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diff --git a/33896.txt b/33896.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1bf0166 --- /dev/null +++ b/33896.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10853 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Dante. An essay., by R. W. Church + +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. An essay. + To which is added a translation of De Monarchia. + +Author: R. W. Church + +Translator: F. J. Church + +Release Date: October 30, 2010 [EBook #33896] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DANTE. AN ESSAY. *** + + + + +Produced by Emanuela Piasentini, Linda Cantoni, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries at +http://www.archive.org/details/danteessaytowhic00chur.) + + + + + + + + + +[Transcriber's Note: Spelling and punctuation have been retained as +they appear in the original, but obvious printer errors have been +corrected without note. Printer errors in Italian passages from _The +Divine Comedy_ have been corrected using the Italian-English Princeton +University Press edition (trans. Charles S. Singleton, 1973). + +A Table of Contents has been added for the reader's convenience. The +original contains a separate Contents of De Monarchia at the end of De +Monarchia.] + + + + +DANTE + +AND + +DE MONARCHIA. + +[Illustration] + + + + +DANTE. + +_An Essay._ + + +BY + +R. W. CHURCH, M.A., D.C.L. + +DEAN OF ST. PAUL'S, AND HONORARY FELLOW OF ORIEL COLLEGE, OXFORD. + + +_To which is added_ + +A TRANSLATION OF + +DE MONARCHIA. + + +BY F. J. CHURCH. + + +_London:_ +MACMILLAN AND CO. +1879. + + +CHARLES DICKENS AND EVANS, +CRYSTAL PALACE PRESS. + + + + +CONTENTS + +NOTICE +DANTE +DE MONARCHIA +CONTENTS OF DE MONARCHIA +PUBLISHER'S CATALOGUE + + + + +NOTICE. + + +The following Essay first appeared in the "Christian Remembrancer" of +January, 1850, and it was reprinted in a volume of "Essays and +Reviews," published in 1854. + +It was written before the appearance in Germany and England of the +abundant recent literature on the subject. With the exception of a few +trifling corrections, it is republished without change. + +By the desire of Mr. Macmillan, a translation of the _De Monarchia_ is +subjoined. I am indebted for it to my son, Mr. F.J. Church, late +Scholar of New College. It is made from the text of Witte's second +edition of the _De Monarchia_, 1874. The _De Monarchia_ has been more +than once translated into Italian and German, in earlier or later +times. But I do not know that any English translation has yet +appeared. It is analysed in the fifteenth chapter of Mr. Bryce's "Holy +Roman Empire." + +Witte, with much probability, I think, places the composition of the +work in the first part of Dante's life, before his exile in 1301, +while the pretensions and arguments of Boniface VIII. (1294-1303) were +being discussed by Guelf and Ghibelline partisans, but before they +were formally embodied in the famous Bull _Unam Sanctam_, 1302. The +character of the composition, for the most part, formal, general, and +scholastic, sanguine in tone and with little personal allusion, is in +strong contrast with the passionate and despairing language of +resentment and disappointment which marks his later writings. As an +example of the political speculation of the time, it should be +compared with the "_De Regimine Principum_," ascribed to Thomas +Aquinas. The whole subject of the mediaeval idea of the Empire is +admirably discussed in Mr. Bryce's book referred to above. + +R.W.C. + +ST. PAUL'S, + _November_, 1878. + + + + +DANTE.[1] + +[JAN. 1850.] + +[Footnote 1: _Dante's Divine Comedy, the Inferno; a literal Prose +Translation, with the Text of the Original._ By J.A. CARLYLE, M.D., +London: 1849. I have never quite forgiven myself for not having said +more of the unpretending but honest and most useful volume which stood +at the head of this essay when it first appeared as an article. It was +placed there, according to what was then a custom of article writers, +as a peg to hang remarks upon which might or might not be criticisms +of the particular book so noticed. It did not offer itself specially +to my use, and my attention was busy with my own work. But this was no +excuse for availing myself of a good book, and not giving it the +notice which it deserved. To an English student beginning Dante, and +wishing to study him in a scholarly manner, it is really more useful +than a verse translation can be; and I have always greatly regretted +that the plan of translating the whole work was dropped for want of +the appreciation which the first instalment ought to have had. +(1878.)] + + +The _Divina Commedia_ is one of the landmarks of history. More than a +magnificent poem, more than the beginning of a language and the +opening of a national literature, more than the inspirer of art, and +the glory of a great people, it is one of those rare and solemn +monuments of the mind's power, which measure and test what it can +reach to, which rise up ineffaceably and for ever as time goes on, +marking out its advance by grander divisions than its centuries, and +adopted as epochs by the consent of all who come after. It stands with +the _Iliad_ and Shakspere's Plays, with the writings of Aristotle and +Plato, with the _Novum Organon_ and the _Principia_, with Justinian's +_Code_, with the Parthenon and S. Peter's. It is the first Christian +poem; and it opens European literature, as the _Iliad_ did that of +Greece and Rome. And, like the _Iliad_, it has never become out of +date; it accompanies in undiminished freshness the literature which it +began. + +We approach the history of such works, in which genius seems to have +pushed its achievements to a new limit, with a kind of awe. The +beginnings of all things, their bursting out from nothing, and gradual +evolution into substance and shape, cast on the mind a solemn +influence. They come too near the fount of being to be followed up +without our feeling the shadows which surround it. We cannot but fear, +cannot but feel ourselves cut off from this visible and familiar +world--as we enter into the cloud. And as with the processes of +nature, so it is with those offsprings of man's mind, by which he has +added permanently one more great feature to the world, and created a +new power which is to act on mankind to the end. The mystery of the +inventive and creative faculty, the subtle and incalculable +combinations by which it was led to its work, and carried through it, +are out of the reach of investigating thought. Often the idea recurs +of the precariousness of the result; by how little the world might +have lost one of its ornaments--by one sharp pang, or one chance +meeting, or any other among the countless accidents among which man +runs his course. And then the solemn recollection supervenes, that +powers were formed, and life preserved, and circumstances arranged, +and actions controlled, that thus it should be: and the work which man +has brooded over, and at last created, is the foster-child too of that +"Wisdom which reaches from end to end, strongly and sweetly disposing +all things." + +It does not abate these feelings, that we can follow in some cases and +to a certain extent, the progress of a work. Indeed, the sight of the +particular accidents among which it was developed--which belong +perhaps to a heterogeneous and widely discordant order of things, +which are out of proportion and out of harmony with it, which do not +explain it, which have, as it may seem to us, no natural right to be +connected with it, to bear on its character, or contribute to its +accomplishment, to which we feel, as it were, ashamed to owe what we +can least spare, yet on which its forming mind and purpose were +dependent, and with which they had to conspire--affects the +imagination even more than cases where we see nothing. We are tempted +less to musing and wonder by the _Iliad_, a work without a history, +cut off from its past, the sole relic and vestige of its age, +unexplained in its origin and perfection, than by the _Divina +Commedia_, destined for the highest ends and most universal sympathy, +yet the reflection of a personal history, and issuing seemingly from +its chance incidents. + +The _Divina Commedia_ is singular among the great works with which it +ranks, for its strong stamp of personal character and history. In +general we associate little more than the name--not the life--of a +great poet with his works; personal interest belongs more usually to +greatness in its active than its creative forms. But the whole idea +and purpose of the _Commedia_, as well as its filling up and +colouring, are determined by Dante's peculiar history. The loftiest, +perhaps, in its aim and flight of all poems, it is also the most +individual; the writer's own life is chronicled in it, as well as the +issues and upshot of all things. It is at once the mirror to all time +of the sins and perfections of men, of the judgments and grace of God, +and the record, often the only one, of the transient names, and local +factions, and obscure ambitions, and forgotten crimes, of the poet's +own day; and in that awful company to which he leads us, in the most +unearthly of his scenes, we never lose sight of himself. And when this +peculiarity sends us to history, it seems as if the poem which was to +hold such a place in Christian literature hung upon and grew out of +chance events, rather than the deliberate design of its author. +History indeed here, as generally, is but a feeble exponent of the +course of growth in a great mind and great ideas. It shows us early a +bent and purpose--the man conscious of power and intending to use +it--and then the accidents among which he worked: but how that current +of purpose threaded its way among them, how it was thrown back, +deflected, deepened, by them, we cannot learn from history. It +presents but a broken and mysterious picture. A boy of quick and +enthusiastic temper grows up into youth in a dream of love. The lady +of his mystic passion dies early. He dreams of her still, not as a +wonder of earth, but as a Saint in Paradise, and relieves his heart in +an autobiography, a strange and perplexing work of fiction--quaint and +subtle enough for a metaphysical conceit; but, on the other hand, with +far too much of genuine and deep feeling. It is a first essay; he +closes it abruptly as if dissatisfied with his work, but with the +resolution of raising at a future day a worthy monument to the memory +of her whom he has lost. It is the promise and purpose of a great +work. But a prosaic change seems to come over this half-ideal +character. The lover becomes the student--the student of the 13th +century--struggling painfully against difficulties, eager and hot +after knowledge, wasting eyesight and stinting sleep, subtle, +inquisitive, active-minded and sanguine, but omnivorous, overflowing +with dialectical forms, loose in premiss and ostentatiously rigid in +syllogism, fettered by the refinements of half-awakened taste, and the +mannerisms of the Provencals. Boethius and Cicero, and the mass of +mixed learning within his reach, are accepted as the consolation of +his human griefs: he is filled with the passion of universal +knowledge, and the desire to communicate it. Philosophy has become the +lady of his soul--to write allegorical poems in her honour, and to +comment on them with all the apparatus of his learning in prose, his +mode of celebrating her. Further, he marries; it is said, not happily. +The antiquaries, too, have disturbed romance by discovering that +Beatrice also was married some years before her death. He appears, as +time goes on, as a burgher of Florence, the father of a family, a +politician, an envoy, a magistrate, a partisan, taking his full share +in the quarrels of the day. At length we see him, at once an exile, +and the poet of the _Commedia_. Beatrice reappears--shadowy, melting +at times into symbol and figure--but far too living and real, +addressed with too intense and natural feeling to be the mere +personification of anything. The lady of the philosophical Canzoni +has vanished. The student's dream has been broken, as the boy's had +been; and the earnestness of the man, enlightened by sorrow, +overleaping the student's formalities and abstractions, reverted in +sympathy to the earnestness of the boy, and brooded once more on that +Saint in Paradise, whose presence and memory had once been so +soothing, and who now seemed a real link between him and that stable +country, "where the angels are in peace." Round her image, the +reflection of purity, and truth, and forbearing love, was grouped that +confused scene of trouble and effort, of failure and success, which +the poet saw round him; round her image it arranged itself in awful +order--and that image, not a metaphysical abstraction, but the living +memory, freshened by sorrow, and seen through the softening and +hallowing vista of years, of Beatrice Portinari--no figment of +imagination, but God's creature and servant. A childish love, +dissipated by study and business, and revived in memory by heavy +sorrow--a boyish resolution, made in a moment of feeling, interrupted, +though it would be hazardous to say in Dante's case, laid aside, for +apparently more manly studies, gave the idea and suggested the form of +the "Sacred poem of earth and heaven." + +And the occasion of this startling unfolding of the poetic gift, of +this passage of a soft and dreamy boy, into the keenest, boldest, +sternest of poets, the free and mighty leader of European song, was, +what is not ordinarily held to be a source of poetical inspiration,--the +political life. The boy had sensibility, high aspirations, and a +versatile and passionate nature; the student added to this energy, +various learning, gifts of language, and noble ideas on the capacities +and ends of man. But it was the factions of Florence which made Dante +a great poet. But for them, he might have been a modern critic and +essayist born before his time, and have held a high place among the +writers of fugitive verses; in Italy, a graceful but trifling and idle +tribe, often casting a deep and beautiful thought into a mould of +expressive diction, but oftener toying with a foolish and glittering +conceit, and whose languid genius was exhausted by a sonnet. He might +have thrown into the shade the Guidos and Cinos of his day, to be +eclipsed by Petrarch. But he learned in the bitter feuds of Italy not +to trifle; they opened to his view, and he had an eye to see, the true +springs and abysses of this mortal life--motives and passions stronger +than lovers' sentiments, evils beyond the consolations of Boethius and +Cicero; and from that fiery trial which without searing his heart, +annealed his strength and purpose, he drew that great gift and power, +by which he stands pre-eminent even among his high compeers, the gift +of being real. And the idea of the _Commedia_ took shape, and expanded +into its endless forms of terror and beauty, not under the roof-tree +of the literary citizen, but when the exile had been driven out to the +highways of the world, to study nature on the sea or by the river or +on the mountain track, and to study men in the courts of Verona and +Ravenna, and in the schools of Bologna and Paris--perhaps of Oxford. + +The connexion of these feuds with Dante's poem has given to the middle +age history of Italy an interest of which it is not undeserving in +itself, full as it is of curious exhibitions of character and +contrivance, but to which politically it cannot lay claim, amid the +social phenomena, so far grander in scale and purpose and more +felicitous in issue, of the other western nations. It is remarkable +for keeping up an antique phase, which, in spite of modern +arrangements, it has not yet lost. It is a history of cities. In +ancient history all that is most memorable and instructive gathers +round cities; civilisation and empire were concentrated within walls; +and it baffled the ancient mind to conceive how power should be +possessed and wielded, by numbers larger than might be collected in a +single market-place. The Roman Empire indeed aimed at being one in its +administration and law; but it was not a nation, nor were its +provinces nations. Yet everywhere but in Italy, it prepared them for +becoming nations. And while everywhere else parts were uniting and +union was becoming organisation--and neither geographical remoteness, +nor unwieldiness of numbers, nor local interests and differences, were +untractable obstacles to that spirit of fusion which was at once the +ambition of the few and the instinct of the many; and cities, even +where most powerful, had become the centres of the attracting and +joining forces, knots in the political network--while this was going +on more or less happily throughout the rest of Europe, in Italy the +ancient classic idea lingered in its simplicity, its narrowness and +jealousy, wherever there was any political activity. The history of +Southern Italy indeed is mainly a foreign one, the history of modern +Rome merges in that of the Papacy; but Northern Italy has a history of +its own, and that is a history of separate and independent +cities--points of reciprocal and indestructible repulsion, and within, +theatres of action where the blind tendencies and traditions of +classes and parties weighed little on the freedom of individual +character, and citizens could watch and measure and study one another +with the minuteness of private life. + +Two cities were the centres of ancient history in its most interesting +time. And two cities of modern Italy represent, with entirely +undesigned but curiously exact coincidence, the parts of Athens and +Rome. Venice, superficially so unlike, is yet in many of its +accidental features, and still more in its spirit, the counterpart of +Rome, in its obscure and mixed origin, in its steady growth, in its +quick sense of order and early settlement of its polity, in its grand +and serious public spirit, in its subordination of the individual to +the family, and the family to the state, in its combination of remote +dominion with the liberty of a solitary and sovereign city. And though +the associations and the scale of the two were so different--though +Rome had its hills and its legions, and Venice its lagunes and +galleys--the long empire of Venice, the heir of Carthage and +predecessor of England on the seas, the great aristocratic republic of +1000 years, is the only empire that has yet matched Rome in length and +steadiness of tenure. Brennus and Hannibal were not resisted with +greater constancy than Doria and Louis XII.; and that great +aristocracy, long so proud, so high-spirited, so intelligent, so +practical, who combined the enterprise and wealth of merchants, the +self-devotion of soldiers and gravity of senators, with the uniformity +and obedience of a religious order, may compare without shame its +Giustiniani, and Zenos, and Morosini, with Roman Fabii and Claudii. +And Rome could not be more contrasted with Athens than Venice with +Italian and contemporary Florence--stability with fitfulness, +independence impregnable and secure, with a short-lived and troubled +liberty, empire meditated and achieved, with a course of barren +intrigues and quarrels. Florence, gay, capricious, turbulent, the city +of party, the head and busy patroness of democracy in the cities round +her--Florence, where popular government was inaugurated with its +utmost exclusiveness and most pompous ceremonial; waging her little +summer wars against Ghibelline tyrants, revolted democracies, and her +own exiles; and further, so rich in intellectual gifts, in variety of +individual character, in poets, artists, wits, historians--Florence in +its brilliant days recalled the image of ancient Athens, and did not +depart from its prototype in the beauty of its natural site, in its +noble public buildings, in the size and nature of its territory. And +the course of its history is similar and the result of similar +causes--a traditional spirit of freedom, with its accesses of fitful +energy, its periods of grand display and moments of glorious +achievement, but producing nothing politically great or durable, and +sinking at length into a resigned servitude. It had its Peisistratidae +more successful than those of Athens; it had, too, its Harmodius and +Aristogeiton; it had its great orator of liberty, as potent and as +unfortunate as the antagonist of Philip. And finally, like Athens, it +became content with the remembrance of its former glory, with being +the fashionable and acknowledged seat of refinement and taste, with +being a favoured dependency on the modern heir of the Caesars. But if +to Venice belongs a grander public history, Florentine names and +works, like Athenian, will be living among men, when the Brenta shall +have been left unchecked to turn the Lagunes into ploughland, and when +Rome herself may no longer be the seat of the Popes. + +The year of Dante's birth was a memorable one in the annals of +Florence, of Italy, and of Christendom.[2] The year 1265 was the year +of that great victory of Benevento, where Charles of Anjou overthrew +Manfred of Naples, and destroyed at one blow the power of the house of +Swabia. From that time till the time of Charles V., the emperors had +no footing in Italy. Further, that victory set up the French influence +in Italy, which, transient in itself, produced such strange and +momentous consequences, by the intimate connexion to which it led +between the French kings and the Popes. The protection of France was +dearly bought by the captivity of Avignon, the great western schism, +and the consequent secularisation of the Papacy, which lasted on +uninterrupted till the Council of Trent. Nearly three centuries of +degradation and scandal, unrelieved by one heroic effort among the +successors of Gregory VII., connected the Reformation with the triumph +of Charles and the Pope at Benevento. Finally, by it the Guelf party +was restored for good in Florence; the Guelf democracy, which had been +trampled down by the Uberti and Manfred's chivalry at Monteaperti, +once more raised its head; and fortune, which had long wavered between +the rival lilies, finally turned against the white one, till the name +of Ghibelline became a proscribed one in Florence, as Jacobite was +once in Scotland, or Papist in England, or Royalist in France. + +[Footnote 2: May, 1265. (Pelli.) Benevento: Feb. 26, 1265/6. The +Florentine year began March 25.] + +The names of Guelf and Ghibelline were the inheritance of a contest +which, in its original meaning, had been long over. The old struggle +between the priesthood and the empire was still kept up traditionally, +but its ideas and interests were changed: they were still great and +important ones, but not those of Gregory VII. It had passed over from +the mixed region of the spiritual and temporal into the purely +political. The cause of the popes was that of the independence of +Italy--the freedom and alliance of the great cities of the north, and +the dependence of the centre and south on the Roman See. To keep the +Emperor out of Italy--to create a barrier of powerful cities against +him south of the Alps--to form behind themselves a compact territory, +rich, removed from the first burst of invasion, and maintaining a +strong body of interested feudatories, had now become the great object +of the popes. It may have been a wise policy on their part, for the +maintenance of their spiritual influence, to attempt to connect their +own independence with the political freedom of the Italian +communities; but certain it is that the ideas and the characters which +gave a religious interest and grandeur to the earlier part of the +contest, appear but sparingly, if at all, in its later forms. + +The two parties did not care to keep in view principles which their +chiefs had lost sight of. The Emperor and the Pope were both real +powers, able to protect and assist; and they divided between them +those who required protection and assistance. Geographical position, +the rivalry of neighbourhood, family tradition, private feuds, and +above all private interest, were the main causes which assigned +cities, families, and individuals to the Ghibelline or Guelf party. +One party called themselves the Emperor's liegemen, and their +watchword was authority and law; the other side were the liegemen of +Holy Church, and their cry was liberty; and the distinction as a broad +one is true. But a democracy would become Ghibelline, without scruple, +if its neighbour town was Guelf; and among the Guelf liegemen of the +Church and liberty the pride of blood and love of power were not a +whit inferior to that of their opponents. Yet, though the original +principle of the contest was lost, and the political distinctions of +parties were often interfered with by interest or accident, it is not +impossible to trace in the two factions differences of temper, of +moral and political inclinations, which though visible only on a large +scale and in the mass, were quite sufficient to give meaning and +reality to their mutual opposition. These differences had come down, +greatly altered of course, from the quarrel in which the parties took +their rise. The Ghibellines as a body reflected the worldliness, the +licence, the irreligion, the reckless selfishness, the daring +insolence, and at the same time the gaiety and pomp, the princely +magnificence and generosity and largeness of mind of the house of +Swabia; they were the men of the court and camp, imperious and haughty +from ancient lineage or the Imperial cause, yet not wanting in the +frankness and courtesy of nobility; careless of public opinion and +public rights, but not dead to the grandeur of public objects and +public services. Among them were found, or to them inclined, all who, +whether from a base or a lofty ambition, desired to place their will +above law[3]--the lord of the feudal castle, the robber-knight of the +Apennine pass, the magnificent but terrible tyrants of the cities, the +pride and shame of Italy, the Visconti and Scaligers. That renowned +Ghibelline chief, whom the poet finds in the fiery sepulchres of the +unbelievers with the great Ghibelline emperor and the princely +Ghibelline cardinal--the disdainful and bitter but lofty spirit of +Farinata degli Uberti, the conqueror, and then singly and at his own +risk, the saviour of his country which had wronged him, represents the +good as well as the bad side of his party. + +[Footnote 3: "Maghinardo da Susinana (_il Demonio_, Purg. 14) fu uno +grande e savio tiranno ... gran castellano, e con molti fedeli: savio +fu di guerra e bene avventuroso in piu battaglie, e al suo tempo fece +gran cose. Ghibellino era di sua nazione e in sue opere; ma co' +Fiorentini era Guelfo e nimico di tutti i loro nimici, o Guelfi o +Ghibellini che fossono."--G. Vill. vii. 149. A Ghibelline by birth and +disposition; yet, from circumstances, a close ally of the Guelfs of +Florence.] + +The Guelfs, on the other hand, were the party of the middle classes; +they rose out of and held to the people; they were strong by their +compactness, their organisation in cities, their commercial relations +and interests, their command of money. Further, they were professedly +the party of strictness and religion, a profession which fettered them +as little as their opponents were fettered by the respect they claimed +for imperial law. But though by personal unscrupulousness and +selfishness, and in instances of public vengeance, they sinned as +deeply as the Ghibellines, they stood far more committed as a party to +a public meaning and purpose--to improvement in law and the condition +of the poor, to a protest against the insolence of the strong, to the +encouragement of industry. The genuine Guelf spirit was austere, +frugal, independent, earnest, religious, fond of its home and Church, +and of those celebrations which bound together Church and home; but +withal very proud, very intolerant; in its higher form intolerant of +evil, but intolerant always to whatever displeased it. Yet there was a +grave and noble manliness about it which long kept it alive in +Florence. It had not as yet turned itself against the practical +corruptions of the Church, which was its ally; but this also it was to +do, when the popes had forsaken the cause of liberty, and leagued +themselves with the brilliant tyranny of the Medici. Then Savonarola +invoked, and not in vain, the stern old Guelf spirit of resistance, of +domestic purity and severity, and of domestic religion, against +unbelief and licentiousness even in the Church; and the Guelf +"_Piagnoni_" presented, in a more simple and generous shape, a +resemblance to our own Puritans, as the Ghibellines often recall the +coarser and worse features of our own Cavaliers. + +In Florence, these distinctions had become mere nominal ones, confined +to the great families who carried on their private feuds under the old +party names, when Frederick II. once more gave them their meaning. +"Although the accursed Guelf and Ghibelline factions lasted amongst +the nobles of Florence, and they often waged war among themselves out +of private grudges, and took sides for the said factions, and held one +with another, and those who called themselves Guelfs desired the +establishment of the Pope and Holy Church, and those who called +themselves Ghibellines favoured the Emperor and his adherents, yet +withal the people and commonalty of Florence maintained itself in +unity, to the well-being and honour and establishment of the +commonwealth."[4] But the appearance on the scene of an emperor of +such talent and bold designs revived the languid contest, and gave to +party a cause, and to individual passions and ambition an impulse and +pretext. The division between Guelf and Ghibelline again became +serious, involved all Florence, armed house against house, and +neighbourhood against neighbourhood, issued in merciless and +vindictive warfare, grew on into a hopeless and deadly breach, and +finally lost to Florence, without remedy or repair, half her noble +houses and the love of the greatest of her sons. The old badge of +their common country became to the two factions the sign of their +implacable hatred; the white lily of Florence, borne by the +Ghibellines, was turned to red by the Guelfs, and the flower of two +colours marked a civil strife as cruel and as fatal, if on a smaller +scale, as that of the English roses.[5] + +[Footnote 4: G. Villani, vi. 33.] + +[Footnote 5: G. Villani, vi. 33, 43; _Parad._ 19.] + +It was waged with the peculiar characteristics of Italian civil war. +There the city itself was the scene of battle. A thirteenth century +city in Italy bore on its face the evidence that it was built and +arranged for such emergencies. Its crowded and narrow streets were a +collection of rival castles, whose tall towers, rising thick and close +over its roofs, or hanging perilously over its close courts, attested +the emulous pride and the insecurity of Italian civic life. There, +within a separate precinct, flanked and faced by jealous friends or +deadly enemies, were clustered together the dwellings of the various +members of each great house--their common home and the monument of +their magnificence and pride, and capable of being, as was so often +necessary, their common refuge. In these fortresses of the leading +families, scattered about the city, were the various points of onset +and recovery in civic battle; in the streets barricades were raised, +mangonels and crossbows were plied from the towers, a series of +separate combats raged through the city, till chance at length +connected the attacks of one side, or some panic paralysed the +resistance of the other, or a conflagration interposed itself between +the combatants, burning out at once Guelf and Ghibelline, and laying +half Florence in ashes. Each party had their turn of victory; each, +when vanquished, went into exile, and carried on the war outside the +walls; each had their opportunity of remodelling the orders and +framework of government, and each did so relentlessly at the cost of +their opponents. They excluded classes, they proscribed families, they +confiscated property, they sacked and burned warehouses, they levelled +the palaces, and outraged the pride of their antagonists. To destroy +was not enough, without adding to it the keenest and newest refinement +of insult. Two buildings in Florence were peculiarly dear--among their +"_cari luoghi_"--to the popular feeling and the Guelf party: the +Baptistery of St. John, "il mio bel S. Giovanni," "to which all the +good people resorted on Sundays,"[6] where they had all received +baptism, where they had been married, where families were solemnly +reconciled; and a tall and beautiful tower close by it, called the +"Torre del Guardamorto," where the bodies of the "good people," who of +old were all buried at S. Giovanni, rested on their way to the grave. +The victorious Ghibellines, when they levelled the Guelf towers, +overthrew this one, and endeavoured to make it crush in its fall the +sacred church, "which," says the old chronicler, "was prevented by a +miracle." The Guelfs, when their day came, built the walls of Florence +with the stones of Ghibelline palaces.[7] One great family stands out +pre-eminent in this fierce conflict as the victim and monument of +party war. The head of the Ghibellines was the proud and powerful +house of the Uberti, who shared with another great Ghibelline family, +the Pazzi, the valley of the upper Arno. They lighted up the war in +the Emperor's cause. They supported its weight and guided it. In time +of peace they were foremost and unrestrained in defiance of law and in +scorn of the people--in war, the people's fiercest and most active +enemies. Heavy sufferers, in their property, and by the sword and axe, +yet untamed and incorrigible, they led the van in that battle, so long +remembered to their cost by the Guelfs, the battle of Monteaperti +(1260)-- + + Lo strazio, e 'l gran scempio + Che fece l'Arbia colorata in rossa.--_Inf._ 10. + +[Footnote 6: G. Villani, vi. 33, iv. 10; _Inf._ 19; _Parad._ 25.] + +[Footnote 7: G. Villani, vi. 39, 65.] + +That the head of their house, Farinata, saved Florence from the +vengeance of his meaner associates, was not enough to atone for the +unpardonable wrongs which they had done to the Guelfs and the +democracy. When the red lily of the Guelfs finally supplanted the +white one as the arms of Florence, and the badge of Guelph triumph, +they were proscribed for ever, like the Peisistratidae and the +Tarquins. In every amnesty their names were excepted. The site on +which their houses had stood was never again to be built upon, and +remains the Great Square of Florence; the architect of the Palace of +the People was obliged to sacrifice its symmetry, and to place it +awry, that its walls might not encroach on the accursed ground.[8] +"They had been," says a writer, contemporary with Dante, speaking of +the time when he also became an exile; "they had been for more than +forty years outlaws from their country, nor ever found mercy nor pity, +remaining always abroad in great state, nor ever abased their honour, +seeing that they ever abode with kings and lords, and to great things +applied themselves."[9] They were loved as they were hated. When under +the protection of a cardinal one of them visited the city, and the +chequered blue and gold blazon of their house was, after an interval +of half a century, again seen in the streets of Florence; "many +ancient Ghibelline men and women pressed to kiss the arms,"[10] and +even the common people did him honour. + +[Footnote 8: G. Villani, vi. 33, viii. 26; Vasari, _Arnolfo di Lapo_, +i. 255 (Fir. 1846).] + +[Footnote 9: _Dino Compagni_, p. 88.] + +[Footnote 10: _Dino Compagni_, p. 107.] + +But the fortunes of Florentine factions depended on other causes than +merely the address or vigour of their leaders. From the year of +Dante's birth and Charles's victory, Florence, as far as we shall have +to do with it, became irrevocably Guelf. Not that the whole commonalty +of Florence formally called itself Guelf, or that the Guelf party was +co-extensive with it; but the city was controlled by Guelf councils, +devoted to the objects of the great Guelf party, and received in +return the support of that party in curbing the pride of the nobles, +and maintaining democratic forms. The Guelf party of Florence, though +it was the life and soul of the republic, and irresistible in its +disposal of the influence and arms of Florence, and though it embraced +a large number of the most powerful families, is always spoken of as +something distinct from, and external to, the governing powers, and +the whole body of the people. It was a body with a separate and +self-constituted existence;--in the state and allied to it, but an +independent element, holding on to a large and comprehensive union +without the state. Its organisation in Florence is one of the most +curious among the many curious combinations which meet us in Italian +history. After the final expulsion of the Ghibellines, the Guelf party +took form as an institution, with definite powers, and a local +existence. It appears with as distinct a shape as the Jacobin Club or +the Orange Lodges, side by side with the government. It was a +corporate body with a common seal, common property, not only in funds +but lands--officers, archives, a common palace,[11] a great council, a +secret committee, and last of all, a public accuser of the +Ghibellines; of the confiscated Ghibelline estates one-third went to +the republic, another third to compensate individual Guelfs, the rest +was assigned to the Guelf party.[12] A pope, (Clement IV., 1265-68) +had granted them his own arms[13]; and their device, a red eagle +clutching a serpent, may be yet seen, with the red lily, and the +party-coloured banner of the commonalty, on the battlements of the +Palazzo Vecchio. + +[Footnote 11: Giotto painted in it: Vasari, _Vit. di Giotto_, p. 314.] + +[Footnote 12: G. Villani, vii. 2, 17.] + +[Footnote 13: _Ibid._ vii. 2.] + +But the expulsion of the Ghibellines did but little to restore peace. +The great Guelf families, as old as many of the Ghibellines, had as +little reverence as they for law or civic rights. Below these, the +acknowledged nobility of Florence, were the leading families of the +"people," houses created by successful industry or commerce, and +pushing up into that privileged order, which, however ignored and +even discredited by the laws, was fully recognised by feeling and +opinion in the most democratic times of the republic. Rivalries and +feuds, street broils and conspiracies, high-handed insolence from the +great men, rough vengeance from the populace, still continued to vex +jealous and changeful Florence. The popes sought in vain to keep in +order their quarrelsome liegemen; to reconcile Guelf with Guelf, and +even Guelf with Ghibelline. Embassies went and came, to ask for +mediation and to proffer it; to apply the healing paternal hand; to +present an obsequious and ostentatious submission. Cardinal legates +came in state, and were received with reverential pomp; they formed +private committees, and held assemblies, and made marriages; they +harangued in honeyed words, and gained the largest promises; on one +occasion the Great Square was turned into a vast theatre, and on this +stage one hundred and fifty dissidents on each side came forward, and +in the presence and with the benediction of the cardinal kissed each +other on the mouth.[14] And if persuasion failed, the pope's +representative hesitated not to excommunicate and interdict the +faithful but obdurate city. But whether excommunicated or blessed, +Florence could not be at peace; however wise and subtle had been the +peace-maker's arrangements, his departing _cortege_ was hardly out of +sight of the city before they were blown to the winds. Not more +successful were the efforts of the sensible and moderate citizens who +sighed for tranquillity within its walls. Dino Compagni's interesting +though not very orderly narrative describes with great frankness, and +with the perplexity of a simple-hearted man puzzled by the continual +triumph of clever wickedness, the variety and the fruitlessness of the +expedients devised by him and other good citizens against the resolute +and incorrigible selfishness of the great Guelfs--ever, when checked +in one form, breaking out in another; proof against all persuasion, +all benefits; not to be bound by law, or compact, or oath; eluding or +turning to its own account the deepest and sagest contrivances of +constitutional wisdom. + +[Footnote 14: G. Villani, vii. 56.] + +A great battle won against Ghibelline Arezzo[15] raised the renown and +the military spirit of the Guelf party, for the fame of the battle was +very great; the hosts contained the choicest chivalry of either side, +armed and appointed with emulous splendour. The fighting was hard, +there was brilliant and conspicuous gallantry, and the victory was +complete. It sealed Guelf ascendancy. The Ghibelline warrior-bishop +of Arezzo fell, with three of the Uberti, and other Ghibelline chiefs. +It was a day of trial. "Many that day who had been thought of great +prowess were found dastards, and many who had never been spoken of +were held in high esteem." It repaired the honour of Florence, and the +citizens showed their feeling of its importance by mixing up the +marvellous with its story. Its tidings came to Florence--so runs the +tale in Villani, who declares what he "heard and saw" himself--at the +very hour in which it was won. The Priors of the republic were resting +in their palace during the noonday heat; suddenly the chamber door was +shaken, and the cry heard: "Rise up! the Aretini are defeated." The +door was opened, but there was no one; their servants had seen no one +enter the palace, and no one came from the army till the hour of +vespers, on a long summer's day. In this battle the Guelf leaders had +won great glory. The hero of the day was the proudest, handsomest, +craftiest, most winning, most ambitious, most unscrupulous Guelf noble +in Florence--one of a family who inherited the spirit and recklessness +of the proscribed Uberti, and did not refuse the popular epithet of +"_Malefami_"--Corso Donati. He did not come back from the field of +Campaldino, where he had won the battle by disobeying orders with any +increased disposition to yield to rivals, or court the populace, or +respect other men's rights. Those rivals, too--and they also had +fought gallantly in the post of honour at Campaldino--were such as he +hated from his soul--rivals whom he despised, and who yet were too +strong for him. His blood was ancient, they were upstarts; he was a +soldier, they were traders; he was poor, they the richest men in +Florence. They had come to live close to the Donati, they had bought +the palace of an old Ghibelline family, they had enlarged, adorned, +and fortified it, and kept great state there. They had crossed him in +marriages, bargains, inheritances. They had won popularity, honour, +influence; and yet they were but men of business, while he had a part +in all the political movements of the day. He was the friend and +intimate of lords and noblemen, with great connexions and famous +through all Italy; they were the favourites of the common people for +their kindness and good nature; they even showed consideration for +Ghibellines. He was an accomplished man of the world, keen and subtle, +"full of malicious thoughts, mischievous and crafty;" they were +inexperienced in intrigue, and had the reputation of being clumsy and +stupid. He was the most graceful and engaging of courtiers; they were +not even gentlemen. Lastly, in the debates of that excitable republic +he was the most eloquent speaker, and they were tongue-tied.[16] + +[Footnote 15: _Campaldino_, in 1289. G. Vill. vii. 131; _Dino Comp._ +p. 14.] + +[Footnote 16: _Dino Comp._ pp. 32, 75, 94, 133.] + +"There was a family," writes Dino Compagni, "who called themselves the +Cerchi, men of low estate, but good merchants and very rich; and they +dressed richly, and maintained many servants and horses, and made a +brave show; and some of them bought the palace of the Conti Guidi, +which was near the houses of the Pazzi and Donati, who were more +ancient of blood but not so rich; therefore, seeing the Cerchi rise to +great dignity, and that they had walled and enlarged the palace, and +kept great state, the Donati began to have a great hatred against +them." Villani gives the same account of the feud.[17] "It began in +that quarter of scandal the Sesta of Porta S. Piero, between the +Cerchi and Donati, on the one side through jealousy, on the other +through churlish rudeness. Of the house of the Cerchi was head Messer +Vieri de' Cerchi, and he and those of his house were people of great +business, and powerful, and of great relationships, and most wealthy +traders, so that their company was one of the greatest in the world; +men they were of soft life, and who meant no harm; boorish and +ill-mannered, like people who had come in a short time to great state +and power. The Donati were gentlemen and warriors, and of no +excessive wealth.... They were neighbours in Florence and in the +country, and by the conversation of their jealousy with the peevish +boorishness of the others, arose the proud scorn that there was +between them." The glories of Campaldino were not as oil on these +troubled waters. The conquerors flouted each other all the more +fiercely in the streets on their return, and ill-treated the lower +people with less scruple. No gathering for festive or serious purposes +could be held without tempting strife. A marriage, a funeral, a ball, +a gay procession of cavaliers and ladies--any meeting where one stood +while another sat, where horse or man might jostle another, where +pride might be nettled or temper shown, was in danger of ending in +blood. The lesser quarrels meanwhile ranged themselves under the +greater ones; and these, especially that between the Cerchi and +Donati, took more and more a political character. The Cerchi inclined +more and more to the trading classes and the lower people; they threw +themselves on their popularity, and began to hold aloof from the +meetings of the "Parte Guelfa," while this organised body became an +instrument in the hands of their opponents, a club of the nobles. +Corso Donati, besides mischief of a more substantial kind, turned his +ridicule on their solemn dulness and awkward speech, and his friends +the jesters, one Scampolino in particular, carried his gibes and +nicknames all over Florence. The Cerchi received all in sullen and +clogged indifference. They were satisfied with repelling attacks, and +nursed their hatred.[18] + +[Footnote 17: G. Vill. viii. 39.] + +[Footnote 18: _Dino Compagni_, pp. 32, 34, 38.] + +Thus the city was divided, and the attempts to check the factions only +exasperated them. It was in vain that, when at times the government +and the populace lost patience, severe measures were taken. It was in +vain that the reformer, Gian della Bella, carried for a time his harsh +"orders of justice" against the nobles, and invested popular vengeance +with the solemnity of law and with the pomp and ceremony of a public +act--that when a noble had been convicted of killing a citizen, the +great officer, "Standard-bearer," as he was called, "of justice," +issued forth in state and procession, with the banner of justice borne +before him, with all his train, and at the head of the armed citizens, +to the house of the criminal, and razed it to the ground. An +eyewitness describes the effect of such chastisement:--"I, Dino +Compagni, being Gonfalonier of Justice in 1293, went to their houses, +and to those of their relations, and these I caused to be pulled down +according to the laws. This beginning in the case of the other +Gonfaloniers came to an evil effect; because, if they demolished the +houses according to the laws, the people said that they were cruel; +and if they did not demolish them completely, they said that they were +cowards; and many distorted justice for fear of the people." Gian +della Bella was overthrown with few regrets even on the part of the +people. Equally vain was the attempt to keep the peace by separating +the leaders of the disturbances. They were banished by a kind of +ostracism; they departed in ostentatious meekness, Corso Donato to +plot at Rome, Vieri de' Cerchi to return immediately to Florence. +Anarchy had got too fast a hold on the city, and it required a +stronger hand than that of the pope, or the signory of the republic, +to keep it down. + +Yet Florence prospered. Every year it grew richer, more intellectual, +more refined, more beautiful, more gay. With its anarchy there was no +stagnation. Torn and divided as it was, its energy did not slacken, +its busy and creative spirit was not deadened, its hopefulness not +abated. The factions, fierce and personal as they were, did not hinder +that interest in political ideas, that active and subtle study of the +questions of civil government, that passion and ingenuity displayed in +political contrivance, which now pervaded Northern Italy, everywhere +marvellously patient and hopeful, though far from being equally +successful. In Venice at the close of the thirteenth century, that +polity was finally settled and consolidated, by which she was great as +long as cities could be imperial, and which even in its decay survived +the monarchy of Louis XIV. and existed within the memory of living +men. In Florence, the constructive spirit of law and order only +resisted, but never triumphed. Yet it was at this time resolute and +sanguine, ready with experiment and change, and not yet dispirited by +continual failure. Political interest, however, and party contests +were not sufficient to absorb and employ the citizens of Florence. +Their genial and versatile spirit, so keen, so inventive, so elastic, +which made them such hot and impetuous partisans, kept them from being +only this. The time was one of growth; new knowledge, new powers, new +tastes were opening to men--new pursuits attracted them. There was +commerce, there was the school philosophy, there was the science of +nature, there was ancient learning, there was the civil law, there +were the arts, there was poetry, all rude as yet, and unformed, but +full of hope--the living parents of mightier offspring. Frederick II. +had once more opened Aristotle to the Latin world; he had given an +impulse to the study of the great monuments of Roman legislation which +was responded to through Italy; himself a poet, his example and his +splendid court had made poetry fashionable. In the end of the +thirteenth century a great stride was made at Florence. While her +great poet was growing up to manhood, as rapid a change went on in her +streets, her social customs, the wealth of her citizens, their ideas +of magnificence and beauty, their appreciation of literature. It was +the age of growing commerce and travel; Franciscan missionaries had +reached China, and settled there;[19] in 1294, Marco Polo returned to +Venice, the first successful explorer of the East. The merchants of +Florence lagged not; their field of operation was Italy and the West; +they had their correspondents in London, Paris, and Bruges; they were +the bankers of popes and kings.[20] And their city shows to this day +the wealth and magnificence of the last years of the thirteenth +century. The ancient buildings, consecrated in the memory of the +Florentine people, were repaired, enlarged, adorned with marble and +bronze--Or San Michele, the Badia, the Baptistery; and new buildings +rose on a grander scale. In 1294 was begun the Mausoleum of the great +Florentine dead, the Church of S. Croce. In the same year, a few +months later, Arnolfo laid the deep foundations which were afterwards +to bear up Brunelleschi's dome, and traced the plan of the magnificent +cathedral. In 1298 he began to raise a Town-hall worthy of the +Republic, and of being the habitation of its magistrates, the frowning +mass of the Palazzo Vecchio. In 1299, the third circle of the walls +was commenced, with the benediction of bishops, and the concourse of +all the "lords and orders" of Florence. And Giotto was now beginning +to throw Cimabue into the shade--Giotto, the shepherd's boy, painter, +sculptor, architect, and engineer at once, who a few years later was +to complete and crown the architectural glories of Florence by that +masterpiece of grace, his marble Campanile. + +[Footnote 19: See the curious letters of _John de Monte Corvino_, +about his mission in Cathay, 1289-1305, in Wadding, vi. 69.] + +[Footnote 20: _E.g._ the _Mozzi_, of Greg. X.; _Peruzzi_, of Philip le +Bel; _Spini_, of Boniface VIII.; _Cerchi del Garbo_, of Benedict XI. +(G. Vill. vii. 42, viii. 63, 71; _Dino Comp._ p. 35).] + +Fifty years made then all that striking difference in domestic habits, +in the materials of dress, in the value of money, which they have +usually made in later centuries. The poet of the fourteenth century +describes the proudest nobleman of a hundred years before "with his +leathern girdle and clasp of bone;" and in one of the most beautiful +of all poetic celebrations of the good old time, draws the domestic +life of ancient Florence in the household where his ancestor was born: + + A cosi riposato, a cosi bello + Viver di cittadini, a cosi fida + Cittadinanza, a cosi dolce ostello + Maria mi die, chiamata in alte grida.--_Par._ c. 15.[21] + +[Footnote 21: + + Florence, confined within that ancient wall, + Whence still the chimes at noon and evening sound, + Was sober, modest, and at peace with all. + Myself have seen Bellincion Berti pace + The street in leathern belt; his lady come + Forth from her toilet with unpainted face. + * * * * + Oh happy wives! each soon to lay her head + In her own tomb; and no one yet compelled + To weep deserted in a lonely bed. + * * * * + To such pure life of beauty and repose-- + Such faithful citizens--such happy men-- + The virgin gave me, when my mother's throes + Forced her with cries to call on Mary's name.--WRIGHT.] + +There high-born dames, he says, still plied the distaff and the loom; +still rocked the cradle with the words which their own mothers had +used; or working with their maidens, told them old tales of the +forefathers of the city, "of the Trojans, of Fiesole, and of Rome." +Villani still finds this rudeness within forty years of the end of the +century, almost within the limits of his own and Dante's life; and +speaks of that "old first people," _il primo Popolo Vecchio_, with +their coarse food and expenditure, their leather jerkins, and plain +close gowns, their small dowries and late marriages, as if they were +the first founders of the city, and not a generation which had lasted +on into his own.[22] Twenty years later, his story is of the gaiety, +the riches, the profuse munificence, the brilliant festivities, the +careless and joyous life, which attracted foreigners to Florence as +the city of pleasure; of companies of a thousand or more, all clad in +white robes, under a lord, styled "of Love," passing their time in +sports and dances; of ladies and knights, "going through the city with +trumpets and other instruments, with joy and gladness," and meeting +together in banquets evening and morning; entertaining illustrious +strangers, and honourably escorting them on horseback in their passage +through the city; tempting by their liberality, courtiers, and wits, +and minstrels, and jesters, to add to the amusements of Florence.