound +the nations. And thou saidst within thy heart, 'I will ascend into +Heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God--I will be like +the most High. But yet thou shalt be brought down to Hell, into the very +depth of the pit." (Is., XIV, 12.) + +Let us see how Dante puts Lucifer "into the very depth of the pit." + + "The lamentable kingdom's emperor + Issued from out the ice with half his breast; + And with a giant more do I compare + Than with his arms do giants; therefore see + How great must be that whole which corresponds + Unto a part so fashioned. If he was + As beautiful as he is ugly now, + And raised his brows against his Maker, sure + All sorrowfulness must proceed from him. + Ah! how great marvel unto me it seemed + When I beheld three faces to his head! + The one before, and that was vermeil-hue; + Two were the others which adjoined to this, + Over the midst of either shoulder, and + They made the joining where the crown is placed. + And between white and yellow seemed the right; + The left was such an one to be beheld + As come from there wherein the Nile is sunk. + There issued under each two mighty wings, + Such as 'twas fitting for so great a bird: + I never saw the sails of shipping such. + They had not feathers, but the mode thereof + Was like a bat's; and these he fluttered so + That from him there was moved a threefold wind: + Cocytus all was frozen over hence. + With six eyes wept he, and three chins along + The weeping trickled, and a bloody foam. + At every mouth he shattered with his teeth + A sinner, in the manner of a brake, + So that he thus made woful three of them. + The biting for the foremost one was nought + Unto the scratching, for at times the spine + Remained of all the skin completely stripped. + 'That soul above which has most punishment + Is,' said my lord, 'Judas Iscariot, + Who has his head within, and outside plies + His legs. O' the other two, whose head is down, + Brutus is he who from the black head hangs; + See how he writhes, and does not speak a word: + The other's Cassius, who appears, so gaunt,'" + (XXXIV, 28-67) + +Now that the lesson is learned that the wages of sin is death, that sin +will find a man out and bring him to the judgment of God, the gracious +guide can release his companion from his awful contemplation. + +"Now it is time for us to go," says Virgil, "for we have seen all." By a +secret path leading to Purgatory the pilgrims make their way through the +darkness, guided by the encouraging murmur of running water. It is a +streamlet of discarded sin, flowing constantly from Purgatory, whence +wickedness is washed down to its original Satanic source. + + "By that hidden way + My guide and I did enter, to return + To the fair world; and heedless of repose + We climb'd, he first, I following his steps, + Till on our view the beautiful lights of Heaven + Dawn'd through a circular opening in the cave + Thence issuing we again beheld the stars." + + + + +DANTE'S PURGATORIO + + + + +DANTE'S PURGATORIO + + +Purgatory, as a doctrine, is peculiar to the Catholic Church; Purgatory, +as a discipline from sin to virtue, is a practice followed by a large +portion of humanity. The latter fact explains why so many who reject the +dogma, still love and admire Dante's Purgatorio, which, while it teaches +the doctrine of the intermediate state, also serves as an allegory, the +most helpful and beautiful allegory, perhaps, in the literature of the +world. In the opinion of Dean Stanley, it is the most religious book he +ever read. It makes a peculiar appeal to the modern mind because, as +Grandgent says: "It's theme is betterment, release from sin and +preparation for Heaven" ... (and) "its atmosphere is rightly one of hope +and progress." + +Dinsmore declares: "Purgatory as a place may not exist in our system of +thought, but life is a cleansing process if we take its hardships in a +proper spirit." In another place he asserts: "In pondering the way of +life by which this high priest of the Middle Ages (Dante) proclaims that +men attain perfect liberty, we cannot but remark the stress he lays +upon a principle which has well-nigh faded from the Protestant mind. It +is that of expiation--(and) expiation is no musty dogma of the +schoolmen, but a living truth.... Dante placed more emphasis on the +human side of the problem than we, and for this reason he deserves +attentive study, having portrayed most powerfully some truths which our +age, so eager to break from the narrowness of the past, has overlooked." + +In agreement with this statement of the learned Congregational divine is +William T. Harris, former United States Commissioner of Education, who +observes in his "Spiritual Sense of the Divina Commedia," that if +Purgatory is absent from the Protestant creed, the thought of which +Purgatory in this life is the symbol, is not uncommon in non-Catholic +literature. His exact words are: "If Protestantism has omitted Purgatory +from its religion, certainly Protestant literature has taken it up and +absorbed it entire," and for proof he points to the moral, among other +books, of The Scarlet Letter, The Marble Faun, Adam Bede and Romola, all +showing + + "That men may rise on stepping stones + Of their dead selves to higher things." + +Dante, the theologian, makes his allegory grow out of the doctrine of +Purgatory. According to the teaching of the Catholic Church, temporal +punishment is connected with sin. Even when the guilt of sin is +forgiven, the justice of God in most cases calls for amends by means of +the temporal punishment of the sinner. Holy Writ gives us instances of +the operation of this law. Adam, though brought out of his disobedience +(Wisdom X, 2) was condemned "to eat bread in the sweat of his face" +(Gen. III, 19) to his dying day. Moses and Aaron were forgiven for their +sin of incredulity, but they were punished by being deprived of the +glory of entering "the Land of Promise." (Num., XX, 12.) To King David, +perfectly contrite, the prophet Nathan announces in the name of God, the +forgiveness of the guilt of adultery and murder, yet he must suffer for +his sin. "Nathan said to David: 'The Lord also hath taken away thy sin. +Thou shalt not die. Nevertheless, because thou hast given occasion to +the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme for this thing, the child shall +die,' and it came to pass on the seventh day that the child died" (II +Kings XII, 13.) + +From these instances it is evident that when God forgives the guilt of +sins and the eternal punishment due to such of them as are mortal, He +does not remove the temporal punishment which must be satisfied in this +life or in the life to come. That is true, the Church teaches, even of +unrepented venial sin with its debt of temporal punishment. While +venial sin does not destroy the supernatural life of the soul and while, +therefore, it is not said to be punishable in Hell, still it is sin in +the sight of Him "whose eyes are too pure to behold evil." (Hab., I, +13.) Now the Church has ever held that into Heaven "there shall not +enter anything defiled." (Apoc., XXI, 27.) Likewise, she has taught that +Hell is the eternal punishment of souls whose grievous guilt has not +been forgiven. It follows, therefore, according to her teachings, that +there must be a middle state for the cleansing of unrepented venial sins +and for the satisfaction of sins already forgiven but not wholly +expiated. + +This state or place is called Purgatory, the belief in the existence of +which is confirmed by the practice of praying for the dead, a practice +based on the teachings of the Old and of the New Testament. In the +second book of Maccabees (XII, 43, 46) we read that Judas, the general +of the Hebrew army, "sent twelve thousand drachms of silver to Jerusalem +for sacrifice to be offered for the sins of the dead, thinking well and +religiously concerning the resurrection. (For if he had not hoped that +they that were slain should rise again, it would have seemed superfluous +and vain to pray for the dead.) And because he considered that they who +had fallen asleep with godliness had great grace laid up for them. It +is, therefore, a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead that +they may be loosed from sins." + +This doctrine presupposes that the dead for whom prayer is profitable +are neither in Heaven, the abode of the elect, nor in Hell, from which +release is not possible, but in a state of purification, lasting for a +time. The New Testament alludes to that state. Christ declares: "And +whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of Man, it shall be +forgiven him; but he that shall speak against the Holy Ghost, it shall +not be forgiven him, neither in this world nor in the world to come." +(Matt., XII, 32.) These words imply that there is a future state in +which some sins are purged away, while there is another state (Hell) in +which the punishment is eternal. The words of St. Paul: "If any man's +work burn, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so +as by fire" (1 Cor., III, 15), are interpreted to mean the existence of +a middle state in which unforgiven venial sins and the temporal +punishment due to sin will be burnt away and the soul thus purified will +attain eternal life. + +To state the doctrine of the Church briefly, let it be said that the +Church has defined that there is a Purgatory and that the souls in +Purgatory are helped by the suffrages of the faithful. + +Out of facts so general, Dante the poet, has created a Purgatory wholly +unique in the realms of literature, and amazingly definite as to place, +form, atmosphere, inhabitants and their activities. In the southern +hemisphere, at the very antipodes of Jerusalem, out of an ocean on which +there is no other land (according to Dante's system of cosmography) +springs the island of Purgatory, redolent with flowers, lovely with +music, peace keeping pace with penance over all the region. Not a flat, +unbroken plain is this island, but a mountain whose shores are washed by +the ocean, from which the earth forced from the interior by Lucifer's +fall, rises in a truncated conical structure. While its coast and the +land below the terraces are within the zone of air, its heights extend +into the sphere of fire and its crown is the Garden of Eden. The lowest +part of the mountain called Ante-Purgatorio is the abode of the +procrastinators and the excommunicated who put off their repentance to +the end and now must suffer a proportionate delay before they are +permitted to begin their ascent, their work of purification. + +Purification begins only after the soul passes into Purgatory proper. At +the entrance is St. Peter's gate, guarded by an angel, who, with his +sword inscribes on the brow of the penitent seven times the letter P, +the first letter of the word Peccatum, signifying sin. These seven P's, +outward signs of inward evil, represent the seven capital sins, the P's +of which are removed in succession by an angel as penance is done for +each sin on its corresponding terrace. The seven terraces which run +around the mountain, rise in succession with lessening circuit as ascent +is made, their width being about seventeen or eighteen feet. Connecting +each terrace and cut out of solid rock is a narrow stairway, guarded by +an angel. The steps of each successive stairway become less steep as +each terrace is attained. Crowning the mountain is the Garden of Eden, +lonely and deserted since Adam and Eve, after six hours of occupancy, +were forced from its confines. Its herbage is still luxuriant, its +flowers endless and fragrant, its trees, melodious with birds, rustle +with the balmy wind, its waters serve to irrigate the garden as well as +to help the soul. These waters, the rivers Lethe and Eunoe, are produced +from heavenly sources and have miraculous powers. The former removes the +memory of sin; the latter restores the recollection of virtuous deeds, a +poetical way of expressing the Catholic dogma, that with the revival of +grace in the heart of the converted sinner comes back the merit that had +been acquired by moral acts. + +The problem which Dante sets out to solve in his Purgatory is this: +Assuming that the sinner has been baptized, how can he break his +shackles and attain to the liberty of the children of God? The literal +narrative of Dante's Purgatory presupposing that the soul at the hour of +death is in the state of grace, now shows us that soul working towards +perfection by way of expiation for unforgiven venial sin and for the +temporal punishment due to sin. It is the only way by which it can again +attain its pristine dignity. "And to his dignity he never returns," says +Dante, "unless where sin makes void, he fill up for evil pleasures just +penalties." + +The rule holds good, also, for salvation in this world. The thin veil of +allegory enables us to penetrate Dante's teaching that this life also is +a Purgatory, and here, too, we may cast off the defilement of sin by +means of repentance and expiation. But first the soul must be girt with +the rush of humility, and have perfect contrition represented by its +being washed with the dew, the moisture that descends from Heaven. To +Virgil (Reason guided by Heaven) says Cato (the symbol of Liberty), "Go, +then, and see that thou gird this man with a smooth rush and that thou +wash his face (with dew) so that thou efface from it all foulness, for +it would not be fitting to go into the presence of the first Minister, +who is of those of Paradise, with eyes dimmed by any mist." (1, 95.) + +But even if the soul, by perfect contrition, is freed from its guilt of +mortal sin, it must according to the mind of Christ, who instituted the +sacrament of Penance for the remission of sin, submit to the power of +the keys committed to the priesthood and that will be the more necessary +if its contrition is imperfect. While perfect contrition without the +sacrament of Penance may remit sin, if the supernatural motive of sorrow +is not the love of God, but a motive less worthy, _e.g._, fear of +punishment, forgiveness is to be obtained only by the worthy reception +of Penance. In other words, the penitent must confess his sin to a duly +authorized priest, express his contrition, accept the penance enjoined +by the confessor for the satisfaction of sin and be absolved by virtue +of the words of Christ: "Whose sins you shall forgive they are forgiven +and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained." + +All this is most beautifully expressed by Dante in his description of +the Gate of St. Peter and its angelic keeper: + + "The lowest stair was marble white, so smooth + And polish'd that therein my mirror'd form + Distinct I saw. The next of hue more dark + Than sablest grain, a rough and singed block, + Cracked lengthwise and across. The third, that lay + Massy above, seemed prophyry, that flam'd + Red as the life-blood spouting from a vein. + On this God's angel either foot sustain'd, + Upon the threshold seated, which appear'd + A rock of diamond. Up the trinal steps + My leader cheerly drew me. 'Ask,' said he, + 'With humble heart, that he unbar the bolt.' + Piously at his holy feet devolv'd + I cast me, praying him for pity's sake + That he would open to me: but first fell + Thrice on my bosom prostrate. Seven times + The letter, that denotes the inward stain, + He on my forehead with the blunted point + Of the drawn sword inscrib'd. And 'Look,' he cried, + 'When enter'd, that thou wash these scars away.' + Ashes, or earth ta'en dry out of the ground, + Were of one colour with the robe he wore. + From underneath that vestment forth he drew + Two keys of metal twain: the one was gold, + Its fellow silver. With the pallid first, + And next the burnish'd, he so ply'd the gate, + As to content me well. 'Whenever one + Faileth of these, that in the keyhole straight + It turn not, to this alley then expect + Access in vain.' Such were the words he spake, + 'One is more precious; but the other needs + Skill and sagacity, large share of each, + Ere its good task to disengage the knot + Be worthily perform'd. From Peter these + I hold, of him instructed, that I err + Rather in opening than in keeping fast, + So but the suppliant at my feet implore.' + Then of that hallow'd gate he thrust the door, + Exclaiming, 'Enter, but this warning hear: + He forth again departs who looks behind.'" + (IX, 75.) + +The allegory back of these words is put forth in clear language by Maria +F. Rossetti. "We need hardly to be told" she writes in her Shadow of +Dante (pp. 112-13) "that the Gate of St. Peter is the Tribunal of +Penance. The triple stair stands revealed as candid Confession mirroring +the whole man, mournful Contrition breaking the hard heart of the gazer +on the Cross, Love all aflame offering up in Satisfaction the lifeblood +of body, soul, and spirit:--the adamantine threshold-seat as the +priceless merits of Christ the Door, Christ the Rock, Christ the sure +Foundation and the precious Corner-Stone. In the Angel of the Gate, as +in the Gospel Angel of Bethesda, is discerned the Confessor; in the +dazzling radiance of his countenance, the exceeding glory of the +ministration of righteousness; in the penitential robe, the sympathetic +meekness whereby, restoring one overtaken in a fault, he considers +himself lest he also be tempted; in the sword, the wholesome severity of +his discipline; in the golden key, his divine authority; in the silver, +the discernment of spirits whereby he denies absolution to the +impenitent, the learning and discretion whereby he directs the +penitent." + +Dante's plan of Purgatorial punishment makes no distinction between the +punishment put forth for unforgiven venial sin and that due in +satisfaction for the violation of the moral order by one whose guilt has +been remitted. Both partake of the same penalty. Is that because the +poet thinks that if forgiveness is finally won by sorrow and suffering, +expiation for the offence is still to be made? Or does he hold that the +seven capital sins entailing temporal punishment either operate +effectively in every soul, or exist at least radically according to the +principle voiced by Hamilton Wright Mabie: "The man who slowly builds +Heaven with him, has constantly the terrible knowledge that he has only +to put his hand forth in another direction in order to build Hell?" + +In any event Dante, who shows in Hell how men are made sin eternally, in +Purgatory exhibits the sinful disposition more or less under the control +of the will, yet of such a nature that only the grace of God held the +soul back from the Abyss. It must be purged of all tendency to evil so +as to be made "pure and ready to mount to the stars." (XXXIII, 140.) The +purgation is seen in process in a threefold manner according to Dante. A +material punishment is inflicted to mortify the evil passion and to +incite the soul to virtue; the soul meditates upon the capital sin and +its opposite virtue, moved to abhorrence of the evil and to admiration +of the good by examples drawn from sacred and profane history; vocal +prayer is addressed to God and it brings forth grace to purify and +strengthen the soul. Hard in the beginning is this work of repentance, +but it becomes easy as the habit of virtue is formed. + + "The mountain is such, that ever + At the beginning down below, 'tis tiresome + And aye the more one climbs, the less it hurts." + (IV, 90.) + +As purification from each capital sin is effected, the soul experiences +the removal of a heavy burden and the consequent enjoyment of new +liberty, Dante, purified from pride, asks Virgil: "Master, say what +heavy thing has been lifted from me, that scarce any toil is perceived +by me in journeying." He answered "When the P's which have remained +still nearly extinguished on thy face, shall like the one be wholly +rased out, thy feet shall be so vanquished by goodwill, that not only +will they feel it no toil, but it shall be a delight to them to be urged +upward." (XII, 118). + +Mention was made of the material punishment of the souls in Purgatory. +Unlike the retributive penalties inflicted in Hell, this punishment is +reformative, confirming the penitent in good habits of thought and deed. +The proud here realize the irrevocable sentence "everyone who exalteth +himself shall be humbled." They creep round with huge burdens of stone +bowing them down to the very dust and so abased their hearts are turned +to humility. + +The envious sing the praises of generosity while their eyes, the seat of +their sins, are tortured by sutures of wire shutting out the light. + +The slothful cannot be restrained in their hurry forward, the leaders, +shouting with tears, examples of diligence, a pair in the rear crying +out instances of sloth. + +Penitents expiating the sins of avarice and prodigality lie prostrate +and motionless bound hand and foot, with their faces to the ground, +murmuring the words of the psalmist: "My soul hath cleaved to the +pavement" (Ps., 118, 25.) During