DANTE'S PILGRIM'S PROGRESS.
 

 
 DANTE'S 
 
 PILGRIM'S PROGRESS; 
 
 OR, 
 
 'THE PASSAGE OF THE BLESSED SOUL 
 
 FROM 
 
 THE SLAVERY OF THE PRESENT CORRUPTION 
 
 TO 
 
 THE LIBERTY OF ETERNAL GLORY.' 
 
 WITH 
 
 NOTES ON THE WAY 
 
 BY 
 
 EMELIA RUSSELL GURNEY. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.G. 
 
 1893.
 
 rs, 
 rs 
 
 .U 
 
 j
 
 BY HIS PERMISSION, 
 
 TO THE 
 
 LORD BISHOP OF RIPON, 
 
 IN MOST GRATEFUL MEMORY OF THREE LECTURES GIVEN BY HIM 
 IN 1884 ON THE 
 
 DIVINE COMEDY, 
 
 WHICH AWAKENED THE LONG SLUMBERING DESIRE IN THE MIND 
 
 OF THE COMPILER OF THIS VOLUME TO ENDEAVOUR TO 
 
 APPROPRIATE SOME PART, AT LEAST, OF OUR 
 
 GREAT MEDI/EVAL INHERITANCE. 
 
 [' La Divine Comddie ressemble a ces vasles heritages tombls entre 
 les mains d' une posttrit ddbile et appauvrie, qui les morcelle pour 
 les cultiver.' A. F. OZANAM.]
 
 I am permitted to quote from a letter written by the Bishop of Kipon, 
 to whom I submitted my incomplete MS., some words expressing his 
 valuable approbation of the general intention and aim of this volume : 
 
 ' The Palace, Ripo/i, 
 
 ' November 6, 1892. 
 ' Dear Mrs. Russell Gumey, 
 
 '/ must thank you for your manuscript ; it is helpful and 
 exhilarating; its spirit and purpose are what we need to see 
 more of in this literal and over-dogmatizing age. 
 
 ' Most of all, I am pleased that you have gone to the heart of 
 the poem. 
 
 ' In Dante, as in more sacred literature, " The letter killeth, 
 
 and the spirit giveth life" 
 
 ' Very truly yours, 
 
 w. R. K
 
 THE ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 THE Frontispiece is a Photograph of Dante, taken from an oil picture, 
 painted by Domenico il Michelino, 1465, now in the Duomo at Florence. 
 It has been necessary to omit a part of the background, of Florence, and 
 of the Entrance to the Inferno, to fit the proportions of this volume. 
 
 The Chromo-lithograph depicts three conditions of the heart of Man. 
 These are described in the Preface. Mr. Frederic Shields has generously 
 endowed the volume with this expressive sketch. The designs on the 
 Cover are also given by the same Master's hand. 
 
 On one side the scallop-shell represents the Pilgrim's Way, in its 
 descent and climb ; the added wings denote his Ascension through the 
 Heavens to his Goal. On the other side the three Circles enclose illus- 
 trations from the Vegetable Kingdom, used by Dante in his three 
 Books. These signify the degrees of life in that Kingdom, correspond- 
 ing with the same degrees in the Moral Order. 
 
 The rigid and poisonous Thorns of the Suicides' Wood manifest a 
 bitter outgrowth, due to conditions starved of the sap and light of 
 Nature. The humble Reed, swayed by waves or wind, has its place 
 and its voice in the Kingdom, where nothing less obedient to Nature's 
 shocks could grow. 
 
 Finally, we are shown the White Rose, the Sunshine's Blossom : 
 
 ' The bright, transcendent flower, 
 Spirits odorous breathes.' 
 
 The colours of the Book, white, green, and flame-colour, are the 
 hues in which Dante clothes Faith, Hope, and Charity, and the Celestial 
 Wisdom Herself.
 
 TO THE READER. 
 
 WE are told that our Creeds ' may be said or sung. 
 To sing them, as a great Poet sings, loosens their 
 bonds from the utterance of historical statements and logical 
 inferences, and sends them forth as expressions of the 
 divinely taught and living human heart, tinctured with its 
 rich experience of sorrow and wrong, and joy and love. 
 
 Dante thus gave forth the sublimated creed of the 
 Mediaeval Church, and through six centuries his song has 
 maintained its hold upon the hearts of men. In this age, 
 when it is increasingly felt that spiritual truth is too vast to 
 be forced through any portal that opens on the realm of the 
 understanding alone, his music is very welcome to the 
 listener whose faith seeks an entrance into other and larger 
 haunts of the Spirit. 
 
 Amongst such as these there may be a few whom Dante 
 would call ' Anime pellegrine ' . . . ' who know themselves 
 to be out of their own country' (Vita Nuova, XLIL). It is 
 for these, who may lack time and opportunity for the study 
 of the whole Poem, that the Compiler has ventured to 
 separate the ensuing fragments from their context. 
 
 They are fragments from the Poet's song that relate 
 especially to the ' Pilgrim's Progress '; or, to use Dante's 
 own words, to the ' Passage of the blessed Soul from the 
 
 xi
 
 To the Reader. 
 
 Slavery of the present corruption to the liberty of Eternal 
 Glory.' 
 
 The rich accompaniments of dramatic incident, of Bio- 
 graphies, of History and of Politics, that belong to his music, 
 have been disregarded, in order to concentrate the Pilgrim's 
 attention on this 'progress of the soul,' which might be 
 called the ' Motif of his Symphony its oft recurring, never 
 forgotten 'motif like that of the Holy Grail in Parsifal. 
 
 It is hoped that the vibrating notes of this strain, in his 
 own untranslatable words, may prove a spell to arrest the 
 scattered thoughts of some who desire to concentrate a short 
 half hour in their busy day to unseen realities. 
 
 Dante's own words, in some measure, authorize us to make 
 a study by itself of his mystical meaning, which he indicates 
 as the pith of the Divina Commedia. He says, in his letter 
 to Can Grande, that his Poem is to be taken in many senses, 
 and marks out for us four among the many, as the literal, 
 the allegorical, the moral, and the anagogical (or mystical). 
 He cites Ps. cxiv. as an example of the mode of applying 
 these four interpretations, and, I think, implies that this 
 Psalm is an epitome of his Poem, when he declares its 
 mystical significance to be ' the passage of the blessed soul 
 from the slavery of the present corruption to the liberty of 
 Eternal Glory.' 
 
 Once, in the Inferno, he bids us* ' look behind the veil 
 for the teaching of his "strange verses."' Again, in the 
 Purgatorio, he begs his reader to fix his eyes carefully on the 
 Truth ' that he may penetrate through his subtle veil,'f and 
 using another metaphor, he says, in the Paradiso,| 'as he 
 voyages singing across the sea, never yet traversed,' that only 
 ' those few who hunger in Time for the Bread of Angels 
 
 * Inferno, IX. 60. f Purgatorio, VIII. 19. 
 
 + Paradiso, XL 1-15. 
 
 xii
 
 To the Reader. 
 
 should use his wake on the trackless Element, while others 
 would do well to return to their own shores. His primary 
 subject, he says, is ' Man in the exercise of his free will, with 
 the consequences of his action '; or, Man in his passage from 
 corruption to glory, learning, through the exercise of choice, 
 his true destiny. 
 
 The human heart, then, is the Arena of the Divine 
 Comedy, whether in the conditions of the flesh, or freed 
 from the restraints and sheltering concealments the flesh 
 provides. The three Realms of the Inferno, the Purgatorio, 
 and the Paradiso should, it is believed, be studied as three 
 pictures of the human heart ; or of three attitudes of the 
 Will of Man in relation to the Central source of his being 
 and of the Universe. 
 
 These three conditions of the human heart have been 
 delineated at the end of this Preface by a Master's hand, 
 and speak with an appealing force of their own. They are 
 drawn on a background of gold, reminding us that in God 
 each lives and moves and has his being. In the first 
 (Superbia) we see the heart, either through ignorance, or 
 through pride and self-will, in antagonism to the laws of its 
 essential being, with labyrinths within and battlements 
 around, shutting out the circulation of light and of life. In 
 the second (Umilta), we see it enlightened through the 
 acceptance of the Cross, the Light flowing in upon that 
 Wood and bringing in its stream the vernal Hope of adjust- 
 ment, or of At-one-ment with the laws of its essential being. 
 In the third (Amore) the heart is seen through accepted 
 Love and Wisdom, the Shechinah at its Centre, and the true 
 life-blood circulating within it. 
 
 ' In the foreground of the Divina Commedia, indeed, 
 Dante describes 'allegorically,' or perhaps even, he may 
 have believed, in some degree ' literally,' the three places of 
 
 xiii
 
 To the Reader. 
 
 habitation appointed to spirits who leave the mortal condi- 
 tion in the three attitudes of Will described above. He sees 
 such spirits stript of all that hinders and hides in this world, 
 manifesting in corresponding environment the outcome of 
 essential character. 
 
 No doubt these habitations are pictured in most respects 
 in accordance with his contemporaries' belief, and probably 
 with his own ; yet his deeper vision evidently led him within 
 the arena of the human heart, rather than into its arbitrary 
 and more external surroundings. 
 
 We desire to follow him into this deeper and more 
 universal vision, and to learn with him our right relationship 
 with the indwelling Spirit of Truth. 
 
 ' From within,' says our Lord, ' out of the heart of men 
 proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, murders,' etc., 'all these 
 evil things come from within,' Mark viii. 21. Again, He 
 tells us that 'the Kingdom of Heaven is within.' And we 
 know that the Pilgrimage from one Realm to another is 
 made in 'heart and mind' through the God-given graces of 
 Repentance and Aspiration. 
 
 In attempting to follow the words of the ' Sacred Poem, 
 to which Heaven and Earth have contributed,' we are not 
 likely to find more meanings than were in the mind of the 
 Singer. Should we, however, read into Dante's words an 
 interpretation caught from the 'fresher stamp of the time- 
 bettering days,' it would be only what we might hope to 
 receive from the vitality of a work of genius. 
 
 ' A work of genius,' it has been well said, ' is a living 
 organism of a high and complex character, mobile and 
 sensitive to its surroundings. It has latent correspondence 
 with human nature, which time alone discovers ; it has the 
 spontaneous activity, the unconscious self-adapting power of 
 genius. 
 
 xiv
 
 To the Reader. 
 
 1 The greater the genius of the writer, the more responsive 
 will the book be to its environment ; the greater will be the 
 area over which its relations extend, the more far-reaching, 
 both in time and space, the range of its correspondences. 
 For genius is, in fact, life, and the faculty of engendering 
 life in Others.' From Professor Butcher on 'Some Aspects of Greek 
 Genius.' 
 
 It has been thought desirable to keep the thread of the 
 ' Pilgrim's Progress ' as unbroken as possible in the Selection 
 of these Fragments. The universally known passages (such 
 as the story of Francesca and Paolo da Rimini, the Fate of 
 Ugolino, etc.) have been, therefore, for the most part 
 omitted. 
 
 Hints towards the spiritual meaning to be sought, or, as 
 they have been entitled, ' Notes on the Way,' are on the pages 
 opposite to the Italian text. These may be looked upon as 
 prosaic Sign-posts for the unaccustomed traveller through the 
 mystic Wood. Originality is not claimed for them, nor has 
 it been attempted to fathom or define all the significance of 
 the passage selected for study ; on the contrary, full space 
 is left for the insight and experience of each reader. The 
 interpretations of the Poet's symbolism are often patent and 
 generally accepted: or little more than a paraphrase has 
 been suggested, with an added emphasis or illustration from 
 the words of the Sacred Writers, or those of later Seers. 
 
 Readers, though unacquainted with the Italian language 
 (especially if they know something of either Latin or French), 
 are earnestly counselled to read the words aloud in the 
 original, and to catch the rhythm of the lines ; they will, it is 
 believed, in so doing enter much more into the spirit of the 
 Poem than by confining themselves even to the best transla- 
 tions. ' Let each one know,' Uante has said, ' that nothing 
 that is harmonized by the bonds of music can be transmuted 
 
 xv
 
 To the Reader. 
 
 into another tongue without breaking all its sweetness and 
 harmony.' 'Convito,' I. 7. 
 
 Longfellow's excellent and almost literal line -by -line 
 translation (price one shilling, Routledge) should be pro- 
 cured, and the passages selected marked for reference. 
 
 To say nothing of earlier Commentators, the notes to 
 Dean Plumptre's poetic Translation of the ' Divine Comedy,' 
 Mr. Wicksteed's Lectures, and Six Sermons on Dante, and 
 Mr. W. T. Harris's ' Spiritual Sense of Dante ' (New York), 
 have been, it is thankfully acknowledged, especially helpful 
 to the compiler of these fragments. 
 
 It need scarcely be added that this little book is not 
 offered to any student of Dante, nor even to any who may 
 hope to become students of the Poet ; for such, ampler and 
 far better modes of approach are open. Not as a contribu- 
 tion towards acquaintance with his great work of Art have 
 these pages been put together, but rather as subjects for 
 meditation with Dante on the Eternal verities he unfolds, 
 and on our abiding portion in God. 
 
 XVI
 
 INFERNO.
 
 THE DESCENDING WAY OF THE INFERNO. 
 
 ' I sent my Soul through the Invisible 
 Some letter of that After-life to spell : 
 And by-and-by my Soul returned to me, 
 And answer'd, " I myself am Heav'n and Hell. 5 " 
 
 NOT as a future Torture Chamber for souls after death 
 do we propose to study the following extracts from 
 the Inferno. Rather, as Dante's own words instruct us, we 
 seek here his portrayal of ' Man endowed with free-will ' 
 placing himself, either through Ignorance or through wilful 
 Pride, in antagonism to the laws of his own being. 
 
 We see him represented in the moral world as we should 
 see him in the world of Nature, were he to place himself, as 
 some maniac might do, in opposition to all the laws of 
 Nature ; burying his face in the mud, feeding on stones, or 
 casting himself into the destructive elements of Fire or 
 Water. 
 
 Only in obedience to the laws of Nature, we know, can 
 man escape destruction and become the dominant Lord of 
 Nature, making her forces his own ministers. 
 
 In the moral world, as in the physical world, a man in his 
 right reason will adjust himself to these laws of his being. 
 This is Dante's theme.
 
 The Descending Way of the Inferno. 
 
 ' From within,' says our Lord, ' out of the heart of men, 
 proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, 
 thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, an evil eye, blas- 
 phemy, pride, foolishness : all these evil things come from 
 within, and defile the man.' Mark vii. 21-23. 
 
 These evil things, scattered and mitigated by the presence 
 of good, by public opinion, and by the concealments of the 
 world of sense, are gathered together in the Inferno in one 
 fearful knot, laid bare and focussed under the piercing ray of 
 Truth's righteous judgment. 
 
 Not, then, as everlastingly enduring and cunningly-devised 
 punishments should we regard the tortures unveiled before 
 us, but as the pictures of evil things with which we are 
 acquainted in their germs, set full-grown before our eyes in 
 root and branch and blossom and fruit. 
 
 Beatrice, when she meets Dante in Eden, tells him that 
 it was only by the light of truth concerning the nature and 
 consequences of evil that he could escape from the abode 
 of corruption, towards which she had watched his down- 
 tending steps. Purg. xxx. 
 
 When his senses are ' exercised to discern both good and 
 evil,' he must needs of his own free will choose the good 
 and refuse the evil. 
 
 When we find our true element, we must needs throw 
 ourselves therein. 
 
 We may look at Dante as he is guided through the Inferno 
 by his divinely-appointed Mentor (Reason or Conscience 
 personified by Virgil), as the Representative of the awakening 
 consciousness of Humanity in relation to corruption within 
 and without. 
 
 We see him instructed first in the borderland of Hell con- 
 cerning the feebleness of moral fibre that is parent to cowardly
 
 The Descending Way of the Inferno. 
 
 selfishness. We see selfishness more fully developed, leading 
 downwards through the three Circles of Avarice, Anger, 
 and Malice into the more and more complete subjugation of 
 Reason to Appetite ; then, passing into a further deliberate 
 choice of evil for self-ends, through the yet lower circles of 
 Fraud, Treachery, and Betrayal. At last the stagnation of 
 Death is reached, in the frozen pool of self- worshipping and 
 inhuman Isolation and Pride.. 
 
 Throughout the descent, Self is discovered at the Centre 
 of all action. First, rather as self-preservation ; later, as 
 self-appropriation in every stage and degree ; and lastly, as 
 self-aggrandisement, it crowds out every other consideration, 
 and is seen to be the monster that is the Betrayer, Murderer, 
 and Death of all else. 
 
 Force without Love is the false conception regarding the 
 Supreme Being throughout this deepening darkness and 
 chaos. His Name is never uttered, for his character is un- 
 known. Virgil himself can only speak of GOD to the disciple 
 as ' He who can, what He wills.' Once alone he alludes to 
 Christ without naming Him, as ' the Powerful One crowned 
 with Victory.' 
 
 The defiant who will not bend even in their extremity of 
 suffering before such arbitrary and torturing Force (as He is 
 conceived to be), unlike the cowardly-selfish, excite some 
 sort of admiration, as evidencing in their indomitable, 
 though depraved, Will the nobility of their origin, even in 
 this wrecked condition.* 
 
 Dante in such an atmosphere, true to his own creative 
 imagination, becomes at times even cruel and vindictive 
 himself. 
 
 The walls, battlements, dykes, and bridges of the Inferno 
 * Vid. Capaneus, Inf. xiv. 43-66 ; Farinata, Inf. x. 2?. 
 
 3
 
 The Descending Way of the Inferno. 
 
 mark its stony, rigid nature as the outward expression of the 
 hardened, heartless, and exclusive consciousness of self- 
 centred man. 
 
 The terrible words graven on the Gates that enclose this 
 Land of Darkness express the absolute hopelessness of 
 Evil as an element for Man to inbreathe. They assert the 
 Eternal Decree of Divine Righteousness, Power, Wisdom, 
 and Love, that Man, made by and for this fourfold Unity, 
 cannot exist as Man in antagonism to this Unity. Man 
 made for Justice or Righteousness cannot live in unrighteous- 
 ness ; Man made for Power cannot live in subjugation to his 
 own wayward impulses ; Man made for Wisdom cannot live 
 in Foolishness ; Man made for Love cannot live in Hatred. 
 We shall find that he may appear to live ' he may eat and 
 drink, and sleep and put on clothes' (Inf. xxxiii. 141); but 
 he is only the semblance of a man ; he himself is dead. 
 
 The City of Dis, the metropolis of the Inferno, named 
 after its king, has no sign of social life within its turreted, 
 luridly - gleaming walls. Its battlements rise from the 
 putrescent fen of Styx ; they are garrisoned by the Furies, 
 who alone give signs of combined action, and this is used 
 to keep out the living Intelligences of Dante and Virgil ; 
 while, at the same time, these Furies imprison the Sepulchred 
 Souls of Infidels and Heretics. It is the City of the Dead 
 of the Murderers of Truth ; in awful contrast to the City 
 of interwoven Love and Wisdom, at unity with itself, whose 
 only confines are Light and Love. 
 
 The Inferno is full of such introversions or travesties of 
 Man's Home and Element in the Heart of God, shown to 
 us in the Heavenly Commonwealth of the Paradise. 
 
 Outside this Element the deluded and tormented are 
 lost.
 
 The Descending Way of the Inferno, 
 
 -Is)- 
 
 In Dante we view the Pioneer, or Forerunner of men ' re- 
 membering themselves ' and returning from darkness into 
 light ; or, in his own words, we see ' the blessed soul in his 
 passage from the slavery of the present corruption into the 
 Liberty of Eternal Glory.' God's lost Son is found; He 
 that was dead is alive. 
 
 ' Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the 
 Kingdom of God ? . . . And such were some of you : but 
 ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in 
 the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.' 
 i Cor. vi. 9-11.
 
 Dante awakens in a dark forest, his way lost. He 
 looks upward, and sees the S tin's rays illuminating a 
 Mountain. 
 
 (I) 
 
 INFERNO, CANTO I. 1-21. 
 
 NEL mezzo del cammin di nostra vita 
 Mi ritrovai per una selva oscura, 
 Che la diritta via era smarrita. 
 Ahi quanto, a dir qual era, e cosa dura, 
 
 Questa selva selvaggia ed aspra e forte, 5 
 
 Che nel pensier rinnova la paura ! 
 Tanto e amara, che poco e piii morte : 
 
 Ma per trattar del ben ch' i' vi trovai, 
 
 Diro dell' altre cose ch' io v 5 ho scorte. 
 I' non so ben ridir com' io v' entrai ; io 
 
 Tant' era pien di sonno in su quel punto 
 
 Che la verace via abbandonai. 
 Ma poi ch' io fui appie d' un colle giunto, 
 
 La ove terminava quella valle 
 
 Che m'avea di paura il cuor compunto, 15 
 
 Guardai in alto, e vidi le sue spalle 
 
 Vestite gia de' raggi del pianeta, 
 
 Che mena dritto altrui per ogni calle. 
 Allor fu la paura un poco queta, 
 
 Che nel lago del cuor in' era durata 20 
 
 La notte, ch' io passai con tanta pieta. 
 
 Those unacquainted with the Italian language are advised to procure 
 Longfellow's almost literal translation ; a vol. of Morley's Universal 
 Library, published by Routledge. is.
 
 1 And the Lord God called unto the Man, and said unto 
 him, Where art thou ?' GEN. Hi. 9, 10 (N.V.). 
 
 AT some crisis in life, probably after the illusions 
 of early youth have vanished, the Pilgrim perceives 
 he has lost his way. He knows he must have slept and 
 wandered, but cannot tell whence he came, nor whither he 
 goes. The savage, pathless forest in which he finds himself 
 fills him with bitterness and dismay, and the vision of an 
 unattainable Ideal is presented in the Mountain before him. 
 The difficulties and burdens and perplexities which entangle 
 him are insurmountable. The dark and savage Forest 
 seems to picture the chaotic life within, and the disorganized 
 condition of the political life around him. The divine 
 Ruler within and without is sighed for, and 'That Sun 
 which leads others right by every path' (throughout the 
 Poem ever the symbol of Divine illumination) a little quiets 
 the terror which throughout the night of anguish had 
 brooded over the deep lake of his heart like Death. 
 
 The awakening, or the preparation for the new Birth, is 
 accompanied with travail pangs. ' O wretched man that I 
 am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death ?' has 
 often been the cry of the soul. 
 
 To awaken and to be in pain is the same thing at some 
 stages of the spiritual growth. This fact exists by some 
 deep necessity in the disorder of this world. Pain awakens 
 from unreal and self-centred dreams. Blessed, then, may be 
 pain, for through it we may be born out of Self into the 
 progressive life of Truth and Love. 
 
 ' Till Life is coming back, our death we do not feel : 
 Light must be entering in, our darkness to reveal.' TRENCH.
 
 A t the foot of the Mountain Dante is impeded and terrified 
 by a Panther, a Lion, and a She- Wolf. 
 
 (II) 
 
 INFERNO, CANTO I. 31-54- 
 
 ED ecco, quasi al cominciar dell' erta, 
 Una lonza leggiera e presta molto, 
 Che di pel maculate era coperta. 
 E non mi si partia dinanzi al volto ; 
 
 Anzi impediva tanto '1 mio cammino, 35 
 
 Ch' io fui per ritornar piu volte volto. 
 Temp' era dal principio del mattino, 
 
 E il Sol montava in su con quelle stelle 
 
 Ch'eran con lui, quando 1' Amor divino 
 Mosse da prima quelle cose belle ; 40 
 
 Si ch' a bene sperar m' era cagione 
 
 Di quella fera alia gaietta pelle, 
 L' ora del tempo, e la'dolce stagione : 
 
 Ma non si, che paura non mi desse 
 
 La vista, che m' apparve, d' un leone. 45 
 
 Questi parea che contra me venesse 
 
 Con la test' alta, e con rabbiosa fame, 
 
 Si che parea che 1' aer ne tremesse : 
 Ed una lupa, che di tutte brame 
 
 Sembiava carca nella sua magrezza,' 50 
 
 E molte genti fe gia viver grame. 
 Questa mi porse tanto di gravezza 
 
 Con la paura ch' uscia di sua vista, 
 
 Ch' io perdei la speranza dell' altezza.
 
 * Who shall ascend unto the Hill of the Lord ?' 
 < II ) - 
 
 impulses of the Pilgrim's animal nature within, and 
 J. such appeals from without, oppose any movement, 
 upwards. He would fain return and sleep as before. 
 
 Carnality, Violence, and avaricious Self-love drive him 
 back from his new Enterprise of climbing the Mountain. 
 The hungering She-wolf especially causes him to relinquish 
 the heights he has been impelled to ascend. 
 
 Yet a glimmer of hope is kept alive by Nature's beautiful 
 things. The Morning air, the rising Sun, the Stars, the 
 sweet Spring season, and even the beauty of the spotted 
 Panther whom he knew to be the foe in his upward path, 
 all witnessed to the divine hope awakened faintly within. 
 
 Man requires the animal element in him to exercise his 
 strength to rise above it. We are to overcome, not to 
 destroy, the animal within by the power of divine Wisdom, 
 i.e., ' Christ in us, the hope of glory.' ' He who has nothing 
 to overcome can gain no victory.' 
 
 We know not yet what the animal nature and world is to 
 become to us within and without, till they and we are in 
 right and orderly relationship. 
 
 Even the rapacious hungering She-wolf, who leaves us no 
 peace, the Self that would grasp all and never be satisfied, 
 is to be tamed into obedience and gathered into Service 
 rather than to be annihilated. 
 
 When the true man is restored in all his powers, we shall 
 say, ' Nor soul helps flesh more, now, than flesh helps soul.' 
 
 The political significance of the 'many-sensed Allegory' in this 
 passage is not contradicted, while we dwell on its spiritual interpretatioQ ; 
 for this interpretation reveals the underlying root and cause of the 
 political disorder, as moral disorder. 
 

 
 Dante is driven back by the Wolf from the ascent, and 
 Terror takes the place of Hope ; when Virgil appears. 
 
 INFERNO, CANTO I. 55-66, 76-78. 
 
 EQUALE e quei, che volentieri acquista, 
 E giugne '1 tempo che perder lo face, 
 Che in tutti i suoi pensier piange e s' attrista ; 
 Tal mi fece la bestia senza pace, 
 
 Che, venendomi incontro, a poco a poco, 
 Mi ripingeva la dove ; 1 Sol tace. 60 
 
 Mentre ch' io ruinava in basso loco, 
 Dinanzi agli occhi mi si fu offerto 
 Chi per lungo silenzio parea fioco. 
 Quand' i' vidi costui nel gran diserto, 
 
 ' Miserere di me,' gridai a lui, 65 
 
 ' Qual che tu sii, od ombra, od uomo certo.' 
 ***** -it- 
 
 Ma tu perche ritorni a tanta noia? 76 
 
 Perche non sali il dilettoso monte, 
 Ch' e principio e cagion di tutta gio>a ?
 
 ' My heart throbbeth, my strength faileth me : 
 
 As for the light of my eyes, it also is gone from me.'' 
 
 PSA. xxxviii. io(N.V.). 
 
 BEAUTIFUL Nature- visions are not enough to enable 
 the Pilgrim to overcome the opposing forces he finds 
 within and without as he endeavours to make his way 
 upwards. Discouraged, even despairing, he rushes down- 
 wards to a, level lower than the one he had reached before. 
 The She- wolf described on last page and here again (lines 58 
 to 60), we know too well ' coming on against us by degrees ' ; 
 ever greedy of attention, flattery, and indulgence, and ever 
 more lean and hungry through our feeding her ; thrusting us 
 back into the gloom, where the ' Sun is silent ' to our souls, 
 and causing us to be indifferent to any higher life than that 
 of Self's encroaching dominion. But the first progress of 
 the newly-awakened Soul cannot be upwards. That delect- 
 able Mount, though seen in vision, is unattainable by one 
 who has wandered so far as the Pilgrim. In this extremity 
 Help is at hand. The voice of Conscience, or right Reason, 
 represented by Virgil (weak through silence), though long 
 disregarded, is heard again, declaring the Mount of Bene- 
 diction as the Source of all joy but another path than the 
 one apparent to the Pilgrim will be pointed out. 
 
 1 1
 
 Virgil foretells Dante's Way to the Holy City, and speaks 
 of a worthier Soul who must introduce him there. 
 
 (IV) 
 
 INFERNO, CANTO I. 112-129. 
 
 OND' io per lo tuo me' penso e discerno, 
 Che tu mi segui ; ed io saro tua guida, 
 E trarrotti di qui per luogo eterno, 
 Ov'udirai le disperate strida 115 
 
 Di quegli antichi spiriti dolenti, 
 
 Che la seconda morte ciascun grida. 
 E vederai color che son contenti 
 
 Nel fuoco, perche speran di venire, 
 
 Quando che sia, alle beate genti : 120 
 
 Alle qua" poi se tu vorrai salire, 
 
 Anima fia a cio di me piu degna : 
 
 Con lei ti lascero nel mio partire ; 
 Che quell' Imperador, che lassu regna, 
 
 Perch' io fui ribellante alia sua legge, 125 
 
 Non vuol che 'n sua citta per me si vegna. 
 In tutte parti impera, e quivi regge : 
 
 Quivi e la sua cittade, e 1' alto seggio : 
 
 O felice colui, cui ivi elegge !
 
 The Pilgrim is instructed that he must go through Death 
 and Resurrection unto Life. 
 
 - ( IV ) - 
 
 THE Pilgrim must learn what man is in wilful 
 captivity to corruption, its results unhindered by any 
 counteracting environment ; he must see that this corruption 
 disintegrates every bond of the human family, and separates 
 from all life, before his debased will can be content to pass 
 through purifying Fire towards Union with the Highest. 
 He is here taught, also, to expect a more perfect and 
 heavenly Guide than his present but partially enlightened 
 Mentor to lead him into the Holy City. 
 
 Observe line 127 as pointing out the advance to be made 
 in truer relationship with God. It is said, ' He governs 
 everywhere, and there (in the Holy City) He reigns or 
 rules.' The word ' imperare ' implies an exercise of force or 
 external authority ; while the word ' reggere ' may be used 
 for an internal rule or law of life. 
 
 He who rules on Earth should ' discern at least the 
 Towers of the Holy City,' Dante has said should at least 
 have some ideal of a righteous polity. 
 
 'Solid food is for full-grown men, even those who by 
 reason of use have their senses exercised to discern good 
 and evil.' Heb. v. 14 (N.V.).
 
 Dante, through much questioning, doubts whether the 
 Enterprise set before him be not beyond his powers. 
 
 INFERNO, CANTO II. 1-6, 10-12, 31-42. 
 
 LO giorno se n' andava, e 1' aer bruno 
 Toglieva gli animai, che sono in terra, 
 Dalle fatiche loro ; ed io sol uno 
 M' apparecchiava a sostener la guerra 
 
 Si del cammino e si della pietate, 5 
 
 Che ritrarra la mente, che non erra. 
 
 * * * * * 
 
 Io cominciai : Poeta, che mi guidi, io 
 
 Guarda la mia virtu, s' ell' e possente, 
 Prima ch' all' alto passo tu mi fidi. 
 
 * * * * * 
 
 Ma io perche venirvi ? o chi '1 concede ? 3 1 
 
 Io non Enea, io non Paolo sono : 
 
 Me degno a cio ne io ne altri crede. 
 Perche, se del venire i' m' abbandono, 
 
 Temo che la venuta non sia folle : 35 
 
 Se' savio, e intendi me' ch' io non ragiono. 
 E quale e quei che disvuol cio ch' e' voile, 
 
 E per nuovi pensier cangia proposta, 
 
 Si che dal cominciar tutto si tolle ; 
 Tal mi fee' io in quella oscura costa : 40 
 
 Per che, pensando, consumai 1' impresa, 
 
 Che fu nel cominciar cotanto tosta.
 
 ' My Son, glorify thy Soul in meekness, and give it honour 
 according to the dignity thereof.' Eccr.us. x. 28. 
 
 ( V ) - 
 
 THE time of repose invites the Pilgrim, and he longs to 
 accept it like the animal world around him. 
 Energy, that should have been expended on the first 
 step, has been consumed by many thoughts concerning the 
 Enterprise viewed as an appalling whole. 
 
 Doubts of personal sufficiency for the high calling he has 
 received, and the counsels of flesh and blood, sap away the 
 divinely-implanted heroism that would choose the Best. 
 
 ' Our doubts are traitors 
 
 And make us ose the good we oft might win 
 By fearing to attempt/ ' Measure for Measure.' 
 
 ' The man who is great of soul is one who counts himself 
 worthy, being worthy of great things.' 'II Convito.' 
 
 ' You . . . judge yourselves unworthy of Eternal Life.' 
 Acts xiv. 46. 
 
 ' Blessed is he who heals us of our self-despisings !' 
 MARK RUTHERFORD.
 
 Virgil warns Dante against Cowardice. He describes 
 Beatrice, moved by Love, electing himself as Dante's 
 Guide upwards. 
 
 (VI) 
 
 INFERNO, CANTO II. 43-72. 
 
 SE io ho ben la tua parola intesa, 
 Rispose del Magnanimo quell' ombra, 
 I/ anima tua e da viltate offesa : 45 
 
 La qual molte f fate 1' uomo ingombra 
 
 Si, che da onrata impresa lo rivolve, 
 
 Come false veder bestia, quand' ombra. 
 Da questa tema acciocche tu ti solve, 
 
 Dirotti perch' io venni, e quel ch' io intesi 50 
 
 Nel primo punto che di te mi dolve. 
 Io era intra color che son sospesi, 
 
 E donna mi chiamb beata e bella, 
 
 Tal che di comandare i' la richiesi. 
 Lucevan gli occhi suoi piu che la Stella : 55 
 
 E cominciommi a dir soave e piana, 
 
 Con angelica voce in sua favella : 
 O anima cortese mantovana, 
 
 Di cui la fama ancor nel mondo dura 
 
 E durera quanto '1 mondo lontana, 60 
 
 L' amico mio, e non della ventura, 
 
 Nella deserta piaggia e impedito 
 
 Si nel cammin, che volto e per paura ; 
 E temo che non sia gia si smarrito, 
 
 Ch' io mi sia tardi al soccorso levata, 65 
 
 Per quel ch' i' ho di lui nel cielo udito. 
 Or muovi, e con la tua parola ornata, 
 
 E con cib ch' e mestieri al suo campare, 
 
 L' aiuta si, ch' io ne sia consolata. 
 I' son Beatrice, che ti faccio andare : 70 
 
 Vengo di loco, ove tornar disio : 
 
 Amor mi mosse, che mi fa parlare. 
 16
 
 Such ever was Love's Way : to rise, it stoops.' 
 - ( VI ) 
 
 THE Pilgrim is convicted of Cowardice in doubting of 
 his Enterprise, and is encouraged to press onwards 
 by the description of the Love that had sought out a 
 Messenger and Guide to bring him on his way. 
 
 Nothing is too hard for Love there is no distance, no 
 possibility of separation where Love unites. 
 
 In Heaven, the Home of Love, there must be immediate 
 knowledge when the Beloved lingers or turns back from his 
 homeward path. By any means, a way must be devised to 
 restore him. 
 
 ' Yet do we still persist as we began, 
 And so should perish, but that nothing can, 
 Though it be cold, hard, foul, from loving man withhold 
 Thee !' GEO. HERBERT.
 
 Virgil makes further appeal to Dante's courage, reminding 
 him again of the three blessed Ladies in Heaven who 
 care for him. 
 
 - ( VII ) - 
 
 INFERNO, CANTO II. 115-126. 
 
 POSCIA che m' ebbe ragionato questo, 115 
 
 Gli occhi lucenti, lagrimando, volse : 
 Per che mi fece del venir piu presto. 
 E venni a te cosi, com' ella volse : 
 Dinanzi a quella fiera ti levai, 
 Che del bel monte il corto andar ti tolse. 1 20 
 
 Dunque che e ? perche, perche ristai ? 
 Perche tanta vilta nel cuore allette ? 
 Perche ardire e franchezza non hai ? 
 Poscia che tai tre donne benedette 
 
 Curan di te nella corte del cielo, 125 
 
 E '1 mio parlar tanto ben t' impromette ?
 
 What can awaken the sleeping Soul but Love ? 
 
 (VII) 
 
 THE Heaven-sent Guide continues to plead with the 
 half-hearted, delaying Pilgrim, and again pictures 
 before him the weeping eyes of One whom he had loved en 
 Earth, who is so much caring for his salvation. Shall not 
 the memory, nay, the present knowledge of this abiding 
 love and solicitude turn out all baseness from his heart ? 
 
 Divine Love, Clemency, and Wisdom in the Courts of 
 Heaven are caring for all, and perhaps have been interpreted 
 to some of us by one who has yearned for our highest good, 
 and dowered us with great love (born of the heart that loves, 
 and not of our love worthiness) ; One who has now passed 
 from our sight into the ' great cloud of witnesses that 
 encompasseth us.' Amongst these, our ' Friend in God,' in 
 his truest essential being, is surely more loving and more 
 potent than when burdened by the flesh. 
 