[23] +Nor were these the boisterous triumphs of unrefined and coarse +merriment. How variety of character was drawn out, how its more +delicate elements were elicited and tempered, how nicely it was +observed, and how finely drawn, let the racy and open-eyed +story-tellers of Florence testify. + +[Footnote 22: G. Vill. vi. 69 (1259).] + +[Footnote 23: G. Vill. vii. 89 (1283).] + +Not perhaps in these troops of revellers, but amid music and song, and +in the pleasant places of social and private life, belonging to the +Florence of arts and poetry, not to the Florence of factions and +strife, should we expect to find the friend of the sweet singer, +Casella, and of the reserved and bold speculator, Guido Cavalcanti; +the mystic poet of the _Vita Nuova_, so sensitive and delicate, +trembling at a gaze or a touch, recording visions, painting angels, +composing Canzoni and commenting on them; finally devoting himself to +the austere consolations of deep study. To superadd to such a +character that of a democratic politician of the middle ages, seems an +incongruous and harsh combination. Yet it was a real one in this +instance. The scholar's life is, in our idea of it, far separated from +the practical and the political; we have been taught by our experience +to disjoin enthusiasm in love, in art, in what is abstract or +imaginative, from keen interest and successful interference in the +affairs and conflicts of life. The practical man may sometimes be also +a _dilettante_; but the dreamer or the thinker, wisely or indolently, +keeps out of the rough ways where real passions and characters meet +and jostle, or if he ventures, seldom gains honour there. The +separation, though a natural one, grows wider as society becomes more +vast and manifold, as its ends, functions, and pursuits are +disentangled, while they multiply. But in Dante's time, and in an +Italian city, it was not such a strange thing that the most refined +and tender interpreter of feeling, the popular poet, whose verses +touched all hearts, and were in every mouth, should be also at once +the ardent follower of all abstruse and difficult learning, and a +prominent character among those who administered the State. In that +narrow sphere of action, in that period of dawning powers and +circumscribed knowledge, it seemed no unreasonable hope or unwise +ambition to attempt the compassing of all science, and to make it +subserve and illustrate the praise of active citizenship.[24] Dante, +like other literary celebrities of the time, was not less from the +custom of the day, than from his own purpose, a public man. He took +his place among his fellow-citizens; he went out to war with them; he +fought, it is said, among the skirmishers at the great Guelf victory +of Campaldino; to qualify himself for office in the democracy, he +enrolled himself in one of the Guilds of the people, and was +matriculated in the "Art" of the Apothecaries; he served the State as +its agent abroad; he went on important missions to the cities and +courts of Italy--according to a Florentine tradition, which enumerates +fourteen distinct embassies, even to Hungary and France. In the +memorable year of Jubilee, 1300, he was one of the Priors of the +Republic. There is no shrinking from fellowship and co-operation and +conflict with the keen or bold men of the market-place and +council-hall, in that mind of exquisite and, as drawn by itself, +exaggerated sensibility. The doings and characters of men, the +workings of society, the fortunes of Italy, were watched and thought +of with as deep an interest as the courses of the stars, and read in +the real spectacle of life with as profound emotion as in the +miraculous page of Virgil; and no scholar ever read Virgil with such +feeling--no astronomer ever watched the stars with more eager +inquisitiveness. The whole man opens to the world around him; all +affections and powers, soul and sense, diligently and thoughtfully +directed and trained, with free and concurrent and equal energy, with +distinct yet harmonious purposes, seek out their respective and +appropriate objects, moral, intellectual, natural, spiritual, in that +admirable scene and hard field where man is placed to labour and love, +to be exercised, proved, and judged. + +[Footnote 24: _Vide_ the opening of the _De Monarchia_.] + +In a fresco in the chapel of the old palace of the Podesta[25] at +Florence is a portrait of Dante, said to be by the hand of his +contemporary Giotto. It was discovered in 1841 under the whitewash, +and a tracing made by Mr. Seymour Kirkup has been reproduced in +fac-simile by the Arundel Society. The fresco was afterwards restored +or repainted with no happy success. He is represented as he might have +been in the year of Campaldino (1289). The countenance is youthful yet +manly, more manly than it appears in the engravings of the picture; +but it only suggests the strong deep features of the well-known +traditional face. He is drawn with much of the softness, and +melancholy pensive sweetness, and with something also of the quaint +stiffness of the _Vita Nuova_--with his flower and his book. With him +is drawn his master, Brunetto Latini,[26] and Corso Donati. We do not +know what occasion led Giotto thus to associate him with the great +"Baron." Dante was, indeed, closely connected with the Donati. The +dwelling of his family was near theirs, in the "Quarter of Scandal," +the Ward of the Porta S. Piero. He married a daughter of their house, +Madonna Gemma. None of his friends are commemorated with more +affection than the companion of his light and wayward days, remembered +not without a shade of anxious sadness, yet with love and hope, +Corso's brother, Forese.[27] No sweeter spirit sings and smiles in the +illumined spheres of Paradise, than she whom Forese remembers as on +earth one, + + Che tra bella e buona + Non so qual fosse piu--[28] + +and who, from the depth of her heavenly joy, teaches the poet that in +the lowest place among the blessed there can be no envy[29]--the +sister of Forese and Corso, Piccarda. The _Commedia_, though it +speaks, as if in prophecy, of Corso's miserable death, avoids the +mention of his name.[30] Its silence is so remarkable as to seem +significant. But though history does not group together Corso and +Dante, the picture represents the truth--their fortunes were linked +together. They were actors in the same scene--at this distance of time +two of the most prominent; though a scene very different from that +calm and grave assembly, which Giotto's placid pencil has drawn on the +old chapel wall. + +[Footnote 25: The Bargello, a prison (1850); a museum (1878). _V._ +Vasari, p. 311.] + +[Footnote 26: He died in 1294. G. Vill. viii. 10.] + +[Footnote 27: _Purgat._ c. 23.] + +[Footnote 28: _Ibid._ c. 24. + + My sister, good and beautiful--which most I know not.--WRIGHT.] + +[Footnote 29: _Parad._ c. 3.] + +[Footnote 30: _Purg._ c. 24, 82-87.] + +The outlines of this part of Dante's history are so well known that it +is not necessary to dwell on them; and more than the outlines we know +not. The family quarrels came to a head, issued in parties, and the +parties took names; they borrowed them from two rival factions in a +neighbouring town, Pistoia, whose feud was imported into Florence; and +the Guelfs became divided into the Black Guelfs who were led by the +Donati, and the White Guelfs who sided with the Cerchi.[31] It still +professed to be but a family feud, confined to the great houses; but +they were too powerful and Florence too small for it not to affect the +whole Republic. The middle classes and the artisans looked on, and +for a time not without satisfaction, at the strife of the great men; +but it grew evident that one party must crush the other, and become +dominant in Florence; and of the two, the Cerchi and their White +adherents were less formidable to the democracy than the unscrupulous +and overbearing Donati, with their military renown and lordly tastes; +proud not merely of being nobles, but Guelf nobles; always loyal +champions, once the martyrs, and now the hereditary assertors, of the +great Guelf cause. The Cerchi with less character and less zeal, but +rich, liberal, and showy, and with more of rough kindness and vulgar +good-nature for the common people, were more popular in Guelf Florence +than the "Parte Guelfa;" and, of course, the Ghibellines wished them +well. Both the contemporary historians of Florence lead us to think +that they might have been the governors and guides of the Republic--if +they had chosen, and had known how; and both, though condemning the +two parties equally, seemed to have thought that this would have been +the best result for the State. But the accounts of both, though they +are very different writers, agree in their scorn of the leaders of the +White Guelfs. They were upstarts, purse-proud, vain, and +coarse-minded; and they dared to aspire to an ambition which they were +too dull and too cowardly to pursue, when the game was in their +hands. They wished to rule; but when they might, they were afraid. The +commons were on their side, the moderate men, the party of law, the +lovers of republican government, and for the most part the +magistrates; but they shrank from their fortune, "more from cowardice +than from goodness, because they exceedingly feared their +adversaries."[32] Boniface VIII. had no prepossessions in Florence, +except for energy and an open hand; the side which was most popular he +would have accepted and backed; but "he would not lose," he said, "the +men for the women." "_Io non voglio perdere gli uomini per le +femminelle._"[33] If the Black party furnished types for the grosser +or fiercer forms of wickedness in the poet's Hell, the White party +surely were the originals of that picture of stupid and cowardly +selfishness, in the miserable crowd who moan and are buffeted in the +vestibule of the Pit, mingled with the angels who dared neither to +rebel nor be faithful, but "_were for themselves_;" and whoever it may +be who is singled out in the "setta dei cattivi," for deeper and +special scorn--he, + + Che fece per vilta il gran rifiuto--[34] + +the idea was derived from the Cerchi in Florence. + +[Footnote 31: In 1300. G. Villani, viii. 38, 39.] + +[Footnote 32: _Dino Comp._ p. 45.] + +[Footnote 33: _Ibid._ p. 62.] + +[Footnote 34: _Inf._ c. 3, 60.] + +A French prince was sent by the Pope to mediate and make peace in +Florence. The Black Guelfs and Corso Donati came with him. The +magistrates were overawed and perplexed. The White party were, step by +step, amused, entrapped, led blindly into false plots, entangled in +the elaborate subtleties, and exposed with all the zest and mockery, +of Italian intrigue--finally chased out of their houses and from the +city, condemned unheard, outlawed, ruined in name and property, by the +Pope's French mediator. With them fell many citizens who had tried to +hold the balance between the two parties: for the leaders of the Black +Guelfs were guilty of no errors of weakness. In two extant lists of +the proscribed--condemned by default, for corruption and various +crimes, especially for hindering the entrance into Florence of Charles +de Valois, to a heavy fine and banishment--then, two months after, for +contumacy, to be burned alive if he ever fell into the hands of the +Republic--appears the name of Dante Alighieri; and more than this, +concerning the history of his expulsion, we know not.[35] + +[Footnote 35: Pelli, _Memorie per servire alla vita di Dante._ Fir. +1823, pp. 105, 106.] + +Of his subsequent life, history tells us little more than the general +character. He acted for a time in concert with the expelled party, +when they attempted to force their way back to Florence; he gave them +up at last in scorn and despair: but he never returned to Florence. +And he found no new home for the rest of his days. Nineteen years, +from his exile to his death, he was a wanderer. The character is +stamped on his writings. History, tradition, documents, all scanty or +dim, do but disclose him to us at different points, appearing here and +there, we are not told how or why. One old record, discovered by +antiquarian industry, shows him in a village church near Florence, +planning, with the Cerchi and the White party, an attack on the Black +Guelfs. In another, he appears in the Val di Magra, making peace +between its small potentates: in another, as the inhabitant of a +certain street in Padua. The traditions of some remote spots about +Italy still connect his name with a ruined tower, a mountain glen, a +cell in a convent. In the recollections of the following generation, +his solemn and melancholy form mingled reluctantly, and for awhile, in +the brilliant court of the Scaligers; and scared the women, as a +visitant of the other world, as he passed by their doors in the +streets of Verona. Rumour brings him to the West--with probability to +Paris, more doubtfully to Oxford. But little certain can be made out +about the places where he was an honoured and admired, but it may be, +not always a welcome guest, till we find him sheltered, cherished, +and then laid at last to rest, by the Lords of Ravenna. There he still +rests, in a small, solitary chapel, built, not by a Florentine, but a +Venetian. Florence, "that mother of little love," asked for his bones; +but rightly asked in vain.[36] His place of repose is better in those +remote and forsaken streets "by the shore of the Adrian Sea," hard by +the last relics of the Roman Empire--the mausoleum of the children of +Theodosius, and the mosaics of Justinian--than among the assembled +dead of S. Croce, or amid the magnificence of S. Maria del Fiore.[37] + +[Footnote 36: See Dr. Barlow's _Sixth Centenary Festivals of Dante_. +(1866.)] + +[Footnote 37: These notices have been carefully collected by _Pelli_, +who seems to have left little to glean (_Memorie_, &c. Ed. 2da, +1823). A few additions have been made by _Gerini_ (_Mem. Stor. della +Lunigiana_), and _Troya_ (_Veltro Allegorico_), but they are not of +much importance. _Arrivabene_ (_Secolo di Dante_) has brought together +a mass of illustration which is very useful, and would be more so, if +he were more careful, and quoted his authorities. _Balbo_ arranges +these materials with sense and good feeling; though, as a writer, he +is below his subject. A few traits and anecdotes may be found in the +novelists--as Sacchetti.] + +The _Commedia_, at the first glance, shows the traces of its author's +life. It is the work of a wanderer. The very form in which it is cast +is that of a journey, difficult, toilsome, perilous, and full of +change. It is more than a working out of that touching phraseology of +the middle ages, in which "the way" was the technical theological +expression for this mortal life; and "_viator_" meant man in his +state of trial, as "_comprehensor_" meant man made perfect, having +attained to his heavenly country. It is more than merely this. The +writer's mind is full of the recollections and definite images of his +various journeys. The permanent scenery of the _Inferno_ and +_Purgatorio_, very variously and distinctly marked, is that of travel. +The descent down the sides of the Pit, and the ascent of the Sacred +Mountain, show one familiar with such scenes--one who had climbed +painfully in perilous passes, and grown dizzy on the brink of narrow +ledges over sea or torrent. It is scenery from the gorges of the Alps +and Apennines, or the terraces and precipices of the Riviera. Local +reminiscences abound:--the severed rocks of the Adige Valley--the +waterfall of S. Benedetto--the crags of Pietra-pana and S. Leo, which +overlook the plains of Lucca and Ravenna--the "fair river" that flows +among the poplars between Chiaveri and Sestri--the marble quarries of +Carrara--the "rough and desert ways between Lerici and Turbia," and +those towery cliffs, going sheer into the deep sea at Noli, which +travellers on the Corniche road some thirty years ago may yet remember +with fear. Mountain experience furnished that picture of the traveller +caught in an Alpine mist and gradually climbing above it; seeing the +vapours grow thin, and the sun's orb appear faintly through them; and +issuing at last into sunshine on the mountain top, while the light of +sunset was lost already on the shores below: + + Ai raggi, morti gia nei bassi lidi:--_Purg._ 17. + +or that image of the cold dull shadow over the torrent, beneath the +Alpine fir-- + + Un'ombra smorta + Qual sotto foglie verdi e rami nigri + Sovra suoi freddi rivi, l'Alpe porta:--_Purg._ 33.[38] + +or of the large snow-flakes falling without wind, among the +mountains-- + + d'un cader lento + Piovean di fuoco dilatate falde + Come di neve in Alpe senza vento.--_Inferno_, 14.[39] + +[Footnote 38: + + A death-like shade-- + Like that beneath black boughs and foliage green + O'er the cool streams in Alpine glens display'd.--WRIGHT.] + +[Footnote 39: + + O'er all the sandy desert falling slow, + Were shower'd dilated flakes of fire, like snow + On Alpine summits, when the wind is low.--IBID.] + +He delights in a local name and local image--the boiling pitch, and +the clang of the shipwrights in the arsenal of Venice--the sepulchral +fields of Arles and Pola--the hot-spring of Viterbo--the hooded monks +of Cologne--the dykes of Flanders and Padua--the Maremma, with its +rough brushwood, its wild boars, its snakes, and fevers. He had +listened to the south wind among the pine tops, in the forest by the +sea, at Ravenna. He had watched under the Carisenda tower at Bologna, +and seen the driving clouds "give away their motion" to it, and make +it seem to be falling; and had noticed how at Rome the October sun +sets between Corsica and Sardinia.[40] His images of the sea are +numerous and definite--the ship backing out of the tier in harbour, +the diver plunging after the fouled anchor, the mast rising, the ship +going fast before the wind, the water closing in its wake, the arched +backs of the porpoises the forerunners of a gale, the admiral watching +everything from poop to prow, the oars stopping altogether at the +sound of the whistle, the swelling sails becoming slack when the mast +snaps and falls.[41] Nowhere could we find so many of the most +characteristic and strange sensations of the traveller touched with +such truth. Everyone knows the lines which speak of the voyager's +sinking of heart on the first evening at sea, and of the longings +wakened in the traveller at the beginning of his journey by the +distant evening bell[42]; the traveller's _morning_ feelings are not +less delicately noted--the strangeness on first waking in the open air +with the sun high; morning thoughts, as day by day he wakes nearer +home; the morning sight of the sea-beach quivering in the early light; +the tarrying and lingering, before setting out in the morning[43]-- + + Noi eravam lunghesso 'l mare ancora, + Come gente che pensa al suo cammino, + Che va col cuore, e col corpo dimora.[44] + +[Footnote 40: _Inf._ 31, 18.] + +[Footnote 41: _Ibid._ 17, 16, 31; _Purg._ 24; _Par._ 2; _Inf._ 22; +_Purg._ 30; _Par._ 25; _Inf._ 7.] + +[Footnote 42: _Purg._ 8. "Era gia l'ora," &c.] + +[Footnote 43: _Purg._ 19, 27, 1, 2.] + +[Footnote 44: + + By ocean's shore we still prolonged our stay + Like men, who, thinking of a journey near, + Advance in thought, while yet their limbs delay.--WRIGHT.] + +He has recorded equally the anxiety, the curiosity, the suspicion with +which, in those times, stranger met and eyed stranger on the road; and +a still more characteristic trait is to be found in those lines where +he describes the pilgrim gazing around in the church of his vow, and +thinking how he shall tell of it: + + E quasi peregrin che si ricrea + Nel tempio del suo voto riguardando, + E spera gia ridir com'ello stea:--_Parad._ 31.[45] + +or again, in that description, so simple and touching, of his thoughts +while waiting to see the relic for which he left his home: + + Quale e colui che forse di Croazia + Viene a veder la Veronica nostra, + Che per l'antica fama non si sazia, + Ma dice nel pensier, fin che si mostra; + Signor mio Gesu Cristo, Dio verace, + Or fu si fatta la sembianza vostra?--_Parad._ 31.[46] + +[Footnote 45: + + And like a pilgrim who with fond delight + Surveys the temple he has vow'd to see, + And hopes one day its wonders to recite.--IBID.] + +[Footnote 46: + + Like one who, from Croatia come to see + Our Veronica (image long adored), + Gazes, as though content he ne'er could be-- + Thus musing, while the relic is pourtray'd-- + "Jesus my God, my Saviour and my Lord, + O were thy features these I see display'd?"--WRIGHT. + + Quella imagine benedetta la quale Gesu Cristo lascio a noi + per esempio della sua bellissima figura.--_Vita Nuova_, p. + 353. + +He speaks of the pilgrims going to Rome to see it; compare also the +sonnet to the pilgrims, p. 355: + + Deh peregrini, che pensosi andate + Forse di cosa, che non v'e presente, + Venite voi di si lontana gente, + Com'alla vista voi ne dimostrate.] + +Of these years then of disappointment and exile the _Divina Commedia_ +was the labour and fruit. A story in Boccaccio's life of Dante, told +with some detail, implies indeed that it was begun, and some progress +made in it, while Dante was yet in Florence--begun in Latin, and he +quotes three lines of it--continued afterwards in Italian. This is not +impossible; indeed the germ and presage of it may be traced in the +_Vita Nuova_. The idealised saint is there, in all the grace of her +pure and noble humbleness, the guide and safeguard of the poet's +soul. She is already in glory with Mary the queen of angels. She +already beholds the face of the Everblessed. And the _envoye_ of the +_Vita Nuova_ is the promise of the _Commedia_. "After this sonnet," +(in which he describes how beyond the widest sphere of heaven his love +had beheld a lady receiving honour, and dazzling by her glory the +unaccustomed spirit)--"After this sonnet there appeared to me a +marvellous vision, in which I saw things which made me resolve not to +speak more of this blessed one, until such time as I should be able to +indite more worthily of her. And to attain to this, I study to the +utmost of my power, as she truly knows. So that, if it shall be the +pleasure of Him, by whom all things live, that my life continue for +some years, I hope to say of her that which never hath been said of +any woman. And afterwards, may it please Him, who is the Lord of +kindness, that my soul may go to behold the glory of her lady, that +is, of that blessed Beatrice, who gloriously gazes on the countenance +of Him, _qui est per omnia secula benedictus_."[47] It would be +wantonly violating probability and the unity of a great life, to +suppose that this purpose, though transformed, was ever forgotten or +laid aside. The poet knew not indeed what he was promising, what he +was pledging himself to--through what years of toil and anguish he +would have to seek the light and the power he had asked; in what form +his high venture should be realised. But the _Commedia_ is the work of +no light resolve, and we need not be surprised at finding the resolve +and the purpose at the outset of the poet's life. We may freely accept +the key supplied by the words of the _Vita Nuova_. The spell of +boyhood is never broken, through the ups and downs of life. His course +of thought advances, alters, deepens, but is continuous. From youth to +age, from the first glimpse to the perfect work, the same idea abides +with him, "even from the flower till the grape was ripe." It may +assume various changes--an image of beauty, a figure of philosophy, a +voice from the other world, a type of heavenly wisdom and joy--but +still it holds, in self-imposed and willing thraldom, that creative +and versatile and tenacious spirit. It was the dream and hope of too +deep and strong a mind to fade and come to naught--to be other than +the seed of the achievement and crown of life. But with all faith in +the star and the freedom of genius, we may doubt whether the +prosperous citizen would have done that which was done by the man +without a home. Beatrice's glory might have been sung in grand though +barbarous Latin to the literati of the fourteenth century; or a poem +of new beauty might have fixed the language and opened the literature +of modern Italy; but it could hardly have been the _Commedia_. That +belongs, in its date and its greatness, to the time when sorrow had +become the poet's daily portion, and the condition of his life. + +[Footnote 47: _Vita Nuova_, last paragraph. See _Purg._ 30; _Parad._ +30, 6, 28-33.] + +The _Commedia_ is a novel and startling apparition in literature. +Probably it has been felt by some, who have approached it with the +reverence due to a work of such renown, that the world has been +generous in placing it so high. It seems so abnormal, so lawless, so +reckless of all ordinary proprieties and canons of feeling, taste, and +composition. It is rough and abrupt; obscure in phrase and allusion, +doubly obscure in purpose. It is a medley of all subjects usually kept +distinct: scandal of the day and transcendental science, politics and +confessions, coarse satire and angelic joy, private wrongs, with the +mysteries of the faith, local names and habitations of earth, with +visions of hell and heaven. It is hard to keep up with the +ever-changing current of feeling, to pass as the poet passes, without +effort or scruple, from tenderness to ridicule, from hope to bitter +scorn or querulous complaint, from high-raised devotion to the +calmness of prosaic subtleties or grotesque detail. Each separate +element and vein of thought has its precedent, but not their +amalgamation. Many had written visions of the unseen world, but they +had not blended with them their personal fortunes. S. Augustine had +taught the soul to contemplate its own history, and had traced its +progress from darkness to light;[48] but he had not interwoven with it +the history of Italy, and the consummation of all earthly destinies. +Satire was no new thing; Juvenal had given it a moral, some of the +Provencal poets a political turn; S. Jerome had kindled into it +fiercely and bitterly even while expounding the Prophets; but here it +streams forth in all its violence, within the precincts of the eternal +world, and alternates with the hymns of the blessed. Lucretius had +drawn forth the poetry of nature and its laws; Virgil and Livy had +unfolded the poetry of the Roman empire; S. Augustine, the still +grander poetry of the history of the City of God; but none had yet +ventured to weave into one the three wonderful threads. And yet the +scope of the Italian poet, vast and comprehensive as the issue of all +things, universal as the government which directs nature and +intelligence, forbids him not to stoop to the lowest caitiff he has +ever despised, the minutest fact in nature that has ever struck his +eye, the merest personal association which hangs pleasantly in his +memory. Writing for all time, he scruples not to mix with all that is +august and permanent in history and prophecy, incidents the most +transient, and names the most obscure; to waste an immortality of +shame or praise on those about whom his own generation were to inquire +in vain. Scripture history runs into profane; Pagan legends teach +their lesson side by side with Scripture scenes and miracles; heroes +and poets of heathenism, separated from their old classic world, have +their place in the world of faith, discourse with Christians of +Christian dogmas, and even mingle with the Saints; Virgil guides the +poet through his fear and his penitence to the gates of Paradise. + +[Footnote 48: See _Convito_, 1, 2.] + +This feeling of harsh and extravagant incongruity, of causeless and +unpardonable darkness, is perhaps the first impression of many readers +of the _Commedia_. But probably as they read on, there will mingle +with this a sense of strange and unusual grandeur, arising not alone +from the hardihood of the attempt, and the mystery of the subject, but +from the power and the character of the poet. It will strike them that +words cut deeper than is their wont; that from that wild uncongenial +imagery, thoughts emerge of singular truth and beauty. Their +dissatisfaction will be chequered, even disturbed--for we can often +bring ourselves to sacrifice much for the sake of a clear and +consistent view--by the appearance, amid much that repels them, of +proofs undeniable and accumulating of genius as mighty as it is +strange. Their perplexity and disappointment may grow into distinct +condemnation, or it may pass into admiration and delight; but no one +has ever come to the end of the _Commedia_ without feeling that if it +has given him a new view and specimen of the wildness and +unaccountable waywardness of the human mind, it has also added, as few +other books have, to his knowledge of its feelings, its capabilities, +and its grasp, and suggested larger and more serious thoughts, for +which he may be grateful, concerning that unseen world of which he is +even here a member. + +Dante would not have thanked his admirers for becoming apologists. +Those in whom the sense of imperfection and strangeness overpowers +sympathy for grandeur, and enthusiasm for nobleness, and joy in +beauty, he certainly would have left to themselves. But neither would +he teach any that he was leading them along a smooth and easy road. +The _Commedia_ will always be a hard and trying book; nor did the +writer much care that it should be otherwise. Much of this is no doubt +to be set down to its age; much of its roughness and extravagance, as +well as of its beauty--its allegorical spirit, its frame and scenery. +The idea of a visionary voyage through the worlds of pain and bliss is +no invention of the poet--it was one of the commonest and most +familiar medieval vehicles of censure or warning; and those who love +to trace the growth and often strange fortunes of popular ideas, or +whose taste leads them to disbelieve in genius, and track the +parentage of great inventions to the foolish and obscure, may find +abundant materials in the literature of legends.[49] But his own +age--the age which received the _Commedia_ with mingled enthusiasm and +wonder, and called it the Divine, was as much perplexed as we are, +though probably rather pleased thereby than offended. That within a +century after its composition, in the more famous cities and +universities of Italy, Florence, Venice, Bologna, and Pisa, chairs +should have been founded, and illustrious men engaged to lecture on +it, is a strange homage to its power, even in that time of quick +feeling; but as strange and great a proof of its obscurity. What is +dark and forbidding in it was scarcely more clear to the poet's +contemporaries. And he, whose last object was amusement, invites no +audience but a patient and confiding one. + + O voi che siete in piccioletta barca, + Desiderosi di ascoltar, seguiti + Dietro al mio legno che cantando varca, + + Tornate a riveder li vostri liti: + Non vi mettete in pelago, che forse + Perdendo me rimarreste smarriti. + + L'acqua ch'io prendo giammai non si corse: + Minerva spira, e conducemi Apollo, + E nuove muse mi dimostran l'Orse. + + Voi altri pochi, che drizzaste 'l collo + Per tempo al pan degli angeli, del quale + Vivesi qui, ma non si vien satollo, + + Metter potete ben per l'alto sale + Vostro navigio, servando mio solco + Dinanzi all'acqua che ritorna eguale. + + Que gloriosi che passaro a Colco, + Non s'ammiraron, come voi farete, + Quando Jason vider fatto bifolco.--_Parad._ 2.[50] + +[Footnote 49: _Vide_ Ozanam, _Dante_, pp. 535, _sqq._ Ed.] + +[Footnote 50: + + O ye who fain would listen to my song, + Following in little bark full eagerly + My venturous ship, that chanting hies along, + + Turn back unto your native shores again; + Tempt not the deep, lest haply losing me, + In unknown paths bewildered ye remain. + + I am the first this voyage to essay; + Minerva breathes--Apollo is my guide; + And new-born muses do the Bears display. + + Ye other few, who have look'd up on high + For angels' food betimes, e'en here supplied + Largely, but not enough to satisfy,-- + + Mid the deep ocean ye your course may take, + My track pursuing the pure waters through, + Ere reunites the quickly-closing wake. + + Those glorious ones, who drove of yore their prow + To Colchos, wonder'd not as ye will do, + When they saw Jason working at the plough. + + WRIGHT'S _Dante_.] + +The character of the _Commedia_ belongs much more, in its excellence +and its imperfections, to the poet himself and the nature of his +work, than to his age. That cannot screen his faults; nor can it +arrogate to itself, it must be content to share, his glory. His +leading idea and line of thought was much more novel then than it is +now, and belongs much more to the modern than the medieval world. The +_Story of a Life_, the poetry of man's journey through the wilderness +to his true country, is now in various and very different shapes as +hackneyed a form of imagination, as an allegory, an epic, a legend of +chivalry were in former times. Not, of course, that any time has been +without its poetical feelings and ideas on the subject; and never were +they deeper and more diversified, more touching and solemn, than in +the ages that passed from S. Augustine and S. Gregory to S. Thomas and +S. Bonaventura. But a philosophical poem, where they were not merely +the colouring, but the subject, an _epos_ of the soul, placed for its +trial in a fearful and wonderful world, with relations to time and +matter, history and nature, good and evil, the beautiful, the +intelligible, and the mysterious, sin and grace, the infinite and the +eternal--and having in the company and under the influences of other +intelligences, to make its choice, to struggle, to succeed or fail, to +gain the light, or be lost--this was a new and unattempted theme. It +has been often tried since, in faith or doubt, in egotism, in sorrow, +in murmuring, in affectation, sometimes in joy--in various forms, in +prose and verse, completed or fragmentary, in reality or fiction, in +the direct or the shadowed story, in the _Pilgrim's Progress_, in +Rousseau's _Confessions_, in _Wilhelm Meister_ and _Faust_, in the +_Excursion_. It is common enough now for the poet, in the faith of +human sympathy, and in the sense of the unexhausted vastness of his +mysterious subject, to believe that his fellows will not see without +interest and profit, glimpses of his own path and fortunes--hear from +his lips the disclosure of his chief delights, his warnings, his +fears--follow the many-coloured changes, the impressions and workings, +of a character, at once the contrast and the counterpart to their own. +But it was a new path then; and he needed to be, and was, a bold man, +who first opened it--a path never trod without peril, usually with +loss or failure. + +And certainly no great man ever made less secret to himself of his own +genius. He is at no pains to rein in or to dissemble his consciousness +of power, which he has measured without partiality, and feels sure +will not fail him. "Fidandomi di me piu che di un altro"[51]--is a +reason which he assigns without reserve. We look with the distrust and +hesitation of modern days, yet, in spite of ourselves, not without +admiration and regret, at such frank hardihood. It was more common +once than now. When the world was young, it was more natural and +allowable--it was often seemly and noble. Men knew not their +difficulties as we know them--we, to whom time, which has taught so +much wisdom, has brought so many disappointments--we who have seen how +often the powerful have fallen short, and the noble gone astray, and +the most admirable missed their perfection. It is becoming in us to +distrust ourselves--to be shy if we cannot be modest; it is but a +respectful tribute to human weakness and our brethren's failures. But +there was a time when great men dared to claim their greatness--not in +foolish self-complacency, but in unembarrassed and majestic +simplicity, in magnanimity and truth, in the consciousness of a +serious and noble purpose, and of strength to fulfil it. Without +passion, without elation as without shrinking, the poet surveys his +superiority and his high position, as something external to him; he +has no doubts about it, and affects none. He would be a coward, if he +shut his eyes to what he could do; as much a trifler in displaying +reserve as ostentation. Nothing is more striking in the _Commedia_ +than the serene and unhesitating confidence with which he announces +himself the heir and reviver of the poetic power so long lost to the +world--the heir and reviver of it in all its fulness. He doubts not +of the judgment of posterity. One has arisen who shall throw into the +shade all modern reputations, who shall bequeath to Christendom the +glory of that name of Poet, "che piu dura e piu onora," hitherto the +exclusive boast of heathenism, and claim the rare honours of the +laurel: + + Si rade volte, padre, se ne coglie + Per trionfare o Cesare o poeta, + (Colpa e vergogna dell'umane voglie), + Che partorir letizia in su la lieta + Delfica deita dovria la fronda + Peneia quando alcun di se asseta.--_Parad._ 1.[52] + +[Footnote 51: _Convito_, 1, 10.] + +[Footnote 52: + + For now so rarely Poet gathers these, + Or Caesar, winning an immortal praise + (Shame unto man's degraded energies), + That joy should to the Delphic God arise + When haply any one aspires to gain + The high reward of the Peneian prize.--WRIGHT.] + +He has but to follow his star to be sure of the glorious port:[53] he +is the master of language: he can give fame to the dead--no task or +enterprise appals him, for whom spirits keep watch in heaven, and +angels have visited the shades--"tal si parti dal cantar +alleluia:"--who is Virgil's foster child and familiar friend. Virgil +bids him lay aside the last vestige of fear. Virgil is to "crown him +king and priest over himself,"[54] for a higher venture than heathen +poetry had dared; in Virgil's company he takes his place without +diffidence, and without vain-glory, among the great poets of old--a +sister soul.[55] + +[Footnote 53: Brunetto Latini's Prophecy, _Inf._ 15.] + +[Footnote 54: See the grand ending of _Purg._ 27. + + Tratto t'ho qui con ingegno e con arte; + Lo tuo piacere omai prendi per duce: + Fuor se' dell'erte vie, fuor se' dell'arte. + Vedi il sole che 'n fronte ti riluce. + Vede l'erbetta, i fiori, e gli arboscelli + Che questa terra sol da se produce. + Mentre che vegnon lieti gli occhi belli + Che lagrimando a te venir mi fenno, + Seder ti puoi e puoi andar tra elli. + Non aspettar mio dir piu ne mio cenno; + Libero, dritto, sano e tuo arbitrio, + E fallo fora non fare a suo senno: + Perch'io te sopra te corono e mitrio.] + +[Footnote 55: _Purg._ c. 21.] + + Poiche la voce fu restata e queta, + Vidi quattro grand'ombre a noi venire: + Sembianza avean ne trista ne lieta: + + * * * * + + Cosi vidi adunar la bella scuola + Di quel signor dell'altissimo canto + Che sovra gli altri come aquila vola. + Da ch'ebber ragionato insieme alquanto + Volsersi a me con salutevol cenno + E 'l mio maestro sorrise di tanto. + E piu d'onore ancora assai mi fenno: + Ch'essi mi fecer della loro schiera, + Si ch'io fui sesto tra cotanto senno.--_Inf._ 4.[56] + +[Footnote 56: + + Ceased had the voice--when in composed array + Four mighty shades approaching I survey'd;-- + Nor joy, nor sorrow did their looks betray. + + * * * * + + Assembled thus, was offered to my sight + The school of him, the Prince of poetry, + Who, eagle-like, o'er others takes his flight. + When they together had conversed awhile, + They turned to me with salutation bland, + Which from my master drew a friendly smile: + And greater glory still they bade me share, + Making me join their honourable band-- + The sixth united to such genius rare.--WRIGHT.] + +This sustained magnanimity and lofty self-reliance, which never +betrays itself, is one of the main elements in the grandeur of the +_Commedia_. It is an imposing spectacle to see such fearlessness, such +freedom, and such success in an untried path, amid unprepared +materials and rude instruments, models scanty and only half +understood, powers of language still doubtful and suspected, the +deepest and strongest thought still confined to unbending forms and +the harshest phrase; exact and extensive knowledge, as yet far out of +reach; with no help from time, which familiarises all things, and of +which, manner, elaboration, judgment, and taste are the gifts and +inheritance;--to see the poet, trusting to his eye "which saw +everything"[57] and his searching and creative spirit, venture +undauntedly into all regions of thought and feeling, to draw thence a +picture of the government of the universe. + +[Footnote 57: "Dante che tutto vedea."--_Sacchetti_, Nov. 114.] + +But such greatness had to endure its price and its counterpoise. Dante +was alone:--except in his visionary world, solitary and companionless. +The blind Greek had his throng of listeners; the blind Englishman his +home and the voices of his daughters; Shakspere had his free +associates of the stage; Goethe, his correspondents, a court, and all +Germany to applaud. Not so Dante. The friends of his youth are already +in the region of spirits, and meet him there--Casella, Forese;--Guido +Cavalcanti will soon be with them. In this upper world he thinks and +writes as a friendless man--to whom all that he had held dearest was +either lost or embittered; he thinks and writes for himself. + +And so he is his own law; he owns no tribunal of opinion or standard +of taste, except among the great dead. He hears them exhort him to +"let the world talk on--to stand like a tower unshaken by the +winds."[58] He fears to be "a timid friend to truth," "--to lose life +among those who shall call this present time antiquity."[59] He +belongs to no party. He is his own arbiter of the beautiful and the +becoming; his own judge over right and injustice, innocence and guilt. +He has no followers to secure, no school to humour, no public to +satisfy; nothing to guide him, and nothing to consult, nothing to bind +him, nothing to fear, out of himself. In full trust in heart and will, +in his sense of truth, in his teeming brain, he gives himself free +course. If men have idolised the worthless, and canonised the base, he +reverses their award without mercy, and without apology; if they have +forgotten the just because he was obscure, he remembers him: if "Monna +Berta and Ser Martino,"[60] the wimpled and hooded gossips of the +day, with their sage company, have settled it to their own +satisfaction that Providence cannot swerve from their general rules, +cannot save where they have doomed, or reject where they have +approved--he both fears more and hopes more. Deeply reverent to the +judgment of the ages past, reverent to the persons whom they have +immortalised for good and even for evil, in his own day he cares for +no man's person and no man's judgment. And he shrinks not from the +auguries and forecastings of his mind about their career and fate. Men +reasoned rapidly in those days on such subjects, and without much +scruple; but not with such deliberate and discriminating sternness. +The most popular and honoured names in Florence, + + Farinata e 'l Tegghiaio, che fur si degni, + Jacopo Rusticucci, Arrigo, e 'l Mosca + E gli altri, ch'a ben far poser gl'ingegni; + +have yet the damning brand: no reader of the _Inferno_ can have +forgotten the shock of that terrible reply to the poet's questionings +about their fate: + + Ei son tra le anime piu nere.[61] + +[Footnote 58: _Purg._ 5.] + +[Footnote 59: + + La luce in che rideva il mio tesoro + Ch'io trovai li, si fe' prima corrusca, + Quale a raggio di sole specchio d'oro; + Indi rispose: coscienza fusca + O della propria o dell'altrui vergogna + Pur sentira la tua parola brusca; + Ma nondimen, rimossa ogni menzogna, + Tutta tua vision fa manifesta, + E lascia pur grattar dov'e la rogna: + Che se la voce tua sara molesta + Nel primo gusto, vital nutrimento + Lascera poi quando sara digesta. + Questo tuo grido fara come vento + Che le piu alte cime piu percuote: + E cio non fia d'onor poco argomento. + Pero ti son mostrate, in queste ruote, + Nel monte, e nella valle dolorosa, + Pur l'anime che son di fama note. + Che l'animo di quel ch'ode non posa, + Ne ferma fede, per esemplo ch'aja + La sua radice incognito e nascosa, + Ne per altro argumento che non paja.--_Parad._ 17.] + +[Footnote 60: + + Non creda Monna Berta e Ser Martino + Per vedere un furare, altro offerere, + Vederli dentro al consiglio divino: + Che quel puo surger, e quel puo cadere.--_Ibid._ 13.] + +[Footnote 61: _Inf._ 6.] + +If he is partial, it is no vulgar partiality: friendship and old +affection do not venture to exempt from its fatal doom the sin of his +famous master, Brunetto Latini;[62] nobleness and great deeds, a +kindred character and common wrongs, are not enough to redeem +Farinata; and he who could tell her story bowed to the eternal law, +and dared not save Francesca. If he condemns by a severer rule than +that of the world, he absolves with fuller faith in the possibilities +of grace. Many names of whom history has recorded no good, are marked +by him for bliss; yet not without full respect for justice. The +penitent of the last hour is saved, but he suffers loss. Manfred's +soul is rescued; mercy had accepted his tears, and forgiven his great +sins; and the excommunication of his enemy did not bar his salvation: + + Per lor maladizion si non si perde + Che non possa tornar l'eterno amore + Mentre che la speranza ha fior del verde.--_Purg._ 3. + +[Footnote 62: + + Che in la mente m'e fitta, ed or m'accuora, + _La cara buona imagine paterna._--_Inf._ 15.] + +Yet his sin, though pardoned, was to keep him for long years from the +perfection of heaven.[63] And with the same independence with which he +assigns their fate, he selects his instances--instances which are to +be the types of character and its issues. No man ever owned more +unreservedly the fascination of greatness, its sway over the +imagination and the heart; no one prized more the grand harmony and +sense of fitness which there is, when the great man and the great +office are joined in one, and reflect each other's greatness. The +famous and great of all ages are gathered in the poet's vision; the +great names even of fable--Geryon and the giants, the Minotaur and +Centaurs, and the heroes of Thebes and Troy. But not the great and +famous only: this is too narrow, too conventional a sphere; it is not +real enough. He felt, what the modern world feels so keenly, that +wonderful histories are latent in the inconspicuous paths of life, in +the fugitive incidents of the hour, among the persons whose faces we +have seen. The Church had from the first been witness to the deep +interest of individual life. The rising taste for novels showed that +society at large was beginning to be alive to it. And it is this +feeling--that behind the veil there may be grades of greatness but +nothing insignificant--that led Dante to refuse to restrict himself to +the characters of fame. He will associate with them the living men who +have stood round him; they are part of the same company with the +greatest. That they have interested him, touched him, moved his +indignation or pity, struck him as examples of great vicissitude or +of a perfect life, have pleased him, loved him--this is enough why +they should live in his poem as they have lived to him. He chooses at +will; history, if it has been negligent at the time about those whom +he thought worthy of renown, must be content with its loss. He tells +their story, or touches them with a word like the most familiar names, +according as he pleases. The obscure highway robber, the obscure +betrayer of his sister's honour--Rinier da Corneto and Rinier Pazzo, +and Caccianimico--are ranked, not according to their obscurity, but +according to the greatness of their crimes, with the famous +conquerors, and "scourges of God," and seducers of the heroic age, +Pyrrhus and Attila, and the great Jason of "royal port, who sheds no +tear in his torments."[64] He earns as high praise from Virgil, for +his curse on the furious wrath of the old frantic Florentine burgher, +as if he had cursed the disturber of the world's peace.[65] And so in +the realms of joy, among the faithful accomplishers of the highest +trusts, kings and teachers of the nations, founders of orders, sainted +empresses, appear those whom, though the world had forgotten or +misread them, the poet had enshrined in his familiar thoughts, for +their sweetness, their gentle goodness, their nobility of soul; the +penitent, the nun, the old crusading ancestor, the pilgrim who had +deserted the greatness which he had created, the brave logician, who +"syllogised unpalatable truths" in the Quartier Latin of Paris.[66] + +[Footnote 63: Charles of Anjou, his Guelf conqueror, is placed above +him, in the valley of the kings (_Purg._ 7), "Colui dal maschio +naso"--notwithstanding the charges afterwards made against him +(_Purg._ 20).] + +[Footnote 64: See the magnificent picture, _Inf._ 18.] + +[Footnote 65: _Ibid._ 8.] + +[Footnote 66: Cunizza, Piccarda, Cacciaguida, Romeo. (_Parad._ 9, 3, +15, 6, 10.) + + ----La luce eterna di Sigieri + Che leggendo nel vico degli Strami + Sillogizzo invidiosi veri---- + +in company with S. Thomas Aquinas, in the sphere of the Sun. Ozanam +gives a few particulars of this forgotten professor of the "Rue du +Fouarre," pp. 320-23.] + +There is small resemblance in all this--this arbitrary and imperious +tone, this range of ideas, feelings, and images, this unshackled +freedom, this harsh reality--to the dreamy gentleness of the _Vita +Nuova_, or even the staid argumentation of the more mature _Convito_. +The _Vita Nuova_ is all self-concentration--a brooding, not unpleased, +over the varying tides of feeling, which are little influenced by the +world without; where every fancy, every sensation, every superstition +of the lover is detailed with the most whimsical subtlety. The +_Commedia_, too, has its tenderness--and that more deep, more natural, +more true, than the poet had before adapted to the traditionary +formulae of the "Courts of Love,"--the eyes of Beatrice are as bright, +and the "conquering light of her smile;"[67] they still culminate, +but they are not alone, in the poet's heaven. And the professed +subject of the _Commedia_ is still Dante's own story and life; he +still makes himself the central point. And steeled as he is by that +high and hard experience of which his poem is the projection and +type--"Ben tetragono ai colpi di ventura"--a stern and brief-spoken +man, set on objects, and occupied with a theme, lofty and vast as can +occupy man's thoughts, he still lets escape ever and anon some passing +avowal of delicate sensitiveness,[68] lingers for a moment on some +indulged self-consciousness, some recollection of his once quick and +changeful mood--"io che son trasmutabil per tutte guise"[69]--or half +playfully alludes to the whispered name of a lady,[70] whose pleasant +courtesy has beguiled a few days of exile. But he is no longer +spell-bound and entangled in fancies of his own weaving--absorbed in +the unprofitable contemplation of his own internal sensations. The man +is indeed the same, still a Florentine, still metaphysical, still a +lover. He returns to the haunts and images of youth, to take among +them his poet's crown; but "with other voice and other garb,"[71] a +penitent and a prophet--with larger thoughts, wider sympathies, freer +utterance; sterner and fiercer, yet nobler and more genuine in his +tenderness--as one whom trial has made serious, and keen, and +intolerant of evil, but not sceptical or callous; yet with the +impressions and memories of a very different scene from his old +day-dreams. + +[Footnote 67: Vincendo me col lume d'un sorriso.--_Parad._ 18.] + +[Footnote 68: For instance, his feeling of distress at gazing at the +blind, who were not aware of his presence-- + + A me pareva andando fare oltraggio + Vedendo altrui, non essendo veduto:--_Purg._ 13. + +and of shame, at being tempted to listen to a quarrel between two lost +spirits: + + Ad ascoltarli er'io del tutto fisso, + Quando 'l Maestro mi disse: or pur mira, + Che per poco e, che teco non mi risso. + Quando io 'l senti' a me parlar con ira + Volsimi verso lui con tal vergogna, + Ch'ancor per la memoria mi si gira, &c.--_Inf._ 30. + +and the burst, + + O dignitosa coscienza e netta, + Come t'e picciol fallo amaro morso.--_Purg._ 3.] + +[Footnote 69: _Parad._ 5.] + +[Footnote 70: _Purg._ 24.] + +[Footnote 71: _Parad._ 25.] + + After that it was the pleasure of the citizens of that + fairest and most famous daughter of Rome, Florence, to cast + me forth from her most sweet bosom (wherein I had been + nourished up to the maturity of my life, and in which, with + all peace to her, I long with all my heart to rest my weary + soul, and finish the time which is given me), I have passed + through almost all the regions to which this language + reaches, a wanderer, almost a beggar, displaying, against my + will, the stroke of fortune, which is ofttimes unjustly wont + to be imputed to the person stricken. Truly, I have been a + ship without a sail or helm, carried to divers harbours, and + gulfs, and shores, by that parching wind which sad poverty + breathes; and I have seemed vile in the eyes of many, who + perchance, from some fame, had imagined of me in another + form; in the sight of whom not only did my presence become + nought, but every work of mine less prized, both what had + been and what was to be wrought.