the day they eulogize the liberal; +during the night they denounce instances of avarice. + +The gluttonous suffer so much from hunger and thirst that they are +reduced to a state of pitiable emaciation. All the while hungering for +righteousness, they glory in crucifying the old Adam in them. + +The unchaste purify their passion in hot flames while other penitents +sing the loveliness of chastity and proclaim many examples of that +virtue. + +Through this purification by suffering, the spirits not only submit +willingly but they exhibit real contentment if not actual love of the +chastisement imposed upon them. The unchaste not only heedfully keep +within the flames but gladly endure the fire because they are convinced +"with such treatment and with such diet must the last wound be healed" +(XXV, 136). And most beautiful and enlightening of all, one of the souls +tells Dante that the same impulse which brought Christ gladly to the +agony of the Cross throws them upon their sufferings. Forese, speaking +for the gluttonous, says that the mood in which they accept the +penitential pains is one of submission as well as of solace. "And not +only once, while circling this road, is our pain renewed. I say pain and +ought to say solace, for that desire leads us to the tree which led glad +Christ to say, 'Eli,' when He made us free with his blood." (XXIII, 71). +The avaricious confess "so long as it shall be the pleasure of the just +Lord, so long shall we lie here motionless and outstretched" (XIX, 125). +Among the envious, Guida del Duca prays Dante to continue his journey +instead of stopping to interrogate him, for he himself "delights far +more to weep than to talk" (XIV, 125). The slothful in their eagerness +not to interrupt their diligence in penance, by their conversing with +Virgil, entreat him not to ascribe this attitude to discourtesy, "We +are so filled with desire to speed on" they tell the poets "that stay we +cannot, therefore forgive if thou hold our penance for rudeness." +(XVIII, 115). + +By such instances and by many others does our poet show the contented +spirit prevailing in Purgatory. He makes it, indeed, a realm whose very +atmosphere is one of peace, because the will of God is done there even +in the midst of suffering. The greeting there is "My brothers, may God +give us peace" (XXI, 13). The penitents pray for a far greater measure +of peace: "Voices I heard and every one appeared to supplicate for peace +and misericord the Lamb of God who takes away our sins" (XVI, 15). When +the wrathful finish their penance an angel says to them, "Blessed are +the peacemakers who are without ill anger" (XVII, 68). + +The waters of Purgatory are called "the waters of peace which are the +souls diffused from the eternal fountain" (XVI, 133). Dante addresses +the souls as certain of gaining the unending peace of Paradise. "O +Souls, sure in the possession whenever it may be of a state of peace" +(XXVI, 54). And when the day of release comes on which a soul attains +perfect peace, the whole mountain of Purgatory literally thrills with +joy and every voice is raised to join the harmonious concert of the +angelic hymn first sung at Bethlehem, _Gloria in Excelsis Deo_. In this +way does the poet teach us the lesson that both Purgatory proper and the +penitential discipline of life give us a peace wholly in contrast with +the uproar of sin whether heard in the halls of conscience or in the +eternal Hereafter. "How different are those openings from those in +Hell," he says, "for here we enter through songs and down there through +fierce wailings" (XII, 112). + +Although our poet, imbued with the Catholic doctrine, teaches that +intercessory prayer helps the soul to shorten its term in Purgatory--a +doctrine bound up with the doctrine of the Communion of Saints--it must +never be forgotten that Dante is a Catholic preacher when he insists +that personal effort aided by God's grace, is the thing of supreme +importance in the matter of salvation and purification. Neither +lip-sorrow nor the sacraments themselves unless accompanied by true +sorrow and repentance, can profit the soul. "He cannot be absolved who +doth not first repent, nor can he repent the sin and will it at the same +time, for this were contradiction to which reason cannot assent" (Inf., +XXVII, 118.) Prayer can help the soul struggling in life or in Purgatory +proper, but the assistance derived from prayer can never do away with +the necessity of personal penance. "Conquer thy panting with the soul +that conquers every battle if with its heavy body it sinks not down." + +Let us now hear how Dante sings "of that second realm in which the human +soul is purified and becomes worthy to ascend to Heaven" (I, 5). Coming +out of the blackness of Hell just before dawn on Easter Sunday, Virgil +and Dante are entranced at the beautiful scene before them. Through a +cloudless sky of that deep blue for which the sapphire is noted, shines +Venus, the morning star; in the south appear four wonderful stars of +still greater brilliancy, seen before only by our first parents. + + "Sweet sheen of oriental sapphire hue + That, mantling in the aspect calm and bright + Of the pure air, to the primal circle grew, + Began afresh to give my eyes delight + Soon as I issued from the deathful air + That had cast sadness o'er my mind and sight, + The beauteous planet that for love takes care + Was making the East laugh through all its span, + Veiling the Fish, that in its escort were + Turned to the right, I set my mind to scan + The other pole; and four stars met my gaze + Ne'er seen before, except by primal man + Heaven seemed rejoicing in their flaming rays." + +The two poets looking to the north see Cato the Warder of Purgatory, his +face illuminated by the four stars, typical of the cardinal virtues, +Prudence, Justice, Fortitude and Temperance. Is Dante's selection of +Cato, the pagan suicide, as the guardian of Christian Purgatory, to be +taken as an example of the broadmindedness of the poet who believes "so +wide arms hath goodness infinite, that it receives all who turn to it?" +Or is it an instance showing how the leaven of the old Roman spirit in +the poet--a spirit which justifies suicide, prevails with his profession +of Christianity which condemns the taking of one's life? Whatever be the +answer "Cato's taking his own life rather than renounce liberty is +symbolical of the soul, destroying all selfishness that it may attain +the light and freedom of spiritual life." In the poem Cato is +represented as challenging the poets as if they were fugitives from +Hell. When he is told that it is by divine decree that the pilgrims are +making the journey, he bids Virgil cleanse Dante with dew and gird him +with a rush and he concludes by saying: "then be not this way your +return, the sun which now is rising, will show you how to take the mount +at an easier ascent"--words whose spiritual sense would seem to be that +once the soul has turned to virtue, it must never go back to sin and in +its upward path to perfection it will be guided by the rays of divine +grace (the sun) whose enlightenment will make the ascent easier. + +While lingering on the shore, undecided which way to turn, the poets see +a great marvel. Over the water dancing with sunlight comes a white boat +propelled by the white wings of an angel called the Divine Bird, red +with flame and bringing from the banks of the Tiber, the bosom of the +Church, over a hundred souls to begin their term in Purgatory. In +Charon's bark the reprobate souls fill the air with their imprecations; +in the angel-steered boat the spirits coming to Purgatory devoutly +chant: "When Israel went out of Egypt," the psalm so fittingly +descriptive of their own liberation from guilt and their coming into +peace. Here is the description of the scene: + + "And lo! as when, upon the approach of morning, + Through the gross vapours Mars grown fiery red + Down in the West upon the ocean floor, + Appeared to me--may I again behold it!-- + A light along the sea so swiftly coming, + Its motion by no flight of wing is equalled; + From which when I a little had withdrawn + Mine eyes, that I might question my Conductor, + Again I saw it brighter grown and larger. + Then on each side of it appeared to me + I knew not what of white, and underneath it + Little by little there came forth another. + My Master yet had uttered not a word + While the first whiteness into wings unfolded; + But when he clearly recognized the pilot, + He cried: 'Make haste, make haste to bow the knee! + Behold the Angel of God! fold thou thy hands! + Henceforward shalt thou see such officers! + See how he scorneth human arguments, + So that nor oar he wants, nor other sail + Than his own wings, between so distant shores. + See how he holds them pointed up to heaven, + Fanning the air with the eternal pinions, + That do not mount themselves like mortal hair!' + Then as still nearer and more near us came + The Bird Divine, more radiant he appeared, + So that near by the eye could not endure him, + But down I cast it; and he came to shore + With a small vessel, very swift and light, + So that the water swallowed naught thereof. + Upon the stern stood the Celestial Pilot; + Beatitude seemed written in his face, + And more than a hundred spirits sat within." + (II, 13.) + +And now occurs a touching episode which shows how deep and rich is +friendship in Dante's heart. One of the shades recognizing him, steps +forward with a look so full of affection to embrace him that the poet +is moved to do likewise. Amazement ensues on both sides. The spirit +finds Dante alive in the flesh and he in turn on account of the +impalpability of the shade clasps only empty air. But there is mutual +recognition. Dante asks his newly-found friend Casella, the musician, to +sing as he used to do when his sweet voice soothed the troubled heart of +the poet and banished his cares. "May it please thee therewith to solace +awhile my soul that with its mortal form, journeying here, is sore +distressed." Casella's answer is as loving as it is surprising. He sings +one of Dante's canzoni and the whole party listen with intent delight +finally broken by the chiding words of Cato: + + "What is this ye laggard spirits? + What negligence, what standing still is this? + Run to the mountain to strip off the slough + That lets not God be manifest to you." + (II, 117.) + +At the foot of the mountain the poets meet a troop of spirits who, +though excommunicated, died contrite. For their delay in submitting to +the Church for absolution they must wait thirty times as long as the +period of their excommunication. One of them, King Manfred, Chief of the +Ghibellines, son of Emperor Frederick II, tells of his last moment +conversion and also how the Bishop of Cosenza at the word of Pope +Clement IV, enforcing the penalty of excommunication against the corpse +of the king, had it removed from the Papal realm and thrown into the +river Verde. + +In narrating how a Christian may be saved even if he died under the ban +of the Church, Dante is only expressing what every Catholic knows as to +the effect of excommunication. This ecclesiastical censure incurred by a +contumacious member of the Church, a censure entailing forfeiture of all +rights and privileges common to a Christian, such as the right to the +sacraments,--a right restored through the confessor, however, whenever +there is danger of death--the right to public service and prayers, the +right to jurisdiction, and to benefices, the right to the canonical +forum, to social intercourse and to Christian burial, this censure of +excommunication does not in the mind of the Church carry with it +exclusion from Purgatory or Heaven. + +According to a principle of canon law applied to censures, _Ecclesia de +internis non judicat_, the Church in the matter of crime does not +concern itself with interior dispositions, excommunication far from +being a sentence of damnation in the next world, is a penalty pertaining +to the external forum of the Church in this life. Even if the penalty +follows the corpse so far as to exclude it from Christian burial, even +here the purpose of the Church is not to pronounce a verdict of the loss +of the contumacious soul in the Hereafter, but to stigmatize among the +living, the memory of the person and so to inspire in them a hatred of +the evil condemned and a respect for law. The story of Manfred now +follows: + + "And one of them began: 'Whoe'er thou art, + Thus going turn thine eyes, consider well + If e'er thou saw me in the other world' + I turned me tow'rds him, and looked at him closely; + Blond was he, beautiful, and of noble aspect, + But one of his eyebrows had a blow divided. + When with humility I had disclaimed + E'er having seen him, 'Now behold,' he said. + And showed me high upon his breast a wound. + Then said he with a smile: 'I am Manfredi, + The grandson of the Empress Costanza; + Therefore, when thou returnest, I beseech thee + Go to my daughter beautiful, the mother + Of Sicily's honor and of Aragon's, + And the truth tell her, if aught else be told. + After I had my body lacerated + By these two mortal stabs, I gave myself + Weeping to Him, who willingly doth pardon. + Horrible my iniquities had been; + But Infinite Goodness hath such ample arms, + That it receives whatever turns to it, + Had but Cosenza's pastor, who in chase + Of me was sent by Clement at that time, + In God read understandingly this page, + The bones of my dead body still would be + At the bridge-head, near unto Benevento, + Under the safeguard of the heavy cairn. + Now the rain bathes and moveth them the wind, + Beyond the realm, almost beside the Verde, + Where he transported them with tapers quenched. + By malison of theirs is not so lost + Eternal Love, that it cannot return, + So long as hope has anything of green.'" + (III, 105.) + +Following the directions given by Manfred and his companions our +travelers continue their way upward until they reach a broad ledge cut +out in the side of the mountain. While resting here Dante sees a spirit +whom he recognizes as Balaqua, a maker of musical instruments, whose +laziness was a byword in Florence. Our poet who knew the man intimately +had often upbraided him for his indolence. It is said that to excuse +himself in the days of his mortal life, Balaqua quoted a line of +Aristotle: "By sitting down and resting the soul is rendered wise," to +which Dante retorted: "Certainly if one becomes wise by sitting down +none was ever so wise as thou." Now in Purgatory there is amused +indulgence upon Dante's part as he addresses his former fellow citizen +"sitting and clasping his knees, holding his face down between them, +lazier than if sloth were his very sister" (IV, 10). + + "His sluggish attitude and his curt words + A little unto laughter moved my lips + Then I began: 'Balaqua I grieve not + For thee henceforth; but tell me wherefore seated + In this place art thou? Waitest thou an escort? + Or has thy usual habit seized upon thee?' + And he: 'O brother, what's the use of climbing? + Since to my torment would not let me go + The angel of the Lord who sitteth at the gate. + First heaven must needs so long revolve me round + Outside thereof, as in my life it did, + Since the good sighs I to the end postponed, + Unless e'er that some prayer may bring me aid + Which rises from a heart that lives in grace." + (IV, 120.) + +Unless assisted by the prayer of the sinless faithful upon earth, +Balaqua and his class must stay in Outer-Purgatory, each for a term +equal to the period of his natural life. The third and the fourth +classes in Outer-Purgatory, viz., those who died of violence, deferring +their repentance to the last hour, and kings and princes who because of +temporal concerns of state put off their conversion to the last--all +those also must remain in Outer-Purgatory for a period equal to that of +their lives upon earth, unless the time be shortened by intercessory +prayer. It is to be noted that the souls of the violently slain press so +closely and so insistently about Dante in their eagerness to obtain his +good offices in favor of prayerful intercession for them by their +friends upon earth that he has great difficulty in getting away from +these souls. He succeeds by making promises to execute their +desires--comparing his difficulty of advancing to the trouble a winner +at dice experiences when bystanders crowd about him in obstructive +congratulations and make his way impracticable until he gives some of +his winnings to this one, and some to that one. + + "When from their game of dice men separate + He who hath lost remains in sadness fix'd, + Revolving in his mind what luckless throws + He cast; but meanwhile all the company + Go with the other; one before him runs, + And one behind his mantle twitches, one + Fast by his side bids him remember him, + He stops not, and each one to whom his hand + Is stretch'd, well knows he bids him stand aside, + And thus he from the crowd defends himself. + E'en such was I in that close-crowding throng; + And turning so my face around to all, + And promising, I 'scaped from it with pains." + (VI, 1.) + +Higher up the mountain occurs a touching instance of love of country. +Virgil draws near a spirit "praying that it would show us the best +ascent"; and that spirit answered not his demand but of our country and +of our life did ask us. And the sweet Leader (Virgil) began "Mantua ..." +And the shade all rapt in self leaped toward him saying, "O Mantuan, I +am Sordello of thy city. And one embraced the other" (VI, 67). This +episode gives to Dante the opportunity to contrast on the one hand the +love of those two fellow citizens drawn together by no other bond than +affection for their native place and on the other hand hatred with which +living contemporaries rend one another. + +"Ah Italy, thou slave, that gentle spirit was thus quick, merely at the +sweet name of his city, to give greeting there to his fellow citizen and +now in thee thy living abide not without war and one doth rend the other +of those that one wall and one foss shuts in" (VI, 79). + +As night approaches Sordello leads the poets to the angelically +protected Flowery Valley wherein are found the souls of those rulers who +were negligent of the spiritual life. Many of them were once old enemies +but now they not only sing together but live in harmony, united also in +paying tributes to the worth of some reigning monarchs or in expressing +denunciation at the degeneracy of others. Here in the Valley of the +Princes, while sleeping on the grass and among the flowers, Dante has a +strange dream indicative of a near episode in his journey. He sees an +eagle in the sky with wings wide open and intent upon swooping + + "Then wheeling somewhat more, it seemed to me + Terrible as the lightning he descended + And snatched me upward even to the (sphere of) fire + Therein it seemed that he and I were burning, + And the imagined fire did scorch me so + That of necessity my sleep was broken." + (IX, 28.) + +He awakes to find himself actually transported up the perpendicular wall +to the entrance Gate of Purgatory. Virgil interprets the dream, pointing +out that the eagle represents Lucia (Illuminating Grace) who has carried +the poet to St. Peter's Gate. + + "Thou hast at length arrived at Purgatory; + See there the cliff that closeth it around; + See there the entrance, where it seems disjoined. + While at dawn, which doth precede the day, + When inwardly thy spirit was asleep + Upon the flowers that deck the land below, + There came a Lady and said: 'I am Lucia; + Let me take this one up, who is asleep; + So will I make his journey easier for him.' + Sordello and the other noble shapes + Remained; she took thee, and, as day grew bright, + Upward she came, and I upon her footprints. + She laid thee here; and first her beauteous eyes + That open entrance pointed out to me; + Then she and sleep together went away." + (IX, 49.) + +The poet, as we said before, cannot enter Purgatory until he mounts the +three steps of confession, contrition and satisfaction. Moreover, he +must receive absolution from the angel-keeper, typical of the priestly +confessor, and he must have seven P's branded upon his forehead. When +this is done the angel opens the gate and Dante enters to the sound of a +thunder-peal from the organ of Heaven, and of voices expressing the joy +of Heaven upon the sinner's doing penance. + +Dante's description, which now follows, of the lovely art displayed on +the terrace of Pride leads to the reflection that he must have been a +matchless master of visual instruction or at least the representative of +his times, which, before the age of printing, taught the people by means +of pictures painted upon canvas, burnt in glass or chiseled in stone. +Certain it is that the people of Dante's day from seeing the productions +of art knew the Bible and sacred and profane history so well as to amaze +subsequent generations taught from the