 This blessed faith, even should it be built in part on 
 memories that give us pain, will stimulate us to run with 
 patience the race that is set before us.
 
 Quickened by Virgil's words, Dante's courage revives, 
 and his will is at one with Virgil's. 
 
 - ( VIII ) 
 
 INFERNO, CANTO II. 127-142. 
 
 QUALE i fioretti dal notturno gielo 
 Chinati e chiusi, poi che '1 Sol gl' imbianca, 
 Si drizzan tutti aperti in loro stelo ; 
 Tal mi fee' io di mia virtude stanca, 130 
 
 E tanto buono ardire al cor mi corse, 
 
 Ch' io cominciai, come persona franca : 
 O pietosa colei che mi soccorse, 
 
 E tu cortese, ch' ubbidisti tosto 
 
 Alle vere parole che ti porse ! 135 
 
 Tu m' hai con desiderio il cor disposto 
 
 Si al venir con le parole tue, 
 
 Ch' io son tomato nel prime proposto. 
 Or va', che un sol volere e d' ambedue : 
 
 Tu duca, tu signore, e tu maestro. 140 
 
 Cosi gli dissi ; e poiche mosso fue, 
 Entrai per Io cammino alto e silvestro. 
 
 20
 
 Our wills are ours to make them Thine.' 
 ( VIII ) - 
 
 AT last the Pilgrim's heart is kindled to the venture of 
 Faith. Love has given power to the faint. The 
 Will is inwilled by the Supreme Will, and, in union with 
 that, all things seem possible, even as, indeed, they are 
 possible. 
 
 ' But, above all, the Victory is most sure 
 For him, who, seeking faith by virtue, strives 
 To yield entire submission to the law 
 Of Conscience Conscience reverenced and obeyed, 
 As God's most intimate presence in the soul, 
 And His most perfect image in the world, 
 
 1 The Excursion,' Book IV. 
 
 ' Let the weak say, I am strong. Joel iii. 10. 
 ' Transformed by the renewing of your mind.' Rom. xii. 2. 
 
 1 Who would have thought my shrivel'd heart 
 
 Could have recovered greenness ? It was gone 
 Quite underground ; as flowers depart 
 
 To see their mother-root, when they have blown ; 
 Where they together, 
 All the hard weather, 
 Dead to the world keep house unknown. 
 These are Thy wonders, Lord of power, 
 
 Killing and quick'ning, bringing down to hell 
 And up to heaven in an hour, 
 
 Making a chiming of a passing bell. 
 We say amiss, 
 This or that is : 
 Thy word is all if we could spell.' G. HERBERT.
 
 The words inscribed over the Gates of Hell. 
 - ( IX ) - 
 
 INFERNO, CANTO III. 1-9. 
 
 PER ME SI VA NELLA CITTA DOLENTE ; 
 PER ME si VA NELL' ETERNO DOLORE ; 
 PER ME SI VA TRA LA PERDUTA GENTE. 
 GlUSTIZIA MOSSE 'L MIO ALTO FATTORE : 
 FECEMI LA DIVINA POTESTATE, 
 LA SOMMA SAPI'ENZA, E 'L PRIMO AMORE. 
 DlNANZI A ME NON FUR COSE CREATE, 
 SB NON ETERNE, ED IO ETERNO DURO : 
 LASCIATE OGNI SPERANZA, voi CH' ENTRATE.
 
 ' Far deeper than all and mortally wounded is the 
 innermost heart. 1 JER. xvii. 9 (Septuagint). 
 
 ( IX ) - 
 
 JUSTICE, Omnipotence, Wisdom, and Love cannot give 
 His Children life and peace apart from Himself, for 
 these, God's essential forces, cause and maintain the 
 true Order of the Universe, of which man is a part ; and, 
 as depicted within these Gates, he makes 
 
 ' An impious warfare with the very life 
 Of his own soul.' 
 
 Well would it be for us if we could read this 'hand- 
 writing on the wall ' of any ante-chamber to Evil, which we 
 are entering with the hope of finding there some promised 
 good 
 
 4 ALL HOPE ABANDON, YE WHO ENTER HERE.' 
 
 ' Man in this world is already in Heaven or Hell. If his 
 spirit is in harmony with God, he is then spiritually in 
 Heaven. If he dwells here in the Wrath, he is already in 
 Hell, and in the company of all the evil spirits.' JACOB 
 BOEHME. 
 
 Line 7. It has been believed by other Seers than Dante 
 that the Chaos from which Creation was evolved originated 
 from the Fall of the Angels, who are deemed ' Eterne.' 
 
 The Chaos, from which the Cosmos is to be evolved, is 
 repeated in each human heart.
 
 The dolorous people who have lost the primal good of 
 Reason. 
 
 INFERNO, CANTO III. 10-21. 
 
 QUESTE parole di colore oscuro 10 
 
 Vid' io scritte al sommo d' una porta ; 
 Perch' io : Maestro, il senso lor m' e duro. 
 Ed egli a me, come persona accorta : 
 Qui si convien lasciare ogni sospetto ; 
 Ogni vilta convien che qui sia morta. 15 
 
 Noi sem venuti al luogo ov' io t' ho detto 
 Che vederai le genti dolorose, 
 C' hanno perduto '1 ben dell' intelletto. 
 E poi che la sua mano alia mia pose 
 Con lieto volto, ond' io mi confortai, 20 
 
 Mi mise dentro alle segrete cose. 
 
 24
 
 Darkness was upon the face of the Deep, and the Spirit 
 of God was brooding upon the face of the Water' 
 GEN. i. 2. 
 
 (X) - 
 
 ' V) EFORE God's word is heard, the creature is void and 
 
 J_) formless, with an unknown deep within. Jn this 
 deep all is darkness, yet God's Spirit is breathing there ; the 
 creature is helpless, but God is very near.' ANDREW JUKES. 
 
 ' Those who tarry in darkness apart from the Light that 
 lighteneth every man have lost the supreme good of mind, 
 or the intuition of God as the Truth that can alone satisfy 
 its cravings.' DEAN PLUMPTRE. 
 
 Who shall dare look into the darker depths of his own 
 heart without the presence of One who knows it better, and 
 who inspires Hope (lines 19, 20). 
 
 The 'glad Countenance' and the 'Hand that leads into 
 the secret things ' speak to us of One who has conquered 
 and is conquering. 
 
 Perhaps the 'Evangelizing power' of both the 'glad 
 Countenance ' and the ' Hand ' must be seen and felt 
 through human fellowship before the Word can be effec- 
 tively heard. ' He took hold of the blind man by the 
 hand.' Mark viii. 23.
 
 Dante's question answered : '. Were any led forth through 
 those Gates by the Mighty One with Victory crowned ?' 
 
 -(XI) 
 
 INFERNO, CANTO IV. 4661. 
 
 DIMMI, maestro mio, dimmi, signore, 
 Comincia' io, per voler esser certo 
 Di quella fede che vince ogni errore : 
 Uscinne mai alcuno, o per suo merto, 
 
 O per altrui, che poi fosse beato ? 50 
 
 E quei che intese '1 mio parlar coverto, 
 Rispose : Io era nuovo in questo stato, 
 
 Quando ci vidi venire un Possente, 
 
 Con segno di vittoria incoronato. 
 Trasseci 1' ombra del primo Parente, 55 
 
 D' Abel suo figlio, e quella di Noe, 
 
 Di Moise legista, e 1' ubbidiente 
 Abraam patriarca, e David Re ; 
 
 Israel con suo padre e co' suoi nati, 
 
 E con Rachele per cui tanto fe ; 60 
 
 Ed altri molti ; e fecegli bead. 
 
 26
 
 He descended into Hell. 
 
 (XI) 
 
 THOSE Eternal adamantine Gates inclosing the 
 Prisoners of dark despair, bound hand and foot by 
 the chains of their enslaving sins, cannot be opened by these 
 paralyzed Wills from within ; but shall those gates prevail in 
 strength against the entrance of the ' crowned Mighty King 
 of Love ' and His Church ? 
 
 ' Who went and preached to the spirits in prison which 
 aforetime were disobedient.' i Pet. iii. 18. 
 
 ' I have the keys of Death and of Hell.' Rev. iii. 1 8. 
 
 ' Upon this Rock I will build My Church, and the Gates 
 of Hell shall not prevail against it.' Matt. iii. 18. 
 
 ' O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself, but in Me is thy 
 help.' Hosea xiii. 9. 
 
 27
 
 The ignominious Souls mixed with the Caitiff Angels, 
 who were neither faithful to God nor to His Enemies, 
 but were for Self. 
 
 - ( XII ) - 
 
 INFERNO, CANTO III. 31-51. 
 
 1 ^ D io, ch' avea d' error la testa cinta, 
 
 \ ^ Dissi : Maestro, che e quel ch' i' odo ? 
 
 E che gent' e, che par nel duol si vinta ? 
 Ed egli a me : Questo misero modo 
 
 Tengon 1' anime triste di coloro, 35 
 
 Che visser senza infamia e senza lodo. 
 Mischiate sono a quel cattivo coro 
 
 Degli angeli, che non furon ribelli, 
 
 Nfe fur fedeli a Dio, ma per se foro. 
 Cacciarli i Ciel per non esser men belli ; 40 
 
 Ne lo profondo inferno gli riceve, 
 
 Ch' alcuna gloria i rei avrebber d' elli. 
 Ed io : Maestro, che e tanto greve 
 
 A lor, che lamentar gli fa si forte ? 
 
 Rispose : Dicerolti molto breve. 45 
 
 Questi non hanno speranza di morte ; 
 
 E la lor cieca vita e tanto bassa, 
 
 Che invidiosi son d' ogni altra sorte. 
 Fama di loro il mondo esser non lassa : 
 
 Misericordia e Giustizia gli sdegna ; 50 
 
 Non ragioniam di lor, ma guarda e passa. 
 
 28
 
 ' / would thou wert either hot or cold.' REV. iii. 15. 
 - ( XII ) - 
 
 THE Pilgrim, who has been led within the dark portals, 
 is first shown, just within the threshold, that life for 
 Self alone is the initiation into the ' blind life ' the begin- 
 ning of Death. 
 
 These miserable souls, too petty for praise or blame, are 
 here seen only as germs, as it were, of the Monster that we 
 shall in the end behold as the ' powerful worm that under- 
 mines the whole world,' who is also ' Emperor of the dolorous 
 people.' 
 
 ' To give away yourself keeps yourself still.' 
 
 Shakespeare's ' Sonnets.' 
 
 In learning that Christ is the Centre of all life, the 
 renewed man finds his higher self liberated, baptized, and 
 renamed. He has lost his life to find it. 
 
 29
 
 The Crowds who ' never were alive? who follow the 
 Banner that whirls round. 
 
 -(XIII) 
 
 INFERNO, CANTO III. 52-65. 
 
 ED io, che riguardai, vidi una insegna, 
 Che, girando, correva tanto ratta, 
 Che d' ogni posa mi pareva indegna : 
 E dietro le venia si lunga tratta 55 
 
 Di gente, ch' io non avrei mai creduto, 
 Che morte tanta n' avesse disfatta. 
 Poscia ch' io v' ebbi alcun riconosciuto, 
 Guardai, e vidi 1' ombra di colui 
 Che fece per viltate il gran rifiuto. 60 
 
 Incontanente intesi, e certo fui, 
 Che quest' era la setta de' cattivi, 
 A Dio spiacenti ed a' nemici sui. 
 Questi sciaurati, che mai non fur vivi, 
 
 Erano ignudi, e stimolati molto. 65
 
 ' No man can serve two masters.' MATT. vi. 24. 
 
 THE coward Neutrals had followed public opinion, the 
 watchwords and banners that were for the moment 
 popular, and can but follow such through all the vicissitudes 
 of their ever-changing vacillations,* for they have forfeited 
 their moral force and their power of discerning and choosing 
 a true Cause. These Trimmers and Waverers would refuse 
 any post of responsible action, lest it should compromise 
 their own personal safety. 
 
 ' He that loveth his life shall lose it.' 
 
 The live fish swim against the stream, the dead drift with 
 it. While we drift, we are the thing we cannot help ; but 
 in willing and working in God's will we become men. 
 
 My soul, beware, even in thy day of small things, lest by 
 selfish cowardice thou art preparing thyself to make some 
 ' great refusal ' (line 60). 
 
 'We prepare ourselves for sudden deeds by the re- 
 iterated choice of good and evil, which gradually determines 
 character.' GEORGE ELIOT. 
 
 * See Dean Plumptre's note.
 
 The description of those who sigh without hope, and live 
 in desire, not having been baptized into Faith. 
 
 (XIV)- 
 
 1NFERNO, CANTO IV. 22-45. 
 
 ANDIAM, che la via lunga ne sospigne. 
 Cos! si mise, e cosi mi fe entrare 
 Nel primo cerchio che 1' abisso cigne. 
 Quivi, secondo ch' io pote' ascoltare, 25 
 
 Non avea pianto, ma che di sospiri, 
 
 Che 1' aura eterna facevan tremare. 
 E cio avvenia di duol senza martiri, 
 
 Ch' avean le turbe, ch' eran molte e grandi, 
 
 E d' infanti e di femmine e di viri. 30 
 
 Lo buon Maestro a me : Tu non dimandi 
 
 Che spiriti son questi che tu vedi ? 
 
 Or vo' che sappi, innanzi che piii andi, 
 Ch' ei non peccaro : e s' egli hanno mercedi, 
 
 Non basta, perch' e' non ebber battesmo, 35 
 
 Ch' fe porta della Fede che tu credi. 
 E se furon dinanzi al Cristiariesmo, 
 
 Non adorar debitamente Dio : 
 
 E di questi cotai son io medesmo. 
 Per tai difetti, e non per altro rio, 40 
 
 Semo perduti, e sol di tanto offesi, 
 
 Che sanza speme vivemo in disio. 
 Gran duol mi prese al cor quando Io intesi ; 
 
 Perocche gente di molto valore 
 
 Conobbi che in quel Limbo eran sospesi. 45
 
 Desire unquickened by Hope is impotent. 
 _ ( XIV ) 
 
 atmosphere of trembling and sighs must be 
 JL breathed by the defective, though noble and inno- 
 cent souls, whose inner perceptions and faculties are un- 
 opened to behold the relationship of God to man. Till we 
 know Him as our Father, through initiation into the Christian 
 Faith, we find ourselves, unsupported by Hope, at the mercy 
 of fears and of desires. 
 
 ' All the world is as one Orphanage so long as its children 
 know not God as their Father.' RUSKIN. 
 
 ' . . . Lost in a gloom of uninspired research, 
 Meanwhile, the heart within the heart, the seat 
 Where Peace and happy consciousness should dwell, 
 On its own axis restlessly revolving, 
 Seeks, yet can nowhere find, the light of truth.' 
 
 'The Excursion.' 
 
 33
 
 The Temple of Philosophy with its Seven Walls and 
 Gates, and the mighty spirits who dwelt there. 
 
 < XV ) 
 
 INFERNO, CANTO IV. 106-120. 
 
 VENIMMO al pie d' un nobile castello, 
 Sette volte cerchiato d' alte mura, 
 Difeso intorno da un bel fiumicello. 
 Questo passammo come terra dura : 
 
 Per sette porte entrai con questi savi ; no 
 
 Giugnemmo in prato di fresca verdura : 
 Genti v' eran con occhi tardi e gravi, 
 
 Di grand' autorita ne' lor sembianti : 
 
 Parlavan rado, con voci soavi. 
 Traemmoci cosi dall' un de' canti, 115 
 
 In luogo aperto, luminoso ed alto, 
 
 Si che veder si potean tutti quanti. 
 Cola diritto, sopra '1 verde smalto, 
 
 Mi fur mostrati gli spiriti magni, 
 
 Che di vederli in me stesso m' esalto. 120 
 
 34
 
 The Grand Temple awaiting Consecration. 
 ( XV ) 
 
 IT is not enough to enter through the Seven Gates of 
 earthly knowledge into the Temple of Philosophy, or 
 to become acquainted with the grand beings ' whom to have 
 known ennobles the Pilgrim' without the Divine Wisdom 
 that inspires Faith, Hope, and Love. 
 
 ' What hath not man sought out and found 
 
 But his deare God ? Who yet His glorious law 
 Embosoms in us, mellowing the ground 
 
 With showres and frosts, with love and aw, 
 So that we need not say, " Where's this command ?" 
 
 Poore man, thou searches! round 
 To find out death, but missest life at hand.' 
 
 GEO. HERBERT. 
 
 ' Philosophy is the middle state between Science or Knowledge, and 
 Sofia or Wisdom.' COLERIDGE. 
 
 ' For in the place wherein the Highest beginneth to show His City 
 there can no man's building be able to stand. ' 2 Esdras x. 54. 
 
 ' . . . Whether there be knowledge it shall be done away, for we 
 know in part . . . but when that which is perfect is come, then that 
 which is in part shall be done away.' i Cor. xiii. 9, 10 (N.V.). 
 
 ' These . . . received not the promise, God having provided some 
 better thing for us,7^a/ apart from us they should not be made perfect.' 
 New Version, Heb. xi. 40. 
 
 35
 
 The hurricane that gives no rest to those whose appetites 
 made a prey of their right reason. 
 
 - ( XVI ) 
 
 INFERNO, CANTO V. 26-45. 
 
 or son venuto 
 
 La dove molto pianto mi percuote. 
 lo venni in luogo d' ogni luce muto, 
 
 Che mugghia come fa mar per tempesta, 
 
 Se da contrari venti e combattuto. 30 
 
 La bufera infernal, che mai non resta, 
 
 Mena gli spirti con la sua rapina ; 
 
 Voltando e percotendo gli molesta. 
 Quando giungon davanti alia ruina, 
 
 Quivi le strida, il compianto e '1 lamento ; 35 
 
 Bestemmian quivi la Virtu divina. 
 Intesi ch' a cosi fatto tormento 
 
 Eran dannati i peccator carnali, 
 
 Che la ragion sommettono al talento. 
 E come gli stornei ne portan 1' ali, 40 
 
 Nel freddo tempo, a schiera larga e piena ; 
 
 Cosi quel fiato gli spiriti mali 
 Di qua, di la, di giu, di su gli mena : 
 
 Nulla speranza gli conforta mai, 
 
 Non che di posa, ma di minor pena. 45
 
 ' I feel the weight of chance desires.' 
 ( XVI ) 
 
 AFTER the stillness and stately gravity of the Temple 
 of the Seven Gates, and of the People of great 
 Authority Poets, Heroes, and Philosophers (whose bene- 
 faction to their race, it is intimated, had obtained for them 
 the grace of this resting-place), the Pilgrim has to pass forth 
 from the quiet to the air that trembles and to a place ' where 
 nothing shines.' It is the Second Circle of the Inferno. 
 The First Circle is analogous to the Ante-Purgatorio ; also 
 to the Eden-restored at the threshold of the Celestial 
 Paradise. Each stage in this symmetrical Poem has its 
 counterpart or its antithesis. 
 
 In this Circle the dim light and the bellowing, never- 
 resting hurricane fearfully tell of the darkened reason and 
 the tempestuous passion and impulse that characterize those 
 who find here ' their own place.' 
 
 They are the carnally-minded and self-indulgent, who are 
 thus tossed about as the chaff by the wind, seeking repose 
 in vain. 
 
 It is in this Circle that Francesca da Rimini tells her 
 heart-rending story, and that Dante in pity falls as one 
 dead. 
 
 The Will must be lord over the desire, and rule the life 
 of the desire and use it as // pleases. 
 
 ' Evil desires enter the heart of a man silently and wormlike until 
 the soul becomes entangled therein as in the folds of a Serpent.' Har 
 mann's ' Jacob Boehme. ' 
 
 37
 
 The punishment of the A varicious and the Squanderers. 
 ( XVII ) '. 
 
 INFERNO, CANTO VII. 25-35, 49-66. 
 
 OUI vid' io gente, piii ch' altrove troppa, 25 
 E d' una parte e d' altra, con grand' urli 
 Voltando pesi, per forza di poppa : 
 Percotevansi incontro, e poscia pur li 
 
 Si rivolgea ciascun, voltando a retro, 
 
 Gridando : Perche tieni ? e : Perche burli ? 30 
 Cosi tornavan per lo cerchio tetro, 
 
 Da ogni mano all' opposite punto, 
 
 Gridando sempre loro ontoso metro ; 
 Poi si volgea ciascun, quand' era giunto, 
 
 Per lo suo mezzo cerchio, all' altra giostra. 35 
 
 ***** 
 Ed io : Maestro, tra questi cotali 
 
 Dovre' io ben riconoscere alcuni, 50 
 
 Che furo immondi di cotesti mali. 
 Ed egli a me : Vano pensiero aduni : 
 
 La sconoscente vita, che i fe sozzi, 
 
 Ad ogni conoscenza or gli fa bruni. 
 In eterno verranno agli duo cozzi : 55 
 
 Questi risurgeranno del sepulcro 
 
 Col pugno chiuso, e quelli co' crin mozzi. 
 Mai dare e mal tener lo mondo pulcro 
 
 Ha tolto loro, e posto a questa zuffa : 
 
 Qual ella sia, parole non ci appulcro. 60 
 
 Or puoi, figliuol, veder la corta buffa 
 
 De' ben, che son commessi alia Fortuna, 
 
 Per che 1' umana gente si rabbuffa. 
 Che tutto 1' oro, ch' e sotto la luna, 
 
 E che gia fu, di quest' amme stancne 65 
 
 Non poterebbe fame posar una. 
 38
 
 * Make thy gold thy vassal, not thy King.' 
 ( XVII ) 
 
 THE Avaricious and the Squanderers, through unfaith- 
 fulness in the ' unrighteous Mammon ' (Luke xviii. 1 1) 
 ' the price put into their hands to get Wisdom,' are both 
 equally suffering in soul, for they have lost the sense of all 
 true worth, and can discern nothing beyond the heavy loads 
 which some would keep and some would throw away. 
 Dante thinks he might recognise some amongst them, but 
 is told by Virgil that they cannot now be distinguished, 
 through having lost their own discernment. They have 
 lavished their powers on sordid things, and in these have 
 submerged their own distinctive personality. 
 
 The unsatisfying nature of all that is dispensed by Fortune, 
 for which things men vainly scramble, is pointed out ; and 
 he is told that all the gold beneath the Moon could never 
 give repose to one of these weary souls. 
 
 39
 
 The Angry Souls who tear one another, and the Sullen 
 immersed in the Mud. 
 
 ( XVIII ) 
 
 INFERNO, CANTO VII. 109-126. 
 
 ED io, che a rimirar mi stava inteso, 
 Vidi genti fangose in quel pantano, no 
 
 Ignude tutte, e con sembiante offeso. 
 Queste si percotean, non pur con mano, 
 
 Ma con la testa e col petto e co' piedi, 
 
 Troncandosi co 1 denti a brano a brano. 
 Lo buon Maestro disse : Figlio, or vedi 115 
 
 L' anime di color cui vinse 1' ira : 
 
 Ed anche vo' che tu per certo credi 
 Che sotto 1' acqua ha gente che sospira, 
 
 E fanno pullular quest' acqua al summo, 
 
 Come 1' occhio ti dice u' che s' aggira. 120 
 
 Fitti nel limo dicon : Tristi fummo 
 
 Nell' aer dolce che dal sol s' allegra, 
 
 Portando dentro accidioso fummo ; 
 Or ci attristiam nella belletta negra. 
 
 Quest' inno si gorgoglian nella strozza, 125 
 
 Che dir nol posson con parola integra. 
 
 40
 
 ' Neither murmer ye, as some of them murmured, and 
 perished by the Destroyer' i COR. x. 10. 
 
 ( XVIII ) 
 
 THE murmuring of gloomy temper is considered an 
 off-shoot from the angry, violent heart. This spirit, 
 encouraged within, consumes our life in sullen breedings 
 over wrongs and grievances ; and less account is taken of 
 the elements of gladness, which may be discovered on all 
 sides. The Sullen can perceive these elements only when 
 in the past, or in the lives of others, and seldom rejoice in 
 their present personal mercies. 
 
 Murmurers carry within themselves the dull mists of dis- 
 content, which always intensify as time goes on, and at 
 length stifle and blind those who harbour them. ' . . . Thou 
 servedst not the Lord thy God with joyfulness and gladness 
 of heart for the abundance of all things' (Deut. xxviii. 47). 
 
 ' Put sadness away from thee, for truly sadness is the 
 sister of half-heartedness and bitterness. ... He that is 
 sad doth always wickedly ; first, because he maketh sad the 
 Holy Spirit that hafh been given to man for joy; and, 
 secondly, he worketh lawlessness, because he neither prays 
 to God nor gives Him thanks. Therefore cleanse thyself 
 from this wicked sadness, and thou shalt live unto God, 
 " Yea, unto God shall all they live who have cast out sad- 
 ness from themselves and arrayed themselves in all joy." ' 
 
 Quotation from the ' Shepherd of Hermas ' in Dean Paget's preface 
 to 'The Spirit of Discipline.' 
 
 ' . . . He that hides a dark soul and foul thovights, 
 Benighted walks under the mid-day Sun ; 
 Himself is his own dungeon.' ' Comus.'
 
 The fen-encompassed red City of Dis, the Erinnys on its 
 Battlements, and their call for Medusa. 
 
 .. ( XIX ) 
 
 INFERNO, CANTO IX. 31-33, 45-63. 
 
 QUESTA palude, che '1 gran puzzo spira, 
 Cinge d' intorno la citta dolente, 
 U' non potemo entrare omai senz' ira. 
 
 #*#*# 
 
 Guarda, mi disse, le feroci Erine. 45 
 
 Quest' e Megera, dal sinistro canto : 
 
 Quella, che piange dal destro, e Aletto : 
 
 Tisifone e nel mezzo ; e tacque a tanto. 
 Con 1' unghie si fendea ciascuna il petto ; 
 
 Batteansi a palme ; e gridavan si alto, 50 
 
 Ch' io mi strinsi al Poeta per sospetto. 
 Venga Medusa, e si '1 farem di smalto, 
 
 Gridavan tutte, riguardando in giuso : 
 
 Mai non vengiammo in Teseo 1' assalto. 
 Volgiti indietro, e tien lo viso chiuso : 55 
 
 Che se '1 Gorgon si mostra, e tu il vedessi, 
 
 Nulla sarebbe del tornar mai suso. 
 Cosi disse '1 Maestro ; ed egli stessi 
 
 Mi volse, e non si tenne alle mie mani, 
 
 Che con le sue ancor non mi chiudessi. 60 
 
 O voi, ch' avete gl' intelletti sani, 
 
 Mirate la dottrina, che s' asconde 
 
 Sotto '1 velame degli versi strani. 
 
 42
 
 The Sorrow that worketh Death. 
 - ( XIX ) 
 
 IN this fiery City the infidel and the heretic find their 
 home. Here the Pilgrim is brought into contact with 
 union in the midst of disunion, a union for evil, used against 
 one who travels to the City of Peace. 
 
 The three terrible Erinnys (like Conscience unenlightened 
 gone mad with remorse) would urge their prey to take refuge 
 in callous indifference through gazing into the face of Un- 
 belief (Medusa's stony spell) ; but blessed intervention from 
 above hides the eyes of the Pilgrim from beholding the 
 perilous depth of Doubt, and the consequent petrification 
 of all life. ' There is a point at which the contemplation of 
 evil becomes fatal.' Victory in this struggle can be obtained 
 only by Divine Grace. 
 
 The City of Dis* is the Antithesis to the City of the 
 living God. Its turreted walls and Sepulchres keep 
 in Death, and shut out Life. The Heavenly Jerusalem 
 has no confines but Light and Love. 
 
 * The Greek name for Pluto. 
 
 43
 
 The Violent who use force against God, themselves, 
 and their neighbour. 
 
 (XX) 
 
 INFERNO, CANTO XI. 28-32, 40-56. 
 
 DE' vi'olenti il primo cerchio e tutto ; 
 Ma perche si fa forza a tre persone, 
 In tre gironi e distinto e costrutto. 30 
 
 A Dio, a se, al prossimo si puone 
 
 Far forza ; dico in loro ed in lor cose : 
 
 ***** 
 Puote uomo avere in se man violenta, 40 
 
 E ne' suoi beni : e pero nel secondo 
 
 Giron convien che sanza pro si penta 
 Qualunque priva se del vostro mondo, 
 
 Biscazza, e fonde la sua facultade, 
 
 E piange la dove esser dee giocondo. 45 
 
 Puossi far forza nella Deitade, 
 
 Col cuor negando e bestemmiando quella, 
 
 E spregiando natura e sua bontade : 
 E pero lo minor giron suggella 
 
 Del segno suo e Soddoma e Caorsa, 50 
 
 E chi, spregiando Dio, col cuor favella. 
 La frode, ond' ogni cosc'ienza e morsa, 
 
 Pub 1' uomo usare in co'.ui che si fida, 
 
 E in quello che fidanza non imborsa. 
 Questo modo di retro par ch' uccida 55 
 
 Pur lo vincol d' amor, che fa natura. 
 
 44
 
 The Cords of Love which man would violently sever. 
 ( XX) 
 
 THE Supreme Love and Wisdom has bound man to 
 His own Heart in the bonds of Love, ' the cords of 
 a man.' He has set certain bounds to man's habitation 
 with laws that necessitate his obedience to them or he 
 must be crushed by them. He has bound him also with 
 the necessities and interdependence of love to his fellow 
 creatures. These three bonds may be each and all, in more 
 or less degree, wilfully broken by the headstrong and violent 
 spirit. How is it possible that such disruption can produce 
 anything but chaos and self-destruction ? misery at the same 
 time must be brought into the realm in which others are 
 involved. 
 
 It is a remarkable suggestion that violence towards our- 
 selves through dissipation of our own property is considered 
 reprehensible, in that it causes ' weeping where we should 
 be jocund '; it is a wasting of the means lent to us for joy 
 and helpfulness ; and the disdain of Nature and her bounty 
 is, in Dante's eyes, blasphemy against God. 
 
 45
 
 The dusky thornbearing Wood of the Suicides. 
 ( XXI ) . 
 
 INFERNO, CANTO XIII. i-io, 70-72, 94-102. 
 
 NON era ancor di la Nesso arrivato, 
 Quando noi ci mettemmo per un bosco, 
 Che da nessun sentiero era segnato. 
 Non frondi verdi, ma di color fosco ; 
 
 Non rami schietti, ma nodosi e involti ; 5 
 
 Non pomi v' eran, ma stecchi con tosco. 
 Non han si aspri sterpi, ne si folti 
 
 Quelle fiere selvagge, che in odio hanno, 
 
 Tra Cecina e Corneto, i luoghi colti. 
 Quivi le brutte Arpie lor nido fanno. ro 
 
 ***** 
 *L' animo mio, per disdegnoso gusto, 70 
 
 Credendo col morir fuggir disdegno, 
 
 Ingiusto fece me contra me giusto. 
 
 ***** 
 Quando si parte 1' anima feroce 94 
 
 Dal corpo, ond' ella stessa s' e disvelta, 
 
 Minos la manda alia settima foce. 
 Cade in la selva, e non 1' e parte scelta ; 
 
 Ma la dove fortuna la balestra, 
 
 Quivi germoglia come gran di spelta. 
 Surge in vermena, ed in pianta silvestra : 100 
 
 I,' Arpie, pascendo poi delle sue foglie, 
 
 Fanno dolore, ed al dolor finestra. 
 
 * The suicide, Pier delle Vigne, recounts his own endeavour to escape 
 his misery ; and later describes the fate of souls so dying, who fall like 
 chance seeds into unprepared ground, and their consequent suffering. 
 
 46
 
 ' Trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead.' 
 
 JUDE 12. 
 
 ( XXI ) 
 
 THOSE who outrage with suicidal hands the bonds of 
 their nature forfeit their true humanity and sink into 
 a lower Kingdom, taking with them into it their conscious- 
 ness of pain and remorse. Contrast this distorted, thorn- 
 bearing, poisonous thicket, infested by cruel Harpies, with 
 the natural woods and orchards, vocal with birds, in which 
 we have reposed and rejoiced from childhood upwards a 
 Picture, in the Vegetable Kingdom, of Man unreplenished 
 with the Sap of God. Are we not suicidal when we sever 
 ourselves from our true, divinely human nature in Christ 
 Jesus ? It is in the strength of the Divine Man that instead 
 of flying before evil, 'thinking by dying to escape disdain,' 
 we may meet and overcome it. 
 
 ' If a man abide not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered ; 
 and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.' 
 John xv. 6. 
 
 ' Blessed is the man . . . (whose) delight is in the law of the Lord. 
 . . . He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth 
 forth his fruit in his season ; his leaf also shall not wither, and what- 
 soever he doeth shall prosper. ' Psalm i. 3. 
 
 Nature speaks to us in Parables, and we also see reflected 
 in her our own moods. 'We have the choice,' as Ruskin 
 says, ' of turning all the voices of Nature into one song of 
 rejoicing, and all her lifeless creatures into a glad company, 
 whereof the meanest shall be beautiful in our eyes by its 
 kind message ; or of quenching her sympathy into a fearful 
 withdrawn silence of condemnation, or into a crying out of 
 her stones and a shaking of her dust against us.' 
 
 47
 
 The arrogance and rage of Capaneus are sufficient 
 torment to him. 
 
 ( XXII ) 
 
 INFERNO, CANTO XIV. 43-51, 61-66. 
 
 IO cominciai : Maestro, tu che vinci 
 Tutte le cose, fuor che i dimon duri, 
 Ch' all' entrar della porta incontro uscinci ; 45 
 
 Chi e quel grande, che non par che curi 
 L' incendio, e giace dispettoso e torto 
 Si, che la pioggia non par che '1 marturi ? 
 
 E quel medesmo, che si fue accorto 
 
 Ch' io domandava '1 mio Duca di lui, 50 
 
 Grido : Quale i' fui vivo, tal son morto. 
 * * * * * 
 
 Allora il Duca mio parlb di forza 61 
 
 Tanto, ch' io non 1' avea si forte udito : 
 O Capaneo, in cio che non s' ammorza 
 
 La tua superbia, se' tu piu punito : 
 
 Nullo martirio, fuor che la tua rabbia, 65 
 
 Sarebbe al tuo furor dolor compito. 
 
 48
 
 ' Such as I was living am I dead.' 
 ( XXII ) 
 
 ' A T 7TTHIN the fires the Spirits are, 
 
 V V Each swathes himself with that wherewith he 
 burns.' Inferno xxvi. 46, 47. 
 
 Here as elsewhere we see the expression of the ruling 
 spirit of the man, and are made to feel that the sin itself 
 punishes the sinner, rather than that the punishment is an 
 arbitrary infliction. Capaneus clings to the fiery pride that 
 consumed him ; the rage that he had nourished within now 
 enwraps his whole being. There is a certain grandeur in 
 the picture of his defiance of an external arbitrary force ; 
 for he misconceives it to be mere force, and his own spirit, 
 an offspring of the Divine Spirit, cannot be dominated by 
 force alone. The Antithesis to the swathing wherewith 
 each burns in the Inferno is expressed in the Paradise, as 
 each rayed about with his own gladness, 'like a creature 
 swathed in its own silk.' Par. viii. 52. 
 
 ' We are continually fancying that there will be some reversal of the 
 law, that the seed we have sown we must reap. The delusion hangs 
 about us all : we try to persuade ourselves that God's grant of pardon 
 is a warrant for it. God does more than pardon in our poor sense of 
 that word. He gives repentance : it is the grace of turning us from 
 darkness to light, not the impossible mercy of giving us a light which 
 we hate. Good and evil were set before man at the first, they are set 
 before him to the last. As long as there is resistance to good there is 
 misery. There has been no change in the divine order ; no conversion 
 of any one thing to its opposite.' F. D. MAURICE. 
 
 49
 
 Brunette Latini, the Friend and Master of Dante. 
 ( XXIII ) , 
 
 INFERNO, CANTO XV. 46-57, 79-87. 
 
 El comincio : Qual fortuna o destino 
 Anzi 1' ultimo di quaggiu ti mena ? 
 E chi e quel che ti mostra '1 cammino ? 
 Lassu di sopra in la vita serena, 
 
 Rispos' io lui, mi smarrii 'n una valle, 50 
 
 Avanti che 1' eta mia fosse piena. 
 Pur ier mattina le volsi le spalle : 
 
 Questi m' apparve, tornand' io in quella ; 
 
 E riducemi a ca" per questo calle. 
 Ed egli a me : Se tu segui tua Stella, 55 
 
 Non puoi fallire a glorioso porto, 
 
 Se ben m' accorsi nella vita bella. 
 
 ***** 
 Se fosse pieno tutto '1 mio dimando, 
 
 Risposi lui, voi non sareste ancora 80 
 
 Dell' umana natura posto in bando : 
 Che in la mente m' e fitta, ed or m' aecuora 
 
 La cara e buona imagine paterna 
 
 Di voi, quando nel mondo ad ora ad ora 
 M' insegnavate come 1' uom s' eterna : 85 
 
 E quant' io 1' abbo in grado, mentr' io vivo 
 
 Convien che nella mia lingua si scerna.
 
 'For man there is but one great misfortune: to receive 
 an idea that exerts no influence on his active life.' 
 