--_Convito_, Tr. i. c. 3. + +Thus proved, and thus furnished--thus independent and confident, +daring to trust his instinct and genius in what was entirely untried +and unusual, he entered on his great poem, to shadow forth, under the +figure of his own conversion and purification, not merely how a single +soul rises to its perfection, but how this visible world, in all its +phases of nature, life, and society, is one with the invisible, which +borders on it, actuates, accomplishes, and explains it. It is this +vast plan--to take into his scope, not the soul only in its struggles +and triumph, but all that the soul finds itself engaged with in its +course; the accidents of the hour, and of ages past; the real persons, +great and small, apart from and without whom it cannot think or act; +the material world, its theatre and home--it is this which gives so +many various sides to the _Commedia_, which makes it so novel and +strange. It is not a mere personal history, or a pouring forth of +feeling, like the _Vita Nuova_, though he is himself the mysterious +voyager, and he opens without reserve his actual life and his heart; +he speaks, indeed, in the first person, yet he is but a character of +the drama, and in great part of it with not more of distinct +personality than in that paraphrase of the penitential Psalms, in +which he has preluded so much of the _Commedia_. Yet the _Commedia_ is +not a pure allegory; it admits, and makes use of the allegorical, but +the laws of allegory are too narrow for it; the real in it is too +impatient of the veil, and breaks through in all its hardness and +detail, into what is most shadowy. History is indeed viewed not in its +ephemeral look, but under the light of God's final judgments; in its +completion, not in its provisional and fragmentary character; viewed +therefore but in faith;--but its issues, which in this confused scene +we ordinarily contemplate in the gross, the poet brings down to detail +and individuals; he faces and grasps the tremendous thought that the +very men and women whom we see and speak to, are now the real +representatives of sin and goodness, the true actors in that scene +which is so familiar to us as a picture--unflinching and terrible +heart, he endures to face it in its most harrowing forms. But he wrote +not for sport, nor to give poetic pleasure; he wrote to warn; the seed +of the _Commedia_ was sown in tears, and reaped in misery: and the +consolations which it offers are awful as they are real. + +Thus, though he throws into symbol and image, what can only be +expressed by symbol and image, we can as little forget in reading him +this real world in which we live, as we can in one of Shakspere's +plays. It is not merely that the poem is crowded with real personages, +most of them having the single interest to us of being real. But all +that is associated with man's history and existence is interwoven with +the main course of thought--all that gives character to life, all that +gives it form and feature, even to quaintness, all that occupies the +mind, or employs the hand--speculation, science, arts, manufactures, +monuments, scenes, customs, proverbs, ceremonies, games, punishments, +attitudes of men, habits of living creatures. The wildest and most +unearthly imaginations, the most abstruse thoughts take up into, and +incorporate with themselves the forcible and familiar impressions of +our mother earth, and do not refuse the company and aid even of the +homeliest. + +This is not mere poetic ornament, peculiarly, profusely, or +extravagantly employed. It is one of the ways in which his dominant +feeling expresses itself--spontaneous and instinctive in each several +instance of it, but the kindling and effluence of deliberate thought, +and attending on a clear purpose--the feeling of the real and intimate +connexion between the objects of sight and faith. It is not that he +sees in one the simple counterpart and reverse of the other, or sets +himself to trace out universally their mutual correspondences; he has +too strong a sense of the reality of this familiar life to reduce it +merely to a shadow and type of the unseen. What he struggles to +express in countless ways, with all the resources of his strange and +gigantic power, is that this world and the next are both equally real, +and both one--parts, however different, of one whole. The world to +come we know but in "a glass darkly;" man can only think and imagine +of it in images, which he knows to be but broken and faint +reflections: but this world we know, not in outline, and featureless +idea, but by name, and face, and shape, by place and person, by the +colours and forms which crowd over its surface, the men who people its +habitations, the events which mark its moments. Detail fills the sense +here, and is the mark of reality. And thus he seeks to keep alive the +feeling of what that world is which he connects with heaven and hell; +not by abstractions, not much by elaborate and highly-finished +pictures, but by names, persons, local features, definite images. +Widely and keenly has he ranged over and searched into the world--with +a largeness of mind which disdained not to mark and treasure up, along +with much unheeded beauty, many a characteristic feature of nature, +unnoticed because so common. All his pursuits and interests contribute +to the impression, which, often instinctively it may be, he strives to +produce, of the manifold variety of our life. As a man of society, his +memory is full of its usages, formalities, graces, follies, +fashions--of expressive motions, postures, gestures, looks--of music, +of handicrafts, of the conversation of friends or associates--of all +that passes, so transient, yet so keenly pleasant or distasteful, +between man and man. As a traveller, he recalls continually the names +and scenes of the world;--as a man of speculation, the secrets of +nature--the phenomena of light, the theory of the planets' motions, +the idea and laws of physiology. As a man of learning, he is filled +with the thoughts and recollections of ancient fable and history; as a +politician, with the thoughts, prognostications, and hopes, of the +history of the day; as a moral philosopher he has watched himself, his +external sensations and changes, his inward passions, his mental +powers, his ideas, his conscience; he has far and wide noted +character, discriminated motives, classed good and evil deeds. All +that the man of society, of travel, of science, of learning, the +politician, the moralist, could gather, is used at will in the great +poetic structure; but all converges to the purpose, and is directed by +the intense feeling of the theologian, who sees this wonderful and +familiar scene melting into, and ending in another yet more wonderful, +but which will one day be as familiar--who sees the difficult but sure +progress of the manifold remedies of the Divine government to their +predestined issue; and, over all, God and His saints. + +So comprehensive in interest is the _Commedia_. Any attempt to explain +it, by narrowing that interest to politics, philosophy, the moral +life, or theology itself, must prove inadequate. Theology strikes the +key-note; but history, natural and metaphysical science, poetry, and +art, each in their turn join in the harmony, independent, yet +ministering to the whole. If from the poem itself we could be for a +single moment in doubt of the reality and dominant place of religion +in it, the plain-spoken prose of the _Convito_ would show how he +placed "the Divine Science, full of all peace, and allowing no strife +of opinions and sophisms, for the excellent certainty of its subject, +which is God," in single perfection above all other sciences, "which +are, as Solomon speaks, but queens, or concubines, or maidens; but she +is the 'Dove,' and the 'perfect one'--'Dove,' because without stain of +strife--'perfect,' because perfectly she makes us behold the truth, in +which our soul stills itself and is at rest." But the same passage[72] +shows likewise how he viewed all human knowledge and human interests, +as holding their due place in the hierarchy of wisdom, and among the +steps of man's perfection. No account of the _Commedia_ will prove +sufficient, which does not keep in view, first of all, the high moral +purpose and deep spirit of faith with which it was written, and then +the wide liberty of materials and means which the poet allowed himself +in working out his design. + +[Footnote 72: _Convito_, Tr. 2, c. 14, 15.] + +Doubtless, his writings have a political aspect. The "great Ghibelline +poet" is one of Dante's received synonymes; of his strong political +opinions, and the importance he attached to them, there can be no +doubt. And he meant his poem to be the vehicle of them, and the record +to all ages of the folly and selfishness with which he saw men +governed. That he should take the deepest interest in the goings on of +his time, is part of his greatness; to suppose that he stopped at +them, or that he subordinated to political objects or feelings all the +other elements of his poem, is to shrink up that greatness into very +narrow limits. Yet this has been done by men of mark and ability, by +Italians, by men who read the _Commedia_ in their own mother-tongue. +It has been maintained as a satisfactory account of it--maintained +with great labour and pertinacious ingenuity--that Dante meant nothing +more by his poem than the conflicts and ideal triumph of a political +party. The hundred cantos of that vision of the universe are but a +manifesto of the Ghibelline propaganda, designed, under the veil of +historic images and scenes, to insinuate what it was dangerous to +announce; and Beatrice, in all her glory and sweetness, is but a +specimen of the jargon, cant, and slang of Ghibelline freemasonry. +When Italians write thus, they degrade the greatest name of their +country to a depth of laborious imbecility, to which the trifling of +schoolmen and academicians is as nothing. It is to solve the enigma of +Dante's works, by imagining for him a character in which it is hard to +say which predominates, the pedant, mountebank, or infidel. After that +we may read Voltaire's sneers with patience, and even enter with +gravity on the examination of Father Hardouin's Historic Doubts. The +fanaticism of an outraged liberalism, produced by centuries of +injustice and despotism, is but a poor excuse for such perverse +blindness.[73] + +[Footnote 73: In the _Remains of Arthur Henry Hallam_ is a paper, in +which he examines and disposes of this theory with a courteous and +forbearing irony, which would have deepened probably into something +more, on thinking over it a second time.] + +Dante was not a Ghibelline, though he longed for the interposition of +an Imperial power. Historically he did not belong to the Ghibelline +party. It is true that he forsook the Guelfs, with whom he had been +brought up, and that the White Guelfs, with whom he was expelled from +Florence, were at length merged and lost in the Ghibelline party[74]; +and he acted with them for a time.[75] But no words can be stronger +than those in which he disjoins himself from that "evil and foolish +company," and claims his independence-- + + A te fia bello + _Averti fatto parte per te stesso_.[76] + +[Footnote 74: _Dino Comp._ pp. 89-91.] + +[Footnote 75: His name appears among the White delegates in 1307. +Pelli, p. 117.] + +[Footnote 76: _Parad._ 17.] + +And it is not easy to conceive a Ghibelline partisan putting into the +mouth of Justinian, the type of law and empire, a general condemnation +of his party as heavy as that of their antagonists;--the crime of +having betrayed, as the Guelfs had resisted, the great symbol of +public right-- + + Omai puoi giudicar di que' cotali + Ch'io accusai di sopra, e de' lor falli + Che son cagion di tutti i vostri mali. + L'uno al pubblico segno i gigli gialli + Oppone, e _quel s'appropria l'altro a parte_, + Si ch'e forte a veder qual piu si falli. + _Faccian li Ghibellin, faccian lor arte + Sott'altro segno; che mal segue quello + Sempre chi la giustizia e lui diparte._[77] + +[Footnote 77: _Ibid._ 6.] + +And though, as the victim of the Guelfs of Florence, he found refuge +among Ghibelline princes, he had friends among Guelfs also. His steps +and his tongue were free to the end. And in character and feeling, in +his austerity, his sturdiness and roughness, his intolerance of +corruption and pride, his strongly-marked devotional temper, he was +much less a Ghibelline than like one of those stern Guelfs who hailed +Savonarola. + +But he had a very decided and complete political theory, which +certainly was not Guelf; and, as parties then were, it was not much +more Ghibelline. Most assuredly no set of men would have more +vigorously resisted the attempt to realise his theory, would have +joined more heartily with all immediate opponents--Guelfs, Black, +White, and Green, or even Boniface VIII.,--to keep out such an emperor +as Dante imagined, than the Ghibelline nobles and potentates. + +Dante's political views were a dream; though a dream based on what had +been, and an anticipation of what was, in part at least, to come. It +was a dream in the middle ages, in divided and republican Italy, the +Italy of cities--of a real and national government, based on justice +and law. It was the dream of a real _state_. He imagined that the +Roman empire had been one great state; he persuaded himself that +Christendom might be such. He was wrong in both instances; but in this +case, as in so many others, he had already caught the spirit and ideas +of a far-distant future; and the political organisation of modern +times, so familiar to us that we cease to think of its exceeding +wonder, is the practical confirmation, though in a form very different +from what he imagined, of the depth and farsightedness of those +expectations which are in outward form so chimerical--"_i miei non +falsi errori_." + +He had studied the "infinite disorders of the world" in one of their +most unrestrained scenes, the streets of an Italian republic. Law was +powerless, good men were powerless, good intentions came to naught; +neither social habits nor public power could resist, when selfishness +chose to have its way. The Church was indeed still the salt of the +nations; but it had once dared and achieved more; it had once been the +only power which ruled them. And this it could do no longer. If +strength and energy had been enough to make the Church's influence +felt on government, there was a Pope who could have done it--a man who +was undoubtedly the most wondered at and admired of his age, whom +friend or foe never characterised, without adding the invariable +epithet of his greatness of soul--the "_magnanimus peccator_,"[78] +whose Roman grandeur in meeting his unworthy fate fascinated into +momentary sympathy even Dante.[79] But among the things which +Boniface VIII. could not do, even if he cared about it, was the +maintaining peace and law in Italian towns. And while this great +political power was failing, its correlative and antagonist was +paralysed also. "Since the death of Frederic II.," says Dante's +contemporary, "the fame and recollections of the empire were well-nigh +extinguished."[80] Italy was left without government--"come nave senza +nocchiero in gran tempesta"--to the mercies of her tyrants: + + Che le terre d'Italia tutte piene + Son di tiranni, e un Marcel diventa + Ogni villan, che parteggiando viene.--_Purg._ 6. + +[Footnote 78: Benvenuto da Imola.] + +[Footnote 79: + + Veggio in Alagna entrar lo fiordaliso, + E nel vicario suo Cristo esser catto; + Veggiolo un'altra volta esser deriso; + Veggio rinnovellar l'aceto e 'l fele, + E tra vivi ladroni essere anciso.--_Purg._ 20. + +G. Villani, viii. 63. Come magnanimo e valente, disse, _Dacche per +tradimento, come Gesu Cristo, voglio esser preso e mi conviene morire, +almeno voglio morire come Papa_; e di presente si fece parare +dell'ammanto di S. Piero, e colla corona di Constantino in capo, e +colle chiavi e croce in mano, e in su la sedia papale si pose a +sedere, e giunto a lui Sciarra e gli altri suoi nimici; con villane +parole lo scherniro.] + +[Footnote 80: _Dino Compagni_, p. 135.] + +In this scene of violence and disorder, with the Papacy gone astray, +the empire debased and impotent, the religious orders corrupted, power +meaning lawlessness, the well-disposed become weak and cowardly, +religion neither guide nor check to society, but only the consolation +of its victims--Dante was bold and hopeful enough to believe in the +Divine appointment, and in the possibility, of law and government--of +a state. In his philosophy, the institutions which provide for man's +peace and liberty in this life are part of God's great order for +raising men to perfection;--not indispensable, yet ordinary parts; +having their important place, though but for the present time; and +though imperfect, real instruments of His moral government. He could +not believe it to be the intention of Providence, that on the +introduction of higher hopes and the foundation of a higher society, +civil society should collapse and be left to ruin, as henceforth +useless or prejudicial in man's trial and training; that the +significant intimations of nature, that law and its results, justice, +peace, and stability, ought to be and might be realised among men, had +lost their meaning and faded away before the announcement of a kingdom +not of this world. And if the perfection of civil society had not been +superseded by the Church, it had become clear, if events were to be +read as signs, that she was not intended to supply its political +offices and functions. She had taught, elevated, solaced, blessed, not +only individual souls, but society; she had for a time even governed +it: but though her other powers remained, she could govern it no +longer. Failure had made it certain that, in his strong and quaint +language, "_Virtus authorizandi regnum nostrae mortalitatis est contra +naturam ecclesiae; ergo non est de numero virtutum suarum_."[81] +Another and distinct organisation was required for this, unless the +temporal order was no longer worthy the attention of Christians. + +[Footnote 81: _De Monarch._ lib. iii. p. 188, Ed. Fraticelli.] + +This is the idea of the _De Monarchia_; and though it holds but a +place in the great scheme of the _Commedia_, it is prominent there +also--an idea seen but in a fantastic shape, encumbered and confused +with most grotesque imagery, but the real idea of polity and law, +which the experience of modern Europe has attained to. + +He found in clear outline in the Greek philosophy, the theory of +merely human society; and raising its end and purpose, "_finem totius +humanae civilitatis_," to a height and dignity which Heathens could not +forecast, he adopted it in its more abstract and ideal form. He +imagined a single authority, unselfish, inflexible, irresistible, +which could make all smaller tyrannies to cease, and enable every man +to live in peace and liberty, so that he lived in justice. It is +simply what each separate state of Christendom has by this time more +or less perfectly achieved. The theoriser of the middle ages could +conceive of its accomplishment only in one form, as grand as it was +impossible--a universal monarchy. + +But he did not start from an abstraction. He believed that history +attested the existence of such a monarchy. The prestige of the Roman +empire was then strong. Europe still lingers on the idea, and cannot +even yet bring itself to give up its part in that great monument of +human power. But in the middle ages the Empire was still believed to +exist. It was the last greatness which had been seen in the world, and +the world would not believe that it was over. Above all, in Italy, a +continuity of lineage, of language, of local names, and in part of +civilisation and law, forbad the thought that the great Roman people +had ceased to be. Florentines and Venetians boasted that they were +Romans: the legends which the Florentine ladies told to their maidens +at the loom were tales of their mother city, Rome. The Roman element, +little understood, but profoundly reverenced and dearly cherished, was +dominant; the conductor of civilisation, and enfolding the inheritance +of all the wisdom, experience, feeling, art, of the past, it elevated, +even while it overawed, oppressed, and enslaved. A deep belief in +Providence added to the intrinsic grandeur of the empire a sacred +character. The flight of the eagle has been often told and often sung; +but neither in Livy or Virgil, Gibbon or Bossuet, with intenser +sympathy or more kindred power, than in those rushing and unflagging +verses in which the middle-age poet hears the imperial legislator +relate the fated course of the "sacred sign," from the day when Pallas +died for it, till it accomplished the vengeance of heaven in Judaea, +and afterwards, under Charlemagne, smote down the enemies of the +Church.[82] + +[Footnote 82: _Parad._ c. 6.] + +The following passage, from the _De Monarchia_, will show the poet's +view of the Roman empire, and its office in the world: + + To the reasons above alleged, a memorable experience brings + confirmation: I mean that state of mankind which the Son of + God, when He would for man's salvation take man upon Him, + either waited for, or ordered when so He willed. For if from + the fall of our first parents, which was the starting-point + of all our wanderings, we retrace the various dispositions + of men and their times, we shall not find at any time, + except under the divine monarch Augustus, when a perfect + monarchy existed, that the world was everywhere quiet. And + that then mankind was happy in the tranquillity of universal + peace, this all writers of history, this famous poets, this + even the Scribe of the meekness of Christ has deigned to + attest. And lastly, Paul has called that most blessed + condition, the fulness of time. Truly time, and the things + of time, were full, for no mystery of our felicity then + lacked its minister. But how the world has gone on from the + time when that seamless robe was first torn by the claws of + covetousness, we may read, and would that we might not also + see. O race of men, by how great storms and losses, by how + great shipwrecks hast thou of necessity been vexed since, + transformed into a beast of many heads, thou hast been + struggling different ways, sick in understanding, equally + sick in heart. The higher intellect, with its invincible + reasons, thou reckest not of; nor of the inferior, with its + eye of experience; nor of affection, with the sweetness of + divine suasion, when the trumpet of the Holy Ghost sounds to + thee--"Behold, how good is it, and how pleasant, brethren, + to dwell together in unity."--_De Monarch._ lib. i. p. 54. + +Yet this great Roman empire existed still unimpaired in name--not +unimposing even in what really remained of it. Dante, to supply a +want, turned it into a theory--a theory easy to smile at now, but +which contained and was a beginning of unknown or unheeded truth. What +he yearns after is the predominance of the principle of justice in +civil society. That, if it is still imperfect, is no longer a dream in +our day; but experience had never realised it to him, and he takes +refuge in tentative and groping theory. The divinations of the +greatest men have been vague and strange, and none have been stranger +than those of the author of the _De Monarchia_. The second book, in +which he establishes the title of the Roman people to Universal +Empire, is as startling a piece of mediaeval argument as it would be +easy to find. + + As when we cannot attain to look upon a cause, we commonly + wonder at a new effect, so when we know the cause, we look + down with a certain derision on those who remain in wonder. + And I indeed wondered once how the Roman people had, without + any resistance, been set over the world; and looking at it + superficially, I thought that they had obtained this by no + right, but by mere force of arms. But when I fixed deeply + the eyes of my mind on it, and by most effectual signs knew + that Divine Providence had wrought this, wonder departed, + and a certain scornful contempt came in its stead, when I + perceived the nations raging against the pre-eminence of the + Roman people:--when I see the people imagining a vain thing, + as I once used to do; when, moreover, I grieve over kings + and princes agreeing in this only, to be against their Lord + and his anointed Roman Emperor. Wherefore in derision, not + without a certain grief, I can cry out, for that glorious + people and for Caesar, with him who cried in behalf of the + Prince of Heaven, "Why did the nations rage, and the people + imagine vain things; the kings of the earth stood up, and + the rulers were joined in one against the Lord and his + anointed." But (because natural love suffers not derision to + be of long duration, but, like the summer sun, which, + scattering the morning mists, irradiates the east with + light, so prefers to pour forth the light of correction) + therefore to break the bonds of the ignorance of such kings + and rulers, to show that the human race is free from _their_ + yoke, I will exhort myself, in company with the most holy + Prophet, taking up his following words, "Let us break their + bonds, and cast away from us their yoke."--_De Monarch._ + lib. ii. p. 58. + +And to prove this pre-eminence of right in the Roman people, and their +heirs, the Emperors of Christendom, he appeals not merely to the +course of Providence, to their high and noble ancestry, to the +blessings of their just and considerate laws, to their unselfish +guardianship of the world--"_Romanum imperium de fonte nascitur +pietatis_;"--not merely to their noble examples of private virtue, +self-devotion, and public spirit--"those most sacred victims of the +Decian house, who laid down their lives for the public weal, as +Livy--not as _they_ deserved, but as _he_ was able--tells to their +glory; and that unspeakable sacrifice of freedom's sternest guardians, +the Catos;" not merely to the "judgment of God" in that great duel and +wager of battle for empire, in which heaven declared against all other +champions and "co-athletes"--Alexander, Pyrrhus, Hannibal, and by all +the formalities of judicial combat awarded the great prize to those +who fought, not for love or hatred, but justice--"_Quis igitur nunc +adeo obtusae mentis est, qui non videat, sub jure duelli gloriosum +populum coronam totius orbis esse lucratum?_"--not merely to arguments +derived "from the principles of the Christian faith"--but to +_miracles_. "The Roman empire," he says, "was, in order to its +perfections, aided by the help of miracles; therefore it was willed by +God; and, by consequence, both was, and is, of right." And these +miracles, "proved by the testimony of illustrious authorities," are +the prodigies of Livy--the ancile of Numa, the geese of the Capitol, +the escape of Clelia, the hail-storm which checked Hannibal.[83] + +[Footnote 83: _De Monarch._ lib. ii. pp. 62, 66, 78, 82, 84, 108-114, +116, 72-76.] + +The intellectual phenomenon is a strange one. It would be less strange +if Dante were arguing in the schools, or pleading for a party. But +even Henry of Luxemburg cared little for such a throne as the poet +wanted him to fill, much less Can Grande and the Visconti. The idea, +the theory, and the argument, are of the writer's own solitary +meditation. We may wonder. But there are few things more strange than +the history of argument. How often has a cause or an idea turned out, +in the eyes of posterity, so much better than its arguments. How +often have we seen argument getting as it were into a groove, and +unable to extricate itself, so as to do itself justice. The everyday +cases of private experience, of men defending right conclusions on +wrong or conventional grounds, or in a confused form, entangled with +conclusions of a like yet different nature;--of arguments, theories, +solutions, which once satisfied, satisfying us no longer on a question +about which we hold the same belief--of one party unable to comprehend +the arguments of another--of one section of the same side smiling at +the defence of their common cause by another--are all reproduced on a +grander scale in the history of society. There too, one age cannot +comprehend another; there too it takes time to disengage, subordinate, +eliminate. Truth of this sort is not the elaboration of one keen or +strong mind, but of the secret experience of many; "_nihil sine aetate +est, omnia tempus expectant_." But a counterpart to the _De Monarchia_ +is not wanting in our own day; theory has not ceased to be mighty. In +warmth and earnestness, in sense of historic grandeur, in its support +of a great cause and a great idea, not less than in the thought of its +motto, [Greek: heis koiranos esto], De Maistre's volume _Du Pape_, +recalls the antagonist _De Monarchia_; but it recalls it not less in +its bold dealing with facts, and its bold assumption of principles, +though the knowledge and debates of five more busy centuries, and the +experience of modern courts and revolutions, might have guarded the +Piedmontese nobleman from the mistakes of the old Florentine. + +But the idea of the _De Monarchia_ is no key to the _Commedia_. The +direct and primary purpose of the _Commedia_ is surely its obvious +one. It is to stamp a deep impression on the mind, of the issues of +good and ill doing here--of the real worlds of pain and joy. To do +this forcibly, it is done in detail--of course it can only be done in +figure. Punishment, purification, or the fulness of consolation are, +as he would think, at this very moment, the lot of all the numberless +spirits who have ever lived here--spirits still living and sentient as +himself: parallel with our life, they too are suffering or are at +rest. Without pause or interval, in all its parts simultaneously, this +awful scene is going on--the judgments of God are being +fulfilled--could we but see it. It exists, it might be seen, at each +instant of time, by a soul whose eyes were opened, which was carried +through it. And this he imagines. It had been imagined before; it is +the working out, which is peculiar to him. It is not a barren vision. +His subject is, besides the eternal world, the soul which contemplates +it; by sight, according to his figures--in reality, by faith. As he is +led on from woe to deeper woe, then through the tempered +chastisements and resignation of Purgatory to the beatific vision, he +is tracing the course of the soul on earth, realising sin and weaning +itself from it--of its purification and preparation for its high lot, +by converse with the good and wise, by the remedies of grace, by +efforts of will and love, perhaps by the dominant guidance of some +single pure and holy influence, whether of person, or institution, or +thought. Nor will we say but that beyond this earthly probation, he is +not also striving to grasp and imagine to himself something of that +awful process and training, by which, whether in or out of the flesh, +the spirit is made fit to meet its Maker, its Judge, and its Chief +Good. + +Thus it seems that even in its main design, the poem has more than one +aspect; it is a picture, a figure, partially a history, perhaps an +anticipation. And this is confirmed, by what the poet has himself +distinctly stated, of his ideas of poetic composition. His view is +expressed generally in his philosophical treatise, the _Convito_; but +it is applied directly to the _Commedia_, in a letter, which, if in +its present form, of doubtful authenticity, without any question +represents his sentiments, and the substance of which is incorporated +in one of the earliest writings on the poem, Boccaccio's commentary. +The following is his account of the subject of the poem: + + For the evidence of what is to be said, it is to be noted, + that this work is not of one single meaning only, but may be + said to have many meanings ("_polysensuum_"). For the first + meaning is that of the letter--another is that of things + signified by the letter; the first of these is called the + literal sense, the second, the allegorical or moral. This + mode of treating a subject may for clearness' sake be + considered in those verses of the Psalm, "_In exitu + Israel_." "When Israel came out of Egypt, and the house of + Jacob from the strange people, Judah was his sanctuary, and + Israel his dominion." For if we look at the _letter_ only, + there is here signified, the going out of the children of + Israel in the time of Moses--if at the _allegory_ there is + signified our redemption through Christ--if at the _moral_ + sense there is signified to us the conversion of the soul + from the mourning and misery of sin to the state of + grace--if at the _anagogic_ sense,[84] there is signified + the passing out of the holy soul from the bondage of this + corruption to the liberty of everlasting glory. And these + mystical meanings, though called by different names, may all + be called _allegorical_ as distinguished from the literal or + historical sense.... This being considered, it is plain that + there ought to be a twofold subject, concerning which the + two corresponding meanings may proceed. Therefore we must + consider first concerning the subject of this work as it is + to be understood literally, then as it is to be considered + allegorically. The subject then of the whole work, taken + literally only, is the state of souls after death considered + in itself. For about this, and on this, the whole work + turns. But if the work be taken allegorically, its subject + is man, as, by his freedom of choice deserving well or ill, + he is subject to the justice which rewards and punishes.[85] + +[Footnote 84: + + _Litera_ gesta refert, quid credas _allegoria_, + _Moralis_ quid agas, quid speres _anagogia_. + + De Witte's note from _Buti_.] + +[Footnote 85: Ep. ad _Kan Grand._ Sec. 6, 7.] + +The passage in the _Convito_ is to the same effect; but his remarks on +the _moral_ and _anagogic_ meaning may be quoted: + + The third sense is called _moral_; that it is which readers + ought to go on noting carefully in writings, for their own + profit and that of their disciples: as in the Gospel it may + be noted, when Christ went up to the mountain to be + transfigured, that of the twelve Apostles, he took with him + only three; in which morally we may understand, that in the + most secret things we ought to have but few companions. The + fourth sort of meaning is called _anagogic_, that is, above + our sense; and this is when we spiritually interpret a + passage, which even in its literal meaning, by means of the + things signified, expresses the heavenly things of + everlasting glory: as may be seen in that song of the + Prophet, which says, that in the coming out of the people of + Israel from Egypt, Judah was made holy and free; which + although it is manifestly true according to the letter, is + not less true as spiritually understood; that is, that when + the soul comes out of sin, it is made holy and free, in its + own power.[86] + +[Footnote 86: _Convito_, Tr. 2, c. 1.] + +With this passage before us there can be no doubt of the meaning, +however veiled, of those beautiful lines, already referred to, in +which Virgil, after having conducted the poet up the steeps of +Purgatory, where his sins have been one by one cancelled by the +ministering angels, finally takes leave of him, and bids him wait for +Beatrice, on the skirts of the earthly Paradise: + + Come la scala tutta sotto noi + Fu corsa e fummo in su 'l grado superno, + In me ficco Virgilio gli occhi suoi, + E disse: "Il temporal fuoco, e l'eterno + Veduto hai, figlio, e se' venuto in parte + Ov'io per me piu oltre non discerno. + Tratto t'ho qui con ingegno e con arte: + Lo tuo piacere omai prendi per duce; + Fuor se' dell'erte vie, fuor se' dell'arte. + Vedi il sole che 'n fronte ti riluce: + Vedi l'erbetta, i fiori, e gli arboscelli + Che quella terra sol da se produce. + Mentre che vegnon lieti gli occhi belli + Che lagrimando a te venir mi fenno, + Seder ti puoi e puoi andar tra elli. + Non aspettar mio dir piu ne mio cenno: + Libero, dritto, sano e tuo arbitrio, + E fallo fora non fare a suo senno:-- + Perch'io te sopra te corono e mitrio."[87] + +[Footnote 87: + + When we had run + O'er all the ladder to its topmost round, + As there we stood, on me the Mantuan fix'd + His eyes, and thus he spake: "Both fires, my son, + The temporal and the eternal, thou hast seen: + And art arrived, where of itself my ken + No further reaches. I with skill and art, + Thus far have drawn thee. Now thy pleasure take + For guide. Thou hast o'ercome the steeper way, + O'ercome the straiter. Lo! the sun, that darts + His beam upon thy forehead: lo! the herb, + The arborets and flowers, which of itself + This land pours forth profuse. Till those bright eyes + With gladness come, which, weeping, made me haste + To succour thee, thou mayest or seat thee down, + Or wander where thou wilt. Expect no more + Sanction of warning voice or sign from me, + Free of thine own arbitrement to choose, + Discreet, judicious. To distrust thy sense + Were henceforth error. I invest thee then + With crown and mitre, sovereign o'er thyself." + + _Purg._ c. 27--CARY.] + +The general meaning of the _Commedia_ is clear enough. But it +certainly does appear to refuse to be fitted into a connected formal +scheme of interpretation. It is not a homogeneous, consistent +allegory, like the _Pilgrim's Progress_ and the _Fairy Queen_. The +allegory continually breaks off, shifts its ground, gives place to +other elements, or mingles with them--like a stream which suddenly +sinks into the earth, and after passing under plains and mountains, +reappears in a distant point, and in different scenery. We can, +indeed, imagine its strange author commenting on it, and finding or +marking out its prosaic substratum, with the cold-blooded precision +and scholastic distinctions of the _Convito_. However, he has not done +so. And of the many enigmas which present themselves, either in its +structure or separate parts, the key seems hopelessly lost. The early +commentators are very ingenious, but very unsatisfactory; they see +where we can see, but beyond that they are as full of uncertainty as +ourselves. It is in character with that solitary and haughty spirit, +while touching universal sympathies, appalling and charming all +hearts, to have delighted in his own dark sayings, which had meaning +only to himself. It is true that, whether in irony, or from that +quaint studious care for the appearance of literal truth, which makes +him apologise for the wonders which he relates, and confirm them by an +oath, "on the words of his poem,"[88] he provokes and challenges us; +bids us admire "doctrine hidden under strange verses;"[89] bids us +strain our eyes, for the veil is thin: + + Aguzza, qui, lettor, ben l'occhi al vero: + Che il velo e ora ben tanto sottile, + Certo, che il trapassar dentro e leggiero.--_Purg._ c. 8. + +But eyes are still strained in conjecture and doubt. + +[Footnote 88: + + Sempre a quel ver, ch'ha faccia di menzogna, + De' l'uom chiuder le labbra, quanto puote, + Pero che senza colpa fa vergogna. + Ma qui tacer nol posso; e per le note + Di questa _Commedia_, lettor, ti giuro + S'elle non sien di lunga grazia vote, &c.--_Inf._ 16.] + +[Footnote 89: _Inf._ 9.] + +Yet the most certain and detailed commentary, one which assigned the +exact reason for every image or allegory, and its place and connexion +in a general scheme, would add but little to the charm or to the use +of the poem. It is not so obscure but that every man's experience who +has thought over and felt the mystery of our present life, may supply +the commentary--the more ample, the wider and more various has been +his experience, the deeper and keener his feeling. Details and links +of connexion may be matter of controversy. Whether the three beasts of +the forest mean definitely the vices of the time, or of Florence +specially, or of the poet himself--"the wickedness of his heels, +compassing him round about"--may still exercise critics and +antiquaries; but that they carry with them distinct and special +impressions of evil, and that they are the hindrances of man's +salvation, is not doubtful. And our knowledge of the key of the +allegory, where we possess it, contributes but little to the effect. +We may infer from the _Convito_[90] that the eyes of Beatrice stand +definitely for the _demonstrations_, and her smiles for the +_persuasions_ of wisdom; but the poetry of the Paradiso is not about +demonstrations and persuasions, but about looks and smiles; and the +ineffable and holy calm--"_serenitatis et aeternitatis afflatus_"--which +pervades it, comes from the sacred truths, and holy persons, and that +deep spirit of high-raised yet composed devotion, which it requires no +interpreter to show us. + +[Footnote 90: _Convito_, Tr. 3, c. 15.] + +Figure and symbol, then, are doubtless the law of composition in the +_Commedia_; but this law discloses itself very variously, and with +different degrees of strictness. In its primary and most general form, +it is palpable, consistent, pervading. There can be no doubt that the +poem is meant to be understood figuratively--no doubt of what in +general it is meant to shadow forth--no doubt as to the general +meaning of its parts, their connexion with each other. But in its +secondary and subordinate applications, the law works--to our eye at +least--irregularly, unequally, and fitfully. There can be no question +that Virgil, the poet's guide, represents the purely human element in +the training of the soul and of society, as Beatrice does the divine. +But neither represent the whole; he does not sum up all appliances of +wisdom in Virgil, nor all teachings and influences of grace in +Beatrice; these have their separate figures. And both represent +successively several distinct forms of their general antitypes. They +have various degrees of abstractness, and narrow down, according to +that order of things to which they refer and correspond, into the +special and the personal. In the general economy of the poem, Virgil +stands for human wisdom in its widest sense; but he also stands for it +in its various shapes, in the different parts. He is the type of human +philosophy and science.[91] He is, again, more definitely, that spirit +of imagination and poetry, which opens men's eyes to the glory of the +visible, and the truth of the invisible; and to Italians, he is a +definite embodiment of it, their own great poet, "_vates, poeta +noster_."[92] In the Christian order, he is human wisdom, dimly +mindful of its heavenly origin--presaging dimly its return to +God--sheltering in heathen times that "vague and unconnected family +of religious truths, originally from God, but sojourning without the +sanction of miracle or visible home, as pilgrims up and down the +world."[93] In the political order, he is the guide of law-givers, +wisdom fashioning the impulses and instincts of men into the harmony +of society, contriving stability and peace, guarding justice; fit part +for the poet to fill, who had sung the origin of Rome, and the justice +and peace of Augustus. In the order of individual life, and the +progress of the individual soul, he is the human conscience witnessing +to duty, its discipline and its hopes, and with yet more certain and +fearful presage, to its vindication; the human conscience seeing and +acknowledging the law, but unable to confer power to fulfil +it--wakened by grace from among the dead, leading the living man up to +it, and waiting for its light and strength. But he is more than a +figure. To the poet himself, who blends with his high argument his +whole life, Virgil had been the utmost that mind can be to +mind--teacher, quickener and revealer of power, source of thought, +exemplar and model, never disappointing, never attained to, observed +with "long study and great love:" + + Tu duca, tu signor, e tu maestro.--_Inf._ 2. + +[Footnote 91: "O tu ch'onori ogni scienza ed arte."--_Inf._ 4. "Quel +savio gentil che tutto seppe."--_Inf._ 7. "Il mar di tutto 'l +senno."--_Inf._ 8.] + +[Footnote 92: _De Monarchia._] + +[Footnote 93: Newman's _Arians_.] + +And towards this great master, the poet's whole soul is poured forth +in reverence and affection. To Dante he is no figure, but a +person--with feelings and weaknesses--overcome by the vexation, +kindling into the wrath, carried away by the tenderness, of the +moment. He reads his scholar's heart, takes him by the hand in danger, +carries him in his arms and in his bosom, "like a son more than a +companion," rebukes his unworthy curiosity, kisses him when he shows a +noble spirit, asks pardon for his own mistakes. Never were the kind, +yet severe ways of a master, or the disciple's diffidence and +open-heartedness, drawn with greater force, or less effort; and he +seems to have been reflecting on his own affection to Virgil, when he +makes Statius forget that they were both but shades: + + Or puoi la quantitate + Comprender dell'amor ch'a te mi scalda, + Quando _dismento la nostra vanitate + Trattando l'ombre come cosa salda_.--_Purg._ 21. + +And so with the poet's second guide. The great idea which Beatrice +figures, though always present, is seldom rendered artificially +prominent, and is often entirely hidden beneath the rush of real +recollections, and the creations of dramatic power. Abstractions +venture and trust themselves among realities, and for the time are +forgotten. A name, a real person, a historic passage, a lament or +denunciation, a tragedy of actual life, a legend of classic times, the +fortunes of friends--the story of Francesca or Ugolino, the fate of +Buonconte's corpse, the apology of Pier delle Vigne, the epitaph of +Madonna Pia, Ulysses' western voyage, the march of Roman +history--appear and absorb for themselves all interest: or else it is +a philosophical speculation, or a theory of morality, or a case of +conscience--not indeed alien from the main subject, yet independent of +the allegory, and not translateable into any new meaning--standing on +their own ground, worked out each according to its own law; but they +do not disturb the main course of the poet's thought, who grasps and +paints each detail of human life in its own peculiarity, while he sees +in each a significance and interest beyond itself. He does not stop in +each case to tell us so, but he makes it felt. The tale ends, the +individual disappears, and the great allegory resumes its course. It +is like one of those great musical compositions which alone seem +capable of adequately expressing, in a limited time, a course of +unfolding and change, in an idea, a career, a life, a society--where +one great thought predominates, recurs, gives colour and meaning, and +forms the unity of the whole, yet passes through many shades and +transitions; is at one time definite, at another suggestive and +mysterious; incorporating and giving free place and play to airs and +melodies even of an alien cast; striking off abruptly from its +expected road, but without ever losing itself, without breaking its +true continuity, or failing of its completeness. + +This then seems to us the end and purpose of the _Commedia_;--to +produce on the mind a sense of the judgments of God, analogous to that +produced by Scripture itself. They are presented to us in the Bible in +shapes which address themselves primarily to the heart and conscience, +and seek not carefully to explain themselves. They are likened to the +"great deep," to the "strong mountains"--vast and awful, but abrupt +and incomplete, as the huge, broken, rugged piles and chains of +mountains. And we see them through cloud and mist, in shapes only +approximating to the true ones. Still they impress us deeply and +truly, often the more deeply because unconsciously. A character, an +event, a word, isolated and unexplained, stamps its meaning +ineffaceably, though ever a matter of question and wonder; it may be +dark to the intellect, yet the conscience understands it, often but +too well. In such suggestive ways is the Divine government for the +most part put before us in the Bible--ways which do not satisfy the +understanding, but which fill us with a sense of reality. And it seems +to have been by meditating on them, which he certainly did, much and +thoughtfully--and on the infinite variety of similar ways in which +the strongest impressions are conveyed to us in ordinary life, by +means short of clear and distinct explanation--by looks, by images, by +sounds, by motions, by remote allusion and broken words, that Dante +was led to choose so new and remarkable a mode of conveying to his +countrymen his thoughts and feelings and presentiments about the +mystery of God's counsel. The Bible teaches us by means of real +history, traced so far as is necessary along its real course. The poet +expresses his view of the world also in real history, but carried on +into figure. + +The poetry with which the Christian Church had been instinct from the +beginning, converges and is gathered up in the _Commedia_. The faith +had early shown its poetical aspect. It is superfluous to dwell on +this, for it is the charge against ancient teaching that it was too +large and imaginative. It soon began to try rude essays in sculpture +and mosaic: expressed its feeling of nature in verse and prose, rudely +also, but often with originality and force; and opened a new vein of +poetry in the thoughts, hopes, and aspirations of regenerate man. +Modern poetry must go back, for many of its deepest and most powerful +sources, to the writings of the Fathers, and their followers of the +School. The Church further had a poetry of its own, besides the poetry +of literature; it had the poetry of devotion--the Psalter chanted +daily, in a new language and a new meaning; and that wonderful body of +hymns, to which age after age had contributed its offering, from the +Ambrosian hymns to the _Veni, Sancte Spiritus_ of a king of France, +the _Pange lingua_ of Thomas Aquinas, the _Dies irae_, and _Stabat +Mater_, of the two Franciscan brethren, Thomas of Celano, and +Jacopone.[94] The elements and fragments of poetry were everywhere in +the Church--in her ideas of life, in her rules and institutions for +passing through it, in her preparation for death, in her offices, +ceremonial, celebrations, usages, her consecration of domestic, +literary, commercial, civic, military, political life, the meanings +and ends she had given them, the religious seriousness with which the +forms of each were dignified--in her doctrine, and her dogmatic +system--her dependence on the unseen world--her Bible. From each and +all of these, and from that public feeling, which, if it expressed +itself but abruptly and incoherently, was quite alive to the poetry +which surrounded it, the poet received due impressions of greatness +and beauty, of joy and dread. Then the poetry of Christian religion +and Christian temper, hitherto dispersed, or manifested in act only, +found its full and distinct utterance, not unworthy to rank in +grandeur, in music, in sustained strength, with the last noble voices +from expiring Heathenism. + +[Footnote 94: Trench, Sacred Latin Poetry, 1849.] + +But a long interval had passed since then. The _Commedia_ first +disclosed to Christian and modern Europe that it was to have a +literature of its own, great and admirable, though in its own language +and embodying its own ideas. "It was as if, at some of the ancient +games, a stranger had appeared upon the plain, and thrown his quoit +among the marks of former casts, which tradition had ascribed to the +demi-gods."[95] We are so accustomed to the excellent and varied +literature of modern times, so original, so perfect in form and rich +in thought, so expressive of all our sentiments, meeting so completely +our wants, fulfilling our ideas, that we can scarcely imagine the time +when this condition was new--when society was beholden to a foreign +language for the exponents of its highest thoughts and feelings. But +so it was when Dante wrote. The great poets, historians, philosophers +of his day, the last great works of intellect, belonged to old Rome, +and the Latin language. So wonderful and prolonged was the fascination +of Rome. Men still lived under its influence; believed that the Latin +language was the perfect and permanent instrument of thought in its +highest forms, the only expression of refinement and civilisation; and +had not conceived the hope that their own dialects could ever rise to +such heights of dignity and power. Latin, which had enchased and +preserved such precious remains of ancient wisdom, was now shackling +the living mind in its efforts. Men imagined that they were still +using it naturally on all high themes and solemn business; but though +they used it with facility, it was no longer natural; it had lost the +elasticity of life, and had become in their hands a stiffened and +distorted, though still powerful, instrument. The very use of the word +_latino_ in the writers of this period, to express what is clear and +philosophical in language,[96] while it shows their deep reverence for +it, shows how Latin civilisation was no longer their own, how it had +insensibly become an external and foreign element. But they found it +very hard to resign their claim to a share in its glories; with +nothing of their own to match against it, they still delighted to +speak of it as "our language," or its writers as "our poets," "our +historians."[97] + +[Footnote 95: Hallam's _Middle Ages_, c. ix. vol. iii. p. 563.] + +[Footnote 96: _Parad._ 3, 12, 17. _Convit._ p. 108. "A piu +_Latinamente_ vedere la sentenza letterale."] + +[Footnote 97: _Vid._ the _De Monarchia_.] + +The spell was indeed beginning to break. Guido Cavalcanti, Dante's +strange, stern, speculative friend, who is one of the fathers of the +Italian language, is characterised in the _Commedia_[98] by his +scornful dislike of Latin, even in the mouth of Virgil. Yet Dante +himself, the great assertor, by argument and example, of the powers of +the Vulgar tongue, once dared not to think that the Vulgar tongue +could be other to the Latin, than as a subject to his sovereign. He +was bolder when he wrote _De Vulgari Eloquio_: but in the earlier +_Convito_, while pleading earnestly for the beauty of the Italian, he +yields with reverence the first place to the Latin--for nobleness, +because the Latin is permanent, and the Vulgar subject to fluctuation +and corruption; for power, because the Latin can express conceptions +to which the Vulgar is unequal; for beauty, because the structure of +the Latin is a masterly arrangement of scientific art, and the beauty +of the Vulgar depends on mere use.[99] The very title of his poem, the +_Commedia_, contains in it a homage to the lofty claims of the Latin. +It is called a Comedy, and not Tragedy, he says, after a marvellous +account of the essence and etymology of the two, first, because it +begins sadly, and ends joyfully; and next, because of its language, +that humble speech of ordinary life, "in which even women +converse."[100] + +[Footnote 98: _Inf._ 10, and compare the _Vit. N._ p. 334, ed. +Fraticelli.] + +[Footnote 99: _Convito_, i. 5.] + +[Footnote 100: Ep. ad Kan Grand. Sec.9,--a curious specimen of the +learning of the time: "Sciendum est, quod _Comoedia_ dicitur a +[Greek: kome], _villa_ et [Greek: ode], quod est _cantus_, unde +_Comoedia_ quasi _villanus cantus_. Et est _Comoedia genus quoddam +poeticae narrationis_, ab omnibus aliis differens. Differt ergo a +Tragoedia in materia per hoc, quod Tragoedia in principio est +admirabilis et quieta, in fine foetida et horribilis; et dicitur +propter hoc a [Greek: tragos], i.e. _hircus_, et [Greek: ode], quasi +_cantus hircinus_, i.e. foetidus ad modum hirci, ut patet per +Senecam in suis tragoediis. _Comoedia_ vero inchoat asperitatem +alicujus rei, sed ejus materia prospere terminatur, ut patet per +Terentium in suis _Comoediis_.... Similiter differunt in modo +loquendi; elate et sublime Tragoedia, _Comoedia_ vero remisse et +humiliter sicut vult Horat. in Poet.... Et per hoc patet, quod +_Comoedia_ diciter praesens opus. Nam si ad materiam respiciamus, a +principio horribilis et foetida est, quia _Infernus_: in fine +prospera, desiderabilis et grata, quia _Paradisus_. Si ad modum +loquendi, remissus est modus et humilis, quia locutio Vulgaris, in qua +et mulierculae communicant. Et sic patet quia _Comoedia_ dicitur." +Cf. de Vulg. Eloq. 2, 4, _Parad._ 30. He calls the AEneid, "_l'alta +Tragedia_," _Inf._ 20, 113. Compare also Boccaccio's explanation of +his mother's dream of the _peacock_. Dante, he says, is like the +Peacock, among other reasons, "because the peacock has coarse feet, +and a quiet gait;" and "the vulgar language, on which the _Commedia_ +supports itself, is coarse in comparison with the high and masterly +literary style which every other poet uses, though it be more +beautiful than others, being in conformity with modern minds. The +quiet gait signifies the humility of the style, which is necessarily +required in _Commedia_, as those know who understand what is meant by +_Commedia_."] + +He honoured the Latin, but his love was for the Italian. He was its +champion, and indignant defender against the depreciation of ignorance +and fashion. Confident of its power and jealous of its beauty, he +pours forth his fierce scorn on the blind stupidity, the affectation, +the vain glory, the envy, and above all, the cowardice of Italians who +held lightly their mother tongue. "Many," he says, after enumerating +the other offenders, "from this pusillanimity and cowardice disparage +their own language, and exalt that of others; and of this sort are +those hateful dastards of Italy--_abbominevoli cattivi d'Italia_--who +think vilely of that precious language; which, if it is vile in +anything, is vile only so far as it sounds in the prostituted mouth of +these adulterers."[101] He noted and compared its various dialects; he +asserted its capabilities not only in verse, but in expressive, +flexible, and majestic prose. And to the deliberate admiration of the +critic and the man, were added the homely but dear associations, which +no language can share with that of early days. Italian had been the +language of his parents--"_Questo mio Volgare fu il congiugnitore +delli miei generanti, che con esso parlavano_"--and further, it was +this modern language, "_questo mio Volgare_," which opened to him the +way of knowledge, which had introduced him to Latin, and the sciences +which it contained. It was his benefactor and guide--he personifies +it--and his boyish friendship had grown stronger and more intimate by +mutual good offices. "There has also been between us the goodwill of +intercourse; for from the beginning of my life I have had with it +kindness and conversation, and have used it, deliberating, +interpreting, and questioning; so that, if friendship grows with use, +it is evident how it must have grown in me."[102] + +[Footnote 101: _Convito_, i. 11.] + +[Footnote 102: _Convito_, i. 13.] + +From this language he exacted a hard trial;--a work which should rank +with the ancient works. None such had appeared; none had even advanced +such a pretension. Not that it was a time dead to literature or +literary ambition. Poets and historians had written, and were writing +in Italian. The same year of jubilee which fixed itself so deeply in +Dante's mind, and became the epoch of his vision--the same scene of +Roman greatness in its decay, which afterwards suggested to Gibbon the +_Decline and Fall_, prompted, in the father of Italian history, the +desire to follow in the steps of Sallust and Livy, and prepare the way +for Machiavelli and Guicciardini, Davila, and Fra Paolo.