printed page. Be that as it may, +the power and beauty of Dante's pictures on the terraces of Purgatory +show his consummate knowledge of a principle of psychology very much +operative in our day, a principle which makes character by educating the +will far better than any other pedagogical method. _Verba movent, +exampla trahunt_, is a principle which Dante illustrates on every +terrace of Purgatory. + +On the terrace of Pride the penitent sees examples of humility carved of +white marble out of the mountain side like Thorwaldsen's Lion, at +Lucerne, Switzerland. Their reality is so compelling that, "not only +Polycletus (the great Greek sculptor) but Nature there would be put to +shame." First to meet the penitent's eyes is the scene of the +Annunciation--the angel Gabriel saluting the Blessed Virgin and +unfolding to her God's plan of making her the Mother of His Son for the +salvation of mankind. In humility she gives her consent in the words: +"Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to thy +word." That is the attitude in which she is represented in sculpture, +says Dante, an attitude "imprinting those words as expressly as a figure +is stamped in wax" (X, 44). Near that work of art David stands forth in +marble, dancing before the Ark of the Covenant. Trajan, the Roman +emperor, is also seen, interrupting affairs of state to grant a poor +woman a favor. Not only of humility but also of pride are examples +given. Looking down on the pavement over which they slowly walk with +their heavy burdens, the proud have before their eyes the sculptured +punishment of pride as committed by Satan, Briareus, the Giants, Nimrod, +Niobe, Saul and others. Meditating on the loveliness of humility and the +hatefulness of pride, as suggested by those examples and bearing with +prayer the heavy weights imposed upon them for their humiliation and +penance, the proud experience a transformation of disposition wholly +alien to them in the days of their mortality. Among the souls in this +first terrace is Oderisi, who attained such renown as an illuminator of +manuscripts and a painter of miniatures that he boasted that no one +could surpass him. Now he not only is conscious of his former blatant +pride, but in proof of his change of heart he gives full credit for +superiority to his former pupil and subsequent rival, Franco Bolognese; + + "O," asked I him, "art thou not Oderisi, + Agobbio's honor and honor of that art + Which is in Paris called illuminating? + 'Brother,' said he, 'more laughing are the leaves + Touched by the brush of Franco Bolognese. + All his the honor now, and mine in part, + In sooth I had not been so courteous + While I was living, for the great desire + Of excellence on which my heart was bent.'" + (XI, 79.) + +Dante sees here another spirit, Provenzano Salvani. His rapid advance +from Outer Purgatory to Purgatory was due to the merit of a +self-humiliating act performed in favor of a friend. This friend had +been taken prisoner by King Charles of Anjou and was held for ransom of +a thousand florins of gold, the threat being made that if the amount was +not raised within a month he would be put to death. It speaks well for +the tender friendship of Salvani that he put aside all his pride and +arrogance while he took his place in the market square to beg alms with +which to liberate his friend. Dante relates the incident in the +following words; "When he was living in highest glory, in the market +place of Sienna he stationed himself of his own free will and put away +all shame and there to deliver his friend from the pains he was +suffering in Charles' prison, he brought himself to tremble in every +vein" (XI, 133). + +As the poets enter the terrace of Envy aerial voices proclaim examples +of Brotherly Love. First are heard the words of the Blessed +Virgin:--"They have no wine," words in favor of those who were in need +at the marriage feast, which led Christ to perform his first miracle. +Then as an example of exposing one's self to death for the sake of +another, the incident is recalled of the pagan Pylades feigning himself +to be Orestes to save the latter from death. The voice saying, "Love +those from whom ye have had evil," is an exhortation to the heroic act +of charity of returning good for evil. In contrast with those counsels +of charity, other voices call out direct warnings against envy. + +On this terrace is neither beauty nor art but envy's own color. A livid +hue is the whole landscape. Of this color also are the garments of the +suffering souls. They are depicted one leaning against the other in +mutual love and for mutual support, like beggars sitting at the entrance +of a church to which crowds go for the gaining of an Indulgence. +Pitiable is the scene, for the envious in expiation for their sin, +which entered their soul through its windows, the eyes, are deprived of +sight, their lids being fastened by a wire suture such as is used for +the taming of a hawk. Dante says of them: + + "I saw, + Shadows with garments dark as was the rock; + And when we pass'd a little forth, I heard + A crying, 'Blessed Mary! pray for us, + Michael and Peter! all ye saintly host!' + I do not think there walks on earth this day + Man so remorseless, that he had not yearn'd + With pity at the sight that next I saw. + Mine eyes a load of sorrow teem'd, when now + I stood so near them, that their semblance + Came clearly to my view. Of sackcloth vile + Their covering seem'd; and, on his shoulder, one + Did stay another, leaning; and all lean'd + Against the cliff. E'en thus the blind and poor, + Near the confessionals, to crave an alms, + Stand, each his head upon his fellow's sunk; + So most to stir compassion, not by sound + Of words alone, but that which moves not less, + The sight of misery. And as never beam + Of noonday visiteth the eyeless man, + E'en so was heaven a niggard unto these + Of this fair light: for, through the orbs of all, + A thread of wire, impiercing, knits them up, + As for the taming of a haggard hawk." + (Canto, XIII, 42.) + +As the poets continue their way over the second terrace Virgil explains +an obscure phrase uttered by Guido del Duca, a soul punished for the sin +of envy. That spirit speaking to Dante reproached mankind for setting +its heart upon material things; "The heavens are calling to you and +wheel around you, displaying unto you their eternal beauties and your +eye gazes only on earth." Envy is consequently engendered because as the +spirit says: "Mankind sets its heart there where exclusion of +partnership is necessary." (XV, 43). "What meant the spirit from Romagna +by mentioning exclusion and partnership?" asks Dante. Virgil proceeds to +tell him that companionship in earthly possessions is not possible, for +the more of any material thing a person has, the less of it remains for +others. Hence envy arises from the very nature of the object which +excludes partnership. On the other hand the more of the spiritual life +one has, the more others participate in knowledge, peace and love, and +this is especially true of the angels and the elect. The greater their +number, the greater is the sum total of grace bestowed by God and the +more each spirit shares his love with others. "The more spirits there +on high yonder who love, the more there are to love perfectly and the +more do they love each other and as a mirror one reflects back to the +other" (XV, 75). + +This doctrine is expounded until the poets reach the third terrace, +where wrath is punished. Here Dante represents himself as having a +vision wherein he beholds examples of meekness and patience. First he +sees the Finding of the Boy Christ in the temple and hears Mary's gentle +complaint. Then follows the scene of Pisistratus refusing to condemn a +youth for insulting his daughter. The third picture is that of the +stoning of St. Stephen. + + "Then suddenly I seem'd + By an ecstatic vision wrapt away: + And in a temple saw, methought, a crowd + Of many persons; and at the entrance stood + A dame, whose sweet demeanor did express + Another's love, who said, 'Child! why hast thou + Dealt with us thus? Behold thy sire and I + Sorrowing have sought thee;' and so held her peace; + And straight the vision fled. A female next + Appear'd before me, down whose visage coursed + Those waters, that grief forces out from one + By deep resentment stung who seem'd to say: + 'If thou, Pisistratus, be lord indeed + Over this city, named with such debate + Of adverse gods, and whence each science sparkles, + Avenge thee of those arms, whose bold embrace + Hath clasp'd our daughter;' and to her, me seem'd, + Benigh and meek, with visage undisturb'd, + Her sovereign spake: 'How shall we those requite + Who wish us evil, if we thus condemn + The man that loves us?' After that I saw + A multitude, in fury burning, slay + With stones a stripling youth, and shout amain + 'Destroy, destroy'; and him I saw, who bow'd + Heavy with death unto the ground, yet made + His eyes, unfolded upward, gates to heaven, + Praying forgiveness of the Almighty Sire, + Amidst that cruel conflict, on his foes, + With looks that win compassion to their aim." + (Canto, XV, 84.) + +The wrathful are punished by being enveloped in a dense pungent smoke, +emblematic of the stifling caused by angry passions. + + "Darkness of hell, and of a night deprived + Of every planet under a poor sky, + As much as may be tenebrous with cloud, + Ne'er made unto my sight so thick a veil, + As did that smoke which there enveloped us, + Nor to the feeling of so rough a texture; + For not an eye it suffered to stay open; + Whereat mine escort, faithful and sagacious, + Drew near to me and offered me his shoulder. + E'en as a blind man goes behind his guide, + Lest he should wander, or should strike against + Aught that may harm or peradventure kill him, + So went I through the bitter and foul air, + Listening unto my Leader, who said only, + 'Look that from me thou be not separated.' + Voices I heard, and every one appeared + To supplicate for peace and misericord + The Lamb of God who takes away our sins. + Still _Agnus Dei_ their exordium was; + One word there was in all, and metre one, + So that all harmony appeared among them. + 'Master,' I said, 'are spirits those I hear?' + And he to me: 'Thou apprehendest truly, + And they the knot of anger go unloosing.'" + (Canto, XVI, 1.) + +Soon after this our poet hears one of the spirits of the wrathful, +discoursing on the degeneracy of human life and sees in a second series +of visions, historic instances of wrath and its punishment. He is +awakened from his trance by the shining light and the glad summons of +the Angel of meekness, who is at the stair leading to the next terrace. + + "This is a spirit divine who in the way + Of going up directs us without asking + And who with his own light himself conceals. + + * * * * * + + Accord we our feet, to such inviting + Let us make haste to mount ere it grow dark; + For then we could not till the day return." + (XVII, 55.) + +Lightened of the third P the poet passes from the circle of the wrathful +up the fourth stairway. Here he takes the opportunity to engage Virgil +in conversation regarding love as the seed of the capital sins. These +sins, it may be remarked in passing, are not always mortal sins, though +many Dantian editors make the mistake of so classifying them. It is to +be observed that on all the stairways of Purgatory there is a conference +between the two poets on things likely to be of interest to Dante, in +the matter of his salvation. At the end of the present conference Dante +falls into slumber, from which he is aroused by the racing activity of +the souls of the slothful, shouting instances of zeal and energy. + +Sloth is defined by St. Thomas Aquinas as sadness and torpor in the face +of some spiritual good which one has to achieve, and a preacher of our +day modernizes that definition to mean, the "don't-care-feeling" in the +presence of duty. The sin is unlisted in modern treatises on Ethics, +the writers of which see in its symptoms only indications of +melancholia, neurasthenia or pellagra. But according to the scholastic +classification still followed in this matter by the Catholic Church, +sloth is to be considered as a specific vice opposed to the great +commandment to love God with our whole heart. + +So Dante estimates it in his scheme of punishment, representing the +souls crying out in their diligence, "Haste, haste, let no time be lost +through little love." These souls are condemned to rush round and round +at the topmost speed, those in front proclaiming instances of alacrity, +viz., how the Blessed Virgin hastened to the hill country to visit +Elizabeth and how Julius Caesar hurried to subdue Lerida. Those in the +rear recall examples of sloth, viz., how the Israelites through +wandering in the desert lost the Promised Land, and how the Trojans who +dallied in Sicily gave themselves up to a life inglorious. Dante's +slothful souls are startlingly swift in their action. One of them, the +Abbot Zeno giving directions for ascent to Virgil and reprobating the +sins of his successors in the monastery is out of hearing as soon as he +speaks: "If more be said or if he was silent I know not, so far already +had he raced beyond us" (XVIII, 127). + +The reader will not fail to note that the terrace of the slothful is +the only circle of Purgatory where there is no request for intercessory +prayer and that Dante here never speaks to any of those souls. Is that +because the poet wishes us to understand that his own sentiment is that +they do not deserve to be prayed for who neglected through sloth to pray +for themselves and that his own silence in their presence is indicative +of his disregard for souls so stained? + +To foreshow the sins to be treated on the three upper terraces, where +are punished those who yielded to the sins of the body, Dante represents +himself as tempted by a Siren. She is described as ugly and repulsive +and then becoming, under the gaze of the beholder, fair and alluringly +attractive--a description, perhaps, unconsciously reproduced by Pope +when he wrote: + + "Vice is a monster of so frightful mien + As to be hated needs but to be seen. + Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face + We first endure, then pity, then embrace." + +Saved from the Siren by a noble lady (perhaps Lucia, Illuminating Grace) +and Virgil, the poet is brooding upon the dream which has brought to his +senses the pleasures of the world, when his guide admonishes him how +salvation from sin's seduction is to be had--viz., by using worldly +things as things to be trodden under foot, while the mind is raised to +Heaven, God's lure to draw it upward. + + "Didst thou behold, that old enchantress + Who sole above us henceforth is lamented? + Didst thou behold how man is free from her? + Suffice it thee, and smite earth with thy heels, + Thine eyes lift upward to the lure, that whirls + The Eternal King with revolutions vast." + (XIX, 58.) + +On the fifth terrace our poets find the shades of the avaricious and the +prodigals. They lie face to the ground, bound hand and foot, recalling +during the night instances of avarice and during the day proclaiming the +praise of liberality, as manifested in the Blessed Virgin, the pagan +Fabricius and St. Nicholas. The latter is identified in the United +States and some other countries, with the popular Santa Claus. Dante +says of St. Nicholas that "the spirit went on to speak of the bounty +which Nicholas gave to the maidens, to lead their youth to honor" (XX, +32). The allusion is to the legend that this Bishop of Myra secretly +threw at different times into the windows of the home of three destitute +maidens, bags of gold sufficient to provide them with dowries without +which they would have been forced by poverty to a life of shame. In the +realm of the avaricious and the prodigals, Dante addresses one of the +repentent souls: "Spirit, who thou wast and why ye have your backs +turned upward, tell me" (XX, 94). + +The answer of the shade of Pope Adrian IV, who died thirty-nine days +after his election to the supreme pontificate without having been +crowned, is one of the fine passages of the poem. + + "And he to me: 'Why Heaven makes us turn our backs to it, thou + shalt learn: but first know that I was the successor of Peter. + Between Siestri and Chiaveri there rushes down a fair river and + from its name the title of my race takes its proudest distinction. + For one month and a little more I experienced how heavily the great + mantle weighs on him who keeps it out of the mire, so much so that + all the other burdens seem but feathers. My conversion alas! was + tardy; but when I had become the Roman pastor then I discovered how + false life is. In it I found that the heart had no repose nor was + it possible to rise higher in that life; wherefore the desire for + this (immortal life) was kindled in me. Up to that time, I was a + wretched soul and severed from God, wholly given up to Avarice. Now + as thou seest I am punished for it here. What is the effect of + Avarice is here made manifest in the purgation of the converted + souls, and the mountain has no more bitter penalty, as our eyes + fixed on earthly things, were not lifted up on high, even so has + justice sunk them to the ground in this place. Even as Avarice + quenched our love for every good, wherefore our works were lost, so + justice doth hold us fast, bound and seized by feet and hands; and + so long as it shall be the pleasure of the just Lord, so long shall + we lie here motionless and outstretched.'" (XIX, 97.) + +At this point occurs one of those delightful surprises full of realism, +that Dante uses from time to time to heighten the reader's interest. The +poet has just learned that the spirit before him is Pope Adrian IV. At +once Dante falls on his knees to pay homage to the high office of the +Roman Pontiff, and he is about to say according to the conjecture of +Benvenuto "Holy Father, I entreat your holiness to excuse my natural +ignorance, for I was not aware of your being Pope." But the spirit bids +the poet arise, telling him that in the spirit world the dignities and +relations of this life are abolished. + + "I on my knees had fallen and wished to speak; + But even as I began and he was aware, + Only by listening, of my reverence, + 'What cause,' he said, 'has downward bent thee thus?' + And I told him: 'For your dignity, + Standing, my conscience stung me with remorse.' + 'Straighten thy legs, and upward raise thee, brother,' + He answered, 'Err not, fellow servant am I + With thee and with the others to one power + If e'er that holy, evangelic sound + Which sayeth _neque nubent_, thou hast heard + Well canst thou see why in this wise I speak.'" + (XIX, 127.) + +In this part of Purgatory Dante treats his readers to two other +instances of surprise. The first case which also makes use of the +dramatic quality of suspense, postponing the explanation to the +following canto in order to prolong the eager expectation of the reader, +narrates the occurrence of a wonderful phenomenon, the shaking of the +mountain of Purgatory, accompanied by a harmonious outburst of joyful +thanksgiving. + + * * * * * + +"We were striving to surmount the way so far as was permitted to our power +when I felt the mountain quake like a thing which is falling; whereupon a +chill gripped me, as is wont to grip him who is given to death. Of a surety +Delos was not shaken so violently ere Latona made her nest therein to give +birth to heaven's two eyes. Then began on all sides a shout, such that the +Master drew toward me saying: 'Fear not while I do guide thee.' _Gloria in +Excelsis Deo_ all were saying, by what I understood from those near by, +whose cry could be heard. Motionless we stood and in suspense, like the +shepherds who first heard that hymn, until the quaking ceased and it was +ended. Then we took up again our holy way, looking at the shades, that lay +on the ground already returned to their wonted plaint. No ignorance, if my +memory err not in this, did ever with so great assault give me yearning for +knowledge, I then seemed to have while pondering: nor by reason of our +haste was I bold to ask; nor of myself could I see aught there; thus I went +on timid and pensive." + +His curiosity is satisfied in an unexpected way. "The natural thirst which +never is sated, save with the water whereof the poor Samaritan woman asked +the grace, was burning within me--and lo, even as Luke writes to us that +Christ appeared to the two who were on the way, already risen from the +mouth of the tomb, a shade appeared to us saying: 'My brothers God give you +peace.' Quickly we turned us and Virgil gave back to him the sign that is +fitting thereto. Then began, 'May the true court that binds me in eternal +exile, bring thee peace to the council of the blest.' 