 ( XXIII ) 
 
 DANTE finds Brunette Latini still his Friend and 
 Teacher yet in banishment from human nature, 
 having failed to be one in deed and in truth with that which 
 he had so ably taught, ' How man should eternize himself 
 Perhaps the greatest peril to our own spiritual life lies in the 
 attitude assumed by us, or it may be the vocation laid upon 
 us of teaching others. The divergence between the intel- 
 lectually perceived truth taught, and the truth lived up to, 
 insidiously undermines character and blinds the conscience. 
 Note the expression, Rom. i. 18 (N. V.), 'Who hold down 
 the truth in unrighteousness.' The Truth pleads within, 
 but is 'held down' by the predominance of the lower 
 nature. 
 
 On one side this friendship has fructified ; on the other, 
 it has had no redeeming power. Yet with what a relieving 
 gleam this converse of friends seems to penetrate the awful 
 tints which paint hell for us a faint flicker of unity in the 
 midst of the dislocation of all human bonds ! 
 
 The fulfilment of our Lord's last prayer, ' That they may be 
 perfected in one ' the Communion of Saints lies enfolded 
 in promise and embryo in each true friendship, a heavenly 
 treasure peculiarly subjected to all the chills and blights 
 of Earth ; for does it not lie nearest, perhaps, of all such 
 treasures to the shadow of Self-love and jealousy, and though 
 indestructible, as we hope, may it not in that shadow lose 
 all the potent fragrance of its own clime ?
 
 The Monster Geryon, Fraud. 
 ( XXIV ) 
 
 INFERNO, CANTO XVII. 1-18. 
 
 ECCO la fiera con la coda aguzza, 
 Che passa monti, e rompe muri ed armi : 
 Ecco colei che tutto il mondo appuzza. 
 Si comincio lo mio Duca a parlarmi ; 
 
 Ed accennolle che venisse a proda, 5 
 
 Vicino al fin de' passeggiati marmi. 
 E quella sozza imagine di froda 
 
 Sen venne, ed arrive la testa e '1 busto ; 
 
 Ma in su la riva non trasse la coda. 
 La faccia sua era faccia d' uom giusto, 10 
 
 Tanto benigna avea di fuor la pelle ; 
 
 E d' un serpente tutto 1' altro fusto. 
 Duo branche avea pilose infin 1' ascelle ; 
 
 Lo dosso e '1 petto ed ambedue le coste 
 
 Dipinte avea di nodi e di rotelle. 15 
 
 Con piu color sommesse e soprapposte 
 
 Non fer mai in drappo Tartari ne Turchi, 
 
 Ne fur tai tele per Aracne imposte.
 
 The Subtleties of the beguiling Serpent. 
 ( XXIV ) 
 
 ' * I ^HE Monster which infecteth all the world,' Deceit, 
 _L whose root is hidden in each heart, is here brought 
 to view full grown and personalized. We see the benign 
 face of a just man, a serpent body with hairy paws and arms, 
 the skin as though painted and wondrously embroidered, and 
 hung with spider-web tissues all without organic unity, all 
 taken on from others. We see, reflected as in a mirror, our 
 desires to look better than we are, self-interested motives 
 hidden under specious actions or words, divers colouring 
 given to match divers objects, nooses to entrap others, or 
 even our own consciences, and the subtle tissues of flatteries 
 that entangle with sophistries and plausibilities. Through 
 the agency of this Monster Geryon (Fraud) the lowest Hell 
 is entered ; the descent is made from the region of animal 
 impulse to that of the calculating, conscious disregard of 
 the Divine and the social bond. 
 
 ' Farewell, remorse ; all good to me is lost ; 
 Evil, be thou my good.' MILTON. 
 
 53
 
 Dante, terrified by the imagined grip of the Malebranche 
 demons, is rescued by Virgil. 
 
 ( XXV ) 
 
 INFERNO, CANTO XXIIL 19-33, 37-51. 
 
 GlA mi sentia tutti arricciar li peli 
 Dalla paura ; e stava indietro intento, 20 
 Quand' io dissi : Maestro, se non cell 
 Te e me tostamente, i' ho pavento 
 
 De' Malebranche ; noi gli avem gia dietro : 
 Io gP immagino si, che gia li sento. 
 E quei : S' io fossi d' impiombato vetro, 25 
 
 L' imagine di fuor tua non trarrei 
 Piii tosto a me, che quella dentro impetro. 
 Pur mo venieno i tuoi pensier tra i miei, 
 Con simile atto, e con simile faccia, 
 Si che d' entrambi un sol consiglio fei. 30 
 
 S' egli e, che si la destra costa fjiaccia. 
 
 Che r.^i ^ossiam nell' altra bolgia scendere, 
 
 Noi fuggirem F immaginata caccia. 
 ***** 
 
 Lo Duca mio di subito mi prese, 
 
 Come la madre, ch' al romore e desta, 
 E vede presso a se le fiamme accese, 
 
 Che prende il figlio, e fugge, e non s' arresta, 40 
 Avendo piii di lui che di se cura, 
 Tanto che solo una camicia vesta. 
 
 E giu dal collo della ripa dura 
 
 Supin si diede alia pendente roccia, 
 
 Che 1' un de' lati all' altra bolgia tura. 45 
 
 Non corse mai si tosto acqua per doccia 
 A volger ruota di mulin terragno, 
 Quando ella piii verso le pale approccia ; 
 
 Come '1 Maestro mio per quel vivagno, 
 
 Portandosene me sovra '1 suo petto, 50 
 
 Come suo figlio, e non come compagno. 
 54
 
 ' As one whom his Mother comforteth.' 
 ( XXV ) 
 
 THE terror of Dante at the ghastly pranks of the demons 
 in ' the Pantomime of Hell,' as this Circle of it has 
 been called, brings out the interior relationship between the 
 Pilgrim and his divinely enlightened Guide. As here re- 
 vealed to us, the indwelling Word portrayed in Virgil seems 
 the very personification of Love, who reads the thoughts of 
 his beloved ' long before,' in whom these thoughts are blent 
 and imaged in unity with his own ; who enfolds the Pilgrim 
 in his arms, swiftly fleeing with him in perfect sympathy 
 with his fears, even as a Mother with her child, losing her- 
 self completely in him, having more care of him than of 
 herself. 
 
 Dante more than once brings be. ' "* strength and 
 efficient action of a mother, as well as ner self-forgetting 
 tenderness. Her comforting to him would imply strengthen- 
 ing, even as the derivation of that word teaches us. 'I will 
 not leave you comfortless.' 
 
 Note the wonderful intimacy of spiritual communion 
 described in lines 25 to 30, reminding us of the experience 
 of the Psalmist. 
 
 ' O Lord, Thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou 
 knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, Thou under- 
 standest my thought afar off.' Ps. cxxxix. 
 
 ' Not youngest thought in me doth grow, 
 No, not one word I cast to talk 
 But yet unuttered Thou dost know.' SIR PHILIP SIDNEY. 
 
 55
 
 The heavily-clad Hypocrites. 
 ( XXVI ) 
 
 INFERNO, CANTO XXIII. 58-72. 
 
 E.GGIU trovammo una gente dipinta, 
 Che giva intorno assai con lenti passi, 
 Piangendo, e nel sembiante stanca e vinta. 60 
 Egli avean cappe, con cappucci bassi 
 
 Dinanzi agli occhi, fatte della taglia 
 
 Che in Cologna per li monaci fassi. 
 Di fuor derate son, si che egli abbaglia, 
 
 Ma dentro tutte piombo ; e gravi tanto, 65 
 
 Che Federigo le mettea di paglia. 
 O in eterno faticoso manto ! 
 
 Noi ci volgemmo ancor pure a man manca 
 
 Con loro insieme intenti al tristo pianto : 
 Ma per lo peso quella gente stanca 70 
 
 Venia si pian, che noi eravam nuovi 
 
 Di compagnia ad ogni muover d' anca.
 
 ' Take heed that ye do not your righteousness before men, 
 to be seen of them.' MATT. vi. i. 
 
 ( XXVI ) - 
 
 THE painted, weary folk have been weaving themselves 
 these eternally-heavy mantles under which their 
 natural characters, with all play of spontaneity, have withered 
 away. It needs special effort to live an eternal 'make- 
 believe,' to make a continual endeavour to seem. They are 
 not only tired but vanquished, for they have not succeeded 
 in imposing much on others ; as it has been said, ' If we 
 say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves' (rarefy others}. 
 Contrast the self-made, crushing clothes of these ' oppressed 
 people' with the clothing God makes to express, not to 
 conceal, the true life. 
 
 ' Consider the Lilies, how they grow ; they toil not, 
 neither do they spin ; yet I say unto you, that Solomon in 
 all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.' Matt. vi. 28. 
 
 Contrast with this Matt, xxiii. 27, 'For ye are like unto 
 whited Sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, 
 but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all unclean- 
 ness.' 
 
 Again, God's clothing is shown to us in Rev. xix. 8 His 
 clothing in which the clothed participate by working out 
 what He works within. ' And to her was granted that she 
 should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white : for the fine 
 linen is the righteousness of the Saints.' 
 
 ' The King's daughter is all glorious within.' 
 
 ' Nothing that has not become living experience can 
 become living expression.' LOWELL. 
 
 ' The True t that is the soul's natural state. The false is the abnormal 
 monstrous state. We feel it by the infinite sweetness, the expanding of 
 our whole being, when surrounded with persons who are true and straight- 
 forward. We feel it by the dreadful discomfort which we experience 
 through the contact of dissemblers.' MADAME QUINET. 
 
 57
 
 Virgil urges Dante to put off Sloth, lest he leave no fame 
 
 behind him. 
 ( XXVII ) - 
 
 INFERNO, CANTO XXIV. 46-60. 
 
 OMAI convien che tu cosi ti spoltre, 
 Disse '1 Maestro ; che, seggendo in piuma, 
 In fama non si vien, ne sotto coltre : 
 
 Sanza la qual, chi sua vita consuma, 
 
 Cotal vestigio in terra di se lascia, 50 
 
 Qual fummo in aere, od in acqua la schiuma. 
 
 E perb leva su ; vinci 1' arnbascia 
 
 Con 1' animo che vince ogni battaglia, 
 Se col suo grave corpo non s' accascia. 
 
 Piu lunga scala convien che si saglia; 55 
 
 Non basta da costoro esser partito : 
 Se tu m" intendi, or fa' si che ti vaglia. 
 
 Levaimi allor, mostrandomi fornito 
 Meglio di lena, ch' i' non mi sentia ; 
 E dissi : Va', ch' io son forte ed ardko. 60
 
 ' Be of good courage, for I am with thee.' 
 (XXVII ) 
 
 THE Pilgrim on his awful way comes from time to time 
 to such straits and passes as call for more courage 
 than he can summon ; happy for him, then, if he have a 
 friendly voice by his side, as well as the Monitor within, to 
 adjure him not to sink with hands folded under downy 
 coverlid, leaving no trace behind him of his part in the 
 great conflict ; and to remind him that the Spirit may over- 
 come all things, if it sink not under the weight of the flesh. 
 The literal word ' impossible ' is not in the language of Spirit. 
 ' Overcome in My might,' must obliterate it. And as it has 
 been said, 'It is the impossible only that is worth any- 
 thing.' 
 
 'Be not dismayed' (not because there is nothing to 
 dismay, but), ' for I am thy God.' Such a word may com- 
 mand a venture for which there is no felt strength ; then a 
 courage must be, apparently to one's self, even feigned in 
 order to go forward. Emmanuel is our Watchword. 
 
 ' Claim for your own the morally best. Act on Christ's promise as if 
 it were true, and you find it is. This is faith, to act on what transcends 
 experience, to act on what you do not feel possible, to act in faith on a 
 promised strength, and to find it in the using. Faith involves the 
 recognition of our own weakness, the surrender of our own independence 
 into the hands of God : it gains as its reward the promised help ; it 
 sets free the " virtue " which goes out of Christ. It can yield up to 
 higher forces than it has yet known. Only when the forces have 
 become in experience thoroughly familiar can they be subjected to the 
 analysis of reason.' From Gore's Preface to Edition x. of ' Lux 
 Mundi.' 
 
 59
 
 Virgil reproves Dante, for lingering to hear an unworthy 
 dispute. 
 
 ( XXVIII ) 
 
 INFERNO, CANTOS XXX. 130-148, XXXI. 1-6. 
 
 AD ascoltarli er' io del tutto fisso, 130 
 
 Quando '1 Maestro mi disse : Or pur mira ; 
 Che per poco e che teco non mi risso. 
 Quand' io '1 send' a me parlar con ira, 
 
 Volsimi verso lui con tal vergogna, 
 
 Ch' ancor per la memoria mi si gira. 135 
 
 E quale e quei che suo dannaggio sogna, 
 
 Che sognando desidera sognare, 
 
 Si che quel ch' e, come non fosse, agogna ; 
 Tal mi fee' io, non potendo parlare ; 
 
 Che disiava scusarmi, e scusava 14 
 
 AJe tuttavia, e nol mi credea fare. 
 Maggior difetto men vergogna lava, 
 
 Disse '1 Maestro, che '1 tuo non e stato ; 
 
 Pero d' ogni tristizia ti disgrava. 
 E fa' ragion ch' io ti sia sempre allato, 145 
 
 Se piu avvien che fortuna t' accoglia 
 
 Dove sien genti in simigliante piato ; 
 Che voler cio udire e bassa voglia. 
 
 ***** 
 
 Una medesma lingua pria mi morse, i 
 
 Si che mi tinse 1' una e 1' altra guancia, 
 
 E poi la medicina mi riporse. 
 Cos! od' io, che soleva la lancia 
 
 D' Achilla e del suo padre esser cagione =; 
 
 Prima di trista, e poi di buona mancia. 
 
 60
 
 1 They judge all Nature from her feet of clay.' 
 
 ( XXVIII ) 
 
 AS the Pilgrim tastes more and more of the fruit of the 
 knowledge of evil, though he be of a lofty nature, he 
 lingers on his way, through curiosity to hear an unworthy 
 and spiteful quarrel. We are told sometimes that we should 
 look at the actual human being as he really is (apart from 
 any ideal concerning him) in his baseness and corruption -, 
 to reproduce this debased portrait is deemed frank and 
 real; but can this be done loyally by the Christian who 
 ' divinely through all hindrance finds the mar?,' believing the 
 real manhood to be in Christ the true nature in man ? 
 Further, how shall our limited capacities for hearing and 
 seeing retain their subtler powers of perceiving that better 
 and nobler side of each human heart, if we blunt these 
 capacities by lingering needlessly amidst the discords of 
 contradicting sounds and sights ? 
 
 ' Love taketh not account of evil.' I Cor. xiii. 5 (N.V.). 
 
 ' For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of 
 them in secret.' Ephes. v. 12. 
 
 ' Finally, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honour- 
 able, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever 
 things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report ; if there be any 
 virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.' Phil. iv. 8. 
 
 Note the function of Conscience, as distinguished from 
 that of the Accuser of the brethren in the last lines of 
 Canto XXX. and first lines of Canto XXXI. 
 
 ' The cause first of a sad and then a gracious boon.' 
 The Convincer of Sin and the Comforter are One. 
 
 ' Teach me with quick-ear'd spirit to rejoice 
 In admonitions of thy softest voice !' 'The Excursion.' 
 
 61
 
 Another language needed to speak of the dark world. 
 ( XXIX ) 
 
 INFERNO, CANTO XXXII. 1-9. 
 
 S' IO avessi le rime ed aspre e chiocce, 
 Come si converrebbe al tristo buco, 
 Sovra '1 qual pontan tutte 1' altre rocce, 
 lo premerei di mio concetto il suco 
 
 Piu pienamente ; ma perch' io non 1' abbo, 
 Non senza tema a dicer mi conduco. 
 Chb non fe impresa da pigliare a gabbo 
 Descriver fondo a tutto 1' universe, 
 N& da lingua che chiami mamma e babbo. 
 
 02
 
 ' Doth a Fountain send forth at the same place sweet 
 water and bitter ?' JAMES iii. i. 
 
 ( XXIX ) 
 
 THE heights and depths of our experience need new 
 language ; indeed, in the many worlds within our 
 world various languages are spoken and needed. The 
 Word is broken to pieces amongst us, and only those in 
 full affinity with one another who can divine the thing 
 signified can receive real transference of spiritual thought 
 from each other; between the less related there must be 
 still clumsier signalling. In the lines that lead our medita- 
 tion to-day nothing could, by contrast, more forcibly flash 
 upon us a lurid gleam from hell than the three last 
 another language needed to describe it than the one used 
 in which the familiar and tender cries of ' Mamma ' and 
 ' Dadda ' proceed from innocent infant lips ! Alas ! this 
 contrast was felt the other day in a London street, and 
 never can be forgotten, when a little boy of hardly four was 
 seen trotting after a half-drunken man, and catching at his 
 hand with his little fingers as he cried ' Father !' The little 
 hand was repulsed, and a savage oath was the answer to the 
 blessed name ; yet the child clung to the man's coat and 
 smiled and babbled on with his baby language. Surely one 
 of those was at that moment in hell, the other in heaven, 
 and neither could pass from one world to the other. Yet 
 heaven there stretched further towards the one dwelling in 
 hell, than he then could stretch towards heaven. God 
 grant us deafness and dumbness to the dark world of unlove 
 within ourselves, and open our ears and lips to the tones 
 and language of the Heavenly City.
 
 The demon-possessed body on Earth while the Soul is 
 already in Hell. 
 
 (XXX) 
 
 INFERNO, CANTO XXXIII. 121-123, 129-147. 
 
 OH, dissi lui, or se' tu ancor morto ? 
 Ed egli a me : Come il mio corpo stea 
 Nel mondo su, nulla sci'enzia porto. 
 ***** 
 
 Sappi che tosto che 1' anima trade, 
 Come fee' io, lo corpo suo 1' e tolto 1 30 
 
 Da un dimonio, che poscia il governa, 
 
 Mentre che '1 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. 135 
 
 Tu '1 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, dissi lui, che tu m' inganni ; 
 
 Che Branca d' Oria non mori unquanche, 140 
 
 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 quegli lascib un diavol in sua vece 145 
 
 Nel corpo suo, e d' un suo prossimano, 
 
 Che '1 tradimento insieme con lui fece. 
 
 64
 
 ' The soul grows clotted by contagion, 
 Imbodies and imbrutes, till she quite lose 
 The divine property of her first being. 9 
 
 ( XXX ) 
 
 THE consummation of the death of the soul, before the 
 death of the body takes place, is here brought before 
 us. One is described who 'eats and drinks and sleeps and 
 puts on clothes,' as usual in the body, while his spirit has 
 migrated to the evil spirits in the lower hell. He has 
 betrayed another, and is betrayed in his own betrayal cast 
 out from his own habitation, which another takes possession 
 of, to a lower place for which he has fitted himself. 
 
 ' The mind is its own place, and in itself 
 Can make a heav'n of hell, a hell of heav'n.' 
 
 ' The heart liveth where it loveth.' We are happily more 
 familiar with this thought when applied to the blessed, of 
 whom it has often been said that they seem to live in heaven 
 before their time ' whose conversation or citizenship is in 
 heaven.' 
 
 The ghastly picture of the bodily presence still carrying 
 on the semblance of the man's personality, whilst a devil is 
 its only motive power, adds terrible emphasis to the con- 
 ception of alliance with 'spiritual wickedness in high places,' 
 and gives depth to the cry, Deliver us from Evil ! 
 
 ' For we must know that the wicked man may truly be 
 called dead of such an one some might say how is he 
 dead and yet goes about ? I answer that the man is dead, 
 and the beast remains.' Convito,' Tr. IV., c. 7.
 
 Lucifer, the Son of the Morning, fallen, and the Three 
 Supreme Traitors. 
 
 ( XXXI ) 
 
 INFERNO, CANTO XXXIV. 1-9, 16-27. 
 
 J7"EXILLA regis prodeunt Inferni 
 
 * Verso di noi : pero dinanzi mira, 
 
 Disse '1 Maestro mio, se tu '1 discerni. 
 
 Come quando una grossa nebbia spira, 
 
 O quando 1' emisperio nostro annotta, 5 
 
 Par da lungi un mulin, che il vento gira ; 
 
 Veder mi parve un tal dificio allotta : 
 Poi, per lo vento, mi ristrinsi retro 
 Al Duca mio ; che non v' era altra grotta. 
 * * * * * 
 
 Quando noi fummo fatti tanto avante, 
 Ch' al mio Maestro piacque di mostrarmi 
 La creatura ch' ebbe il bel sembiante, 
 
 Dinanzi mi si tolse, e fe ristarmi ; 
 
 Ecco Dite, dicendo, ed ecco il loco, 20 
 
 Ove convien che di fortezza t' armi, 
 
 Com' io divenni allor gelato e fioco, 
 
 Noi domandar, lettor ; ch' io non lo scrivo, 
 Pero ch' ogni parlar sarebbe poro. 
 
 Io non mori', e non rimasi vivo : 25 
 
 Pensa oramai per te, s' hai fior d' ingegno, 
 Qual io divenni, d' uno e d' altro privo.
 
 * '. The infernal Banners forward go ' of the Creature 
 who once had the beautiful semblance. 
 
 ( XXXI ) 
 
 THROUGH all the Circles of Fraud and Deceit the 
 Pilgrim has descended step by step even to this last 
 stagnant, frozen pool of Treachery and Betrayal, wherein 
 are welded in Eternal Ice the Supreme Traitors of their 
 Lords and Benefactors. There he is bidden to gaze on the 
 wreck and travesty of Angelhood, ' the Creature that once 
 had the beautiful semblance.' We are told to conceive that 
 which Dante found unspeakable, the terror and paralysis 
 produced by the vision of the essence and root of all evil. 
 
 The Church and the Empire (always recognised by Dante 
 as the Channels of Divine Government) were betrayed by 
 the three Traitors seen in the nethermost Hell. 
 
 ' The entire Circle of Treachery is covered with Ice to 
 symbolize the isolating and freezing character of the crime 
 of Treachery, the daughter of Pride. This sin alone com- 
 pletely isolates each man from every other. Pride is con- 
 sistent selfishness, because it makes itself sole end and 
 sole means. It is frozen, and it freezes all others.' 
 W. T. HARRIS. 
 
 * A travesty of the Church's hymn : 
 
 ' The Royal banners forward go, 
 The Cross shines forth in mystic gluw. 3 
 
 6 7
 
 The Monster with three faces, from whose Wings proceeded 
 the icy blasts. 
 
 ( XXXII ) 
 
 INFERNO, CANTO XXXIV. 28, 29, 34-38, 46-52. 
 
 L' IMPERADOR del doloroso regno 
 Da mezzo '1 petto uscia fuor della ghiaccia : 
 
 ***** 
 S' ei fu si bel com' egli e ora brutto, 
 
 E contra '1 suo Fattore alzo le ciglia, 35 
 
 Ben dee da lui procedere ogni lutto. 
 O quanto parve a me gran meraviglia, 
 
 Quando vidi tre facce alia sua testa ! 
 
 * * *' * * 
 
 Sotto ciascuna uscivan duo grand' ali, 
 
 Quanto si conveniva a tant' uccello : 
 
 Vele di mar non vid' io mai cotali. 
 Non avean penne, ma di vipistrello 
 
 Era lor modo ; e quelle svolazzava, 50 
 
 Si che tre venti si movean da ello. 
 Quindi Cocito tutto s' aggelava. 
 
 68
 
 ' The Source of all Tribulation.' 
 
 - ( XXXII ) - 
 
 NO further descent can be made no deeper gaze into 
 the negation of all good and all life is possible, for 
 the spectacle is presented of the brow ever lifted against 
 his Maker. Supreme Pride, and supreme Self-worshipping 
 Isolation. 
 
 We confess our pride with less difficulty than other sins, 
 sometimes in half-caressing tones ; yet we find it here repre- 
 sented, probably truly, as the father of the basest and most 
 universally despised of crimes, Treachery and Betrayal. 
 
 We may well shudder at the piercing phantasy of those 
 six huge bat-like pinions ever waving, the only motion in 
 the ice-bound region, ever sending forth their freezing blast ; 
 the fatal wind from which the Pilgrim would fain have 
 screened himself has been noticed more than once during 
 the descent ; he knows now whence it blows. 
 
 Mockery of goodness or of love, cynicism, whispered 
 hints of suspicion, chill questioning of all noble enthusiasms, 
 these such Pilgrims as Dante will not fail to detect as effects 
 (though but faint breezes) of the Bat-like pinions, and they 
 will seek to shut the door of their hearts against them. 
 What an antithesis we have to such in the Breath of the 
 Spirit, genial, fructifying, imparting one Life, one Love 
 throughout the whole Family of Heaven and Earth ! 
 
 Line 38. There is a certain absurdity in the view of any 
 creature struggling to maintain itself in .opposition to the 
 laws of its own being. The vision of this self-stultifying 
 revolt gives play to a grotesque irony in Dante's imagery, 
 which is, however, always in deepest, direst earnest ; such 
 passages have been generally omitted, as they can only be 
 read in this age with any sympathy when the mind is pene- 
 trated with Dante's work as a whole. 
 
 ' The three faces have been taken as a symbol of a Trinity 
 of Evil, the antithesis of Power, Wisdom, and Charity.' 
 
 69
 
 The Climb upwards and the Centre of Gravity passed. 
 ( XXXIII ) - 
 
 INFERNO, CANTO XXXIV. 82-84,91-93,97-111. 
 
 A TTIENTI ben : che per cotali scale, 
 jL\. Disse '1 Maestro ansando com' uom lasso, 
 Conviensi dipartir da tanto male. 
 
 ****** 
 
 E s' io divenni allora travagliato, 
 
 La gente grossa il pensi, che non vede 
 Qual e quel punto ch' io avea passato. 
 ***** 
 
 Non era camminata di palagio, 
 La V eravam ; ma natural burella, 
 Ch' avea mal suolo, e di lume disagio. 
 
 Prima ch' io dell' abisso mi divella, i oo 
 
 Maestro mio, diss' io quando fui dritto, 
 A trarmi d' erro un poco mi favella. 
 
 Ov' e la ghiaccia? e questi com' e fitto 
 Si sottosopra ? e come in si poc' ora 
 Da sera a mane ha fatto il Sol tragitto ? 1 05 
 
 Ed egli a me : Tu immagini ancora 
 
 D' esser di la dal centre, ov' io m' appresi 
 Al pel del vermo reo che '1 mondo fora. 
 
 Di la fosti cotanto, quant' io scesi : 
 
 Quando mi volsi, tu passasti il punto, i io 
 
 Al qual si traggon d' ogni parte i pesi.
 
 ' We have passed from Death unto Life.' 
 ( XXXIII ) 
 
 BARELY kept alive in the Sepulchre of Death, the 
 Pilgrim is, after a certain point, carried upwards, as 
 he imagines, by the same way that he had descended ; but 
 it is explained to him that he has passed the centre of 
 Gravity, and is in another Hemisphere. He is puzzled and 
 bewildered ; what was above is now beneath, everything is 
 reversed; he is in a new relationship to the Centre. Is 
 not this turning-point Conversion? the passing from the 
 sway of Self to that of Christ ? 
 
 Our planetary system was once supposed to be Geo- 
 centric ; we know now it is Helio centric, and each one has 
 to learn for himself that it is Christo-centric. For a time 
 the Pilgrim's steps must be taken with difficulty ' over floor 
 uneven and with un-ease of light,' for he knows not how to 
 adjust himself to the sway of the newly-recognised power of 
 attraction. 
 
 ' Death is the condition of Resurrection. There is indeed a continuity 
 through Death, but a form of severance from the past must be the prelude 
 to the New Birth.' WESTCOTT. 
 
 ' Suppose a planet gifted with intelligence and volition on the strength 
 of this gift emancipating itself from the law of gravitation ; it would 
 soon find that all its sweet order and harmony were gone, and that its 
 independent efforts to perform its revolution could not do the work of a 
 centre of gravity. Its completeness consists in the maintenance of its 
 relation to this Centre, without which all goes wrong.' 'The Spiritual 
 Order,' by T. Erskine.
 
 The hidden Way of Escape. 
 - ( XXXIV ) - 
 
 INFERNO, CANTO XXXIV. 127-139. 
 
 LUOGO b laggiu da Belzebli rimoto 
 Tanto, quanto la totnba si distende, 
 Che non per vista, ma per suono e noto 
 D' un ruscelletto, che quivi discende 130 
 
 Per la buca d' un sasso, ch' egli ha roso 
 Col corso ch' egli avvolge ; e poco pende. 
 Lo Duca ed io per quel cammino ascoso 
 Entrammo, per tornar nel chiaro mondo ; 
 E senza cura aver d' alcun riposo 135 
 
 Salimmo su, ei primo ed io secondo, 
 Tanto ch' io vidi delle cose belle, 
 Che porta '1 ciel, per un pertugio tondo : 
 E quindi uscimmo a riveder le stelle.
 
 The dark passage from the Sepulchre to the shining 
 of the Stars. 
 
 ( XXXIV ) 
 
 WHAT can be the meaning of the little rivulet unseen 
 in the darkness, that had issued from the very 
 jaws of stony Death, boring for itself through the hard rock 
 a winding way towards the light, a way of Escape for the 
 Pilgrim's willing feet ? Its small voice must indeed have 
 seemed musical after the fiery circles of harsh din and the 
 ice-bound silence of Despair in the lowest hell. Was it 
 Hope? Was it Prayer? 
 
 ' A stream which from the fountain of the Heart 
 Issuing, however feebly, nowhere flows 
 Without access of unexpected strength.' 
 
 The aperture of the dark tunnel conies at length into 
 sight, and the blissful vision of some of the ' beautiful things 
 that Heaven doth bear ' beyond it. Again the Pilgrim 
 beholds the stars ! Nature is restored to him with a far 
 deeper significance than she had before ; and not Nature 
 alone for to- this Pilgrim ' the stars' meant the divine 
 witnesses to God's orderly and spiritual rule of His Universe, 
 and the channels of His Providential influences on the 
 minds and circumstances of men. 
 
 73
 
 PURGATORIO.
 
 THE UPHILL WAY OF THE PURGATORIO. 
 
 ' Be saluted by the air 
 
 Of meek repentance, wafting wall-flower scents 
 From out the crumbling ruins of fallen Pride.' 
 
 ' Excursion,' Book IV. 
 
 ' After some hard fights with the powers of darkness, my spirit broke- 
 through the doors of Hell and penetrated even into the innermost 
 essence of the newly-born Divinity ; where it was received with great 
 love, such as is offered by a Bridegroom welcoming a beloved Bride. 
 
 ' I cannot compare the gladness to anything except to a state in which 
 life is born in the midst of the dead. 
 
 ' While in this state my spirit immediately saw through everything, 
 and recognised God in all things, even in herbs and grasses, and it knew 
 what is God and what is Mis will.' JACOB BOEHME, ' Aurora,' xix. 4. 
 
 PURGATORY is often thought of as a modified Hell- 
 only less painful because it is supposed to be a 
 temporary process, rather than an everlasting condition. 
 We are taught here to regard this ' Second Kingdom,' 
 ' wherein the human spirit doth purge itself,' as the very 
 antipodes of Hell (indeed, so it is placed in the external 
 imagery of the allegory) the very vestibule of Heaven. 
 The soul at its portals knows itself to be no longer the 
 defiant victim of a cruel fate, but the beloved and loving 
 child under the welcomed discipline of Love ; and by that 
 
 77
 
 The Uphill Way of the Purgatorio. 
 <*) 
 
 discipline being made meet for its home, and for the 
 ardently desired vision of God. 
 
 In the Inferno, as we have seen, the controlling Power 
 was regarded as arbitrary and cruel in its antagonism to 
 those who had 'lost the good of reason.' 
 
 In Sir Philip Sidney's words, the Divine Creator was 
 deemed ' the Outward Maker's force ' and not ' an inward 
 Father.' His love-life, drawing each of His offspring into 
 unity with Himself and with every other member of His 
 family, cannot be recognised by those who deny and exclude 
 it, isolating themselves in the strongholds of Self and Pride. 
 When the soul, as we have seen the Pilgrim's, is emanci- 
 pated from this incarceration, it issues into the new sphere 
 of God's attractive power. When we say, when we mean, 
 ' I repent, I have sinned,' we are in the second Kingdom ; 
 not by getting our passport arbitrarily signed for permission 
 to enter this Kingdom, but by the birth of the soul into it. 
 There must be a death to one world before we can be born 
 into another. 
 
 The gulf that divides the two worlds of the Inferno and 
 Purgatorio, as shown to us by the Poet, seems, it is true, 
 but inadequate to mark the wide separation between the 
 two states ; a moment's Repentance, one act of forgiveness, 
 ' one little tearlet ' as the demon complains (Canto v. 107) 
 such slight tokens, we find, rescue souls from the angels of 
 darkness and set them on their way heavenward. But such 
 slight tokens mark life ; they indicate the moment of sepa- 
 ration from the death of self-assertion. The soul has found 
 its true element. ' The little tear ' was the first trembling 
 emotion of the ' poor in spirit ' to whom the Kingdom of 
 Heaven belongs ; it showed the door opened by the Will 
 towards the reception of all Heaven's gifts and all earth's 
 ministries. 
 
 78
 
 The Uphill Way of the Purgatorio. 
 ( 3 ) 
 
 The Ascent of the Mount thenceforth lies before the 
 home-returning affections. The journey has begun ; no t 
 merely the journey through this life to the Home beyond 
 the skies ; it is rather the heart's restoration to sanity a 
 restoration like that of the naked demoniac, from his abode 
 among the tombs, to his right mind, his clothing, and his 
 rest at the feet of Jesus, while learning of Him the Way, 
 the Truth, and the Life (Mark v. 15-19 ; Luke viii. 35, 39). 
 
 To follow Dante's imagery, the Way is long and difficult 
 before the Pilgrim, but he is in the way of Life. The 
 growth of Life, its efforts, its perplexities even, are before 
 him ; in the way of Death he has gravitated downwards. 
 On the ascending Way, Humility and Repentance are 
 throughout the watchwords. 
 
 The seven deadly Sins, which reign throughout the Ten 
 Circles of the dark pit with their complex subdivisions, are 
 here made manifest by confession ; they are marked as 
 open wounds on the brow of the Pilgrim, to be cleansed 
 away and closed one by one in the seven circles appointed 
 for the discipline of each sin or Peccato. These sins are 
 spoken of as the Seven P's. The Pilgrim's steps in the 
 hard climb become freer and easier as he mounts, and as 
 he is delivered from the wound of each P, through the light 
 shed on the nature of the sin by its consequences, and 
 through the fanning of an Angel's wing (heaven's refreshing 
 Grace). 
 
 In the lowest Circles of Purgatorio he finds the sins of 
 the lowest Hell Pride, Envy, and Anger repented of and 
 cleansed ; the Slothful and the Avaricious are seen in the 
 fourth and fifth Circles ; and, lastly, the sins of the flesh are 
 purified in flames more terrible than those of molten glass. 
 Vet the souls ' are content in the flames,' for their longing 
 for the heavenly vision is more intense than their suffering, 
 
 79
 
 The Uphill Way of the Purgatorio. 
 (4) 
 
 and they ' listen to the singing on the other side.' Those 
 who ascend the Mount of Purification have learnt so to 
 hate the corruptions of the first kingdom, that linger as 
 scales before their eyes, preventing their vision of God, that 
 they welcome with joy any pain, even, that shall deliver 
 them from these hindrances. When their longing for the 
 beatific vision, or perfect union with their true Lord and 
 Country, overmasters their personal sense of defilement and 
 unfitness for His Presence, they rise upwards to their Goal, 
 for they find no prison-walls or barriers to keep them in any 
 school of discipline. 
 
 Virgil continues the Guide and Mentor of the Pilgrim, 
 conducting him by philosophical, moral, and intellectual 
 virtues, aided by heavenly ministrations of grace, till the 
 summit of the Mount of Purification has been attained. 
 There the renewed man finds the Paradise of Earth re- 
 covered. All his powers as Man are developed, and there 
 he meets again the beloved Beatrice, who had first awakened 
 his soul to the new Life. In her glorified condition he 
 beholds her as the personification of the Celestial Wisdom, 
 who not only instructs him with regard to his own past life, 
 and concerning the condition of the Church Militant, but 
 prepares him for a further ascent into more spiritual Truth, 
 into which She is to lead him in the Paradise beyond. 
 
 ' Light such as we see it and recognise it, the light of the 
 morning and evening growing and fading, takes off from 
 the unearthliness of the Purgatorio ; peopled as it is by the 
 undying, who through 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.' 
 DEAN CHURCH. 
 