[103] Poetry +had been cultivated in the Roman languages of the West--in Aquitaine +and Provence, especially--for more than two centuries; and lately, +with spirit and success, in Italian. Names had become popular, +reputations had risen and waned, verses circulated and were +criticised, and even descended from the high and refined circles to +the workshop. A story is told of Dante's indignation, when he heard +the canzoni which had charmed the Florentine ladies mangled by the +rude enthusiasm of a blacksmith at his forge.[104] Literature was a +growing fashion; but it was humble in its aspirations and efforts. Men +wrote like children, surprised and pleased with their success; yet +allowing themselves in mere amusement, because conscious of weakness +which they could not cure. + +[Footnote 103: G. Villani was at Rome in the year of jubilee 1300, and +describes the great concourse and order of the pilgrims, whom he +reckons at 200,000, in the course of the year. "And I," he proceeds, +"finding myself in that blessed pilgrimage in the holy city of Rome, +seeing the great and ancient things of the same, and reading the +histories of the great deeds of the Romans, written by Virgil, and by +Sallust, and Lucan, and Titus Livius, and Valerius, and Paulus +Orosius, and other masters of histories, who wrote as well of the +smaller matters as of the greater, concerning the exploits and deeds +of the Romans; and further, of the strange things of the whole world, +for memory and example's sake to those who should come after--I, too, +took their style and fashion, albeit that, as their scholar, I be not +worthy to execute such a work. But, considering that our city of +Florence, the daughter and creation of Rome, was in its rising, and on +the eve of achieving great things, as Rome was in its decline, it +seemed to me convenient to bring into this volume and new chronicle +all the deeds and beginnings of the city of Florence, so far as I have +been able to gather and recover them; and for the future, to follow at +large the doings of the Florentines, and the other notable things of +the world briefly, as long as it may be God's pleasure; under which +hope, rather by his grace than by my poor science, I entered on this +enterprise: and so, in the year 1300, being returned from Rome, I +began to compile this book, in reverence towards God and St. John, and +commendation of our city of Florence."--_G. Vill._ viii. 36.] + +[Footnote 104: _Sacchetti_, Nov. 114.] + +Dante, by the _Divina Commedia_, was the restorer of seriousness in +literature. He was so, by the magnitude and pretensions of his work, +and by the earnestness of its spirit. He first broke through the +prescription which had confined great works to the Latin, and the +faithless prejudices which, in the language of society, could see +powers fitted for no higher task than that of expressing, in curiously +diversified forms, its most ordinary feelings. But he did much more. +Literature was going astray in its tone, while growing in importance; +the _Commedia_ checked it. The Provencal and Italian poetry was, with +the exception of some pieces of political satire, almost exclusively +amatory, in the most fantastic and affected fashion. In expression, it +had not even the merit of being natural; in purpose it was trifling; +in the spirit which it encouraged, it was something worse. Doubtless +it brought a degree of refinement with it, but it was refinement +purchased at a high price, by intellectual distortion, and moral +insensibility. But this was not all. The brilliant age of Frederick +II., for such it was, was deeply mined by religious unbelief. However +strange this charge first sounds against the thirteenth century, no +one can look at all closely into its history, at least in Italy, +without seeing that the idea of infidelity--not heresy, but +infidelity--was quite a familiar one; and that side by side with the +theology of Aquinas and Bonaventura, there was working among those who +influenced fashion and opinion, among the great men, and the men to +whom learning was a profession, a spirit of scepticism and irreligion +almost monstrous for its time, which found its countenance in +Frederick's refined and enlightened court. The genius of the great +doctors might have kept in safety the Latin Schools, but not the free +and home thoughts which found utterance in the language of the people, +if the solemn beauty of the Italian _Commedia_ had not seized on all +minds. It would have been an evil thing for Italian, perhaps for +European literature, if the siren tales of the _Decameron_ had been +the first to occupy the ear with the charms of a new language. + +Dante has had hard measure, and from some who are most beholden to +him. No one in his day served the Church more highly, than he whose +faith and genius secured on her side the first great burst of +imagination and feeling, the first perfect accents of modern speech. +The first-fruits of the new literature were consecrated, and offered +up. There was no necessity, or even probability in Italy in the +fourteenth century that it should be so, as there might perhaps have +been earlier. It was the poet's free act--free in one, for whom nature +and heathen learning had strong temptations--that religion was the +lesson and influence of the great popular work of the time. That +which he held up before men's awakened and captivated minds, was the +verity of God's moral government. To rouse them to a sense of the +mystery of their state; to startle their commonplace notions of sin +into an imagination of its variety, its magnitude, and its infinite +shapes and degrees; to open their eyes to the beauty of the Christian +temper, both as suffering and as consummated; to teach them at once +the faithfulness and awful freeness of God's grace; to help the dull +and lagging soul to conceive the possibility, in its own case, of +rising step by step in joy without an end--of a felicity not +unimaginable by man, though of another order from the highest +perfection of earth;--this is the poet's end. Nor was it only vague +religious feelings which he wished to excite. He brought within the +circle of common thought, and translated into the language of the +multitude, what the Schools had done to throw light on the deep +questions of human existence, which all are fain to muse upon, though +none can solve. He who had opened so much of men's hearts to +themselves, opened to them also that secret sympathy which exists +between them and the great mysteries of the Christian doctrine.[105] +He did the work, in his day, of a great preacher. Yet he has been +both claimed and condemned, as a disturber of the Church's faith. + +[Footnote 105: _Vide_ Ozanam.] + +He certainly did not spare the Church's rulers. He thought they were +betraying the most sacred of all trusts; and if history is at all to +be relied on, he had some grounds for thinking so. But it is confusing +the feelings of the middle ages with our own, to convert every fierce +attack on the Popes into an anticipation of Luther. Strong language of +this sort was far too commonplace to be so significant. No age is +blind to practical abuses, or silent on them; and when the middle ages +complained, they did so with a full-voiced and clamorous rhetoric, +which greedily seized on every topic of vilification within its reach. +It was far less singular, and far less bold, to criticise +ecclesiastical authorities, than is often supposed; but it by no means +implied unsettled faith, or a revolutionary design. In Dante's case, +if words have any meaning--not words of deliberate qualification, but +his unpremeditated and incidental expressions--his faith in the Divine +mission and spiritual powers of the Popes was as strong as his +abhorrence of their degeneracy, and desire to see it corrected by a +power which they would respect--that of the temporal sword. It would +be to mistake altogether his character, to imagine of him, either as a +fault or as an excellence, that he was a doubter. It might as well be +supposed of Aquinas. + +No one ever acknowledged with greater seriousness, as a fact in his +position in the world, the agreement in faith among those with whom he +was born. No one ever inclined with more simplicity and reverence +before that long communion and consent in feeling and purpose, the +"_publicus_ sensus" of the Christian Church. He did feel difficulties; +but the excitement of lingering on them was not among his enjoyments. +That was the lot of the heathen; Virgil, made wise by death, counsels +him not to desire it: + + "Matto e chi spera, che nostra ragione + Possa trascorrer la 'nfinita via + Che tiene una sustanzia in tre Persone. + State contenti, umana gente, al _quia_; + Che se potuto aveste veder tutto, + Mestier non era partorir Maria: + E disiar vedeste senza frutto + Tai, che sarebbe lor disio quetato, + Ch'eternamente e dato lor per lutto; + I' dico d'Aristotile e di Plato, + E di molti altri:"--e qui chino la fronte, + E piu non disse, e rimase turbato.--_Purg._ c. 3.[106] + +[Footnote 106: + + "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 contented; 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 Stagirite; and many more, + I here allude to;"--then his head he bent, + Was silent, and a troubled aspect wore.--WRIGHT.] + +The Christian poet felt that it was greater to believe and to act. In +the darkness of the world one bright light appeared, and he followed +it. Providence had assigned him his portion of truth, his portion of +daily bread; if to us it appears blended with human elements, it is +perfectly clear that he was in no position to sift them. To choose was +no trial of his. To examine and seek, where it was impossible to find, +would have been folly. The authority from which he started had not yet +been seriously questioned; there were no palpable signs of +doubtfulness on the system which was to him the representative of +God's will; and he sought for none. It came to him claiming his +allegiance by custom, by universality, by its completeness as a whole, +and satisfying his intellect and his sympathies in detail. And he gave +his allegiance--reasonably, because there was nothing to hope for in +doubting--wisely, because he gave it loyally and from his heart. + +And he had his reward--the reward of him who throws himself with +frankness and earnestness into a system; who is not afraid or +suspicious of it; who is not unfaithful to it. He gained not merely +power--he gained that freedom and largeness of mind which the +suspicious or the unfaithful miss. His loyalty to the Church was no +cramping or blinding service; it left to its full play that fresh and +original mind, left it to range at will in all history and all nature +for the traces of Eternal wisdom, left it to please itself with all +beauty, and pay its homage to all excellence. For upon all wisdom, +beauty, and excellence, the Church had taught him to see, in various +and duly distinguished degrees, the seal of the one Creator. She +imparts to the poem, to its form and progressive development, her own +solemnity, her awe, her calm, her serenity and joy; it follows her +sacred seasons and hours; repeats her appointed words of benediction +and praise; moulds itself on her belief, her expectations, and +forecastings.[107] Her intimations, more or less distinct, dogma or +tradition or vague hint, guide the poet's imagination through the land +where all eyes are open. The journey begins under the Easter moon of +the year of jubilee, on the evening of Good Friday; the days of her +mourning he spends in the regions of woe, where none dares to +pronounce the name of the Redeemer, and he issues forth to "behold +again the stars," to learn how to die to sin and rise to +righteousness, very early in the morning, as it begins to dawn, on the +day of the Resurrection. The whole arrangement of the _Purgatorio_ is +drawn from Church usages. It is a picture of men suffering in calm and +holy hope the sharp discipline of repentance, amid the prayers, the +melodies, the consoling images and thoughts, the orderly ritual, the +hours of devotion, the sacraments of the Church militant. When he +ascends in his hardiest flight, and imagines the joys of the perfect +and the vision of God, his abundant fancy confines itself strictly to +the limits sanctioned by her famous teachers--ventures into no new +sphere, hazards no anticipations in which they have not preceded it, +and is content with adding to the poetry which it elicits from their +ideas, a beauty which it is able to conceive apart altogether from +bodily form--the beauty, infinite in its variety, of the expression of +the human eye and smile--the beauty of light, of sound, of motion. And +when his song mounts to its last strain of triumph, and the poet's +thought, imagination, and feeling of beauty, tasked to the utmost, nor +failing under the weight of glory which they have to express, breathe +themselves forth in words, higher than which no poetry has ever risen, +and represent, in images transcending sense, and baffling it, yet +missing not one of those deep and transporting sympathies which they +were to touch, the sight, eye to eye, of the Creator by the +creature--he beholds the gathering together, in the presence of God, +of "all that from our earth has to the skies returned," and of the +countless orders of their thrones mirrored in His light-- + + Mira + Quanto e 'l convento delle bianche stole-- + +under a figure already taken into the ceremonial of the Church--the +mystic Rose, whose expanding leaves image forth the joy of the +heavenly Jerusalem, both triumphant and militant.[108] + +[Footnote 107: See an article in the _Brit. Critic_, No. 65, p. 120.] + +[Footnote 108: See the form of benediction of the "Rosa d'oro." +_Rituum Ecclesiae Rom. Libri Tres._ fol. xxxv. Venet. 1516. Form of +giving: "Accipe rosam de manibus nostris ... per quam designatus +gaudium utriusque Hierusalem triumphantis scilicet et militantis +ecclesiae per quam omnibus Christi fidelibus manifestatur flos ipse +pretiosissimus qui est gaudium et corona sanctorum omnium." He alludes +to it in the _Convito_, iv. 29. + + O isplendor di Dio, per cu' io vidi + L'alto trionfo del regno verace, + Dammi virtu a dir com'io lo vidi. + Lume e lassu, che visibile face + Lo creatore a quella creatura, + Che solo in lui vedere ha la sua pace: + E si distende in circular figura + In tanto, che la sua circonferenza + Sarebbe al Sol troppo larga cintura. + + * * * * + + E come clivo in acqua di suo imo + Si specchia quasi per vedersi adorno, + Quanto e nel verde e ne' fioretti opimo; + Si soprastando al lume intorno intorno + Vidi specchiarsi in piu di mille soglie, + Quanto di noi lassu fatto ha ritorno. + E se l'infimo grado in se raccoglie + Si grande lume, quant'e la larghezza + Di questa rosa nell'estreme foglie? + + * * * * + + Nel giallo della rosa sempiterna, + Che si dilata, rigrada, e redole + Odor di lode al Sol, che sempre verna, + Qual'e colui, che tace e dicer vuole, + Mi trasse Beatrice, e disse; mira + Quanto e 'l convento delle bianche stole! + Vedi nostra Citta quanto ella gira! + Vedi li nostri scanni si ripieni, + Che poca gente omai ci si disira. + + * * * * + + In forma dunque di candida rosa + Mi si mostrava la milizia santa, + Che nel suo sangue Cristo fece sposa.--_Parad._ 30, 31.] + +But this universal reference to the religious ideas of the Church is +so natural, so unaffected, that it leaves him at full liberty in other +orders of thought. He can afford not to be conventional--he can afford +to be comprehensive and genuine. It has been remarked how, in a poem +where there would seem to be a fitting place for them, the +ecclesiastical legends of the middle ages are almost entirely absent. +The sainted spirits of the _Paradiso_ are not exclusively or chiefly +the Saints of popular devotion. After the Saints of the Bible, the +holy women, the three great Apostles, the Virgin mother, they are +either names personally dear to the poet himself, friends whom he had +loved, and teachers to whom he owed wisdom--or great men of masculine +energy in thought or action, in their various lines "compensations and +antagonists of the world's evils"--Justinian and Constantine, and +Charlemagne--the founders of the Orders, Augustine, Benedict, and +Bernard, Francis and Dominic--the great doctors of the Schools, Thomas +Aquinas, and Bonaventura, whom the Church had not yet canonized. And +with them are joined--and that with a full consciousness of the line +which theology draws between the dispensations of nature and +grace--some rare types of virtue among the heathen. Cato is admitted +to the outskirts of Purgatory; Trajan, and the righteous king of +Virgil's poem, to the heaven of the just.[109] + +[Footnote 109: + + Chi crederebbe giu nel mondo errante, + Che Rifeo Trojano[A] in questo tondo + Fosse la quinta delle luci sante? + Ora conosce assai di quel, che 'l mondo + Veder non puo della divina grazia; + Benche sua vista non discerna il fondo.--_Parad._ c. 20.] + +[Footnote A: + + Rhipeus justissimus unus + Qui fuit in Teucris, et servantissimus aequi.--_AEn._ ii.] + +Without confusion or disturbance to the religious character of his +train of thought, he is able freely to subordinate to it the lessons +and the great recollections of the Gentile times. He contemplates them +with the veil drawn off from them; as now known to form but one whole +with the history of the Bible and the Church, in the design of +Providence. He presents them in their own colours, as drawn by their +own writers--he only adds what Christianity seems to show to be their +event. Under the conviction, that the light of the Heathen was a real +guide from above, calling for vengeance in proportion to +unfaithfulness, or outrage done to it--"He that nurtureth the heathen, +it is He that teacheth man knowledge--shall not He punish?"--the great +criminals of profane history are mingled with sinners against God's +revealed will--and that, with equal dramatic power, with equal feeling +of the greatness of their loss. The story of the voyage of Ulysses is +told with as much vivid power and pathetic interest as the tales of +the day.[110] He honours unfeignedly the old heathen's brave disdain +of ease; that spirit, even to old age, eager, fresh, adventurous, and +inquisitive. His faith allowed him to admire all that was beautiful +and excellent among the heathen, without forgetting that it fell short +of what the new gift of the Gospel can alone impart. He saw in it +proof that God had never left His will and law without their witness +among men. Virtue was virtue still, though imperfect, and +unconsecrated--generosity, largeness of soul, truth, condescension, +justice, were never unworthy of the reverence of Christians. Hence he +uses without fear or scruple the classic element. The examples which +recall to the minds of the penitents, by sounds and sights, in the +different terraces of Purgatory, their sin and the grace they have to +attain to, come indiscriminately from poetry and Scripture. The +sculptured pavement, to which the proud are obliged ever to bow down +their eyes, shows at once the humility of S. Mary and of the Psalmist, +and the condescension of Trajan; and elsewhere the pride of Nimrod and +Sennacherib, of Niobe, and Cyrus. The envious hear the passing voices +of courtesy from saints and heroes, and the bursting cry, like +crashing thunder, of repentant jealousy from Cain and Aglaurus; the +avaricious, to keep up the memory of their fault, celebrate by day the +poverty of Fabricius and the liberality of S. Nicolas, and execrate by +night the greediness of Pygmalion and Midas, of Achan, Heliodorus, and +Crassus. + +[Footnote 110: _Inf._ c. 26.] + +Dante's all-surveying, all-embracing mind, was worthy to open the +grand procession of modern poets. He had chosen his subject in a +region remote from popular thought--too awful for it, too abstruse. He +had accepted frankly the dogmatic limits of the Church, and thrown +himself with even enthusiastic faith into her reasonings, at once so +bold and so undoubting--her spirit of certainty, and her deep +contemplations on the unseen and infinite. And in literature, he had +taken as guides and models, above all criticism and all appeal, the +classical writers. Yet with his mind full of the deep and intricate +questions of metaphysics and theology, and his poetical taste always +owning allegiance to Virgil, Ovid, and Statius--keen and subtle as a +Schoolman--as much an idolator of old heathen art and grandeur as the +men of the _Renaissance_--his eye is as open to the delicacies of +character, to the variety of external nature, to the wonders of the +physical world--his interest in them as diversified and fresh, his +impressions as sharp and distinct, his rendering of them as free and +true and forcible, as little weakened or confused by imitation or by +conventional words, his language as elastic, and as completely under +his command, his choice of poetic materials as unrestricted and +original, as if he had been born in days which claim as their own such +freedom, and such keen discriminative sense of what is real, in +feeling and image;--as if he had never felt the attractions of a +crabbed problem of scholastic logic, or bowed before the mellow grace +of the Latins. It may be said, indeed, that the time was not yet come +when the classics could be really understood and appreciated; and this +is true, perhaps fortunate. But admiring them with a kind of devotion, +and showing not seldom that he had caught their spirit, he never +_attempts_ to copy them. His poetry in form and material is all his +own. He asserted the poet's claim to borrow from all science, and from +every phase of nature, the associations and images which he wants; and +he showed that those images and associations did not lose their poetry +by being expressed with the most literal reality. + +But let no reader of fastidious taste disturb his temper by the study +of Dante. Dante certainly opened that path of freedom and poetic +conquest, in which the greatest efforts of modern poetry have followed +him--opened it with a magnificence and power which have never been +surpassed. But the greatest are but pioneers; they must be content to +leave to a posterity, which knows more, if it cannot do as much, a +keen and even growing sense of their defects. The _Commedia_ is open +to all the attacks that can be made on grotesqueness and extravagance. +This is partly owing, doubtless, to the time, in itself quaint, +quainter to us, by being remote and ill-understood; but even then, +weaker and less daring writers than Dante do not equally offend or +astonish us. So that an image or an expression will render forcibly a +thought, there is no strangeness which checks him. Barbarous words are +introduced, to express the cries of the demon or the confusion of +Babel--even to represent the incomprehensible song of the +blessed;[111] inarticulate syllables, to convey the impression of some +natural sound--the cry of sorrowful surprise: + + Alto sospir, che duolo strinse in _hui_;--_Purg._ 16. + +or the noise of the cracking ice: + + Se Tabernicch + Vi fosse su caduto, o Pietra-pana + Non avria pur da l'orlo fatto _cricch_;--_Inf._ 32. + +even separate letters--to express an image, to spell a name, or as +used in some popular proverb.[112] He employs without scruple, and +often with marvellous force of description, any recollection that +occurs to him, however homely, of everyday life;--the old tailor +threading his needle with trouble (_Inf._ 15);--the cook's assistant +watching over the boiling broth (_Inf._ 21);--the hurried or impatient +horse-groom using his curry-comb (_Inf._ 29);--or the common sights +of the street or the chamber--the wet wood sputtering on the hearth: + + Come d'un stizzo verde che arso sia + Dall'un de' capi, che dall'altro geme + E cigola per vento che va via;--_Inf._ 13.[113] + +the paper changing colour when about to catch fire: + + Come procede innanzi dall'ardore + Per lo papiro suso un color bruno + Che non e nero ancora, e 'l bianco muore:--_Inf._ 25.[114] + +the steaming of the hand when bathed, in winter: + + Fuman come man bagnata il verno:-- + +or the ways and appearances of animals--ants meeting on their path: + + Li veggio d'ogni parte farsi presta + Ciascun'ombra, e baciarsi una con una + Senza restar, contente a breve festa: + Cosi per entro loro schiera bruna + _S'ammusa l'una con l'altra formica_, + Forse a spiar lor via e lor fortuna;--_Purg._ 26.[115] + +the snail drawing in its horns (_Inf._ 25);--the hog shut out of its +sty, and trying to gore with its tusks (_Inf._ 30);--the dogs' misery +in summer (_Inf._ 17);--the frogs jumping on to the bank before the +water-snake (_Inf._ 9);--or showing their heads above water: + + Come al orlo dell'acqua d'un fosso + Stan gli ranocchi _pur col muso fuori_, + Si che celano i piedi, e l'altro grosso.--_Inf._ 22.[116] + +[Footnote 111: _Parad._ 7, 1-3.] + +[Footnote 112: To describe the pinched face of famine;-- + + Parean l'occhiaje annella senza gemme. + Chi nel viso degli uomini legge OMO + Ben avria quivi conosciuto l'_emme_ (M).--_Purg._ 23. + +Again, + + Quella reverenza che s'indonna + Di tutto me, pur per B e per ICE.--_Parad._ 7. + + Ne O si tosto mai, ne I si scrisse, + Com'ei s'accese ed arse.--_Inf._ 24.] + +[Footnote 113: + + Like to a sapling, lighted at one end, + Which at the other hisses with the wind, + And drops of sap doth from the outlet send: + So from the broken twig, both words and blood flow'd forth.--WRIGHT.] + +[Footnote 114: + + Like burning paper, when there glides before + The advancing flame a brown and dingy shade, + Which is not black, and yet is white no more.--IBID.] + +[Footnote 115: + + On either hand I saw them haste their meeting, + And kiss each one the other--pausing not-- + Contented to enjoy so short a greeting. + Thus do the ants among their dingy band, + Face one another--each their neighbour's lot + Haply to scan, and how their fortunes stand.--WRIGHT.] + +[Footnote 116: + + As in a trench, frogs at the water side + Sit squatting, with their noses raised on high, + The while their feet, and all their bulk they hide-- + Thus upon either hand the sinners stood. + But Barbariccia now approaching nigh, + Quick they withdrew beneath the boiling flood. + I saw--and still my heart is thrill'd with fear-- + One spirit linger; as beside a ditch, + One frog remains, the others disappear.--IBID.] + +It must be said, that most of these images, though by no means all, +occur in the _Inferno_; and that the poet means to paint sin not +merely in the greatness of its ruin and misery, but in characters +which all understand, of strangeness, of vileness, of despicableness, +blended with diversified and monstrous horror. Even he seems to +despair of his power at times: + + S'io avessi le rime e aspre, e chiocce, + Come si converrebbe al tristo buco, + Sovra 'l qual pontan tutte l'altre rocce; + Io premerrei di mio concetto il suco + Piu pienamente; ma perch'io non l'abbo, + Non senza tema a dicer mi conduco: + Che non e 'mpresa da pigliare a gabbo + Descriver fondo a tutto l'universo, + Ne da lingua, che chiami mamma, o babbo.--_Inf._ 32.[117] + +[Footnote 117: + + Had I a rhyme so rugged, rough, and hoarse + As would become the sorrowful abyss, + O'er which the rocky circles wind their course, + Then with a more appropriate form I might + Endow my vast conceptions; wanting this, + Not without fear I bring myself to write. + For no light enterprise it is, I deem, + To represent the lowest depth of all; + Nor should a childish tongue attempt the theme.--WRIGHT.] + +Feeling the difference between sins, in their elements and, as far as +we see them, their baseness, he treats them variously. His ridicule is +apportioned with a purpose. He passes on from the doom of the sins of +incontinence--the storm, the frost and hail, the crushing +weights--from the flaming minarets of the city of Dis, of the Furies +and Proserpine, "Donna dell'eterno pianto," where the unbelievers lie, +each in his burning tomb--from the river of boiling blood--the wood +with the Harpies--the waste of barren sand with fiery snow, where the +violent are punished--to the Malebolge, the manifold circles of +Falsehood. And here scorn and ridicule in various degrees, according +to the vileness of the fraud, begin to predominate, till they +culminate in that grim comedy, with its _dramatis personae_ and battle +of devils, Draghignazzo, and Graffiacane, and Malacoda, where the +peculators and sellers of justice are fished up by the demons from the +boiling pitch, but even there overreach and cheat their tormentors, +and make them turn their fangs on each other. The diversified forms of +falsehood seem to tempt the poet's imagination to cope with its +changefulness and inventions, as well as its audacity. The +transformations of the wildest dream do not daunt him. His power over +language is nowhere more forcibly displayed than in those cantos, +which describe the punishments of theft--men passing gradually into +serpents, and serpents into men: + + Due e nessun l'imagine perversa + Parea.--_Inf._ 25. + +And when the traitor, who murdered his own kinsman, was still alive, +and seemed safe from the infamy which it was the poet's rule to bestow +only on the dead, Dante found a way to inflict his vengeance without +an anachronism:--Branca D'Oria's body, though on earth, is only +animated by a fiend, and his spirit has long since fled to the icy +prison.[118] + +[Footnote 118: + + Ed egli a me: Come 'l mio corpo stea + Nel mondo su, nulla scienzia porto. + Cotal vantaggio ha questa Tolommea, + Che spesse volte l'anima ci cade + Innanzi, ch'Atropos mossa le dea. + E perche tu piu volontier mi rade + Le 'nvetriate lagrime dal volto, + Sappi, che tosto che l'anima trade, + Come fec'io, il corpo suo l'e tolto + Da un Dimonio, che poscia il governa, + Mentre che 'l tempo suo tutto sia volto. + Ella ruina in si fatta cisterna; + E forse pare ancor lo corpo suso + Dell'ombra, che di qua dietro mi verna. + Tu 'l dei saper, se tu vien pur mo giuso: + Egli e ser Branca d'Oria, e son piu anni + Poscia passati, ch'ei fu si racchiuso. + Io credo, diss'io lui, che tu m'inganni, + Che Branca d'Oria non mori unquanche, + E mangia, e bee, e dorme, e veste panni. + Nel fosso su, diss'ei, di Malebranche, + La dove bolle la tenace pece, + Non era giunto ancora Michel Zanche; + Che questi lascio 'l diavolo in sua vece + Nel corpo suo, e d'un suo prossimano, + Che 'l tradimento insieme con lui fece.--_Inf._ 33.] + +These are strange experiments in poetry; their strangeness is +exaggerated as detached passages; but they are strange enough when +they meet us in their place in the context, as parts of a scene, where +the mind is strung and overawed by the sustained power, with which +dreariness, horror, hideous absence of every form of good, is kept +before the imagination and feelings, in the fearful picture of human +sin. But they belong to the poet's system of direct and forcible +representation. What his inward eye sees, what he feels, that he means +us to see and feel as he does; to make us see and feel is his art. +Afterwards we may reflect and meditate; but first we must see--must +see what he saw. Evil and deformity are in the world, as well as good +and beauty; the eye cannot escape them, they are about our path, in +our heart and memory. He has faced them without shrinking or +dissembling, and extorted from them a voice of warning. In all poetry +that is written for mere delight, in all poetry which regards but a +part or an aspect of nature, they have no place--they disturb and mar; +but he had conceived a poetry of the whole, which would be weak or +false without them. Yet they stand in his poem as they stand in +nature--subordinate and relieved. If the grotesque is allowed to +intrude itself--if the horrible and the foul, undisguised and +unsoftened, make us shudder and shrink, they are kept in strong check +and in due subjection by other poetical influences; and the same power +which exhibits them in their naked strength, renders its full grace +and glory to beauty; its full force and delicacy to the most +evanescent feeling. + +Dante's eye was free and open to external nature in a degree new among +poets; certainly in a far greater degree than among the Latins, even +including Lucretius, whom he probably had never read. We have already +spoken of his minute notice of the appearance of living creatures; but +his eye was caught by the beautiful as well as by the grotesque. + +Take the following beautiful picture of the bird looking out for dawn: + + Come l'augello intra l'amate fronde, + Posato al nido de' suoi dolci nati, + La notte, che le cose ci nasconde, + Che per veder gli aspetti desiati, + E per trovar lo cibo, onde li pasca, + In che i gravi labor gli sono aggrati, + Previene 'l tempo in su l'aperta frasca, + E con ardente affetto il sole aspetta, + Fiso guardando, pur che l'alba nasca.--_Parad._ 23.[119] + +[Footnote 119: + + E'en as the bird that resting in the nest + Of her sweet brood, the shelt'ring boughs among + While all things are enwrapt in night's dark vest-- + Now eager to behold the looks she loves, + And to find food for her impatient young + (Whence labour grateful to a mother proves), + Forestalls the time, high perch'd upon the spray, + And with impassion'd zeal the sun expecting, + Anxiously waiteth the first break of day.--WRIGHT.] + +Nothing indeed can be more true and original than his images of birds; +they are varied and very numerous. We have the water-birds rising in +clamorous and changing flocks: + + Come augelli surti di riviera + _Quasi congratulando a lor pasture_, + Fanno di se or tonda or lunga schiera;--_Parad._ 18.[120] + +the rooks, beginning to move about at daybreak: + + E come per lo natural costume, + Le pole insieme, al cominciar del giorno + Si muovono a scaldar le fredde piume, + Poi altre vanno via senza ritorno, + Altre rivolgon se onde son mosse + Ed altre roteando fan soggiorno;--_Parad._ 21.[121] + +the morning sounds of the swallow: + + Nell'ora che comincia i tristi lai + La rondinella presso alla mattina, + Forse a memoria de' suoi primi guai;--_Purg._ 9.[122] + +the joy and delight of the nightingale's song (_Purg._ 17); the lark, +silent at last, filled with its own sweetness: + + Qual lodoletta, che 'n aere si spazia, + Prima cantando, e _poi tace contenta + Dell'ultima dolcezza che la sazia_;--_Parad._ 20.[123] + +the flight of the starlings and storks (_Inf._ 5, _Purg._ 24); the +mournful cry and long line of the cranes (_Inf._ 5, _Purg._ 26); the +young birds trying to escape from the nest (_Purg._ 25); the eagle +hanging in the sky: + + Con l'ale aperte, e a calare intesa;-- + +the dove, standing close to its mate, or wheeling round it: + + Si come quando 'l _colombo si pone + Presso al compagno_, l'uno e l'altro pande + _Girando e mormorando_ l'affezione;--_Parad._ 25.[124] + +or the flock of pigeons, feeding: + + Adunati alla pastura, + Queti, _senza mostrar l'usato orgoglio_.--_Purg._ 2. + +[Footnote 120: + + And as birds rising from a stream, whence they + Their pastures view, as though their joy confessing, + Now form a round, and now a long array.--IBID.] + +[Footnote 121: + + And as with one accord, at break of day, + The rooks bestir themselves, by nature taught + To chase the dew-drops from their wings away; + Some flying off, to reappear no more-- + Others repairing to their nests again-- + Some whirling round--then settling as before.--WRIGHT.] + +[Footnote 122: + + What time the swallow pours her plaintive strain, + Saluting the approach of morning gray, + Thus haply mindful of her former pain.--IBID.] + +[Footnote 123: + + E'en as the lark high soaring pours its throat + Awhile, then rests in silence, as though still + It dwelt enamour'd of its last sweet note.--IBID.] + +[Footnote 124: + + As when unto his partner's side, the dove + Approaches near--both fondly circling round, + And cooing, show the fervour of their love; + So these great heirs of immortality + Receive each other; while they joyful sound + The praises of the food they share on high.--WRIGHT.] + +Hawking supplies its images: the falcon coming for its food: + + Il falcon che prima a pie si mira, + Indi si volge al grido, e si protende, + Per lo disio del pasto, che la il tira;--_Purg._ 19.[125] + +or just unhooded, pluming itself for its flight: + + Quasi falcon, ch'esce del cappello, + Muove la testa, e con l'ale s'applaude, + _Voglia mostrando, e facendosi bello_;--_Parad._ 19.[126] + +or returning without success, sullen and loath: + + Come 'l falcon ch'e stato assai su l'ali, + Che senza veder logoro, o uccello, + Fa dire al falconiere: Oime tu cali! + Discende lasso onde si muove snello + Per cento ruote, _e da lungi si pone_ + Dal suo maestro, _disdegnoso e fello_.--_Inf._ 17.[127] + +[Footnote 125: + + And, as a falcon, which first scans its feet, + Then turns him to the call, and forward flies, + In eagerness to catch the tempting meat.--IBID.] + +[Footnote 126: + + Lo, as a falcon, from the hood released, + Uplifts his head, and joyous flaps his wings, + His beauty and his eagerness increased.--WRIGHT.] + +[Footnote 127: + + E'en as a falcon, long upheld in air, + Not seeing lure or bird upon the wing, + So that the falconer utters in despair + "Alas, thou stoop'st!" fatigued descends from high; + And whirling quickly round in many a ring, + Far from his master sits--disdainfully.--IBID.] + +It is curious to observe him taking Virgil's similes, and altering +them. When Virgil describes the throng of souls, he compares them to +falling leaves, or gathering birds in autumn: + + Quam multa in silvis auctumni frigore primo + Lapsa cadunt folia, aut ad terram gurgite ab alto + Quam multae glomerantur aves, ubi frigidus annus + Trans pontum fugat, et terris immittit apricis-- + +Dante uses the same images, but without copying: + + Come d'Autunno si levan le foglie, + L'una appresso dell'altra, infin che 'l ramo + Rende alla terra tutte le sue spoglie; + Similemente il mal seme d'Adamo: + Gittansi di quel lito ad una ad una + Per cenni, com'augel per suo richiamo. + Cosi sen vanno su per l'onda bruna, + Ed avanti che sien di la discese, + Anche di qua nuova schiera s'aduna.--_Inf._ 3.[128] + +[Footnote 128: + + As leaves in autumn, borne before the wind, + Drop one by one, until the branch laid bare, + Sees all its honours to the earth consign'd: + So cast them downward at his summons all + The guilty race of Adam from that strand-- + Each as a falcon answering to the call.--WRIGHT.] + +Again--compared with one of Virgil's most highly-finished and perfect +pictures, the flight of the pigeon, disturbed at first, and then +becoming swift and smooth: + + Qualis spelunca subito commota columba, + Cui domus et dulces latebroso in pumice nidi, + Fertur in arva volans, plausumque exterrita pennis + Dat tecto ingentem, mox aere lapsa quieto + Radit iter liquidum, celeres neque commovet alas-- + +the Italian's simplicity and strength may balance the "ornata parola" +of Virgil: + + Quali colombe dal disio chiamate, + Con _l'ali aperte e ferme_ al dolce nido + Volan per l'aer dal voler portate.--_Inf._ 5.[129] + +[Footnote 129: + + As doves, by strong affection urged, repair + With firm expanded wings to their sweet nest, + Borne by the impulse of their will through air.--IBID. + +It is impossible not to be reminded at every step, in spite of the +knowledge and taste which Mr. Cary and Mr. Wright have brought to +their most difficult task, of the truth which Dante has expressed with +his ordinary positiveness. + +He is saying that he does not wish his Canzoni to be explained in +Latin to those who could not read them in Italian: "Che sarebbe sposta +la loro sentenzia cola dove elle _non la potessono colla loro bellezza +portare_. E pero sappia ciascuno che nulla cosa per legame musaico +(_i.e._ poetico) armonizzata, si puo della sua loquela in altra +trasmutare senza rompere tutta la sua dolcezza e armonia. E questa e +la ragione per che Omero non si muto mai di Greco in Latino, come +l'altre scritture che avemo da loro."--_Convito_, i. c. 8, p. 49. + +Dr. Carlyle has given up the idea of attempting to represent Dante's +verse by English verse, and has confined himself to assisting +Englishmen to read him in his own language. His prose translation is +accurate and forcible. And he has added sensible and useful notes.] + +Take, again, the _times of the day_, with what is characteristic of +them--appearances, lights, feelings--seldom dwelt on at length, but +carried at once to the mind, and stamped upon it sometimes by a single +word. The sense of _morning_, its inspiring and cheering strength, +softens the opening of the _Inferno_; breathes its refreshing calm, in +the interval of repose after the last horrors of hell, in the first +canto of the _Purgatorio_; and prepares for the entrance into the +earthly Paradise at its close. In the waning light of _evening_, and +its chilling sense of loneliness, he prepared himself for his dread +pilgrimage: + + Lo giorno se n'andava, e l'aer bruno + Toglieva gli animai che sono 'n terra + Dalle fatiche loro; ed io sol uno + M'apparechiava a sostener la guerra + Si del cammino, e si della pietate.--_Inf._ 2. + +Indeed there is scarcely an hour of day or night, which has not left +its own recollection with him;--of which we cannot find some memorial +in his poem. Evening and night have many. Evening, with its softness +and melancholy--its exhaustion and languor, after the work, perhaps +unfulfilled, of day--its regrets and yearnings--its sounds and +doubtful lights--the distant bell, the closing chants of Compline, the +_Salve Regina_, the _Te lucis ante terminum_--with its insecurity, and +its sense of protection from above--broods over the poet's first +resting-place on his heavenly road--that still, solemn, dreamy +scene--the Valley of Flowers in the mountain side, where those who +have been negligent about their salvation, but not altogether +faithless and fruitless, the assembled shades of great kings and of +poets, wait, looking upwards, "pale and humble," for the hour when +they may begin in earnest their penance. (_Purg._ 7 and 8.) The level, +blinding evening beams (_Purg._ 15); the contrast of gathering +darkness in the valley or on the shore with the lingering lights on +the mountain (_Purg._ 17); the rapid sinking of the sun, and approach +of night in the south (_Purg._ 27); the flaming sunset clouds of +August; the sheet-lightning of summer (_Purg._ 5); have left pictures +in his mind, which an incidental touch reawakens, and a few strong +words are sufficient to express. Other appearances he describes with +more fulness. The stars coming out one by one, baffling at first the +eye: + + Ed ecco intorno di chiarezza pari + Nascer un lustro sopra quel che v'era, + A guisa d'orizzonte, che rischiari. + _E si come al salir di prima sera + Comincian per lo Ciel nuove parvenze, + Si che la cosa pare e non par vera_;--_Parad._ 14.[130] + +or else, bursting out suddenly over the heavens: + + Quando colui che tutto il mondo alluma, + De l'emisperio nostro si discende, + E 'l giorno d'ogni parte si consuma; + Lo ciel che sol di lui prima s'accende, + Subitamente si rifa parvente + Per molte luci in che una risplende;--_Parad._ 20.[131] + +or the effect of shooting-stars: + + Quale per li seren tranquilli e puri + Discorre ad ora ad or subito fuoco + Movendo gli occhi che stavan sicuri, + E pare stella che tramuti loco, + Se non che dalla parte onde s'accende + Nulla sen perde, ed esso dura poco;--_Parad._ 15.[132] + +or, again, that characteristic sight of the Italian summer night--the +fire-flies: + + Quante il villan che al poggio si riposa, + Nel tempo che colui che 'l mondo schiara + La faccia sua a noi tien men ascosa, + Come la mosca cede alla zenzara, + Vede lucciole giu per la vallea + Forse cola dove vendemmia ed ara.--_Inf._ 26.[133] + +[Footnote 130: + + And lo, on high, and lurid as the one + Now there, encircling it, a light arose, + Like heaven when re-illumined by the sun: + And as at the first lighting up of eve + The sky doth new appearances disclose, + That now seem real, now the sight deceive.--WRIGHT.] + +[Footnote 131: + + When he, who with his universal ray + The world illumines, quits our hemisphere, + And, from each quarter, daylight wears away; + The heaven, erst kindled by his beam alone, + Sudden its lost effulgence doth repair + By many lights illumined but by one.--IBID.] + +[Footnote 132: + + As oft along the pure and tranquil sky + A sudden fire by night is seen to dart, + Attracting forcibly the heedless eye; + And seems to be a star that changes place, + Save that no star is lost from out the part + It quits, and that it lasts a moment's space.--WRIGHT.] + +[Footnote 133: + + As in that season when the sun least veils + His face that lightens all, what time the fly + Gives place to the shrill gnat, the peasant then, + Upon some cliff reclined, beneath him sees + Fire-flies innumerous spangling o'er the vale, + Vineyard or tilth, where his day-labour lies.--CARY.] + +Noon, too, does not want its characteristic touches--the +lightning-like glancing of the lizard's rapid motion: + + Come il ramarro sotto la gran fersa + Ne' di canicular cangiando siepe + Folgore par, se la via attraversa;--_Inf._ 25.[134] + +the motes in the sunbeam at noontide (_Par._ 14); its clear, +diffused, insupportable brightness, filling all things: + + E tutti eran gia pieni + Dell'alto di i giron del sacro monte.--_Purg._ 19. + +and veiling the sun in his own light: + + Io veggio ben si come _tu t'annidi + Nel proprio lume_. + + * * * * + + Si come 'l sol che si cela egli stessi + Per troppa luce, quando 'l caldo ha rose + Le temperanze de' vapori spessi.--_Parad._ 5. + +[Footnote 134: + + As underneath the dog-star's scorching ray + The lizard, darting swift from fence to fence, + Appears like lightning, if he cross the way.--WRIGHT.] + +But the sights and feelings of morning are what he touches on most +frequently; and he does so with the precision of one who had watched +them with often-repeated delight: the scented freshness of the breeze +that stirs before daybreak: + + E quale annunziatrice degli albori + Aura di maggio muovesi ed olezza + Tutta impregnata dall'erba e da' fiori; + Tal mi senti' un vento dar per mezza + La fronte;--_Purg._ 24.[135] + +the chill of early morning (_Purg._ 19); the dawn stealing on, and the +stars, one by one, fading "infino alla piu bella" (_Parad._ 30); the +brightness of the "trembling morning star"-- + + Par tremolando mattutina stella;-- + +the serenity of the dawn, the blue gradually gathering in the east, +spreading over the brightening sky (_Parad._ 1); then succeeded by the +orange tints--and Mars setting red, through the mist over the sea: + + Ed ecco, qual sul presso del mattino + Per li grossi vapor Marte rosseggia + Giu nel ponente, sopra 'l suol marino, + Cotal m'apparve, s'io ancor lo veggia, + Un lume per lo mar venir si ratto + Che 'l muover suo nessun volar pareggia;--_Purg._ 2.[136] + +the distant sea-beach quivering in the early light: + + L'alba vinceva l'ora mattutina + Che fuggia innanzi, si che di lontano + Conobbi _il tremolar della marina_;--_Purg._ 1.[137] + +the contrast of east and west at the moment of sunrise, and the sun +appearing, clothed in mist: + + Io vidi gia nel cominciar del giorno + La parte oriental tutta rosata + E l'altro ciel di bel sereno adorno; + E la faccia del sol nascere ombrata + Si che per temperanza di vapori + L'occhio lo sostenea lunga fiata;--_Purg._ 3.[138] + +or breaking through it, and shooting his beams over the sky: + + Di tutte parti saettava il giorno + Lo sol ch'avea con le saette conte + Di mezzo 'l ciel cacciato 'l Capricorno.--_Purg._ 2.[139] + +[Footnote 135: + + As when, announcing the approach of day, + Impregnated with herbs and flowers of Spring, + Breathes fresh and redolent the air of May-- + Such was the breeze that gently fann'd my head; + And I perceived the waving of a wing + Which all around ambrosial odours shed.--WRIGHT.] + +[Footnote 136: + + When lo! like Mars, in aspect fiery red + Seen through the vapour, when the morn is nigh + Far in the west above the briny bed, + So (might I once more see it) o'er the sea + A light approach'd with such rapidity, + Flies not the bird that might its equal be.--WRIGHT.] + +[Footnote 137: + + Now 'gan the vanquish'd matin hour to flee; + And seen from far, as onward came the day, + I recognised the trembling of the sea.--IBID.] + +[Footnote 138: + + Erewhile the eastern regions have I seen + At daybreak glow with roseate colours, and + The expanse beside all beauteous and serene: + And the sun's face so shrouded at its rise, + And temper'd by the mists which overhung, + That I could gaze on it with stedfast eyes.--WRIGHT.] + +[Footnote 139: + + On every side the sun shot forth the day, + And had already with his arrows bright + From the mid-heaven chased Capricorn away.--IBID.] + +But _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--has shown that he felt it in itself the cause +of a distinct and peculiar pleasure, delighting the eye apart from +form, as music delights the ear apart from words, and capable, like +music, of definite character, of endless variety, and infinite +meanings. He must have studied and dwelt upon it like music. His mind +is charged with its effects and combinations, and they are rendered +with a force, a brevity, a precision, a heedlessness and +unconsciousness of ornament, an indifference to circumstance and +detail; they flash out with a spontaneous readiness, a suitableness +and felicity, which show the familiarity and grasp given only by daily +observation, daily thought, daily pleasure. Light everywhere--in the +sky and earth and sea--in the star, the flame, the lamp, the +gem--broken in the water, reflected from the mirror, transmitted pure +through the glass, or coloured 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, as voice discerned +within voice, "_quando una e ferma, e l'altra va e riede_"--the +brighter "nestling" itself in the fainter--the purer set off on the +less clear, "_come perla in bianca fronte_"--light in the human eye +and face, displaying, figuring, and confounded with its +expressions--light blended with joy in the eye: + + luce + Come letizia in pupilla viva; + +and in the smile: + + Vincendo me col lume d'un sorriso; + +joy lending its expression to light: + + Quivi la donna mia vid'io si lieta-- + Che piu lucente se ne fe il pianeta. + E se la _stella si cambio, e rise_, + Qual mi fec'io;--_Parad._ 5. + +light from every source, and in all its shapes, illuminates, +irradiates, gives its glory to the _Commedia_. The remembrance of our +"serene life" beneath the "fair stars" keeps up continually the gloom +of the _Inferno_. Light, such as we see it and recognise it, the light +of morning and evening growing and fading, takes off from the +unearthliness of the _Purgatorio_; peopled, as it is, by the undying, +who, though suffering for sin, can sin no more, it is thus made like +our familiar world, made to touch our sympathies as an image of our +own purification in the flesh. And when he rises beyond the regions of +earthly day, light, simple, unalloyed, unshadowed, 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 _coloured_. Only once, that we +remember, is the thought of colour forced on us; when the bright joy +of heaven suffers change and eclipse, and deepens into red at the +sacrilege of men.[140] + +[Footnote 140: _Parad._ 27.] + +Yet his eye is everywhere, not confined to the beauty or character of +the sky and its lights. His range of observation and largeness of +interest prevent that line of imagery, which is his peculiar +instrument and predilection, from becoming, in spite of its brightness +and variety, dreamy and monotonous; prevent it from arming against +itself sympathies which it does not touch. He has watched with equal +attention, and draws with not less power, the occurrences and sights +of Italian country life; the summer whirlwind sweeping over the +plain--"_dinanzi polveroso va superbo_" (_Inf._ 9); the rain-storm of +the Apennines (_Purg._ 5); the peasant's alternations of feeling in +spring: + + In quella parte del giovinetto anno + Che 'l sole i crin sotto l'Aquario tempra, + E gia le notti al mezzo di sen vanno; + Quando la brina in su la terra assempra + L'imagine di sua sorella bianca, + Ma poco dura alla sua penna tempra, + Lo villanello a cui la roba manca + Si leva e guarda, e vede la campagna + Biancheggiar tutta; ond'ei si batte l'anca; + Ritorna a casa, e qua e la si lagna + Come 'l tapin che non sa che si faccia: + Poi riede e la speranza ringavagna + Veggendo 'l mondo aver cangiata faccia + In poco d'ora, e prende il suo vincastro + E fuor le pecorelle a pascer caccia:--_Inf._ 24.[141] + +the manner in which sheep come out from the fold: + + Come le pecorelle escon del chiuso + _A una a due a tre, e l'altre stanno, + Timidette atterrando l'occhio e' l muso; + E cio che fa la prima, e l'altre fanno, + Addossandosi a lei s'ella s'arresta_ + Semplici e quete, e lo 'mperche non sanno: + Si vid'io muover a venir la testa + Di quella mandria fortunata allotta, + Pudica in faccia e nell'andare onesta. + Come color dinanzi vider rotta + La luce.... + Ristaro, e trasser se indietro alquanto, + E tutti gli altri che veniano appresso, + Non sappiendo il perche, fero altrettanto.--_Purg._ 3. + +[Footnote 141: + + In the new year, when Sol his tresses gay + Dips in Aquarius, and the tardy night + Divides her empire with the lengthening day-- + When o'er the earth the hoar-frost pure and bright + Assumes the image of her sister white, + Then quickly melts before the genial light-- + The rustic, now exhausted his supply, + Rises betimes--looks out--and sees the land + All white around, whereat he strikes his thigh-- + Turns back--and grieving--wanders here and there, + Like one disconsolate and at a stand; + Then issues forth, forgetting his despair, + For lo! the face of nature he beholds + Changed on a sudden--takes his crook again, + And drives his flock to pasture from the folds.--WRIGHT.] + +So with the beautiful picture of the goats upon the mountain, chewing +the cud in the noontide heat and stillness, and the goatherd, resting +on his staff and watching them--a picture which no traveller among the +mountains of Italy or Greece can have missed, or have forgotten: + + Quali si fanno ruminando manse + Le capre, _state rapide e proterve + Sopra le cime_ avanti che sien pranse, + _Tacite al ombra mentre che 'l sol ferve, + Guardate dal pastor_ che 'n su la verga + Poggiato s'e, e lor poggiato serve.--_Purg._ 27.[142] + +[Footnote 142: + + Like goats that having over the crags pursued + Their wanton sports, now, quiet pass the time + In ruminating--sated with their food, + Beneath the shade, while glows the sun on high-- + Watched by the goatherd with unceasing care, + As on his staff he leans, with watchful eye.--_Ibid._] + +So again, with his recollections of cities: the crowd, running +together to hear news (_Purg._ 2), or pressing after the winner of the +game (_Purg._ 6); the blind men at the church doors, or following +their guide through the throng (_Purg._ 13, 16); the friars walking +along in silence, one behind another: + + Taciti, soli, e senza compagnia + N'andavam, _l'un dinanzi, e l'altro dopo + Come i frati minor vanno per via_.--_Inf._ 23. + +He turns to account in his poem, the pomp and clamour of the host +taking the field (_Inf._ 22); the devices of heraldry; the answering +chimes of morning bells over the city;[143] the inventions and +appliances of art, the wheels within wheels of clocks (_Par._ 24), the +many-coloured carpets of the East (_Inf._ 17); music and dancing--the +organ and voice in church: + + --Voce mista al dolce suono + Che or si or no s'intendon le parole,--_Purg._ 9. + +the lute and voice in the chamber (_Par._ 20); the dancers preparing +to begin,[144] or waiting to catch a new strain.