'How,' said he, and +meantime we met sturdily, 'If ye are shades that God deigns not above, who +hath escorted you so far by his stairs'? And my Teacher: 'If thou lookest +at the marks which this man bears and which the angel outlines clearly +wilt thou see 'tis meet he reign with the good.... Wherefore I was brought +from Hell's wide jaws to guide him and I will guide him onward, so far as +my school can lead him. But tell us, if thou knowest, why the mount gave +before such quakings and wherefore all seemed to shout with one voice down +to its soft base.'" + +It was the very question Dante had been yearning to utter. + +"Thus, by asking did he thread the very needle of my desire and with the +pope alone my thirst was made less fasting." + + * * * * * + +The spirit, Statius by name, who has just obtained his release from +Purgatorial confinement to ascend to Heaven, states that the earthquake +was not due to natural causes, such as strong dry vapors producing wind, +but was caused by spiritual elements operative upon a soul's completing +the penance and term assigned. + + * * * * * + +"It quakes here when some soul feeleth herself cleansed, so that she may +rise up or set forth, to mount on high, and such a shout follows her. Of +the cleansing the will alone gives proof, which fills the soul, all free to +change her cloister, and avails her to will.... And I who have lain under +this torment five hundred years and more, only now felt free will for a +better threshold. Therefore didst thou feel the earthquake and hear the +pious spirits about the mount give praises to the Lord." + + * * * * * + +This Statius was a Roman poet who died in the year 96. His term in +Purgatory therefore has lasted a little more than eleven centuries. The +next longest period mentioned by Dante is that of Duke Hugh Capet who +has been in Purgatory over 350 years with his purification still +incomplete. Statius by Dante's poetic invention is represented first as +saved through the influence of Virgil's poems and then is shown to be a +Christian, having been led to embrace Christianity both from the heroic +example of the martyrs and from his meditation on Virgil's prophecy of +the Cumaean Sibyl interpreted in the Middle Ages to refer to Christ. In +the Divina Commedia Statius pays a glowing tribute to the AEneid and its +author, wholly ignorant that he is addressing Virgil himself. "Of the +AEneid I speak which was a mother to me and was to me a nurse in poesy +... and to have lived yonder when Virgil was alive, I would consent to +one sun more than I need perform." Dante is all aquiver to surprise +Statius with the information that Virgil is at hand, "but Virgil turned +to me with a look that silently said, 'be silent.'" + + "But the power which wills + Bears not supreme control: laughter and tears + Follow so closely on the passion prompts them, + They wait not for the motions of the will + In nature most sincere. I did but smile, + As one who winks; and thereupon the shade + Broke off, and peer'd into mine eyes, where best + Our looks interpret. 'So to good event + Mayst thou conduct such great emprize,' he cried, + 'Say, why across thy visage beam'd, but now, + The lightning of a smile.' On either part + Now am I straiten'd; one conjures me speak, + The other to silence binds me; whence a sigh + I utter, and the sigh is heard. 'Speak on,' + The teacher cried 'and do not fear to speak: + But tell him what so earnestly he asks.' + Whereon I thus: 'Perchance, O ancient spirit + Thou marvel'st at my smiling. There is room + For yet more wonder. He, who guides my ken + On high, he is that Mantuan, led by whom + Thou didst presume of men and gods to sing. + If other cause thou deem'dst for which I smiled, + Leave it as not the true one: and believe + Those words, thou spakest of him, indeed the cause.' + Now down he bent to embrace my teacher's feet; + But he forbade him: 'Brother! do it not: + Thou art a shadow, and behold'st a shade.' + He, rising, answer'd thus: 'Now hast thou proved + The force and ardor of the love I bear thee, + When I forget we are but things of air, + And, as a substance, treat an empty shade.'" + (XXI, 106.) + +On the sixth terrace Dante with five P's removed, accompanied by Virgil +sees the souls of those who sinned by gluttony. They are an emaciated +crowd obliged to pass and repass before a fruit-laden tree bedewed with +clear water from a fountain, without being able to satisfy their hunger +or quench their thirst. Voices from this tree proclaim examples of +temperance; voices from another tree equally tantalizing, declare +examples of gluttony. + + "People I saw beneath it (the tree) lift their hands + And cry I know not what towards the leaves, + Like little children eager and deluded, + Who pray, and he they pray to doth not answer + But, to make very keen their appetite + Holds their desire aloft and hides it not. + Then they departed as if undeceived." + (XXIV, 106.) + +Here Dante recognizes among the gaunt attenuated figures of the +penitents, Forese Donati, his intimate friend and kinsman of his wife +Gemma. Our poet was surprised to find him so soon after his death on +one of the terraces of Purgatory, the assumption being that because of +his delay of conversion to the end of his life Forese would be in +Outer Purgatory for a term equal in duration to the length of his life +on earth. But the reason he had come so quickly to Purgatory is to be +found in the efficacy of the prayers of his widow for the repose of +his soul. + + + "Then answered he: 'That now I wander reaping + The bitter sweat of all this punishment + My Nella gained for me, her vigil keeping + In prayer devout and infinite lament. + Thus, here, beyond that shore of waiting sent, + I landed, from the lower circles freed. + And that more dear to God omnipotent + Lives on my little widow, is the meed + Of the lone life she spends in many a saintly deed.'" + (XXXIII, 85.) + +Before ascending to the seventh and last terrace Dante describes how +the angel of abstinence removed the sixth P. + + "And as the harbinger of early dawn, + The air of May doth move and breathe out fragrance + Impregnate all with herbage and with flowers, + So did I feel a breeze strike in the midst + My front, and felt the moving of the plumes + That breathed around an odor of ambrosia; + And heard it said; Blessed are they whom grace + So much illumines that the love of taste + Excites not in their breasts too great desire, + Hungering at all times so far as is just." + (XXIV, 145.) + +And now our penitent as he reaches the seventh terrace, where sins +against the virtue of purity are expiated, enters upon the last stage of +his purification. Here the spirits pass and repass through the midst of +intensely hot flames, proclaiming examples of chastity. It is worthy of +note that this terrace is the only place in Dante's Purgatory where fire +is the punitive agent--a conception of our poet all the more remarkable +because it runs counter to the view commonly held by the churchmen in +the West, including St. Augustine, St. Gregory the Great, St. Thomas +Aquinas, St. Bonaventure, who teach that fire is the cleansing element +of all Purgatory. That indeed is only a theological opinion. The Church +itself, as the Greeks were assured at the Council of Florence, has never +put forth any dogmatic decree on the subject. + +Bidden by the angel to enter the fire, Dante draws back paralysed with +fear. Scenes of burning at the stake come with horror to his mind. He +probably recalls also that Florence had condemned him to be burned +alive. So, for the first time in Purgatory he recoils at the penance he +must perform. Impassionately Virgil exhorts him. The stubborn pupil +yields only at the utterance of Beatrice's name. For love of her he will +endure the flame. + + "The Mantuan spake: 'My son, + Here torment thou mayst feel, but canst not death. + Remember thee, remember thee, if I + Safe e'en on Geryon brought thee; now I come + More near to God, wilt thou not trust me now? + Of this be sure; though in its womb that flame + A thousand years contain'd thee, from thy head + No hair should perish. If thou doubt my truth, + Approach; and with thy hands thy vesture's hem + Stretch forth, and for thyself confirm belief. + Lay now all fear, oh! lay all fear aside. + Turn hither, and come onward undismay'd.' + I still, though conscience urged, no step advanced. + When still he saw me fix'd and obstinate, + Somewhat disturb'd he cried: 'Mark now, my son, + From Beatrice thou art by this wall + Divided.' As at Thisbe's name the eye + Of Pyramus was open'd (when life ebb'd + Fast from his veins) and took one parting glance, + While vermeil dyed the mulberry; thus I turned + To my sage guide, relenting, when I heard + The name that springs for ever in my breast. + He shook his forehead; and, 'How long,' he said, + 'Linger we now'? then smiled, as one would smile + Upon a child that eyes the fruit and yields. + Into the fire before me then he walk'd; + And Statius, who erewhile no little space + Had parted us, he pray'd to come behind, + I would have cast me into molten glass + To cool me, when I entered; so intense + Raged the conflagrant mass. The sire beloved, + To comfort me, as he proceeded, still + Of Beatrice talk'd. 'Her eyes,' saith he, + 'E'en now I seem to view.' From the other side + A voice, that sang did guide us; and the voice + Following, with heedful ear, we issued forth, + There where the path led upward. 'Come,' we heard, + 'Come blessed of my Father.'" + (Canto, XXVII, 20.) + +On emerging from the fire and on the very threshold of the Garden of +Eden, Dante is addressed by Virgil, no longer competent to guide him +higher. The Mantuan in touching words tells his disciple that having +passed through Purgatory he needs no other guide than his own will, +upright and sound, until he passes under the tutelage of Beatrice. + + "The temporal fire and the eternal + Son, thou hast seen, and to a place art come + Where of myself no farther I discern. + By intellect and art I here have brought thee; + Take thine own pleasure for thy guide henceforth; + Beyond the steep ways and the narrow art thou. + Expect no more or word or sign from me; + Free and upright and sound is thy free will, + And error were it not to do its bidding + Thee o'er thyself I therefore crown and mitre." + (XXVII, 127.) + +Brother Azarias gives us the mystical sense of this passage. "The soul +has conquered; therefore Virgil leaves the poet free from the dominion +of his passions; more than free, a king crowned triumphant over himself; +more than a king, a mitred priest, ruling the cloister of his heart, his +thoughts and his affections and mediator and intercessor before Divine +Mercy for himself and those commending themselves to his prayers." + +So crowned and mitred over himself Dante now enters the Garden of Eden. + +"Here did the parents of mankind dwell in innocence; here is there +perpetual spring and every fruit." + +In the forest of Eden is a pure stream with two currents, Lethe and +Eunoe, "the first has the power of all past sins the memory to erase, +the other can restore remembrance of good deeds and pious days." On the +banks of this stream the poet sees Matilda, who represents the Active +Life. + +"There appeared to me a lady all alone who went along singing and +selecting from among the flowers wherewith all her path was enamelled" +... suddenly "the lady turned completely round towards me, saying, 'My +Brother, look and listen'" (XXIX, 15). A solemn chant is heard, a +wonderful light is seen. It is a pageant representing the return of +mankind to Eden through membership in the Church. + +First come, shedding heavenly light, the seven mystical candlesticks, +symbolic of the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost or the seven sacraments of +the Church. Next follow twenty-four ancients representating the books of +the Old Testament. Then are seen the four prophetic animals symbolizing +the four Evangelists. Christ drawing a chariot representing the Church, +the central figure of the pageant, advances under the form of the +fabulous griffin, half eagle and half lion, typifying the two-fold +nature of our Lord. On the right side of the chariot, dancing are three +nymphs, the theological virtues, Faith, Hope and Charity. On the left +side are four other nymphs--the cardinal virtues, Prudence, Justice, +Fortitude and Temperance. Next come two old men, dignified and grave, +St. Paul and St. Luke, who are followed by four others representing +other books of the New Testament viz., the Epistles of St. James, St. +Peter, St. John and St. Jude. The rear guard is an aged Solitary +symbolic of the Apocalypse. + +"And when the chariot was opposite to me" writes Dante, "a clap of +thunder was heard; and those worthy folk seemed to have their further +march forbidden, and halted there with the first ensign" (XXIX, 153). + +What is the meaning of this symbolic procession so common to Dante's +day, so alien to ours? We have already said that it is a dramatic +representation of the human race finding happiness, finding its Eden in +its membership in the Church. But it, also, is a symbolic lesson for the +individual. Dante, the type of humanity having done penance for his +sins, is about to be received through the sacrament of penance into the +soul of the Church i.e. into the full communion of grace. It is +fitting, therefore, that the Church should advance to meet him, the +repentant sinner, and should reveal itself to him before receiving him +into its bosom. + +If objection be made that Dante already has been absolved from sin and +in Purgatory has made expiation for his offences, the answer is given by +Ozanam; "At the term of the expiatory course, as at its beginning, to +quit it as well as to enter upon it, we must render submission to a +religious authority and fulfill the conditions without which God does +not treat with us--confession for oblivion, fears for consolation and +shame for definitive rehabilitation." When the pageant comes to a halt +the participants group themselves about the Griffin and the Chariot, by +that act declaring that the goal and object of their desires are +centered in Christ and His Church. Then one of the company by divine +command calls aloud three times to a heavenly being, the spouse of the +Church, to appear and the cry is repeated by the whole company. From the +Chariot arise, as will arise the dead from their graves, a hundred +angels scattering flowers over and around the Chariot and also raising +their voices in the call for the Heavenly Bride. They first sing the +words of the Canticle of Palm Sunday. _Benedictus qui venis_ (Blessed +art thou who comest) and then the beautiful line from the Aeneid: +_Manibus o date lilia plenis_ (Oh! give lilies with full hands). Then +comes from the clouds through the midst of the flowers showering down +again within and without the Chariot, arrayed in the colors of the three +theological virtues, the object of the invocation. + +"Crowned with olive over a white veil a Lady appeared to me, vestured in +hue of living flame under a green mantle." It is Beatrice, Dante's +beloved, now apotheosized in the personification of Revelation. What +other poet ever dreamed of so glorifying his beloved that for her coming +the natural virtues prepare the way, the supernatural virtues, as +handmaids accompany her to assist us to the understanding of her +doctrine, the angels sing her laudation and she herself in the role both +of unveiler of the Scriptures of the Prophets and the Apostles and the +mystical Bride of the Canticles is worthy to be called "O Light, O Glory +of the human race?" + +Dante before seeing her face, recognizes her by some mysterious instinct +of love, recognizes her after a lapse according to fiction of ten years, +but in reality of twenty-four years since her death. + +To Virgil, Dante turns to tell the joyous news but Virgil has gone and +tears course down the face of his disciple. + +"Dante," says Beatrice, "weep not that Virgil leaves thee, nay weep thou +not yet, for thou wilt have to weep for another wound." Awed by her +appearance, he is taken back by her greeting. The mere thought of her +loveliness uplifted him in the world. The hope of seeing her carried him +through the horrors of Hell and the penance of Purgatory. Crowned and +mitred over himself he came to Eden to meet her. And she has only +reproaches for him. Particularly to the angels does she tell the story +of his defection from the high ideals which she inspired in him. "This +man was such in his new life potentially that every good talent would +have made wondrous increase in him--(but) so low sank he that all means +for his salvation were already short save showing him the lost people. +For this I visited the portal of the dead and to him who has guided him +up hither, weeping my prayers were borne. God's high decree would be +broken if Lethe were passed and such viands were tasted, without some +sort of penitence that may shed tears." + +To her lover she turns for confirmation of the truth of her words: "Say, +say if this is true; to such accusation thy confession must be joined." + +"Confusion and fear together mingled, drove forth from my mouth a +'Yea,'" a monosyllable of confession which showed the depth of his +shame. + +But it is the sight of the superhuman beauty of Beatrice which completes +his contrition and resuscitates his love so as to fit him to pass +through the waters of the Lethe. + +"My eyes beheld Beatrice, turned toward the animal (the Griffin) that is +One Person only (Christ) in twofold nature (i.e. God and man). Under her +veil and on the far side of the stream she seemed to me to surpass more +her ancient self, than she surpassed the others here when she was with +us. So much remorse gnawed at my heart that I fell vanquished and what I +then became she knoweth who gave me the cause." (XXXI, 82.) + +When he recovers consciousness he finds his immersion in the Lethe in +progress by Matilda. Then he is led to Beatrice by the four nymphs (the +cardinal virtues) and at the request of the three nymphs who typify the +theological virtues she smiles upon him. + +"The fair lady (Matilda) dipped me where I must needs swallow of the +water, then drew me forth and led me, bathed, within the dance of the +four fair ones, and each did cover me with her arm. 