 ' Like our familiar world ' and like the experience of the 
 human heart here, in its progressive dissociation from false 
 
 80
 
 The Uphill Way of the Purgatorio. 
 (5) 
 
 conceptions of God and of man's true end. Like our own 
 world, in that there remains still some perplexity concerning 
 the Way ; in the necessity also there, as here, for counsels, 
 both from brethren and from heavenly ministrations of 
 grace. Like our world in the intercommunion of friends 
 and neighbours, and in the witnessing of Nature's Sacra- 
 mental teaching to the Invisible ; but unlike it, in the 
 absence of temptation, in the perfect comprehension and 
 acceptance of its discipline, in the absolute certainty of the 
 attainment of an ardently desired Goal. Unlike it also, 
 alas ! in the unfailing mutual aid and meek courtesies of 
 each to each, and in the fulness of joy of its united organism 
 (and even of Nature herself) when any member advances in 
 the upward way. It seems the Ideal of the Church Expec- 
 tant, in blessed consciousness of the realities within the 
 Holy City, of the Communion of Saints and of Ministering 
 Angels. , 
 
 ' As men from men 
 
 Do, in the constitution of their souls, 
 
 Differ, by mystery not to be explained ; 
 
 And as we fall by various ways, and sink 
 
 One deeper than another, self-condemned, 
 
 Through manifold degrees of guilt and shame ; 
 
 So manifold and various are the ways 
 
 Of restoration, fashioned to the steps 
 
 Of all infirmity, and tending all 
 
 To the same point, attainable by all 
 
 Peace in ourselves, and union with our God.' 
 
 'The Excursion,' Book IV. 
 
 8l
 
 From the Dank air of the Sepulchre Dante escapes under 
 the Sapphire Sky and Morning Star into the Second 
 Realm. 
 
 (I)- 
 
 PURGATORIO. 
 CANTO I. 1-6, 13-18. 
 
 PER correr miglior acqua alza le vele 
 Omai la navicella del mio ingegno, 
 Che lascia dietro a se mar si crudele : 
 E canterb di quel secondo regno, 
 
 Ove 1' umano spirito si purga, 5 
 
 E di salire al ciel diventa degno. 
 ***** 
 Dolce color d' oriental zaffiro, 
 
 Che s' accoglieva nel sereno aspetto 
 Dell' aer puro infino al primo giro, 15 
 
 Agli occhi miei ricomincib diletto, 
 
 Tosto ch' io fuori usci' dell' aura morta, 
 Che m' avea contristato gli occhi e '1 petto. 
 
 82
 
 Sorrow may endure for a night, 
 But joy cometh in the morning.' 
 
 (I) 
 
 ONLY after a night of anguish and dark distress, dis- 
 pelled by the morning hour, can we enter into the 
 miracle of such a Dawn as these lines suggest to us. The 
 beauty, the perfume, and the radiant purity of the Dawn 
 behind all dawns, seems awakened within us. 
 
 For the Pilgrim, whose footsteps we follow, it is Life from 
 the Dead. 
 
 This New Day contains an unspeakable wonder and 
 promise a fulfilling, rather, of the promise of all preceding 
 dawns. 
 
 ' The Star that strengthens to love ' presides in the East 
 over the first unfolding of the ' Second Kingdom,' the realm 
 of Purification ; that star had been wholly forgotten in the 
 Inferno ; the ' dead air ' there could not carry its rays to 
 the weighted eyes and the oppressed heart. 
 
 At the Southern Pole beamed the four stars, beheld by 
 the ancient people who had been inspired by their virtues 
 Prudence, Justice, Strength, and Temperance. The heavens 
 were rejoicing in these lights as of old, though one hemi- 
 sphere had been widowed of their rays ; this expresses, 
 perhaps, the discontent of Dante with the degenerate people 
 whose eyes, he thought, were blind to the formerly esteemed 
 and practised cardinal virtues.
 
 The Pilgrim beholds the four Stars of the Cardinal 
 virtues. 
 
 (Continued from last page.) 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO I. 19-27. 
 
 LO bel pianeta, ch' ad amar conforta, 
 Faceva tutto rider 1' oriente, 20 
 
 Velando i Pesci, ch' erano in sua scorta. 
 lo mi volsi a man destra, e posi mente 
 All' altro polo, e vidi quattro stelle 
 Non viste mai, fuor ch' alia prima gente. 
 Coder pareva '1 ciel di lor fiammelle. 25 
 
 O settentrional vedovo sito, 
 Poiche private se' di mirar quelle ! 
 
 84
 
 .' All my fresh Springs are in Thee.' 
 - < I ) - 
 
 We experience sundry kinds of death and of night seasons, 
 and surely also sundry kinds of dawn. 
 
 In our sense of Nature's beautiful morning hours, of 
 Spring-tides, of fresh beginnings, in the entrance on some 
 new pursuit, in our new friendships, best of all in awakening 
 to new and fuller truths as they open before UP, we ourselves 
 seem re-dipt in Hope and Joy. 
 
 Our horizon glows and is enlarged in these first hours of 
 new days ; they awaken the dulness of our blunted sensi- 
 bility, blunted by petty cares, by lethargy, or by the 
 monotony of ' custom with its weight. Heavy as frost, and 
 deep almost as life.' Our spirit is again ' finely touched to 
 finer issues.' 
 
 It has been said that Heaven is made up of first days. 
 
 ' When I awake, I am present with thee.'
 
 Cato, Guardian of the base of the Mount, appears, his 
 countenance illuminated by the splendour of the four 
 Stars. 
 
 ( II ) 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO I. 28-33, 37'39- 
 
 COM' io dal loro sguardo fui partito, 
 Un poco me volgendo all' altro polo 
 La, onde '1 Carro gia era sparito, 30 
 
 Vidi presso di me un veglio solo, 
 Degno di tanta reverenza in vista, 
 Che piu non dee a padre alcun figliuolo. 
 
 * * * * * 
 
 Li raggi delle quattro luci sante 37 
 
 Fregiavan si la sua faccia di lume, 
 Ch' io '1 vedea, come '1 Sol fosse davante. 
 
 86
 
 Behold, I make all things New.' 
 
 (II) 
 
 ONE who had witnessed to the splendour of the virtues 
 of the Ancient World is to be the Guardian of 
 newly arriving Pilgrims in the Realm of Purification. He 
 is to initiate their early footsteps by the stern lessons he has 
 himself learnt. 
 
 The virtues of the old Roman were not to be despised 
 or forgotten, but to be transfused with added beams of 
 light. 
 
 Virgil, as enlightened Reason, teaches the Pilgrim to 
 reverence the aged man adorned with the effulgence of the 
 four consecrated Stars ; and through the love of Liberty, so 
 dear to both, would unite each to each. 
 
 The Pilgrim was indeed seeking liberty from the thraldom 
 of corruption, yet the love of liberty in its ordinary sense 
 is appealed to as an actual bond of sympathy. 
 
 Every new Dispensation reveals a glory in the preceding 
 one, and gathers it up into its bosom. It 'orbs into the 
 perfect Star ' not seen by those who moved therein.
 
 Virgil relates to Cato the rescue of Dante as ordained 
 from A bove. 
 
 (Continued from last page.) 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO I. 49-54, 58-75. 
 
 LO Duca mio allor mi die di piglio ; 
 E con parole e con mani e con cenni, 50 
 Reverend mi fe le gambe e '1 ciglio. 
 Poscia rispose lui : Da me non venni : 
 
 Donna scese dal ciel, per li cui preghi 
 
 Delia mia compagnia costui sovvenni. 
 ***** 
 Questi non vide mai 1' ultima sera ; 
 
 Ma, per la sua follia, le fu si presso, 
 
 Che molto poco tempo a volger era. 60 
 
 Si com' io dissi, fui mandate ad esso 
 
 Per lui campare ; e non c' era altra via 
 
 Che questa, per la quale io mi son messo. 
 Mostrat' ho lui tutta la gente ria ; 
 
 Ed ora intendo mostrar quegli spirti, 65 
 
 Che purgan se sotto la tua balia. 
 Com' io 1' ho tratto, saria lungo a dirti : 
 
 Dall' alto scende virtu, che m' aiuta 
 
 Conducerlo a vederti ed a udirti. 
 Or ti piaccia gradir la sua venuta : 7 o 
 
 Liberta va cercando, ch' e si cara, 
 
 Come sa chi per lei vita rifiuta. 
 Tu '1 sai ; che non ti fu per lei amara 
 
 In Utica la morte, ove lasciasti 
 
 La veste, ch' al gran di sara si chiara. 75 
 
 88
 
 The Old and New Dispensations. 
 (II) - 
 
 ST. PAUL recognised that the ministration of death, 
 ' written and engraven in stones,' was glorious, when 
 he pronounced the ministration of the Spirit to be more 
 glorious (2 Cor. iii. 7, 8). 
 
 We want added Life, fuller, more abundant. Not the 
 obliteration of the Past because the Present is better ; not 
 new things instead of old, so much as old things quickened, 
 ' made new,' expanded to meet growing capacities. We 
 want the enlarging, deepening stream of Time, enriched by 
 all its affluents, to carry us on into the Ocean of the fulness 
 of Life in God. 
 
 ' Think not I am come to destroy the Law or the Prophets ; 
 I am not come to destroy but to fulfil,' says the Life of 
 men. 
 
 The Pilgrim's Guide recounts to Cato that he came not 
 of his own choice, but under a commission from Heaven 
 to rescue One, on the very verge of death through his own 
 folly. He has led him through the ' dead world ' to this 
 realm of Purification on his way towards the liberty which 
 he is seeking from Corruption, and he reminds Cato of his 
 own love of Liberty, who for her sake had refused life. 
 
 89
 
 Cato gives directions for Dante's due preparation for the 
 Ascent of the Mountain. 
 
 (Ill) 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO I. 86, 91-99. 
 
 (diss' egli allora) 
 
 * * * * * 
 
 Ma se donna del ciel ti muove e regge, 
 
 Come tu di', non c' e mestier lusinga : 
 
 Basta ben che per lei tu mi richegge. 
 Va' dunque, e fa' che tu costui ricinga 
 
 1)' un giunco schietto, e che gli lavi '1 viso, 95 
 
 Si ch' ogni sucidume quindi stinga : 
 Che non si converria, 1' occhio sorpriso 
 
 D' alcuna nebbia, andar davanti al primo 
 
 Ministro, ch' e di quei di Paradiso. 
 
 90
 
 The Pilgrim is to receive cleansing from the stains of the 
 'far country ' and to be clothed with Humility. 
 
 ( III ) 
 
 T)REPARATIONS are ordained for the Pilgrim's recep- 
 X tion of the graces of Cleansing and Humility. 
 
 He must have the stains on his face washed away, and 
 its true colour must be made visible. He must also be 
 girded about with the smooth rush that grows low down at 
 the Water's Edge. No other plant could grow there, for 
 none other would be so pliable to the waves that beat 
 upon it. 
 
 How much this symbolism says to us ! It needs no 
 interpreter, but it needs taking to our ' indurate ' hearts ! 
 
 Equipped thus, the scales would fall from his eyes, and 
 he would be fitted for beholding the first Angel that should 
 descend from Paradise. 
 
 The rising Sun, always the image of the Divine Presence, 
 was to direct the right Ascent of the Mount. As it had 
 been said at the first awakening of the Pilgrim, ' That 
 Planet's rays lead others right by every road.' 
 
 9 l
 
 The wave-beaten shore where the rushes grow and no 
 other plant. 
 
 (Ill) 
 
 (Continued from last page.) 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO I. 100-114. 
 
 QUESTA isoletta intorno ad imo ad imo 100 
 Laggiu, cola dove la batte 1' onda, 
 Porta de' giunchi sovra '1 molle limo. 
 Null' altra pianta, che facesse fronda, 
 
 O che indurasse, vi puote aver vita, 
 
 Perocche alle percosse non seconda. 105 
 
 Poscia non sia di qua vostra redita : 
 
 Lo Sol vi mostrera, che surge omai, 
 
 Prendere '1 monte a piu lieve salita. 
 Cos! spari. Ed io su mi levai 
 
 Sanza parlare ; e tutto mi ritrassi no 
 
 Al Duca mio, e gli occhi a lui drizzai. 
 Ei comincio : Figliuol, segui i miei passi : 
 
 Volgiamci indietro ; che di qua dichina 
 
 Questa pianura a' suoi termini bassi.
 
 The Valley of Humiliation. 
 
 ' This Valley of Humiliation is the best and most fruitful 
 piece of ground in all those parts. It is a fat ground and 
 consisteth much in meadows. . . . Behold how green this 
 Valley is, also how beautiful with Lilies ! . . . Now, as 
 they were going along and talking, they espied a boy feed- 
 ing his father's sheep. The boy was in very mean clothes, 
 but of a very fresh and well-favoured countenance ; and as 
 he sat by himself, he sung. "Hark !" said Mr. Greatheart, 
 " to what the Shepherd's boy saith." So they hearkened, 
 and he said : 
 
 1 " He that is down need fear no fall, 
 
 He that is low no Pride ; 
 He that is humble ever shall 
 Have God to be his Guide." 
 
 ' Then said their Guide, " Do you hear him ? I will dare 
 to say that this boy lives a merrier life, and wears more of 
 the Heart's Ease in his bosom, than he that is clad in silk 
 and velvet." 
 
 ' In this Valley our Lord formerly had His country house ; 
 He loved much to be here. . . . Here a man shall be free 
 from the hurryings of this life. All states are full of noise 
 and confusion, only the Valley of Humiliation is that empty 
 and solitary place. This is a valley that nobody walks in, 
 but those that love a Pilgrim's life.' BUNYAN'S PILGRIM'S 
 PROGRESS. 
 
 93
 
 Dante is cleansed and girded for the upward Way. 
 
 / TV \ 
 
 ~~ V 1V / 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO I. 115-129. 
 
 T 'ALBA vinceva 1' ora mattutina 
 
 J y Che fuggia innanzi, si che di lontano 
 
 Conobbi il tremolar della marina. 
 Noi andavam per lo solingo piano, 
 
 Com' uom che torna alia smarrita strada, 
 
 Che infino ad essa gli pare ire invano. 120 
 
 Quando noi fummo dove la rugiada 
 
 Pugna col Sole, e, per essere in parte 
 
 Ove adorezza, poco si dirada ; 
 Ambo le mani in su 1' erbetta sparte 
 
 Soavemente '1 mio Maestro pose : 125 
 
 Ond' io che fui accorto di sua arte, 
 Pbrsi ver lui le guancie lagrimose : 
 
 Quivi mi fece tutto discoverto 
 
 Quel color, che 1' Inferno mi nascose. 
 
 94
 
 ' The dew of thy birth is of the Womb of the morning.' 1 
 - ( IV ) 
 
 A VISION opens before us to-day of God's wonderful 
 gift of Water. 
 
 We see it, if we can follow the Seer's eye, trembling into 
 light reflecting the growing Dawn ; and again as the early- 
 dew on the shadowed grass, or glistening where the Sun- 
 beams have but just made the shadows to flee away. These 
 waters of heaven and earth are mingled with the precious 
 tears of the penitent man. Beyond these visible tokens 
 our thoughts are led to the ' untraversed ' Waters of the 
 Spirit whence ' none return.' 
 
 ' O useful Element and clear ! 
 My sacred wash and cleanser here ; 
 My first consigner unto those 
 Fountains of life, where the Lamb goes ! 
 What sublime truths and wholesome themes, 
 Lodge in thy mystical, deep streams ! 
 Such as dull man can never finde, 
 Unless that Spirit lead his minde, 
 Which first upon thy face did move, 
 And hatch'd all with his quick'ning love.' 
 
 HENRY VAUGHAN. 
 
 The Pilgrim and his Guide seek along this solitary shore 
 that lost Way of which we read in the first Canto of the 
 Poem ; the Way which the newly-awakened Pilgrim had 
 abandoned, he knew not when or how, so profound had 
 been his slumber. Till he find it again, it seems to him 
 that he walks in vain. 
 
 The moment of initiation into the new life which is to 
 lead him into the lost, or perhaps only dreamt-of, Way, has 
 arrived. The directions of the Guardian of the base of the 
 Ascending Way are tenderly carried out by the Guide. 
 This is the first of many baptisms of Water and of Spirit. 
 
 95
 
 The -wonder of the humble rush. 
 ( IV ) 
 
 (Continued from last page.) 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO I. 130-136. 
 
 VENIMMO poi in sul lito diserto, 130 
 
 Che mai non vide navigar sue acque 
 Uom, che di ritornar sia poscia esperto. 
 Quivi mi cinse, si com' altrui piacque. 
 O maraviglia ! che qual egli scelse 
 L' umile pianta, cotal si rinacque 135 
 
 Subitamente la, ond' ei la svelse. 
 
 96
 
 Be clothed with Humility. 
 (IV) 
 
 The morning dew from the grass is gathered by the 
 gentle outspread hands of Love's Minister, and mixing with 
 the tears on the face of the willing disciple, the stains, which 
 he had contracted during his sojourn in the ' dead air ' of 
 Wrath and Death, are removed. 
 
 The true colour of the ' human face divine ' is dis- 
 covered. 
 
 Then they descend to the Mystic Water's edge, and the 
 Pilgrim is girt with the humble plant which springs up at 
 once again wherever it is wounded, with the soft persistency 
 of the poor in spirit who lack self-love. 
 
 ' No plant which bears leaves, or hardens its bark, can 
 live on that shore, because it does not yield to the chastise- 
 ment of its waves.' How deep and harmonious a significance 
 runs through all these words of Dante ! Each word the 
 more we penetrate its meaning becomes a seed of further 
 thought ! For follow up this image of the girding with the 
 reed, under trial, and see to whose feet it will lead us. As 
 the grass of the Earth, thought of as the herb yielding seed, 
 leads us to the place where the Lord commanded the 
 multitude to sit down by companies ypo'ri the grass ; so 
 the grass of the waters, thought of as sustaining itself among 
 the waters of affliction, leads us to the place where a stem 
 of it was put into our Lord's hand for His Sceptre ; and in 
 the crown of thorns, and the rod of reed, was foreshown 
 the everlasting truth of the Christian ages that all glory 
 was to be begun in suffering, and all power in humility.' 
 RUSKIN'S 'Modern Painters,' Vol. III. 233. 
 
 97
 
 Dante beholds a light swiftly approach across the Sea ; its 
 whiteness increases, and wings appear unfolded. 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO II. 10-36. 
 
 NOI eravam lunghesso '1 mare ancora, 
 Come gente che pensa a suo cammino, 
 Che va col cuore, e col corpo dimora : 
 Ed ecco qual, sul presso del mattino, 
 
 Per gli grossi vapor Marte rosseggia 
 
 Giu nel ponente sovra '1 suol marino ; 15 
 
 Cotal m' apparve, si ancor lo veggia, 
 
 Un lume per lo mar venir si ratio, 
 
 Che '1 muover suo nessun volar pareggia. 
 Dal qual com' io un poco ebbi ritratto 
 
 L' occhio, per dimandar lo Duca mio, 20 
 
 Rividil piu lucente e maggior fatto. 
 Poi d' ogni lato ad esso m' appario 
 
 Un non sapea che bianco ; ed al di sotto 
 
 A poco a poco un altro a lui n' uscfo. 
 Lo mio Maestro ancor non fece motto 25 
 
 Mentre che i primi bianchi apparser all : 
 
 Ma allor che ben conobbe '1 galeotto, 
 Gridb : Fa* fa' che le ginocchia cali : 
 
 Ecco F angel di Dio ; piega le mani : 
 
 Oma' vedrai di si fatti officials. 30 
 
 Vedi che sdegna gli argomenti umani, 
 
 Si che remo non vuol, nb altro velo 
 
 Che F ali sue, tra liti si lontani. 
 Vedi come F ha dritte verso '1 cielo, 
 
 Trattando F aere con 1' eterne penne, 35 
 
 Che non si mutan come mortal pelo. 
 
 98
 
 ' Then kneel, my soul and body, kneel and bow ; 
 If Saints and Angels fall down, much more thou.' 
 
 STILL, the constant question is concerning the Way; 
 the uncertainty causing thoughts to be busy and 
 movement slow. See the use of the expression ' the Way ' 
 with its capital letter in New Version (Acts ix. 2 ; xix. 9 : 
 xix. 23 ; xxii. 4 ; xxiv. 14, 22). 
 
 Dean Church reminds us that this Poem is the work of a 
 Wanderer, and says : ' The very form into 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 expression for this mortal life; and Viator 
 meant man in his state of trial, as " Comprehensor" meant 
 man made perfect as having attained to his heavenly 
 country.' 
 
 Across the waters a white light flashes towards the 
 wanderers along the solitary Shore, and is discerned by 
 the lowly and attentive Soul to be an Angel-piloted Vessel 
 with newly arriving spirits. Deep reverence is enjoined on 
 the Pilgrim as he awaits the arrival of the first Angel of 
 Paradise. In silence they watch the white light growing 
 into the Angel's unfolding wings, and the attitude of body 
 as well as soul is to betoken reverent expectation from 
 above. 
 
 ' Irreverence everywhere is blindness, not sight ; you can know nothing 
 which you do not reverence. . . . All of the mystery which surrounds 
 life and pervades life is really one mystery. It is God. ... It is Love. 
 And of this personal mystery of love of God it is supremely true that 
 only by reverence, only by the hiding of the eyes, can He be seen. One 
 who thinks to look God full in the face and question Him, blinds him- 
 self thereby, and cannot see God ; he sees something, but what he 
 sees is not God, but himself.' PHILLIPS BROOKS, 'The Wings of the 
 Seraphim. ' 
 
 99
 
 The blessed Spirits brought across the Waters by the 
 Celestial Pilot. 
 
 -(VI) 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO II. 37-54. 
 
 POI, come piu e piu verso noi venne 
 L' uccel divino, piu chiaro appariva : 
 Per che 1' occhio da presso nol sostenne ; 
 Ma chinail giuso. E quei sen venne a riva 40 
 
 Con un vassello snelletto e leggiero, 
 
 Tanto che 1' acqua nulla ne inghiottiva. 
 Da poppa stava '1 celestial nocchiero, 
 
 Tal che parea beato per iscritto ; 
 
 E piu di cento spirti entro sediero. 45 
 
 In exitu Israel de &gypto 
 
 Cantavan tutti insieme ad una voce, 
 
 Con quanto di quel salmo e poscia scritto. 
 Poi fece '1 segno lor di santa croce ; 
 
 Ond' ei si gittar tutti in su la piaggia : 50 
 
 Ed ei sen gio, come venne veloce. 
 La turba, che rimase li, selvaggia 
 
 Parea del loco, rimirando intorno, 
 
 Come colui che nuove cose assaggia. 
 
 100
 
 The chorus of Man, Earth, and Heaven. 
 _ ( VI ) 
 
 WE must read every word of this joyful Song of 
 Deliverance (Psalm cxiv.), not in cold blood, but 
 with the blessed spirits just set free from mortality and 
 from the perils of moral death. It is the Jubilate of the 
 Realm whose watchwords are Humility and Penitence. 
 
 Some of Dante's words with regard to its interpretation 
 (as a pattern for the interpretation also of his own Poem) 
 have been cited in the Preface ; they may be quoted here 
 at more length. He says : ' If we view it in the letter, we 
 see it describes the Exodus of the Children of Israel from 
 Egypt in the time of Moses ; if allegorically, we see signified 
 our redemption by Jesus Christ ; if we look at its moral 
 sense, we perceive the conversion of the Soul from the 
 plaint and misery of sin to the state of grace ; if we regard 
 it mystically, we behold the passage of the blessed Soul 
 from present corruption into the liberty of Eternal Glory.' 
 
 These words unlock for us Dante's view of the unfolding 
 life of man. First, under iron rule, labouring without 
 recompense in the midst of people of alien tongues and 
 customs ; then breaking these bonds through unity with a 
 Leader sent of God, who over-rules the opposition of the 
 aliens and who dominates Nature ; Herself concurring in 
 joyous, thrilling sympathy with the progressive spirit on its 
 Way to Freedom, Unity, and Glory. With the presence of God 
 the dividing Sea, the immovable Mountains, the Stony Rock, 
 even the River of Death, all make for the onward march of 
 the divinely indwelt and divinely led children of God. 
 
 Nature and her spiritual Significances are so blent in 
 this Psalm that we cannot sever them. So also it is with 
 the ' sacred Poem to which Heaven and Earth have lent a 
 hand.' So it is with that Poem's great Theme Man. 
 
 101
 
 One of the newly-arrived Souls, Casella, came forward to 
 embrace Dante, his love unchanged by death. 
 
 _ vil 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO II. 76-90. 
 
 IO vidi una di lor traggersi avante, 
 Per abbracciarmi, con si grande affetto, 
 Che mosse me a far lo somigliante. 
 Oh ombre vane, fuor che nell' aspetto ! 
 
 Tre volte dietro a lei le mani awinsi, 80 
 
 E tante mi tornai con esse al petto. 
 Di maraviglia, credo, mi dipinsi : 
 
 Per che 1' ombra sorrise, e si ritrasse ; 
 
 Ed io seguendo lei, oltre mi pinsi. 
 Soavemente disse ch' io posasse : 85 
 
 Allor conobbi chi era, e pregai 
 
 Che per parlarmi un poco s' arrestasse. 
 Risposemi : Cosi com' io t' amai 
 
 Nel mortal corpo, cosi t' amo sciolta ; 
 
 Pero m' arresto : ma tu perche vai ? 90 
 
 102
 
 v Friendship, whence there ever issues forth 
 A steady splendour' 
 
 - ( VII ) - 
 
 VEN as I loved thee in mortal body, so I love thee 
 free.' How much that word 'sciolta' says to us, 
 unswathed, unbound, freed Love unbound, flowing forth 
 unfettered, unchanged, and unchanging. 
 
 1 Rapt from the fickle and the frail, 
 With gather'd power yet the same.' 
 
 When the reunion, to which our hearts are ever pressing, 
 takes place, shall we not find that we have not been sepa- 
 rated except in the consciousness of the fettered one? 
 
 ' Nous retrouverons ce que nous n'avons point perdu,' 
 said Fenelon ; and even the imprisoned in the body have 
 at moments been conscious of the presence of their beloved 
 Saints in Christ, who has said, ' Lo, I am with you all the 
 days.' Yet, till some blessed consummation, there must be 
 an aching sense of the empty arms that, in desiring to renew 
 the former embrace, return unsatisfied to the heart. Our 
 faces must be towards the rising Sun, not 'towards the 
 sunlight that is gone !' 
 
 ' Learn, by a mortal yearning, to ascend 
 Seeking a higher object. Love was given, 
 Encouraged, sanctioned, chiefly for that end ; 
 For this the passion to excess was driven 
 That Self might be annulled : her bondage prove 
 The fetters of a dream, opposed to love.' 
 
 ' Laodamia.'
 
 The converse of Dante and Casella, and the prayed-for 
 singing of Casella entrancing all, till Cato reproves 
 their delay. 
 
 ( VIII ) 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO II. 91, 92, 106-114. 
 
 mio, per tornare altra volta 
 La dove i' son, fo io questo viaggio, 
 ***** 
 Ed io : Se nuova legge non ti toglie 106 
 
 Memoria, od uso all' amoroso canto, 
 Che mi solea quetar tutte mie voglie, 
 Di cib ti piaccia consolare alquanto 
 
 L' anima mia, che con la sua persona 1 1 o 
 
 Venendo qui, e affannata tanto. 
 Amor, che nella mente mi ragiona, 
 Comincio egli allor si dolcemente, 
 Che la dolcezza ancor dentro mi suona. 
 
 104
 
 ' Man must pass 
 From what once seemed good, to what now proves best. 
 
 - ( VIII ) - 
 
 DANTE longs again to be calmed and comforted as in 
 former days on Earth, by the music of Casella ; 
 and entreats his Friend, unless some new law of his present 
 condition forbid it, to sing him one of those songs of love 
 which used to fulfil all his longings. His ascent had 
 fatigued his lagging body. Might he again taste the solace 
 of former days ? Casella at once pours forth in tones of 
 melody that thrill him with delight one of Dante's own 
 songs. Virgil, also, and the whole company of souls are 
 ravished. Was this natural and innocent delight a looking 
 back to Egypt, when pressing onwards and upwards should 
 have been their sole intention, as Cato's stern reproof 
 implies, and as Virgil's haste and remorse afterwards would 
 seem to confirm ? Are there times and seasons in the 
 Pilgrim's life when, though Conscience and Right reason 
 cannot actually condemn, the remembrance of the Stoic 
 virtues should urge to more complete and strenuous 
 endeavour? The Pilgrim has not yet entered the Gate 
 of Purgatory proper of the actual ascent in the true way 
 of the repentant and aspiring soul ; he has escaped the 
 bondage of selfishness and pride, but needs to receive in 
 its fulness the divine gift of persevering repentance. The 
 three stars of Faith, Hope, and Charity have not yet 
 exercised their influences upon him, though he has indeed 
 perceived the morning Star of Love. 
 
 105
 
 The remorse and haste of Virgil. 
 ( VIII ) 
 
 (Continued from last page.) 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO II. 115-123. 
 
 LO mio Maestro, ed io, e quella gente 115 
 
 Ch' eran con lui, parevan si contenti, 
 Com' a nessun toccasse altro la mente. 
 Noi eravatn tutti fissi ed attenti 
 
 Alle sue note : ed ecco '1 veglio onesto 
 Gridando : Che e cib, spiriti lenti ? 1 20 
 
 Qual negligenza, quale stare e questo ? 
 Correte al monte a spogliarvi lo scoglio 
 Ch' esser non lascia a voi Dio manifesto. 
 
 106
 
 * Quick to advance and to retreat most slow.' 
 ( VIII ) - 
 
 When Dante enters the Gate of Purgatory proper, one of 
 the injunctions he will receive from the Angel of the Gate 
 is not to venture to look back. He is now in preparation 
 for this decisive epoch. 
 
 There are long seasons of transition, long tarryings ere 
 decisions are clenched and thresholds crossed, wondrously 
 true to the experience of life, in Dante's land of ' far dis- 
 tances.' ' Brethren, I count not myself to have appre- 
 hended ; but this one thing I do, forgetting those things 
 which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things 
 which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of 
 the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.' Phil. iii. 13, 14. 
 
 In the opening lines of the next Canto, we read that 
 Virgil seemed remorseful. Dante observes, it was a trivia 
 fault that stung this noble and stainless conscience. It is 
 interesting to note the further remark made on his Master's 
 rapid flight under Cato's rebuke the former lingering 
 necessitated undue, or at any rate undignified haste, so the 
 disciple thought. Dante speaks of hurry (the Avenger of 
 Delay) as that 'which mars the dignity of every act ' (see 
 Canto III. 10, 1 1). We are often reminded on this Pilgrimage 
 of the dignity and courtesies of outward demeanour, as 
 they pierce through from an inward condition to external 
 expression. 
 
 107
 
 Virgil reminds Dante that Reason withotit Faith cannot 
 satisfy the Intellect of man. 
 
 ( IX ) 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO III. 34-54. 
 
 MATTO e chi spera che nostra ragione 
 Fossa trascorrer 1' infinita via, 35 
 
 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 disi'ar vedeste senza frutto 40 
 
 Tai, che sarebbe il lor disio quietato, 
 
 Ch' eternalmente k dato lor per lutto : 
 lo dico d' Aristotile e di Plato, 
 
 E di molti altri. E qui chino la fronte, 
 
 E piu non disse ; e rimase turbato. 45 
 
 Noi divenimmo intanto appife del monte : 
 
 Quivi trovammo la roccia si erta, 
 
 Che indarno vi sarien le gambe pronte. 
 Tra Lerici e Turbia, la piu diserta, 
 
 La piu ruinata via e una scala, 50 
 
 Verso di quella, agevole ed aperta. 
 Or chi sa da qual man la costa cala, 
 
 Disse '1 Maestro mio, fermando '1 passo, 
 
 Si che possa salir chi va senz' ala ? 
 
 1 08
 
 The Mystery of the Shadow and of the Infinite One. 
 (IX) 
 
 A WORD of explanation is necessary to link the frag- 
 ment of to-day with a passage preceding it, which 
 introduces it and accounts for Virgil's utterance. 
 
 The red morning Sun is behind Dante and Virgil, and 
 Dante sees before him but one Shadow his own ; he turns, 
 frightened lest he should find his Guide had forsaken him, 
 but is reassured by Virgil, who explains that 'the body 
 within which he cast a shadow ' lies at Naples. He then 
 speaks of the mystery of the spiritual substance, that should 
 be capable of feeling heat and cold, and yet is not material 
 as one that casts a shadow. From this mystery he is led 
 on to speak of the mystery of mysteries the Three in One 
 and His ways, before which human reasonings must be 
 dumb ; and alludes pathetically to those great spirits whom 
 they had seen in Limbo, himself amongst them, whose 
 fruitless desires for Truth have never been satisfied, for lack 
 of Faith. He reminds the Pilgrim that there would have 
 been no necessity for the Incarnation, if man's intellect had 
 been sufficient to penetrate the mysteries of the Universe. 
 
 The little Child who is the model for one who would 
 enter the Kingdom of Heaven, is ever asking questions, 
 trusting in an Answerer and the possibility of an answer. 
 
 We need divine teaching to know when and where to 
 question, and when and where to wait in silence and trust 
 for an answer, ever reposing in the Answerer, even if it be 
 till our last day on Earth, and beyond. 
 
 109
 
 The steepness of the Ascent perplexes Virgil. He asks the 
 way of a band of timid souls, astonished at Dante's 
 shadow. 
 
 ( X ) 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO III. 73-99. 
 
 OB EN finiti, o gia spirit! eletti, 
 Virgilio incomincio, per quella pace, 
 Ch' io credo che per voi tutti s' aspetti, 75 
 
 Ditene dove la montagna giace, 
 
 Si che possibil sia 1' andare in suso : 
 
 Che '1 perder tempo, a chi piu sa, piu spiace. 
 
 Come le pecorelle escon del chiuso 
 
 Ad una, a due, a tre, e 1' altre stanno 80 
 
 Timidette atterrando 1' occhio e '1 muso ; 
 
 E cib che fa la prima, e 1' altre fanno, 
 Addossandosi a lei, s' ella s' arresta, 
 Semplici e quete, e lo perche non sanno ; 
 
 Si vid' io muovere, a venir, la testa 85 
 
 Di quella mandra fortunata allotta, 
 Pudica in faccia e nell' andare onesta. 
 
 Come color dinanzi vider rotta 
 
 La luce in terra dal mio destro canto, 
 
 Si che 1' ombr' era da me alia grotta, 90 
 
 Ristaro, e trasser se indietro alquanto ; 
 E tutti gli altri, che venieno appresso, 
 Non sapendo '1 perche, fero altrettanto. 
 
 Senza vostra dimanda io vi confesso 
 
 Che questo e corpo uman che voi vedete ; 95 
 Per che '1 lume del Sole in terra e fesso. 
 
 Non vi maravigliate ; ma credete, 
 
 Che non sanza virtu, che dal ciel vegna, 
 Cerca di soverchiar questa parete.
 
 ' The Paradisaical man is clear as transparent glass, and 
 he is fully penetrated by the light of the Divine 
 
 (X) 
 
 IN the lines that precede the quotation on the opposite 
 page uncertainty about the Way still oppresses the 
 Pilgrim and his Guide. The thought expressed in lines 
 34-44 seems manifested here by the perplexity of the Guide. 
 His reason tells him that he himself is not sufficient for this 
 perplexity, without recourse to the fuller Christian light in 
 others. 
 
 The path up the mountain is seen to be so steep that 
 Virgil thinks they would need wings to mount on that side. 
 A throng of souls is at last seen advancing in the same 
 direction, and Virgil addresses them in the passage selected. 
 His invocation of their aid is beautiful in its courtesy and 
 encouragement ' by that Peace which I believe is waiting 
 for you all.' The demeanour of these souls befits those 
 who have been lately delivered from the snare of the enemy, 
 who are setting their faces heavenwards meek, diffident, 
 and looking for counsel. They have been startled by 
 observing the wonder of Dante's shadow ; this is several 
 tiroes brought before us, and is of special significance. In 
 the Inferno he was recognised as a mortal man by his 
 breathing ; in the Purgatorio by his Shadow ; in Paradise 
 he is revealed as he is, without such signs, to the all-piercing 
 vision of the glorified Saints. Does the Shadow cast by 
 
 in
 
 The Shadow. 
 (X) 
 
 him ' who is within the body ' (remark the expression not 
 simply cast by the body) symbolize the self-hood or perhaps 
 the flesh, as St. Paul uses the word when he says, ' in my 
 flesh dwelleth no good thing ' ? 
 
 'If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full 
 of light.' The Souls in Purgatory are delivered from all 
 temptations of the flesh, and their eye is single. Some 
 such meaning may possibly have been latent in Dante's 
 mind. 
 
 112
 
 The Shadow. 
 (X) 
 
 A few lines of a forcible poem of Victor Hugo's, perhaps 
 suggested by Dante's mention of the Shadow, connects it 
 with the apparent evil in materiality. 
 