[145] Or, again, the +images of domestic life, the mother's ways to her child, reserved and +reproving--"che al figlio par superba"--or cheering him with her +voice, or watching him compassionately in the wandering of fever: + + Ond'ella, appresso d'un pio sospiro + Gli occhi drizzo ver me, con quel sembiante + Che madre fa sopra figliuol deliro.--_Parad._ 1. + +[Footnote 143: + + Indi come orologio che ne chiami + Nell'ora che la sposa di Dio surge + A mattinar lo sposo perche l'ami, + Che l'una parte e l'altra tira ed urge + Tin tin sonando con si dolce nota + Che 'l ben disposto spirto d'amor turge; + Cosi vid'io la gloriosa ruota + Muoversi e render voce a voce, in tempra + Ed in dolcezza ch'esser non puo nota + Se non cola dove 'l gioir s'insempra.--_Parad._ 10.] + +[Footnote 144: + + E come surge, e va, ed entra in ballo + Vergine lieta, sol per farne onore + Alla novizia, e non per alcun fallo.--_Ibid._ 25.] + +[Footnote 145: + + Donne mi parver, non da ballo sciolte, + Ma che s'arrestin tacite ascoltando + Fin che le nuove note hanno ricolte.--_Ibid._ 10.] + +Nor is he less observant of the more delicate phenomena of mind, in +its inward workings, and its connexion with the body. The play of +features, the involuntary gestures and attitudes of the passions, the +power of eye over eye, of hand upon hand, the charm of voice and +expression, of musical sounds even when not understood--feelings, +sensations, and states of mind which have a name, and others, equally +numerous and equally common, which have none--these, often so +fugitive, so shifting, so baffling and intangible, are expressed with +a directness, a simplicity, a sense of truth at once broad and +refined, which seized at once on the congenial mind of his countrymen, +and pointed out to them the road which they have followed in art, +unapproached as yet by any competitors.[146] + +[Footnote 146: For instance:--_thoughts upon thoughts, ending in sleep +and dreams_: + + Nuovo pensier dentro de me si mise, + Dal qual piu altri nacquero e diversi: + _E tanto d'uno in altro vaneggiai + Che gli occhi per vaghezza ricopersi, + E 'l pensamento in sogno trasmutai_.--_Purg._ 18. + +_sleep stealing off when broken by light_: + + Come si frange il sonno, ove di butto + Nuova luce percuote 'l viso chiuso, + _Che fratto guizza pria che muoja tutto_.--_Ibid._ 17. + +_the shock of sudden awakening_: + + Come al lume acuto si disonna, + + * * * * + + _E lo svegliato cio che vede abborre,_ + Si nescia e la subita vigilia, + Finche la stimativa nol soccorre.--_Parad._ 26. + +_uneasy feelings produced by sight or representation of something +unnatural_: + + Come per sostentar solajo o tetto + Per mensola talvolta una figura + Si vede giunger le ginocchia al petto, + _La qual fa del non ver vera rancura + Nascer a chi la vede_; cosi fatti + Vid'io color.--_Purg._ 10. + +_blushing in innocent sympathy for others_: + + E come donna onesta che permane + Di se sicura, e _per l'altrui fallanza + Pure ascoltando timida si fane_: + Cosi Beatrice trasmuto sembianza.--_Par._ 27. + +_asking and answering by looks only_: + + Volsi gli occhi agli occhi al signor mio; + Ond'elli m'assenti con lieto cenno + Cio che chiedea la vista del disio.--_Purg._ 19. + +_watching the effect of words_: + + Posto avea fine al suo ragionamento + L'alto dottore, ad attento guardava + Nella mia vista s'io parea contento. + Ed io, cui nuova sete ancor frugava, + Di fuor taceva e dentro dicea: forse + Lo troppo dimandar ch'io fo, li grava. + Ma quel padre verace, che s'accorse + Del timido voler che non s'apriva, + Parlando, di parlare ardir mi porse.--_Ibid._ 18. + +_Dante betraying Virgil's presence to Statius, by his involuntary +smile_: + + Volser Virgilio a me queste parole + Con viso che tacendo dicea: "taci;" + Ma non puo tutto la virtu che vuole; + Che riso e pianto son tanto seguaci + Alla passion da che ciascun si spicca, + _Che men segnon voler ne' piu veraci. + Io pur sorrisi, come l'uom ch'ammicca: + Perche l'ombra si tacque, e riguardommi + Negli occhi ove 'l sembiante piu si ficca._ + E se tanto lavoro in bene assommi, + Disse, perche la faccia tua testeso + _Un lampeggiar a' un riso_ dimostrommi?--_Purg._ 21. + +_smiles and words together_: + + Per le _sorrise parolette brevi_.--_Parad._ 1. + +_eye meeting eye_: + + Gli occhi ritorsi avanti + Dritti nel lume della dolce guida + Che sorridendo ardea negli occhi santi.--_Ibid._ 3. + + Come si vede qui alcuna volta + L'affetto nella vista, s'ello e tanto + Che da lui sia tutta l'anima tolta: + Cosi nel fiammeggiar del fulgor santo + A cui mi volsi, conobbi la voglia + In lui di ragionarmi ancora alquanto.--_Ibid._ 18. + +_gentleness of voice_: + + E cominciommi a dir soave e piana + Con angelica voce in sua favella.--_Inf._ 2. + + E come agli occhi miei si fe' piu bella, + Cosi con voce piu dolce e soave, + Ma non con questa moderna favella, + Dissemi;--_Parad._ 16. + +_chanting_: + + _Te lucis ante_ si divotamente + Le usci di bocca e con si dolce note, + Che fece me a me uscir di mente. + E l'altre poi dolcemente e divote + Seguitar lei per tutto l'inno intero, + Avendo gli occhi alle superne ruote.--_Purg._ 8. + +_chanting blended with the sound of the organ_: + + Io mi rivolsi attento al primo tuono, + E _Te Deum laudamus_ mi parea + Udire in voce mista al dolce suono. + Tale imagine appunto mi rendea + Cio ch'io udiva, qual prender si suole + _Quando a cantar con organi si stea; + Ch'or si, or no, s'intendon le parole_.--_Purg._ 9. + +_voices in concert_: + + E come in voce voce si discerne + _Quando una e ferma, e' l altra va e riede_.--_Parad._ 8. + +_attitudes and gestures: e.g. Beatrice addressing him_, + + Con atto e voce di spedito duce.--_Ibid._ 30. + +_Sordello eyeing the travellers_: + + Venimmo a lei: o anima Lombarda, + Come ti stavi altera e disdegnosa, + E nel muover degli occhi onesta e tarda. + Ella non ci diceva alcuna cosa, + Ma lasciavane gir, solo guardando, + A guisa di leon quando si posa.--_Purg._ 6. + +_the angel moving "dry-shod" over the Stygian pool_: + + _Dal volto rimovea quell'aer grasso + Menando la sinistra innanzi spesso_, + E sol di quell'angoscia parea lasso. + Ben m'accorsi ch'egli era del ciel messo, + E volsimi al maestro; e quei fe' segno + Ch'io stessi cheto ed inchinassi ed esso. + Ahi quanto mi parea pien di disdegno. + + * * * * + + Poi si rivolse per la strada lorda, + E non fe' motto a noi, ma fe' sembiante + D'uomo cui altra cura stringa e morda + Che quella di colui che gli e davante.--_Inf._ 9.] + +And he has anticipated the latest schools of modern poetry, by making +not merely nature, but science tributary to a poetry with whose +general aim and spirit it has little in common--tributary in its +exact forms, even in its technicalities. He speaks of the +Mediterranean Sea, not merely as a historian, or an observer of its +storms or its smiles, but as a geologist;[147] of light, not merely in +its beautiful appearances, but in its natural laws.[148] There is a +charm, an imaginative charm to him, not merely in the sensible +magnificence of the heavens, "in their silence, and light, and +watchfulness," but in the system of Ptolemy and the theories of +astrology; and he delights to interweave the poetry of feeling and of +the outward sense with the grandeur--so far as he knew it--of order, +proportion, measured magnitudes, the relations of abstract forces, +displayed on such a scene as the material universe, as if he wished to +show that imagination in its boldest flight was not afraid of the +company of the clear and subtle intellect. + +[Footnote 147: _La maggior valle_, in che l'acqua si spandi.--_Parad._ +9.] + +[Footnote 148: _E.g._ _Purg._ 15.] + +Indeed the real never daunts him. It is his leading principle of +poetic composition, to draw out of things the poetry which is latent +in them, either essentially, or as they are portions, images, or +reflexes of something greater--not to invest them with a poetical +semblance, by means of words which bring with them poetical +associations, and have received a general poetical stamp. Dante has +few of those indirect charms which flow from the subtle structure and +refined graces of language--none of that exquisitely-fitted and +self-sustained mechanism of choice words of the Greeks--none of that +tempered and majestic amplitude of diction, which clothes, like the +folds of a royal robe, the thoughts of the Latins--none of that +abundant play of fancy and sentiment, soft or grand, in which the +later Italian poets delighted. Words with him are used sparingly, +never in play--never because they carry with them poetical +recollections--never for their own sake; but because they are +instruments which will give the deepest, clearest, sharpest stamp of +that image which the poet's mind, piercing to the very heart of his +subject, or seizing the characteristic feature which to other men's +eyes is confused and lost among others accidental and common, draws +forth in severe and living truth. Words will not always bend +themselves to his demands on them; they make him often uncouth, +abrupt, obscure. But he is too much in earnest to heed uncouthness; +and his power over language is too great to allow uncertainty as to +what he means, to be other than occasional. Nor is he a stranger to +the utmost sweetness and melody of language. But it appears, unsought +for and unlaboured, the spontaneous and inevitable obedience of the +tongue and pen to the impressions of the mind; as grace and beauty, of +themselves, "command and guide the eye" of the painter, who thinks not +of his hand but of them. All is in character with the absorbed and +serious earnestness which pervades the poem; there is no toying, no +ornament, that a man in earnest might not throw into his +words;--whether in single images, or in pictures, like that of the +Meadow of the Heroes (_Inf._ 4), or the angel appearing in hell to +guide the poet through the burning city (_Inf._ 9)--or in histories, +like those of Count Ugolino, or the life of S. Francis (_Parad._ +11)--or in the dramatic scenes like the meeting of the poets Sordello +and Virgil (_Purgat._ 6), or that one, unequalled in beauty, where +Dante himself, after years of forgetfulness and sin, sees Beatrice in +glory, and hears his name, never but once pronounced during the +vision, from her lips.[149] + +[Footnote 149: + + Io vidi gia nel cominciar del giorno + La parte oriental tutta rosata, + E l'altro ciel di bel sereno adorno, + E la faccia del sol nascere ombrata, + Si che per temperanza di vapori + L'occhio lo sostenea lunga fiata; + Cosi dentro una nuvola di fiori, + Che dalle mani angeliche saliva, + E ricadeva giu dentro e di fuori, + Sovra candido vel cinta d'oliva + Donna m'apparve sotto verde manto + Vestita di color di fiamma viva. + E lo spirito mio, che gia cotanto + Tempo era stato che alla sua presenza + Non era di stupor, tremando, affranto. + Senza degli occhi aver piu conoscenza, + Per occulta virtu, che da lei mosse, + D'antico amor senti' la gran potenza. + + * * * * + + Volsimi alla sinistra col rispitto, + Col quale il fantolin corre alla mamma, + Quando ha paura, o quando egli e afflitto, + Per dicere a Virgilio: Men che dramma + Di sangue m'e rimasa, che non tremi: + Conosco i segni dell'antica fiamma. + Ma Virgilio n'avea lasciati scemi + Di se, Virgilio dolcissimo padre, + Virgilio, a cui per mia salute diemi: + + * * * * + + Dante, perche Virgilio se ne vada, + Non piangere anche, non piangere ancora + Che pianger ti convien per altra spada. + + * * * * + + Regalmente nell'atto ancor proterva + Continuo, come colui che dice, + E il piu caldo parlar dietro reserva, + Guardami ben: ben son, ben son Beatrice: + Come degnasti d'accedere al monte? + Non sapei tu, che qui e l'uom felice?--_Purg._ 30. + +But extracts can give but an imperfect notion of this grand and +touching canto.] + +But this, or any other array of scenes and images, might be matched +from poets of a far lower order than Dante: and to specimens which +might be brought together of his audacity and extravagance, no +parallel could be found except among the lowest. We cannot, honestly, +plead the barbarism of the time as his excuse. That, doubtless, +contributed largely to them; but they were the faults of the man. In +another age, their form might have been different; yet we cannot +believe so much of time, that it would have tamed Dante. Nor can we +wish it. It might have made him less great: and his greatness can +well bear its own blemishes, and will not less meet its due honour +among men, because they can detect its kindred to themselves. + +The greatness of his work is not in its details--to be made or marred +by them. It is the greatness of a comprehensive and vast conception, +sustaining without failure the trial of its long and hazardous +execution, and fulfilling at its close the hope and promise of its +beginning; like the greatness--which we watch in its course with +anxious suspense, and look back upon when it is secured by death, with +deep admiration--of a perfect life. Many a surprise, many a +difficulty, many a disappointment, many a strange reverse and +alternation of feelings, attend the progress of the most patient and +admiring reader of the _Commedia_; as many as attend on one who +follows the unfolding of a strong character in life. We are often +shocked when we were prepared to admire--repelled, when we came with +sympathy; the accustomed key fails at a critical moment--depths are +revealed which we cannot sound, mysteries which baffle and confound +us. But the check is for a time--the gap and chasm does not dissever. +Haste is even an evidence of life--the brief word, the obscure hint, +the unexplained, the unfinished, or even the unachieved, are the marks +of human feebleness, but are also among those of human truth. The +unity of the whole is unimpaired. The strength which is working it +out, though it may have at times disappointed us, shows no hollowness +or exhaustion. The surprise of disappointment is balanced--there is +the surprise of unimagined excellence. Powers do more than they +promised; and that spontaneous and living energy, without which +neither man nor poet can be trusted, and which showed its strength +even in its failures, shows it more abundantly in the novelties of +success--by touching sympathies which have never been touched before, +by the unconstrained freshness with which it meets the proverbial and +familiar, by the freedom with which it adjusts itself to a new +position or an altered task--by the completeness, unstudied and +instinctive, with which it holds together dissimilar and uncongenial +materials, and forces the most intractable, the most unaccustomed to +submission, to receive the colour of the whole--by its orderly and +unmistakable onward march, and its progress, as in height, so in what +corresponds to height. It was one and the same man, who rose from the +despair, the agony, the vivid and vulgar horrors of the _Inferno_, to +the sense and imagination of certainty, sinlessness, and joy +ineffable--the same man whose power and whose sympathies failed him +not, whether discriminating and enumerating, as if he had gone through +them all, the various forms of human suffering, from the dull, +gnawing sense of the loss of happiness, to the infinite woes of the +wrecked and ruined spirit, and the coarser pangs of the material +flesh; or dwelling on the changeful lights and shades of earnest +repentance, in its hard, but not unaided or ungladdened struggle, and +on that restoration to liberty and peace, which can change even this +life into paradise, and reverse the doom which made sorrow our +condition, and laughter and joy unnatural and dangerous--the penalty +of that first fault, which + + In pianto ed in affanno + Cambio onesto riso e dolce giuoco: + +or rising finally above mortal experience, to imagine the freedom of +the saints and the peace of eternity. In this consists the greatness +of his power. It is not necessary to read through the _Commedia_ to +see it--open it where we please, we see that he is on his way, and +whither he is going; episode and digression share in the solemnity of +the general order. + +And his greatness was more than that of power. That reach and play of +sympathy ministered to a noble wisdom, which used it thoughtfully and +consciously for a purpose to which great poetry had never yet been +applied, except in the mouth of prophets. Dante was a stern man, and +more than stern, among his fellows. But he has left to those who +never saw his face an inheritance the most precious; he has left them +that which, reflecting and interpreting their minds, does so, not to +amuse, not to bewilder, not to warp, not to turn them in upon +themselves in distress or gloom or selfishness; not merely to hold up +a mirror to nature; but to make them true and make them hopeful. Dark +as are his words of individuals, his thoughts are not dark or +one-sided about mankind; his is no cherished and perverse +severity--his faith is too large, too real, for such a fault. He did +not write only the _Inferno_. And the _Purgatorio_ and the _Paradiso_ +are not an afterthought, a feebler appendix and compensation, +conceived when too late, to a finished whole, which has taken up into +itself the poet's real mind. Nowhere else in poetry of equal power is +there the same balanced view of what man is, and may be; nowhere so +wide a grasp shown of his various capacities, so strong a desire to +find a due place and function for all his various dispositions. Where +he stands contrasted in his idea of human life with other poets, who +have been more powerful exponents of its separate sides, is in his +large and truthful comprehensiveness. Fresh from the thought of man's +condition as a whole, fresh from the thought of his goodness, his +greatness, his power, as well as of his evil, his mind is equally in +tune when rejoicing over his restoration, as when contemplating the +ruins of his fall. He never lets go the recollection that human life, +if it grovels at one end in corruption and sin, and has to pass +through the sweat and dust and disfigurement of earthly toil, has +throughout, compensations, remedies, functions, spheres innumerable of +profitable activity, sources inexhaustible of delight and +consolation--and at the other end a perfection which cannot be named. +No one ever measured the greatness of man in all its forms with so +true and yet with so admiring an eye, and with such glowing hope, as +he who has also portrayed so awfully man's littleness and vileness. +And he went farther--no one who could understand and do homage to +greatness in man, ever drew the line so strongly between greatness and +goodness, and so unhesitatingly placed the hero of this world +only--placed him in all his magnificence, honoured with no timid or +dissembling reverence--at the distance of worlds, below the place of +the lowest saint. + +Those who know the _Divina Commedia_ best, will best know how hard it +is to be the interpreter of such a mind; but they will sympathise with +the wish to call attention to it. They know, and would wish others +also to know, not by hearsay, but by experience, the power of that +wonderful poem. They know its austere, yet subduing beauty; they know +what force there is, in its free and earnest and solemn verse, to +strengthen, to tranquillise, to console. It is a small thing that it +has the secret of Nature and Man; that a few keen words have opened +their eyes to new sights in earth, and sea, and sky; have taught them +new mysteries of sound; have made them recognise, in distinct image or +thought, fugitive feelings, or their unheeded expression, by look, or +gesture, or motion; that it has enriched the public and collective +memory of society with new instances, never to be lost, of human +feeling and fortune; has charmed ear and mind by the music of its +stately march, and the variety and completeness of its plan. But, +besides this, they know how often its seriousness has put to shame +their trifling, its magnanimity their faintheartedness, its living +energy their indolence, its stern and sad grandeur rebuked low +thoughts, its thrilling tenderness overcome sullenness and assuaged +distress, its strong faith quelled despair and soothed perplexity, its +vast grasp imparted the sense of harmony to the view of clashing +truths. They know how often they have found, in times of trouble, if +not light, at least that deep sense of reality, permanent, though +unseen, which is more than light can always give--in the view which +it has suggested to them of the judgments and the love of God.[150] + +[Footnote 150: It is necessary to state, that these remarks were +written before we had seen the chapter on Dante in "Italy, past and +present, by L. Mariotti." Had we become acquainted with it earlier, we +should have had to refer to it often, in the way of acknowledgment, +and as often in the way of strong protest.] + + + + +DE MONARCHIA. + + + + +BOOK I. + + +I.--It very greatly concerns all men on whom a higher nature has +impressed[151] the love of truth, that, as they have been enriched by +the labour of those before them, so they also should labour for those +that are to come after them, to the end that posterity may receive +from them an addition to its wealth. For he is far astray from his +duty--let him not doubt it--who, having been trained in the lessons of +public business, cares not himself to contribute aught to the public +good. He is no "tree planted by the water-side, that bringeth forth +his fruit in due season." He is rather the devouring whirlpool, ever +engulfing, but restoring nothing. Pondering, therefore, often on these +things, lest some day I should have to answer the charge of the +talent buried in the earth, I desire not only to show the budding +promise, but also to bear fruit for the general good, and to set forth +truths by others unattempted. For what fruit can he be said to bear +who should go about to demonstrate again some theorem of Euclid? or +when Aristotle has shown us what happiness is, should show it to us +once more? or when Cicero has been the apologist of old age, should a +second time undertake its defence? Such squandering of labour would +only engender weariness and not profit. + +[Footnote 151: "_In quos veritatis amorem natura superior impressit._" +On the ancient idea (Aug. _De Trin._ iii. 4; Aquin. _Summ._ 1, 66, 3) +of the influence or impression of higher natures on lower, cf. +_Parad._ i. 103, x. 29.] + +But seeing that among other truths, ill-understood yet profitable, the +knowledge touching temporal monarchy is at once most profitable and +most obscure, and that because it has no immediate reference to +worldly gain it is left unexplored by all, therefore it is my purpose +to draw it forth from its hiding-places, as well that I may spend my +toil for the benefit of the world, as that I may be the first to win +the prize of so great an achievement to my own glory. The work indeed +is difficult, and I am attempting what is beyond my strength; but I +trust not in my own powers, but in the light of that Bountiful Giver, +"Who giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not." + + +II.--First, therefore, we must see what is it that is called Temporal +Monarchy, in its idea, so to speak, and according to its purpose. +Temporal Monarchy, then, or, as men call it, the Empire, is the +government of one prince above all men in time, or in those things and +over those things which are measured by time. Three great questions +are asked concerning it. First, there is the doubt and the question, +is it necessary for the welfare of the world? Secondly, did the Roman +people take to itself by right the office of Monarchy? And thirdly, +does the authority of Monarchy come from God directly, or only from +some other minister or vicar of God? + +Now, since every truth, which is not itself a first principle, becomes +manifest from the truth of some first principle, it is therefore +necessary in every inquiry to have a knowledge of the first principle +involved, to which by analysis we may go back for the certainty of all +the propositions which are afterwards accepted. And since this +treatise is an inquiry, we must begin by examining the first principle +on the strength of which deductions are to rest. It must be understood +then that there are certain things which, since they are not subject +to our power, are matters of speculation, but not of action: such are +Mathematics and Physics, and things divine. But there are some things +which, since they are subject to our power, are matters of action as +well as of speculation, and in them we do not act for the sake of +speculation, but contrariwise: for in such things action is the end. +Now, since the matter which we have in hand has to do with states, +nay, with the very origin and principle of good forms of government, +and since all that concerns states is subject to our power, it is +manifest that our subject is not in the first place speculation, but +action. And again, since in matters of action the end sought is the +first principle and cause of all (for that it is which first moves the +agent to act), it follows that all our method concerning the means +which are set to gain the end must be taken from the end. For there +will be one way of cutting wood to build a house, and another to build +a ship. That therefore, if it exists, which is the ultimate end for +the universal civil order of mankind, will be the first principle from +which all the truth of our future deductions will be sufficiently +manifest. But it is folly to think that there is an end for this and +for that particular civil order, and yet not one end for all. + + +III.--Now, therefore, we must see what is the end of the whole civil +order of men; and when we have found this, then, as the +Philosopher[152] says in his book to Nicomachus,[153] the half of our +labour will have been accomplished. And to render the question +clearer, we must observe that as there is a certain end for which +nature makes the thumb, and another, different from this, for which +she makes the whole hand, and again another for which she makes the +arm, and another different from all for which she makes the whole man; +so there is one end for which she orders the individual man, and +another for which she orders the family, and another end for the city, +and another for the kingdom, and finally an ultimate one for which the +Everlasting God, by His art which is nature, brings into being the +whole human race. And this is what we seek as a first principle to +guide our whole inquiry. + +[Footnote 152: The common title for Aristotle from the first half of +the thirteenth century. _Vide_ Jourdain, _Recherches sur les +traductions d'Aristote_, p. 212, note.] + +[Footnote 153: Arist. _Ethics_, i. 7.] + +Let it then be understood that God and nature make nothing to be idle. +Whatever comes into being, exists for some operation or working. For +no created essence is an ultimate end in the creator's purpose, so far +as he is a creator, but rather the proper operation of that essence. +Therefore it follows that the operation does not exist for the sake of +the essence, but the essence for the sake of the operation. + +There is therefore a certain proper operation of the whole body of +human kind, for which this whole body of men in all its multitudes is +ordered and constituted, but to which no one man, nor single family, +nor single neighbourhood, nor single city, nor particular kingdom can +attain. What this is will be manifest, if we can find what is the +final and characteristic capacity of humanity as a whole. I say then +that no quality which is shared by different species of things is the +distinguishing capacity of any one of them. For were it so, since this +capacity is that which makes each species what it is, it would follow +that one essence would be specifically distributed to many species, +which is impossible. Therefore the ultimate quality of men is not +existence, taken simply; for the elements share therein. Nor is it +existence under certain conditions;[154] for we find this in minerals +too. Nor is it existence with life; for plants too have life. Nor is +it percipient existence; for brutes share in this power. It is to be +percipient[155] with the possibility of understanding, for this +quality falls to the lot of none but man, either above or below him. +For though there are other beings which with him have understanding, +yet this understanding is not, as man's, capable of development. For +such beings are only certain intellectual natures, and not anything +besides, and their being is nothing other than to understand; which is +without interruption, otherwise they would not be eternal. It is +plain, therefore, that the distinguishing quality of humanity is the +faculty or the power of understanding. + +[Footnote 154: "_Esse complexionatum._"] + +[Footnote 155: "_Apprehensivum per intellectum possibilem._" _V. +Aquin._ I. 79, 1, 2, 10.] + +And because this faculty cannot be realised in act in its entirety at +one time by a single man, nor by any of the individual societies which +we have marked, therefore there must be multitude in the human race, +in order to realise it: just as it is necessary that there should be a +multitude of things which can be brought into being,[156] so that the +capacity of the primal matter for being acted on may be ever open to +what acts on it. For if this were not so, we could speak of a capacity +apart from its substance, which is impossible. And with this opinion +Averroes, in his comment on [Aristotle's] treatise on the Soul, +agrees. For the capacity for understanding, of which I speak, is +concerned not only with universal forms or species, but also, by a +kind of extension, with particular ones. Therefore it is commonly said +that the speculative understanding becomes practical by extension; and +then its end is to do and to make. This I say in reference to things +which may be _done_, which are regulated by political wisdom, and in +reference to things which may be _made_, which are regulated by art; +all which things wait as handmaidens on the speculative intellect, as +on that best good, for which the Primal Goodness created the human +race. Hence the saying of the Politics[157] that those who are strong +in understanding are the natural rulers of others. + +[Footnote 156: "_Generabilium._"] + +[Footnote 157: Arist. _Polit._ i. 5, 6.--(W.)] + + +IV.--It has thus been sufficiently set forth that the proper work of +the human race, taken as a whole, is to set in action the whole +capacity of that understanding which is capable of development: first +in the way of speculation, and then, by its extension, in the way of +action. And seeing that what is true of a part is true also of the +whole, and that it is by rest and quiet that the individual man +becomes perfect in wisdom and prudence; so the human race, by living +in the calm and tranquillity of peace, applies itself most freely and +easily to its proper work; a work which, according to the saying; +"Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels," is almost divine. +Whence it is manifest that of all things that are ordered to secure +blessings to men, peace is the best. And hence the word which sounded +to the shepherds from above was not riches, nor pleasure, nor honour, +nor length of life, nor health, nor strength, nor beauty; but peace. +For the heavenly host said: "Glory to God in the highest, and on +earth, peace to men of goodwill." Therefore also, "Peace be with you," +was the salutation of the Saviour of mankind. For it behoved Him, who +was the greatest of saviours, to utter in His greeting the greatest of +saving blessings. And this custom His disciples too chose to preserve; +and Paul also did the same in his greetings, as may appear manifest to +all. + +Now that we have declared these matters, it is plain what is the +better, nay the best, way in which mankind may attain to do its proper +work. And consequently we have seen the readiest means by which to +arrive at the point, for which all our works are ordered, as their +ultimate end; namely, the universal peace, which is to be assumed as +the first principle for our deductions. As we said, this assumption +was necessary, for it is as a sign-post to us, that into it we may +resolve all that has to be proved, as into a most manifest truth. + + +V.--As therefore we have already said, there are three doubts, and +these doubts suggest three questions, concerning Temporal Monarchy, +which in more common speech is called the Empire; and our purpose is, +as we explained, to inquire concerning these questions in their given +order, and starting from the first principle which we have just laid +down. The first question, then, is whether Temporal Monarchy is +necessary for the welfare of the world; and that it is necessary can, +I think, be shown by the strongest and most manifest arguments; for +nothing, either of reason or of authority, opposes me. Let us first +take the authority of the Philosopher in his Politics.[158] There, on +his venerable authority, it is said that where a number of things are +arranged to attain an end, it behoves one of them to regulate or +govern the others, and the others to submit. And it is not only the +authority of his illustrious name which makes this worthy of belief, +but also reason, instancing particulars. + +[Footnote 158: Arist. _Polit._ i. 5.] + +If we take the case of a single man, we shall see the same rule +manifested in him: all his powers are ordered to gain happiness; but +his understanding is what regulates and governs all the others; and +otherwise he would never attain to happiness. Again, take a single +household: its end is to fit the members thereof to live well; but +there must be one to regulate and rule it, who is called the father of +the family, or, it may be, one who holds his office. As the +Philosopher says: "Every house is ruled by the oldest."[159] And, as +Homer says, it is his duty to make rules and laws for the rest. Hence +the proverbial curse: "Mayst thou have an equal at home."[160] Take a +single village: its end is suitable assistance as regards persons and +goods, but one in it must be the ruler of the rest, either set over +them by another, or with their consent, the head man amongst them. If +it be not so, not only do its inhabitants fail of this mutual +assistance, but the whole neighbourhood is sometimes wholly ruined by +the ambition of many, who each of them wish to rule. If, again, we +take a single city: its end is to secure a good and sufficient life to +the citizens; but one man must be ruler in imperfect[161] as well as +in good forms of the state. If it is otherwise, not only is the end of +civil life lost, but the city too ceases to be what it was. Lastly, if +we take any one kingdom, of which the end is the same as that of a +city, only with greater security for its tranquillity, there must be +one king to rule and govern. For if this is not so, not only do his +subjects miss their end, but the kingdom itself falls to destruction, +according to that word of the infallible truth: "Every kingdom divided +against itself shall be brought to desolation." If then this holds +good in these cases, and in each individual thing which is ordered to +one certain end, what we have laid down is true. + +[Footnote 159: _Ibid._ i. 2, 6, quoting Hom. _Od._ ix. 114.--(W.)] + +[Footnote 160: Ficinus translates: "Uno proverbio che quasi +bestemmiando dice, _Abbi pari in casa_."] + +[Footnote 161: "_Obliqua_" = [Greek: parekbaseis]. _V._ Arist. _Eth._ +viii. 10; _Pol._ iii. 7.--(W.)] + +Now it is plain that the whole human race is ordered to gain some end, +as has been before shown. There must, therefore, be one to guide and +govern, and the proper title for this office is Monarch or Emperor. +And so it is plain that Monarchy or the Empire is necessary for the +welfare of the world. + + +VI.--And as the part is to the whole, so is the order of parts to the +order of the whole. The part is to the whole, as to an end and highest +good which is aimed at; and, therefore, the order in the parts is to +the order in the whole, as it is to the end and highest good aimed at. +Hence we have it that the goodness of the order of parts does not +exceed the goodness of the order of the whole, but that the converse +of this is true. Therefore we find a double order in the world, +namely, the order of parts in relation to each other, and their order +in relation to some one thing which is not a part (as there is in the +order of the parts of an army in relation to each other, and then in +relation to the general); and the order of the parts in relation to +the one thing which is not a part is the higher, for it is the end of +the other order, and the other exists for the sake of it. Therefore, +if the form of this order is found in the units of the mass of +mankind, much more may we argue by our syllogism that it is found in +mankind considered as a whole; for this latter order, or its form, is +better. But as was said in the preceding chapter, and it is +sufficiently plain, this order is found in all the units of the mass +of mankind. Therefore it is, or should be, found in the mass +considered as a whole. And therefore all the parts that we have +mentioned, which are comprised in kingdoms, and the kingdoms +themselves ought to be ordered with reference to one Prince or +Princedom, that is, with reference to a Monarch or Monarchy. + + +VII.--Further, the whole human race is a whole with reference to +certain parts, and, with reference to another whole, it is a part. For +it is a whole with reference to particular kingdoms and nations, as we +have shown; and it is a part with reference to the whole universe, as +is manifest without argument. Therefore, as the lower portions of the +whole system of humanity are well adapted to that whole, so that whole +is said to be well adapted to the whole which is above it. It is only +under the rule of one prince that the parts of humanity are well +adapted to their whole, as may easily be collected from what we have +said; therefore it is only by being under one Princedom, or the rule +of a single Prince, that humanity as a whole is well adapted to the +Universe, or its Prince, who is the One God. And it therefore follows +that Monarchy is necessary for the welfare of the world. + + +VIII.--And all is well and at its best which exists according to the +will of the first agent, who is God. This is self-evident, except to +those who deny that the divine goodness attains to absolute +perfection. Now, it is the intention of God that all created things +should represent the likeness of God, so far as their proper nature +will admit. Therefore was it said: "Let us make man in our image, +after our likeness." And though it could not be said that the lower +part of creation was made in the image of God, yet all things may be +said to be after His likeness, for what is the whole universe but the +footprint of the divine goodness? The human race, therefore, is well, +nay at its best state, when, so far as can be, it is made like unto +God. But the human race is then most made like unto God when most it +is one; for the true principle of oneness is in Him alone. Wherefore +it is written: "Hear, O Israel; the Lord thy God is one God." But the +race of man is most one when it is united wholly in one body, and it +is evident that this cannot be, except when it is subject to one +prince. Therefore in this subjection mankind is most made like unto +God, and, in consequence, such a subjection is in accordance with the +divine intention, and it is indeed well and best for man when this is +so, as we showed at the beginning of this chapter. + + +IX.--Again, things are well and at their best with every son when he +follows, so far as by his proper nature he can, the footsteps of a +perfect father. Mankind is the son of heaven, which is most perfect in +all its works; for it is "man and the sun which produce man," +according to the second book on Natural Learning.[162] The human +race, therefore, is at its best when it imitates the movements of +heaven, so far as human nature allows. And since the whole heaven is +regulated with one motion, to wit, that of the _primum mobile_, and by +one mover, who is God, in all its parts, movements, and movers (and +this human reason readily seizes from science); therefore, if our +argument be correct, the human race is at its best state when, both in +its movements, and in regard to those who move it, it is regulated by +a single Prince, as by the single movement of heaven, and by one law, +as by the single motion. Therefore it is evidently necessary for the +welfare of the world for there to be a Monarchy, or single Princedom, +which men call the Empire. And this thought did Boethius breathe when +he said: "Oh happy race of men, if your hearts are ruled by the love +which rules the heaven."[163] + +[Footnote 162: Arist. _Phys. Ausc._ ii. 2.--(W.)] + +[Footnote 163: _De Consol. Phil._ ii. met. 8.--(W.)] + + +X.--Wherever there is controversy, there ought to be judgment, +otherwise there would be imperfection without its proper remedy,[164] +which is impossible; for God and Nature, in things necessary, do not +fail in their provisions. But it is manifest that there may be +controversy between any two princes, where the one is not subject to +the other, either from the fault of themselves, or even of their +subjects. Therefore between them there should be means of judgment. +And since, when one is not subject to the other, he cannot be judged +by the other (for there is no rule of equals over equals), there must +be a third prince of wider jurisdiction, within the circle of whose +laws both may come. Either he will or he will not be a Monarch. If he +is, we have what we sought; if not, then this one again will have an +equal, who is not subject to his jurisdiction, and then again we have +need of a third. And so we must either go on to infinity, which is +impossible, or we must come to that judge who is first and highest; by +whose judgment all controversies shall be either directly or +indirectly decided; and he will be Monarch or Emperor. Monarchy is +therefore necessary to the world, and this the Philosopher saw when he +said: "The world is not intended to be disposed in evil order; 'in a +multitude of rulers there is evil, therefore let there be one +prince.'"[165] + +[Footnote 164: "_Sine proprio perfectivo._"] + +[Footnote 165: Arist. _Metaphys._ xii. 10, who quotes from Hom. _Il._ +ii. 204.--(W.)] + + +XI.--Further, the world is ordered best when justice is most paramount +therein: whence Virgil, wishing to celebrate that age, which in his +own time seemed to be arising, sang in his _Bucolics_:[166] "Now doth +the Virgin return, and the kingdom of Saturn." For Justice was named +"the Virgin," and also Astraea. The kingdom of Saturn was the good +time, which they also called the Golden Age. But Justice is paramount +only in a Monarchy, and therefore a Monarchy, that is, the Empire, is +needed if the world is to be ordered for the best. For better proof of +this assumption it must be recognised that Justice, considered in +itself, and in its proper nature, is a certain rightness or rule of +conduct, which rejects on either side all that deviates from it. It is +like whiteness considered as an abstraction, not admitting of degrees. +For there are certain forms of this sort which belong to things +compounded, and exist themselves in a simple and unchanging essence, +as[167] the Master of the Six Principles rightly says. Yet qualities +of this sort admit of degrees on the part of their subjects with which +they are connected, according as in their subjects more or less of +their contraries is mingled. Justice, therefore, is strongest in man, +both as a state of mind and in practice, where there is least +admixture of its opposite; and then we may say of it, in the words of +the Philosopher, that "neither the star of morning nor of evening is +so admirable."[168] For then is it like Phoebe, when she looks +across the heavens at her brother from the purple of the morning calm. + +[Footnote 166: _Ecl._ iv. 6.] + +[Footnote 167: Gilbert de la Porree, [dagger symbol]1154. The "Six +Principles" were the last six of the Ten Categories of Aristotle, and +the book became one of the chief elementary logic-books of the Middle +Ages. _Vide_ Haureau, _Philosophie Scolastique_, 1e Partie, p. +452.] + +[Footnote 168: From Arist. _Ethics_, v. 1.--(W.)] + +Now Justice, as a state of mind,[169] has a force which opposes it in +the will; for where the will of a man is not pure from all desire, +then, though there be Justice, yet there is not Justice in all its +ideal brightness; for there is in that man, however little, yet in +some degree, an opposing force; and therefore they, who would work on +the feelings[170] of a judge, are rightly repelled. But, in +practice,[171] Justice finds an opposing force in what men are able to +do. For, seeing that it is a virtue regulating our conduct towards +other men, how shall any act according to Justice if he has not the +power of rendering to all their due? Therefore it is plain that the +operation of Justice will be wide in proportion to the power of the +just man. + +[Footnote 169: "_Quantum ad habitum._"] + +[Footnote 170: "_Passionare._"] + +[Footnote 171: "_Quantum ad operationem._"] + +From this let us argue: Justice is strongest in the world when it is +in one who is most willing and most powerful; only the Monarch is +this; therefore, only when Justice is in the Monarch is it strongest +in the world. This pro-syllogism goes on through the second figure, +with an involved negative, and is like this: All B is A; only C is A; +therefore only C is B: or all B is A; nothing but C is A; therefore +nothing but C is B. + +Our previous explanation makes the first proposition apparent: the +second is proved thus, first in regard to will, and secondly in regard +to power. First it must be observed that the strongest opponent of +Justice is Appetite, as Aristotle intimates in the fifth book to +Nicomachus.[172] Remove Appetite altogether, and there remains nothing +adverse to Justice; and therefore it is the opinion of the Philosopher +that nothing should be left to the judge, if it can be decided by +law;[173] and this ought to be done for fear of Appetite, which easily +perverts men's minds. Where, then, there is nothing to be wished for, +there can be no Appetite, for the passions cannot exist if their +objects are destroyed. But the Monarch has nothing to desire, for his +jurisdiction is bounded only by the ocean; and this is not the case +with other princes, whose kingdoms are bounded by those of their +neighbours; as, for instance, the kingdom of Castile is bounded by the +kingdom of Aragon. From which it follows that the Monarch is able to +be the purest embodiment of Justice among men. + +[Footnote 172: _Eth._ v. 2.--(W.)] + +[Footnote 173: _Rhetoric_, i. 1.--(W.)] + +Further, as Appetite in some degree, however small, clouds the habit +of Justice, so does Charity, or rightly-directed affection, sharpen +and enlighten it. In whomsoever, therefore, rightly-directed affection +may chiefly dwell, in him may Justice best have place: and of this +sort is the Monarch. Therefore where a Monarch reigns Justice is, or +at least may be, strongest. That rightly-directed affections work as +we have said, we may see thus: Appetite, scorning[174] what in itself +belongs to man, seeks for other things outside him; but Charity sets +aside all else, and seeks God and man, and consequently the good of +man. And since of all the good things that men can have the greatest +is to live in peace (as we have already said), and as it is Justice +which most chiefly brings peace, therefore Charity will chiefly make +Justice strong, and the more so in proportion to its own strength. + +[Footnote 174: "_Perseitas hominum_" = "_facultas per se +subsistendi_."--DUCANGE.] + +And it is clear that right affections ought to exist in a Monarch more +than in any other man for this reason: the object of love is the more +loved the nearer it is to him that loves; but men are nearer to a +Monarch than they are to other princes; therefore it is by a Monarch +that they are, or ought to be, most loved. The first proposition is +manifest if the nature of activity and passivity are considered. The +second is manifest because men are brought near to a Monarch in their +totality,[175] but to other princes only partially; and it is only by +means of the Monarch that men are brought near other princes at all. +Thus the Monarch cares for all primarily and directly, whereas other +princes only care for their subjects through the Monarch, and because +their care for their subjects descends from the supreme care of the +Monarch. + +[Footnote 175: "_Secundum totum._"] + +Again, a cause has the nature of a cause in proportion as it is more +universal; for the lower cause is such only on account of the higher +one, as appears from the Treatise on Causes.[176] And, in proportion +as a cause is really a cause, it loves what it effects; for such love +follows the cause by itself. Now Monarchy is the most universal cause +of men living well, for other princes work only through the Monarch, +as we have said; and it therefore follows that it is the Monarch who +will most chiefly love the good of men. But that in practice the +Monarch is most disposed to work Justice, who can doubt, except indeed +a man who understands not the meaning of the word? for if he be +really a Monarch he cannot have enemies. + +[Footnote 176: A compilation from the Arabians, or perhaps Aristotle +or Proclus, which, under various names, passed for a work of +Aristotle, and is ascribed by Albert the Great to a certain David the +Jew. It is quoted in the twelfth century, and was commented on by +Albert and Thomas Aquinas. _Vide_ Jourdain, _Recherches sur les +traductions d'Aristote_ (1842), pp. 114, 184, 193, 195, 445; +_Philosophie de S. Thomas_ (1858), i. 94.] + +The principle assumed being therefore sufficiently explained, the +conclusion is certain, to wit, that a Monarch is necessary that the +world may be ordered for the best. + + +XII.--Again, the human race is ordered best when it is most free. This +will be manifest if we see what is the principle of freedom. It must +be understood that the first principle of our freedom is freedom of +will, which many have in their mouth, but few indeed understand. For +they come so far as to say that the freedom of the will means a free +judgment concerning will. And this is true. But what is meant by the +words is far from them: and they do just as our logicians do all day +long with certain propositions which are set as examples in the books +of logic, as that, "the three angles of a triangle are equal to two +right angles."[177] + +[Footnote 177: Cf. Arist. _Magna Moral._ i. 1: "It would be absurd if +a man, wishing to prove that the angles of a triangle were equal to +two right angles, assumed as his principle that the soul is +immortal."--WITTE.] + +Therefore I say that Judgment is between Apprehension and Appetite. +First, a man apprehends a thing; then he judges it to be good or bad; +then he pursues or avoids it accordingly. If therefore the Judgment +guides the Appetite wholly, and in no way is forestalled by the +Appetite, then is the Judgment free. But if the Appetite in any way at +all forestalls the Judgment and guides it, then the Judgment cannot be +free: it is not its own: it is captive to another power. Therefore the +brute beasts cannot have freedom of Judgment; for in them the Appetite +always forestalls the Judgment. Therefore, too, it is that +intellectual beings whose wills are unchangeable, and souls which are +separate from the body, which have gone hence in peace, do not lose +the freedom of their wills, because their wishes cannot change; nay, +it is in full strength and completeness that their wills are +free.[178] + +[Footnote 178: Cf. _Purgatorio_, xviii. 22.--WITTE.] + +It is therefore again manifest that this liberty, or this principle of +all our liberty, is the greatest gift bestowed by God on mankind: by +it alone we gain happiness[179] as men: by it alone we gain happiness +elsewhere as gods.[180] But if this is so, who will say that human +kind is not in its best state, when it can most use this principle? +But he who lives under a Monarchy is most free. Therefore let it be +understood that he is free who exists not for another's sake but for +his own, as the Philosopher, in his Treatise of simple Being, +thought.[181] For everything which exists for the sake of some other +thing, is necessitated by that other thing, as a road has to run to +its ordained end. Men exist for themselves, and not at the pleasure of +others, only if a Monarch rules; for then only are the perverted forms +of government set right, while democracies, oligarchies, and +tyrannies, drive mankind into slavery, as is obvious to any who goes +about among them all; and public power[182] is in the hands of kings +and aristocracies, which they call the rule of the best, and champions +of popular liberty. And because the Monarch loves his subjects much, +as we have seen, he wishes all men to be good, which cannot be the +case in perverted forms of government:[183] therefore the Philosopher +says, in his _Politics_:[184] "In the bad state the good man is a bad +citizen, but in a good state the two coincide." Good states in this +way aim at liberty, that in them men may live for themselves. The +citizens exist not for the good of consuls, nor the nation for the +good of its king; but the consuls for the good of the citizens, and +the king for the good of his nation. For as the laws are made to suit +the state, and not the state to suit the laws, so those who live under +the laws are not ordered for the legislator, but he for them;[185] as +also the Philosopher holds, in what he has left us on the present +subject. Hence, too, it is clear that although the king or the consul +rule over the other citizens in respect of the means[186] of +government, yet in respect of the end of government they are the +servants of the citizens, and especially the Monarch, who, without +doubt, must be held the servant of all. Thus it becomes clear that the +Monarch is bound by the end appointed to himself in making his laws. +Therefore mankind is best off under a Monarchy, and hence it follows +that Monarchy is necessary for the welfare of the world. + +[Footnote 179: "_Felicitamur._"] + +[Footnote 180: "_Ut Dii_;" cf. _Paradiso_, v. 19.--WITTE.] + +[Footnote 181: _I.e._ _Metaphys._ 1, 2.--(W.)] + +[Footnote 182: "_Politizant reges._"] + +[Footnote 183: "_Oblique politizantes._"] + +[Footnote 184: _Polit._ iii. 4.] + +[Footnote 185: _Ibid._ iii. 16, 17.--(W.)] + +[Footnote 186: "_Respectu viae ... respectu termini._"] + + +XIII.--Further, he who can be best fitted to rule can best fit others. +For in every action the main end of the agent, whether acting by +necessity of nature or voluntarily, is to unfold his own likeness; and +therefore every agent, so far as he is of this sort, delights in +action. For since all that is desires its own existence, and since the +agent in acting enlarges his own existence in some way, delight +follows action of necessity; for delight is inseparable from gaining +what is desired. Nothing therefore acts unless it is of such sort as +that which is acted on ought to be; therefore the Philosopher said in +his _Metaphysics_,[187] "Everything which becomes actual from being +potential, becomes so by means of something actual of the same kind," +and were anything to try to act in any other way it would fail. Hence +we may overthrow the error of those who think to form the moral +character of others by speaking well and doing ill; forgetting that +the hands of Jacob were more persuasive with his father than his +words, though his hands deceived and his voice spake truth. Hence the +Philosopher, to Nicomachus: "In matters of feeling and action, words +are less to be trusted than deeds."[188] And therefore God said to +David in his sin, "What hast thou to do to declare my statutes?" as +though He would say, "Thou speakest in vain, for thou art different +from what thou speakest." Hence it may be gathered that he needs to be +fitted for his work in the best way who wishes to fit others. + +[Footnote 187: _Metaphys._ ix. 8.