'Here we are nymphs +and in heaven are stars. Ere Beatrice descended to the world, we were +ordained for her handmaids: we will lead thee to her eyes: but the three +on the other side who deeper gaze will sharpen thine eyes to the joyous +light that is within." + +Beholding the glorified beauty of Beatrice wholly inexpressible, Dante +is in such rapture that he is oblivious of everything else. + + "Mine eyes with such an eager coveting + Were bent to rid them of their ten years' thirst + No other sense was waking; and e'en they + Were fenced on either side from heed of aught: + So tangled, in its custom'd toils, that smile + Of saintly brightness drew it to itself." + +When our poet comes out of his rapture, the Chariot and the mystical +company are moving to a tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil +which according to a beautiful tradition has become the Cross of Christ, +the tree of salvation. To that tree is attached the Chariot which Christ +(the Griffin) now leaves to enter Heaven again with the ancients and the +angels. Beatrice remains with the seven nymphs to guard the Chariot (the +Church). Up to this point the picture of the Church has been one of +peace and happiness. Now with prophetic eye the poet beholds the +tribulations which the Church will suffer from without and within. The +description of the vision and the explanation of the symbolism are so +well set forth by Ozanam that I quote his words unable to improve upon +them, as I also share his view as to the unwarranted severity here of +Dante's censures of the Church. + +"An eagle falls like lightning upon the tree, from which he tears the +bark, and upon the car, which bends beneath his weight. Then comes a fox +which finds its way within, and then a portion is torn off by a dragon +that issues from the gaping earth. Thus far it is easy to recognize the +persecutions of the Roman emperors which so harried the Church, the +heresies by which it was desolated, and the schisms by which it was +torn. Soon, the eagle reappeared, less menacing but not less dangerous; +he shook his plumes above the sacred car, which speedily underwent a +monstrous transformation. From divers parts of it arose seven heads +armed with ten horns; a courtesan was seated in the midst; a giant stood +at her side, exchanging with her impure caresses which he interrupted to +scourge her cruelly. Then, cutting loose the metamorphosed car, he bears +it away, and is lost with it in the depths of the forest. + +"Is not this again the Church, enriched, by the gifts of princes who +have become her protectors, sadly marred in appearance, sundry of her +members defiled by the taint of the seven capital sins, and herself +ruled over by unworthy pontiffs? Is not this the court of Rome, +exchanging criminal flatteries with the temporal power, which flatteries +are to be followed by cruel injuries, when the Holy See, torn from the +foot of the cross of the Vatican, is transferred to a distant land, on +the banks of a foreign river? But these ills will not be without end nor +without retribution. The tree that lost and that saved the world cannot +be touched with impunity, and if the Church has been made militant here +below, it is with the liability of suffering from passing reverses, but +also with the assurance of final victory." + +Dante's own eternal victory is now assured, Beatrice directs Matilda to +lead him to the Eunoe, whose waters will regenerate him and fit him to +ascend to Paradise. "Behold, Eunoe which gushes forth yonder, lead him +thereto and as thou art wont, revive in him again his fainting powers." + +The poem closes with an address to the reader: + + "If, Reader, I possessed a longer space + For writing it, I yet would sing in part + Of the sweet draught that ne'er would satiate me; + But inasmuch as full are all the leaves + Made ready for this second canticle, + The curb of art no farther lets me go. + From the most holy water I returned + Regenerate, in the manner of new trees + That are renewed with a new foliage, + Pure and disposed to mount unto the stars." + (Purg., XXXIII, 136.) + + + + + +DANTE'S PARADISO + + + + +DANTE'S PARADISO + +Of Dante's trilogy the Paradiso is truly his "medieval miracle of song," +the supreme achievement of his genius. Here the poetry of the sublime +reaches its highest point--the summit on which Dante is a lonely and +unchallenged figure. "No uninspired hand," says Cardinal Manning, "has +ever written thoughts so high in words, so resplendent, as the last +stanza of the Divina Commedia." It was said of St. Thomas: "_Post Summam +Thomae nihil restat nisi lumen gloriae_." It may be said of Dante: "_Post +Dantis Paradisum nihil restat nisi visio Dei._" ("After Dante's Paradiso +nothing remains but the vision of God.") + +Shelley's tribute to the supremacy of Dante's Heaven is no less +beautiful: "Dante's apotheosis of Beatrice and the gradations of his own +love and her loveliness by which, as by steps, he feigns himself to have +ascended to the throne of the Supreme Cause, is the most glorious +imagination of modern poetry." + +Ruskin says: "Every line of the Paradiso is full of the most exquisite +and spiritual expressions of Christian truths and the poem is only less +read than the Inferno because it requires far greater attention and +perhaps, for its full enjoyment, a holier heart." + +That Dante's Inferno is more popular reading than his Paradiso is due to +the fact that evil and its consequences offer to the artist richer +material for dramatic fascination and to the reader more lively interest +in characters intensely human, than does the less sensational story of +the Elects finding peace and happiness in a realm transcending the +experiences of human nature. Dante's Purgatorio also finds a wider +circle of readers because his penitents, suffering, struggling and +aspiring, like people upon earth, have more human traits and exhibit +more human interest than the saints confirmed in grace against human +weakness. + +Another reason for lesser interest manifested in this part of the Divina +Commedia is the difficulty and obscurity of the Paradiso. It is not easy +reading, because it requires study, repetition, concentration, +meditation, qualities absent from the art of reading as it prevails +today. If we ever have time to look at a book, the habit of skimming +with inattentive rapidity so urges us onward that we find ourselves +flitting from page to page, from chapter to chapter, panting and +uninstructed. And if we belong to the bookless majority who have no time +to read, we rush to the moving picture theatre to get our mental +pabulum--often a season's best seller--boiled down, served in +rapid-fire order and bolted in the twinkling of an eye. For all such +Dante's Paradiso is an intellectual as well as a spiritual impossibility +and the poet begs such not to follow him on his voyage to the eternal +kingdom. + + "Oh ye who in some pretty little boat + Eager to listen, have been following + Behind my ship, that singing sails along, + Turn back to look again upon your shores; + In losing me, you might yourselves be lost. + The sea I sail has never yet been passed. + Minerva breathes, and pilots me Apollo, + And Muses nine point out to me the Bears. + Ye other few, who have the neck uplifted + Betimes to th' bread of Angels upon which + One liveth here and grows not sated by it, + Well may you launch upon the deep salt-sea + Your vessel, keeping still my wake before you + Upon the water that grows smooth again. + Those glorious ones who unto Colchos passed + Were not so wonder-struck as you shall be, + When Jason they beheld a ploughman made." + (II, 1.) + +The song which Dante sings in the Paradiso is the eternal happiness of +man in vision, love and enjoyment united to his Creator. In preparation +for this final consummation the poet, as he ascends to the Empyrean, +gives a most beautiful epitome of the principal mysteries of religion +and of some of the tenets of scholastic philosophy, treating especially +the Fall of Man, Predestination, Free Will, the Redemption, the +Immortality of the Soul and the theory of Human Knowledge. Allegorically +considered, the poem is a veil, under which we see the ideal life of man +upon earth, exercising virtue and gaining virtue's rewards. + +To exhibit man's supreme, happiness in the next life, the Christian +poet, insisting that his purpose is the inculcation of truth, both to +save and to adorn the soul, must base his theme upon the doctrines of +the Church. The definition of some of those dogmas Dante anticipated. +All may be summed up in the following statement: + +"It is of Catholic faith that the souls of the blessed see God directly +and face to face and this vision is Supernatural; that there are degrees +of this vision, corresponding to the merits of the elect; that to see +God in His Essence, the intellect is supernaturally perfected; that the +Beatific Vision is not deferred to the Day of Judgment, but is possessed +at once after death but the Just, in whom there is no stain of sin or +who have no temporal punishment to be expiated; and, furthermore, that +all human beings at the end of the world will arise with their own +bodies." + +How will the poet bring home those incomprehensible truths to his +readers? He has to treat a subject wholly transcendent and supernatural. +Though his vision be celestial, his langauge must be terrestrial. He +must visualize states of the soul which are alien to the eyes of the +body and translate into terms of the senses things which are wholly +non-sensuous. Dante is aware that no poet ever essayed that feat before: +"The sea I sail has never yet been passed." (1, 8.) He knows, also, that +shoals and rocks, seemingly impassable and a sea which may engulf his +genius, are before him. "It is no coastwise voyage for a little barque, +this sea through which the intrepid prow goes cleaving nor for a pilot +who would spare himself." (XXIII, 67.) + +And yet he will attempt the impossible, he will endeavor to sing not of +the scenes but of the states of suprasensible spiritual joys--joys which +Bishop Norris says "are without example, above experience and beyond +imagination, for which the whole creation wants a comparison, we an +apprehension and even the word of God, a revelation." Conscious of all +that, Dante confesses the impotency of speech, the inadequacy of memory, +the helplessness of imagination for the task to which he sets himself. +He tells us that the sublime songs of the elect "have lapsed and fallen +out of my memory"--"that to represent and transhumanize in words +impossible were." (I, 71.) + + "And what was the sun wherein I entered, + Apparent, not by color, but by light + I, though I call on genius, art and practice + Cannot so tell that it could be imagined." + (X, 41.) + +So by the very nature of the subject visualization can be only +partial--only "the shadow of the blessed realm," can be shown. But what +human nature can do, even if its feat seems solitary and unique, Dante +has accomplished in a failure which constitutes the most wonderful +achievement in the domain of the sublime in literature, an achievement +leaving us with a sense of his own ineffable bliss and of the +inexpressible joys of the Elect--an achievement which came to pass, say +some readers, because his poem is an account of a supernatural +vision--and Dante hints that he thinks he was so favored, or because it +is a work to which both heaven and earth have set their hand, showing +him, as Emerson observes, "all imagination," or, as James Russell Lowell +says, "The highest spiritual nature which has expressed itself in +rhythmical form." + +There are two methods of representing man's supreme happiness, relative +and absolute: one is to depict nature at her best, untouched by sin, and +to show man free from every defect and blemish, in the full perfection +of his being. Naturally the imagery in this case is the imagery born of +finite human experiences. The other method describes, as we said, not +scenes of happiness but transcendent conditions of the soul as it is +brought into ultimate communion with Supreme Goodness--the finite +possessing and enjoying the Infinite. Here the human mind, let us repeat +it, finds earthly images powerless to translate its thought, for it hath +not entered into the heart of man to conceive the glory of the spiritual +world. These two methods Dante follows successively. + +His Eden on the summit of Purgatory is literally the earthly Paradise of +Adam and Eve. It is pictured in moving imagery as man's "native country +of delights," a "lofty garden" of ineffable loveliness, high above all +the physical and moral disturbances of earth, its waters, its winds, its +flowers and its music all coming from supernatural sources, its bliss +springing from the perfect harmony of man's animal, intellectual and +spiritual powers in full and perfect accord with reason. It is Paradise +Regained by man's climbing the mountain of Purgatory, and its +significance is understood if we remember that Dante would teach us +that the present life can be made dual, a life worth while in itself, +full of service and godliness as well as a preparation for the unending +life of Heaven. + +For Dante there must be, also, the Celestial Paradise where man's +supernatural destiny will be realized in joys which the eye has not seen +and in music which the ear has not heard. His Paradiso has been called +the Ten Heavens, but in reality there is in his plan only one Heaven, +the Empyrean, the abode of the angels, of the blessed spirits and of +God. It is high above the planets and the stars, beyond time and space. +The Church has never answered the question: Where is Heaven? +Theologians, however, have put forth various opinions. "Some say," +writes Father Honthein, that "Heaven is everywhere, as God is +everywhere, the blessed being free to move freely in every part of the +universe while still remaining with God and seeing Him everywhere." +Others hold that Heaven is "a special place with definite limits. +Naturally this place is held to exist, not within the earth, but in +accordance with the expressions of Scripture, 'without and beyond its +limits.'" (Cath. Encycl., VII, 170.) + +According to Dante's conception, Heaven, being non-spatial and +non-temporal, is not a place but a state of spiritual life. As an aid in +depicting that state he makes use of a unique literary device. He +poetically creates nine Heavens, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, +Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, the Fixed Stars, the Primum Mobile or First +Movement. These, according to the Ptolemaic system which our poet +follows, are concentric with the earth, around which as their center +they revolve, while the earth remains fixed and motionless. The motion +of each of these nine spheres, originally coming from the Primum Mobile, +is communicated to it by the love of the angelic guardians, a literal +application of the common saying that "love makes the world go around." + +As a poetic fiction necessary for him to enter finally the true Heaven +Dante is required to pass through these nine spheres, the fiction being +used by him as an artist to declare the glories of the heavens and as a +teacher to inculcate doctrines for the instruction and edification of +mankind. In each of the nine Heavens groups of the blessed are +represented as coming to meet him "as he returns to God as to the port +whence (he) set out when (he) first entered upon the sea of this life." + +This peerless rhetorical figure is explained in the Banquet, where he +says: "As his fellow-citizens come forth to meet him who returns from a +long journey even before he enters the gates of his city; so to the +noble soul come forth the citizens of the eternal Life." This apparition +of the blessed spirits to greet the mystic traveller as he mounts from +sphere to sphere has several advantages: "it peoples with hosts of +spirits, the immense lonely spaces through which the journey lies"; it +affords the poet the opportunity of asking them "many things which have +great utility and delight"; it finally gives him a sensible sign of the +degree of beatitude which they possess in that realm of many mansions +where each is rewarded according to his merit and capacity, the capacity +of each spirit being in proportion to its degree of knowledge and love. +This is stressed by the poet's representing the apparitions first as +faint yet beautiful outlines of human features, then as ascent is made +to the other Heavens, the spirits make themselves known by increasing +manifestations of light so dazzling finally that the splendor would +blind Dante if his vision were not divinely adapted to its supernatural +needs. + +The inequalities of bliss are also symbolized by the sphere in which the +spirits appear to him; those in the sphere of the moon, e.g., are less +favored than those in the Heaven of Mercury. The inequality of merit, +and therefore of reward, is also declared by the difference in both the +quickness of the spirits' movement and their clearness of vision into +the essence of God. The Empyrean, it is worth while repeating, is the +only true Paradise, the nine Heavens being only myths or poetic devices. +If spirits are seen there, they have come forth only from the Empyrean +and will quickly return there after preparing the poet for the eternal +Light of Light. + +The materials out of which Dante constructs his Paradiso are not, as we +are already aware, fantastic images such as he employed for the first +two parts of the Divina Commedia, but are things of the spirit, viz., +knowledge, beauty, faith, love, joy; and he is aided in making visible +those invisible entities of the spiritual life by such intangible things +as sound, motion and light. + +Light, indeed, is one of the leading elements in the Paradiso. The poem +begins with a reference to the light of God's glory, and its last line +speaks of "the Love which moves the Sun and the other stars." And +between this beginning and this end in thirty-three cantiche light is +represented not only by degrees of increasing intensity and variety of +unlocked for movements but as surrounding the spirits, living flames, +and constituting, symbolically, the beatitude of Heaven. + +Dean Church, in his classic essay on Dante, has a beautiful paragraph +that here calls for quotation: "Light in general is his special and +chosen source of poetic beauty. No poet that we know has shown such +singular sensibility to its varied appearances.... Light everywhere--in +the sky and earth and sea--in the stars, the flames, the lamp, the +gems--broken in the water, reflected from the mirror, transmitted +through the glass, or colored through the edge of the fractured +emerald--dimmed in the mist. The halo, the deep water--streaming through +the rent cloud, glowing in the coal, quivering in the lightning, +flashing in the topaz and the ruby, veiled behind the pure alabaster, +mellowed and clouding itself in the pearl-light contrasted with shadow, +shading off and copying itself in the double rainbow like voice and +echo--light seen within light--light from every source and in all its +shapes illuminates, irradiates, gives glory to the Commedia.... And when +he (Dante) rises beyond the regions of earthly day, light, simple and +unalloyed, unshadowed and eternal, lifts the creations of his thought +above all affinity to time and matter; light never fails him, as the +expression of the gradations of bliss; never reappears the same, never +refuses the new shapes of his invention, never becomes confused or dim, +though it is seldom thrown into distinct figure and still more seldom +colored." + +In making light such a central feature of Heaven and symbolically in +identifying light with God and the angels and the blessed, Dante is only +expressing--but expressing beautifully and supremely--the thought which +pagan oracles proclaimed and Holy Writ and the Church made known. From +the earliest ages the sun which vivifies and illuminates the world was +regarded by many nations as the symbol of the Deity--and by still other +nations it was adored. The psalmist, addressing God, says: "Thou art +clothed with light as with a garment." (Ps., CIII, 2.) St. Paul declares +that the Lord of Lords "inhabiteth light inaccessible." (1 Tim., VI, +16.) The Seer of Patmos tells us that the heavenly Jerusalem has no need +of the light of the sun and the moon to shine upon it, "for the glory of +God hath enlightened it and the Lamb is the lamp thereof." (Apoc., XX, +23.) "I am the light of the world," declares Christ, and with that +revelation ringing in his ears the Beloved Disciple does not hesitate to +say: "and this is the declaration which we have heard--that God is +light." (I John, I, 5.) In narrating his vision of Heaven, Ezechial +compares the light emanating from and enveloping the Deity, to fire. "I +saw the likeness as of the appearance of fire, as the appearance of +brightness." (XXIV, 17.) Moses on the mountain saw the Lord in the midst +of fire, and on another mountain Christ, "the brightness of his Father's +glory was transfigured before his apostles and his face did shine as the +Sun and his garments became shining or glittering." (Matt., XVII, 2.) +Small wonder then that the Nicaean creed declares that Christ is "God of +God, Light of light." Not only with God, but with His saints is the idea +of visible light intimately associated. The prophet Daniel tells us +that "They that are learned shall shine as the brightness of the +firmament, and they that instruct many unto justice, as stars to all +eternity." (XII, 3.) And it is Christ Himself who says: "Then shall the +just shine as the sun, in the kingdom of their Father." (Matt., XIII, +43.) + +In using such a subtle, dazzling element as light so generally and in +such countless varieties throughout his Paradiso, Dante is exposed to +the danger of palling his readers with brightness and making them lose +interest in things glorious and supernal. But the genius of the man +saves the artist. By a conception of matchless beauty he binds the light +of heaven to the human, making the smile in the eye of his beloved +guide, Beatrice, express his own personal heaven, in the light that +enters his mind and the ardor which quickens his heart. As he mounts +with her the stairway of the heavens leading to the Eternal Palace and +his motion is brought about simply by his gazing into her eyes, she +makes known to him by her increasing brightness both his own mounting +knowledge and his ascent nearer the Empyrean. + +As Dante represents the increase of light and love deepening and +expanding in him as he rises empyreanward all by the loved smile of his +beloved Beatrice, it is well that we bear in mind the significance of +the symbolism as expounded by the poet in his Banquet. (III, 15.) +Beatrice being Revelation or Wisdom made known to the world, "in her +face appear things that tell of the pleasures of Paradise and ... the +place wherein this appears is in her eyes and her smile. And here it +should be known that the eyes of Wisdom are the two demonstrations by +which is seen the truth most certainly; and her smile is her persuasion +by which is shown forth the interior light of Wisdom under some veil; +and in these two things is felt the highest pleasure of beatitude, which +is the greatest good of Paradise." + +Beatrice--Revealed Truth--remains the poet's guide until he comes to +behold the Beatific Vision. Then, no longer needed, she withdraws in +favor of the contemplative St. Bernard as guide, just as Virgil had +withdrawn when he was powerless and when Beatrice was needed. + +The question here presents itself: In what does Dante place the +happiness of Heaven? Does he paint such a Heaven that it