 'CE QUE DIT LA BOUCHE D'OMBRE.' 
 * * * * * 
 
 ' Ne reflechis-tu pas lorsque tu vois ton ombre ? 
 Cette forme de toi, rampante, horrible, sombre, 
 Qui liee a tes pas comme un spectre vivant, 
 Va tantot en arriere et tantot en avant ; 
 Qui se mele a la nuit, sa grande sceur funeste, 
 Et qui centre le jour, noire et dure, proteste ; 
 D'ou vient elle ? De toi, de ta chair, du limon 
 Dont 1'esprit se revet en devenant demon ; 
 De ce corps qui, cree par ta faute premiere ; 
 Ayant rejete Dieu, resiste a la lumiere ; 
 De ta matiere, helas ! de ton iniquite. 
 Cette ombre dit : " Je suis 1'etre d'infirmite ; 
 Je suis tombd de'ja, je puis tomber encore." 
 L'ange laisse passer a travers lui 1'aurore ; 
 Nul simulacre obscur ne suit 1'etre anormal ; 
 Homme, tout ce qui fait de 1'ombre a fait le mal !' 
 
 VICTOR HUGO.
 
 The steep and exhausting climb of the Cliff at the base 
 of the Mountain, and Virgil's exhortations to per- 
 severance. 
 
 _ (XI) 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO IV. 25-51. 
 
 V r ASSI in Sanleo, e discendesi in Noli : 25 
 
 Montasi su Bismantova in cacume 
 Con esso i pie; ma qui convien ch' uom voli : 
 Dico con F ale snelle e con le piume 
 
 Del gran disio, diretro a Quel condotto, 
 
 Che speranza mi dava e facea lume. 30 
 
 Noi salivam per entro '1 sasso rotto ; 
 
 E d' ogni lato ne stringea lo stremo, 
 
 E piedi e man voleva '1 suol di sotto. 
 Quando noi fummo in su F orlo supremo 
 
 Dell' alta ripa, alia scoverta piaggia, 35 
 
 Maestro mio, diss' io, che via faremo ? 
 Ed egli a me : Nessun tuo passo caggia. 
 
 Pur suso al monte dietro a me acquista, 
 
 Fin che n' appaia alcuna scorta saggia. 
 Lo sommo er' alto, che vincea la vista, 40 
 
 E la costa superba piu assai, 
 
 Che da mezzo quadrante a centre lista. 
 Io era lasso, quando cominciai : 
 
 O dolce padre, volgiti e rimira 
 
 Com' io rimango sol, se non ristai. 45 
 
 O figliuol, disse, insin quivi ti lira, 
 
 Additandomi un balzo poco in sue, 
 
 Che da quel lato il poggio tutto gira. 
 Si mi spronaron le parole sue, 
 
 Ch' io mi sforzai, carpando appresso lui, 50 
 
 Tanto che '1 cinghio sotto i pie mi fue. 
 
 114
 
 ' Then welcome . . . 
 Each sting that bids nor sit nor stand, but go. 
 
 (XI) 
 
 ALL the powers of Body, Soul, and Spirit are needed in 
 some parts of the Pilgrim's most difficult ascent. 
 Body must help Soul, as well as Soul help Body, in the path- 
 way of obedience. Tasks have to be exacted from body 
 and soul by the stronger and more willing Spirit ; and during 
 the painful effort imposed, swift Desire from above must 
 be waited for, as David's wing of the dove to lift that which 
 cleaveth to the dust. 
 
 ' Quicken me, O Lord,' will then be the oft-repeated 
 cry. 
 
 The difficulty of the arduous way is wonderfully vividly 
 pictured before our mind's eye here. Pilgrims know it. 
 
 ' Leave me not, my Father, or I remain alone ' is the 
 sigh of the jaded Aspirant; and the answering Word is 
 given : 
 
 ' No step of thine descend still up the Mount 
 Behind me, win thy way.' Line 37. 
 
 ' Yet cease I not to struggle and aspire 
 Heavenward ; and chide the part of me that flags 
 Thro' sinful choice, or dread necessity 
 On human nature from above imposed.' 
 
 WORDSWORTH.
 
 Dante is dismayed at the prospect of the long and steep 
 climb. Virgil encourages him to hope in increasing 
 strength. 
 
 ( XII ) - 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO IV. 85-96. 
 
 MA, s' a te piace, volentier saprei 85 
 
 Quanto avemo ad andar ; chb '1 poggio sale 
 Piu che salir non posson gli occhi miei. 
 Ed egli a me : Questa montagna e tale, 
 Che sempre al cominciar di sotto e grave ; 
 E quanto piu va su, e men fa male. 90 
 
 Perb quand' ella ti parra soave 
 
 Tanto, che '1 suso andar ti sia leggiero, 
 Com' a seconda in giuso andar per nave ; 
 Allor sarai al fin d' esto sentiero : 
 
 Quivi di riposar 1' affanno aspetta. 95 
 
 Piu non rispondo ; e questo so per vero. 
 
 116
 
 ' Does the road wind uphill all the way ? 
 Yes, to the very end.' 
 
 ( XII ) 
 
 THE Pilgrim, wearied out in nerve and spirit, cannot 
 help asking, How long can I persevere in such 
 effort ? Will there be no respite from this endeavour ? Is 
 the Way always so difficult ? The beautiful dawn has passed 
 into common day, and the prospect is one of an interminable 
 and monotonous ascent. 
 
 Relief is rather to be grown up into than to be found at 
 some milestone on the way. Virgil's answer has nothing 
 to do with the computation of Time or distance. 
 
 ' When the going up shall be to thee as easy 
 As going down the current in a boat, 
 Then at this pathway's ending thou wilt be.' 
 
 When thy true nature is attained when the new man is 
 formed in thee, every spontaneous effort and impulse will 
 carry thee onwards and upwards. 
 
 ' The ultimate Angel's law 
 There where law, life, love, impulse are one thing.' 
 
 We shall see that this was attained by this Pilgrim on the 
 threshold of the Earthly Paradise. Can it be attained fully 
 on this side of Death ? We certainly see that some tempta- 
 tions, at least, utterly lose their power over good men. 
 To those who have persevered in Truth, Honesty, and 
 Temperance, the opposite vices pull in vain against their 
 whole nature. Such as these are now carried along as in 
 a boat on a descending current. We may have seen some 
 few, at the prow of whose vessel Faith, Hope, and Charity 
 so steer and propel that the Voyager within seems mean- 
 while at rest. 
 
 ' For a work to be perfect it must be wrought in us, without our co- 
 operation as principal agents ; it must be God's work, done in God, and 
 man must not in any way take the lead.' ST. CATHARINE OF GENOA.
 
 Dante, listening to whispering comments, is adjured by 
 Virgil to stand firm like a Tower.. 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO V. 7-24. 
 
 GLI occhi rivolsi al suon di questo motto, 
 E vidile guardar per maraviglia 
 Pur me, pur me, e '1 lume ch' era rotto. 
 Perche 1' animo tuo tanto s' impiglia, 10 
 
 Disse '1 Maestro, che F andare allenti ? 
 
 Che ti fa cio che quivi si pispiglia ? 
 Vien dietro a me, e lascia dir le genti ; 
 
 Sta, come torre, fermo, che non crolla 
 
 Giammai la cima per soffiar de' vend. 15 
 
 Che sempre 1' uomo, in cui pensier rampolla 
 
 Sovra pensier, da se dilunga il segno, 
 
 Perche la foga 1' un dell' altro insolla. 
 Che potev' io piu dir, se non : I' vegno ? 
 
 Dissilo, alquanto del color consperso, 20 
 
 Che fa 1' uom di perdon talvolta degno. 
 Intanto per la costa di traverse 
 
 Venivan genti, innanzi a noi un poco, 
 
 Cantando Miserere a verso a verso. 
 
 118
 
 ' They saie ; Quhat sate thei ? Lctte them saie.' 
 ( XIII ) 
 
 THE Pilgrim finds himself in another throng of spirits. As 
 he passes through them, they, as others before them 
 have done, point out to one another the puzzling shadow cast 
 by Dante. He listens to their words, and is self-occupied by the 
 suggestions they cause ; and without knowing it he slackens 
 his pace. Then follows the well-known counsel, so especially 
 needed in a world like our own. ' Come after me,' says the 
 Wisdom of Conscience, 'and let the people talk' ' Lascia 
 dir le genti.' He is also instructed concerning the waste of 
 energy that arises from letting one thought spring up after 
 another, removing the Thinker from his aim (16-18). 
 
 Concentration of purpose in the innermost thoughts, and 
 disregard of whisperings behind, seem the lesson of the 
 day. 
 
 ' God works unstayed, untroubled, in the soul that has been trained to 
 think in all its leisure times, true and high and gentle thoughts. He 
 enters in and stays there, not as a Wayfaring Man, but as a willing 
 welcome Guest in a house that has been prepared and decked and 
 furnished. There the voice of God is clearly heard. There is no know- 
 ing whither God might call us, if only we would keep our minds, by 
 His help, free and true to hear His bidding when it conies, and on the 
 drift and tone which our minds are now acquiring it may depend whether, 
 when the time comes, we recognise our work or not ; whether we press 
 forward with the host of God, or dully fall away, it may be, into the 
 misery of a listless, aimless life.' PAGET'S 'Spirit of Discipline.'
 
 The violently slain, but repenting and pardoning souls, 
 who ask prayers from their friends on earth, and 
 long to see God. 
 
 (XIV) 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO V. 46-72. 
 
 OANIMA, che vai, per esser lieta, 
 Con quelle membra con le quai nascesti, 
 Venian gridando, un poco '1 passo queta. 
 Guarda s' alcun di noi unque vedesti ; 
 
 Si che di lui di la novelle porti. 50 
 
 Deh perche vai ? deh perche non t' arresti ? 
 Noi fummo tutti gia per forza morti, 
 
 E peccatori infino all' ultim' ora : 
 
 Quivi lume del ciel ne fece accord, 
 Si che, pentendo e perdonando, fuora 55 
 
 Di vita uscimmo a Dio pacificati, 
 
 Che del disio di se veder n' accuora. 
 Ed io : Per che ne' vostri visi guati, 
 
 Non riconosco alcun : ma s' a voi piace 
 
 Cosa ch' io possa, spiriti ben nati, 60 
 
 Voi dite ; ed io '1 faro per quella pace, 
 
 Che dietro a' passi di si fatta guida 
 
 Di mondo in mondo cercar mi si face. 
 Ed uno incomincib : Ciascun si fida 
 
 Del benefizio tuo senza giurarlo, 65 
 
 Pur che '1 voler nonpossa non ricida. 
 Ond' io, che solo, innanzi agli altri, parlo, 
 
 Ti prego, se mai vedi quel paese 
 
 Che siede tra Romagna e quel di Carlo, 
 Che tu mi sie de' tuoi prieghi cortese 70 
 
 In Fano si, che ben per me s' adori, 
 
 Perch 'io possa purgar le gravi offese. 
 
 120
 
 Thro' the Gates that bar the distance 
 Comes a gleam of what is higher' 
 
 (XIV) 
 
 ONE detaches himself from the crowd of spirits through 
 which Dante has passed, entreating him to stop 
 that he may speak with him ; he declares that he and the 
 company with him have all died sudden and violent deaths, 
 and were sinners even to their latest hour ; but that through 
 light from Heaven they issued forth from the body, pardon- 
 ing and repenting and reconciled to God, with great longing 
 to see His face. He then begs Dante, on his return to 
 Earth, to pray for him, and to ask his friends at Fano, where 
 he had lived, to pray for him. This request is continually 
 made to the Pilgrim who is to return to Earth, and we shall 
 see later the grave question it awakens in his mind. 
 
 Dante, though so stern a moralist, shows us here his 
 belief that one moment of true repentance is the turning- 
 point of a soul from death to life. Forgiveness of those 
 who had inflicted the sudden death manifested in this Circle 
 the reality of this repentance. Recognition ' in the light 
 of Heaven ' (54) of our own need of forgiveness must unlock 
 our power of forgiving others. The claim made upon us to 
 forgive must at times be a severe test of our own state of 
 heart. To ask our Father for the measure of forgiveness 
 that we mete to others is a strangely searching prayer. 
 
 ' Make my forgiveness downright, such as I 
 Should perish if I did not have from Thee !' 
 
 GEOROE MACDONAI.D. 
 
 121
 
 The Story of Buonconte's death. 
 ( XV ) 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO V. 88-108. 
 
 IO fui di Montefeltro ; io son Buonconte : 
 Giovanna ed altri non ban di me cura ; 
 Per ch' io vo tra costor con bassa fronte. 90 
 Ed io a lui : Qual forza, o qual ventura 
 
 Ti travio si fuor di Campaldino, 
 
 Che non si seppe mai tua sepoltura ? 
 Oh, rispos' egli, appie del Casentino 
 
 Traversa un' acqua c' ha nome 1' Archiano, 95 
 
 Che sovra 1' Ermo nasce in Appennino. 
 La, dove il nome suo diventa vano, 
 
 Arriva' io, forato nella gola, 
 
 Fuggendo a piede e insanguinando '1 piano. 
 Quivi perdei la vista ; e la parola too 
 
 Nel nome di Maria finio, e quivi 
 
 Caddi, e rimase la mia carne sola. 
 Io dirb '1 vero, e tu '1 ridi' tra i vivi : 
 
 L' angel di Dio mi prese, e quel d' Inferno 
 
 Gridava : O tu dal ciel, perche mi privi ? 105 
 
 Tu te ne porti di costui 1' eterno, 
 
 Per una lagrimetta che '1 mi toglie ; 
 
 Ma io faro dell' altro altro governo. 
 
 122
 
 Prayer, from a living source within the will, 
 And beating up thro 1 all ike bitter world, 
 Kept him a living soul.' 
 
 ( XV ) 
 
 WE are constantly being reminded throughout this 
 Poem of the knitting together of the whole 
 human family, and of the interdependence of its members. 
 It is most touchingly brought before us in the story of 
 Buonconte ; one of those who had suffered a violent death, 
 and who had set out on his climb up the lofty mountain, 
 knowing that Giovanna cares not for him, nor does any 
 other care, and therefore ' he goes with downcast face.' He 
 is poverty-stricken without love, lonely and sick at heart for 
 this new Enterprise. If he might but get the prayers of 
 some who knew him in his life on Earth ! some of those 
 loving aspirations that he would probably have despised 
 before the late-accepted light had dawned that sent him 
 forth at last repentant and forgiving ! Such affectionate 
 desires for his ascending steps would give his drooping 
 courage wings. He recounts that he was but just saved 
 from the clutches of a Minister of Hell, by ' one little 
 tearlet,' as the demon himself had complained, and he 
 thinks, if those he left behind knew his story and its sequel, 
 their prayers would follow and aid him. 
 
 123
 
 Virgil affirms that prayer for another, warmed with love 
 and in God, does avail ; but directs Dante to fuller 
 Truth through Beatrice. 
 
 ( XVI ) 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO VI. 34-57. 
 
 ED egli a me : La mia scrittura e piana ; 
 E la speranza di costor non falla, 35 
 
 Se ben si guarda con la mente sana ; 
 Che cima di giudicio non s' avvalla, 
 
 Perche fuoco d' amor compia in un punto 
 
 Cio che dee soddisfar chi qui s' astalla. 
 E la, dov' io fermai cotesto punto, 40 
 
 Non s' ammendava, per pregar, difetto, 
 
 Perche '1 prego da Dio era disgiunto. 
 Veramente a cosi alto sospetto 
 
 Non ti fermar, se quella nol ti dice, 
 
 Che lume fia tra '1 vero e 1'intelletto. 45 
 
 Non so se intendi ; io dico di Beatrice : 
 
 Tu la vedrai di sopra, in su la vetta 
 
 Di questo monte, ridente e felice. 
 Ed io : Buon Duca, andiamo a maggior fretta ; 
 
 Che gia non m' affatico come dianzi : 50 
 
 E vedi omai che '1 poggio 1' ombra getta. 
 Noi anderem con questo giorno innanzi, 
 
 Rispose, quanto piu potremo omai : 
 
 Ma '1 fatto e d' altra forma che non stanzi. 
 Prima che siam lassu, tornar vedrai 55 
 
 Colui che gia si cuopre della costa, 
 
 Si che i suoi raggi tu romper non fai. 
 
 124
 
 ' Whether one member suffer, all the members suffer 
 with it ; or one member be honoured, all are honoured 
 with it.' i COR. xii. 26. 
 
 ( XVI ) r 
 
 THE Spirits in numbers pressed around Dante, asking 
 that prayers should be made for them 'so as to 
 hasten their becoming holy' ; and he, pondering the matter, 
 appeals to Virgil, and asks whether in some text of his, he 
 has not affirmed that no orison can bend aside a decree of 
 Heaven. Are then, he asks, the hopes of these spirits 
 vain ? This universe would indeed be chaotic if the Will 
 of Heaven permitted itself to be over-ruled and twisted by 
 our ignorant, short-sighted multiplicity of Wills ! 
 
 Virgil reiterates his affirmation ; but says that he had spoken 
 of prayer separate from God : not of prayer inbreathed by 
 His Spirit. The Teacher adds that the expectations of 
 those who looked for help through prayers offered for them 
 were not vain. The translation given by Longfellow is 
 rather obscure. In Dean Plumptre's, the meaning of the 
 Original seems more definitely conveyed. 
 
 ' My text is clearly taught. 
 And yet that hope of theirs leads not astray, 
 If to discernment reason should be brought. 
 For height of Justice doth not fall away 
 
 Because Love's fire doth in an hour complete 
 The debt which he who dwells here needs must pay.' 
 The foot-note adds further explanation. 
 
 ' When a Christian prays fervently for the soul of one whom he has 
 loved, that fervent Charity is accepted by the Divine Justice as a satis- 
 faction, and so the prayer can be granted without any abatement from 
 the strict law of retribution. In the teaching of the Schoolmen, it did 
 not matter whether the satisfaction were given by the sinner himself, or 
 by others on his behalf. Virgil, the representative of human Wisdom, 
 speaks, however, with a conscious diffidence. The true solution of all 
 such difficulties was to come from Beatrice as the representative of 
 Theology, as Divine Wisdom in its highest aspect. ' 
 
 "5
 
 ' We are very members incorporate in the mystical 
 body of Thy Son.' 
 
 - ( XVI ) - 
 
 Meditating on the words of St. Paul in Rom. xii. 5, 
 ' we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one 
 members one of another;' and in i Cor. xii. 12 and 
 Ephes. iv. 16, we are led to realize the power within this 
 mystical Organism of taking hold of the unseen forces pro- 
 ceeding from its Divine Head; each member receiving or 
 giving forth as it may lack or abound. We see how the 
 ardour of Love may be increased and sent forth in swifter 
 circulation through a benumbed member by the prayers of 
 another member in more active relationship with the Head, 
 and in this way the Divine requirements of Righteousness 
 and Love (which rule ever undivided) would be satisfied. 
 
 As men have learnt more of the laws of Nature, submitting 
 to these laws and so learning to use them, what wonders in 
 that realm have been accomplished ! What, then, may be 
 accomplished in the realm of Spirit where soul touches 
 soul, where 'all things are in common, none saying aught 
 that he has is his own.' What, then, may be the growth of 
 the Body when each member becomes inwilled by the 
 Divine Wisdom and the Divine Love? None, then, will 
 have to go with downcast brow because nor Giovanna, nor 
 any other, cares for him ! 
 
 126
 
 1 Till we all come . . . unto a perfect man.' 
 ( XVI ) ^ 
 
 For as we have many members in one body, and all members have 
 not the same office : 
 
 ' So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members 
 one of another.' Rom. xii. 4, 5. 
 
 ' For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members 
 of that one body, being many, are one body : so also is Christ. 
 
 ' For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be 
 Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free ; and have been all micle 
 to drink into one Spirit. 
 
 ' For the body is not one member, but many. 
 
 ' If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the 
 body ; is it therefore not of the body ? 
 
 ' And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the 
 body ; is it therefore not of the body ? 
 
 ' If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing ? If the 
 whole were hearing, where were the smelling ? 
 
 ' But new hath God set the members every one of them in the body, 
 as it hath pleased Him. 
 
 ' And if they were all one member, where were the body ? 
 
 ' But now are they many members, yet but one body. 
 
 ' And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee : nor 
 again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. 
 
 ' Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more 
 feeble, are necessary : 
 
 ' And those members of the body, which we think to be less honour- 
 able, upon these we bestow more abundant honour ; and our uncomely 
 parts have more abundant comeliness. 
 
 ' For our comely parts have no need : but God hath tempered the body 
 together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked : 
 
 ' That there should be no schism in the body ; but that the members 
 should have the same care one for another. 
 
 ' And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it ; or 
 one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it. 
 
 ' Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular. ' 
 I Cor. xii. 12-27. 
 
 I2 7
 
 Virgil asks Sordello if they may continue their 
 ascent by night. 
 
 ( XVII ) - 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO VII. 37-57. 
 
 MA se tu sai e puoi, alcuno indizio 
 Da' noi, perche venir possiam piu tosto 
 La, dove '1 Purgatorio ha dritto inizio. 
 Rispose : Luogo certo non c' e posto ; 40 
 
 Licito m' e andar suso ed intorno : 
 
 Per quanto ir posso, a guida mi t' accosto. 
 Ma vedi gia come dichina '1 giorno, 
 
 Ed andar su di notte non si puote : 
 
 Perb buon pensar d' un bel soggiorno. 45 
 
 Anime sono a destra qua remote : 
 
 Se '1 mi consenti, menerotti ad esse, 
 
 E non senza diletto ti fien note. 
 Com' e cib ? fu risposto ; chi volesse 
 
 Salir di notte, fora egli impedito 50 
 
 D' altrui ? ower saria ch' e' non potesse ? 
 E '1 buon Sordello in terra fregb '1 dito, 
 
 Dicendo : Vedi, sola questa riga 
 
 Non varcheresti dopo '1 Sol partite : 
 Non perb ch'altra cosa desse briga, 55 
 
 Che la notturna tenebra, ad ir suso : 
 
 Quella col non poter la voglia intriga. 
 
 128
 
 ' Walk in the Light.' 
 
 ( XVII ) 
 
 THE Pilgrim's Guide, but partially illumined, has to 
 learn through the experience of another (Bordello), 
 whom he has accosted, some of the laws of the new Realm. 
 
 Bordello says, in answer to inquiries from Virgil, that he 
 may accompany him through these outer precincts of Pur- 
 gatory, for no one is restrained by fixed bounds or by 
 authority. All are free to go up as long as the Sun 
 illuminates their path ; they might wander without hindrance 
 to the base of the Mount at night, but cannot take even 
 one step upwards without that divine Light. Virgil wonders 
 what should hinder, and is told that darkness perplexes the 
 Will and renders it impotent. 
 
 This law prevails not only outside the true beginning of 
 the Way, but all through its ascending Circles. Pilgrims 
 have to wait at the step they have attained, directly the Sun 
 sets. 
 
 For progress there must be further light to dispel the 
 ignorance that bewilders. Waiting for light is part of the 
 discipline of our pathway. Perhaps there are ebbs and 
 tides and seasons in the Spiritual as well as in the Natural 
 world, and these have to be watched for. When the Celestial 
 City itself is reached, we are told that we shall find that the 
 Sun goes not down. ' I must work the works of Him that 
 sent Me while it is day ; the night cometh when no man can 
 work.' John ix. 4. Did our Lord mean that He Himself 
 came under some such limitations? See John xi. 9, TO; 
 xii. 35, 36 : ' These things spake Jesus and departed, and 
 did hide Himself from them.' Was this a Sunset to them, 
 and a season to Him when He could not work in that 
 sphere, even as in one city He could do no mighty work 
 because of their unbelief? 
 
 129 9
 
 The beautiful dell for the first night's repose in the 
 Realm of Purification. 
 
 ( XVIII ) 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO VII. 61-84. 
 
 ALLORA '1 mio Signer, quasi ammirando, 
 Menane, disse, dunque la 've dici 
 Ch' aver si pub diletto dimorando. 
 Poco allungati c' eravam di lici, 
 
 Quand' io m' accorsi che '1 monte era scemo, 65 
 
 A guisa che i valloni sceman quici. 
 Cola, disse quell' ombra, n' anderemo, 
 
 Dove la costa face di se grembo ; 
 
 E cola il nuovo giorno attenderemo. 
 Tra erto e piano er' un sentiero sghembo, 70 
 
 Che ne condusse in fianco della lacca 
 
 La, dove piu ch' a mezzo muore il lembo. 
 Oro ed argento fino e cocco e biacca 
 
 Indico legno lucido e sereno, 
 
 Fresco smeraldo allorache si fiacca, 75 
 
 Dall' erba e dalli fior, dentro a quel seno 
 
 Posti, ciascun saria di color vinto, 
 
 Come dal suo maggiore e vinto '1 meno. 
 Non avea pur natura ivi dipinto, 
 
 Ma di soavita di mille odori 80 
 
 Vi faceva un incognito indistinto. 
 Salve, Regina, in sul verde, e in su' fiori 
 
 Quivi seder, cantando, anime vidi, 
 
 Che per la valle non parean di fuori. 
 
 130
 
 ' Thy glorious household-stuff did me entwine 
 A nd 'tice me unto Thee.' 
 
 ( XVIII ) 
 
 IT seems strange to find this Dell prepared, as it would 
 seem, for luxurious repose, with flowers of richest and 
 most brilliant hues, and an atmosphere of mingled odours 
 new and indescribably blended, and with sounds of tender 
 music ascending from it. It seems the sweet childhood 
 stage of Purgatory, though in the ante-courts of Penitence 
 at the threshold of the stern and solemn Gates. We find 
 nothing like it all the way up the Mount of Purification till 
 at the summit the terrestrial Paradise is attained. A very 
 few Palm-shaded halting-places were appointed in the sandy 
 burning Desert for Israel coming out of Egypt. Our English 
 ' Pilgrim's Progress ' has its House Beautiful on the King's 
 Highway for the refreshment of Pilgrims. Such stations 
 have been found, on the threshold, perhaps, of some especially 
 trying times of discipline. 
 
 The first Dawn and the first Evening in the repentant 
 Pilgrim's pathway, here represented to us, seem as though 
 they had flowed forth from that ' Prodigal Father's ' heart 
 as the Parable we all know so well has been newly named 
 the Father who flew to meet his home -returning son, 
 welcoming him with music and dancing, good cheer, the 
 best robe, and his own ring. No doubt that son found 
 discipline afterwards unspared to him by the wise Parent 
 who had found it meet in his welcome to make merry and 
 be glad, for the son ' who was dead and is alive, who was 
 lost and is found.' Needed discipline the Squanderer of 
 half the Father's living would certainly find through the 
 elder Brother, on whose bounty he would have to live, as 
 the Father had divided to each the half of his own living.
 
 The Evening-hour of the Pilgrim's farewell-day to home. 
 ( XIX ) 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO VIII. 1-6. 
 
 ERA gia 1' ora che volge '1 disio 
 A' naviganti e intenerisce il cuore, 
 Lo di c' ban detto a' dolci amici addio ; 
 E che lo nuovo peregrin d' amore 
 Punge, se ode squilla di lontano, 
 Che paia '1 giorno pianger che si inuore. 
 
 132
 
 ' Sweet Hespcr-Phosphor ! double name 
 For what is one the first, the last.' 
 
 ( XIX ) - 
 
 THE spirit of the Dawn with its promise, and its fresh 
 beauty unstained by disappointment and failure, was 
 revealed to us in the description of the first Morning at the 
 entrance of the Second Kingdom. The first Evening hour 
 is here given to us in like perfection, with the tender regrets 
 and pathos that belong to the dying day. 
 
 These six first lines of Canto VIII. are so well known 
 that they would have been omitted from these selections 
 had it not been felt that the significance of Morning and 
 Evening, in relation to the Pilgrim's life, should be a subject 
 of fruitful meditation. Dante repeatedly alludes to these 
 seasons in the Purgatorio. He feels them to be fraught 
 with messages to the Traveller, as he passes through the 
 revolution of the Heavens and the scenery of the Earth. 
 We are most of us but half alive to these Voices, and need 
 the Poet's inward ear and eye to transmit them to our duller 
 apprehensions. 
 
 Morning and Evening ' outgoings ' are each important 
 for our teaching, even as Childhood and Old Age for the 
 rounding of our disciplinary life in this stage of our being. 
 We learn with Tennyson (' In Mem.,' CXX.) to watch the 
 dimming glory of the finished day, and to listen to the 
 pathetic sound of the closing door, as well as to the cheerful 
 notes of the wakeful bird and the newly stirring energies of 
 busy man. He teaches us to find the same star presiding 
 over Past and Present. 
 
 Memory and Hope become one as we trust in God, and 
 we recognise the low dark verge of life as 
 
 ' The twilight of Eternal Day.' 
 
 '33
 
 The Evening Hymn in the flowery dell and the descent oj 
 the Guardian Angels. 
 
 (XX) 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO VIII. 7-33. 
 
 OUAND' io incominciai a render vano 
 L' udire, ed a inirar una dell' alme 
 Surta, che 1' ascoltar chiedea con mano. 
 Ella giunse e levo ambe le palme, io 
 
 Ficcando gli occhi verso 1' oriente, 
 
 Come dicesse a Dio : D' altro non calme. 
 Te lucis ante si devotamente 
 
 Le usci di bocca, e con si dolci note, 
 
 Che fece me a me uscir di mente. 15 
 
 E 1' altre poi dolcemente e devote 
 
 Seguitar lei per tutto 1' inno intero, 
 
 Avendo gli occhi alle superne ruote. 
 Aguzza qui, letter, ben gli occhi al vero ; 
 
 Che '1 velo e ora ben tanto sottile, 20 
 
 Certo che '1 trapassar dentro e leggiero. 
 Io vidi quello esercito gentile 
 
 Tacito poscia riguardare in sue, 
 
 Quasi aspettando, pavido ed umile : 
 E vidi uscir dall' alto, e scender giue 25 
 
 Due angeli con due spade affocate, 
 
 Tranche e private delle punte sue. 
 Verdi, come fogliette pur mo nate, 
 
 Erano in veste, che da verdi penne 
 
 Percosse traean dietro e ventilate. 30 
 
 L' un poco sovra noi a star si venne, 
 
 E 1' altro scese all' opposita sponda : 
 
 Si che la gente in mezzo si contenne. 
 
 134
 
 'Ah, Lord ! do not withdraw, 
 Lest want of awe make sin appear.' 
 
 _ , ( XX ) 
 
 THE colour and interweaving of the 'subtle veil' (line 19) 
 is here so very beautiful that the Poet's invitation to 
 gaze through it, rather than on it, is hard to comply with. 
 He gave us the like advice in Inferno IX. 60, just after the 
 terrible Erinnys on the walls of Dis had called on Medusa 
 to come and petrify with her gaze the terrified Pilgrim, when 
 the hands of the Guide were immediately protectingly placed 
 over his eyes. A heaven-sent messenger at the same time 
 approached through the marshy Styx. At the present juncture 
 in the flowery Vale, so contrasted with the murky walls of 
 Dis, an approach of the Adversary is, as before, expected ; 
 the Spirits await protection in prayer, and ' in expectation, 
 pale and humble,' and they wait not in vain. Two Angels 
 descend clothed in the green of Spring's Promise, and, pro- 
 ceeding to either side of the dell, they guard and enclose 
 the blessed Company. The attitude of the Spirit in the 
 inner Sanctuary of the heart is perfectly imaged in lines 10 
 to 1 6 by the Leader of the Evening hymn 'Te lucis ante 
 terminum.' 
 
 In the Roman Breviary the hymn ' Te lucis ' is followed, 
 after the ' Nunc Dimittis ' and versicle, by a Collect ' Visit, 
 O God, we beseech Thee, this habitation and drive from it 
 all snares of the enemy ; let Thy holy Angels dwell in it. . . .' 
 
 The Angels seem to have been sent in answer to this 
 Prayer. 
 
 Silence, Humility, Expectation, form a fructifying soil for 
 the seeds of Prayer.
 
 Three brilliant stars now rule the hemisphere where four 
 had appeared in the morning. At the same moment 
 the Adversary glides onwards. 
 
 (XXI) 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO VIII. 85-108. 
 
 GLI occhi miei ghiotti andavan pure al cielo, 85 
 Pur la dove le stelle son piu tarde, 
 Si come ruota piu presso allo stelo. 
 E'l Duca mio: Figliuol, che lassu guatde? 
 
 Ed io a lui : A quelle tre facelle, 
 
 Di che '1 polo di qua tutto quanto arde. 90 
 
 Ed egli a me : Le quattro chiare stelle, 
 
 Che vedemmo staman, son di la basse ; 
 
 E queste son salite ov' eran quelle. 
 Com' ei parlava, e Sordello a sfe '1 trasse, 
 
 Dicendo : Vedi la il nostr' avversaro : 95 
 
 E drizzo '1 dito, perche in la guatasse. 
 Da quella parte, onde non ha riparo 
 
 La picciola Valletta, era una biscia, 
 
 Forse qual diede ad Eva il cibo amaro. 
 Tra 1' erba e i fior venfa la mala striscia, 100 
 
 Volgendo ad or ad or la testa, e '1 dosso 
 
 Leccando, come bestia che si liscia. 
 Io nol vidi, e perb dicer nol posso, 
 
 Come mosser gli astor celest'iali ; 
 
 Ma vidi bene 1' uno e 1' altro mosso. 105 
 
 Sentendo fender 1' aere alle verdi ali, 
 
 Fuggio 'I serpente ; e gli angeli dier volta 
 
 Suso alle poste rivolando eguali. 
 
 136
 
 The transition state between the Old and New 
 Dispensation. 
 
 -_ --(XXI) i 
 
 THE dusk of Evening increases as Dante converses with 
 the Friend who has recognised him (Judge Nino) in 
 the flowery Vale. 
 
 The spirits of Kings and others are reposing here during 
 the hours of darkness. When Dante looks upwards he finds 
 the Heavens aflame with the splendours of three Stars where, 
 in the early morning, four had ruled. 
 
 The three represent the especially Christian graces of Faith, 
 Hope, and Charity. These Three are the mother-souls 
 the veiled springs of the four Cardinal Virtues. In the 
 earthly Paradise we shall find again the Four and the Three, 
 not as stars, but as Nymphs in attendance on Beatrice. 
 There the seven are seen in their true relative positions, and 
 in their more perfect embodiment. 
 
 It seems significant that at the very moment of the 
 Pilgrim's discovery of the disappearance of the four signs of 
 a former Dispensation and the dominance of a more glorious 
 one, the Adversary should have drawn near. May this 
 hint to us that an advance into the perception of fuller light 
 has in the transition period its peril for the Pilgrim ? Is it 
 an insidious temptation to continue in carelessness where 
 grace abounds ? 
 
 ' For I say this is death and the sole death, 
 When a man's loss comes to him from his gain, 
 Darkness from light, from knowledge ignorance, 
 And lack of love from love made manifest.' BROWN ixc. 
 
 The Adversary approached on that side of the Valley 
 that had no barrier, and he came through the innocent 
 delights of beautiful nature. The self complacency depicted 
 in his movements may perhaps intimate some corresponding 
 disposition in the Pilgrim whereby the Tempter sought to 
 gain access; his sly approach is,. however, at once turned 
 back by the mere sound of the angel's verdant wings.
 
 The morning dream of the Eagle who snatched up Dante 
 and bore him into the Fire above. 
 
 ( XXII ) 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO IX. 10-33. 
 
 OUAND' io, che meco avea di quel d' Adamo, 10 
 Vinto dal sonno, in su 1' erba inchinai 
 La, 've gia tutti e cinque sedevamo. 
 Nell' ora, che comincia i tristi lai 
 
 La rondinelli presso alia mattina, 
 
 Forse a memoria de' suoi primi guai ; 1 5 
 
 E che la mente nostra, pellegrina 
 
 Piu dalla carne, e men da' pensier presa, 
 
 Alle sue vision quasi e divina ; 
 In sogno mi parea veder sospesa 
 
 Un' aquila nel ciel con penne d' oro, 20 
 
 Con 1' ale aperte, ed a calare intesa : 
 Ed esser mi parea la, dove foro 
 
 Abbandonati i suoi da Ganimede, 
 
 Quando fu ratto al sommo concistoro. 
 Fra me pensava : Forse questa fiede 25 
 
 Pur qui per uso ; e forse d' altro loco 
 
 Disdegna di portarne suso in piede. 
 Poi mi parea che, piu rotata un poco, 
 
 Terribil come folgor discendesse, 
 
 E me rapisse suso infino al foco. 30 
 
 Ivi pareva ch' ella ed io ardesse : 
 
 E si 1' incendio immaginato cosse, 
 
 Che convenne che '1 sonno si rompesse. 
 
 138
 
 ' A ugust anticipations, symbols, types 
 Of a dim splendour ever on before.' 
 
 ( XXII ) 
 
 THE Pilgrim in his Adam-body, wearied with his 
 wonderful Way and high converse, had slept for 
 some hours. In the early morning, when Dante tells us 
 that the soul is further from the flesh and less imprisoned 
 by the intellect (or by reasoning, perhaps), his prophetic 
 soul dreamed a dream of terror, yet of rapture. It was of 
 high import on the very threshold of the Gates of Purgatory 
 proper. 
 
 The ardent Eagle, as of St. John or of Ezekiel, snatched 
 him from the Earth and bore him upwards even into the 
 consuming Fire ; the flames so scorched him and the wings 
 that carried him, that the imagined burning awakened him 
 from the terrible vision. 
 