--(W.)] + +[Footnote 188: Arist. _Eth._ x. 1.--(W.)] + +But the Monarch is the only one who can be fitted in the best possible +way to govern. Which is thus proved: Each thing is the more easily and +perfectly qualified for any habit, or actual work, the less there is +in it of what is contrary to such a disposition. Therefore, they who +have never even heard of philosophy, arrive at a habit of truth in +philosophy more easily and completely than those who have listened to +it at odd times, and are filled with false opinions. For which reason +Galen well says: "Such as these require double time to acquire +knowledge."[189] A Monarch then has nothing to tempt appetite, or, at +least, less than any other man, as we have shown before; whereas other +princes have much; and appetite is the only corrupter of +righteousness, and the only impediment to justice. A Monarch therefore +is wholly, or at least more than any other prince, disposed to govern +well: for in him there may be judgment and justice more strongly than +in any other. But these two things are the pre-eminent attributes of a +maker of law, and of an executor of law, as that most holy king David +testified when he asked of God the things which were befitting the +king, and the king's son, saying: "Give the king thy judgment, O God, +and thy righteousness unto the king's son."[190] + +[Footnote 189: _De cognosc. animi morbis_, c. 10.--WITTE.] + +[Footnote 190: Cf. _Parad._ xiii. 95.--(W.)] + +We were right then when we assumed that only the Monarch can be best +fitted to rule. Therefore only the Monarch can in the best way fit +other men. Therefore it follows that Monarchy is necessary for the +best ordering of the world. + + +XIV.--And where a thing can be done by one agent, it is better to do +it by one than by several, for this reason: Let it be possible to do a +certain thing by means of A, and also by means of A and B. If +therefore what is done by A and B can be done by A alone, it is +useless to add B; for nothing follows from the addition; for the same +end which A and B produced is produced also by A. All additions of +this kind are useless and superfluous: all that is superfluous is +displeasing to God and Nature: and all that is displeasing to God and +Nature is bad, as is manifest. It therefore follows not only that it +is better that a thing should be done by one than by many agents, if +it is possible to produce the effect by one; but also that to produce +the effect by one is good, and to produce it by many is simply bad. +Again, a thing is said to be better by being nearer to the best, and +the end has the nature of the best. But for a thing to be done by one +agent is better, for so it comes nearer to the end. And that so it +comes nearer is manifest; for let C be the end which may be reached by +A, or by A and B together: plainly it is longer to reach C by A and B +together than by B alone. But mankind may be governed by one supreme +prince, who is, the Monarch. + +But it must be carefully observed that when we say that mankind may be +ruled by one supreme prince, we do not mean that the most trifling +judgments for each particular town are to proceed immediately from +him. For municipal laws sometimes fail, and need guidance, as the +Philosopher shows in his fifth book to Nicomachus, when he praises +equity.[191] For nations and kingdoms and states have, each of them, +certain peculiarities which must be regulated by different laws. For +law is the rule which directs life. Thus the Scythians need one rule, +for they live beyond the seventh climate,[192] and suffer cold which +is almost unbearable, from the great inequality of their days and +nights. But the Garamantes need a different law, for their country is +equinoctial, and they cannot wear many clothes, from the excessive +heat of the air, because the day is as long as the darkness of the +night. But our meaning is that it is in those matters which are common +to all men, that men should be ruled by one Monarch, and be governed +by a rule common to them all, with a view to their peace. And the +individual princes must receive this rule of life or law from him, +just as the practical intellect receives its major premiss from the +speculative intellect, under which it places its own particular +premiss, and then draws its particular conclusion, with a view to +action. And it is not only possible for one man to act as we have +described; it is necessary that it should proceed from one man only to +avoid confusion in our first principles. Moses himself wrote in his +law that he had acted thus. For he took the elders of the tribes of +the children of Israel, and left to them the lesser judgments, +reserving to himself such as were more important, and wider in their +scope; and the elders carried these wider ones to their tribes, +according as they were applicable to each separate tribe. + +[Footnote 191: _Eth._ v. 14.--(W.)] + +[Footnote 192: Ptolemy, the mediaeval authority on geography, divided +the known world into [Greek: klimata], zones of slope towards the +pole, or belts of latitude, eight of which from the equinoctial to the +mouths of the Tanais and the Riphaean mountains. The seventh "clima" +passed over the mouths of the Borysthenes. See Mercator's map in +Bertius' _Theatrum Geographiae Veteris_ (1618), art. "Ptolemy" in +Smith's _Dictionary of Biography_, p. 577. Dictionary of Antiquities, +art. "Clima."] + +Therefore it is better for the human race to be ruled by one than by +many, and therefore there should be a Monarch, who is a single prince; +and if it is better, it is more acceptable to God, since God always +wills what is best. And since of these two ways of government the one +is not only the better, but the best of all, it follows not only that +this one is more acceptable to God as between one and many, but that +it is the most acceptable. Therefore it is best for the human race to +be governed by one man; and Monarchy is necessary for the welfare of +the world. + + +XV.--I say also that Being, and Unity, and the Good come in order +after the fifth mode of priority.[193] For Being comes by nature +before Unity, and Unity before Good. Where Being is most, there Unity +is greatest; and where Unity is greatest, there Good is also greatest; +and in proportion as anything is far from Being in its highest form, +is it far from Unity, and therefore from Good. Therefore in every kind +of things, that which is most one is best, as the Philosopher holds in +the treatise about simple Being. Therefore it appears that to be one +is the root of Good, and to be many the root of Evil. Therefore, +Pythagoras in his parallel tables placed the one, or Unity, under the +line of good, and the many under the line of Evil; as appears from the +first book of the _Metaphysics_.[194] Hence we may see that to sin is +nothing else than to pass on from the one which we despise and to seek +many things, as the Psalmist saw when he said: "By the fruit of their +corn and wine and oil, are they multiplied."[195] + +[Footnote 193: Arist. _Categ._, _e.g._: Priority is said in five +ways--1. First in _time_. 2. First in _pre-supposition_. 3. First in +_order_. 4. First in _excellence_. 5. First in _logical sequence_.] + +[Footnote 194: _V._ Arist. _Metaph._ 1, 5; _Ethics_ i. 4; cf. Ritter +and Preller, _Hist. Philos._ sec. 105.] + +[Footnote 195: Ps. iv. 8 (vulg.).] + +Hence it is plain that whatever is good, is good for this reason, that +it consists in unity. And because concord is a good thing in so far as +it is concord, it is manifest that it consists in a certain unity, as +its proper root, the nature of which will appear if we find the real +nature of concord. Concord then is the uniform motion of many wills; +and hence it appears that a unity of wills, by which is meant their +uniform motion, is the root of concord, nay, concord itself. For as we +should say that many clods of earth are concordant, because that they +all gravitate together towards the centre; and that many flames are +concordant because that they all ascend together towards the +circumference, if they did this of their own free will, so we say that +many men are in concord because that they are all moved together, as +regards their willing, to one thing, which one thing is formally in +their wills just as there is one quality formally in the clods of +earth, that is gravity, and one in the flame of fire, that is +lightness. For the force of willing is a certain power; but the +quality of good which it apprehends is its form; which form, like as +others, being one is multiplied in itself, according to the +multiplication of the matters which receive it, as the soul, and +numbers, and other forms which belong to what is compound.[196] + +[Footnote 196: On the scholastic doctrine of forms, _v._ Thom. Aquin. +_Summ._ I. 105, art. 4.] + +To explain our assumption as we proposed, let us argue thus: All +concord depends on unity which is in wills; the human race, when it is +at its best, is a kind of concord; for as one man at his best is a +kind of concord, and as the like is true of the family, the city, and +the kingdom; so is it of the whole human race. Therefore the human +race at its best depends on the unity which is in will. But this +cannot be unless there be one will to be the single mistress and +regulating influence of all the rest. For the wills of men, on account +of the blandishments of youth, require one to direct them, as +Aristotle shows in the tenth book of his _Ethics_.[197] And this +cannot be unless there is one prince over all, whose will shall be the +mistress and regulating influence of all the others. But if all these +conclusions be true, as they are, it is necessary for the highest +welfare of the human race that there should be a Monarch in the world; +and therefore Monarchy is necessary for the good of the world. + +[Footnote 197: Arist. _Eth._ x. 5.--(W.)] + + +XVI.--To all these reasons alleged above a memorable experience adds +its confirmation. I mean that condition of mankind which the Son of +God, when, for the salvation of man, He was about to put on man, +either waited for, or, at the moment when He willed, Himself so +ordered. For if, from the fall of our first parents, which was the +turning point at which all our going astray began, we carry our +thoughts over the distribution of the human race and the order of its +times, we shall find that never but under the divine Augustus, who was +sole ruler, and under whom a perfect Monarchy existed, was the world +everywhere quiet. And that then the human race was happy in the +tranquillity of universal peace, this is the witness of all writers of +history; this is the witness of famous poets; this, too, he who wrote +the story of the "meekness and gentleness of Christ" has thought fit +to attest. And last of all, Paul has called that most blessed +condition "the fulness of the times." For then, indeed, time was full, +and all the things of time; because no office belonging to our +felicity wanted its minister. But how the world has fared since that +"seamless robe" has suffered rending by the talons of ambition, we may +read in books; would that we might not see it with our eyes. Oh, race +of mankind! what storms must toss thee, what losses must thou endure, +what shipwrecks must buffet thee, as long as thou, a beast of many +heads, strivest after contrary things. Thou art sick in both thy +faculties of understanding; thou art sick in thine affections. +Unanswerable reasons fail to heal thy higher understanding; the very +sight of experience convinces not thy lower understanding; not even +the sweetness of divine persuasion charms thy affections, when it +breathes into thee through the music of the Holy Ghost: "Behold, how +good and how pleasant a thing it is, brethren, to dwell together in +unity."[198] + +[Footnote 198: Ps. cxxxii. 1.--(W.)] + + + + +BOOK II. + + +I.--"Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The +kings of the earth stand up, and the rulers take counsel together +against the Lord and against His anointed, saying: 'Let us break their +bonds asunder, and cast away their cords from us.'"[199] As we +commonly wonder at a new effect, when we have never been face to face +with its cause; so, as soon as we understand the cause, we look down +with a kind of scorn on those who remain in wonder. I, myself, was +once filled with wonder that the Roman people had become paramount +throughout all the earth, without any to withstand them; for when I +looked at the thing superficially I thought that this supremacy had +been obtained, not by any right, but only by arms and violence. But +after that I had carefully and thoroughly examined the matter, when I +had recognised by the most effectual signs that it was divine +providence that had wrought this, my wonder ceased, and a certain +scornful contempt has taken its place, when I perceive the nations +raging against the pre-eminence of the Roman people; when I see the +people imagining a vain thing, as I of old imagined; when, above all, +I grieve that kings and princes agree in this one matter only, in +opposing their Lord, and His one only Roman Emperor. Wherefore in +derision, yet not without a touch of sorrow, I can cry on behalf of +the glorious people and for Caesar, together with him who cried on +behalf of the Prince of heaven: "Why do the heathen rage, and the +people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth stand up, and the +rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His +anointed." But the love which nature implants in us allows not scorn +to last for long; but, like the summer sun that when it has dispersed +the morning clouds shines with full brightness, this love prefers to +put scorn aside, and to pour forth the light which shall set men +right. So, then, to break the bonds of the ignorance of those kings +and princes, and to show that mankind is free from _their_ yoke, I +will comfort myself in company with that most holy prophet, whom I +follow, taking the words which come after: "Let us break their bonds +asunder, and cast away their yoke from us." + +[Footnote 199: Ps. ii. 1-3.--(W.)] + +These two things will be sufficiently performed, if I address myself +to the second part of the argument, and manifest the truth of the +question before us. For thus, if we show that the Roman Empire is _by +right_, not only shall we disperse the clouds of ignorance from the +eyes of those princes who have wrongly seized the helm of public +government, falsely imputing this thing to the Roman people; but all +men shall understand that they are free from the yoke of these +usurpers. The truth of the question can be made clear not only by the +light of human reason, but also by the ray of God's authority; and +when these two coincide, then heaven and earth must agree together. +Supported, therefore, by this conviction, and trusting in the +testimony both of reason and of authority, I proceed to settle the +second question. + + +II.--Inquiry concerning the truth of the first doubt has been made as +accurately as the nature of the subject permitted; we have now to +inquire concerning the second, which is: Whether the Roman people +assumed to itself _of right_ the dignity of the Empire? And the first +thing in this question is to find the truth, to which the reasonings +concerning it may be referred as to their proper first principle. + +It must be recognised, then, that as there are three degrees in every +art, the mind of the artist, his instrument, and the material on which +he works, so we may look upon nature in three degrees. For nature +exists, first, in the mind of the First Agent, who is God; then in +heaven; as in an instrument, by means of which the likeness of the +Eternal Goodness unfolds itself on shapeless[200] matter. If an artist +is perfect in his art, and his instrument is perfect, any fault in the +form of his art must be laid to the badness of the material; and so, +since God holds the summit of perfection, and since His instrument, +which is heaven, admits of no failure of its due perfection (which is +manifest from our philosophy touching heaven), it follows that +whatever fault is to be found in the lower world is a fault on the +part of the subject matter, and is contrary to the intention of God +who makes nature,[201] and of heaven; and if in this lower world there +is aught that is good, it must be ascribed first to the artist, who is +God, and then to heaven, the instrument of God's art, which men call +nature; for the material, being merely a possibility, can do nothing +of itself.[202] + +[Footnote 200: "_Fluitantem._"] + +[Footnote 201: "_Dei naturantis._"] + +[Footnote 202: Witte refers to _Parad._ xiii. 67, xxix. 32, i. +127-130. Cf. Thom. Aquin. _Summ._ I., q. 66, art. 1-3; q. 110, art. 2; +q. 115, art. 3-6. This view satisfied thinkers to the time of Hooker +(_E.P._ I. iii.), but was criticised by Bacon, _Nov. Org._ i. 66.] + +Hence it is apparent that, since all Right[203] is good, it therefore +exists first in the mind of God; and since all that is in the mind of +God is God, according to the saying, "What was made, in Him was +life;"[204] and as God chiefly wishes for what is Himself, it follows +that Right is the wish of God, so far as it is in Him. And since in +God the will and the wish are the same, it further follows that this +Right is the will of God. Again it follows that Right in the world is +nothing else than the likeness of the will of God, and therefore +whatever does not agree with the divine will cannot be Right, and +whatever does agree with the divine will is Right itself. Therefore to +ask if a thing be by Right is only to ask in other words if it is what +God wills. It may therefore be assumed that what God wills to see in +mankind is to be held as real and true Right. + +[Footnote 203: "_Jus._"] + +[Footnote 204: St. John i. 3.--(W.)] + +Besides we must remember Aristotle's teaching in the first book of his +_Ethics_, where he says: "We must not seek for certitude in every +matter, but only as far as the nature of the subject admits."[205] +Therefore our arguments from the first principle already found will be +sufficient, if from manifest evidence and from the authority of the +wise, we seek for the right of that glorious people. The will of God +is an invisible thing, but "the invisible things of God are seen, +being understood by the things which are made." For when the seal is +out of sight, the wax, which has its impression, gives manifest +evidence of it, though it be unseen; nor is it strange that the will +of God must be sought by signs; for the human will, except to the +person himself who wills, is only discerned by signs.[206] + +[Footnote 205: _Eth._ i. 7, from Thom. Aq. _Lect._ XI.--(W.)] + +[Footnote 206: The image of the wax and seal was a favourite one. V. +_Parad._ vii. 68, viii. 127, xiii. 67-75, quoted by Witte, who also +refers to the _Epist. ad Reges_, Sec. 8, p. 444, ed. Fraticelli.] + + +III.--My answer then to the question is, that it was by right, and not +by usurpation, that the Roman people assumed to itself the office of +Monarchy, or, as men call it, the Empire, over all mankind. For in the +first place it is fitting that the noblest people should be preferred +to all others; the Roman people was the noblest; therefore it is +fitting that it should be preferred to all others. By this reasoning I +make my proof; for since honour is the reward of goodness, and since +to be preferred is always honour, therefore to be preferred is always +the reward of goodness. It is plain that men are ennobled for their +virtues; that is, for their own virtues or for those of their +ancestors; for nobleness is virtue and ancestral wealth, according to +Aristotle in his Politics; and according to Juvenal, "There is no +nobleness of soul but virtue,"[207] which two statements refer to two +sorts of nobleness, our own and that of our ancestors.[208] + +[Footnote 207: Arist. _Pol._ iii. 12; Juv. viii. 20.--(W.)] + +[Footnote 208: Witte refers to Dante's commentary on his own Canzone +in the _Convito_ iv. 3, and the _Parad._ xvi. 1.] + +To be preferred, therefore, is, according to reason, the fitting +reward of the noble. And since rewards must be measured by desert, +according to that saying of the Gospel, "with what measure ye mete, it +shall be measured to you again;" therefore to the most noble the +highest place should be given. The testimonies of the ancients confirm +our opinion; for Virgil, our divine poet, testifies throughout his +_AEneid_, that men may ever remember it, that the glorious king, AEneas, +was the father of the Roman people. And this Titus Livius, the famous +chronicler of the deeds of the Romans, confirms in the first part of +his work, which takes its beginning from the capture of Troy. The +nobleness of this most unconquerable and most pious ancestor not only +in regard to his own great virtue, but also to that of his forefathers +and of his wives, the nobleness of whom was combined in their +descendant by the rightful law of descent, I cannot unfold at length; +"I can but touch lightly on the outlines of the truth."[209] + +[Footnote 209: "Sed summa sequar vestigia rerum." Virg. _AEn._ i. 342 +("fastigia" in all good MSS. and edd.).] + +For the virtue then of AEneas himself, hear what our poet tells us when +he introduces Ilioneus in the first _AEneid_, praying thus: "AEneas was +our king; in justice and piety he has not left a peer, nor any to +equal him in war." Hear Virgil in the sixth _AEneid_, when he speaks +of the death of Misenus, who had been Hector's attendant in war, and, +after Hector's death, had attached himself to AEneas; for there Virgil +says that Misenus "followed as good a man;" thus comparing AEneas to +Hector, whom[210] Homer ever praises above all men, as the Philosopher +witnesses in his _Ethics_, in what he writes to Nicomachus on habits +to be avoided. + +[Footnote 210: _AEn._ i. 544, vi. 170. _Il._ xxiv. 258, quoted in +Aristotle, _Ethics_, vii. 1.--(W.)] + +But, as for hereditary virtue, he was ennobled from all three +continents both by his forefathers and his wives. From Asia came his +immediate ancestor, Assaracus, and others who reigned in Phrygia, +which is a part of Asia. Therefore Virgil writes in the third _AEneid_: +"After that it had seemed good to Heaven to overthrow the power of +Asia, and the guiltless race of Priam." From Europe came the male +founder of his race, who was Dardanus; from Africa his grandmother +Electra, daughter of the great king Atlas, to both which things the +poet testifies in the eighth _AEneid_, where AEneas says to Evander: +"Dardanus, the father of our city, and its founder, whom the Greeks +call the son of Atlas and Electra, came to the race of Teucer--Electra, +whose sire was great Atlas, on whose shoulders rests the circle of +heaven." But in the third _AEneid_ Virgil says that Dardanus drew his +origin from Europe. "There is a land which the Greeks have named +Hesperia, an ancient land, strong and wealthy, where the AEnotrians +dwell; it is said that now their descendants have named the country +Italy, from the name of their king. There is our rightful home; from +that land did Dardanus come." That Atlas came from Africa, the +mountain called by his name, which stands in that continent, bears +witness; and Orosius says that it is in Africa in his description of +the world, where he writes: "Its boundary is Mount Atlas, and the +islands which are called 'the happy isles.'" "Its"--that is, "of +Africa," of which he was speaking.[211] + +[Footnote 211: _AEn._ iii. 1, viii. 134, iii. 163; Oros. i. 2.--(W.)] + +Likewise I find that by marriage also AEneas was ennobled; his first +wife, Creusa, the daughter of king Priam, was from Asia, as may be +gathered from our previous quotations; and that she was his wife our +poet testifies in the third _AEneid_, where Andromache asks AEneas: +"What of the boy Ascanius, whom Creusa bore to thee, while the ruins +of Troy were yet smoking? Lives he yet to breathe this air?"[212] The +second wife was Dido, the queen and foundress of Carthage in Africa. +That she was the wife of AEneas our poet sings in his fourth _AEneid_, +where he says of Dido: "No more does Dido think of love in secret. +She calls it marriage, and with this name she covers her sin." The +third wife was Lavinia, the mother of Albans and Romans alike, the +daughter of king Latinus and his heir, if we may trust the testimony +of our poet in his last _AEneid_, where he introduces Turnus conquered, +praying to AEneas thus: "Thou hast conquered, and the Ausonians have +seen me lift my hands in prayer for mercy; Lavinia is thine."[213] +This last wife was from Italy, the noblest region of Europe. + +[Footnote 212: III. 339. The best MSS. of Virgil omit "peperit fumante +Creusa."] + +[Footnote 213: _AEn._ xii. 936.--(W.)] + +And now that we have marked these things for evidence of our +assertion, who will not rest persuaded that the father of the Romans, +and therefore the Romans themselves, were the noblest people under +heaven? Who can fail to see the divine predestination shown forth by +the double meeting of blood from every part of the world in the veins +of one man? + + +IV.--Again, that which is helped to its perfection by miracles is +willed by God, and therefore it is of right. This is manifestly true, +for as Thomas says in his third book against the Gentiles, "a miracle +is something done by God beyond the commonly established order of +things."[214] And so he proves that God alone can work miracles; and +his proof is strengthened by the authority of Moses; for on the +occasion of the plague of lice, when the magicians of Pharaoh used +natural principles artfully, and then failed, they said: "This is the +finger of God."[215] A miracle therefore being the immediate working +of the first agent, without the co-operation of any secondary agents, +as Thomas himself sufficiently proves in the book which we have +mentioned, it is impious to say where a miracle is worked in aid of +anything, that that thing is not of God, as something well pleasing to +him, which he foresaw. Therefore it is religious to accept the +contradictory of this. The Roman Empire has been helped to its +perfection by miracles; therefore it was willed by God, and +consequently was and is by right.[216] + +[Footnote 214: _Contra Gent._ iii. 101.--(W.)] + +[Footnote 215: Exod. vii. 12-15.--(W.)] + +[Footnote 216: Witte refers to the _Ep. ad Reges_, Sec. 8, for the same +thought.] + +It is proved by the testimony of illustrious authors that God +stretched forth His hand to work miracles on behalf of the Roman +Empire. For Livy, in the first part of his work, testifies that a +shield fell from heaven into the city chosen of God in the time of +Numa Pompilius, the second king of Rome, whilst he was sacrificing +after the manner of the Gentiles. Lucan mentions this miracle in the +ninth book of his Pharsalia, when he is describing the incredible +force of the South wind. He says: "Surely it was thus, while Numa was +offering sacrifices, that the shield fell with which the chosen +patrician youth moves along. The South wind, or the North wind, had +spoiled the people that bore our shields."[217] And when the Gauls had +taken all the city, and, under cover of the darkness, were stealing on +to attack the Capitol itself, the capture of which was all that +remained to destroy the very name of Rome, then as Livy, and many +other illustrious writers agree in testifying, a goose, which none had +seen before, gave a warning note of the approach of the Gauls, and +aroused the guards to defend the Capitol.[218] And our poet +commemorates the event in his description of the shield of AEneas in +the eighth book. "Higher, and in front of the temple stood Manlius, +the watchman of the Tarpeian keep, guarding the rock of the Capitol. +The palace stood out clear, rough with the thatch which Romulus had +laid; here the goose, inlaid in silver, fluttered on the portico of +gold, as it warned the Romans that the Gauls were even now on the +threshold."[219] + +[Footnote 217: Luc. ix. 477.--(W.)] + +[Footnote 218: V. Liv. v. 47, and the _Convito_, iv. 5.--(W.)] + +[Footnote 219: _AEn._ viii. 652.--(W.)] + +And when the nobility of Rome had so fallen under the onset of +Hannibal, that nothing remained for the final destruction of the Roman +commonwealth, but the Carthaginian assault on the city, Livy tells us +in the course of his history of the Punic war, that a sudden dreadful +storm of hail fell upon them, so that the victors could not follow up +their victory.[220] + +[Footnote 220: Liv. xxvi. 11; Oros. iv. 17.--(W.)] + +Was not the escape of Cloelia wonderful, a woman, and captive in the +power of Porsenna, when she burst her bonds, and, by the marvellous +help of God, swam across the Tiber, as almost all the historians of +Rome tell us, to the glory of that city?[221] + +[Footnote 221: Liv. ii. 13; Oros. ii. 5.--(W.)] + +Thus was it fitting that He should work who foresaw all things from +the beginning, and ordained them in the beauty of His order; so that +He, who when made visible was to show forth miracles for the sake of +things invisible, should, whilst invisible, also show forth miracles +for the sake of things visible. + + +V.--Further, whoever works for the good of the state, works with Right +as his end. This may be shown as follows. Right is that proportion of +man to man as to things, and as to persons, which, when it is +preserved, preserves society, and when it is destroyed, destroys +society.[222] The description of Right in the Digest does not give the +essence of right, but only describes it for practical purposes.[223] +If therefore our definition comprehends well the essence and reason +of Right, and if the end of any society is the common good of its +members, it is necessary that the end of all Right is the common good, +and it is impossible that that can be Right, which does not aim at the +common good. Therefore Cicero says well in the first book of his +_Rhetoric_: "Laws must always be interpreted for the good of the +state."[224] If laws do not aim at the good of those who live under +them, they are laws only in name; in reality they cannot be laws. For +it behoves them to bind men together for the common good; and Seneca +therefore says well in his book "on the four virtues:" "Law is the +bond of human society."[225] It is therefore plain that whoever aims +at the good of the state, aims at the end of Right; and therefore, if +the Romans aimed at the good of the state, we shall say truly that +they aimed at the end of Right. + +[Footnote 222: Cf. Aristotle, _Ethics_, v. 6.] + +[Footnote 223: "Jus est ars boni et aequi." L. 1, fr. _Dig. De Justitia +et Jure_, i. 1.--(W.)] + +[Footnote 224: _De Invent._ i. 38.--(W.)] + +[Footnote 225: Not Seneca, but Martin, Bp. of Braga, [dagger +symbol]580.--(W.) V. _Biog. Univ._] + +That in bringing the whole world into subjection, they aimed at this +good, their deeds declare. They renounced all selfishness, a thing +always contrary to the public weal; they cherished universal peace and +liberty; and that sacred, pious, and glorious people are seen to have +neglected their own private interests that they might follow public +objects for the good of all mankind. Therefore was it well written: +"The Roman Empire springs from the fountain of piety."[226] + +[Footnote 226: "_Romanum imperium de fonte nascitur +pietatis._"--(WITTE.) He has not been able to trace the saying.] + +But seeing that nothing is known of the intention of an agent who acts +by free choice to any but the agent himself, save only by external +signs, and since reasonings must be examined according to the subject +matter (as has already been said), it will be sufficient on this point +if we set forth proofs which none can doubt, of the intention of the +Roman people, both in their public bodies and individually. + +Concerning those public bodies by which men seem in a way to be bound +to the state, the authority of Cicero alone, in the second book of the +_De Officiis_, will suffice. "So long," he says, "as the Empire of the +republic was maintained not by injustice, but by the benefits which it +conferred, we fought either for our allies or for the Empire. Our wars +brought with them an ending which was either indulgent, or else was +absolutely necessary. All kings, peoples, and nations found a port of +refuge in the Senate. Our magistrates and generals alike sought renown +by defending our provinces and our allies with good faith and with +justice. Our government might have been called not so much Empire, as +a Protectorate of the whole world." So wrote Cicero.[227] + +[Footnote 227: _De Off._ ii. 8.--(W.)] + +Of individuals I will speak shortly. Shall we not say that they +intended the common good, who by hard toil, by poverty, by exile, by +bereavement of their children, by loss of limb, by sacrifice of their +lives, endeavoured to build up the public weal? Did not great +Cincinnatus leave us a sacred example of freely laying down his office +at its appointed end, when, as Livy tells us, he was taken from the +plough and made dictator? And after his victory, after his triumph, he +gave back his Imperator's sceptre to the consuls, and returned to the +ploughshare to toil after his oxen.[228] Well did Cicero, arguing +against Epicurus, in the volume _De Finibus_, speak in praise of him, +mindful of this good deed.[229] "And so," he says, "our ancestors took +Cincinnatus from the plough, and made him dictator." + +[Footnote 228: Liv. vi. 28, 29; Oros. ii. 12.--(W.)] + +[Footnote 229: II. 4.--(W.)] + +Has not Fabricius left us a lofty example of resisting avarice, when, +poor man as he was, for the faith by which he was bound to the +republic, he laughed to scorn the great weight of gold which was +offered him, and refused it, scorning it with words which became him +well. His story too is confirmed by our poet in the sixth +_AEneid_,[230] where he speaks of "Fabricius strong in his poverty." + +[Footnote 230: VI. 844.--(W.)] + +Has not Camillus left us a memorable example of obeying the laws +instead of seeking our private advantage? For according to Livy he was +condemned to exile, and then, after that he had delivered his country +from the invaders, and had restored to Rome her own Roman spoils, he +yet turned to leave the sacred city, though the whole people bade him +stay; nor did he return till leave was given him to come back by the +authority of the Senate. This high-souled hero also is commended in +the sixth _AEneid_, where our poet speaks of "Camillus, that restored +to us our standards."[231] + +[Footnote 231: Liv. v. 46; _AEn._ vi. 826.--(W.)] + +Was not Brutus the first to teach that our sons, that all others, are +second in importance to the liberty of our country? For Livy tells us +how, when he was consul, he condemned his own sons to death, for that +they had conspired with the enemy. His glory is made new in our poet's +sixth book, where he sings how "The father shall summon the sons to +die for the sake of fair liberty, when they seek to stir fresh +wars."[232] + +[Footnote 232: _AEn._ vi. 821.--(W.)] + +Has not Mucius encouraged us to dare everything for our country's +sake, when after attacking Porsenna unawares, he watched the hand +which had missed its stroke being burnt, though it was his own, as if +he were beholding the torment of a foe? This also Livy witnesses to +with astonishment. + +Add to these those sacred victims the Decii, who laid down their lives +by an act of devotion for the public safety, whom Livy glorifies in +his narrative, not as they deserve, but as he was able. Add to these +the self-sacrifice, which words cannot express, of Marcus Cato, that +staunchest champion of true liberty. These were men of whom the one, +that he might save his country, did not fear the shadow of death; +while the other, that he might kindle in the world the passionate love +of liberty, showed how dear was liberty, choosing to pass out of life +a free man, rather than without liberty to abide in life.[233] The +glory of all these heroes glows afresh in the words of Cicero in his +book _De Finibus_; of the Decii he speaks thus: "Publius Decius, the +head of the Decii, a consul, when he devoted himself for the state, +and charged straight into the Latin host, was he thinking aught of his +pleasure, where and when he should take it;--when he knew that he had +to die at once, and sought that death with more eager desire than, +according to Epicurus, we should seek pleasure? And were it not that +his deed had justly received its praise, his son would not have done +the like in his fourth consulship; nor would his grandson, again, in +the war with Pyrrhus, have fallen, a consul, in battle; and, a third +time in continuous succession in that family, have offered himself a +victim for the commonwealth." But in the _De Officiis_,[234] Cicero +says of Cato: "Marcus Cato was in no different position from his +comrades who in Africa surrendered to Caesar. The others, had they +slain themselves, would perhaps have been blamed for the act, for +their life was of less consequence,[235] and their principles were not +so strict. But for Cato, to whom nature had given incredible firmness +and who had strengthened this severity by his unremitting constancy to +his principles, and who never formed a resolution by which he did not +abide, he was indeed bound to die rather than to look on the face of a +tyrant." + +[Footnote 233: Witte quotes the _Convito_, iv. 5, where all these +examples are recounted, almost in the same language. He compares +_Parad._ vi. 46 (Cincinnatus), _Purgat._ xx. 25 (Fabricius), _Parad._ +vi. 47 (Decii), _Purg._ i. where Cato guards the approach to +Purgatory.] + +[Footnote 234: I. 31 (W.), carelessly quoted.] + +[Footnote 235: "_Levior_" al. "_lenior_."] + + +VI.--Two things therefore have been made clear: first, that whoever +aims at the good of the state aims at right;[236] and secondly, that +the Roman people in bringing the world into subjection, aimed at the +public weal. Therefore let us argue thus: Whoever aims at right, walks +according to right; the Roman people in bringing the world into +subjection aimed at right, as we have made manifest in the preceding +chapter. Therefore in bringing the world into subjection the Roman +people acted according to right, consequently it was by right that +they assumed the dignity of Empire. + +[Footnote 236: "_Finem juris intendit._"] + +We reach this conclusion on grounds which are manifest to all. It is +manifest from this, that whosoever aims at right, walks according to +right. To make this clear, we must mark that everything is made to +gain a certain end, otherwise it would be in vain, and as we said +before this cannot be. And as everything has its proper end, so every +end has some distinct thing of which it is the end. And therefore it +is impossible that any two things, spoken of as separate things,[237] +and in so far as they are two, should have the same end as their aim, +for so the same absurdity[238] would follow, that one of them would +exist in vain. Since, then, there is a certain end of right, as we +have explained, it necessarily follows that when we have decided what +that end is, we have also decided what right is; for it is the natural +and proper effect of right. And since in any sequence it is impossible +to have an antecedent without its consequent, for instance, to have +"man" without "animal," as is evident by putting together and taking +to pieces the idea,[239] so also it is impossible to seek for the end +of right without right, for each thing stands in the same relation to +its proper end, as the consequent does to its antecedent; as without +health it is impossible to attain to a good condition of the body. +Wherefore, it is most evidently clear that he who aims at the end of +right must aim in accordance with right; nor does the contradictory +instance which is commonly drawn from Aristotle's treatment of "good +counsel" avail anything.[240] He there says: "It is possible to obtain +what is the right result from a syllogism, which is incorrect, but not +by an argument which is right, for the middle term is wrong." For if +sometimes a right conclusion is obtained from false principles, this +is only by accident, and happens only in so far as the true conclusion +is imported in the words of the inference. Truth never really follows +from falsehood; but the signs of truth may easily follow from the +signs of falsehood. So also it is in matters of conduct. If a thief +helps a poor man out of the spoils of his thieving, we must not call +that charity; but it is an action which would have the form of +charity, if it had been done out of the man's own substance. And so of +the end of right. If anything, such as the end of right, were gained +without right, it would only be the end of right, that is, the common +good, in the same sense that the gift, made from evil gains, is +charity. And so the example proves nothing, for in our proposition we +speak, not of the apparent but of the real end of right. What was +sought, therefore, is clear. + +[Footnote 237: "_Per se loquendo._"] + +[Footnote 238: "_Inconveniens._"] + +[Footnote 239: "_Construendo et destruendo._" Technical terms of the +conditional syllogism, _constructive_ and _destructive_.] + +[Footnote 240: [Greek: Euboulia]. _Ethics_, vi. 10.] + + +VII.--What nature has ordained is maintained of right. For nature in +its providence does not come short of men's providence; for if it were +to come short, the effect would excel the cause in goodness, which is +impossible. But we see that when public bodies are founded, not only +are the relations of the members to each other considered, but also +their capacities for exercising offices; and this is to consider the +end of right in the society or order which is founded, for right is +not extended beyond what is possible. Nature then, in her ordinances, +does not come short in this foresight. Therefore it is clear that +nature, in ordaining a thing, has regard to its capacities; and this +regard is the fundamental principle of right which nature lays down. +From this it follows that the natural order of things cannot be +maintained without right; for this fundamental principle of right is +inseparably joined to the natural order of things. It is necessary, +therefore, that it is of right that this order is preserved. + +The Roman people was ordained for empire, by nature, and this may be +shown as follows: The man would come short of perfection in his art, +who aimed only to produce his ultimate form, and neglected the means +of reaching it; in the same way, if nature only aimed at reproducing +in the world the universal form of the divine likeness, and neglected +the means of doing so, she would be imperfect. But nature, which is +the work of the divine intelligence, is wholly perfect; she therefore +aims at all the means by which her final end is arrived at. + +Since then mankind has a certain end, and since there is a certain +means necessary for the universal end of nature, it necessarily +follows that nature aims at obtaining that means. And therefore the +Philosopher, in the second book of _Natural Learning_,[241] well shows +that nature always acts for the end. And since nature cannot reach +this end through one man, because that there are many actions +necessary to it, which need many to act, therefore nature must produce +many men and set them to act. And besides the higher influence,[242] +the powers and properties of inferior spheres contribute much to this. +And therefore we see not only that individual men, but also that +certain races are born to govern, and certain others to be governed +and to serve, as the Philosopher argues in the _Politics_;[243] and +for the latter, as he himself says, subjection is not only expedient, +but just, even though they be forced into subjection. + +[Footnote 241: Arist. _Phys. Ausc._ ii. 1.--(W.)] + +[Footnote 242: _I.e._ of the heavens. Witte quotes _Parad._ viii. 97, +_Purg._ xiv. 38.] + +[Footnote 243: I. 5, 11; 6, 9.--(W.)] + +And if this is so, it cannot be doubted that nature ordained in the +world a country and a nation for universal sovereignty; if this were +not so, she would have been untrue to herself, which is impossible. +But as to where that country is, and which is that nation, it is +sufficiently manifest, both from what we have said and from what we +shall say, that it was Rome and her citizens or people; and this our +poet very skilfully touches on in the sixth _AEneid_, where he +introduces Anchises prophesying to AEneas, the ancestor of the Romans: +"Others may mould the breathing bronze more delicately--I doubt it +not; they may chisel from marble the living countenance; they may +surpass thee in pleading causes; they may track the course of the +heavens with the rod, and tell when the stars will rise; but thou, +Roman, remember to rule the nations with thy sway. These shall be thy +endowments--to make peace to be the custom of the world; to spare thy +foes when they submit, and to crush the proud."[244] And again, Virgil +skilfully notes the appointment of the _place_, in the fourth +_AEneid_, when he brings in Jupiter speaking to Mercury concerning +AEneas: "His fair mother did not promise him to us to be such as this: +it was not for this that twice she rescues him from Grecian arms; but +that there should be one to rule over Italy, teeming with empires, +tempestuous with wars." It has, therefore, sufficiently been shown +that the Roman people was by nature ordained to empire. Therefore it +was of right that they gained empire, by subduing to themselves the +world. + +[Footnote 244: _AEn._ vi. 848, iv. 227.--(W.)] + + +VIII.--But in order properly to discover the truth in our inquiry, we +must recognise that the judgment of God is sometimes made manifest to +men, and sometimes hidden from them. + +It may be made manifest in two ways, namely, by reason and by faith. + +There are some judgments of God to which the human reason, by its own +paths, can arrive; as, that a man should risk death to save his +country. For a part should always risk itself to save its whole, and +each man is a part of his State, as is clear from the Philosopher in +his _Politics_.[245] Therefore every man ought to risk himself for his +country, as the less good for the better; whence the Philosopher says +to Nicomachus: "The end is desirable, indeed, even for an individual, +but it is better and more divine for a nation and State."[246] And +this is the judgment of God, for if it were not so, right reason in +men would miss the intention of nature, which is impossible. + +[Footnote 245: Arist. _Pol._ i. 2, 12.--(W.)] + +[Footnote 246: _Ethics_, i. 1.] + +There are also some judgments of God to which, though human reason +cannot reach them by its own powers, yet, by the aid of faith in those +things which are told us in Holy Scripture it can be lifted up: as, +for instance, that no one, however perfect he may be in moral and +intellectual virtues, both in habit and in action, can be saved +without faith; it being supposed that he never heard aught of Christ. +For human reason cannot of itself see this to be just, yet by faith it +can. For in the Epistle to the Hebrews it is written, "without faith +it is impossible to please God;"[247] and in Leviticus, "what man +soever there be of the House of Israel that killeth an ox, or lamb, or +goat in the camp, or that killeth it out of the camp, and bringeth it +not to the door of the tabernacle to offer an offering unto the Lord, +blood shall be imputed to that man."[248] The door of the tabernacle +stands for Christ, who is the door of the kingdom of heaven, as may be +proved from the Gospel: the killing of animals represents men's +actions.[249] + +[Footnote 247: Cf. _Parad._ xix. 70.--(W.)] + +[Footnote 248: Heb. ii. 6; Levit. xvii. 3, 4.--(W.).] + +[Footnote 249: Witte quotes from Isidore of Seville, a writer much +used in the middle ages, the following: "In a moral sense, we offer a +calf when we conquer the pride of the flesh; a lamb, when we correct +our irrational impulses; a kid, when we master impurity; a dove, when +we are simple; a turtle-dove, when we observe chastity; unleavened +bread, 'when we keep the feast not in the leaven of malice, but in the +unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.'"] + +But the judgment of God is a hidden one, when man cannot arrive at the +knowledge of it either by the law of nature or by the written law, but +only occasionally by a special grace. This grace comes in several +ways: sometimes by simple revelation, sometimes by revelation assisted +by a certain kind of trial or debate. Simple revelation, too, is of +two kinds: either God gives it of his own accord, or it is gained by +prayer. God gives it of his own accord in two ways, either plainly, or +by a sign. His judgment against Saul was revealed to Samuel plainly; +but it was by a sign that it was revealed to Pharaoh what God had +judged touching the setting free of the children of Israel. The +judgment of God is also given in answer to prayer, as he knew who +spoke in the second book of Chronicles:[250] "When we know not what we +ought to do, this only have we left, to direct our eyes to Thee." + +[Footnote 250: 2 Chron. xx. 12 (Vulg.).] + +Revelation by means of trial is also of two kinds. It is given either +by casting lots, or by combat; for "to strive" (_certare_), is derived +from a phrase which means "to make certain" (_certum facere_). It is +clear that the judgment of God is sometimes revealed to men by casting +lots, as in the substitution of Matthias in the Acts of the Apostles. + +Again the judgment of God is revealed to men by combat in two ways: +either it is by a trial of strength, as in the duels of champions who +are called "_duelliones_," or it is by the contention of many men, +each striving to reach a certain mark first, as happens in the +contests of athletes who run for a prize. The first of these methods +was prefigured among the Gentiles by the contests between Hercules and +Antaeus, which Lucan mentions in the fourth book of his _Pharsalia_, +and Ovid in the ninth book of his _Metamorphoses_. The second is +prefigured by the contest between Atalanta and Hippomenes, described +in the tenth book of Ovid's _Metamorphoses_.[251] + +[Footnote 251: _Phars._ iv. 593; _Metam._ ix. 183, x. 569.--(W.).] + +Moreover, it ought not to pass unnoticed concerning these two kinds of +strife, that while in the first each champion may fairly hinder his +antagonist, in the second this is not so; for athletes must not hinder +one another in their strife, though our poet seems to have thought +differently in the fifth _AEneid_ where Euryalus so receives the +prize.[252] But Cicero has done better in forbidding this practice in +the third book of the _De Officiis_, following the opinion of +Chrysippus.[253] He there says: "Chrysippus is right here, as he often +is, for he says that he who runs in a race should strive with all his +might to win, but in no way should he try to trip up his competitor." + +[Footnote 252: V. 335--(W.)] + +[Footnote 253: III. 10.--(W.)] + +With these distinctions, then, we may assume that there are two ways +in which men may learn the judgment of God, as we have on this point +stated; first by the contests of athletes, and secondly by the +contests of champions. These ways of discovering the judgment of God I +will treat of in the chapter following. + + +IX.--That people then, which conquered when all were striving hard for +the Empire of the world, conquered by the will of God. For God cares +more to settle a universal strife than a particular one; and even in +particular contests the athletes sometimes throw themselves on the +judgment of God, according to the common proverb: "To whom God makes +the grant, him let Peter also bless."[254] It cannot, then, be +doubted that the victory in the strife for the Empire of the world +followed the judgment of God. The Roman people, when all were striving +for the Empire of the world, conquered; it will be plain that so it +was, if we consider the prize or goal, and those who strove for it. +The prize or goal was the supremacy over all men; for it is this that +we call the Empire. None reached this but the Roman people. Not only +were they the first, they were the only ones to reach the goal, as we +shall shortly see. + +[Footnote 254: Witte only gives a query (?). The saying expresses the +Ghibelline view of the relation of the Empire to the Pope; it may have +originated with the coronation of Charles the Great.] + +The first man who panted for the prize was Ninus, King of the +Assyrians; but although for more than ninety years (as Orosius +tells[255]) he, with his royal consort Semiramis, strove for the +Empire of the world and made all Asia subject to himself, nevertheless +he never subdued the West. Ovid mentions both him and his queen in the +fourth book of the _Metamorphoses_, when he says, in the story of +Pyramus:[256] "Semiramis girdled the round space with brick-built +walls;" and, "let them come to Ninus' tomb and hide beneath in its +shade." + +[Footnote 255: I. 4.--(W.)] + +[Footnote 256: _Metam._ iv. 58, 88.--(W.)] + +Secondly, Vesoges, King of Egypt, aspired to this prize; but though he +vexed the North and South of Asia, as Orosius relates,[257] yet he +never gained for himself one-half of the world; nay, when, as it +were, between the judges[258] and the goal, the Scythians drove him +back from his rash enterprise. + +[Footnote 257: Oros. i. 14.--(W.)] + +[Footnote 258: "Athlothetae." The judges or umpires in the Greek games, +whose seats were opposite to the goal at the side of the stadium. +_Vide_ Smith's _Dictionary of Antiquities_, s.v. "stadium."] + +Then Cyrus, King of the Persians, made the same attempt; but after the +destruction of Babylon, and the transference of its Empire to Persia, +he did not even reach the regions of the West, but lost his life and +his object in one day at the hands of Tamiris, Queen of the +Scythians.[259] + +[Footnote 259: Oros. ii. 7.--(W.)] + +But after that these had failed, Xerxes, the son of Darius and king +among the Persians, assailed the world with so great a multitude of +nations, with so great a power, that he bridged the channel of the sea +which separates Asia from Europe, between Sestos and Abydos. And of +this wonderful work Lucan makes mention in the second book of his +_Pharsalia_:[260] "Such paths across the seas, made by Xerxes in his +pride, fame tells of." But finally he was miserably repulsed from his +enterprise, and could not attain the goal. + +[Footnote 260: _Phars._ ii. 692.--(W.)] + +Besides these kings, and after their times, Alexander, King of +Macedon, came nearest of all to the prize of monarchy; he sent +ambassadors to the Romans to demand their submission, but before the +Roman answer came, he fell in Egypt, as Livy[261] tells us, as it were +in the middle of the course. Of his burial there, Lucan speaks in the +eighth book of his _Pharsalia_,[262] where he is inveighing against +Ptolemy, King of Egypt: "Thou last of the Lagaean race, soon to perish +in thy degeneracy, and to yield thy kingdom to an incestuous sister; +while for thee the Macedonian is kept in the sacred cave...." + +[Footnote 261: Not Livy. Cf. ix. 18, 3, where, speaking of Alexander +and the Romans, he says: "Quem ne fama quidem illis notum arbitror +fuisse." The story is Greek in origin, coming from Cleitarchus +(according to Pliny, _Hist. Nat._ iii. 9), who accompanied Alexander +on his Asiatic expedition. Cf. Niebuhr, _Lectures on the History of +Rome_, lect. 52, Grote, _History of Greece_, vol. xii. p. 70, note, +who argue for its truth, and Mommsen, _History of Rome_, vol. i. p. +394, who argues against it. Dante, says Witte, used legends about +Alexander now lost. Cf. _Inf._ xiv. 31.] + +[Footnote 262: VIII. 692.] + +"Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!" +Who will not marvel at thee here? For when Alexander was trying to +hinder his Roman competitor in the race, thou didst suddenly snatch +him away from the contest that his rashness might proceed no further. + +But that Rome has won the crown of so great a victory is proved on the +testimony of many. Our poet in his first _AEneid_ says:[263] "Hence, +surely, shall one day the Romans come, as the years roll on, to be the +leaders of the world, from the blood of Teucer renewed; over the sea +and over the land they shall hold full sway."