shows +principally the rectifications of the inequalities of this life--a +Heaven of such happiness, e.g., that the poor will love poverty or be +resigned to it in the hope of possessing the riches of this Eternity? Is +Dante's Heaven one in which happiness is so alluring that innocence will +gladly submit to calumny and faith will lovingly welcome the sword or +stake, in the certain confidence of gaining unending glory or bliss? +The Paradiso does reward poverty, crown innocence, glorify martyrdom, +but it was never intended to be an account of what takes place in the +real Heaven, or to be a description of the particular acts of goodness +which win Heaven for the soul, or a rapturous picture appealing to the +emotions of the believer and alluring him from earth. + +Does Dante place the happiness of Heaven in the bliss and glorification +of family reunion? + +He is too good a theologian to place the essential happiness of Heaven +merely in the joy of family reunion. He does not ignore that feature of +eternity, but he does not stress it, because temperamentally he is moved +less by sentiment of family and ties of friendship than by his curiosity +for knowledge, by his yearnings to behold Eternal Wisdom. Only once does +he mention Heaven as the state of reunion of families and friends, and +that is when he comments upon the action of the twenty-three spirits in +the Heaven of the Sun, in expressing their agreement with Soloman's +discourse as to the participation which the human body will have, after +the Resurrection in the glories of Paradise: + + "So ready and so cordial an Amen + Follow'd from either choir, as plainly spoke + Desire of their dead bodies; yet perchance + Not for themselves, but for their kindred dear, + Mothers and sires and those whom best they loved, + Ere they were made imperishable flames." + (XIV, 65.) + +For Dante, Heaven must be the beatitude of the intellect and that +primarily by the intellect's having an intuition full of joy in the +Divine Essence, and secondly by its possessing full light on all those +vexatious problems and mysteries which baffle us in this life. + + "Well I perceive that never sated is + Our intellect unless Truth illumines it, + Beyond which nothing true expands itself. + It rests therein, as wild beast in his lair + When it attains it and it can attain it." + (IV, 125.) + +In insisting upon the power of the mind to know the truth and to find +perfect happiness in the supernatural act of beholding God face to face, +Dante is not in agreement with Pragmatism, Hegelianism and the "new +Realist" theory--all which make truth elusive to the mind; but he is in +full accord with the teaching of the Catholic Church, which defends the +rights of reason holding, e.g., that "by the natural light of reason +God can be known with certainty, by means of created things" (Vatican +Council), and proclaiming that "all the saints in Heaven have seen and +do see the Divine Essence by direct intuition and face to face in such +wise that nothing created intervenes as an object of vision; ... that +the Divine Essence presents itself to their immediate gaze, unveiled, +clearly and openly; that in this vision they enjoy the Divine Essence, +and in virtue of this vision and this enjoyment they are truly blessed +and possess eternal life and eternal rest." (Benedict XII, Cath. +Encycl., VII, 171.) + +It is interesting to see how Dante's Master, St. Thomas Aquinas, +demonstrates the proposition that the beatitude of man consists in the +vision of the Divine Essence. With his usual lucidity of thought he +writes: "The last and perfect happiness of man cannot be otherwise than +in the vision of the Divine Essence. In evidence of this statement two +points are to be considered: first, that man is not perfectly happy so +long as there remains anything for him to desire and seek; secondly, +that the perfection of every power is determined by the nature of its +object. Now the object of the intellect is the essence of a thing; hence +the intellect attains to perfection so far as it knows the Essence of +what is before it. And therefore, when a man knows an effect and knows +that it has a cause, there is in him an outstanding natural desire of +knowing the essence of the cause. If, therefore, a human intellect knows +the essence of a created effect without knowing aught of God beyond the +fact of His existence, the perfection of that intellect does not yet +adequately reach the First Cause, but the intellect has an outstanding +natural desire of searching into the said Cause; hence it is not yet +perfectly happy. For perfect happiness, therefore, it is necesary that +the intellect shall reach as far as the very essence of the First +Cause." (Rickaby, Aquinas Ethicus I, 2 q., 3 a, 8.) + +This masterly exposition is after all only the philosophical development +of what every Catholic child learns from one of the first questions of +the little Catechism: "Why did God make you? God made me to know Him, to +love Him, and to serve Him in this life, and to be happy with Him +forever in the next." With the satisfaction of the intellect's boundless +yearning for knowledge attained by intuition of the Essence of God, a +consummation that will somewhat deify us--"Who shall be made like to +him, because we shall see him as he is" (I John, III, 2.), the happiness +of man will be primarily intellectual, being as Dante beautifully says: +"Light intellectual full of love, love of the true good, full of joy, +joy that transcendeth all sweetness." (XXX, 40.) + +His Heaven, then, is no Nirvana, for each spirit will for eternity have +its individuality, and its activity will be unremitting in seeing God +face to face--a vision that will cause the spirit increasing wonder in +an act that will have no flagging nor satiety. "What, after all, is +Heaven," says Bulwer Lytton, "but a transition from dim guesses to the +fullness of wisdom, from ignorance to knowledge, but knowledge of what +order?" To that exclamation of the nineteenth century writer the +medieval seer answers with conviction that the _summum bonum_ is to be +found only in the intellect's attaining Truth. + +Let us now join Dante in his mystic journey to the Heavenly Kingdom. We +left him after three days and three nights in Purgatory, standing with +Beatrice on the summit of the mountain in the Earthly Paradise, where he +remained six hours. At noon he begins his ascent through space, a feat +accomplished by Beatrice's looking up to the Heavens and by Dante's +fixing his eyes upon her. At once his human nature is supposed to take +on agility, the supernatural quality which makes the body independent of +space, and he begins to rise with incomprehensible velocity. Though they +are travelling without conscious movement at the rate of 84,000 miles a +second, there is time for Dante's mind to operate in desire to know how +he can ascend counter to gravitation and for Beatrice to discourse upon +the law--Dante's invention--of universal (material and spiritual) +gravitation. + + "The newness of the sound and the great light + Kindled in me a longing for their cause + Never before with such acuteness felt. + And she began: 'Thou makest thyself so dull + With false imagining, that thou sees not + What thou wouldst see if thou hadst shaken it off. + Thou are not upon earth as thou believest; + But lightning, fleeing its appropriate site, + Ne'er ran as thou, who thitherward returnest.'" + (I, 88.) + +She explains the order established by Providence by force of which +created beings seek their natural habitat, earthly things being +attracted downward, spiritual entities being drawn upward irresistibly +if they do not oppose this innate inclination to good. "It is as natural +for a man purged of all evil to ascend to God," she declares, "as it is +for a stream from a mountain height to fall into a valley." + +Very shortly after this, the first stage of the celestial journey is +reached. "Direct thy mind to God in gratitude," she said, "who hath +united us with the first star." "Me seemed a cloud enveloped us, shining +dense, firm and polished like a diamond smitten by the sun. Within +itself the eternal pearl received us, as water doth receive a ray of +light, though still itself uncleft." This is the Heaven of the Moon, the +planet farthest removed from the Empyrean and therefore the sphere where +not only motion but also beatitude are least in the heavenly bodies. The +sphere of the Moon, indeed with those of Mercury and of Venus, is held +by Dante's cosmography to be within the shadow cast by the earth. +Consequently, the spirits in those three lowest Heavens are represented +as less perfect than those in the higher spheres, because in the moral +sense the shadow of earth fell upon their lives making them imperfect +through inconstancy, vain glory or unlawful love. + +In the Heaven of the Moon a long disquisition is carried on by Beatrice +in explanation of Dante's question as to why there are spots on the +moon. It is very likely that this matter of apparent irrelevance in the +heavenly realms is introduced here at the very first stage of the ascent +to give the poet the opportunity of proclaiming that the first thing one +must learn in his passage heavenward--even if this is to be understood +in an allegorical sense--is that the laws of the laboratory are not the +_rationale_ of the heavenly world and that to employ them to explain the +supernal is to violate the very science of these laws, in an +application of scope to which in their very nature they protest. This +point of seeing natural causes for the unexplainable phenomenon of +Heaven and especially of relying upon the testimony of the senses is +soon brought out by Beatrice reproving Dante for thinking that the +spirits whom he now sees are only reflections of the human face: + + "Marvel thou not," she said to me, "because + I smile at this thy puerile conceit, + Since on the truth it trusts not yet its foot, + But turns thee, as 'tis wont, on emptiness. + True substances are these which thou beholdest, + Here relegate for breaking of some vow. + Therefore speak with them, listen and believe." + (III, 25.) + +So directed, the poet gazes again upon the faint forms appearing like +reflections seen in a plate of glass or in a dark, shallow pool. These, +the first spirits he meets, are apparitions in human form. In the other +spheres all that he will see of the souls will be the light which +envelopes them and which seemingly is identified with them, but here he +sees beautiful women divinely glorious even in their dim outline, who as +nuns had violated their vow of perpetual chastity. In the Inferno the +poet, to lead the reprobate soul to speak to him, promised earthly +fame; in Purgatorio there was the offer of intercessory prayer, here in +the first Heaven there is only an appeal to the charity which inflames +the spirit. All eagerness, Dante now addresses the spirit, who appears +most desirous to converse with him. This is Piccarda, kinswoman of his +wife and sister of his friend Forese (Purg. XXIII, 40), a Poor Clare +nun, who was compelled by her brother, Corse, to leave her convent and +marry Rossellino della Tosa in the expectation that the marriage would +promote a political alliance. So sacrificed, the young virgin sister of +lofty ideals and delicate spiritual sensibility, experienced +unhappiness, the intensity of which is revealed by the ellipsis +contained in the magic line: "And God doth know what my life became." +Dante addresses Piccarda: + + "'O well-created spirit, who in the rays + Of life eternal dost the sweetness taste + Which being untasted ne'er is comprehended, + Grateful 'twill be to me, if thou content me + Both with thy name and with your destiny.' + Whereat, she promptly and with laughing eyes: + 'Our charity doth never shut the doors + Against a just desire, except as she + Who wills that all her court be like herself. + I was a virgin sister in the world; + And if thy mind doth contemplate me well, + The being more fair will not conceal me from thee, + But thou shalt recognize I am Piccarda, + Who, stationed here among these other blessed, + Myself am blessed in the lowest sphere. + All our affections, that alone inflamed + Are in the pleasure of the Holy Ghost, + Rejoice at being of his order formed; + And this allotment, which appears so low, + Therefore is given us, because our vows + Have been neglected and in some part void.' + Whence I to her: 'In your miraculous aspects + There shines I know not what of the divine, + Which doth transform you from our first conceptions. + Therefore I was not swift in my remembrance; + But what thou tellest me now aids me so, + That the refiguring is easier to me.'" + (III, 37.) + +Dante, you recall, had found the souls in Purgatory contented with their +lot, though they were enduring great suffering; in Heaven he is eager to +learn in the very beginning whether the Elect are satisfied with the +decree which awards to them happiness in unequal measure. So he asks +Piccarda whether she and the other spirits in this lowest sphere are not +eager for a higher place. The answer is one of the most touching and +beautiful passages in the poem, summing up in language of radiant +gladness the law of Heaven that in "God's will is our peace," words +which Gladstone says "appear to have an unexpressible majesty of truth +about them, to be almost as if they were spoken from the very mouth of +God." + + "'But tell me, ye who in this place are happy, + Are you desirous of a higher place, + To see more or to make yourselves more friends?' + First, with those other shades, she smiled a little; + Thereafter answered me so full of gladness, + She seemed to burn in the first fire of love: + 'Brother, our will is quieted by virtue + Of charity, that makes us wish alone + For what we have, nor gives us thirst for more. + If to be more exalted we aspired, + Discordant would our aspirations be + Unto the will of Him who here secludes us; + Which thou-shalt see finds no place in these circles, + If being in charity is needful here, + And if thou lookest well into its nature; + Nay 'tis essential to this blest existence + To keep itself within the will divine, + Whereby our very wishes are made one; + So that, as we are station above station + Throughout this realm, to all the realm 'tis pleasing, + As to the King, who makes His will our will. + And His will is our peace; this is the sea + To which is moving onward whatsoever + It doth create, and all that nature makes.' + Then it was clear to me how everywhere + In Heaven is Paradise, although the grace + Of good supreme there rain not in one measure." + (III, 64.) + +Piccarda then tells the moving story of her life, how as a girl she +entered the order of St. Clare, only to be torn from the nunnery and +given into marriage. + + "A perfect life and merit high in Heaven + A lady o'er us," said she, "by whose rule + Down in your world they vest and veil themselves, + That until death they may both watch and sleep + Beside that Spouse who every vow accepts + Which charity conformeth to his pleasure. + To follow her, in girlhood from the world + I fled, and in her habit shut myself, + And pledged me to the pathway of her sect. + Then men accustomed unto evil more + Than unto good, from the sweet cloister tore me; + God knows what afterward my life became." + (III, 97.) + +Certain questions interesting to a seeker of truth grow out of +Piccarda's statement and these Beatrice proceeds to solve for the +edification of Dante. The first question asks whether in the assignment +to the lowest sphere of souls who violated their vows, there is divine +Justice; the second concerns Plato's teaching that souls really come +from the stars and return thither; the third is about the loss of merit +through coercion of the will, as exemplified in the case of Piccarda. +The solution of these difficulties need not detain us if only we +remember Dante's view that "the theories maintained by him in the Heaven +of the Moon are intended to manifest," as Gardner and Scartazzini point +out, "the moral freedom of man and to show that no external thing can +interfere with the soul that is bent upon attaining the end for which +God has destined it." + +To the next Heaven, the sphere of Mercury, Beatrice and Dante soar more +swiftly than an arrow attains its mark while the bow is still vibrating. +Increasing in loveliness as she ascends, Beatrice, in the second realm, +radiates such splendor that Mercury itself, apart from its own light, +gains such glory from her that it seems to glitter or smile from very +gladness. + + "My lady there so joyful I beheld + As unto the brightness of that heaven she entered + More luminous thereat the planet grew, + And if the star itself was changed and smiled + What became I who by my nature am + Exceeding mutable in every guise?" (V, 97.) + +Greeting the travellers, more than a thousand spirits joyfully exclaim: +"Lo, one who shall increase our loves!" The Saints in Mercury thus +testify to their delight that one (Dante) has come to be the fresh +object of their love, just as it is said that "there shall be joy before +the angels of God upon one sinner doing penance." (Luke XV, 10.) These +splendors in Mercury are the souls of those in whose virtue there was +the alloy of ambition and vainglory--a combination, according to Dante, +which makes "the rays of true love less vividly mount upwards." The poet +is addressed by a spirit who bids him ask any question he will and +Beatrice confirms the invitation. "Speak, speak with confidence and +trust them even as gods." All eagerness for knowledge, Dante inquires of +the friendly splendor who he is and why he is in this particular Heaven. + +The story told by the spirit of Emperor Justinian is a brief sketch of +his own life, with reference to his conversion from heresy by Pope +Agapetus, to the victories of his general, Belisarius, and to his own +great work of the codification of the Roman law. He then traces the +history of Rome from the time of AEneas to the thirteenth century, bent +upon showing that the Roman Empire, as a world-power over governments +and peoples, is divine in its institution and providentially protected +in its course. Two facts are adduced in crowning proof of this audacious +statement, viz., Christ's choosing to be born and to be registered as a +subject of Caesar and His crucifixion under Tiberius, acting through +Pontius Pilate as the divinely constituted instrument of eternal justice +exercised by the Heavenly Father against His Son, at once the victim of +sin and its atonement. + +Dante enlarges on this point in his Monarchia. "If the Roman Empire did +not exist by right, the sin of Adam was not punished in Christ.... If, +therefore, Christ had not suffered by the sentence of a regular judge, +the penalty would not have been properly punished; and none could be a +regular judge who had not jurisdiction over all mankind, for all mankind +was punished in the flesh of Christ, who 'hath borne our infirmities and +carried our sorrows,' as said the prophet Isaias. And if the Roman +Empire had not existed by right, Tiberius Caesar, whose vicar was Pontius +Pilate, would not have had jurisdiction over all mankind." To us both +the argument and its conclusion are wholly indefensible. It seems indeed +a mockery and a blasphemy to attribute to such a monster as Tiberius +Caesar glory because Christ was crucified in his reign. Dante's words, +however, as spoken by Justinian, leave no room for doubt that the poet +was convinced that all the ancient celebrity of Rome was insignificant +as compared to the glory that would come to it because it would carry +out the crucifixion of Christ. + + "But what the standard that has made me speak + Achieved before, and after should achieve + Throughout the mortal realm that lies beneath, + Becometh in appearance mean and dim + If in the hand of the third Caesar seen + With an eye unclouded and affection pure + Because the living Justice that inspires me + Granted it, in the hand of him I speak of + The glory of doing vengence for its wrath." + (VI, 82.) + +Shining among the splendors of Mercury is a spirit who, though he was +not a lawmaker like Justinian, attained earthly renown by arranging the +marriages of four Kings. Known by the name of Romeo, a word meaning a +pilgrim of Rome, this man came a stranger to the Court of Raymond +Berenger, Court of Provence, multiplied the income without lessening the +grandeur of his master and brought about the marriages to royalty of the +four daughters of the household--Margaret to St. Louis of France, +Eleanor to Henry III of England, Sanzia to Richard, Earl of Cornwall +(brother of Henry III), elected King of the Romans, Beatrice to Charles +of Anjou, later by Papal investiture, King of Naples. Charged by jealous +barons with having wasted his master's goods, Romeo established his +innocence and then departed as he came, on a mule and with a pilgrim's +staff. From affluence he goes a-begging and this is so much