 He will indeed have to pass through flames more burning 
 than ' molten glass,' and will experience the terrible demands 
 of a revelation of blinding Light and Purity, beyond the 
 powers of one in the flesh to sustain ; but he will find him- 
 self prepared for ascent after ascent and brought into unity 
 with the unfolding revelation of this prevision, by such fine 
 gradations that its shock and terror will not be repeated. 
 Such Eagle wings are sent but for the few elect souls who 
 are fitted for the vision, and fitted also for its communica- 
 tion, in some measure, to others ; yet all may count upon 
 One who beareth up His children even as an Eagle on her 
 wings Deut. xxxii. n. And the promise remains sure 
 for each pilgrim who will by faith and patience inherit it : 
 
 ' They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall 
 mount up with wings as Eagles, they shall run and not be weary, and 
 they shall walk and not faint.' Isa. xl. 31. 
 
 139
 
 Dante is carried in his morning sleep by Lucia to the 
 Entrance of Purgatory. 
 
 ( XXIII ) = 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO IX. 40-63. 
 
 CHE mi scoss' io, siccome dalla faccia 40 
 
 Mi fuggio '1 sonno ; e diventai smorto, 
 Come fa 1' uom che spaventato agghiaccia. 
 Dallato m' era solo il mio Conforto ; 
 
 E '1 Sole er' alto gia piu di du' ore ; 
 
 E '1 viso m' era alia marina torto. 45 
 
 Non aver tema, disse il mio Signore : 
 
 Fatti sicur, che noi siamo a buon punto : 
 
 Non stringer, ma rallarga ogni vigore. 
 Tu se' omai al Purgatorio giunto : 
 
 Vedi la il balzo, che '1 chiude d' intorno ; 50 
 
 Vedi 1' entrata la Ve par disgiunto. 
 Dianzi, nell' alba che precede al giorno, 
 
 Quando 1' anima tua dentro dormia, 
 
 Sopra li fiori, onde laggiu e adorno, 
 Venne una donna, e disse : Io son Lucia. 55 
 
 Lasciatemi pigliar colui che dorme ; - 
 
 Si 1' agevolerb per la sua via. 
 Sordel rimase, e 1' altre gentil forme : 
 
 Ella ti tolse ; e come '1 di fu chiaro, 
 
 Sen venne suso, ed io per le su' orme. 60 
 
 Qui ti poso : e pria mi dimostraro 
 
 Gli occhi suoi belli quell' entrata aperta ; 
 
 Poi ella e '1 sonno ad una se n' andaro. 
 
 140
 
 * A nd from a dream 
 Straightway a waking vision it became !' 
 
 ( XXIII ) 
 
 EVEN while, in dream-vision, Dante felt the scorching 
 fires, he was being carried tenderly upwards over 
 the last difficult steps to the entrance of the rugged Way. 
 
 So it is at times when we least expect it ; rough places 
 are made plain and crooked paths straight, and Love has 
 wafted us through dreaded places without effort of our own. 
 
 The Pilgrim awakens, and is astonished at his new sur- 
 roundings ; his guide encourages and warns him at the 
 same time. He has attained so far by sweet Mercy's lifting 
 arms during his sleep ; but he is to relax no effort and to 
 summon all his powers, for the straight Gate and narrow 
 Way are just before him. Uncertainty and perplexity have 
 vanished. The next momentous step must be taken, having 
 been clearly indicated by Lucia's enlightening eyes. 
 
 ' O send out thy light and thy truth : let them lead me ; 
 Let them bring me unto thy holy hill.' Ps. xliii. 3. 
 
 ' I will guide thee with mine Eye.' Ps. xxxii. 8. 
 
 141
 
 The Entrance of Purgatory's Gateway. 
 ( XXIV ) 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO IX. 73-93. 
 
 NOI ci appressammo ; ed eravamo in parte, 
 Che la, dove pareami in prima un rotto, 
 Pur com' un fesso ch' un muro diparte, 75 
 Vidi una porta, e tre gradi di sotto, 
 
 Per gire ad essa, di color diversi, 
 
 Ed un portier, ch' ancor non facea motto. 
 E come 1' occhio piu e piu v' apersi, 
 
 Vidil seder sopra '1 grado soprano, 80 
 
 Tal nella faccia ch' io non lo soffersi : 
 Ed una spada nuda aveva in mano, 
 
 Che rifletteva i raggi si ver noi, 
 
 Ch' io dirizzava spesso il viso invano. 
 Ditel costinci, che volete voi? 85 
 
 Comincio egli a dire : Ov' b la scorta ? 
 
 Guardate che '1 venir su non vi noi. 
 Donna del ciel, di queste cose accorta, 
 
 Rispose '1 mio Maestro a lui, pur dianzi 
 
 Ne disse : Andate la, quivi b la porta. 90 
 
 Ed ella i passi vostri in bene avanzi, 
 
 Ricomincio '1 cortese portinaio : 
 
 Venite dunque a' nostri gradi innanzi. 
 
 142
 
 ' That sight of the most Fair 
 Will gladden thee, but it will pierce thee, too.' 
 
 ( XXIV ) 
 
 AS we ponder this stern parable of Judgment, each line 
 brings us into a deeper sense of its solemn meaning. 
 
 We feel the cessation of all the fellowship that has been 
 present before ; the rocky wall with its narrow fissure shutting 
 out the horizon in front ; the long ascent of breathless expec- 
 tation terminating at the threshold of an unknown life ; and 
 the soul brought face to face with that single Spiritual 
 Presence silent and with a countenance too penetrating to 
 be endured. His naked sword was in his hand ' quick and 
 powerful, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and 
 spirit,' making manifest by the dazzling light it reflected 
 every thought and intent of the heart. 
 
 The Angel breaks silence with a question and a warning. 
 To approach that judgment more closely may injure the 
 unprepared and the uncalled soul, he says, but the Guide 
 having named the directions of Lucia, the Pilgrim is bidden 
 to come nearer to the Three Steps.
 
 The Three Steps : of white polished Marble, of dark and 
 broken Stone, and of crimson Porphyry. 
 
 ( XXV ) 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO IX. 94-105. 
 
 LA ne venimmo : e lo scaglion primaio 
 Bianco marmo era si pulito e terso, 95 
 
 Ch' io mi specchiava in esso quale i' paio. 
 Era '1 secondo, tinto piii che perso, 
 D' una petrina ruvida ed arsiccia, 
 Crepata per lo lungo e per traverso. 
 Lo terzo, che di sopra s' ammassiccia, 100 
 
 Porfido mi parea si fiammeggiante, 
 Come sangue che fuor di vena spiccia. 
 Sopra questo teneva ambo le piante 
 L' angel di Dio, sedendo in su la soglia, 
 Che mi sembiava pietra di diamante. 105 
 
 144
 
 Ideal Innocence : the Cross and Self -Sacrifice. 
 
 (XXV ) 
 
 WHAT do these three Steps symbolize as initiation in 
 the narrow way? 'Shortly,' as defined by the 
 Schoolmen, ' Contrition, Confession, Satisfaction, as the 
 three elements of Penitence.' 
 
 Those three great blocks of marble by which the Pilgrim 
 had to mount seem to speak as Nature speaks, and to rivet 
 our attention by their silent voices. The first, of white 
 polished marble, mirroring the downcast face of the Pilgrim. 
 In that spotless surface, did he recall the ideal of his early 
 life and see himself as he now appeared in contrast to that 
 whiteness ? Later, in the Earthly Paradise, we shall find 
 him ashamed at his own reflection in a clear stream. 
 
 In mounting the second step of dark, rugged, dark-tinctured 
 stone, cracked lengthwise and crosswise, he must become 
 aware of the destruction that sin and death have wrought in 
 him, and accept the condemnation of the Cross. Having 
 thenceforth no hope in himself, he can only plant his next 
 step on that Rock of Ages ' crimson* like living blood 
 gushing from the veins,' in the Knowledge of the Love that 
 loved and forgave even unto death and of the Life blood 
 that is the Source and Substance of the New Life of Self- 
 Sacrifice. 
 
 The Angel of the Gate at the summit of the three steps, 
 the Representative and Minister of the gifts of Contrition, 
 was seated at the threshold of the Gate. His seat was a 
 stone of Adamant or Diamond, symbolizing the Foundation 
 Stone on which the Church is built. Its Minister held the 
 Keys, tokens of the Source of his authority. His feet were 
 both firmly planted on the Crimson rock-step below. 
 
 * Dante calls crimson, in which he saw Beatrice clothed in the Vita 
 Nuova, 'that noble colour of Love'; and the third Grace, Charity, in 
 the Earthly Paradise was seen ' so very red, that in the fire she hardly 
 had been noted.' 
 
 145 10
 
 The Angel of Penitence makes manifest on the Pilgrim's 
 forehead the Wounds of the seven deadly Sins, and opens 
 the Gate. 
 
 ( XXVI ) 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO IX. 106-129. 
 
 PER li tre gradi su di buona voglia 
 Mi trasse '1 Duca mio, dicendo : Chiedi 
 Umilemente che '1 serrame scioglia. 
 Divoto mi gittai a' santi piedi ; 
 
 Misericordia chiesi, e ch' e' m' aprisse : no 
 
 Ma pria nel petto tre fiate mi diedi. 
 Sette P nella fronte mi descrisse 
 
 Col punton della spada ; e : Fa' che lavi, 
 
 Quando se' dentro, queste piaghe, disse. 
 Cenere, o terra, che secca si cavi, 115 
 
 D' un color fora col suo vestimento : 
 
 E di sotto da quel trasse duo chiavi. 
 L' una era d' oro, e 1' altra era d' argento : 
 
 Pria con la bianca, e poscia con la gialla 
 
 Fece alia porta si ch' io fui contento. 1 20 
 
 Quandunque 1' una d' este chiavi falla, 
 
 Che non si volga dritta per la toppa, 
 
 Diss' egli a noi, non s' apre questa calla. 
 Piu cara e 1' una ; ma 1' altra vuol troppa 
 
 D' arte e d' ingegno, avanti che disserri, 125 
 
 Perch' ell' e quella che '1 nodo disgroppa. 
 Da Pier le lengo : e dissemi ch' i' erri 
 
 Anzi ad aprir ch' a tenerla serrata, 
 
 Purche la gente a' piedi mi s' atterri. 
 
 146
 
 * // we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to 
 forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all 
 unrighteousness.' 
 
 ( XXVI ) 
 
 THE Pilgrim was drawn up those three steps of mystic 
 import by his Guide, and bidden to ask humbly for 
 admittance through the Gate. Casting himself down on 
 that crimson Rock before the feet that were planted there, 
 three times he smote upon his breast, thus fully acknow- 
 ledging the ruined condition witnessed to by the previous 
 step, and besought entrance for Mercy's sake. 
 
 The sharp and piercing Spirit-Sword was then in the 
 Angel's hand to do its work; inscribing on his forehead, 
 bringing into full manifestation the seven P's (peccati) or 
 wounds of the seven deadly sins, hitherto speciously con- 
 cealed within the Pilgrim's heart. He is told he must 
 cleanse those wounds when he has passed within the Portal. 
 The Angel is clothed in colour of dust and ashes, and 
 brings forth from under that garb of the penitence he 
 personifies and teaches the two Keys of the Entrance Gate. 
 He holds them from St. Peter ; one is of silver, the other of 
 gold. The more precious one is supposed to signify the 
 Authority from whence its power is derived the Commis- 
 sion of the Head of the Church. The silver key, which is 
 used first, betokens the adaptive power of the Spirit-anointed 
 Minister to discern and deal with each heart. Here the 
 work of the Church on Earth seems so blent in description 
 with that of the more interior Spirit-world of Purgatory that 
 the two can hardly be separated ; the possibility of error 
 through human mists in using the keys is contemplated, 
 and the part of Mercy in opening, rather than that of 
 Justice (or severity) in closing, is said to have been counselled 
 by St Peter, if only marks of true penitence may be discerned. 
 
 M7
 
 Dante is bidden to enter the solemn Gates of Purgatory, 
 and warned not to look back. Within he hears the 
 singing of the Te Deurn. 
 
 ( XXVII ) . 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO IX. 131-145. 
 
 T NTRATE ; ma facciovi accorti, 
 1. Che di fuor torna chi indietro si guata. 
 E quando fur ne' cardini distorti 
 
 Gli spigoli di quella regge sacra, 
 
 Che di metallo son sonanti e forti, 135 
 
 Non ruggio si, ne si mostrb si acra 
 
 Tarpeia, come tolto le fu '1 buono 
 
 Metello, per che poi rimase macra. 
 lo mi rivolsi attento al primo tuono, 
 
 E Te Deum laudamus mi parea 140 
 
 Udire in voce mista al dolce suono. 
 Tale imagine appunto mi rendea 
 
 Cib ch' i' udiva, qual prender si suole 
 
 Quando a cantar con organi si stea ; 
 Ch' or si or no s' intendon le parole. 145 
 
 148
 
 'Search me, O God, and know my heart; see if there 
 be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the Way 
 Everlasting.'' 
 
 ( XXVII ) - 
 
 THE solemn Gates open with harsh and discordant 
 roaring, as though their hinges were seldom turned. 
 Their grating sound suggests imprisonment, rather than the 
 opening of the Way to liberty ; and the Angel's voice, com- 
 manding no looks backward, echoes the stern words of like 
 import from the Master's voice : ' Strait is the Gate and 
 narrow is the Way that leadeth unto Life ;' and, ' He that 
 putteth his hand to the plough and looketh back, is not fit 
 for the Kingdom of GOD.' 
 
 There seems no tenderness here. There is nothing like 
 the Father's large-hearted welcome in this parable of the 
 Entrance Gate. There could be no compromise in such a 
 severance from evil, acknowledged to be evil. The Pilgrim 
 shudders, and makes us shudder, as he recounts his initia- 
 tion into the realm of purification. Directly these grating 
 sounds have ceased, we are glad to pause with him within 
 the threshold and listen to the voices mingled in sweet 
 melody ; the voices of those who give thanks for the 
 enlightened and restored soul in the words of the Te Deum 
 . words sometimes heard, sometimes lost in the music. 
 
 Perhaps once for all, perhaps at more than one juncture 
 in many lives, some such heart-searching interview has to 
 take place between the spirit of a man and the Divine Dis- 
 cerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart ; a strait and 
 narrow Gate seems to be then set before the Disciple, which 
 apparently to himself will cut him off from all delights. He 
 seems free to enter or to look back and endeavour to forget 
 the inexorable and pitiless behest. 
 
 149
 
 The sculptured language by the Wayside, speaking with 
 more force than reality itself. 
 
 ( XXVIII ) 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO X. 28-33. 
 
 E.SSU non eran mossi i pie nostri anco, 
 Quand' io conobbi quella ripa intorno, 
 Che dritto di salita aveva manco, 30 
 
 Esser di marmo candido, ed adorno 
 D' intagli tai, che non pur Policleto, 
 Ma la natura li avrebbe scorno.
 
 ' O learn to read what silent Love hath writ, 
 To hear with eyes belongs to Love's fine wit !' 
 
 - ( XXVIII ) 
 
 A FEW lines must connect the last extract with the one 
 before us to-day. 
 
 Within the threshold the Way still mounted, and for 
 some time lay through a dark tunnel within the rock. The 
 footway is as uneven as over petrified waves. Slowly the 
 Pilgrim must wend his way upwards. It is a time of un- 
 certainty and of new adaptation. 
 
 When he had proceeded wearily from that ' needle's-eye ' 
 of the Gateway (the words again recalling those in Matt, 
 xix. 24) the prospect was lonely and, as far as the eye could 
 reach, monotonous. How often after some new step towards 
 spiritual progress, even after some spiritual victory won, it 
 has seemed so ! a time of human weakness and emptiness 
 which is the condition for the perfecting, divine strength to 
 flow in. 
 
 Line 28. They now reach the cornice of the first en- 
 circling of the Mount, and find this to be the region where 
 the root-sin of Pride, which they had seen in fullest develop- 
 ment in Hell, had to find its cleansing discipline. In stepping 
 forward on this cornice, the monotonous Embankment, as 
 it had appeared, now dawned upon Dante as of white marble 
 wondrously adorned with sculptures, more living than those 
 of Polycletus, nay, than those of Nature herself, for they 
 appealed not alone to the eye, but with power from Spirit 
 to Spirit. 
 
 Let us mark the first object-lesson the Discipline of Love 
 provided for the eyes of the Proud. 
 
 Not one of the chastisement of Pride (though such will 
 be seen later), but of the Ideal and Type of Humility.
 
 The heart-moving transcript of the Annunciation. 
 
 - ( xxvni ) 
 
 ( Continued from last page. ) 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO X. 34-45. 
 
 L' angel, che venne in terra col decreto 
 
 Delia molt' anni lagrimata pace, 35 
 
 Ch' aperse il ciel dal suo lungo divieto, 
 
 Dinanzi a noi pareva si verace, 
 Quivi intagliato in un atto soave, 
 Che non sembiava immagine che tace. 
 
 Giurato si saria ch' ei dicesse Ave ; 40 
 
 Perb ch' ivi era immaginata quella, 
 Ch' ad aprir 1' alto amor volse la chiave. 
 
 Ed avea in atto impressa esta favella : 
 Ecce Ancilla Det\ si propriamente 
 Come figura in cera si suggella. 45
 
 ' This new Guest to her eyes new laws hath given : 
 'Twas once look up, 'tis now look down to Heaven.' 
 
 ( XXVIII ) 
 
 ' The hand-maiden of the Lord ' was to be seen in the 
 supreme moment of her election to the Motherhood of 
 Humility's own Essence and Being. 
 
 Were not the eyes of Proud Pilgrims bathed and re- 
 opened here as they gazed ? for their hearts behold the 
 great Reality now, no longer the oft-painted Picture; the 
 very voice of Heaven's tenderness is thrilling through this 
 living presentation, for Gabriel ' did not seem an image that 
 is silent,' and the meek accents of the Hand-maiden of the 
 Lord were within and around her visible presence, and 
 communicated to the beholder. The issuing Life from the 
 Cradle to the Cross could not fail to shine there also. 
 What should prevail to turn out this root-sin of Pride from 
 our hearts, but such a soul-transforming gaze at the central 
 core of our Faith ?
 
 Proud Christians are here seen pressed down under 
 heavy weights. 
 
 ( XXIX ) 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO X. 112^139. 
 
 IO cominciai : Maestro, quel ch' io veggio 
 Muover a noi, non mi sembran persone, 
 E non so che ; si nel veder vaneggio. 
 Ed egli a me : La grave condizione 1 1 5 
 
 l)i lor tormento a terra gli rannicchia 
 
 Si, che i mie' occhi pria n' ebber tenzione. 
 Ma guarda fisso la, e disviticchia 
 
 Col viso quel che vien sotto a quei sassi : 
 
 Gia scorger puoi come ciascun si nicchia. 120 
 O superbi Cristian, miseri, lassi, 
 
 Che, della vista della mente infermi, 
 
 Fidanza avete ne' ritrosi passi, 
 Non v' accorgete voi, che noi siam vermi 
 
 Nati a formar 1' angelica farfalla 125 
 
 Che vola alia giustizia senza schermi ? 
 Di che 1' animo vostro in alto galla ? 
 
 Voi siete quasi entomata in difetto, 
 
 Si come verme, in cui formazion falla ? 
 Come, per sostentar solaio o tetto, 130 
 
 Per mensola talvolta una figura 
 
 Si vede giunger le ginocchia al petto, 
 La qual fa del non ver vera rancura 
 
 Nascere in chi la vede ; cosi fatti 
 
 Vid' io color, quando posi ben cura. 135 
 
 Ver e che piu e meno eran contratti, 
 
 Secondo ch' avean piu e meno addosso : 
 
 E qual piu pazi'enza avea negli atti 
 Piangendo parea dicer : Piu non posso. 
 154
 
 ' Quite wingless our desire ; 
 In sense dark-prison d all that ought to soar ; 
 Prone to the centre, crawling in the dust.' 
 
 ( XXIX ) 
 
 DANTE knew that his besetting sin was Pride. In the 
 next circle he tells the Envious that his soul was 
 even then weighed down by the load that he well knew 
 awaited him after death in this Circle where the proud find 
 their discipline. 
 
 Lines 1 1 7-119. In Dean Plumptre's translation the mean- 
 ing seems more clearly given than in Longfellow's : 
 
 ' Why doth your soul lift up itself on high ? 
 Ye are as insects yet but half complete, 
 As worms in whom their growth fails utterly.' 
 
 Dante looks upon the Caterpillar as an unfinished creature 
 at best, and supposes some of these to be without the grow- 
 ing embryo wings within. How can such as these, he says, 
 pretend to float on high with proud looks and words ? 
 
 ' Proud Christians !' Words in conjunction that speak 
 mutual extinction. 
 
 The poor weary ones are now bowed to the Earth by the 
 weight of their dominating vice, which had so nearly crushed 
 out of them the Christ-like spirit. The wings that ought to 
 have been formed within are not there to carry them where 
 they fain would be, at the feet of Christ. 
 
 ' A Parable from Nature,' in a letter from a friend. ' In the Garden 
 last Evening, I suddenly perceived a strange-looking creature struggling 
 about in the grass ; it had a long worm-like body and a sort of ugly 
 little frill of attempts at wings round its neck ; it looked like a distorted 
 imitation of a butterfly. We felt quite sad, and wondered if some 
 mischance had happened which had hindered its formation, but we did 
 not know enough of such transformations to pronounce whether it was 
 the utter failure it looked or not. Half an hour later we observed it 
 again, and saw that by dint of struggling about, fit neither for crawling 
 nor flight, for earth nor heaven, it had pushed and lengthened out its 
 wings, till they half clothed it, and its worm-like body seemed contract- 
 ing ; the last glimpse we had of it showed it to us almost entirely 
 "clothed upon" with its white plumes, and doubtless by the moonlight 
 hour it was flitting about over the opening Evening Primroses, a happy 
 white moth, and knew what it was meant for.' 
 
 '55
 
 The Lord's Prayer as said by the souls in Purgatory. 
 ( XXX ) 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO XI. 1-24. 
 
 O PADRE nostro, che ne' cieli stai, 
 Non circoscritto, ma per piu amore 
 Ch' ai primi effetti di lassu tu hai ; 
 Laudato sia '1 tuo nome e '1 tuo valore 
 
 Da ogni creatura, com' e degno 5 
 
 Di render grazie al tuo dolce vapore. 
 Vegna ver noi la pace del tuo regno ; 
 
 Che noi ad essa non potem da noi, 
 
 S' ella non vien, con tutto '1 nostro ingegno. 
 Come del suo voler gli angeli tuoi 10 
 
 Fan sacrificio a te, cantando Osanna, 
 
 Cosi facciano gli uomini de' suoi. 
 Da' oggi a noi la cotidiana manna, 
 
 Sanza la qual per questo aspro diserto 
 
 A retro va chi piu di gir s' affanna. 1 5 
 
 E come noi lo mal, ch' avem sofferto, 
 
 Perdoniamo a ciascuno, e tu perdona 
 
 Benigno ; e non guardare al nostro merto. 
 Nostra virtu, che di leggier s' adona, 
 
 Non spermentar con 1' antico avversaro, 20 
 
 Ma libera da lui, che si la sprona. 
 Quest' ultima preghiera, Signor caro, 
 
 Gia non si fa per noi, che non bisogna ; 
 
 Ma per color che dietro a noi restaro. 
 
 156
 
 ' If the Ideal is never actual, it is always being actualized.' 
 Christ's Kingdom is ever coming. 
 
 ( XXX ) 
 
 THE once proud, now evidently most meek, Christians 
 under their crushing burdens, ' unequally in anguish 
 round and round and weary all,' are together saying the 
 Lord's Prayer after their manner. 
 
 The variations made in it seem drawn out by their present 
 knowledge of themselves. 
 
 ' Come unto us the Peace of thy dominion, 
 For unto it, we cannot of ourselves, 
 If it come not, with all our intellect.' 
 
 Dante's intellect must often have been occasion to him 
 for placing himself above his fellow-men, and Peace he has 
 often sought in vain. These weary souls of his imagining, 
 that slip back or down under their burdens, see that they 
 cannot expect to reach Peace, with all their efforts of intellect ; 
 nor have they strength to go forward in their difficult burdened 
 climb without the gift of the hidden manna to sustain their 
 spirits through the bitter desert path. 
 
 They speak their self-distrust in those words, ' Regard not 
 our desert.' They have found out that they must be one 
 and all receivers, and so they are being separated from their 
 proud self-sufficiency. The petition they make (not for 
 themselves, for the Tempter does not enter Purgatory), 
 ' Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the 
 Adversary,' expresses with the next sentence the same sense 
 of weakness and failure. They utter this petition for those 
 who remain behind in the world, and they confess their own 
 failure of strength in unison with them. ' Our virtue, which 
 is easily o'ercome^ put not to proof with the old Adversary.' 
 
 The intimate blending of the two worlds is tenderly mani- 
 fested by this prayer for those below, and by Dante's com- 
 ment and Virgil's aspiration for these, as he asks of them 
 directions concerning the Way, and again alludes to the 
 Wings they needed, which had hitherto failed them. 
 Lines 25-40. 
 
 157
 
 Dante is bidden by Virgil to study the sculptured pave- 
 ment on which they tread. Instances of Pride are 
 livingly portrayed here. 
 
 ( XXXI ) 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO XII. 10-15. 
 
 IO m' era mosso, e seguia volentieri 10 
 
 Del mio Maestro i passi ; ed ambedue 
 Gia mostravam, com' eravam leggieri ; 
 Quando mi disse : Volgi gli occhi in giue : 
 Buon ti sara, per alleggiar la via, 
 Veder lo letto delle piante tue. 15 
 
 158
 
 ' When to the Sessions of sweet silent thought 
 I summon up remembrance of things past.' 
 
 ( XXXI ) 
 
 DANTE speaks with some Artists and Poets in this 
 Circle, who confess their Pride or their Ambition. 
 They now give honour to one another, as one of them con- 
 fesses he could not have done on Earth, for then his heart 
 had been too much bent on the great desire of excelling 
 another. 
 
 They speak of one succeeding and surpassing another 
 ' through some fresher stamp of the time-bettering days '; 
 they discuss the slight value of this mundane rumour as 
 ' naught but a breath of wind.' With one of these heavy- 
 laden souls Dante walks abreast, in sympathy with him and 
 in the same self-condemnation ; he compares himse^ and 
 this comrade to oxen going together in a yoke ; seeming to 
 intimate by using this simile that the heavy-laden Twain 
 had failed in former days to accept the yoke offered by the 
 Blessed Burden-Bearer. 
 
 Line 10. The Pilgrim was now bidden by his Guide as 
 they move onwards to cast down his eyes and read the 
 mystic sculpture beneath his feet, the visible language as 
 he has again called it, ' dear to look upon for its Creator's 
 sake.' 
 
 Here instances of Pride were portrayed on the pavement, 
 and were to be trodden on by the Pilgrim's feet as he humbly 
 bent over them. A little beyond the limits of the Extract 
 he says, in describing the wonderfully living power of these 
 representations (or reproductions rather) : 
 
 ' Dead seemed the dead, the living seemed alive ; 
 Better than I, saw not who saw the truth, 
 All that I trod upon while bowed I went.' 
 
 159
 
 The sculptured tombs of the departed which recall 
 tender memories. 
 
 ( XXXI ) 
 
 (Continued from last f age.) 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO XII. 16-24. 
 
 Come, perche di lor memoria sia, 
 
 Sovr' a' sepolti le tombe terragne 
 
 Portan segnato quel ch' egli eran pria ; 
 Onde li tnolte volte se ne piagne, 
 
 Per la puntura della rimembranza, 20 
 
 Che solo a' pii da delle calcagne ; 
 Si vid' io li, ma di tniglior sembianza 
 
 Secondo 1' artificio, figurato 
 
 Quanto per via di fuor dal monte avanza. 
 
 1 60
 
 ' Yet doth remembrance like a sovereign Prince 
 For you a stately Gallery maintain 
 Of gay or tragic pictures.' 
 
 - ( XXXI ) 
 
 Perhaps it is intended here to express Dante's view of 
 God's teaching through Art, and the association with Artists 
 and Poets in this Canto would confirm this view; but 
 lines 15 to 22 would rather lead us to that which is within 
 and point us to the stony heart on which the Lord promises 
 (when it is renewed) to write His laws. It seems at any 
 rate to show us the moving way in which God's speech 
 addresses itself to man apart from words in present events, 
 or past history. We are often shut through sorrowful memory 
 into our 'chambers of imagery' within. Lines 19-21. 
 
 ' Whence ofttimes to our weeping comes new birth, 
 Through the sharp sting of poignant memory 
 Which spurs on none but souls of loving worth ;' 
 
 or which wounds none but the ' compassionate soul ' the 
 ' anima pia.' Such a soul stands, with the Poet, painfully 
 conscious of that which is passing away, though with his 
 face illumined by the Future's Dawn. Such a one, in his 
 own personal history, as Time takes so much away, must be 
 pierced by this experience as he treads on the monuments 
 of the dead Past. 
 
 Memory in German that beautiful word ' Erinnerung ' 
 is the inner Sanctuary of that which was once outward 
 Often has the ' sound of a voice that is still, and the touch 
 of a vanished hand' in that Sanctuary, been fraught with 
 a divine power, unfelt when palpable to our senses; for 
 quickening is communicated by One whom the Father 
 sends to ' bring all things to our remembrance,' as well as 
 to 'show us things to come.' 
 
 161 it
 
 Another Angel is reverently welcomed. He comes with 
 the New Day, fans the wounded forehead, and points 
 out an easier ascent. 
 
 ( XXXII ) 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO XII. 73-99. 
 
 PIU era gia per noi del monte volto, 
 E del cammin del Sole assai piu speso, 
 Che non stimava I' animo non sciolto ; 75 
 Quando colui, che innanzi sempre atteso 
 
 Andava, comincib : Drizza la testa ; 
 
 Non e piu tempo da gir si sospeso. 
 Vedi cola un angel, che s' appresta 
 
 Per venir verso noi : vedi che torna 80 
 
 Dal servigio del di 1' ancella sesta. 
 Di riverenza '1 viso e gli atti adorna, 
 
 Si che i diletti lo inviarci 'n suso : 
 
 Pensa che questo di mai non raggiorna. 
 lo era ben del suo ammonir uso 85 
 
 Pur di non perder tempo ; si che in quella 
 
 Materia non potea parlarmi chiuso. 
 A noi venia la creatura bella, 
 
 Bianco vestita, e nella faccia quale 
 
 Par tremolando mattutina stella. 90 
 
 Le braccia aperse, ed indi aperse 1' ale : 
 
 Disse : Venite ; qui son presso i gradi, 
 
 Ed agevolemente omai si sale. 
 A questo annunzio vengon molto radi : 
 
 O gente umana, per volar su nata, 95 
 
 Perche a poco vento cosi cadi ? 
 Menocci ove la roccia era tagliata : 
 
 Quivi mi batteo 1' ale per la fronte ; 
 
 Poi mi permise sicura 1' andata. 
 
 162
 
 ' In the same brook none ever batWd him twice ; 
 To the same life none ever twice awoke.' 
 
 ( XXXII ) 
 
 VIRGIL, who, as Conscience ever watchful and in 
 advance of the Pilgrim, was going forward (76), ad- 
 monished him that the time for contemplation of the Past 
 was over, and that a Heavenly Messenger was to be pre- 
 pared for, by reverent expectation and action. 
 
 Note concise language of line 84 untranslatable into our 
 
 tongue : 
 
 ' Pensa che questo di mai non raggiorna.' 
 
 ' Think that this day* will never dawn again /' 
 
 A reason for observing and preparing to welcome the 
 precious things it, and it alone, can bring to us ; for never 
 can we behold its unique light again ; never can its jewels 
 be set in the same setting and find us in the same fitted 
 circumstances to receive them. 
 
 With the hint of the Sibylline leaves, yet not only with 
 warning of failure to receive, does the new day speak to us, 
 but with the proffered charm of wonder and novelty. 
 
 ' There is no monotony in living to him who walks even the quietest 
 and tamest paths with open and perceptive eyes. It may be that you 
 think all days alike and grow weary with their sameness, and get none 
 of the stimulus and solemnity which comes from constantly reaching 
 unexpected places and experiences. You cannot think what a different 
 place this world is to a man who goes out every morning into a new 
 world, who is Adam over again every day, who starts each day with the 
 certainty " that he has not passed that way before '' . . the fundamental 
 difference between the two lives lies in the difference of their perception 
 of God. 
 
 ' It is God and the discovery of Him in life, and the certainty that He 
 has plans for our lives and is doing something with them, that gives us 
 a true deep sense of movement, and lets us feel the power and delight 
 of unknown coming things. Without Him a life must sink into weary 
 monotony, or escape it only by artificial and superficial changes.' 
 PHILLIPS BROOKS. 
 
 * ' Dies ' and our word ' Day ' are derived from the same root as 
 ' Deus,' thus being literally, as well as figuratively, ' the light of the 
 world.' 
 
 163
 
 The song of Welcome to the new circle : 
 ' Blessed are the Poor in spirit.' 
 
 ( XXXIII ) 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO XII. 109-126. 
 
 NOI volgend' ivi le nostre persone, 
 Beati pauperes spiritu, voci no 
 
 Cantaron si, che nol diria sermone. 
 Ahi quanto son diverse quelle foci 
 
 Dall' infernali ! che quivi per canti 
 
 S' entra, e laggiu per lamenti feroci. 
 Gia muntavam su per li scaglion santi; 115 
 
 Ed esser mi parea troppo piu lieve, 
 
 Che per lo pian non mi parea davanti. 
 Ond' io : Maestro, di', qual cosa greve 
 
 Levata s'e da me, che nulla quasi 
 
 Per me fatica andando si riceve ? 120 
 
 Rispose : Quando i P, che son rimasi 
 
 Ancor nel volto tuo presso che stinti, 
 
 Saranno, come 1' un, del tutto rasi, 
 Fien li tuoi pie dal buon voler si vinti, 
 
 Che non pur non fatica sentiranno, 125 
 
 Ma fia diletto loro esser su pinti. 
 
 164
 
 The crushed soul set free to mount, through Pride removed 
 and Poverty of spirit imparted. 
 
 ( XXXIII ) _ 
 
 TO the Pilgrim, this new day was indeed a new era. 
 The divine Messenger, in whose countenance was 
 he appearance of the tre:nulous morning star, came to h im 
 with a tender direction towards easier ascending steps. He 
 then smote on his forehead with his wings, obliterating the 
 first of the seven P's (Pride), and so setting free his hitherto 
 shackled feet, that hardly any fatigue was felt by him in the 
 arduous ascent. He asks what heavy thing can have been 
 uplifted from him (nS). His Guide assures him that when 
 the remaining six P's should be removed, not only should 
 he feel no fatigue, but he would rejoice in springing upwards. 
 An indescribable sweetness of voices singing, ' Blessed are 
 the Poor in spirit ' was in the air around them. A Bene- 
 diction takes the place of the crushing weight of the sin 
 removed, and liberates the soul's own action of blessing. 
 
 The process of taking away, or setting free, the sepulchred 
 nature of man, goes on through Purgatory. 
 
 Michelangelo* defined Sculpture as ' the Art that works 
 by force of taking away ;' he speaks of ' ihe figure which 
 ever grows the more the stone is hewn away.' 
 
 The sculptor seeks and finds within the marble the ideal 
 form his hand sets free. 
 
 ' As the outward man is perishing ' through the changes 
 and chances of Time's terrible mallet and chisel, the Divine 
 Spirit is fashioning and liberating the ideal son of God. 
 
 * See 'Life of Michelangelo,' by J. A. Symonds, vol. i., no.
 
 The second Circle, for the Cleansing Discipline of the 
 Envious. Virgil's invocation of the Sun. 
 
 ( XXXIV ) 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO XIII. 10-21. 
 
 SE qui per dimandar, gente s' aspetta, 10 
 
 Ragionava '1 Poeta, i' temo forse 
 Che troppo avra d' indugio nostra eletta. 
 Poi fisamente al Sole gli occhi porse ; 
 Fece del destro lato al muover centre, 
 E la sinistra parte di se torse. 15 
 
 O dolce lume, a cui fidanza i' entro 
 Per lo nuovo cammin, tu ne conduci, 
 Dicea, come condur si vuol quinc' entro. 
 Tu scaldi '1 mondo, tu sovr' esso luci ; 
 
 S' altra cagione in contrario non ponta, 20 
 
 Ksser den sempre li tuoi raggi duel. 
 
 1 66
 
 The Blind hear voices in the air. 
 ( XXXIV ) 
 
 THE Pilgrim is to learn in this second Circle the nature 
 of Envy by its manifested effects ; its cleansing is tc 
 be through the pain of those effects, through knowledge, 
 and through the opposing grace of Love. 
 
 The ' visible language ' of the last Circle was no longer to 
 be found. It would be useless here, for the eyes of the 
 Envious could see nothing ; the Envious look, the ' evil 
 eye,' had so blinded the true perceptive powers that those 
 who had yielded to this vice must be instructed in another 
 way. For them, Voices are in the air. 
 