[264] And Lucan, in his +first book, writes: "The sword assigns the kingdom; and the fortune of +that mighty people that rules o'er sea and land and the whole earth, +admitted not two to rule." And Boethius, in his second book,[265] +speaking of the Roman prince says: "With his sceptre he ruled the +nations, those whom Phoebus beholds, from his rising afar to where +he sinks his beams beneath the waves; those who are benumbed by the +frosty Seven Stars of the north, those whom the fierce south wind +scorches with his heat, parching the burning sands." And Luke, the +Scribe of Christ, bears the same testimony, whose every word is true, +where he says: "There went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all +the world should be taxed;" from which words we must plainly +understand that the Romans had jurisdiction over the whole world. + +[Footnote 263: I. 234.--(W.)] + +[Footnote 264: I. 109.--(W.)] + +[Footnote 265: _De Consol. Phil._ ii. 6.--(W.)] + +From all this evidence it is manifest that the Roman people prevailed +when all were striving to gain the Empire of the world. Therefore it +was by the judgment of God that it prevailed; consequently its Empire +was gained by the judgment of God, which is to say, that it was gained +by right. + + +X.--And what is gained as the result of single combat or duel is +gained of right. For whenever human judgment fails, either because it +is involved in the clouds of ignorance, or because it has not the +assistance of a judge, then, lest justice should be left deserted, we +must have recourse to Him who loved justice so much that He died to +fulfil what it required by shedding His own blood. Therefore the +Psalmist wrote: "The righteous Lord loveth righteousness." This result +is gained when, by the free consent of the parties, not from hatred +but from love of justice, men inquire of the judgment of God by a +trial of strength as well of soul as of body. And this trial of +strength is called a duel, because in the first instance it was +between two combatants, man to man. + +But when two nations quarrel they are bound to try in every possible +way to arrange the quarrel by means of discussion; it is only when +this is hopeless that they may declare war. Cicero and Vegetius agree +on this point, the former in his _De Officiis_,[266] the latter in his +book on war. In the practice of medicine recourse may only be had to +amputation and cauterising when every other means of cure have been +tried. So in the same way, it is only when we have sought in vain for +all other modes of deciding a quarrel that we may resort to the remedy +of a single combat, forced thereto by a necessity of justice. + +[Footnote 266: _De Off._ i. 12; _De Re Milit._ iii. _prol._--(W.)] + +Two formal rules, then, of the single combat are clear, one which we +have just mentioned, the other, which we touched on before, that the +combatants or champions must enter the lists by common consent, not +animated by private hatred or love, but simply by an eager desire for +justice. Therefore Cicero, in touching on this matter, spoke well when +he said: "Wars, which are waged for the crown of empire, must be waged +without bitterness."[267] + +[Footnote 267: "Imperii _gloria_," not "_corona_," in _Cic. de Off._ +i. 12.--(W.)] + +But, if the rules of single combat be kept when men are driven by +justice to meet together by common consent, in their zeal for justice +(and if they are not, the contest ceases to be a single combat), do +not they meet together in the name of God? And if it is so, is not God +in the midst of them, for He Himself promises us this in the Gospel? +And if God is there, is it not impious to suppose that justice can +fail?--that justice which He loved so much, as we have just seen. And +if single combat cannot fail to secure justice, is not what is gained +in single combat gained as of right? + +This truth the Gentiles, too, recognised before the trumpet of the +Gospel was sounded, when they sought for a judgment in the fortune of +single combat. So Pyrrhus, noble both in the manners and in the blood +of AEacidae, gave a worthy answer when the Roman envoys were sent to him +to treat for the ransom of prisoners. "I ask not for gold; ye shall +pay me no price, being not war-mongers, but true men of war. Let each +decide his fate with steel, and not with gold. Whether it be you or I +that our mistress wills to reign, or what chance she may bring to +each, let us try by valour. Hear ye also this word: those whose valour +the fortune of war has spared, their liberty will I too spare. Take ye +them as my gift."[268] So spoke Pyrrhus. By "mistress" he meant +Fortune, which we better and more rightly call the Providence of God. +Therefore, let the combatants beware that they fight not for money; +then it would be no true single combat in which they fought, for they +would strive in a court of blood and injustice; and let it not be +thought that God would then be present to judge; nay, for it would be +that ancient enemy who had been the instigator of the strife. If they +wish to be true combatants, and not dealers in blood and injustice, +let them keep Pyrrhus before their eyes when they enter the arena, the +man who, when he was striving for empire, so scorned gold, as we have +said. + +[Footnote 268: Ennius in _Cic. de Off._ i. 12 (W.) "War-monger" is +Spenser's word. _F.Q._ 3, 10, 29.] + +But, if men will not receive the truth which we have proved, and +object, as they are wont, that all men are not equal in strength, we +will refute them with the instance of the victory of David over +Goliath; and if the Gentiles seek for aught more, let them repel the +objection by the victory of Hercules over Antaeus. For it is mere folly +to fear that the strength which God makes strong should be weaker than +a human champion. It is, therefore, now sufficiently clear that what +is acquired by single combat is acquired by right. + + +XI.--But the Roman people gained their empire by duel between man and +man; and this is proved by testimonies that are worthy of all +credence; and in proving this, we shall also show that where any +question had to be decided from the beginning of the Roman Empire, it +was tried by single combat. + +For first of all, when a quarrel arose about the settling in Italy of +Father AEneas, the earliest ancestor of this people, and when Turnus, +King of the Rutuli, withstood AEneas, it was at last agreed between the +two kings to discover the good pleasure of God by a single combat, +which is sung in the last book of the _AEneid_. And in this combat +AEneas was so merciful in his victory, that he would have granted life +and peace to the conquered foe, had he not seen the belt which Turnus +had taken on slaying Pallas, as the last verses of our poet describe. + +Again, when two peoples had grown up in Italy, both sprung from the +Trojan stem, namely, the Romans and the Albans, and they had long +striven whose should be the sign of the eagle,[269] and the Penates of +Troy, and the honours of empire; at last by mutual consent, in order +to have certain knowledge of the case in hand, the three Horatii, who +were brethren, and the three Curatii, who were also brethren, fought +together before the kings and all the people anxiously waiting on +either side; and since the three Alban champions were killed, while +one Roman survived, the palm of victory fell to the Romans, in the +reign of Hostilius the king. This story has been diligently put +together by Livy, in the first part of his history, and Orosius also +gives similar testimony.[270] + +[Footnote 269: "_Il sacrosanto segno._" V. _Parad._ vi. 32.] + +[Footnote 270: Liv. i. 24; Oros. ii. 4.] + +Next they fought for empire with their neighbours the Sabines and +Samnites, as Livy tells us; all the laws of war were kept; and though +those who fought were very many in number, the war was in the form of +a combat between man and man. In the contest with the Samnites, +Fortune nearly repented her of what she had begun, as Lucan instances +in the second book of his _Pharsalia_:[271] "How many companies lay +dead by the Colline gate then, when the headship of the world and +universal empire well-nigh were transferred to other seats, and the +Samnite heaped the corpses of Rome beyond the numbers[272] of the +Caudine Forks." + +[Footnote 271: II. 135.] + +[Footnote 272: + + "Romanaque Samnis + Ultra Caudinas superavit vulnera furcas." + +Another reading is "speravit."] + +But after that the intestine quarrels of Italy had ceased, and while +the issue of the strife with Greece and Carthage was not yet made +certain by the judgment of God--for both Greece and Carthage aimed at +empire--then Fabricius for Rome, and Pyrrhus for Greece, fought with +vast hosts for the glory of empire, and Rome gained the day. And when +Scipio for Rome, and Hannibal for Carthage, fought man to man, the +Africans fell before the Italians, as Livy and all the other Roman +historians strive to tell. + +Who then is so dull of understanding as not to see that this glorious +people has won the crown of all the world, by the decision of combat? +Surely the Roman may repeat Paul's words to Timothy: "There is laid up +for me a crown of righteousness," laid up, that is, in the eternal +providence of God. Let, then, the presumptuous Jurists see how far +they stand below that watch-tower of reason whence the mind of man +regards these principles: and let them be silent, content to show +forth counsel and judgment according to the meaning of the law. + +It has now become manifest that it was by combat of man against man +that the Romans gained their empire: therefore it was by right that +they gained it, and this is the principal thesis of the present book. +Up to this point we have proved our thesis by arguments which mostly +rest on principles of reason; we must now make our point clear by +arguments based on the principles of the Christian faith. + + +XII.--For it is they who profess to be zealous for the faith of Christ +who have chiefly "raged together," and "imagined a vain thing" against +the Roman empire; men who have no compassion on the poor of Christ, +whom they not only defraud as to the revenues of the Church; but the +very patrimonies of the Church are daily seized upon; and the Church +is made poor, while making a show of justice they yet refuse to allow +the minister of justice to fulfil his office. + +Nor does this impoverishment happen without the judgment of God. For +their possessions do not afford help to the poor, to whom belongs as +their patrimony the wealth of the Church; and these possessions are +held without gratitude to the empire which gives them. Let these +possessions go back to whence they came. They came well; their return +is evil: for they were well given, and they are mischievously held. +What shall we say to shepherds like these? What shall we say when the +substance of the Church is wasted, while the private estates of their +own kindred are enlarged? But perchance it is better to proceed with +what is set before us; and in religious silence to wait for our +Saviour's help. + +I say, then, that if the Roman empire did not exist by right, Christ +in being born presupposed and sanctioned an unjust thing. But the +consequent is false; therefore the contradictory of the antecedent is +true; for it is always true of contradictory propositions, that if one +is false the other is true. It is not needful to prove the falsity of +the consequent to a true believer: for, if he be faithful, he will +grant it to be false; and if he be not faithful, then this reasoning +is not for him. + +I prove the consequence thus: wherever a man of his own free choice +carries out a public order, he countenances and persuades by his act +the justice of that order; and seeing that acts are more forcible to +persuade than words (as Aristotle holds in the tenth book of his +_Ethics_),[273] therefore by this he persuades us more than if it were +merely an approval in words. But Christ, as Luke who writes His +story, says, willed to be born of the Virgin Mary under an edict of +Roman authority, so that in that unexampled census of mankind, the Son +of God, made man, might be counted as man: and this was to carry out +that edict. Perhaps it is even more religious to suppose that it was +of God that the decree issued through Caesar, so that He who had been +such long years expected among men should Himself enroll himself with +mortal man. + +[Footnote 273: _Eth._ x. 1.] + +Therefore Christ, by His action, enforced the justice of the edict of +Augustus, who then wielded the Roman power. And since to issue a just +edict implies jurisdiction, it necessarily follows that He who showed +that He thought an edict just, must also have showed that He thought +the jurisdiction under which it was issued just; but unless it existed +by right it were unjust. + +And it must be noted that the force of the argument taken to destroy +the consequent, though the argument partly holds from its form, shows +its force in the second figure, if it be reduced as a syllogism, just +as the argument based on the assumption of the antecedent is in the +first figure. The reduction is made thus: all that is unjust is +persuaded to men unjustly; Christ did not persuade us unjustly; +therefore He did not persuade us to do unjust things. From the +assumption of the antecedent thus: all injustice is persuaded to men +unjustly: Christ persuaded a certain injustice to man, therefore He +persuaded unjustly. + + +XIII.--And if the Roman empire did not exist by right, the sin of Adam +was not punished in Christ. This is false, therefore its contradictory +is true. The falsehood of the consequent is seen thus. Since by the +sin of Adam we were all sinners, as the Apostle says:--"Wherefore, as +by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death +passed upon all men, for that all have sinned,"--then, if Christ had +not made satisfaction for Adam's sin by his death, we should still by +our depraved nature be the children of wrath. But this is not so, for +Paul, speaking of the Father in his Epistle to the Ephesians, says: +"Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ +to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise +of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the +beloved, in whom we have redemption by His blood, the forgiveness of +sins according to the riches of His grace, wherein He has abounded +towards us." And Christ Himself, suffering in Himself the punishment, +says in St. John: "It is finished;" for where a thing is finished, +naught remains to be done. + +It is convenient that it should be understood that punishment is not +merely penalty inflicted on him who has done wrong, but that penalty +inflicted by one who has penal jurisdiction. And therefore a penalty +should not be called punishment, but rather injury, except where it is +inflicted by the sentence of a regular judge.[274] Therefore the +Israelites said unto Moses: "Who made thee a judge over us?" + +[Footnote 274: "_Ab ordinario judice._"] + +If, therefore, Christ had not suffered by the sentence of a regular +judge, the penalty would not properly have been punishment; 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 griefs and carried our sorrows," as saith the Prophet Isaiah. 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. It was for this reason that Herod, not knowing what he did, +like Caiaphas, when he spoke truly of the decree of heaven, sent +Christ to Pilate to be judged, as Luke relates in his gospel. For +Herod was not the vicegerent of Tiberius, under the standard of the +eagle, or the standard of the Senate; but only a king, with one +particular kingdom given him by Tiberius, and ruling the kingdom +committed to his charge under Tiberius. + +Let them cease, then, to insult the Roman empire, who pretend that +they are the sons of the Church; when they see that Christ, the +bridegroom of the Church, sanctioned the Roman empire at the beginning +and at the end of His warfare on earth. And now I think that I have +made it sufficiently clear that it was by right that the Romans +acquired to themselves the empire of the world. + +Oh happy people, oh Ausonia, how glorious hadst thou been, if either +he, that weakener of thine empire, had never been born, or if his own +pious intention had never deceived him?[275] + +[Footnote 275: Constantine the Great.--(W.)] + + + + +BOOK III. + + +I.--"He hath shut the lions' mouths and they have not hurt me, +forasmuch as before Him justice was found in me."[276] At the +beginning of this work I proposed to examine into three questions, +according as the subject-matter would permit me. Concerning the two +first questions our inquiry, as I think, has been sufficiently +accomplished in the preceding books. It remains to treat of the third +question; and, perchance, it may arouse a certain amount of +indignation against me, for the truth of it cannot appear without +causing shame to certain men. But seeing that truth from its +changeless throne appeals to me--that Solomon too, entering on the +forest of his proverbs, teaches me in his own person "to meditate on +truth, to hate the wicked;"[277] seeing that the Philosopher, my +instructor in morals, bids me, for the sake of truth, to put aside +what is dearest;[278] I will, therefore, take confidence from the +words of Daniel in which the power of God, the shield of the defenders +of truth, is set forth, and, according to the exhortation of St. +Paul, "putting on the breast-plate of faith," and in the heat of that +coal which one of the seraphim had taken from off the altar, and laid +on the lips of Isaiah, I will enter on the present contest, and, by +the arm of Him who delivered us by His blood from the powers of +darkness, drive out from the lists the wicked and the liar, in the +sight of all the world. Why should I fear, when the Spirit, which is +co-eternal with the Father and the Son, saith by the mouth of David: +"The righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance, he shall not +be afraid of evil tidings"?[279] + +[Footnote 276: Dan. vi. 22. Vulg.--(W.)] + +[Footnote 277: Prov. vii. 7. Vulg.--(W.)] + +[Footnote 278: Arist. _Eth._ i. 4.--(W.)] + +[Footnote 279: Ps. cxii. 7.--(W.)] + +The present question, then, concerning which we have to inquire, is +between two great luminaries, the Roman Pontiff and the Roman Prince: +and the question is, does the authority of the Roman Monarch, who, as +we have proved in the second book, is the monarch of the world, depend +immediately on God, or on some minister or vicar of God; by whom I +understand the successor of Peter, who truly has the keys of the +kingdom of heaven? + + +II.--For this, as for the former questions, we must take some +principle, on the strength of which we may fashion the arguments of +the truth which is to be expounded. For what does it profit to labour, +even in speaking truth, unless we start from a principle? For the +principle alone is the root of all the propositions which are the +means of proof. + +Let us, therefore, start from the irrefragable truth that that which +is repugnant to the intention of nature, is against the will of God. +For if this were not true its contradictory would not be false; +namely, that what is repugnant to the intention of nature is not +against God's will, and if this be not false neither are the +consequences thereof false. For it is impossible in consequences which +are necessary, that the consequent should be false, unless the +antecedent were false also. + +But if a thing is not "_against the will_" it must either be willed or +simply "not willed," just as "not to hate" means "to love," or "not to +love;" for "not to love" does not mean "to hate," and "not to will" +does not mean "to will not," as is self-evident. But if this is not +false, neither will this proposition be false; "God wills what He does +not will," than which a greater contradiction does not exist. + +I prove that what I say is true as follows: It is manifest that God +wills the end of nature; otherwise the motions of heaven would be of +none effect, and this we may not say. If God willed that the end +should be hindered, He would will also that the hindering power should +gain its end, otherwise His will would be of none effect. And since +the end of the hindering power is the non-existence of what it +hinders, it would follow that God wills the non-existence of the end +of nature which He is said to will. + +For if God did not will that the end should be hindered, in so far as +He did not will it, it would follow as a consequence to His not +willing it, that He cared nought about the hindering power, neither +whether it existed, nor whether it did not. But he who cares not for +the hindering power, cares not for the thing which can be hindered, +and consequently has no wish for it; and when a man has no wish for a +thing he wills it not. Therefore, if the end of nature can be +hindered, as it can, it follows of necessity that God wills not the +end of nature, and we reach our previous conclusion, that God wills +what He does not will. Our principle is therefore most true, seeing +that from its contradictions such absurd results follow. + + +III.--At the outset we must note in reference to this third question, +that the truth of the first question had to be made manifest rather to +remove ignorance than to end a dispute. In the second question we +sought equally to remove ignorance and to end a dispute. For there are +many things of which we are ignorant, but concerning which we do not +quarrel. In geometry we know not how to square the circle, but we do +not quarrel on that point. The theologian does not know the number of +the angels, but he does not quarrel about the number. The Egyptian is +ignorant of the political system of the Scythians, but he does not +therefore quarrel concerning it.[280] But the truth in this third +question provokes so much quarrelling that, whereas in other matters +ignorance is commonly the cause of quarrelling, here quarrelling is +the cause of ignorance. For this always happens where men are hurried +by their wishes past what they see by their reason; in this evil bias +they lay aside the light of reason, and being dragged on blindly by +their desires, they obstinately deny that they are blind. And, +therefore, it often follows not only that falsehood has its own +inheritance, but that many men issue forth from their own bounds and +stray through the foreign camp, where they understand nothing, and no +man understands them; and so they provoke some to anger, and some to +scorn, and not a few to laughter. + +[Footnote 280: "_Scytharum Civilitatem._" Cf. Arist. _Ethics_, iii. 5, +where [Greek: to bouleuton] is discussed, and thence come the first +and the third example, a little altered, the Egyptian being +substituted for the Spartan.] + +Now three classes of men chiefly strive against the truth which we are +trying to prove. + +First, the Chief Pontiff, Vicar of our Lord Jesus Christ and the +successor of Peter, to whom we owe, not indeed all that we owe to +Christ, but all that we owe to Peter, contradicts this truth, urged it +may be by zeal for the keys; and also other pastors of the Christian +sheepfolds, and others whom I believe to be only led by zeal for our +mother, the Church. These all, perchance from zeal and not from pride, +withstand the truth which I am about to prove. + +But there are certain others in whom obstinate greed has extinguished +the light of reason, who are of their father the devil, and yet +pretend to be sons of the Church. They not only stir up quarrels in +this question, but they hate the name of the most sacred office of +Prince, and would shamelessly deny the principles which we have laid +down for this and the previous questions. + +There is also a third class called Decretalists,[281] utterly without +knowledge or skill in philosophy or theology, who, relying entirely on +their Decretals (which doubtless, I think, should be venerated), and +hoping, I believe, that these Decretals will prevail, disparage the +power of the Empire. And no wonder, for I have heard one of them, +speaking of these Decretals, assert shamelessly that the traditions of +the Church are the foundation of the faith. May this wickedness be +taken away from the thoughts of men by those who, antecedently to the +traditions of the Church, have believed in Christ the Son of God, +whether to come, or present, or as having already suffered; and who +from their faith have hoped, and from their hope have kindled into +love, and who, burning with love, will, the world doubts not, be made +co-heirs with Him. + +[Footnote 281: _Parad._ ix. 133.--(W.)] + +And that such arguers may be excluded once for all from the present +debate, it must be noted that part of Scripture was _before_ the +Church, that part of it came _with_ the Church, and part _after_ the +Church. + +_Before_ the Church were the Old and the New Testament--the covenant +which the Psalmist says was "commanded for ever," of which the Church +speaks to her Bridegroom, saying: "Draw me after thee."[282] + +[Footnote 282: Ps. cxi. 9. Cant. i. 3.--(W.)] + +_With_ the Church came those venerable chief Councils, with which no +faithful Christian doubts but that Christ was present. For we have His +own words to His disciples when He was about to ascend into heaven: +"Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world," to which +Matthew testifies. There are also the writings[283] of the doctors, +Augustine and others, of whom, if any doubt that they were aided by +the Holy Spirit, either he has never beheld their fruit, or if he has +beheld, he has never tasted thereof. + +[Footnote 283: "_Scripturae._"] + +_After_ the Church are the traditions which they call Decretals, +which, although they are to be venerated for their apostolical +authority, yet we must not doubt that they are to be held inferior to +fundamental Scripture, seeing that Christ rebuked the Pharisees for +this very thing; for when they had asked: "Why do thy disciples +transgress the tradition of the elders?" (for they neglected the +washing of hands), He answered them, as Matthew testifies: "Why do ye +also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?" Thus He +intimates plainly that tradition was to have a lower place. + +But if the traditions of the Church are _after_ the Church, it follows +that the Church had not its authority from traditions, but rather +traditions from the Church; and, therefore, the men of whom we speak, +seeing that they have nought but traditions, must be excluded from the +debate. For those who seek after this truth must proceed in their +inquiry from those things from which flows the authority of the +Church. + +Further, we must exclude others who boast themselves to be white sheep +in the flock of the Lord, when they have the plumage of crows. These +are the children of wickedness, who, that they may be able to follow +their evil ways, put shame on their mother, drive out their brethren, +and when they have done all will allow none to judge them. Why should +we seek to reason with these, when they are led astray by their evil +desires, and so cannot see even our first principle? + +Therefore there remains the controversy only with the other sort of +men who are influenced by a certain kind of zeal for their mother the +Church, and yet know not the truth which is sought for. With these +men, therefore--strong in the reverence which a dutiful son owes to +his father, which a dutiful son owes to his mother, dutiful to Christ, +dutiful to the Church, dutiful to the Chief Shepherd, dutiful to all +who profess the religion of Christ--I begin in this book the contest +for the maintenance of the truth. + + +IV.--Those men to whom all our subsequent reasoning is addressed, when +they assert that the authority of the Empire depends on the authority +of the Church, as the inferior workman depends on the architect, are +moved to take this view by many arguments, some of which they draw +from Holy Scripture, and some also from the acts of the Supreme +Pontiff and of the Emperor himself. Moreover, they strive to have some +proof of reason. + +For in the first place they say that God, according to the book of +Genesis, made two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and +the lesser light to rule the night; this they understand to be an +allegory, for that the lights are the two powers,[284] the spiritual +and the temporal. And then they maintain that as the moon, which is +the lesser light, only has light so far as she receives it from the +sun, so the temporal power only has authority as it receives authority +from the spiritual power. + +[Footnote 284: "_Regimina._"] + +For the disposing of these, and of other like arguments, we must +remember the Philosopher's words in his book on Sophistry, "the +overthrow of an argument is the pointing out of the mistake."[285] + +[Footnote 285: _Soph. El._ ii. 3.--(W.)] + +Error may arise in two ways, either in the matter, or in the form of +an argument; either, that is, by assuming to be true what is false, or +by transgressing the laws of the syllogism. The Philosopher raised +objections to the arguments of Parmenides and Melissus on both of +these grounds, saying that they accepted what was false, and that they +did not argue correctly.[286] I use "false" in a large sense, as +including the inconceivable,[287] that which in matters admitting only +of probability has the nature of falseness. If the error is in the +form of an argument, he who wishes to destroy the error must do so by +showing that the laws of the syllogism have been transgressed. If the +error is in the matter, it is because something has been assumed +which is either false in itself, or false in relation to that +particular instance. If the assumption is false in itself, the +argument must be destroyed by destroying the assumption; if it is +false only in that particular instance, we must draw a distinction +between the falseness in that particular instance and its general +truth. + +[Footnote 286: Aristotle, _Phys._ i. 2.--(W.)] + +[Footnote 287: "_Inopinabili._"] + +Having noted these things, to make it more clear how we destroy this +and the further fallacies of our adversaries, we must remark that +there are two ways in which error may arise concerning the mystical +sense, either by seeking it where it is not, or by accepting it in a +sense other than its real sense. + +On account of the first of these ways, Augustine says, in his work _Of +the City of God_,[288] that we must not think that all things, of +which we are told, have a special meaning; for it is on account of +that which means something, that that also which means nothing is +woven into a story. It is only with the ploughshare that we turn up +the earth; but the other parts of the plough are also necessary. + +[Footnote 288: Dante does not quote St. Augustine's words, but gives +his meaning, xvii. 2.--(W.)] + +On account of the second way in which error touching the +interpretation of mysteries may arise, Augustine, in his book +"_concerning Christian doctrine_," speaking of those who wish to find +in Scripture something other than he who wrote the Scripture +meant,[289] says, that such "are misled in the same way as a man who +leaves the straight path, and then arrives at the end of the path by a +long circuit." And he adds: "It ought to be shown that this is a +mistake, lest through the habit of going out of the way, the man be +driven to going into cross or wrong ways." And then he intimates why +such precautions must be taken in interpreting Scripture. "Faith will +falter, if the authority of Scripture be not sure." But I say that if +these things happen from ignorance, we must pardon those who do them, +when we have carefully reproved them, as we pardon those who imagine a +lion in the clouds, and are afraid. But if they are done purposely, we +must deal with those who err thus, as we do with tyrants, who instead +of following the laws of the state for the public good, try to pervert +them for their own advantage. + +[Footnote 289: I. 36, 37. Dante writes: "per gyrum." The Benedictine +text has: "per agrum."] + +Oh worst of crimes, even though a man commit it in his dreams, to turn +to ill use the purpose of the Eternal Spirit. Such an one does not sin +against Moses, or David, or Job, or Matthew, or Paul, but against the +Eternal Spirit that speaketh in them. For though the reporters of the +words of God are many, yet there is one only that tells them what to +write, even God, who has deigned to unfold to us His will through the +pens of many writers. + +Having thus first noted these things, I will proceed, as I said above, +to destroy the argument of those who say that the two great lights are +typical of the two great powers on earth: for on this type rests the +whole strength of their argument. It can be shown in two ways that +this interpretation cannot be upheld. First, seeing that these two +kinds of power are, in a sense, accidents of men, God would thus +appear to have used a perverted order, by producing the accidents, +before the essence to which they belong existed; and it is ridiculous +to say this of God. For the two great lights were created on the +fourth day, while man was not created till the sixth day, as is +evident in the text of Scripture. + +Secondly, seeing that these two kinds of rule are to guide men to +certain ends, as we shall see, it follows that if man had remained in +the state of innocence in which God created him, he would not have +needed such means of guidance. These kinds of rule, then, are remedies +against the weakness of sin. Since, then, man was not a sinner on the +fourth day, for he did not then even exist, it would have been idle to +make remedies for his sin, and this would be contrary to the goodness +of God. For he would be a sorry physician who would make a plaster +for an abscess which was to be, before the man was born. It cannot, +therefore, be said that God made these two kinds of rule on the fourth +day, and therefore the meaning of Moses cannot have been what these +men pretend. + +We may also be more tolerant, and overthrow this falsehood by drawing +a distinction. This way of distinction is a gentler way of treating an +adversary, for so his arguments are not made to appear consciously +false, as is the case when we utterly overthrow him. I say then that, +although the moon has not light of its own abundantly, unless it +receives it from the sun, yet it does not therefore follow that the +moon is from the sun. Therefore be it known that the being, and the +power, and the working of the moon are all different things. For its +being, the moon in no way depends on the sun, nor for its power, nor +for its working, considered in itself. Its motion comes from its +proper mover, its influence is from its own rays. For it has a certain +light of its own, which is manifest at the time of an eclipse; though +for its better and more powerful working it receives from the sun an +abundant light, which enables it to work more powerfully. + +Therefore I say that the temporal power does not receive its being +from the spiritual power, nor its power which is its authority, nor +its working considered in itself. Yet it is good that the temporal +power should receive from the spiritual the means of working more +effectively by the light of the grace which the benediction of the +Supreme Pontiff bestows on it both in heaven and on earth. Therefore +we may see that the argument of these men erred in its form, because +the predicate of the conclusion is not the predicate of the major +premiss. The argument runs thus: The moon receives her light from the +sun, which is the spiritual power. The temporal power is the moon. +Therefore the temporal power receives authority from the spiritual +power. "Light" is the predicate of the major premiss, "authority" the +predicate of the conclusion; which two things we have seen to be very +different in their subject and in their idea. + + +V.--They draw another argument from the text of Moses, saying that the +types of these two powers sprang from the loins of Jacob, for that +they are prefigured in Levi and Judah, whereof one was founder of the +spiritual power, and the other of the temporal. From this they argue: +the Church has the same relation to the Empire that Levi had to Judah. +Levi preceded Judah in his birth, therefore the Church precedes the +Empire in authority. + +This error is easily overthrown. For when they say that Levi and +Judah, the sons of Jacob, are the types of spiritual and temporal +power, I could show this argument, too, to be wholly false; but I will +grant it to be true. Then they infer, as Levi came first in birth, so +does the Church come first in authority. But, as in the previous +argument, the predicates of the conclusion and of the major premiss +are different: authority and birth are different things, both in their +subject and in their idea; and therefore there is an error in the form +of the argument. The argument is as follows: A precedes B in C; D and +E stand in the same relation as A and B; therefore D precedes E in F. +But then F and C are different things. And if it is objected that F +follows from C, that is, authority from priority of birth, and that +the effect is properly substituted for the cause, as if "animal" were +used in an argument for men, the objection is bad. For there are many +men, who were born before others, who not only do not precede those +others in authority, but even come after them: as is plain where we +find a bishop younger than his archpresbyters. Therefore their +objection appears to err in that it assumes as a cause that which is +none. + + +VI.--Again, from the first book of Kings they take the election and +the deposition of Saul; and they say that Saul, an enthroned king, was +deposed by Samuel, who, by God's command, acted in the stead of God, +as appears from the text of Scripture. From this they argue that, as +that Vicar of God had authority to give temporal power, and to take it +away and bestow it on another, so now the Vicar of God, the bishop of +the universal Church, has authority to give the sceptre of temporal +power, and to take it away, and even to give it to another. And if +this were so, it would follow without doubt that the authority of the +Empire is dependent on the Church, as they say. + +But we may answer and destroy this argument, by which they say that +Samuel was the Vicar of God: for it was not as Vicar of God that he +acted, but as a special delegate for this purpose, or as a messenger +bearing the express command of his Lord. For it is clear that what God +commanded him, that only he did, and that only he said. + +Therefore we must recognise that it is one thing to be another's +vicar, and that it is another to be his messenger or minister, just as +it is one thing to be a doctor, and another to be an interpreter. For +a vicar is one to whom is committed jurisdiction with law or with +arbitrary power, and therefore within the bounds of the jurisdiction +which is committed to him, he may act by law or by his arbitrary power +without the knowledge of his lord. It is not so with a mere messenger, +in so far as he is a messenger; but as the mallet acts only by the +strength of the smith, so the messenger acts only by the authority of +him that sent him. Although, then, God did this by His messenger +Samuel, it does not follow that the Vicar of God may do the same. For +there are many things which God has done and still does, and yet will +do through angels, which the Vicar of God, the successor of Peter, +might not do. + +Therefore we may see that they argue from the whole to a part, thus: +Men can hear and see, therefore the eye can hear and see: which does +not hold. Were the argument negative, it would be good: for instance, +man cannot fly, therefore man's arm cannot fly. And, in the same way, +God cannot, by his messenger, cause what is not to have been,[290] as +Agathon says; therefore neither can his Vicar. + +[Footnote 290: As quoted by Aristotle, _Ethics_, vi. 3.--(W.)] + + +VII.--Further, they use the offering of the wise men from the text of +Matthew, saying that Christ accepted from them both frankincense and +gold, to signify that He was lord and ruler both of things temporal +and of things spiritual; and from this they infer that the Vicar of +Christ is also lord and ruler both of things temporal and of things +spiritual; and that consequently he has authority over both. + +To this I answer, that I acknowledge that Matthew's words and meaning +are both as they say, but that the inference which they attempt to +draw therefrom fails, because it fails in the terms of the argument. +Their syllogism runs thus: God is the lord both of things temporal and +of things spiritual, the holy Pontiff is the Vicar of God; therefore +he is lord both of things temporal and of things spiritual. Both of +these propositions are true, but the middle term in them is different, +and _four_ terms are introduced, by which the form of the syllogism is +not kept, as is plain from what is said of "the syllogism +simply."[291] For "God" is the subject of the major premiss, and "the +Vicar of God" is the predicate of the minor; and these are not the +same. + +[Footnote 291: Arist. _Anal. Prior._, or rather, the _Summulae Logicae_, +l. iv., of Petrus Hispanus.--(W.)] + +And if anyone raises the objection that the Vicar of God is equal in +power to God, his objection is idle; for no vicar, whether human or +divine, can be equal in power to the master whose vicar he is, which +is at once obvious. We know that the successor of Peter had not equal +authority with God, at least in the works of nature; he could not make +a clod of earth fall upwards, nor fire to burn in a downward +direction, by virtue of the office committed to him. Nor could all +things be committed to him by God; for God could not commit to any the +power of creation, and of baptism, as is clearly proved, +notwithstanding what[292] the Master says in his fourth book. + +[Footnote 292: Peter Lombard, "magister sententiarum," iv. dist. 5, f. +2.--(W.)] + +We know also that the vicar of a mortal man is not equal in authority +to the man whose vicar he is, so far as he is his vicar; for none can +give away what is not his. The authority of a prince does not belong +to a prince, except for him to use it; for no prince can give to +himself authority. He can indeed receive authority, and give it up, +but he cannot create it in another man, for it does not belong to a +prince to create another prince. And if this is so, it is manifest +that no prince can substitute for himself a vicar equal to himself in +authority respecting all things, and therefore the objection to our +argument has no weight. + + +VIII.--They also bring forward that saying in Matthew of Christ to +Peter: "Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; +and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven;" +which also, from the text of Matthew and John, they allow to have been +in like manner said to all the Apostles. From this they argue that it +has been granted by God to the successor of Peter to be able to bind +and to loose all things; hence they infer that he can loose the laws +and decrees of the Empire, and also bind laws and decrees for the +temporal power; and, if this were so, this conclusion would rightly +follow. + +But we must draw a distinction touching their major premiss. Their +syllogism is in this form. Peter could loose and bind all things; the +successor of Peter can do whatever Peter could do; therefore the +successor of Peter can bind and can loose all things: whence they +conclude that he can bind and can loose the decrees and the authority +of the Empire. + +Now I admit the minor premiss; but touching the major premiss I draw a +distinction. The universal "everything" which is included in +"whatever" is not distributed beyond the extent of the distributed +term. If I say "all animals run," "all" is distributed so as to +include everything which comes under the class "animal." But if I say +"all men run," then "all" is only distributed so as to include every +individual in the class "man;" and when I say "every grammarian runs," +then is the distribution even more limited. + +Therefore we must always look to see what it is that is to be included +in the word "all," and when we know the nature and extent of the +distributed term, it will easily be seen how far the distribution +extends. Therefore, when it is said "whatsoever thou shalt bind," if +"whatsoever" bore an unlimited sense, they would speak truly, and the +power of the Pope would extend even beyond what they say; for he might +then divorce a wife from her husband, and marry her to another while +her first husband was yet alive, which he can in no wise do. He might +even absolve me when impenitent, which God Himself cannot do. + +Therefore it is manifest that the distribution of the term in question +is not absolute, but in reference to something. What this is will be +sufficiently clear if we consider what power was granted to Peter. +Christ said to Peter: "To thee will I give the keys of the kingdom of +heaven"--that is, "I will make thee the doorkeeper of the kingdom of +heaven." And then He adds: "Whatsoever," which is to say "all +that"--to wit, all that has reference to this duty--"thou shalt have +power to bind and to loose." And thus the universal which is implied +in "whatsoever" has only a limited distribution, referring to the +office of the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And in this sense the +proposition of our opponents is true, but, taken absolutely, it is +manifestly false. I say, then, that although the successor of Peter +has power to bind and to loose, as belongs to him to whom the office +of Peter was committed, yet it does not therefore follow that he has +power to bind and to loose the decrees of the Empire, as our opponents +say, unless they further prove that to do so belongs to the office of +the keys, which we shall shortly show is not the case. + + +IX.--They further take the words in Luke which Peter spake to Christ, +saying: "Behold, here are two swords;" and they understood that by +these two swords the two kinds of rule were foretold. And since Peter +said "here," where he was, which is to say, "with him," they argue +that the authority of the two kinds of rule rests with the successor +of Peter. + +We must answer by showing that the interpretation, on which the +argument rests, is wrong. They say that the two swords of which Peter +spake mean the two kinds of rule which we have spoken of; but this we +wholly deny, for then Peter's answer would not be according to the +meaning of the words of Christ; and also we say that Peter made, as +was his wont, a hasty answer, touching only the outside of things. + +It will be manifest that such an answer as our opponents allege would +not be according to the meaning of the words of Christ, if the +preceding words, and the reason of them, be considered. Observe, then, +that these words were spoken on the day of the feast, for a little +before Luke writes thus: "Then came the day of unleavened bread, when +the Passover must be killed;" and at this feast Christ had spoken of +His Passion, which was at hand, in which it was necessary for Him to +be separated from His disciples. Observe, too, that when these words +were spoken the twelve were assembled together, and therefore, shortly +after the words which we have just quoted, Luke says: "And when the +hour was come He sat down, and the twelve Apostles with Him." And +continuing His discourse with them, He came to this: "When I sent you, +without purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye anything? And they +said, Nothing. Then said He unto them: But now, he that hath a purse, +let him take it, and likewise his scrip; and he that hath no sword, +let him sell his garment, and buy one." From these words the purpose +of Christ is sufficiently manifest; for He did not say: "Buy, or get +for yourselves, two swords," but rather "twelve swords," seeing that +He spake unto twelve disciples: "He that hath not, let him buy," so +that each should have one. And He said this to admonish them of the +persecution and scorn that they should suffer, as though He would say: +"As long as I was with you men received you gladly, but now you will +be driven away; therefore of necessity ye must prepare for yourselves +those things which formerly I forbade you to have." And therefore if +the answer of Peter bore the meaning which our opponents assign to it, +it would have been no answer to the words of Christ; and Christ would +have rebuked him for answering foolishly, as He often did rebuke him. +But Christ did not rebuke him, but was satisfied, saying unto him: "It +is enough," as though He would say: "I speak because of the necessity; +but if each one of you cannot possess a sword, two are enough." + +And that it was Peter's wont to speak in a shallow manner is proved by +his hasty and thoughtless forwardness, to which he was led not only by +the sincerity of his faith, but also, I believe, by the natural purity +and simplicity of his character. All the Evangelists bear testimony to +this forwardness. + +Matthew writes that when Jesus had asked His disciples: "Whom say ye +that I am?" Peter answered before them all and said: "Thou art Christ, +the Son of the living God." He writes also that when Christ was saying +to His disciples that he must go up to Jerusalem and suffer many +things, Peter took Him and began to rebuke Him, saying: "Be it far +from Thee, Lord; this shall not be unto Thee." But Christ turned and +rebuked him, and said: "Get thee behind me, Satan." Matthew also +writes that in the Mount of Transfiguration, on the sight of Christ, +and of Moses and Elias, and of the two sons of Zebedee, Peter said: +"Lord, it is good for us to be here; if Thou wilt, let us make here +three tabernacles, one for Thee, one for Moses, and one for Elias." He +also writes that when the disciples were in a ship, in the night, and +Christ went unto them walking on the sea, then Peter said unto Him: +"Lord, if it be Thou, bid me come unto Thee on the water." And when +Christ foretold that all His disciples should be offended because of +Him, Peter answered and said: "Though all men shall be offended +because of Thee, yet will I never be offended;" and then: "Though I +should die with Thee, yet will I not deny Thee." And to this saying +Mark bears witness also. And Luke writes that Peter had said to +Christ, a little before the words touching the swords which we have +quoted: "Lord, I am ready to go with Thee, both into prison and to +death." And John says of him, that, when Christ wished to wash his +feet, Peter answered and said: "Lord, dost Thou wash my feet?" and +then: "Thou shalt never wash my feet." The same Evangelist tells us +that it was Peter who smote the High Priest's servant with a sword, +and the other Evangelists also bear witness to this thing. He tells us +also how Peter entered the sepulchre at once, when he saw the other +disciple waiting outside, and how, when Christ was on the shore after +the resurrection, when Peter had heard that it was the Lord, he girt +his fisher's coat unto him (for he was naked) and did cast himself +into the sea. Lastly, John tells that when Peter saw John, he said +unto Jesus: "Lord, and what shall this man do?" + +It is a pleasure to have pursued this point about our Chief +Shepherd,[293] in praise of his purity of spirit; but from what I have +said it is plain that when he spake of the two swords, he answered the +words of Christ with no second meaning. + +[Footnote 293: "Archimandrita nostro." Cf. _Parad._ xi. 99, of St. +Francis.--(W.)] + +But if we are to receive these words of Christ and of Peter typically, +they must not be explained as our adversaries explain them; but they +must be referred to that sword of which Matthew writes: "Think not +that I am come to send peace on the earth; I come not to send peace, +but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his +father," &c. And this comes to pass not only in words, but also in +fact. And therefore Luke speaks to Theophilus of all "that Jesus began +both to do and to teach." It was a sword of that kind that Christ +commanded them to buy; and Peter said that it was already doubly +there. For they were ready both for words and for deeds, by which they +should accomplish what Christ said that He had come to do by the +sword. + + +X.--Certain persons say further that the Emperor Constantine, having +been cleansed from leprosy by the intercession of Sylvester, then the +Supreme Pontiff, gave unto the Church the seat of Empire which was +Rome, together with many other dignities belonging to the Empire.[294] +Hence they argue that no man can take unto himself these dignities +unless he receive them from the Church, whose they are said to be. +From this it would rightly follow, that one authority depends on the +other, as they maintain. + +[Footnote 294: On the Donation of Constantine, Witte refers to _Inf._ +xxxviii. 94; xix. 115; _Purg._ xxxii. 124; _Parad._ xx. 35; _supra_ +ii. 12.] + +The arguments which seemed to have their roots in the Divine words, +have been stated and disproved. It remains to state and disprove those +which are grounded on Roman history and in the reason of mankind. The +first of these is the one which we have mentioned, in which the +syllogism runs as follows: No one has a right to those things which +belong to the Church, unless he has them from the Church; and this we +grant. The government of Rome belongs to the Church; therefore no one +has a right to it unless it be given him by the Church. The minor +premiss is proved by the facts concerning Constantine, which we have +touched on. + +This minor premiss then will I destroy; and as for their proof, I say +that it proves nothing. For the dignity of the Empire was what +Constantine could not alienate, nor the Church receive. And when they +insist, I prove my words as follows: No man on the strength of the +office which is committed to him, may do aught that is contrary to +that office; for so one and the same man, viewed as one man, would be +contrary to himself, which is impossible. But to divide the Empire is +contrary to the office committed to the Emperor; for his office is to +hold mankind in all things subject to one will: as may be easily seen +from the first book of this treatise. Therefore it is not permitted to +the Emperor to divide the Empire. If, therefore, as they say, any +dignities had been alienated by Constantine, and had passed to the +Church, the "coat without seam"--which even they, who pierced Christ, +the true God, with a spear, dared not rend--would have been rent.[295] + +[Footnote 295: Each side in the controversy used the type of the +"seamless robe," one of the Empire (_supra_ i. 16), the other of the +Church; _e.g._, in the Bull of Boniface VIII., "_Unam Sanctam_."] + +Further, just as the Church has its foundation, so has the Empire its +foundation. The foundation of the Church is Christ, as Paul says in +his first Epistle to the Corinthians: "For other foundation can no man +lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ."[296] He is the +rock on which the Church is built; but the foundation of the Empire is +human right. Now I say that, as the Church may not go contrary to its +foundation--but must always rest on its foundation, as the words of +the Canticles say: "Who is she that cometh up from the desert, +abounding in delights, leaning on her beloved?"[297]--in the same way +I say that the Empire may not do aught that transgresses human right. +But were the Empire to destroy itself, it would so transgress human +right. Therefore the Empire may not destroy itself. Since then to +divide the Empire would be to destroy it, because the Empire consists +in one single universal Monarchy, it is manifest that he who exercises +the authority of the Empire may not destroy it, and from what we have +said before, it is manifest that to destroy the Empire is contrary to +human right. + +[Footnote 296: 1 Cor. iii. 11.