like Dante's +own case that the poet's sympathy goes out to the calumniated man, and +he says with touching simplicity: + + "If the world could know the heart he had + In begging bit by bit his livelihood, + Though much it laud him, it would laud him more." + (VI, 140.) + +Justinian's words as to the crucifixion of Christ suggest to Dante this +question: Why was man's redemption effected by the death of Christ upon +the Cross rather than by some other mode? Investing the argumentative +propositions of St. Thomas with poetic beauty, Dante shows that while +God might have freely pardoned man without exacting any satisfaction, +on the hypothesis that He had chosen to restore mankind to His favor and +at the same time to require full satisfaction as a condition of pardon +and deliverance, there was only one way for the accomplishment of this +reconciliation and that was by the atonement of One who was both God and +Man. For sin, inasmuch as it is an act against the Infinite Being, +requires a satisfaction of infinite value. Man being finite is incapable +of adequately making such satisfaction. But the Word was made flesh that +by His atonement on the Cross Mercy would be declared and Justice would +be satisfied. + +"Your nature, when it sinned in its totality in its first seed, from +these dignities, even as from Paradise, was parted; nor might they be +recovered, if thou look right keenly, by any way save passing one or the +other of these fords: either that God, of his sole courtesy, should have +remitted; or that man should of himself have given satisfaction for his +folly. Man had not power, within his own boundaries, even to render +satisfaction, since he might not go in humbleness by after-obedience so +deep down as in disobedience he had framed to exalt himself on high; and +this is the cause why from the power to render satisfaction by himself +man was shut off. Wherefore needs must God with his own ways reinstate +man in his unmaimed life, I mean with one way or with both the two. But +because the doer's deed is the more gracious the more it doth present +us of the heart's goodness whence it issued, the divine Goodness which +doth stamp the world, deigned to proceed on all his ways to lift you up +again; nor between the last night and the first day was, nor shall be, +so lofty and august a progress made on one or on the other, for more +generous was God in giving of himself to make man able to uplift himself +again, than had he only of himself granted remission; and all other +modes fell short of justice, except the Son of God had humbled him to +become flesh." (VII, 85.) + +From Mercury to Venus the ascent has been so rapid that Dante is unaware +that he has reached the third Heaven until he sees the greater +loveliness of Beatrice represented by her greater radiance. As ascent is +made heavenward it will also be found that the spirits are seen not as +human faces, as was the case in the Heaven of the Moon, but as lights +increasing in intensity and manifesting a movement of greater speed to +the accompaniment of diverse music. It is necessary to keep in mind this +plan of the poet lest thinking the lovely lights, and lovely sounds and +lovely movements are only terms descriptive of physical, though +impalpable phenomena, we lose the deep and beautiful symbolism that is +the magic secret of the seraphic poesy of the Paradiso. Of the +brilliancy and movement of the spirits of the Sphere of Venus--spirits +who in this life failed in Christian ideals because of their amours, +Dante says, and his description is that of an expert musician +distinguishing between the singing of one who sustains the main-theme +and that of other voices rising and falling in subordination to the +principal melody: + + "And as within a flame a spark is seen, + And as within a voice discerned, + When one is steadfast, and one comes and goes, + Within that light beheld I other lamps + Move in a circle, speeding more and less, + Methinks in a measure of their inward vision. + From a cold cloud descended never winds, + Or visible or not, so rapidly + They would not laggard and impeded seem + To any one who had those lights divine + Seen come towards us, leaving the gyration + Begun at first in the high Seraphim. + And behind those that most in front appeared + Sounded 'Osanna!' so that never since + To hear again was I without desire. + Then unto us more nearly one approached, + And it alone began: 'We all are ready + Unto thy pleasure, that thou joy in us. + + We turn around with the celestial Princes, + One gyre and one gyration and one thirst, + To whom thou in the world didst say, + "Ye who, intelligent, the third heaven are moving;" + And are so full of love, to pleasure thee + A little quiet will not be less sweet.'" + (VIII, 16.) + +The speaker discloses himself to be Charles Martel, once titular King of +Hungary, who on the occasion of a nineteen days' visit to Florence, +formed an intimate friendship with the poet. For the latter's +edification the spirit expounds the problem: Why from the same parents, +children grow up different in disposition, talent and career, a problem +just as interesting to the twentieth as the thirteenth century. We +account for the difference according to the principles of variation, +heredity and environment, but to stellar influence intent upon securing +the fulfillment of the law of individuality, was the difference +attributed by the medieval mind, which regarded the stars and planets +not as soulless spheres, but as orbs palpitating with the life of +angelic intelligences and radiating their influence upon the people of +the earth. + +Hence it was held that the Heavens affected the diversity of the +characters of children who otherwise would be cut out the exact pattern +of their parents. "The begotten nature would ever take a course like its +begetters, did not divine provision overrule." (VIII, 136.) The +necessity for diversity in man's life is deduced from the fact that in +society men are providentially destined for different vocations. +"Wherefore is one born Solon (a legislator), another Xerxes (a soldier), +another Melchisedech (a priest), and the man who soaring through the +welkin lost his son." (Daedalus, the typical mechanician.) But stellar +influence always controlled by man's free will is often ignored, +especially when we put into the sanctuary one who should be on the +battle field and when we gave a throne to him whose right place is in +the pulpit. + + "And if the world below would fix its mind + On the foundation which is laid by nature, + Pursuing that, 't would have the people good. + But you into religion wrench aside + Him who was born to gird him with the sword, + And make a king of him who is for sermons; + Therefore your footsteps wander from the road." + (VIII, 142.) + +The next four spheres being beyond the earth's shadow are for spirits +whose virtue was undimmed by human infirmity and whose place in eternal +life is consequently one of greater vision and bliss. In the first of +these higher spheres, the Sphere of the Sun, the fourth Heaven, Dante +sees the spirits of great theologians and others who loved wisdom--great +teachers of men. Around him and Beatrice, as their center, twelve of +them appear in one circle and twelve in another, while behind those +dazzling splendors of spirits are other vivid lights probably +representing authors whom the poet had not read or comprehended or +symbolizing the men of science, the lovers of wisdom, who in the future +by their discoveries would add to our knowledge of truth. As one of the +basic truths of Revelation is the mystery of the Blessed Trinity, here +in the Heaven of the Doctors the dogma is made prominent by special +frequency of reference and symbolism. The Creation, as an act of the +Three Divine Persons, is mentioned in lines of exquisite grace: + + "Looking into His Son with all the Love + Which each of them eternally breathes forth + The primal and unutterable Power + Whate'er before the mind or eye revolves + With so much order made, there can be none + Who thus beholds, without enjoying it." + (X, 1.) + +Not only by thought, but by dancing, is the same truth expressed: "those +burning suns round about us whirled themselves three times." (X, 76.) +Again in song they proclaim the mystery of the Holy Trinity: + + "The One and Two and Three who ever liveth + And reigneth ever in Three and Two and One + Not circumscribed and all circumscribing + Three several times was chanted by each one + Among those spirits, with such melody + That for all merit it were just reward." + (XIV, 27.) + +In this Heaven we hear the eulogy of St. Francis of Assisi pronounced +by a Dominican and the praises of St. Dominic sung by a +Franciscan--consummate art that is an indirect invitation to the +two orders of monks upon earth to avoid jealousy and to practice mutual +respect. It has been said that these narratives give us the essence of +what constitutes true biography, viz., a picture of the spiritual +element in man drawn in such words as ever to command the understanding +and elicit the respect of the reader of every period. The first speaker +is St. Thomas Aquinas, and his reference to the mystical marriage of St. +Francis and Lady Poverty will be the better understood if we have before +the mind's eye Giotto's painting which hangs over the tomb of the +founder of the Franciscans. The figures in the pictures are described +by Gardiner (Ten Heavens, p. 113): Christ, standing upon a rock, unites +St. Francis to his chosen bride, who is haggard and careworn, clothed in +ragged and patched garments, barefooted and girded with a cord. Roses +and lilies spring up behind her and encircle her head; she wears the +aureole and has wings, though weak; but thorns and briars are around her +feet. Hope and Love are her bridesmaids; Hope clothed in green with +uplifted hand and Love with flame-colored flowers and holding a burning +heart. A dog is barking at the Bride and boys are assaulting her with +sticks and stones, but all around are bands of angelic witnesses, their +flowing raiment and mighty wings glowing with rainbow hues. In these +days when money seems the ideal of thousands, Poverty, whose mystical +appeal is so glowingly painted, still speaks to great numbers of men and +women who give up material comforts and ease to embrace as monks and +nuns the state of voluntary poverty. Let us now hear how St. Thomas +recounts the life and work of St. Francis of Assisi: + + "He was not yet much distant from his rising, + When his good influence 'gan to bless the earth. + A dame, to whom one openeth pleasure's gate + More than to death, was 'gainst his father's will, + His stripling choice; and he did make her his, + Before the spiritual court, by nuptial bonds, + And in his father's sight: from day to day, + Then loved her more devoutly. She, bereaved + Of her first husband, slighted and obscure, + Thousand and hundred years and more, remain'd + Without a single suitor, till he came. + There concord and glad looks, wonder and love, + And sweet regard gave birth to holy thoughts, + So much that venerable Bernard first + Did bare his feet, and, in pursuit of peace + So heavenly, ran, yet deem'd his footing slow. + O hidden riches! O prolific good! + Egidius bares him next, and next Sylvester, + And follow, both, the bridegroom: so the bride + Can please them. Thenceforth goes he on his way + The father and the master, with his spouse, + And with that family, whom now the cord + Girt humbly: nor did abjectness of heart + Weigh down his eyelids, for that he was son + Of Pietro Bernardone, and by men + In wondrous sort despised. But royally + His hard intention he to Innocent + Set forth; and, from him, first received the seal + On his religion. Then, when numerous flock'd + The tribe of lowly ones, that traced _his_ steps, + Whose marvelous life deservedly were sung + In heights empyreal; through Honorius' hand + A second crown, to deck their Guardian's virtues, + Was by the eternal Spirit inwreathed: and when + He had, through thirst of martyrdom, stood up + In the proud Soldan's presence, and there preach'd + Christ and his followers, but found the race + Unripen'd for conversion; back once more + He hasted (not to intermit his toil), + And reap'd Ausonian lands. On the hard rock, + 'Twixt Arno and the Tiber, he from Christ + Took the last signet, which his limbs two years + Did carry. Then, the season come that he, + Who to such good had destined him, was pleased + To advance him to the meed, which he had earn'd + By his self-humbling; to his brotherhood, + As their just heritage, he gave in charge + His dearest lady: and enjoin'd their love + And faith to her; and, from her bosom, will'd + His goodly spirit should move forth, returning + To its appointed kingdom; nor would have + His body laid upon another bier." + (XI, 55.) + +At the conclusion of this discourse the spirits in both circles, +arranged like the concentric circles of a double rainbow, express their +joy by a gyrating dance and song. + +If St. Francis was "a sun upon the world," St. Dominic is shown by the +next speaker, St. Bonaventure, to be "a splendor of cherubic delight." +"In happy Callaroga was born the passionate lover of the Christian +faith, the holy champion, gentle to his own, and without mercy to his +enemies. As soon as his soul had been created it was so replete with +energy that, within his mother's womb, it made her a prophetess. When +the pledges for his baptism had been given at the sacred font, and he +and Faith had become one, dowering each other with salvation, the lady +who had given assent for him, beheld in her sleep the wonderful fruit +which would one day come of him, and of his heirs. He was named Dominic. +I speak of him as the husbandman whom Christ chose to assist Him with +His garden. Of a truth did he seem Christ's messenger and friend, for +the very first inclination which he manifested was to follow the first +percept which Christ gave. Not for the world, love of which at present +makes men toil, but for love of the true manna, did he, in short while, +become a mighty teacher, such that he set about pruning the vineyard of +the church, which soon runs wild if the vinedresser be negligent. + +"From the Papal chair which, in former days, was more generous to the +righteous poor, not because it has grown degenerate in itself, but +because of the degeneracy of him who sits upon it, Dominic begged not to +be allowed to dispense to the poor only two or three where six was due, +nor sought the first vacant benefice, the tithes of which belong to +God's poor. He begged rather for leave to fight against the erring world +in behalf of the seed of true faith, four and twenty plants of which +encircle you. Then, armed with doctrine and firm determination, together +with the sanction of the Papacy, he issued forth like a torrent from on +high, and on heretics his onslaught smote with greatest force where was +most resistance. Afterward, from him there burst forth various streams +by which the Catholic garden is watered so that the plants in it are +becoming vigorous." (XII, 48.) + +Transported into the Heaven of Mars Dante is made aware of his ascent +thither only by the glow of the ruddy planet, so different from the +white sheen of the sun. At once he beholds a spectacle far more +marvelous than the circles of dancing lights he has just seen. It fills +him with such wonder and bliss that he falls into an ecstasy and only +after that does he look into the eyes of Beatrice, now more lovely than +ever. What is the new marvel? A starry cross traversing the sphere--a +cross, the arms and body of which, each like a Milky Way, are made up of +dazzling lights of the souls of those who laid down their lives for the +Faith. On the Cross is flashed the blood red image of the Crucified, +likewise formed by glowing stars, the souls of Christian warriors. Not +stationary do the splendors remain, but through the glittering mass they +dart to and fro like motes in a sunbeam that finds its way through a +shutter or screen. With eyes amazed the poet now hears such a wondrous +melody that he says: "I was so much enamoured therewith that up to this +point there had not been anything which bound me with fetters of such +delight." (XIV, 128.) + +The names of some of the spirits forming the Stellar Cross are made +known to the poet--Joshua and Judas Maccabaeus, the intrepid heroes of +the Old Testament, the Christian Knights, Charlemagne and Orlando the +Paladin, William of Aquitaine and Rainouart, Godfrey de Bouillon, +conqueror of Jerusalem, Robert Guiscard, military executor of Pope +Hildebrande. + +Darting along the arm of the Stellar Cross and coming to its foot is a +splendor who greets Dante with warm affection. This is the spirit of his +great-great-grandfather, Cacciaguida, who sings the glory of ancient +Florence the better to describe the deterioration of the city in Dante's +day and to censure its people for their civil feuds, corruption and +opposition to the Imperial Eagle. Then at Dante's request the crusader +spirit interprets for his descendant the various predictions made to the +latter during his passage through Hell and Purgatory. Evil days will +come upon him (it must be remembered that this prophecy by Cacciaguida +is supposed to occur a year or two before Dante's exile), he will be +exiled from Florence and will become a homeless wanderer. + +Let him, however, write his poem and declare his vision, no matter if +offense will be taken by the high ones of the earth. He, having a +prophet's work to do, must speak with all the boldness of a prophet +without fear or dissimulation. The words, while assuring the poet of the +sweetness of everlasting fame, bring to his mind, also, the bitterness +of the injustice of his exile and suffering, and apparently he harbors +the thought of vengeance upon his enemies. Beatrice, however, checks his +resentment, assuring him that she, so near to God, will assist him--a +most beautiful passage showing the relations between her and the poet, +whether the words are taken literally as exhibiting her as his +intercessor before the throne of the Most High, or allegorically +considered as declaring that Revealed Truth takes from man the desire of +vengeance and places his case in the hands of Him who has said: +"Vengeance is mine, I will repay." For Dante's spiritual perfection his +lovely guide bids him not simply look into her her eyes (allegorically +meaning not merely to contemplate theological truth) but follow the +example of men sturdy of faith and valiant of deed. The passage here +follows: + + "Now was alone rejoicing in its word + That soul beatified, and I was tasting + My own, the bitter tempering with the sweet, + And the Lady who to God was leading me + Said: 'Change thy thought; consider that I am + Near unto Him who every wrong disburdens.' + Unto the loving accents of my comfort + I turned me round, and then what love I saw + Within those holy eyes I here relinquish + Not only that my language I distrust, + But that my mind cannot return so far + Above itself, unless another guide it. + Thus much upon that point can I repeat. + That, her again beholding, my affection + From every other longing was released. + While the eternal pleasure, which direct + Rayed upon Beatrice, from her fair face + Contented me with its reflected aspect, + Conquering me with the radiance of a smile + She said to me, 'Turn thee about and listen; + Not in mine eyes alone is Paradise. + Here are blessed spirits that below, ere yet + They came to Heaven, were of such great renown + That every Muse therewith would affluent be + Therefore look thou upon the cross' horns.'" + (XVIII, 4.) + +Now rising to Jupiter, where appear the spirits of those who upon earth +in a signal manner loved and rightly administered justice, Dante is +again made aware of his uplifting by the increased beauty of Beatrice, +by the new light different from that of ruddy Mars, which envelopes him +and by the perception of his own increase of virtue and power. Here the +poet has recourse to a most ingenious system of symbols to give variety +to his descriptions and doctrine, and so to sustain the interest of the +reader. Many hundreds of the souls of the just appear as golden lights +and so group themselves as to spell against the glowing white background +of the light of the planet, the maxim from the Book of Wisdom: +"_Diligite justitiam qui judicatis terram_" (Love justice ye who judge +the earth.) Then fade away all the letters except the last one, the M of +terram, M, symbol of Monarchy, and that M stands out in general outline +somewhat like the Florentine lily, the armorial sign of Florence. And +now other golden lights come from the Empyrean and transform the M into +the figure of an eagle, the bird of Jove, with outstretched wings. But +the marvel is only partly revealed, for soon the Eagle speaks and its +voice, though made up of a thousand voices of the Just, comes forth a +single sound, like a