 Again the Guide was uncertain of his way, and, ever 
 desirous to lead onward and upward, feared the delay of 
 waiting to inquire of some fellow-traveller. He therefore 
 fixes his eyes on the Sun ; to him ever the symbol, and, 
 more than that, the presence, of illuminating Reason ; and 
 he invokes the shining of those directing rays. 
 
 Dante, like our Blake, saw not the Sun as a round disc 
 of fire somewhat like a guinea. ' Oh, no ! no !' he says, 
 ' I see an innumerable company of the heavenly Host crying 
 Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty. I question 
 not my corporeal eye, any more than I would question a 
 window concerning a sight ; I look through it, not with it.' 
 
 167
 
 The invisible Spirits littering Love's invitations. 
 ( XXXIV ) 
 
 ( Continued from last page. ) 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO XIII. 22-30. 
 
 Quanto di qua per un miglia' si conta, 
 
 Tanto di la eravam noi gia iti 
 
 Con poco tempo, per la voglia pronta : 
 E verso noi volar furon sentiti, 25 
 
 Non perb visti, spiriti, parlando 
 
 Alia mensa d' amor cortesi inviti. 
 La prima voce, che passo volando, 
 
 Vinum non habent, altamente disse ; 
 
 E dietro a noi 1' ando reiterando. 30 
 
 168
 
 ' Overcome Evil with Good.' 
 ( XXXIV ) - 
 
 As the Pilgrim with ready will (voglia pronta) advances, 
 he hears or feels, but sees not, wings coming to meet him, 
 and ' voices of courteous invitations to Love's Table ' are in 
 the air. 
 
 Here we have another instance (like that at the entrance 
 of the first Circle) of the method pursued in the Purgatorio 
 of dealing with the sin that needs cleansing. It is by the 
 force of the contrasted Grace, the overcoming of Evil by its 
 opposing Antidote. How striking it is that the first accents 
 that fall on the attentive ears of the blinded ones of those 
 who had been envious of the goods of others should be 
 full and free invitations to partake with others of Love's 
 hospitalities ! The penetrating cry reiterated around them 
 would recall to their memories the first Miracle at the 
 Marriage Feast ' They have no wine ' and would remind 
 them of the motherly commiseration felt at the failure of a 
 Source of joy and hospitality that Love's eyes foresaw. It 
 would also contain the promise of such a joy being renewed 
 in fuller measure and in better quality. The envious could 
 have known but little joy, for they had grudged occasions 
 of it to others, and had therefore neither received it nor 
 given it. 
 
 Now that they are awakened to feel their need, they are 
 met by a full tide of assurance, not only of a supply of all 
 their necessities, but even of the overflow of festivities and 
 joyfulness in store for them ! Yet, with this revelation of 
 the bounties of Love, they are not to escape the necessity of 
 reaping what they have sown to themselves, or ' the lashes 
 of the scourge that are drawn from Love.' See line 39. 
 
 169
 
 The Envious are seen, clad in miserable Sackcloth, 
 and Blind. 
 
 : ( xxxv ) : 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO XIII. 52-75. 
 
 NON credo che per terra vada ancoi 
 Uomo si duro, che non fosse punto 
 Per compassion di quel ch' i' vidi poi : 
 Che quando fui si presso di lor giunto, 55 
 
 Che gli atti loro a me venivan certi, 
 
 Per gli occhi fui di grave dolor munto. 
 Di vil cilicio mi parean coperti ; 
 
 E 1' un sofferia 1' altro con la spalla, 
 
 E tutti dalla ripa eran sofferti. 60 
 
 Cosi li ciechi, a cui la roba falla, 
 
 Stanno a' perdoni a chieder lor bisogna ; 
 
 E F uno '1 capo sovra F altro avvalla, 
 Perche in altrui pieta tosto si pogna, 
 
 Non pur per lo sonar delle parole, 65 
 
 Ma per la vista che non meno agogna. 
 E come agli orbi non approda '1 Sole, 
 
 Cosi all' ombre, di ch' io parlava ora, 
 
 Luce del ciel di se largir non vuole ; 
 Ch' a tutte un fil di ferro il ciglio fora 70 
 
 E cuce si, come a sparvier selvaggio 
 
 Si fa, perb che queto non dimora. 
 A me pareva andando fare oltraggio, 
 
 Vedendo altrui, non essendo veduto : 
 
 Perch' io mi volsi al mio Consiglio saggio. 75 
 
 170'
 
 'That severely just vice, which never faileth to 
 punish itself.' 
 
 ( XXXV ) 
 
 THE appearance of these helpless, squalid, self-blinded 
 souls is indeed pitiful to imagine. That which was 
 inward has become outward, as is the case, indeed, throughout 
 the whole of the Commedia ; in order that we may read it 
 in the light of Truth, and take it back again into our own 
 hearts. In the Inferno the consequences of the Sin were 
 not acknowledged, as bound together with the Sin like seed 
 and fruit in Nature's necessity ; but the painful consequences 
 of sin were arrogantly defied, as though they were the cruel 
 and despotic acts of an arbitrary Supreme Force. In 
 Humility's Kingdom the righteous law is accepted, and the 
 soul is brought into increasing unity with the Truth, for 
 lack of which it must perforce pine and dwindle into death. 
 
 The words ' envy ' and ' invidious ' point to the perverted 
 use of the eye, and we are taught that our inward vision or 
 power of beholding Truth is injured by the misuse or neglect 
 of that capacity. We are reminded of the message to the 
 Church of Laodicea, who knew not that she was, as these 
 sufferers, ' wretched and miserable and poor and blind,' and 
 was counselled to buy many good things, amongst others 
 ' eye-salve that she might see.' These, in the Circle before 
 us, now know their condition, and the longed-for ' eye- 
 salve' will not be lacking to them. 
 
 What a lesson we have in Dante's refined sympathy with 
 the blind ! it seemed to him he did them outrage in seeing 
 them, when they saw not him ! 
 
 ' And the darkness of his kind 
 
 Filled him with such endless ruth, 
 That the very light of truth 
 
 Pained him, walking with the blind.' 
 
 LORD HOUGHTON. 
 
 171
 
 Dante asks if any there were fellow-countrymen. He is 
 assured that all are fellow-citizens. 
 
 ( XXXVI ) 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO XIII. 85-105. 
 
 VOLSIMI a loro, ed : O gente sicura, 85 
 
 Incominciai, di veder 1' alto lume, 
 Che '1 disio vostro solo have in sua cura ; 
 Se tosto grazia risolva le schiume 
 
 Di vostra cosc'ienza, si che chiaro 
 
 Per essa scenda della mente il fiume, 90 
 
 Ditemi (che mi fia grazioso e caro) 
 
 S' anima e qui tra voi, che sia latina : 
 
 E forse a lei sara buon, s' io 1' apparo. 
 O fratel mio, ciascuna e cittadina 
 
 D' una vera citta : ma tu vuoi dire, 95 
 
 Che vivesse in Italia peregrina. 
 Questo mi parve per risposta udire 
 
 Piu innanzi alquanto, che la dov' io stava : 
 
 Ond' io mi feci ancor piu la sentire. 
 Tra P altre vidi un' ombra, ch' aspettava 100 
 
 In vista ; e se volesse alcun dir : Come ? 
 
 Lo mento, a guisa d' orbo, in su levava. 
 Spirto, diss' io, che per salir ti dome, 
 
 Se tu se' quegli che mi rispondesti, 
 
 Fammiti conto o per luogo o per nome. 105 
 
 172
 
 Citizens of the City built to Music, ' and therefore 
 built for ever.' 
 
 ( XXXVI ) 
 
 IS not this the true way of addressing those who are 
 conscious of any spiritual need ? and amongst others 
 we may thus encourage ourselves ; ' for none can seek a 
 thing but because it is lost and has belonged to him and 
 ought to be his ; he was created in it and for it." W. LAW. 
 
 Note lines 88-90. Dante speaks of those in the Inferno 
 as having ' lost the good of Reason ;' and here he speaks of 
 the scum on the Conscience as preventing the limpid foun- 
 tain of the mind from flowing through it, and prays that 
 this darkening medium may be removed. He then goes on 
 to ask whether any of the poor sufferers before him were 
 his fellow-countrymen, as he might later be of good use to 
 them. He was answered by a Sienese woman, Sappia, who 
 had been so much under the dominion of Envy that she 
 was actually happier at the misfortune of another than at 
 any good fortune of her own. Her answer to Dante's ques- 
 tion shows that she has now so learnt the unity of the 
 human race, and the citizenship of all in the abiding Com- 
 monwealth, that addressing her questioner as ' Brother ' she 
 speaks of all as belonging to the one true City, whose 
 Builder and Maker is God, seeming scarcely to grasp 
 Dante's allusion to the geographical bond of neighbourhood 
 during the time of pilgrimage. 
 
 ' O Brother mine, each one is Citizen 
 Of one true City ; but thy meaning is 
 Who may have lived in Italy a Pilgrim.' 
 
 When the rivalries between the Cities of Siena, Pisa, and 
 Florence were so keen, the conviction of the brotherhood 
 of all in the one abiding Citizenship was much more remark- 
 able than in our day of United Italy and of awakening 
 world-wide sympathies. 
 
 173
 
 Dante asks how possessions are to be shared without 
 diminution for each sharer. 
 
 . ( XXXVII ) 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO XV. 40-57. 
 
 LO mio Maestro ed io soli ambodue 40 
 
 Suso andavamo ; ed io pensava andando 
 Prode acquistar nelle parole sue : 
 E dirizzaimi a lui si dimandando : 
 
 Che voile dir Io spirto di Romagna, 
 
 E divieto e consorto menzionando ? 45 
 
 Per ch' egli a me : Di sua maggior magagna 
 
 Conosce '1 danno ; e perb non si ammiri 
 
 Se ne riprende, perche men sen piagna. 
 Perche s' appuntano i vostri desiri 
 
 Dove per compagnia parte si scema, 50 
 
 Invidia muove il mantaco a' sospiri. 
 Ma se 1' amor della spera suprema 
 
 Torcesse in suso '1 desiderio vostro, 
 
 Non vi sarebbe al petto quella tern a : 
 Perche quanto si dice piu li nostro, 55 
 
 Tanto possiede piu di ben ciascuno, 
 
 E piu di caritate arde in quel chiostro.
 
 ' Joy flies monopolists ; it calls for two. 
 Rich fruit ! heaven planted ; never pluckt by one.' 
 
 ( XXXVII ) 
 
 AFTER seeing many more souls 'reaping straw from 
 their own sowing,' one of these (line 86 in preceding 
 Canto) exclaims : 
 
 ' O human race ! why dost thou set thy heart 
 Where interdict of partnership must be ?' 
 
 This is pondered over by Dante and affords a subject for 
 communing with Virgil in our portions for to-day and to- 
 morrow. Before the conversation begins, another dazzling 
 Angel has appeared, almost distressing to the Pilgrim's 
 unaccustomed eyes. He is assured that further on such 
 visitations from the Family of Heaven will become delightful 
 and natural to him. The Angel joyfully points out to them 
 an easier passage upwards towards the third Circle ; hearing 
 the Song behind them of the Blessing on the Merciful, and 
 the encouraging words, 'Rejoice, thou that overcomest/ the 
 second P is removed from the Pilgrim's brow and Mercy 
 takes the place of Envy. 
 
 Ere they reach the circle of the Angry and Violent, Dante 
 asks explanation of the words alluded to. It seems to have 
 been much on his heart that every possession must be 
 lessened by sharing it with another. 
 
 The superiority of the spiritual treasure to merely external 
 loveless partnership is made shining to us in the last three 
 lines of to-day's portion, by the beautiful word ' Our ' instead 
 of 'My'; signifying, as it at once does, the doubling of 
 Love and Joy. 
 
 ' For there, as much the more as one says " Our," 
 So much the more of good each one possesses, 
 And more of Charity in that cloister burns [94-96]. 
 
 Doubtless in this knowledge was poured out for the formerly 
 blind and envious some of the Water turned into wine of 
 the Wedding Feast.
 
 Dante craves to understand more concerning the Wealth 
 that is increased to each by its distribution. The Third 
 Circle is reached. 
 
 ( XXXVIII ) 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO XV. 58-66. 
 
 IO son d' esser contento piu digiuno, 
 Diss' io, che se mi fossi pria taciuto ; 
 E piu di dubbio nella mente aduno. 6c 
 
 Com' esser puote ch' un ben, distribute 
 In piu posseditor, faccia piu ricchi 
 Di se, che se da pochi e posseduto ? 
 Ed egli a me : Perocche tu rificchi 
 
 La mente pure alle cose terrene, 65 
 
 Di vera luce tenebre dispicchi. 
 
 176
 
 ' From heart to heart love sinks, it steals, it flows 
 From these that know Thee, still infecting those' 
 
 ( XXXVIII ) 
 
 DANTE seems to have so identified himself with the 
 blinded envious folk as to have been puzzled with 
 the paradox that any boon divided and distributed could 
 by that division and distribution increase instead of diminish- 
 ing the wealth of each possessor. His Guide tells him that 
 his want of comprehension shows that he has fixed his mind 
 so entirely upon earthly things as to pluck darkness from 
 the very light itself. Without implying blame to those who 
 confine their observation to one department of Nature, we 
 remark that, by doing this, they are in danger of losing some 
 of their capacity of vision in other regions of Truth. 
 
 Virgil then proceeds, in lines 67 to 72, to unfold and 
 illustrate his meaning. He tells the Pilgrim that even as 
 the Sunbeam flies to any bright object that reflects it, and 
 even as one mirror reflects the light received from another, 
 so increasing and multiplying the strength of light ; thus the 
 Infinite and ineffable Goodness above kindles into Love, 
 giving Itself wherever It finds receptive Ardour ; increasing 
 as it expends Itself ; and the greater the number who love, 
 the better do they love, and the more do they aspire to 
 love. 
 
 ' If the vision of God constitutes the blessedness of man, then they 
 whose spiritual eye is most enlightened will drink in most of His glory ; 
 and, since only like can know like, all advances which are made in 
 Humility, in Holiness, in Love, are a polishing of the Mirror that it 
 may reflect more clearly the Divine glory an enlarging of the vessel, 
 that it may receive more amply of the Divine fulness.' ARCHBISHOP 
 TRENCH. 
 
 177 12
 
 Virgil explains to Dante the secret of increasing Heavenly 
 wealth, and is bidden to expect more light from Beatrice. 
 
 ( XXXVIII ) 
 
 (Continued from last page.} 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO XV. 67-84. 
 
 Quell' infinite ed ineffabil bene, 
 
 Che lassu e, cosi corre ad amore, 
 
 Com' a lucido corpo raggio viene. 
 Tan to si da, quanto trova d' ardore ; 70 
 
 Si che quantunque carita si stende, 
 
 Cresce sovr' essa 1' eterno valore. 
 E quanta gente piii lassuso intende, 
 
 Piu v' e da bene amare, e piii vi s' ama ; 
 
 E come specchio 1' uno all' altro rende. 75 
 
 E se la mia ragion non ti disfama, 
 
 Vedrai Beatrice ; ed ella pienamente 
 
 Ti torra questa e ciascun' altra brama. 
 Procaccia pur che tosto siene spente, 
 
 Come son gia le due, le cinque piaghe, So 
 
 Che si richiudon per esser dolente. 
 Com' io voleva dicer : Tu m' appaghe ; 
 
 Vidimi giunto in su 1' altro girone, 
 
 Si che tacer mi fer le luci vaghe.
 
 1 . . . His Father's Name written in their foreheads.' 
 REV. xiv. i. 
 
 ' / . . . will give him a white stone, and in the stone a 
 new name.' REV. ii. 17. 
 
 ( XXXVIII ) 
 
 It seems suggested to us (line 67) that the Infinite and 
 ineffable Divine Goodness passes into Love, or, we might 
 say, becomes personified in meeting with recognition; foi 
 Love indeed needs the relationship and interchange of 
 conscious reciprocity in giving and receiving, before it can 
 be in full potency. 
 
 It is the sunrise to the Soul when we find that Love 
 knows us by Name. We may venture also perhaps to say 
 that it is through relationship with His offspring that the 
 infinite and ineffable Goodness names Himself, and is no 
 longer the universally diffused impersonal Benevolence alone. 
 In His last prayer our Lord says, ' I have manifested Thy 
 Name.' 
 
 The Good Shepherd who loves His sheep calls them by 
 name, though to other eyes, poor things, they look so piti- 
 fully alike ! The Pilgrim is told that the answer to his 
 questioning will fully satisfy him, when he receives it from 
 his Celestial Beatrice ; in the same way the Lord Himself 
 bade His disciples expect the more inward and completing 
 Spirit of Truth to lead them into all Truth. 
 
 Dante had already, he was assured, been cleansed from 
 two out of the seven deadly wounds his soul had received 
 (lines 80, 81); which wounds, Virgil tells him, 'close them- 
 selves again by being painful.' 
 
 'It is the life in the corrupting thing that makes the 
 suffering possible ; it is the live part, not the corrupted part, 
 that suffers; it is the redeemable, not the doomed thing, 
 that is subjected to vanity ; that subjection is the one hope 
 against the supremacy of corruption.' GEO. MACDONALD. 
 
 '79
 
 Dante is rapt into inner vision regarding the meek and 
 the wrathful in the Third Circle. 
 
 ( XXXIX ) 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO XV. 85-93. 
 
 QUIVI mi parve in una visione 85 
 
 Estatica di subito esser tratto, 
 E vedere in un tempio piu persone : 
 Ed una donna in su 1' entrar, con atto 
 Dolce di madre, dicer : Figliuol mio, 
 Perche hai tu cosi verso noi fatto ? 90 
 
 Ecco, dolenti lo tuo padre ed io 
 
 Ti cercavamo. E come qui si tacque, 
 Cio, che pareva prima, dispario. 
 
 
 180
 
 The behaviour of the lofty-lowly in their inheritance of 
 the Earth. 
 
 ( XXXIX ) 
 
 AS the last words were spoken, the Pilgrim and his Guide 
 entered the third Circle, the School for the Angry. 
 
 In the two first Circles they were taught first by God's 
 ' Visible speech,' secondly by ' Voices in the air.' In this 
 circle another advance is made in spiritual perception, and 
 Inward visions are granted. 
 
 As they enter this Circle, the Pilgrim's soul becomes rapt 
 in ecstatic contemplation of a Temple, and one who stands 
 at its door with ' the sweet ways of a Mother. ' She speaks 
 words of tenderness, though of remonstrance, to the Son 
 whom she could not fully comprehend, for He had caused 
 her and His Father sorrow. 
 
 The Proud had been taught, through that same type of 
 Womanly Humility, meekness in reception of a mysterious 
 personal favour. 
 
 The Envious had been taught consideration for others in 
 dispensing Love's joy-giving hospitalities. 
 
 The Angry are now shown the behaviour of meekness 
 under bewildering personal trial. The lessons are given 
 each time through that same Representative of the womanly 
 element in God's Divine fashioning of His image in Man. 
 
 181
 
 Dante's second vision of Meekness, as opposed to Wrath. 
 (XXXIX) 
 
 (Continued from last page.) 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO XV. 106-114. 
 
 Pot vidi genti accese in foco d' ira, 
 Con pietre un giovinetto ancider, forte 
 Gridando a se pur : Martira, martira : 
 
 E lui vedea chinarsi, per la morte 
 
 Che 1' aggravava gia, in ver la terra ; no 
 
 Ma degli occhi facea sempre al ciel porte, 
 
 Orando all' alto Sire in tanta guerra, 
 Che perdonasse a' suoi persecutori, 
 Con quell' aspetto che pieta disserra. 
 
 182
 
 ' Thou, Lord, hast conquered death ; and I aloud 
 Should triumph over him with thy saintly crowd 
 That, where the Lamb goes, ever follow ethJ 1 
 
 ( XXXIX ) - 
 
 The next Biblical vision opened in the Pilgrim's heart is 
 one of the most sublime triumphs of the Kingdom of the 
 overcoming Lamb, in opposition to the outburst of the dark 
 kingdom of violence and rage. 
 
 The Pilgrim saw the surging crowd, kindled in the fire of 
 wrath, murdering with stones the young man Stephen ; while 
 he, bowed on his knees and ' weighted with death,' ever 
 kept his eyes as portals to Heaven, praying to the Father, 
 ' even midst such a strife,' for pardon for his murderers. 
 
 We are told in the Bible narrative that Stephen saw 
 through those opened eyes the opened heavens, with Jesus 
 at the right hand of power. Dante adds the twin-thought, 
 in showing us those eyes as not alone beholding the glorious 
 vision, but as themselves becoming portals for the entrance 
 of the King of Glory within the Martyr's spirit. And did 
 He not enter and take full possession in power of presence 
 and unity of Spirit when the dying voice was ' loud ' that 
 cried, ' Lord, lay not this sin to their charge ' ? making then 
 the full accord with the Divine cry from the Cross, Father, 
 forgive them, for they know not what they do.' 
 
 ' To know 
 
 Rather consists in opening out a way 
 Whence the imprisoned splendour may escape, 
 Than in effecting entry for a light 
 Supposed to be without.' 
 
 PARACELSUS. 
 
 183
 
 In the Circle of the Violent, the atmosphere is dark and 
 smoky ; yet voices harmoniously pray for peace to the 
 Lamb of God. 
 
 ( XL ) - 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO XVI. 1-21. 
 
 BUIO d' Inferno, e di notte privata 
 D' ogni pianeta sotto pover cielo, 
 Quant' esser pub di nuvol tenebrata, 
 Non fece al viso mio si grosso velo, 
 
 Come quel fummo ch' ivi ci coperse, 5 
 
 Ne al sentir di cosi aspro pelo ; 
 Che 1' occhio stare aperto non sofferse : 
 
 Onde la Scorta mia saputa e fida 
 
 Mi s' accostb, e 1' omero m' offerse. 
 Si come cieco va dietro a sua guida 10 
 
 Per non smarrirsi, e per non dar di cozzo 
 
 In cosa che '1 molesti o forse ancida ; 
 M' andava io per 1' acre amaro e sozzo, 
 
 Ascoltando '1 mio Duca, che diceva 
 
 Pur : Guarda, che da me tu non sie mozzo. 1 5 
 Io sentia voci ; e ciascuna pareva 
 
 Pregar, per pace e per misericordia, 
 
 L' agnel di Dio, che le peccata leva. 
 Pure Agnus Dei eran le loro esordia : 
 
 Una parola in tutte era ed un modo, 20 
 
 Si che parea tra esse ogni concordia. 
 
 184
 
 The infection of a darkness that may be felt. 
 
 (XL) 
 
 IN Canto XV. we were shown the increased power of 
 light through the recognition of light by the Children 
 of Light ; we also saw the realm of darkness apparently 
 extended through the mad fury of many children of dark- 
 ness. By their clamour they drowned the voice of truth 
 and meekness, stopping their ears against it and closing 
 their eyes against the face that shone as an Angel's, and 
 against the glory of Heaven. 
 
 The Envious were blind, each in separate blindness. In 
 an angry mob the whole atmosphere becomes smoky and 
 rough, and, as represented here, like a ' poor night,' deprived 
 of every star. At such a time the pilgrim must needs fall 
 back on his own conscience (10). 
 
 In the midst of this darkness which lingers around the 
 consciences of the formerly wrathful, and still impedes their 
 upward movement, they all draw together by one accord ; 
 and one word and one prayer ascends from their lips. It is 
 to the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world, 
 that they are impelled to address their united cry ; the Lamb 
 whose victory was so complete in Stephen's heart over the 
 united strength of the army of darkness and fury. 
 
 The Pilgrim enters into the full meaning of those words 
 as proclaiming the removal, not only of the penalty of sin, 
 but of the sins themselves. 
 
 ' Of all sins, that of anger was perhaps the most difficult for an 
 Italian temper, with its tendencies to the proverbial " Vendetta," to 
 overcome ; and Dante's letter to Henry VII. shows how strong a hold 
 it had upon him, even about the time when he was writing this Canto.' 
 DEAN PLUMPTRE.
 
 An illuminating Angel pronounces the blessing on the 
 Peacemakers, removing the third P of Anger from 
 Dante's forehead. 
 
 (XLI) 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO XVII. 46-69. 
 
 I' MI volgea per veder ov' io fosse, 
 Quand' una voce disse : Qui si monta : 
 Che da ogni altro intento mi rimosse ; 
 E fece la mia voglia tanto pronta 
 
 Di riguardar chi era che parlava, 50 
 
 Che mai non posa, se non si raffronta. 
 Ma come al Sol, che nostra vista grava, 
 
 E per soverchio sua figura vela, 
 
 Cos! la mia virtu quivi mancava. 
 Questi e divino spirito, che ne la 55 
 
 Via d' andar sua ne drizza senza prego, 
 
 E col suo lume se medesmo cela. 
 Si fa con noi, come 1' uom si fa sego : 
 
 Che quale aspetta prego, e 1' uopo vede, 
 
 Malignamente gia si mette al nego. 60 
 
 Ora accordiamo a tanto invito il piede : 
 
 Procacciam di salir pria che s' abbui ; 
 
 Che poi non si poria, se '1 di non riede. 
 Cosi disse '1 mio Duca ; ed io con lui 
 
 Volgemmo i nostri passi ad una scala : 65 
 
 E tosto ch' io al primo grado fui, 
 Senti' mi presso quasi un muover d' ala, 
 
 E ventarmi nel volto, e dir : Beati 
 
 Pacifici, che son sanza ira mala. 
 
 1 86
 
 A Divine and loving Spirit effaces himself in light. 
 ( XLI ) 
 
 VISIONS of instruction have still been pressing in upon 
 the Pilgrim's soul The last of these was dispelled 
 by an almost blinding effulgence of light, which made his 
 imaginings appear like dreams. Turning round to see 
 where he might be, he heard a voice saying, 'This is the 
 way upwards.' The answer to the desiring soul has some- 
 times been borne in upon it with an overmastering wave of 
 heavenly illumination, quite beyond all that it has asked or 
 thought, without any discernible channel less Divine than 
 itself. All doubt is dispelled by a voice that seems to be 
 heard saying, 'This is the way, walk ye in it.' 
 
 What a high conception of a Divine Messenger is given 
 us here ! (55). 
 
 ' This is a Spirit Divine, who in the way 
 Of going up directs us without asking, 
 And who with his own light himself conceals? 
 
 Light, even spiritual light, sometimes proves a temptation 
 to display Self rather than as a veil for concealing self 
 
 This tide of light and grace removed the scar of the third 
 wound, Anger, from the Pilgrim's brow with gentle fanning 
 of wings and with the Divine Benediction ' Blessed are the 
 Peacemakers.' 
 
 How shall any sin be uprooted or its scar removed except 
 by a beatitude taking its place? for no soul can remain 
 ' empty, swept and garnished ' without further peril. 
 
 187
 
 The fourth Circle, where those languid in Love and Zeal 
 are in process of restoration. 
 
 ( XLII ) 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO XVII. 82-87. 
 
 DOLCE mio Padre, di', quale offensione 
 Si purga qui nel giron, dove semo ? 
 Se i pie si stanno, non stea tuo sermone. 
 Ed egli a me : L' amor del bene, scemo 85 
 
 Di suo dover, quiritta si ristora ; 
 Qui si ribatte '1 mal tardato remo. 
 
 1 88
 
 ' ... Do not kill 
 The spirit of Love with a perpetual ditlness.' 
 
 ( XLII ) 
 
 THE fourth Circle is now reached, that stands between 
 the first and second triplets assigned to the discipline 
 of the seven deadly sins. 
 
 The first three Pride, Envy, Anger seem more nearly 
 allied to the infernal root-spirit of Evil ; while Avarice, 
 Greed, and Carnality may be more dependent on external 
 accidents presented by the temptations of sense. 
 
 The link between the two series partakes of the character 
 of both ; being, perhaps, engendered by the first series, and 
 certainly often engendering the latter. 
 
 We read in our selection from Canto VII. of the Inferno 
 of some who were submerged in the slime of the putrid fen 
 of Styx, who had, ' even in the sweet air and sunshine above, 
 carried gloomy smoke within their breasts.' Their sin was 
 called ' Accidia.' Dante and other great spiritual teachers 
 have delineated it as a condition of gloom, sloth, and sullen 
 irritation. Here, amongst the souls saved from its worst 
 development, it is considered as Languid Love; now in 
 process of restoration to true temperature by eager endeavour 
 and aspiration. 
 
 We are told in a long and rather difficult discourse that 
 intervenes between our two extracts for to-day that Love is 
 at the root of every movement of the soul, be it good or 
 evil. Love, in true relationship and due temperature, is the 
 Mother of every good thing ; perverted, and out of due 
 measure, the parent of all evils. 
 
 189
 
 The eager fervour of the formerly tardy and hike-warm. 
 ( XLII ) 
 
 ( Continued from last page.) 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO XVIII. 94-117. 
 
 TALE per quel giron suo passo falca, 
 Per quel ch' io vidi, di color, venendo, 95 
 Cui buon volere e giusto amor cavalca. 
 Tosto fur sovra noi, perche correndo 
 
 Veniva tutta quella turba magna ; 
 
 E duo dinanzi gridavan piangendo : 
 Maria corse con fretta alia montagna ; 100 
 
 E : Cesare, per soggiogare Ilerda, 
 
 Punse Marsilia, e poi corse in Ispagna. 
 Ratto, ratto, che '1 tempo non si perda 
 
 Per poco amor, gridavan gli altri appresso ; 
 
 Che studio di ben far grazia rinverda. 105 
 
 O gente, in cui fervore acuto adesso 
 
 Ricompie forse negligenza e indugio 
 
 Da voi, per tiepidezza, in ben far messo, 
 Questi che vive (e certo io non vi bugio) 
 
 Vuol andar su, purche '1 Sol ne riluca : no 
 
 Perb ne dite ond' e presso '1 pertugio. 
 Parole furon queste del mio Duca : 
 
 Ed un di quegli spirti disse : Vieni 
 
 Diretr' a noi, che troverai la buca. 
 Noi siam di voglia a muoverci si pieni, 115 
 
 Che ristar non potem ; perb perdona, 
 
 Se villania nostra giustizia tieni. 
 
 190
 
 Love fitted for ministry by Order and Measure. 
 ( XLII ) 
 
 From this Circle of languid Love the voice heard by the 
 Pilgrim comes to each of our too lukewarm hearts, with 
 thrilling appeal (103): 'Quick! quick! so that time may 
 not be lost by little love !' or \yy&poor love. The formerly 
 tardy souls are now so filled with longing to move upwards 
 and onwards that they cannot linger over directions con- 
 cerning the Way for which they are asked. 
 
 LINES ATTRIBUTED TO S. FRANCIS OF ASSISI. 
 
 ' Set love in order, thou that lovest Me ; 
 Never was Virtue out of order found, 
 And though I fill thy heart desirously 
 By thine own virtue, I must keep My ground ; 
 When to My Love thou dost bring Charity, 
 Even She must come with order girt and gowned. 
 All earthly things I had the making of 
 Were numbered and were measured then by Me ; 
 And each was ordered to its end by Love, 
 Each kept, through order, clean for ministry. 
 Charity most of all, when known enough, 
 Is of her very nature orderly. ' 
 
 Translated by D. G. ROSSETTI. 
 
 191
 
 Dante, thrice called by Virgil from an absorbing vision, 
 follows an Angel upwards. 
 
 ( XLIII ) 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO XIX. 34-45. 
 
 IO volsi gli occhi ; e '1 buon Virgilio : Almen tre 
 Voci t' ho messe, dicea : surgi, e vieni ; 35 
 Troviam 1' aperto, per lo qual tu entre. 
 Su mi levai : e tutti eran gia pieni 
 Dell' alto di i giron del sacro monte ; 
 Ed andavam col Sol nuovo alle reni. 
 Seguendo lui, portava la mia fronte 40 
 
 Come colui che 1' ha di pensier carca, 
 Che fa di se un mezzo arco di ponte : 
 Quand' io udi', Venite, qui si varca, 
 Parlare in modo soave e benigno, 
 Qual non si sente in questa mortal marca. 45 
 
 192
 
 The temptation of the World and the Senses counteracted 
 by Wisdom. 
 
 ( XLIII ) - 
 
 THE Pilgrim has seen the many souls who had been 
 too much dominated by the sins of sloth and gloom 
 now permitted to redeem their past negligence by repentance, 
 and restored and quickened through grace of contrition into 
 ardour and zeal. 
 
 Darkness and Sleep and an early morning dream of 
 presage followed. Virgil has to awaken the disciple from 
 preoccupation with his dream-vision. It was of the Siren 
 who is dominant in the realm of the senses, in which realm 
 the penitents of the next three Circles had been tempted 
 and had succumbed. 
 
 She and her song haunt Dante's memory and imagination, 
 and though on her first appearance his purged eyes per- 
 ceived her squint and her distorted feet, her false outlook 
 and erring walk, his continued gaze provided her with fresh 
 vitality and some beauty from his own hankerings, and re- 
 awakened her alluring song of fascination. She had derived 
 her power from his own foolishness a subtle touch which 
 differentiates her from our Bunyan's corresponding picture 
 of Madam Bubble. She is the strange woman of Pro- 
 verbs vii., who flatters and lures the foolish to their own 
 destruction ; her Adversary, ' holy and alert,' is Wisdom 
 described in Proverbs viii. She stands at the other side 
 of the Pilgrim and breaks the spell of the Enchantress by 
 discovering to him her rival's foulness. Her voice sternly 
 calls Virgil twice, as though that Mentor had been negligent 
 in permitting this vision. He awakens Dante, saying that 
 he had already three times called him ; Dante follows, 
 bending, perhaps, with some shame, as well as laden with 
 thought. 
 
 193 J 3
 
 The Angel delivers Dante from the fourth P of Languid 
 Love, or Sloth, 
 
 - ( XLIII ) 
 
 ( Continued from last page. ) 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO XIX. 46-63. 
 
 Con 1' ale aperte, che parean di cigno, 
 
 Volseci in su colui che si parlonne, 
 
 Tra i duo pareti del duro macigno. 
 Mosse le penne poi e ventilonne, 
 
 Qui lugent affermando esser beati, 50 
 
 *Ch' avran di consolar 1' anime donne. 
 Che hai, che pure in ver la terra guati ? 
 
 La Guida mia incomincio a dirmi, 
 
 Poco ambedue dall' angel sormontati. 
 Ed io : Con tanta sospicion fa irmi 55 
 
 Novella vision ch' a se mi piega, 
 
 Si ch' io non posso dal pensar partirmi. 
 Vedesti, disse, quella antica strega, 
 fChe sola sovra noi omai si piagne ? 
 
 Vedesti come 1' uom da lei si slega ? 60 
 
 Bastiti ; e batti a terra le calcagne : 
 
 Gli occhi rivolgi al logoro, che gira 
 
 Lo Rege eterno con le ruote magne. 
 
 * ' To become mistress-souls of all consolation.' 
 
 (Benvenuto da Imola's interpretation of this line, given in Vernon's 
 ' Purgatorio. '} 
 
 f The false pleasure that misleads to the threefold sin disciplined in 
 the circles beyond. 
 
 194
 
 The Lukewarm are transmuted into Mistress- souls of 
 consolation. 
 
 ( XLIII ) 
 
 As the Pilgrim climbs on, humbly bowed down, there 
 reaches him the voice of an Angel-like music, more gentle 
 and benign than any voice that can sound in Earth's atmo- 
 sphere. The Angel affirms those who mourn to be blessed, 
 and to be themselves dispensers of Consolation. Thus, the 
 fourth wound is cleared from the Pilgrim's brow. 
 
 It is very noteworthy that the recipients of each of these 
 benedictions is anointed as a Dispenser of the healing 
 blessing imparted. The Envious were not only to find 
 Mercy, but to become merciful. The Angry were not only 
 to find Peace, but to become Peacemakers, and the sullen 
 Mourners were to become ' Mistress-souls of all Consola- 
 tion.' 
 
 It is, indeed, a Divine way of overcoming Evil, not only 
 to heal its wound but to transmute that wound into a foun- 
 tain of outflowing love ! 
 
 May there possibly have been some commingling of 
 tender sensitiveness, twin-born with their gloom, in these 
 melancholy, sullen souls, which (though it had added soil for 
 their besetting sin) was now to be gathered up as a fragment 
 of life-substance not to be lost, in their new powers for com- 
 forting sufferers ? 
 
 In the last lines Virgil calls upon Dante to tread under 
 foot the enchantments of the Earth by looking upwards to 
 the lure of Heaven's splendours the Spheres that the 
 Eternal King ' is turning for us in revolutions vast.' 
 
 ' Why comes Temptation but for man to meet 
 And master and make crouch beneath his foot, 
 
 And so be pedestalled in triumph ?' 
 
 R. BROWNINC. 
 
 '95
 
 The Fifth Circle, where avaricious and prodigal souls 
 are earth-bound and prostrate ; Adrian V.is amongst 
 them. 
 
 ( XLIV ) 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO XIX. 115-135. 
 