--(W.)] + +[Footnote 297: Cant. viii. 5.--(W.)] + +Moreover, all jurisdiction is prior in time to the judge who has it; +for it is the judge who is ordained for the jurisdiction, not the +jurisdiction for the judge. But the Empire is a jurisdiction, +comprehending within itself all temporal jurisdiction: therefore it is +prior to the judge who has it, who is the Emperor. For it is the +Emperor who is ordained for the Empire, and not contrariwise. +Therefore it is clear that the Emperor, in so far as he is Emperor, +cannot alter the Empire; for it is to the Empire that he owes his +being. I say then that he who is said to have conferred on the Church +the authority in question either was Emperor, or he was not. If he was +not, it is plain that he had no power to give away any part of the +Empire. Nor could he, if he was Emperor, in so far as he was Emperor, +for such a gift would be a diminishing of his jurisdiction. + +Further, if one Emperor were able to cut off a certain portion of the +jurisdiction of the Empire, so could another; and since temporal +jurisdiction is finite, and since all that is finite is taken away by +finite diminutions, it would follow that it is possible for the first +of all jurisdictions to be annihilated, which is absurd. + +Further, since he that gives is in the position of an agent, and he to +whom a thing is given in that of a patient, as the Philosopher holds +in the fourth book to Nicomachus,[298] therefore, that a gift may be +given, we require not only the fit qualification of the giver, but +also of the receiver; for the acts of the agent are completed in a +patient who is qualified.[299] But the Church was altogether +unqualified to receive temporal things; for there is an express +command, forbidding her so to do, which Matthew gives thus: "Provide +neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses." For though we +find in Luke a relaxation of the command in regard to certain matters, +yet I have not anywhere been able to find that the Church after that +prohibition had licence given her to possess gold and silver. If +therefore the Church was unable to receive temporal power, even +granting that Constantine was able to give it, yet the gift was +impossible; for the receiver was disqualified. It is therefore plain +that neither could the Church receive in the way of possession, nor +could Constantine give in the way of alienation; though it is true +that the Emperor, as protector of the Church, could allot to the +Church a patrimony and other things, if he did not impair his supreme +lordship, the unity of which does not allow division. And the Vicar of +God could receive such things, not to possess them, but as a steward +to dispense the fruits of them to the poor of Christ, on behalf of the +Church, as we know the Apostles did. + +[Footnote 298: _Eth._ iv. 1.--(W.)] + +[Footnote 299: "_Dispositio; dispositus; indisposita._"] + + +XI.--Our adversaries further say that the Pope Hadrian[300] summoned +Charles the Great to his own assistance[301] and to that of the +Church, on account of the wrongs suffered from the Lombards in the +time of their king Desiderius, and that Charles received from that +Pope the imperial dignity, notwithstanding that Michael was emperor at +Constantinople. And therefore they say that all the Roman emperors who +succeeded Charles were themselves the "advocates" of the Church, and +ought by the Church to be called to their office. From which would +follow that dependence of the Empire on the Church which they wish to +prove. + +[Footnote 300: A.D. 773.--(W.)] + +[Footnote 301: "_Advocavit._"] + +But to overset their argument, I reply that what they say is nought; +for a usurpation of right does not make right; and if it were so, it +might be proved in the same way that the Church is dependent on the +Empire; for the Emperor Otto restored the Pope Leo, and deposed +Benedict, leading him into exile to Saxony.[302] + +[Footnote 302: Otto I. (964) deposed Benedict V. and restored Leo +VIII.] + + +XII.--But from _reason_ they thus argue: they take the principle laid +down in the tenth book of "_Philosophia Prima_,"[303] saying that all +things which belong to one genus are to be brought under one head, +which is the standard and measure of all that come under that genus. +But all men belong to one genus: therefore they are to be brought +under one head, as the standard and measure of them all. But the +Supreme Pontiff and the Emperor are men; therefore if the preceding +reasoning be true, they must be brought under one head. And since the +Pope cannot come under any other man, the result is that the Emperor, +together with all other men, must be brought under the Pope, as the +measure and rule of all; and then, what those who argue thus desire +follows. + +[Footnote 303: Arist. _Metaph._ x. 1.--(W.)] + +To overset this argument, I answer that they are right when they say +that all the individuals of one genus ought to be brought under one +head, as their measure; and that they are again right when they say +that all men belong to one genus, and that they are also right when +they argue from these truths that all men should be brought under one +head, taken from the genus man, as their measure and type. But when +they obtain the further conclusion concerning the Pope and the +Emperor, they fall into a fallacy touching accidental attributes. + +That this thing may be understood, it must be clearly known that to be +a man is one thing, and to be a pope or an emperor is another; just as +to be a man is different from being a father or a ruler. A man is that +which exists by its essential form, which gives it its genus and +species, and by which it comes under the category of substance. But a +father is that which exists by an accidental form, that is, one which +stands in a certain relation which gives it a certain genus and +species, and through which it comes under the category of relation. If +this were not so, all things would come under the category of +substance, seeing that no accidental form can exist by itself, without +the support of an existing substance; and this is not so. Seeing, +therefore, that the Pope and the Emperor are what they are by virtue +of certain relations: for they owe their existence to the Papacy and +the Empire, which are both relations, one coming within the sphere of +fatherhood, and the other within that of rule; it manifestly follows +that both the Pope and the Emperor, in so far as they are Pope and +Emperor, must come under the category of relation; and therefore that +they must be brought under some head of that genus. + +I say then that there is one standard under which they are to be +brought, as men; and another under which they come, as Pope and +Emperor. For in so far as they are men, they have to be brought under +the best man, whoever he be, who is the measure and the ideal of all +mankind; under him, that is, who is most one in his kind,[304] as may +be gathered from the last book to Nicomachus.[305] When, however, two +things are relative, it is evident that they must either be +reciprocally brought under each other, if they are alternately +superior, or if by the nature of their relation they belong to +connected species; or else they must be brought under some third +thing, as their common unity. But the first of these suppositions is +impossible: for then both would be predicable of both, which cannot +be. We cannot say that the Emperor is the Pope, or the Pope the +Emperor. Nor again can it be said that they are connected in species, +for the idea of the Pope is quite other than the idea of the Emperor, +in so far as they are Pope and Emperor. Therefore they must be reduced +to some single thing above them. + +[Footnote 304: "_Ad existentem maxime unum in genere suo._"] + +[Footnote 305: _Eth._ x. 5, 7.--(W.)] + +Now it must be understood that the relative is to the relative as the +relation to the relation. If, therefore, the Papacy and the Empire, +seeing that they are relations of paramount superiority, have to be +carried back to some higher point of superiority from which they, with +the features which make them different,[306] branch off, the Pope and +Emperor, being relative to one another, must be brought back to some +one unity in which the higher point of superiority, without this +characteristic difference, is found. And this will be either God, to +whom all things unite in looking up, or something below God, which is +higher in the scale of superiority, while differing from the simple +and absolute superiority of God. Thus it is evident that the Pope and +the Emperor, in so far as they are men, have to be brought under some +one head; while, in so far as they are Pope and Emperor, they have to +be brought under another head, and so far is clear, as regards the +argument from reason. + +[Footnote 306: "_Cum differentialibus suis._"] + + +XIII.--We have now stated and put on one side those erroneous +reasonings on which they, who assert that the authority of the Roman +Emperor depends on the Pope of Rome, do most chiefly rely. We have now +to go back and show forth the truth in this third question, which we +proposed in the beginning to examine. The truth will appear plainly +enough if I start in my inquiry from the principle which I laid down, +and then show that the authority of the Empire springs immediately +from the head of all being, who is God. This truth will be made +manifest, either if it be shown that the authority of the Empire does +not spring from the authority of the Church; for there is no argument +concerning any other authority. Or again, if it be shown by direct +proof that the authority of the Empire springs immediately from God. + +We prove that the authority of the Church is not the cause of the +authority of the Empire in the following manner. Nothing can be the +cause of power in another thing when that other thing has all its +power, while the first either does not exist, or else has no power of +action.[307] But the Empire had its power while the Church was either +not existing at all, or else had no power of acting. Therefore the +Church is not the cause of the power of the Empire, and therefore not +of its authority either, for power and authority mean the same thing. +Let A be the Church, B the Empire, C the authority or power of the +Empire. If C is in B while A does not exist, A cannot be the cause of +C being in B, for it is impossible for an effect to exist before its +cause. Further, if C is in B while A does not act, it cannot be that A +is the cause of C being in B; for, to produce an effect, it is +necessary that the cause, especially the efficient cause of which we +are speaking, should have been at work first. The major premiss of +this argument is self-evident, and the minor premiss is confirmed by +Christ and the Church. Christ confirms it by His birth and His death, +as we have said; the Church confirms it in the words which Paul spake +to Festus in the Acts of the Apostles: "I stand at Caesar's +judgment-seat, where I ought to be judged," and by the words which an +angel of God spake to Paul a little afterwards: "Fear not, Paul; thou +must be brought before Caesar;" and again by Paul's words to the Jews +of Italy: "But when the Jews spake against it, I was constrained to +appeal unto Caesar; not that I had aught to accuse my nation of," but +"to deliver my soul from death." But if Caesar had not at that time had +the authority to judge in temporal matters, Christ would not have +argued thus; nor would the angel have brought these words; nor would +he, who spake of himself as "having a desire to depart and to be with +Christ," have made an appeal to a judge not having authority.[308] + +[Footnote 307: "_Non virtuante._"] + +[Footnote 308: "_Incompetentem._" Acts xxv. 10; xxvii. 24; xxviii. 19. +Phil. i. 23.--(W.)] + +And if Constantine had not had the authority over the patronage of the +Church, those things which he allotted from the Empire he could not +have had the right to allot; and so the Church would be using this +gift against right; whereas God wills that offerings should be pure, +as is commanded in Leviticus: "No meat offering that ye shall bring +unto the Lord shall be made with leaven." And though this command +appears to regard those who offer, nevertheless it also regards those +who receive an offering. For it is folly to suppose that God wishes to +be received that which He forbids to be offered, for in the same book +there is a command to the Levites: "Ye shall not make yourselves +abominable with any creeping thing that creepeth; neither shall ye +make yourselves unclean with them, that ye shall be defiled +thereby."[309] But to say that the Church so misuses the patrimony +assigned to her is very unseemly; therefore the premiss from which +this conclusion followed is false. + +[Footnote 309: Levit. ii. 11; xi. 43.--(W.)] + + +XIV.--Again, if the Church had power to bestow authority on the Roman +Prince, she would have it either from God, or from herself, or from +some Emperor, or from the universal consent of mankind, or at least of +the majority of mankind. There is no other crevice by which this power +could flow down to the Church. But she has it not from any of these +sources; therefore she has it not at all. + +It is manifest that she has it from none of these sources; for if she +had received it from God, she would have received it either by the +divine or by the natural law: because what is received from nature is +received from God; though the converse of this is not true. But this +power is not received by the natural law; for nature lays down no law, +save for the effects of nature, for God cannot fail in power, where he +brings anything into being without the aid of secondary agents. Since +therefore the Church is not an effect of nature, but of God who said: +"Upon this rock I will build my Church," and elsewhere: "I have +finished the work which Thou gavest me to do," it is manifest that +nature did not give the Church this law. + +Nor was this power bestowed by the divine law; for the whole of the +divine law is contained in the bosom of the Old or of the New +Testament, and I cannot find therein that any thought or care for +worldly matters was commanded, either to the early or to the latter +priesthood. Nay, I find rather such care taken away from the priests +of the Old Testament by the express command of God to Moses,[310] and +from the priests of the New Testament by the express command of Christ +to His disciples.[311] But it could not be that this care was taken +away from them, if the authority of the temporal power flowed from the +priesthood; for at least in giving the authority there would be an +anxious watchfulness of forethought, and afterwards continued +precaution, lest he to whom authority had been given should leave the +straight way. + +[Footnote 310: Numbers xviii. 20. Cf. _Purg._ xvi. 131.--(W.)] + +[Footnote 311: Matt. x. 9.--(W.)] + +Then it is quite plain that the Church did not receive this power from +herself; for nothing can give what it has not. Therefore all that does +anything, must be such in its doing, as that which it intends to do, +as is stated in the book "of Simple Being."[312] But it is plain that +if the Church gave to herself this power, she had it not before she +gave it. Thus she would have given what she had not, which is +impossible. + +[Footnote 312: Arist. _Metaph._ ix. 8.--(W.)] + +But it is sufficiently manifest from what we have previously made +evident that the Church has received not this power from any Emperor. + +And further, that she had it not from the consent of all, or even of +the greater part of mankind, who can doubt? seeing that not only all +the inhabitants of Asia and Africa, but even the greater number of +Europeans, hold the thought in abhorrence. It is mere weariness to +adduce proofs in matters which are so plain. + + +XV.--Again, that which is contrary to the nature of a thing cannot be +counted as one of its essential powers; for the essential powers of +each individual follow on its nature, in order to gain its end. But +the power to grant authority in that which is the realm of our mortal +state is contrary to the nature of the Church.[313] Therefore it is +not in the number of its essential powers. For the proof of the minor +premiss we must know that the nature of the Church means the form [or +essence][314] of the Church. For although men use the word nature not +only of the form of a thing, but also of its matter, nevertheless, it +is of the form that they use it more properly, as is proved in the +book "of Natural Learning."[315] But the [essence or] form of the +Church is nothing else than the life of Christ, as it is contained +both in His sayings and in His deeds. For His life was the example and +ideal of the militant Church, especially of its pastors, and above all +of its chief pastor, to whom it belongs to feed the sheep and the +lambs of Christ. And therefore when Christ left His life unto men for +an example He said in John's Gospel: "I have given you an example that +ye should do as I have done to you." And He said unto Peter specially, +after that He had committed unto him the office of shepherd, the words +which John also reports: "Peter, follow me." But Christ denied before +Pilate that His rule was of this sort, saying: "My kingdom is not of +this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants +fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now is my +kingdom not from hence."[316] + +[Footnote 313: "_Virtus auctorizandi regnum nostrae mortalitatis est +contra naturam Ecclesiae._"] + +[Footnote 314: "_Forma._"] + +[Footnote 315: Arist. _Phys. Ausc._ ii. 1.--(W.)] + +[Footnote 316: John xiii. 15; xxi. 22; xviii. 36.--(W.)] + +But this saying must not be understood to mean that Christ, who is +God, is not the lord of this kingdom, for the Psalmist says: "The sea +is His, and He made it, and His hands formed the dry land."[317] We +must understand it to mean that, as _the pattern of the Church_, He +had not the care of this kingdom. It is as if a golden seal were to +speak of itself, and say: "I am not the standard for such and such a +class of things;" for in so far as it is gold, this saying is untrue, +seeing that gold is the standard of all metals; but it is true in so +far as it is a sign capable of being received by impression. + +[Footnote 317: Ps. xcv. 5.--(W.)] + +It belongs, then, to the very form of the Church always to speak the +same, always to think the same; and to do the opposite of this is +evidently contrary to its essential form--that is to say, to its +nature. And from this it may be collected that the power of bestowing +authority on this kingdom is contrary to the nature of the Church; for +contrariety which is in thought or word follows from contrariety which +is in the thing thought and the thing said; just as truth and +falsehood in speech come from the being or the not-being of the thing, +as we learn from the doctrine of the _Categories_. It has then become +manifest enough by means of the preceding arguments, by which the +contention of our opponents has been shown to lead to an absurd +result, that the authority of the Empire is not in any way dependent +on the authority of the Church. + + +XVI.--Although it has been proved in the preceding chapter that the +authority of the Empire has not its cause in the authority of the +Supreme Pontiff; for we have shown that this argument led to absurd +results; yet it has not been entirely shown that the authority of the +Empire depends directly upon God, except as a result from our +argument. For it is a consequence that, if the authority comes not +from the vicar of God, it must come from God Himself. And therefore, +for the complete determination of the question proposed, we have to +prove directly that the emperor or monarch of the world stands in an +immediate relation to the King of the universe, who is God. + +For the better comprehending of this, it must be recognised that man +alone, of all created things, holds a position midway between things +corruptible and things incorruptible; and therefore[318] philosophers +rightly liken him to a dividing line between two hemispheres. For man +consists of two essential parts, namely, the soul and the body. If he +be considered in relation to his body only, he is corruptible; but if +he be considered in relation to his soul only, he is incorruptible. +And therefore the Philosopher spoke well concerning the incorruptible +soul when he said in the second book "of the Soul:" "It is this alone +which may be separated, as being eternal, from the corruptible."[319] + +[Footnote 318: In the _De Causis_ (_v._ above, i. 11), Propos. 9: +"Intelligentia comprehendit generata et naturam, et horizontem naturae, +scilicet animam; nam ipsa est supra naturam."--(W.)] + +[Footnote 319: Arist. _De Anim._ ii. 2.--(W.)] + +If, therefore, man holds this position midway between the corruptible +and the incorruptible, since every middle nature partakes of both +extremes, man must share something of each nature. And since every +nature is ordained to gain some final end, it follows that for man +there is a double end. For as he alone of all beings participates +both in the corruptible and the incorruptible, so he alone of all +beings is ordained to gain two ends, whereby one is his end in so far +as he is corruptible, and the other in so far as he is incorruptible. + +Two ends, therefore, have been laid down by the ineffable providence +of God for man to aim at: the blessedness of this life, which consists +in the exercise of his natural powers, and which is prefigured in[320] +the earthly Paradise; and next, the blessedness of the life eternal, +which consists in the fruition of the sight of God's countenance, and +to which man by his own natural powers cannot rise, if he be not aided +by the divine light; and this blessedness is understood by the +heavenly Paradise. + +[Footnote 320: See _Purg._ xxviii.: and Mr. Longfellow's note ad loc.] + +But to these different kinds of blessedness, as to different +conclusions, we must come by different means. For at the first we may +arrive by the lessons of philosophy, if only we will follow them, by +acting in accordance with the moral and intellectual virtues. But at +the second we can only arrive by spiritual lessons, transcending human +reason, so that we follow them in accordance with the theological +virtues, faith, hope, and charity. The truth of the first of these +conclusions and of these means is made manifest by human reason, +which by the philosophers has been all laid open to us. The other +conclusions and means are made manifest by the Holy Spirit, who by the +mouth of the Prophets and holy writers, and by Jesus Christ, the +co-eternal Son of God, and His disciples, has revealed to us +supernatural truth of which we have great need. Nevertheless human +passion would cast them all behind its back, if it were not that men, +going astray like the beasts that perish,[321] were restrained in +their course by bit and bridle, like horses and mules. + +[Footnote 321: "_Sua bestialitate vagantes._" _V._ Ps. xxxii. 10.] + +Therefore man had need of two guides for his life, as he had a twofold +end in life; whereof one is the Supreme Pontiff, to lead mankind to +eternal life, according to the things revealed to us; and the other is +the Emperor, to guide mankind to happiness in this world, in +accordance with the teaching of philosophy. And since none, or but a +few only, and even they with sore difficulty, could arrive at this +harbour of happiness, unless the waves and blandishments of human +desires were set at rest, and the human race were free to live in +peace and quiet, this therefore is the mark at which he who is to care +for the world, and whom we call the Roman Prince, must most chiefly +aim at: I mean, that in this little plot of earth[322] belonging to +mortal men, life may pass in freedom and with peace. And since the +order of this world follows the order of the heavens, as they run +their course, it is necessary, to the end that the learning which +brings liberty and peace may be duly applied by this guardian of the +world in fitting season and place, that this power should be dispensed +by Him who is ever present to behold the whole order of the heavens. +And this is He who alone has preordained this, that by it in His +providence He might bind all things together, each in their own order. + +[Footnote 322: Cf. _Parad._ xxii. 151. "_L'ajuola che ci fa tanto +feroci._"] + +But if this is so, God alone elects, God alone confirms: for there is +none higher than God. And hence there is the further conclusion, that +neither those who now are, nor any others who may, in whatsoever way, +have been called "Electors," ought to have that name; rather they are +to be held as declarers and announcers of the providence of God. And, +therefore, it is that they to whom is granted the privilege of +announcing God's will sometimes fall into disagreement; because that, +all of them or some of them have been blinded by their evil desires, +and have not discerned the face of God's appointment.[323] + +[Footnote 323: _V._ Hallam, _Middle Ages_, c. v. Bryce, _Roman +Empire_, c. xiv. Witte, _Praef._ p. xxxiv. xlv.] + +It is therefore clear that the authority of temporal Monarchy comes +down, with no intermediate will, from the fountain of universal +authority; and this fountain, one in its unity, flows through many +channels out of the abundance of the goodness of God. + +And now, methinks, I have reached the goal which I set before me. I +have unravelled the truth of the questions which I asked: whether the +office of Monarchy was necessary to the welfare of the world; whether +it was by right that the Roman people assumed to themselves the office +of Monarchy; and, further, that last question, whether the authority +of the Monarch springs immediately from God, or from some other. Yet +the truth of this latter question must not be received so narrowly as +to deny that in certain matters the Roman Prince is subject to the +Roman Pontiff. For that happiness, which is subject to mortality, in a +sense is ordered with a view to the happiness which shall not taste of +death. Let, therefore, Caesar be reverent to Peter, as the first-born +son should be reverent to his father, that he may be illuminated with +the light of his father's grace, and so may be stronger to lighten the +world over which he has been placed by Him alone, who is the ruler of +all things spiritual as well as temporal. + + +THE END. + + + + +CONTENTS + +OF + +DE MONARCHIA. + + +BOOK I. + +WHETHER A TEMPORAL MONARCHY IS NECESSARY FOR THE WELL-BEING OF THE +WORLD? + +CHAP. PAGE + +I.--Introduction 177 + +II.--What is the end of the civil order of mankind? 178 + +III.--It is to cause the whole power of the human intellect to +act in speculation and operation 180 + +IV.--To attain this end, mankind needs universal peace 184 + +V.--When several means are ordained to gain an end, one +of them must be supreme over the others 185 + +VI.--The order which is found in the parts of mankind ought +to be found in mankind as a whole 188 + +VII.--Kingdoms and nations ought to stand in the same relation +to the monarch as mankind to God 189 + +VIII.--Men were made in the image of God; but God is one _ib._ + +IX.--Men are the children of Heaven, and they ought to +imitate the footprints of Heaven 190 + +X.--There is need of a Supreme Judge for the decision of all +quarrels 191 + +XI.--The world is best ordered when justice is strongest +therein 192 + +XII.--Men are at their best in freedom 198 + +XIII.--He who is best qualified to rule can best order others 201 + +XIV.--When it is possible, it is better to gain an end by one +agent than by many 203 + +XV.--That which is most one is everywhere best 206 + +XVI.--Christ willed to be born in the fulness of time, when +Augustus was monarch 209 + + +BOOK II. + +WHETHER THE ROMAN PEOPLE ASSUMED TO ITSELF BY RIGHT THE DIGNITY OF +EMPIRE? + +CHAP. PAGE + +I.--Introduction 211 + +II.--That which God wills in human society is to be held as +Right 213 + +III.--It was fitting for the Romans, as being the noblest +nation, to be preferred before all others 216 + +IV.--The Roman Empire was helped by miracles, and therefore +was willed by God 220 + +V.--The Romans, in bringing the world into subjection, +aimed at the good of the state, and therefore at the +end of Right 223 + +VI.--All men, who aim at Right, walk according to Right 229 + +VII.--The Romans were ordained for empire by Nature 232 + +VIII.--The judgment of God showed that empire fell to the +lot of the Romans 235 + +IX.--The Romans prevailed when all nations were striving +for empire 239 + +X.--What is acquired by single combat is acquired as of +Right 243 + +XI.--The single combats of Rome 247 + +XII.--Christ, by being born, proves to us that the authority of +the Roman Empire was just 250 + +XIII.--Christ, by dying, confirmed the jurisdiction of the Roman +Empire over all mankind 253 + + +BOOK III. + +WHETHER THE AUTHORITY OF THE MONARCH COMES DIRECTLY FROM GOD, OR FROM +SOME VICAR OF GOD? + +CHAP. PAGE + +I.--Introduction 256 + +II.--God wills not that which is repugnant to the intention +of Nature 257 + +III.--Of the three classes of our opponents, and of the too +great authority which many ascribe to tradition 259 + +IV.--The argument drawn by our opponents from the sun +and the moon 264 + +V.--The argument drawn from the precedence of Levi over +Judah 270 + +VI.--The argument drawn from the crowning and deposition +of Saul by Samuel 271 + +VII.--The argument drawn from the oblation of the Magi 273 + +VIII.--The argument drawn from the power of the keys given +to Peter 275 + +IX.--The argument drawn from the two swords 278 + +X.--The argument drawn from the donation of Constantine 282 + +XI.--The argument drawn from the summoning of Charles +the Great by Pope Hadrian 287 + +XII.--The argument drawn from reason 288 + +XIII.--The authority of the Church is not the cause of the +authority of the Empire 291 + +XIV.--The Church has power to bestow such authority neither +from God, nor from itself, nor from any emperor 294 + +XV.--The power of giving authority to the Empire is against +the nature of the Church 297 + +XVI.--The authority of the Empire comes directly from God 299 + + * * * * * + +CHARLES DICKENS AND EVANS, CRYSTAL PALACE PRESS. + + + + +BEDFORD STREET, STRAND, LONDON, W.C. +_May_, 1885. + + _MACMILLAN & CO.'S CATALOGUE of Works in the Departments of + History, Biography, Travels, Critical and Literary Essays, + Politics, Political and Social Economy, Law, etc.; and Works + connected with Language._ + + +HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, TRAVELS, &c. + +ADDISON.--ESSAYS OF JOSEPH ADDISON. 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L2 2_s._ each, or L5 5_s._ the set. + + PENROSE.--AN INVESTIGATION OF THE PRINCIPLES OF ATHENIAN + ARCHITECTURE; or, The Results of a recent Survey conducted + chiefly with reference to the Optical refinements exhibited + in the construction of the Ancient Buildings at Athens. By + FRANCIS CRANMER PENROSE, Archt., M.A., &c. Illustrated by + numerous Engravings. L7 7_s._ + + SPECIMENS OF ANCIENT SCULPTURE; Egyptian, Etruscan, Greek, + and Roman. Selected from different Collections in Great + Britain by the Society of Dilettanti. Vol. II. L5 5_s._ + + ANTIQUITIES OF IONIA. Part IV. Folio, half-morocco. L3 + 13_s._ 6_d._ + +DOLET.--ETIENNE DOLET: the Martyr of the Renaissance. A Biography. +With a Biographical Appendix, containing a Descriptive Catalogue of +the Books written, printed, or edited by Dolet. By RICHARD COPLEY +CHRISTIE, Lincoln College, Oxford, Chancellor of the Diocese of +Manchester. With Illustrations. 8vo. 18_s._ + +DOYLE.--HISTORY OF AMERICA. By J.A. DOYLE. 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DORA SCHMITZ. 8vo. 12_s._ + +EMERSON.--THE COLLECTED WORKS OF RALPH WALDO EMERSON. (Uniform with +the Eversley Edition of Charles Kingsley's Novels.) Globe 8vo. Price +5_s._ each volume. + + 1. MISCELLANIES. With an Introductory Essay by JOHN MORLEY. + 2. ESSAYS. + 3. POEMS. + 4. ENGLISH TRAITS; and REPRESENTATIVE MEN. + 5. CONDUCT OF LIFE; and SOCIETY and SOLITUDE. + 6. LETTERS; AND SOCIAL AIMS, &c. + +ENGLISH ILLUSTRATED MAGAZINE, THE. Profusely Illustrated. Published +Monthly. Number I., October 1883. Price Sixpence. Yearly Volume. +1883-1884, consisting of 792 closely-printed pages, and containing 428 +Woodcut Illustrations of various sizes. Bound in extra cloth, coloured +edges. Royal 8vo. 7_s._ 6_d._ Cloth Covers for binding Volumes, 1_s._ +6_d._ each. + +ENGLISH ILLUSTRATED MAGAZINE. PROOF IMPRESSIONS OF ENGRAVINGS +ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN "THE ENGLISH ILLUSTRATED MAGAZINE," 1884. In +Portfolio. 4to. 21_s._ + +ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS.--Edited by JOHN MORLEY. A Series of Short +Books to tell people what is best worth knowing as to the Life, +Character, and Works of some of the great English Writers. In Crown +8vo. price 2_s._ 6_d._ each. + + I. DR. JOHNSON. By LESLIE STEPHEN. + II. SIR WALTER SCOTT. By R.H. HUTTON. + III. GIBBON. By J. COTTER MORISON. + IV. SHELLEY. By J.A. SYMONDS. + V. HUME. By Professor HUXLEY, P.R.S. + VI. GOLDSMITH. By WILLIAM BLACK. + VII. DEFOE. By W. MINTO. + VIII. BURNS. By Principal SHAIRP. + IX. SPENSER. By the Very Rev. the DEAN OF ST. PAUL'S. + X. THACKERAY. By ANTHONY TROLLOPE. + XI. BURKE. By JOHN MORLEY. + XII. MILTON. By MARK PATTISON. + XIII. HAWTHORNE. By HENRY JAMES. + XIV. SOUTHEY. By Professor DOWDEN. + XV. BUNYAN. By J.A. FROUDE. + XVI. CHAUCER. By Professor A.W. WARD. + XVII. COWPER. By GOLDWIN SMITH. + XVIII. POPE. By LESLIE STEPHEN. + XIX. BYRON. By Professor NICHOL. + XX. LOCKE. By Professor FOWLER. + XXI. WORDSWORTH. By F.W.H. MYERS. + XXII. DRYDEN. By G. SAINTSBURY. + XXIII. LANDOR. By Professor SIDNEY COLVIN. + XXIV. DE QUINCEY. By Professor MASSON. + XXV. CHARLES LAMB. By Rev. ALFRED AINGER. + XXVI. BENTLEY. By Professor R.C. JEBB. + XXVII. DICKENS. By Professor A.W. WARD. + XXVIII. GRAY. By EDMUND GOSSE. + XXIX. SWIFT. By LESLIE STEPHEN. + XXX. STERNE. By H.D. TRAILL. + XXXI. MACAULAY. By J. COTTER MORISON. + XXXII. FIELDING. By AUSTIN DOBSON. + XXXIII. SHERIDAN. By Mrs. OLIPHANT. + XXXIV. ADDISON. By W.J. COURTHOPE. + XXXV. BACON. By the Very Rev. the DEAN OF ST. PAUL'S. + XXXVI. COLERIDGE. By H.D. TRAILL. + + _In Preparation_:-- + + ADAM SMITH. By LEONARD H. COURTNEY, M.P. + BERKELEY. By Professor HUXLEY. + SIR PHILIP SIDNEY. By J.A. SYMONDS. + + _Other Volumes to follow._ + +ENGLISH POETS: SELECTIONS, with Critical Introductions by various +Writers, and a General Introduction by MATTHEW ARNOLD, Edited by T.H. +WARD, M.A., late Fellow of Brasenose College, Oxford. 4 vols. Crown +8vo. 7_s._ 6_d._ each. + + Vol. I. CHAUCER to DONNE. + Vol. II. BEN JONSON to DRYDEN. + Vol. III. ADDISON to BLAKE. + Vol. IV. WORDSWORTH to ROSSETTI. + +ENGLISH STATESMEN.--Under the above title Messrs. MACMILLAN and CO. +beg to announce a series of short biographies, not designed to be a +complete roll of famous statesmen, but to present in historic order +the lives and work of those leading actors in our affairs who by their +direct influence have left an abiding mark on the policy, the +institutions, and the position of Great Britain among states. + +The following list of subjects is the result of careful selection. The +great movements of national history are made to follow one another in +a connected course, and the series is intended to form a continuous +narrative of English freedom, order, and power. + + WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. + HENRY II. + EDWARD I. + HENRY VII. + WOLSEY. + ELIZABETH. + OLIVER CROMWELL. + WILLIAM III. + WALPOLE. + CHATHAM. + PITT. + PEEL. + + Among the writers will be:-- + + MR. EDWARD A. FREEMAN, + MR. FREDERICK POLLOCK, + MR. J. COTTER MORISON, + PROF. M. CREIGHTON, + THE DEAN OF ST. PAUL'S, + MR. FREDERIC HARRISON, + MR. H.D. TRAILL, + MR. LESLIE STEPHEN, + AND + MR. JOHN MORLEY. + +ETON COLLEGE, HISTORY OF. By H.C. MAXWELL LYTE, M.A. With numerous +Illustrations by Professor DELAMOTTE. Coloured Plates, and a Steel +Portrait of the Founder, engraved by C.H. JEENS. New and Cheaper +Issue, with Corrections. Medium 8vo. Cloth elegant. 21_s._ + +EUROPEAN HISTORY, Narrated in a Series of Historical Selections from +the best Authorities. Edited and arranged by E.M. SEWELL, and C.M. +YONGE. First Series, Crown 8vo. 6_s._; Second Series, 1088-1228. Third +Edition. Crown 8vo. 6_s._ + +FARADAY.--MICHAEL FARADAY. By J.H. GLADSTONE, Ph.D., F.R.S. New +Edition, with Portrait engraved by JEENS from a photograph by J. +WATKINS. Crown 8vo. 4_s._ 6_d._ + + PORTRAIT. Artist's Proof. 5_s._ + +FENTON.--A HISTORY OF TASMANIA. From its Discovery in 1642 to the +Present Time. By JAMES FENTON. With Map of the Island, and Portraits +of Aborigines in Chromo-lithography. 8vo. 16_s._ + +FISKE.--EXCURSIONS OF AN EVOLUTIONIST. By JOHN FISKE, M.A., LL.B., +formerly Lecturer on Philosophy at Harvard University. Crown 8vo. +7_s._ 6_d._ + +FISON AND HOWITT.--KAMILAROI AND KURNAI GROUP. Marriage and +Relationship, and Marriage by Elopement, drawn chiefly from the usage +of the Australian Aborigines. Also THE KURNAI TRIBE, their Customs in +Peace and War. By LORIMER FISON, M.A., and A.W. HOWITT, F.G.S., with +an Introduction by LEWIS H. MORGAN, LL.D., Author of "System of +Consanguinity," "Ancient Society," &c. Demy 8vo. 15_s._ + +FORBES.--LIFE AND LETTERS OF JAMES DAVID FORBES, F.R.S., late +Principal of the United College in the University of St. Andrews. By +J.C. SHAIRP, LL.D., Principal of the United College in the University +of St. Andrews; P.G. TAIT, M.A., Professor of Natural Philosophy in +the University of Edinburgh; and A. ADAMS-REILLY, F.R.G.S. With +Portraits, Map, and Illustrations. 8vo. 16_s._ + +FRAMJI.--HISTORY OF THE PARSIS: Including their Manners, Customs, +Religion, and Present Position. By DOSABHAI FRAMJI KARAKA, Presidency +Magistrate and Chairman of Her Majesty's Bench of Justices, Bombay, +Fellow of the Bombay University, Member Bombay Branch of the Royal +Asiatic Society, &c. 2 vols. Medium 8vo. With Illustrations. 36_s._ + +FRANCIS OF ASSISI. By Mrs. OLIPHANT. New Edition. Crown 8vo. 6_s._ +(Biographical Series.) + +FREEMAN.--Works by EDWARD A. FREEMAN, D.C.L., LL.D., Regius Professor +of Modern History in the University of Oxford:-- + + THE OFFICE OF THE HISTORICAL PROFESSOR. An Inaugural + Lecture, read in the Museum at Oxford, October 15, 1884. + Crown 8vo. 2_s._ + + THE GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH CONSTITUTION FROM THE EARLIEST + TIMES. Fourth Edition. Crown 8vo. 5_s._ + + HISTORICAL ESSAYS. Third Edition. 8vo. 10_s._ 6_d._ + + CONTENTS:--I. "The Mythical and Romantic Elements in Early + English History;" II. "The Continuity of English History;" + III. "The Relations between the Crowns of England and + Scotland;" IV. "St. Thomas of Canterbury and his + Biographers;" V. "The Reign of Edward the Third;" VI. "The + Holy Roman Empire;" VII. "The Franks and the Gauls;" VIII. + "The Early Sieges of Paris;" IX. "Frederick the First, King + of Italy;" X. "The Emperor Frederick the Second;" XI. + "Charles the Bold;" XII. "Presidential Government." + + HISTORICAL ESSAYS. Second Series. Second Edition, Enlarged. + 8vo. 10_s._ 6_d._ + + The principal Essays are:--"Ancient Greece and Mediaeval + Italy:" "Mr. Gladstone's Homer and the Homeric Ages:" "The + Historians of Athens:" "The Athenian Democracy:" "Alexander + the Great:" "Greece during the Macedonian Period:" + "Mommsen's History of Rome:" "Lucius Cornelius Sulla:" "The + Flavian Caesars." + + HISTORICAL ESSAYS. Third Series. 8vo. 12_s._ + + CONTENTS:--"First Impressions of Rome." "The Illyrian + Emperors and their Land." "Augusta Treverorum." "The Goths + of Ravenna." "Race and Language." "The Byzantine Empire." + "First Impressions of Athens." "Mediaeval and Modern Greece." + "The Southern Slaves." "Sicilian Cycles." "The Normans at + Palermo." + + COMPARATIVE POLITICS.--Lectures at the Royal Institution. To + which is added the "Unity of History," the Rede Lecture at + Cambridge, 1872. 8vo. 14_s._ + + THE HISTORY AND CONQUESTS OF THE SARACENS. Six Lectures. + Third Edition, with New Preface. Crown 8vo. 3_s._ 6_d._ + + HISTORICAL AND ARCHITECTURAL SKETCHES: chiefly Italian. With + Illustrations by the Author. Crown 8vo. 10_s._ 6_d._ + + SUBJECT AND NEIGHBOUR LANDS OF VENICE. Being a Companion + Volume to "Historical and Architectural Sketches." With + Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 10_s._ 6_d._ + + ENGLISH TOWNS AND DISTRICTS. A Series of Addresses and + Essays. With Illustrations and Map. 8vo. 14_s._ + + OLD ENGLISH HISTORY. With Five Coloured Maps. 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With illustrations. 8vo. 10_s._ 6_d._ + +GALTON.--Works by FRANCIS GALTON, F.R.S.: + + METEOROGRAPHICA: or, Methods of Mapping the Weather. + Illustrated by upwards of 600 Printed and Lithographed + Diagrams. 4to. 9_s._ + + HEREDITARY GENIUS: An Inquiry into its Laws and + Consequences. 8vo. 12_s._ + + ENGLISH MEN OF SCIENCE: Their Nature and Nurture. 8vo. 8_s._ + 6_d._ + + INQUIRIES INTO HUMAN FACULTY AND ITS DEVELOPMENT. With + Illustrations and Coloured and Plain Plates. Demy 8vo. + 16_s._ + + RECORD OF FAMILY FACULTIES. Consisting of Tabular Forms and + Directions for Entering Data, with an Explanatory Preface. + 4to. 2_s._ 6_d._ + + LIFE HISTORY ALBUM; Being a Personal Note-book, combining + the chief advantages of a Diary, Photograph Album, a + Register of Height, Weight, and other Anthropometrical + Observations, and a Record of Illnesses. Containing Tabular + Forms, Charts, and Explanations especially designed for + popular use. Prepared by the direction of the Collective + Investigation Committee of the British Medical Association, + and Edited by FRANCIS GALTON, F.R.S., Chairman of the Life + History Sub-Committee. 4to. 3_s._ 6_d._ Or, with Cards of + Wools for Testing Colour Vision. 4_s._ 6_d._ + +GARDNER.--SAMOS AND SAMIAN COINS. By PERCY GARDNER, M.A., F.S.A. +British Museum, Disnay Professor of Archaeology in the University of +Cambridge, and Hon. Foreign Secretary of the Numismatic Society. Demy +8vo. 7_s._ 6_d._ + +GEDDES.--THE PROBLEM OF THE HOMERIC POEMS. By W.D. GEDDES, LL.D., +Professor of Greek in the University of Aberdeen. 8vo. 14_s._ + +GLADSTONE.--HOMERIC SYNCHRONISM. An inquiry into the Time and Place of +Homer. By the Right Hon. W.E. GLADSTONE, M.P. Crown 8vo. 6_s._ + +GOETHE AND MENDELSSOHN (1821-1831). Translated from the German of DR. +KARL MENDELSSOHN, Son of the Composer, by M.E. VON GLEHN. From the +Private Diaries and Home Letters of Mendelssohn, with Poems and +Letters of Goethe never before printed. Also with two New and Original +Portraits, Fac-similes, and Appendix of Twenty Letters hitherto +unpublished. Second Edition, enlarged. Crown 8vo. 5_s._ + +GOETHE.--A LIFE OF GOETHE. By HEINRICH DUeNTZER. Translated by T.W. +LYSTER, Assistant Librarian, National Library of Ireland. With +Illustrations. Two vols. Crown 8vo. 21_s._ + +GOLDSMID.--TELEGRAPH AND TRAVEL. A Narrative of the Formation and +Development of Telegraphic Communication between England and India, +under the orders of Her Majesty's Government, with incidental Notices +of the Countries traversed by the Lines. By Colonel SIR FREDERICK +GOLDSMID, C.B., K.C.S.I., late Director of the Government +Indo-European Telegraph. With numerous Illustrations and Maps. 8vo. +21_s._ + +GORDON.--LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT, to which are added Letters from the +Cape. By LADY DUFF GORDON. 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With 8 + Coloured Maps. 8vo. 16_s._ Vol. II.--The Monarchy, + 1461-1540; The Restoration, 1540-1603. 8vo. 16_s._ Vol. + III.--Puritan England, 1603-1660; The Revolution, 1660-1688. + With 4 Maps. 8vo. 16_s._ Vol. IV.--The Revolution, + 1683-1760; Modern England, 1760-1815. With Maps and Index. + 8vo. 16_s._ + + A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH PEOPLE. With Coloured Maps, + Genealogical Tables, and Chronological Annals. Crown 8vo. + 8_s._ 6_d._ 108th Thousand. + + STRAY STUDIES FROM ENGLAND AND ITALY. Crown 8vo. 8_s._ 6_d._ + Containing: Lambeth and the Archbishops--The Florence of + Dante--Venice and Rome--Early History of Oxford--The + District Visitor--Capri--Hotels in the Clouds--Sketches in + Sunshine, &c. + + READINGS FROM ENGLISH HISTORY. Selected and Edited by JOHN + RICHARD GREEN. In Three Parts. Fcap. 8vo. 1_s._ 6_d._ each. + Part I.--From Hengest to Cressy. Part II.--From Cressy to + Cromwell. 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CHARLES HOLE, M.A. Second Edition. 18mo. 4_s._ + 6_d._ + +HOOKER AND BALL.--MOROCCO AND THE GREAT ATLAS: Journal of a Tour in. +By Sir JOSEPH D. HOOKER, K.C.S.I., C.B., F.R.S., &c., and JOHN BALL, +F.R.S. With an Appendix, including a Sketch of the Geology of Morocco, +by G. MAW, F.L.S., F.G.S. With Illustrations and Map. 8vo. 21_s._ + +HOUSE OF LORDS.--FIFTY YEARS OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS. Reprinted from +_The Pall Mall Gazette_. Crown 8vo. 2_s._ 6_d._--POPULAR EDITION. +3_d._ + +HOZIER (H.M.)--Works by Captain HENRY M. HOZIER, late Assistant +Military Secretary to Lord Napier of Magdala:-- + + THE SEVEN WEEKS' WAR; Its Antecedents and Incidents. New and + Cheaper Edition. With New Preface, Maps, and Plans. Crown + 8vo. 6_s._ + + THE INVASIONS OF ENGLAND: a History of the Past, with + Lessons for the Future. Two Vols. 8vo. 28_s._ + +HUeBNER.--A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD IN 1871. By M. LE BARON HUeBNER, +formerly Ambassador and Minister. Translated by LADY HERBERT. New and +Cheaper Edition. With numerous Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 6_s._ + +HUGHES.--Works by THOMAS HUGHES, Q.C., Author of "Tom Brown's School +Days." + + MEMOIR OF A BROTHER. With Portrait of GEORGE HUGHES, after + WATTS, Engraved by JEENS. Sixth Edition. Crown 8vo. 5_s._ + + ALFRED THE GREAT. Crown 8vo. 6_s._ + + MEMOIR OF DANIEL MACMILLAN. With Portrait after LOWES + DICKINSON, Engraved by JEENS. Fifth Thousand. Crown 8vo. + 4_s._ 6_d._--POPULAR EDITION, 1_s._ + + RUGBY, TENNESSEE. Being some account of the Settlement + founded on the Cumberland Plateau by the Board of Aid to + Land Ownership. With a report on the Soils of the Plateau by + the Hon. F.W. KILLEBREW, A.M., Ph.D., Commissioner for + Agriculture for the State of Tennessee. Crown 8vo. 4_s._ + 6_d._ + + GONE TO TEXAS. Letters from Our Boys. Edited by THOMAS + HUGHES. Crown 8vo. 4_s._ 6_d._ + +HUNT.--HISTORY OF ITALY. By the Rev. W. HUNT, M.A. Being the Fourth +Volume of the Historical Course for Schools. Edited by EDWARD A. +FREEMAN, D.C.L. New Edition, with Coloured Maps. 18mo. 3_s._ 6_d._ + +HUTTON.--ESSAYS THEOLOGICAL AND LITERARY. By R.H. HUTTON, M.A. Cheaper +issue. 2 vols. 8vo. 18_s._ + + CONTENTS OF VOL. I.:--The moral significance of Atheism--The + Atheistic Explanation of Religion--Science and + Theism--Popular Pantheism--What is Revelation?--Christian + Evidences, Popular and Critical--The Historical Problems of + the Fourth Gospel--The Incarnation and Principles of + Evidence--M. Renan's "Christ"--M. Renan's "St. Paul"--The + Hard Church--Romanism, Protestantism, and Anglicanism. + + CONTENTS OF VOL. II.:--Goethe and his Influence--Wordsworth + and his Genius--Shelley's Poetical Mysticism--Mr. + Browning--The Poetry of the Old Testament--Arthur Hugh + Clough--The Poetry of Matthew Arnold--Tennyson--Nathaniel + Hawthorne. + +INGLIS (JAMES) ("MAORI").--Works by JAMES INGLIS ("Maori"):-- + + OUR AUSTRALIAN COUSINS. 8vo. 14_s._ + + SPORT AND WORK ON THE NEPAUL FRONTIER; or, Twelve Years' + Sporting Reminiscences of an Indigo Planter. By "MAORI." + With Illustrations. 8vo. 14_s._ + +IONIA.--THE ANTIQUITIES OF IONIA, see under Dilettanti Society's +Publications. + +IRVING.--THE ANNALS OF OUR TIME. A Diurnal of Events, Social and +Political, Home and Foreign, from the Accession of Queen Victoria to +the Peace of Versailles. By JOSEPH IRVING. New Edition, revised. 8vo. +half-bound. 18_s._ + + ANNALS OF OUR TIME. Supplement. From Feb. 28, 1871, to March + 16, 1874. 8vo. 4_s._ 6_d._ ANNALS OF OUR TIME. Second + Supplement. From March, 1874, to the Occupation of Cyprus. + 8vo. 4_s._ 6_d._ + +JAMES (Sir W.M.).--THE BRITISH IN INDIA. By the late Right Hon. Sir +WILLIAM MILBOURNE JAMES, Lord Justice of Appeal. Edited by his +Daughter, MARY J. SALIS SCHWABE. Demy 8vo. 12_s._ 6_d._ + +JAMES.--Works by HENRY JAMES: + + FRENCH POETS AND NOVELISTS. New Edition. Crown 8vo. 4_s._ + 6_d._ CONTENTS:--Alfred de Musset: Theophile Gautier; + Baudelaire; Honore de Balzac; George Sand; The Two Amperes; + Turgenieff, &c. + + PORTRAITS OF PLACES. Crown 8vo. 7_s._ 6_d._ + +JEBB.--MODERN GREECE. Two Lectures delivered before the Philosophical +Institution of Edinburgh. With papers on "The Progress of Greece," and +"Byron in Greece." By R.C. JEBB, M.A., LL.D. Edin. Professor of Greek +in the University of Glasgow. Crown 8vo. 5_s._ + +JOHNSON'S LIVES OF THE POETS.--The Six Chief Lives--Milton, Dryden, +Swift, Addison, Pope, Gray. With Macaulay's "Life of Johnson." Edited, +with Preface, by MATTHEW ARNOLD. 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CHENEVIX).--For other Works by the same Author, see +THEOLOGICAL and BELLES LETTRES CATALOGUES, and page 28 of this +Catalogue. + + GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS IN GERMANY, and other Lectures on the + Thirty Years' War. Second Edition, revised and enlarged. + Fcap. 8vo. 4_s._ + + PLUTARCH, HIS LIFE, HIS LIVES, AND HIS MORALS. Five + Lectures. Second Edition, enlarged. Fcap. 8vo. 3_s._ 6_d._ + + LECTURES ON MEDIEVAL CHURCH HISTORY. Being the substance of + Lectures delivered in Queen's College, London. Second + Edition, revised. 8vo. 12_s._ + + AN ESSAY ON THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF CALDERON. With + Translations from his "Life's a Dream" and "Great Theatre of + the World." Second Edition, revised and improved. Fcap. 8vo. + 5_s._ + +TRENCH (MRS. R.).--REMAINS OF THE LATE MRS. RICHARD TRENCH. Being +Selections from her Journals, Letters, and other Papers. Edited by R. +CHENEVIX TRENCH, D.D. New and Cheaper Issue. 8vo. 6_s._ + +TREVELYAN.--THE IRISH CRISIS. 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Crown 8vo. +7_s._ 6_d._ + +ZECHARIAH.--THE HEBREW STUDENT'S COMMENTARY ON HEBREW AND LXX. With +Excursus on Several Grammatical Subjects. By W.H. LOWE, M.A., Hebrew +Lecturer at Christ's College, Cambridge. Demy 8vo. 10_s._ 6_d._ + + * * * * * + +THE GOLDEN TREASURY SERIES. + +UNIFORMLY printed in 18mo., with Vignette Titles by J.E. MILLAIS, T. +WOOLNER, W. HOLMAN HUNT, SIR NOEL PATON, ARTHUR HUGHES, &c. Engraved +on Steel by JEENS. Bound in extra cloth, 4_s._ 6_d._ each volume. + + "Messrs. Macmillan have, in their Golden Treasury Series, + especially provided editions of standard works, volumes of + selected poetry, and original compositions, which entitle + this series to be called classical. Nothing can be better + than the literary execution, nothing more elegant than the + material workmanship."--BRITISH QUARTERLY REVIEW. + +THE GOLDEN TREASURY OF THE BEST SONGS AND LYRICAL POEMS IN THE ENGLISH +LANGUAGE. 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CLARK, M.A., Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. + +THE REPUBLIC OF PLATO, TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH, with Notes by J. LL. +DAVIES, M.A., and D.J. VAUGHAN, M.A. + + "A dainty and cheap little edition."--EXAMINER. + +THE SONG BOOK. Words and tunes from the best Poets and Musicians. +Selected and arranged by JOHN HULLAH, late Professor of Vocal Music in +King's College, London. + + "A choice collection of the sterling songs of England, + Scotland, and Ireland, with the music of each prefixed to + the words. How much true wholesome pleasure such a book can + diffuse, and will diffuse, we trust, through many thousand + families."--EXAMINER. + +LA LYRE FRANCAISE. Selected and arranged, with Notes, by GUSTAVE +MASSON, French Master in Harrow School. + + "We doubt whether even in France itself so interesting and + complete a repertory of the best French Lyrics could be + found."--NOTES AND QUERIES. + +TOM BROWN'S SCHOOL DAYS. By AN OLD BOY. + + "A perfect gem of a book. The best and most healthy book + about boys for boys that ever was written."--ILLUSTRATED + TIMES. + +A BOOK OF WORTHIES. Gathered from the Old Histories and written anew +by the Author of "THE HEIR OF REDCLYFFE." + + "An admirable addition to an admirable series."--WESTMINSTER + REVIEW. + +GUESSES AT TRUTH. By TWO BROTHERS. _New Edition._ + +THE CAVALIER AND HIS LADY. Selections from the Works of the First Duke +and Duchess of Newcastle. With an Introductory Essay by EDWARD +JENKINS, Author of "Ginx's Baby," &c. + + "A charming little volume."--STANDARD. + +SCOTCH SONG. A Selection of the Choicest Lyrics of Scotland. Compiled +and arranged, with brief Notes, by MARY CARLYLE AITKIN. + + "The book is one that should find a place in every library, + we had almost said in every pocket."--SPECTATOR. + +DEUTSCHE LYRIK: The Golden Treasury of the best German Lyrical Poems. +Selected and arranged, with Notes and Literary Introduction, by Dr. +BUCHHEIM. + + "A book which all lovers of German poetry will + welcome."--WESTMINSTER REVIEW. + +HERRICK: Selections from the Lyrical Poems. Arranged, with Notes, by +F.T. PALGRAVE. + + "For the first time the sweetest of English pastoral poets + is placed within the range of the great world of + readers."--ACADEMY. + +POEMS OF PLACES. Edited by H.W. LONGFELLOW. England and Wales. Two +Vols. + + "A very happy idea, thoroughly worked out by an editor who + possesses every qualification for the task."--SPECTATOR. + +MATTHEW ARNOLD'S SELECTED POEMS. + + "A volume which is a thing of beauty in itself."--PALL MALL + GAZETTE. + +THE STORY OF THE CHRISTIANS AND MOORS IN SPAIN. By C.M. YONGE, Author +of the "Heir of Redclyffe." With Vignette by HOLMAN HUNT. + +CHARLES LAMB'S TALES FROM SHAKESPEARE. Edited by the Rev. A. AINGER, +M.A., Reader at the Temple. + +POEMS OF WORDSWORTH. Chosen and Edited, with Preface by MATTHEW +ARNOLD. (Also a Large Paper Edition. Crown 8vo. 9_s._) + + "A volume, every page of which is weighted with the golden + fruit of poetry."--PALL MALL GAZETTE. + +SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS. Edited by F.T. PALGRAVE. + +POEMS FROM SHELLEY. Selected and arranged by STOPFORD A. BROOKE, M.A. +(Also a Large Paper Edition. Crown 8vo. 12_s._ 6_d._) + + "Full of power and true appreciation of + Shelley."--SPECTATOR. + +ESSAYS OF JOSEPH ADDISON. Chosen and Edited by JOHN RICHARD GREEN, +M.A., LL.D. + + "This is a most welcome addition to a most excellent + series."--EXAMINER. + +POETRY OF BYRON. Chosen and arranged by MATTHEW ARNOLD. (Also a Large +Paper Edition, Crown 8vo.) 9_s._ + + "It is written in Mr. Arnold's neatest vein, and in Mr. + Arnold's most pellucid manner."--ATHENAEUM. + +SELECTIONS FROM THE WRITINGS OF WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR.--Arranged and +Edited by Professor SIDNEY COLVIN. + +SIR THOMAS BROWNE'S RELIGIO MEDICI; Letter to a Friend, &c., and +Christian Morals. Edited by W.A. GREENHILL, M.D. + + "Dr. Greenhill's annotations display care and research to a + degree rare among English editors. The bibliographical + details furnished leave nothing to be desired."--ATHENAEUM. + +THE SPEECHES AND TABLE-TALK OF THE PROPHET MOHAMMAD.--Chosen and +Translated, with an Introduction and Notes, by STANLEY LANE-POOLE. + +SELECTIONS FROM COWPER'S POEMS.--With an Introduction by Mrs. +OLIPHANT. + +LETTERS OF WILLIAM COWPER.--Edited, with Introduction. By the Rev. W. +BENHAM, B.D., Editor of the "Globe Edition" of Cowper's Poetical +Works. + +THE POETICAL WORKS OF JOHN KEATS.--Reprinted from the Original +Editions, with Notes. By FRANCIS TURNER PALGRAVE. + +LYRICAL POEMS. By ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON. Selected and Annotated. By +FRANCIS TURNER PALGRAVE. + +[asterism symbol] _Other Volumes to follow._ + + * * * * * + +_Now Publishing, in Crown 8vo. Price 3s. 6d. each._ + +_The English Citizen._ + +A SERIES OF SHORT BOOKS ON HIS RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES. + +EDITED BY HENRY CRAIK, M.A. (OXON.); LL.D. 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