single heat that comes from many brands or the one +odor that is exhaled from many flowers. + +What a startling spectacle it must have been to the mind of the +thirteenth century, used to candles as the ordinary means of +illumination, to have visualized before it the blessed spirits in the +light of Heaven, dancing, whirling, circling in perfect harmony and +making more formal designs to express their bliss by the rapidity of +their rhythmical movements! Even though exquisitely quaint as the +picture may appear to us, it has been executed so reverently that +criticism has rarely if ever attacked this conception of our poet. With +light as his principal material to make known to us the joys of Heaven, +he has to paint everything in high light, using no shadows and he solves +his artistic problem by the variety of his "splendors" and by the deep +symbolism of their action. His nine Heavens are not meant to be a +picture true to reality of what the Souls in Heaven are doing. These +nine Heavens, as we said before, are only myths to which from the +Empyrean come forth the Elect in condescension to Dante's sense-bound +faculties, in order to symbolize certain truths. So in this sixth sphere +the poet would teach us that the Heaven of Jupiter represents justice on +earth and on the screen of this sphere he would put forth by means of +the Imperial Eagle the arguments he has already advanced in his +Monarchia that the Roman Empire is divine in its origin--that only from +such an institution can human justice proceed from civil government. He +represents unity coming from the Roman Empire by his showing to us the +unison with which all the splendors of the Eagle speak in a voice +blended as one sound--clearly also an allegory for the Guelf forces to +become an integral part of the Universal Monarchy. + +Justice is the quality which this Heaven symbolizes and the Eagle reads +in Dante's mind a doubt against the operation of justice and proceeds to +dispel it. + + "For saidst thou: 'Born a man is on the shore + Of Indus, and is none who there can speak + Of Christ, nor who can read, nor who can write; + And all his inclinations and his actions + Are good, so far as human reason sees, + Without a sin in life or in discourse: + He dieth unbaptized and without faith; + Where is this justice that condemneth him? + Where is his fault, if he do not believe?'" + (XIX, 70.) + +The question is answered both directly and indirectly. The exclusion of +the virtuous pagan from Heaven is assumed to be an act of injustice "but +who art thou who wouldst set upon the seat to judge at a thousand miles +away with the short sight that carries but a span?" (XIX, 79.) As our +very idea of justice comes from God all just and all wise, that thought +ought to assure us that not even the virtuous heathen will be excluded +from Heaven. Faith indeed is required for salvation, but many having +faith will be condemned, while many seemingly without it will be +admitted into Heaven. + + "But look thou, many crying are, 'Christ, Christ'! + Who at the judgment will be far less near + To him than some shall be who knew not Christ. + Such Christians shall the Ethiop condemn + When the two companies shall be divided, + The one forever rich, the other poor." + (XIX, 106.) + +The indirect answer to Dante's objection as to the exclusion of the +virtuous heathen from Heaven is given by the poet speaking through the +beak of the Eagle and showing in this Heaven as one of the lights of the +Eagle itself, the soul of Rhipeus mentioned by AEneas "as above all +others the most just among the Trojans and the strictest observer of +right." "So now," says Benvenuto, the fourteenth century lecturer on +Dante, "our author fitly introduces a pagan infidel in the person of +Rhipeus, of whose salvation there would seem the very slightest chance +of all; by reason of the time, so many centuries before the advent of +Christ; by reason of the place, for he was of Troy where exceeding pride +was then paramount; by reason of the sect, for he was a pagan and +gentile, not a Jew. Briefly then our author wishes us to gather from +this fiction--this conclusion,--that even such a pagan of whose +salvation no one hoped, is capable of salvation." + +In the Heaven of Saturn, Beatrice tells the poet that she does not smile +out of regard for his human vision not powerful enough to sustain her +excess of beauty. The lovely symphonies of Paradise are also silent for +the same reason. This in effect is a poetical way of saying that the +bliss and glory in Saturn are greater than any beatitude in the lower +spheres. + +This seventh Heaven is the Heaven where appear saints distinguished for +contemplation, the principle representatives being St. Peter Damian and +St. Benedict. The latter wrote a treatise in which he likened the rule +of his order to a ladder having twelve rungs by means of which the +mystic might mount to Heaven. The second rung in that ladder is silence. +If Dante was familiar with the Benedictine treatise, the significance of +silence in Saturn is at once suggested. The figure of a ladder is a very +common one in mystical theology, which borrows the conception from the +experience of Jacob (Gen. XXVIII, 12). "And he saw in his sleep a ladder +standing upon the earth and the top thereof touching heaven, the angels +also of God ascending and descending." To symbolize the truth that +Heaven is to be reached through the Church by means of the contemplation +of eternal things Dante now shows us the Golden Ladder, down which gleam +so many radiant spirits that it seems as if all the stars of Heaven are +approaching. + + "Colored like gold, on which the sunshine gleams, + A stairway I beheld to such a height + Uplifted, that mine eye pursued it not. + Likewise beheld I down the steps descending + So many splendors, that I thought each light + That in the heaven appears was there diffused." + (XXI, 28.) + +In the Heaven of the Fixed Stars the triumph of Christ gladdens the +wondering eyes of the poet: + +"Behold the hosts of Christ's triumphal march and all the fruit +harvested by the rolling of these spheres." + +At these words of Beatrice Dante turns and beholds all the saints seen +in the other spheres and many other spirits gathered round the God-man +to praise Him for the Redemption and Atonement. Christ here reveals +Himself in the form of a gorgeous Sun surrounded by those countless +spirits, appearing as lights or flowers. Apparently the poet gets just +a momentary glimpse of the glorified humanity of the Saviour. The direct +rays of the divine splendor cannot long be endured, so, in condescension +to Dante's weakness of vision, a cloudy screen permits the poet to +sustain the Vision now irradiating its light on the living, spiritual +flowers. + + "Saw I, above the myriad of lamps, + A sun that one and all of them enkindled, + E'en as our own doth the supernal sights, + And through the living light transparent shone + The lucent substance so intensely clear + Into my sight, that I sustained it not. + 'O Beatrice, thou gentle guide and dear!' + To me she said: 'What overmasters thee + A virtue is from which naught shields itself. + There are the wisdom and the omnipotence + That ope the thoroughfares 'twixt heaven and earth + For which there erst had been so long a yearning.'" + (XXIII, 28.) + +After Christ withdraws to the Empyrean the poet finds that he has been +so much strengthened and enlightened by the Vision that increased power +of sight is given to him again to behold the smile of his guide. She +says to him: + + "Open thine eyes and look at what I am + Thou has beheld such things, that strong enough + Hast thou become to tolerate my smile." + (XXIII, 46.) + +He continues in ecstasy to gaze upon her surpassing beauty until she +bids him look upon the "meadow of flowers," the angels and saints: + + "Why doth my face so much enamor thee, + That to the garden fair thou turnest not, + Which under the rays of Christ is blossoming? + There is the Rose in which the Word Divine + Became incarnate; there the lilies are + By whose perfume the good way was discovered." + (XXIII, 70.) + +The lilies are the apostles, the Rose the Blessed Virgin Mary. "Mary," +says Cardinal Newman, "is the most beautiful flower that ever was seen +in the spiritual world. She is the Queen of spiritual flowers and +therefore she is called Rose, for the rose is fitly called of all +flowers that most beautiful." Dante says: "The name of the fair flower +that I e'er invoke morning and night utterly enthralled my soul to gaze +upon the greater fire." Now with joy the poet sees the coronation by the +spirits of Mary, Mystical Rose, and then his eyes follow her as she +mounts to the Empyrean in the wake of her divine Son while the gleaming +saints sing her praises in the _Regina Coeli_. + +The eight Heavens through which the poet has come, have been so many +stages of preparation for the final vision of Paradise. His eyes have +been gradually gaining strength by gazing upon miracles of light and +beauty and by seeing truth embodied in many representative forms to fit +him finally to see God in His Essence. Before that consummation, +however, one more preparatory vision is necessary. The poet must first +see the symbolic image of God. "What!" you may exclaim, "will Dante be +audacious enough to attempt to picture the Invisible Himself? Granted +that 'he is all wings and pure imagination' can he hope to image the +Incomprehensible Being 'who only hath immortality and inhabiteth light +inaccessible, whom no man hath seen nor can see?' (I Tim. VI, 16). Will +he not defeat his purpose by employing a symbol circumscribing Him who +is beyond circumscription?" But the genius of Dante does not fail him in +his daring undertaking, and this is the more remarkable because instead +of selecting as a symbol something infinitely large, he choses something +atomically small. In the ninth Heaven surrounded by the nine orders of +pure spirits God is represented "as an indivisible atomic Point +radiating light and symbolizing the unity of the Divinity as a fitting +prelude to the more intimate vision of the Blessed Trinity which will be +vouchsafed in the Empyrean." "A Point I saw that darted light so sharp +no lid unclosing may bear up against its keenness. On that Point depend +the heavens and the whole of nature" (XXXVIII, 16). + +On the appropriateness of this symbol Ozanam makes this interesting +comment: "God reveals Himself as necessarily indivisible and +consequently incapable of having ascribed to Him the abstraction of +quantity and quality by which we know creatures: indefinable, because +every definition is an analysis which decomposes the subject defined; +incomparable because there are no terms to institute a comparison; so +that one may say, giving the words an oblique meaning, that He is +infinitely little, that He is nothing. But on the other hand, that which +is without extension, moves without resistance; that which is not to be +grasped, cannot be contained; that which can be enclosed within no +limits, either actual or logical is by that very fact limitless. The +infinitely little is then also the infinitely great and we may say that +it is all." The indivisible atomic Point of intensest light as a symbol +of God is indeed a sublime conception of faith and genius that appeals +equally to the child, the philosopher and the mystic. + +The supreme thing still necessary for the consummation of Dante's +pilgrimage is the Beatific Vision of God. That occurs in the Empyrean +where symbol gives way to reality, where the Elect are seen no longer in +forms veiled in light but in the glorified semblance of their earthly +bodies, where contemplation gives direct vision of God in His essence. +How will the poet, while still in the flesh, endure this vision of the +Infinite, Incomprehensible Eternal God? Prepared as he has been by the +experiences of the nine Heavens, he has still further need of +supernatural assistance. That is now given to him by means of a flash +wrapping him in a garment of light, which blinds him and then +illuminates his sight and intellect and enables him to see a more +complete foreshadowing of truth dissolving into Divine Wisdom. + +The spectacle he now beholds, perhaps suggested to the poet by the +passage from the Apocalypse (XXII, 1). "And he showed me a river of +water of life, clear as crystal proceeding from the throne of God and of +the Lamb,"--the spectacle which now presents itself is that of a river +of light flowing between two banks of flowers and vivid with darting +sparks. The river represents illuminating grace, the sparks angels, the +flowers saints. This river of light wherein are reflected the Elect, as +verdure and flowers on a hillside are mirrored in a limpid stream at +its foot, is poetically represented as having the effect of a +sacrament. It bestows grace and that grace called _lumen gloriae_, light +of glory, endowing the soul with a faculty beyond its natural needs or +merits, so disposes the soul that it becomes deiform and is rendered +capable of immediate intuition of the Divine Essence. + + "There is a light above, which visible + Makes the Creator unto every creature + Who only in beholding Him, has peace." + (XXX, 100.) + +Beatrice tells Dante that he must drink his fill of the stupendous +splendor by gazing intently on the river of pure light, so that he may +be able to contemplate the whole unveiled glory and then see God +directly. + +As Dante gazes on the illuminating stream it undergoes a marvelous +transformation, taking the form of a Rose the center of which is a sea +of radiance. + + "And even as the penthouse of mine eyelids + Drank of it, it forthwith appeared to me + Out of its length to be transformed to round. + Then as a folk who have been under masks + Seem other than before, if they divest + The semblance not their own they disappeared in, + Thus into greater pomp were changed for me + The flowerets and the sparks, so that I saw + Both of the Courts of Heaven made manifest." + (XXX, 87.) + +The two courts of Heaven, angels and saints, are made manifest in the +Rose which spreads out like a vast amphitheatre the lowest circle of +which is wider than the circumference of the sun. Above the center of +the Rose as the Point of light, is God in all His glory and love, adored +in blissful raptures by the saints who form the petals of the heavenly +flower. Angels with faces aflame, in white garments and with golden +wings fly down to the petals as bees to flowers, bringing God's +blessings to the saints and fly back to God as bees to their hive, +carrying the adoration of the Elect. + +Beatrice leads the poet into the center of the Heavenly Rose. + + "Into the yellow of the Rose Eternal + That spreads, and multiplies, and breathes an odor + Of praise unto the ever-vernal Sun, + As one who silent is and fain would speak, + Me Beatrice drew on, and said: 'Behold + Of the white stoles how vast the convent is! + Behold how vast the circuit of our city! + Behold our seats so filled to overflowing, + That here henceforward are few people wanting!'" + (XXX, 124.) + +While Dante gazes on the supernatural spectacle Beatrice slips away to +take her place the third seat below the throne of the Blessed Virgin. As +his guide she has led him to the highest Heaven and has instructed him +in all that concerns God and His attributes. Her mission as Revelation +or Divine Science being finished, she withdraws and sends St. Bernard to +bring the poet into intimate union with the Godhead. + + "The general form of Paradise already + My glance had comprehended as a whole, + In no part hitherto remaining fixed, + And round I turned me with rekindled wish + My lady to interrogate of things + Concerning which my mind was in suspense. + One thing I meant, another answered me; + I thought I should see Beatrice, and saw + An Old Man habited like the glorious people. + O'er flowing was he in his eyes and cheeks + With joy benign, in attitude of pity + As to a tender father is becoming. + And 'She, where is she?' instantly I said; + Whence he: 'To put an end to thy desire, + Me Beatrice hath sent from mine own place. + And if thou lookest up to the third round + Of the first rank, again shalt thou behold her + Upon the throne her merits have assigned her.' + Without reply I lifted up mine eyes, + And saw her, as she made herself a crown + Reflecting from herself the eternal rays. + Not from that region which the highest thunders + Is any mortal eye so far removed, + In whatsoever sea it deepest sinks, + As there from Beatrice my sight; but this + Was nothing unto me; because her image + Descended not to me by medium blurred." + (XXXI, 52.) + +St. Bernard, the mystic, celebrating the Blessed Virgin's praises in a +marvelous outburst of song, unsurpassed for lyrical beauty, beseeches +her intercession that Dante may see God face to face. + + "Now doth this man, who from the lowest depth + Of the universe as far as here has seen + One after one the spiritual lives, + Supplicate thee through grace for so much power + That with his eyes he may uplift himself + Higher towards the uttermost salvation. + And I, who never burned for my own seeing + More than I do for his, all of my prayers + Proffer to thee, and pray they come not short, + That thou wouldst scatter from him every cloud + Of his mortality so with thy prayers, + That the Chief Pleasure be to him displayed. + Still farther do I pray thee, Queen, who canst + Whate'er thou wilt, that sound thou mayst preserve + After so great a vision his affections. + Let thy protection conquer human movements; + See Beatrice and all the blessed ones + My prayers to second clasp their hands to thee! + The eyes beloved and revered of God, + Fastened upon the speaker, showed to us + How grateful unto her are prayers devout; + Then unto the Eternal Light they turned, + On which it is not credible could be + By any creature bent an eye so clear." + (XXXIII, 22.) + +The prayer is granted. "My vision becoming undimmed, more and more +entered the beam of light which in itself is Truth." (XXXIII, 52.) The +veil is removed. He gazes into the limitless depths of the Divinity. He +enjoys the Beatific Vision. + +First he sees by immediate intuition the Divine Essence in its creative +power, the examplar of all substances, modes and accidents united in +harmony and love; then he beholds the Creator Himself and all the +divine perfections and all the eternal plans of God. Clear to the poet +now is the truth of the mystery of the Blessed Trinity unveiled in +circles of light like rainbows of green, white and red of equal +circumference, the Second being as it were the splendor of the First and +the Third emanating from the two others. Unravelled also is the mystery +of the two natures human and divine, in the divine person of Christ seen +in human form in the second luminous circle. But the Vision is so far +above the poet's memory to retain or his speech to express that he +cannot find words to make intelligible the splendor he beholds or the +rapture he experiences. + +"Oh grace abounding, wherein I presumed to fix my look on the eternal +light so long that I consumed my sight thereon! Within its depths I saw +ingathered, bound by love in one volume, the scattered leaves of all the +universe; substance and accidents and their relations, as though +together fused, after such fashion that what I tell of is one simple +flame. + +"In the profound and shining being of the deep light appeared to me +three circles, of three colours and one magnitude; one by the second as +Iris by Iris seemed reflected, and the third seemed a fire breathed +equally from one and from the other. Oh, but how scant the utterance, +and how faint, to my conceit! and it, to what I saw, is such that it +sufficeth not to call it little. O light eternal who only in thyself +abidest, only thyself dost understand, and to thyself, self-understood, +self-understanding, turnest love and smiling! That circling which +appeared in thee to be conceived as a reflected light, by mine eyes +scanned some little, in itself, of its own colour, seemed to be painted +with our effigy, and thereat my sight was all committed to it. + +"To the high fantasy here power failed; but already my desire and will +were rolled--even as a wheel that moveth equally--by the Love that moves +the sun and the other stars." (XXXIII, 82.) + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DANTE: "THE CENTRAL MAN OF ALL THE +WORLD"*** + + +******* This file should be named 16978.txt or 16978.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/6/9/7/16978 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: +https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + diff --git a/16978.zip b/16978.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f656aa7 --- /dev/null +++ b/16978.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..09eaeb6 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #16978 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16978) |