 OUEL ch' avarizia fa, qui si dichiara 115 
 
 In purgazion dell' anime converse : 
 E nulla pena il monte ha piu amara. 
 Si come 1' occhio nostro non s' aderse 
 
 In alto, fisso alle cose terrene ; 
 
 Cosi giustizia qui a terra il merse. 120 
 
 Come avarizia spense a ciascun bene 
 
 Lo nostro amor, onde operar perdesi ; 
 
 Cosi giustizia qui stretti ne tiene 
 Ne' piedi e nelle man legati e presi : 
 
 E quanto fia piacer del giusto Sire, 125 
 
 Tanto staremo immobili e distesi. 
 lo m' era inginocchiato, e volea dire ; 
 
 Ma com' io cominciai, ed ei s' accorse 
 
 Solo ascoltando del mio riverire, 
 Qual cagion, disse, in giu cosi ti torse? 130 
 
 Ed io a lui : Per vostra dignitate, 
 
 Mia coscienza dritta mi rimorse. 
 Drizza le gambe, e levati su, frate, 
 
 Rispose. Non errar : conserve sono 
 
 Teco e con gli altri ad una potestate, 135 
 
 196
 
 ' Heart-buried in the rubbish of the World.' 
 
 ( XLIV ) 
 
 W 
 
 HAT Avarice does to the soul is made manifest in 
 this fifth Circle, now reached by the Pilgrim. 
 
 1 People I saw upon it who were weeping, 
 Stretched prone upon the ground, all downward turned.' 
 
 They were sighing out the words, ' My soul cleaveth to 
 the ground.' They had failed to perceive the true end of 
 property, and knew neither how to give nor how to hold it, 
 being avaricious or prodigal, as impulse directed, ' because 
 their eye did not uplift itself, being fastened upon earthly- 
 things.' Dante conversed with Pope Adrian V., who was 
 one of these prostrate people ; he humbly confessed his sin, 
 and would not permit any homage from one he called his 
 ' fellow-servant.' 
 
 We are reminded of Bunyan's striking picture of such as 
 these, seen in the Interpreter's House : 
 
 ' Where was a man that could look no way but down- 
 wards, with a muck-rake in his hand. 
 
 'There stood also One over his head with a celestial 
 crown in his hand, and proffered to give him that crown for 
 his muck-rake ; but the man did neither look up nor regard, 
 but raked to himself the straws, the small sticks, and dust 
 of the floor. Then said Christiana, " Oh, deliver me from 
 this muck-rake !" That prayer, said the Interpreter, has 
 lain by till it is almost rusty. Straws and sticks and dust, 
 with most, are the great things now looked after.' 
 
 ' Content to see 
 An unsei/.ed Heaven dying at his feet !' 
 
 KEATS. 
 
 197
 
 The trembling of the Mountain freezes Dante with fear. 
 One erect amongst the prostrate (Statins) follows and 
 greets them. 
 
 ( XLV ) - 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO XX. 124-129, 133-141- 
 
 NOI eravam partiti gia da esso, 
 E brigavam di soverchiar la strada 125 
 
 Tanto, quanto al poter n' era permesso ; 
 Quand' io send', come cosa che cada, 
 
 Tremar lo monte : onde mi prese un gelo, 
 Qual prender suol colui ch' a morte vada. 
 
 * * * * * 
 
 Poi comincib da tutte parti un grido 
 Tal, che : 1 Maestro in ver di me si feo, 
 Dicendo : Non dubbiar, mentr' io ti guido. 135 
 Gloria in excelsis, tutti, Deo, 
 
 Dicean, per quel ch' io da vicin compresi, 
 Onde intender lo grido si poteo. 
 Noi ci ristemmo immobili e sospesi, 
 
 Come i pastor che prima udir quel canto, 140 
 Fin che '1 tremar cessb, ed ei compiesi. 
 
 ***** XXI. 1-13. 
 
 LA sete natural, che mai non sazia 
 Se non coll' acqua, onde la femminetta 
 Samaritana dimando la grazia, 
 Mi travagliava ; e pungeami la fretta, 
 
 Per la impacciata via, retro al mio Duca ; 5 
 
 E condoleami alia giusta vendetta. 
 . Ed ecco, si come ne scrive Luca 
 
 Che Cristo apparve a' duo ch' erano in via, 
 Gia surto fuor del la sepolcral buca, 
 Ci apparve un' ombra : e dietro a noi venia, io 
 
 Dappie guardando la turba che giace ; 
 Ne ci addemmo di lei, sin' parlo pria, 
 Dicendo : Frati miei, Dio vi dea pace. 
 198
 
 ' Nature seems ever awaiting something.' 
 
 (XLV) 
 
 THE Pilgrim and his Guide are passing on amongst the 
 prostrate people, victims 'of the old She-wolf (he 
 says) 
 
 ' That more than all the other beasts has prey 
 Because of hunger infinitely hollow,' 
 
 when lo ! the Mountain trembles so violently that Dante is 
 chilled with fear. Immediately from all sides arose a cry 
 from many voices filling the air ; it seemed the utterance of 
 ' Gloria in excelsis Deo.' Perplexed and thoughtful, Dante 
 and his Guide wend their way onwards. 
 
 The thirst to know is on the Pilgrim that universal 
 thirst, he calls it, which nothing can satisfy but the Water 
 of life for which the Woman of Samaria besought the Lord ; 
 and behold, even as the Lord appeared to two wayfarers as 
 they reasoned together, One drew nigh erect among the 
 multitude bent to the earth, and greeted them with saluta- 
 tions of Peace. 
 
 He was but a Fellow-pilgrim, yet they saw in him, as he 
 walked amongst the prostrate and disabled, the image of 
 the Christ. He was able to minister to them a cup of that 
 cold water from the well of Life, for which the Pilgrim had 
 been so ardently longing. 
 
 We shall find later that the trembling of the Mountain 
 was occasioned by sympathy with the resurrection power in 
 this very Soul, who a few moments before was upraised 
 from the crippled people amongst whom he had lain 500 
 years. ' Tremble, thou Earth, at the presence of the Lord, 
 at the presence of the God of Jacob,' was one of the verses 
 sung at the entrance of Purgatory ; as though the dream of 
 the poets of all ages was to be realized that, Man being 
 awakened to a more spiritual condition, Nature also would 
 be thrilled with responsive currents of the new life. 
 
 199
 
 The question asked, ' Why the Mountain trembled ?' 
 is answered by Statins. 
 
 ( XLVI ) - 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO XXI. 34-54. 
 
 MA dinne, se tu sai, perche tai crolli 
 Die dianzi '1 monte ; e perche tutti ad una 35 
 Parver gridare infino a' suoi pie molli ? 
 Si mi die dimandando per la cruna 
 
 Del mio disio, che pur con la speranza 
 
 Si fece la mia sete men digiuna. 
 Quei comincio : Cosa non e, che san/a 40 
 
 Ordine senta la religione 
 
 Delia montagna, o che sia fuor d' usanza. 
 Libero e qui da ogni alterazione : 
 
 Di quel che il cielo in se da se riceve, 
 
 Esserci puote, e non d' altro, cagione. 45 
 
 Perche non pioggia, non grando, non neve, 
 
 Non rugiada, non brina piu su cade, 
 
 Che la scaletta de' tre gradi breve. 
 Nuvole spesse non paion ne rade, 
 
 Ne corruscar, ne figlia di Taumante, 50 
 
 Che di la cangia sovente contrade. 
 Secco vapor non surge piu avante, 
 
 Ch' al sommo de' tre gradi ch' or parlai, 
 
 Ov' ha '1 vicario di Pietro le piante. 
 
 200
 
 In the Spiritual Mount the Clime is affected by spiritual 
 causes alone. The three little steps have separated from 
 all physical laws. 
 
 ( XLVI ) 
 
 THE erect spirit who had joined Dante and his Guide,, 
 even as Christ had appeared to the disciples as they 
 walked to Emmaus, proved to be the poet Statius, who had 
 been led by some words of Virgil into the Christian faith. 
 
 He now accompanies Dante and Virgil as far as the 
 Paradise regained on the summit of the Mountain. He 
 can tell them many things, first answering Virgil's question 
 about the trembling of the Mountain, and so satisfying 
 Dante's eager thirst to know its meaning. 
 
 He tells them that the sacred order, or ' religion ' of the 
 Mountain, ' was liable to no changes from physical causes.' 
 
 The short stairway of three steps removes our thought 
 from the framework of this world, or indeed of any visible 
 world, into the moral world, where the vicissitudes of the 
 temporal are unknown. 
 
 In the realm of Love, of Righteousness, and of Peace the 
 Sun never sets : there is no Night there, no mutability of 
 the Elements. 
 
 The Everlasting One, ' and the Blessed Spirits which He 
 includes as the Sea her waves/ move, but are not moved by 
 external causes. Nature herself, and the external part of 
 man, are but as passing blossoms on this Ocean of Life. 
 We can but stammer in tentative figurative words here ; but 
 the symbolism presented to us seems suggestive of the thrill 
 of added motion and joy in that deepest Life of Being^ 
 when one amongst its multitude moves and is moved to 
 some onward unison with its laws of blessedness. 
 
 The Son of Man, who dwelt ever in the Bosom of the 
 Father, could tell us more concerning that Kingdom of Life 
 than any other; and His Words, no doubt, inspired the 
 
 201
 
 The trembling of the Mountain with the liberated 
 Will of Statins. 
 
 ( XLVI ) 
 
 ( Continued from last page. ) 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO XXI. 58-72. 
 
 Tremaci quando alcuna anima monda 
 
 Si sente si, che surga, o che si muova, 
 
 Per salir su ; e tal grido seconda. 60 
 
 Delia mondizia il sol voler fa pruova, 
 
 Che, tutto libero a mutar convento, 
 
 L' alma sorprende ; ed il voler le giova. 
 Prima vuol ben ; ma non lascia '1 talento, 
 
 Che divina giustizia con tal voglia 65 
 
 Come fu al peccar, pone al tormento. 
 Ed io che son giaciuto a questa doglia 
 
 Cinquecento anni e piu, pur mo sentii 
 
 Libera volonta di miglior soglia. 
 Perb sentiste '1 terremoto, e i pii 70 
 
 Spiriti per lo monte render lode 
 
 A quel Signer, che tosto su gl' invii. 
 
 202
 
 The gust- of Praise stirred by a soul set free. 
 
 ( XLVI ) 
 
 thought of the thrilling Mount. ' There is joy in the 
 presence of God and of the holy Angels over one sinner 
 that repenteth.' 
 
 Blessed it is to think of that cry of ' Gloria ' awakened in 
 the hearts even of those still bound by unready will and 
 slack desire to lower ground, when a Sister-soul is set free. 
 Their song accompanies and helps the freed soul and 
 mingles at once with descending welcomes from above. 
 
 Note lines 61-66. The cry 'is raised when the Will of 
 the soul to rise upward is free from all impediments arising 
 out of its own past impurities or the laws of retribulion. 
 Till then the Will, which has been turned to sin, is turned 
 to the working out of its appointed sentence, which becomes 
 the object of a new desire. Dante, in this subtle distinction 
 between the will that seeks freedom and that which accepts 
 punishment as the condition of freedom, does but paraphrase 
 the teaching of Aquinas.' DEAN PI.UMPTRE. 
 
 We are taught throughout the ' Divina Commedia ' that the 
 will-power fails, and impulse contradicts the residue of that 
 will-power, through former habits of yielding to temptation ; 
 and this seems to give a reason for the necessity felt that 
 those who are in a freer condition should pray for the 
 renewal of will in those still conscious of their bondage. 
 
 Statius had, he says, remained unable to rise for more 
 than 500 years, before he felt his soul ' taken by surprise ' 
 and freed to mount. 
 
 We are reminded of our Lord's words to bystanders after 
 He had restored Lazarus to life, ' Loose him and let him 
 go.' He is thus calling upon bystanders now to aid in His 
 miracles of restoration. 
 
 203
 
 The Pods proceed and the Pilgrim follows, learning from 
 their discourse. An Apple-tree with tempting yet un- 
 attainable fruit is in the midst of the Way. 
 
 ( XLVII ) - 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO XXII. 127-147. 
 
 ELLI givan dinanzi, ed io soletto 
 Diretro ; ed ascoltava i lor sermon i, 
 Ch' a poetar mi davano intelletto. 
 Ma tosto ruppe le dolci ragioni 130 
 
 Un alber, che trovammo in mezza strada, 
 
 Con pomi ad odorar soavi e buoni. 
 E come abete in alto si digrada 
 
 Di ramo in ramo, cosi quello in giuso ; 
 
 Cred' io perche persona su non vada. 135 
 
 I >al lato, onde '1 cammin nostro era chiuso, 
 
 Cadea dall' alta roccia un liquor chiaro ; 
 
 E si spandeva per le foglie suso. 
 Li duo Poeti all' alber s' appressaro : 
 
 Ed una voce per entro le fronde 140 
 
 Grido : Di questo cibo avrete caro. 
 Poi disse : Piu pensava Maria, onde 
 
 Fosser le nozze orrevoli ed intere, 
 
 Ch' alia sua bocca, ch' or per voi risponde : 
 E le Romane antiche per lor bere 145 
 
 Contente furon d' acqua ; e Daniello 
 
 Dispregio cibo, ed acquistb savere. 
 
 204
 
 ' As the Apple-tree among the trees of the Wood.' 
 CANT. ii. 3. 
 
 - ( XLVII ) 
 
 THE Fifth Circle of the Avaricious and Prodigal (from 
 which latter sin Statius had just been cleansed) had 
 been left behind by the three ascending ones. 
 
 The fifth P has been erased from the brow of the Pilgrim, 
 and the ascent has now become easy to him. A strange 
 benediction has been conferred, the benediction of Thirst 
 the thirst for righteousness, instead of the thirst for riches 
 or for ease which had formerly possessed these souls. The 
 united blessing of hungering and thirsting of St. Matt. v. 
 is here separated into two. The spiritual hunger is reserved 
 for those who in the Sixth Circle (now entered) are dis- 
 ciplined for their earthly greed. 
 
 The two Poets walk first and Dante follows, listening to 
 the converse which gives him lessons in the art of song. A 
 mystic Apple-Tree in the midst of the Way arrests their 
 attention. Its fruits are pleasant and odorous, but they art- 
 guarded by the form of the Tree and by a warning voice 
 from its foliage, affirming that of such fruit there would be 
 dearth, and citing examples of abstinence. Another such 
 Tree further on, we are told, is a scion from the Tree of 
 Knowledge. 
 
 A clear cascade fell from the rock above the Tree, over 
 its green foliage, increasing its refreshing allurement, yet the 
 hungering and thirsting ones were unable to partake of it. 
 
 A crowd of famished and emaciated spirits, silent and 
 devout, were seen pressing onwards, and Dante exclaims 
 (xxiii. 34) : 
 
 ' Who would believe the odour of an Apple, 
 Begetting longing, would consume them so, 
 And that of Water.' 
 
 205
 
 Those who yielded to greed on Earth are now the 
 Emaciated, unable to satisfy the spiritual hunger 
 awakened by the Apple-tree. 
 
 - ( XLVIII ) _ 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO XXIII. 61-66. 
 
 ED egli a me : Ball' eterno consiglio 
 Cade virtu nell' acqua e nella pianta 
 Rimasa addietro, ond' io si mi sottiglio. 
 Tutta esta gente, che piangendo canta, 
 
 Per seguitar la gola oltre misura, 65 
 
 In fame e in sete qui si rifa santa. 
 
 206
 
 ' Yet, Lord, let not the hunger go, 
 And keep the faintness at my heart.' 
 
 - ( XLVIII ) 
 
 IN this Sixth Circle the Victims of greed of all that 
 sense could give in the outward here awaken, to find 
 themselves famine-stricken, emaciated, and squalid. Their 
 unexercised spiritual appetites find nothing with which they 
 can be satisfied. They walk round and round the mystic 
 Tree, craving its scented fruit and the living water that 
 sprinkles its verdure, but they cannot attain its high branches. 
 Their desire is kept alive and their hunger and thirst is 
 unsatisfied. They know the pain they feel should be their 
 solace (line 72), for it is the very condition of their attain- 
 ment ; as it is explained, they are led to that Tree by the 
 same will that led the Christ, rejoicing, to say ' Eli ' when 
 he liberated us by His blood. For love's sake He rejoiced 
 to suffer even to the uttermost desolation that forced that 
 cry from Him on the Cross, to win His Bride the Church. 
 Does not this point to a responsive love and longing in 
 these thirsting souls, to be reunited in full fellowship of 
 spousal joy with their Lord? Was not this mystic Tree 
 indeed a scion from the Tree of Life and Love in the midst 
 of the way to the restored Paradise, from which they had 
 debarred themselves through the indulgence of grosser 
 appetites ? 
 
 The Bridegroom had come, but these poor souls (or 
 representatives of wandering affections) were unready to go 
 in with Him to the Wedding. Through suffering, and con- 
 tinued desire and prayer, these 'foolish Virgins,' while tarry- 
 ing outside, have to be made meet for the union of perfected 
 Love. 
 
 207
 
 The painful longing to partake of the Tree of Life. 
 ( XLVIII ) - 
 
 ( Continued from last page. ) 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO XXIII. 67-75. 
 
 Di here e di mangiar n' accende cura 
 
 L' odor, ch' esce del porno e dello sprazzo, 
 
 Che si distende su per la verdura. 
 E non pure una volta, questo spazzo 70 
 
 Girando, si rinfresca nostra pena ; 
 
 lo dico pena, e dovria dir sollazzo : 
 Che quella voglia all' arbore ci mena, 
 
 Che meno Cristo lieto a dire Eli, 
 
 Quando ne libero con la sua vena 75 
 
 208
 
 ' The Desire of all nations.' 
 ( XLVIII ) 
 
 ' Nothing works either in God, or Nature, or creature, but 
 Desire. And as God created Angels and men out of eternal 
 Nature, only through a longing Desire of manifesting His 
 own goodness and happiness in them, so every angel and 
 man must find God as a life of happiness and goodness in 
 Him, as soon as Nature, either in Angel or man, is become 
 a hunger after God. For Hunger does all, in all worlds, 
 and finds all that it wants and hungers after. Everything 
 had its beginning in it, and from it, and everything is led 
 by it to all its happiness.' W.M. LAW'S 'Spirit of Prayer.' 
 
 'The souls in Purgatory . . . hope to see that Bread' (of 
 Life) ' and satiate themselves to the full therewith ; whence 
 they hunger and suffer pain as great as will be their capacity 
 of enjoying that Bread, which is Jesus Christ the true God, 
 our Saviour and our Love.' ST. CATHERINE OF GENOA. 
 
 ' Had the refusing 
 Tasted but once, 
 All would they leave, 
 And sit down with us 
 To the Table of longing 
 Which will never be bare. 
 Then would they know Love's 
 Infinite fulness, 
 And magnify the nourishment 
 Of Body and Blood.' 
 
 ' Spiritual Songs of Novalis,' 
 translated by Geo. Macdonald. 
 
 209 14
 
 An Angel in glowing crimson Light directs the Pilgrim. 
 The breeze that imparted Blessing and Healing, a 
 Harbinger of Morning and of Spring. 
 
 ( XLIX ) 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO XXIV. 136-154. 
 
 DRIZZAI la testa per veder chi fossi ; 
 E giammai non si videro in fornace 
 Vetri o metalli si lucenti e rossi, 
 
 Com' io vidi un che dicea : S' a voi piace 
 
 Montare in su, qui si convien dar volta : 140 
 
 Quinci si va chi vuole andar per pace. 
 
 L' aspetto suo m' avea la vista tolta : 
 
 Per ch' io mi volsi indietro a' miei Dottori, 
 Com' uom che va secondo ch' egli ascolta. 
 
 E quale, annunziatrice degli albori, 145 
 
 L' aura di maggio muovesi, ed olezza 
 Tutta impregnata dalP erba e da' fiori : 
 
 Tal mi send' un vento dar per mezza 
 
 La fronte : e ben senti' muover la piuma, 
 
 Che fe sentir d' ambrosia 1' orezza. 150 
 
 E senti' dir : Beati, cui alluma 
 
 Tanto di grazia, che 1' amor del gusto 
 Nel petto lor troppo disio non fuma, 
 
 Esuriendo sempre quanto e giusto. 
 
 210
 
 ' Still the breath of Love doth move, 
 And still that breath is Love.' 
 
 ( XLIX ) 
 
 THE Pilgrims are now to leave the Circle of the emaciated 
 spirits below them, with the two Trees still keeping 
 alive their yearnings. The second is described (lines 104 
 and following) almost as the first, with larger and wider 
 branches above than below ; and, as we are told later, it is 
 nourished from above, not from Earth ; this was a scion 
 from the Tree of Knowledge. It seems almost as if the 
 two Trees were gradually merging into One in the thought 
 of the Pilgrim. But this Tree also is prohibited at this 
 .stage of the Pilgrimage. To forestall a good gift is some- 
 times a crime. Before either of these Trees can be partaken 
 of, another Baptism, that of Fire, must be submitted to, and 
 two more of Water, for the death of the memory of evil and 
 the renewal of the memory of good. 
 
 The Angel of this Circle is of lucent glowing red, most 
 dazzling to the eyes. The Pilgrim's perceptions seem to 
 become more and more sensitive as he mounts upwards, or 
 the Celestial Messengers are more and more enriched with 
 light, colour, and ambrosial perfumes. Note the description 
 of the fanning of this Angel's wings, and the expectation it 
 excited, like that of a Spring Morning's fresh and scented 
 zephyr. The sixth wound is thus cleansed, and the bene- 
 diction imparted of the renewed Man's rightly adjusted 
 appetite. 
 
 211
 
 Dante, in the Seventh Circle, is questioned by those who are 
 penitent for their sensuality, and questions them again. 
 
 - ( L ) - 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO XXVI. 52-75. 
 
 IO, che duo volte avea visto lor grato, 
 Incominciai : O anime sicure 
 D' aver, quando che sia, di pace stato, 
 Non son rimase acerbe ne mature 55 
 
 Le membra mie di la, ma son qui meco 
 
 Col sangue suo e con le sue giunture. 
 Quinci su vo, per non esser piu cieco : 
 
 Donna & di sopra che n' acquista grazia, 
 
 Per che '1 mortal pel vostro mondo reco. 60 
 
 Ma se la vostra maggior voglia sazia 
 
 Tosto divenga, si che '1 ciel v' alberghi 
 
 Ch' e pien d' amore e piu ampio si spazia, 
 Ditemi, accib ch' ancor carte ne verghi, 
 
 Chi siete voi, e chi fe quella turba 65 
 
 Che se ne va diretro a' vostri terghi ? 
 Non altrimenti stupido si turba 
 
 Lo montanaro, e rimirando ammuta, 
 
 Quando rozzo e selvatico s' inurba, 
 Che ciascun' ombra fece in sua paruta : 70 
 
 Ma poiche furon di stupore scarche, 
 
 Lo qual negli alti cuor tosto s' attuta : 
 Beato te, che delle nostre marche, 
 
 Ricomincib colei che pria ne chiese, 
 
 Per viver meglio esperi'enza imbarche. 75 
 
 212
 
 ' Those who are content in the flames.' 
 
 THE Pilgrims reach the seventh and last Circle. 
 A narrow pathway of fearful aspect lies between 
 the steep precipice, on one side, and darting flames on the 
 other. Here they must look well to their footsteps lest they 
 err. Many spirits were seen hurrying past each other in the 
 fires with swift greetings, yet exchanging the kiss of peace. 
 They sang, as they came and went, their songs of warning, 
 or cited examples of encouragement in penitential ardour. 
 In all their suffering they were not self-absorbed, but noted 
 and wondered at the shadow of the mortal man at their 
 side. Even in the consuming flames one described the 
 longing to know this strange phenomenon, as greater thirst 
 than an Ethiop's for cold water. The descriptive lines 
 (14 to 17) of Dante, put into the lips of this spirit, stamp 
 him in swift clear outline on our mind's eye. 
 
 ' O thou who goest, not from being slower, 
 But reverent, perhaps, behind the others.' 
 
 Though an ' anima sdegnosa,' disdainful of the slight 
 and the mean that surrounded him, his reverence was such 
 as, perhaps, in these days we can hardly understand, for we 
 have scanned everything and said, ' Ce n'est que c,a.' Dante 
 read all, great and small, as in the Divine book of Life, with 
 his attentive, searching, wondering eyes. 
 
 213
 
 The Fire must try every man's work of what sort it is. 
 (L)- 
 
 Dante now saw some others intent to listen, and addresses 
 them at the opening of to-day's Extract as ' Souls secure in 
 the possession of Peace,' though that Peace was not yet 
 attained. He tells them that 'he goes upward to be no 
 longer blind ' ; and the spirit with whom he converses, and 
 whom he in his turn questions, understands that he is 
 passing through those borderlands ' to freight his bark with 
 experience.' The two lines 58 and 75 might well be 
 taken as the Pilgrim's mottoes as he passes along his way. 
 
 It is Guido Guinicelli who converses with him and con- 
 fesses his fault ; he was one who ' ever practised the sweet 
 and gracious rhymes of love,' dear to Dante, and praised by 
 him to their Author, who modestly points to another behind 
 him as more worthy. Dante silently considered his words 
 as the penitent, vanishing in the flames, asked him for his 
 prayers, when it should be granted to him to reach the 
 inner Sanctuary of Christ. A Provencal poet ' weeping and 
 singing ' was the other pointed out by Guinicelli, who ' con- 
 trite sees the folly of the past, and joyous sees the hoped-for 
 day before.' 
 
 No regrets are expressed by these poets as to their modes 
 of exercising their gifts, yet one divines by their self-detach- 
 ment in speaking of these that not only themselves, but 
 their work, is being tried in the fire, ' of what sort it is.' 
 
 At some stages of the Pilgrim's way, his work is more 
 precious to him than himself; it has become so subtly blent 
 with his more spiritual self, that to see it tried by fire is like 
 seeing his ideal, or his faith, trembling in the balances between 
 life and death. 
 
 214
 
 The Fire must try every man's work of what sort it is. 
 
 ' For other Foundation can no man lay than that is laid, 
 which is Jesus Christ. 
 
 ' Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, 
 precious stones, wood, hay, stubble ; Every man's work shall 
 be made manifest ; for the day shall declare it, because it 
 shall be revealed by fire ; and the fire shall try every man's 
 work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he 
 hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any 
 man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss ; but he 
 himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire.' i Cor. iii. 11-15.
 
 The Angel-messenger declares that Dante cannot proceed 
 without entering the Fire. His heart quails, but 
 revives at the name of Beatrice. 
 
 ( LI ) 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO XXVII. 5-36. 
 
 ONDE '1 giorno sen giva, 5 
 
 Quando 1' angel di Dio lieto ci apparse. 
 Fuor della fiamma stava in su la riva, 
 
 E cantava : Beati mundo corde, 
 
 In voce assai piu che la nostra viva. 
 Poscia : Piu non si va, se pria non morde, 10 
 
 Anime sante, il fuoco ; entrate in esso, 
 
 Ed al cantar di la non siate sorde. 
 Si disse, come noi gli fummo presso ; 
 
 Per ch' io divennt tal, quando lo 'ntesi, 
 
 Quale e colui che nella fossa e messo. 15 
 
 In su le man commesse mi protesi, 
 
 Guardando '1 fuoco, e immaginando forte 
 
 Umani corpi gia veduti accesi. 
 Volsersi verso me le buone Scorte ; 
 
 E Virgilio mi disse : Figliuol mio, 20 
 
 Qui puote esser tormento, ma non morte. 
 Ricordati, ricordati . . . E se io 
 
 Sovr' esso Geri'on ti guidai salvo, 
 
 Che faro or che son piu presso a Dio ? 
 Credi per certo che, se dentro all' alvo 25 
 
 Di questa fiamma stessi ben mill' anni, 
 
 Non ti potrebbe far d' un capel calvo. 
 E se tu credi forse ch' io t' inganni, 
 
 Fatti ver lei, e fatti far credenza 
 
 Con le tue mani al lembo de' tuoi panni. 30 
 
 Pon giu omai, pon giii ogni temenza : 
 
 Volgiti 'n qua, e vieni oltre sicuro. 
 
 Ed io pur fermo, e contra coscienza. 
 Quando mi vide star pur fermo e duro, 
 
 Turbato un poco disse : Or vedi, figlio, 35 
 
 Tra Beatrice e te e questo muro. 
 216
 
 ' When thou walkest through the Fire thou shalt not 
 be burned.' 
 
 (LI) 
 
 A TERRIBLE ordeal opens before the Pilgrim as the 
 Evening hour draws on. The Evening hour made 
 the flames appear more terrible, and the waning light of the 
 day depresses the courage. But the Angel is a ' glad one,' 
 and he chants the benediction that awaits the Pilgrim. 
 ' Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.' He 
 comes, as each divine Messenger has come before, when the 
 Pilgrim has passed through a Circle, to point out the further 
 path, and to endow with fresh blessing, so that a dead self 
 should become a stepping-stone to higher life. 
 
 As the Seventh Circle is left, the glad Angel of Purity 
 appears standing on the verge of the fiery furnace, and in 
 penetrating voice, ' much more living than our own,' he 
 sings the sacred words of hope and encouragement, but 
 adds that no holy soul may go further unless he feels the 
 pang of the fire. He bids the pilgrims enter it and to ' be 
 not deaf to the song beyond.' Dante's heart and flesh 
 utterly fail him as he hears these words of doom. His 
 memory and imagination supply him with realizing concep- 
 tions of the suffering and destruction that await him. 
 
 On the verge of piercing pain of body or soul what 
 assailing visions come forth to meet and encompass the 
 onward-driven Pilgrim, who is too often compelled with 
 added poignancy of grief to own himself an abject coward. 
 Conscience and reason have to do their part, as well as the 
 Messenger of grace, and the divine Hope of the heavenly 
 vision beyond the trial. 
 
 The injunction to listen for melodies to be heard, even 
 while in the furnace, is a blessed reminder to the Pilgrim of 
 the songs that are given in the night- season, even when the 
 Supreme Sun and the Stars are hidden in the darkness of 
 anguish. 
 
 217
 
 Dante is at last persuaded to enter the Fire. A voice on 
 the other side sings, ' Come, ye blessed of my Father.' 
 
 ( LII ) - 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO XXVII. 46-63, 87-90. 
 
 POI dentro al fuoco innanzi mi si mise, 
 Pregando Stazio che venisse retro, 
 Che pria per lunga strada ci divise. 
 Come fui dentro, in un bogliente vetro 
 
 Gittato mi sarei per rinfrescarmi ; 50 
 
 Tanto er' ivi 1' incendio senza metro. 
 Lo dolce Padre moi, per confortarmi, 
 
 Pur di Beatrice ragionando andava, 
 
 Dicendo : Gli occhi suoi gia veder parmi. 
 Guidavaci una voce che cantava 55 
 
 Di la ; e noi attend pure a lei 
 
 Venimmo fuor, la ove si montava. 
 Venite, benedicti Patris met, 
 
 Sonb dentro ad un lume che li era, 
 
 Tal che mi vinse, e guardar nol potei. 60 
 
 Lo Sol sen va, soggiunse, e vien la sera ; 
 
 Non v' arrestate, ma studiate '1 passo 
 
 Mentre che 1' occidente non s' annera. 
 ***** 
 
 Fasciati quinci e quindi dalla grotta, 87 
 
 Poco potea parer li del di fuori ; 
 
 Ma per quel poco vedev' io le stelle 
 
 Di lor solere e piu chiare e maggiori. 90 
 
 218
 
 'He is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap.' 
 
 MAI., iii. 2. 
 
 (LII) 
 
 THE reluctance and terror of the Pilgrim are at last 
 overcome by the magic name of Beatrice. Her own 
 past image, with its inspiration of purity, and his present 
 identification of her with the Celestial Wisdom awaiting 
 him beyond, are necessary to his fainting spirit, ere he can 
 summon resolution to follow the leading of Virgil into the 
 purifying furnace. 
 
 ' When I was in it, into molten glass 
 I would have cast me to refresh myself, 
 So without measure was the burning there.' 
 
 What a fierce conflict with a besetting sin these words 
 indicate ! Pain and torment he had been told there might 
 be, but not the destruction of one hair of his head. His 
 Guide, who goes before, encourages him by his pre-vision of 
 Beatrice's eyes ; and the sound of a voice beyond directed 
 them to the further margin of the fire. 
 
 The voice singing ' Come, ye blessed of my Father,' pro- 
 ceeded from a Splendour too glorious to gaze upon. This 
 glorious being warned them that the Sun was setting, and 
 urged on their footsteps while there was yet light. 
 
 The solemnity of that night (the last in Purgatory), into 
 which they passed from the searching, revealing flames, must 
 have been intense. 
 
 Each made a bed of one of the stony steps to await the 
 new day. Dante compares himself to a goat on the Moun 
 tains, and his two spirit friends to Shepherds who keep 
 watch. 
 
 He could see but little of things without, the rocky ascent 
 walling him in ; but through that narrow opening the stars 
 appeared larger and more lucent than their wont. His 
 vision had been purified, and, as the silence and solitude 
 encircled him, the new heavens and new earth within his 
 own soul were unfolding to his spirit. 
 
 219
 
 The early morning dream of the Lady gathering flowers, 
 who calls herself Leah, and describes her sister Rachel . 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO XXVII. 92-114. 
 
 MI prese '1 sonno ; il sonno che sovente, 
 Anzi che '1 fatto sia, sa le novelle. 
 Nell' ora, credo, che dall' oriente 
 
 Prima raggib nel monte Citerea, 95 
 
 Che di fuoco d' amor par sempre ardente, 
 Giovane e bella in sogno mi parea 
 
 Donna vedere andar per una landa, 
 
 Cogliendo fiori ; e cantando dicea : 
 Sappia qualunque il mio nome dimanda, 100 
 
 Ch' io mi son Lia, e vo movendo intorno 
 
 Le belle mani a farmi una ghirlanda. 
 Per piacermi allo specchio qui m' adorno ; 
 
 Ma mia suora Rachel mai non si smaga 
 
 Dal suo miraglio, e siede tutto giorno. 105 
 
 Ell' e de' suoi begli occhi veder vaga, 
 
 Com' io dell' adornarmi con le mani ; 
 
 Lei Io vedere, e me 1' ovrare appaga. 
 E gia, per gli splendori antekicani, 
 
 Che tanto ai peregrin surgon piu grati, no 
 
 Quanto, tornando, albergan men lontani, 
 Le tenebre fuggian da tutti i lati, 
 
 E '1 sonno mio con esse ; ond' io leva'mi, 
 
 Veggendo i gran Maestri gia levati.
 
 The twofold Life of Union with God in the activities of 
 His works and the reception of His Light. 
 
 ( LIII ) - 
 
 SLEEP seizes on the Pilgrim after his inner communings 
 and his contemplation of the ' more lucent ' stars, and 
 again he dreams an early morning dream of special import, 
 forecasting the coming day. 
 
 He had dreamed, in the dawn after the first night in Ante- 
 Purgatory, of the fiery Eagle snatching him upwards into 
 the consuming light. This dream had prefigured the long 
 ascent towards the Beatific Vision, initiated on that new 
 day by Lucia, the Lady of divine Grace and Light, who 
 carried him, even while he dreamed, to the portals of the 
 realm of Purification. On the second night, ere he entered 
 the last three Circles for the purification of the senses, he 
 dreamed of the Siren Enchantress, who lured men to their 
 destruction through the dominion of the senses, wherein her 
 power lay. He had also seen in that vision the Siren's 
 great opponent Wisdom, who reveals the foulness of the 
 ' strange woman ' and her flatteries. 
 
 Now, on the verge of the Terrestrial Paradise, he dreams 
 a prophetic dream of the twofold life of union of man with 
 God ; the active and the contemplative life, typified, as 
 these had hitherto been, by Leah and Rachel. 
 
 Leah gathers her flowers and adorns herself with the 
 works of her hands; Rachel gazes all day long into the 
 mirror which reflects her own contemplation of God, and is 
 absorbed with that vision. 
 
 The dream ushers in the wondrous day of revelation, 
 when the full powers of the New Man are opening before 
 him in all their activities for service, and in all their capa- 
 cities for beholding the Truth. 
 
 As the Pilgrim awakens to behold the hues which precede 
 the sunrise, his heart seems beating with joyful anticipation ; 
 he welcomes the day, even 'as it is welcomed by grateful 
 Pilgrims, home returning and less remotely lodged the 
 darkness fleeing away on every side, and slumber with it.' 
 
 221
 
 Virgil hails Dante as King and Priest through 
 self -conquest in Eden restored. 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO XXVII. 115-142. 
 
 QUEL dolce porno, che per tanti rami 115 
 
 Cercando va la cura de' mortali, 
 Oggi porra in pace le tue fami. 
 Virgilio inverso me queste cotali 
 
 Parole usb ; e mai non furo strenne, 
 
 Che fosser di piacere a queste eguali. 120 
 
 Tanto voler sovra voler mi venne 
 
 Dell' esser su, che ad ogni passo poi 
 
 Al volo mi sentia crescer le penne. 
 Come la scala tutta sotto noi 
 
 Fu corsa, e fummo in su '1 grado superno, 125 
 
 In me ficco Virgilio gli occhi suoi, 
 E disse : II temporal fuoco e 1' 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 ; 130 
 
 Lo tuo piacere omai prendi per duce ; 
 
 Fuor se' dell' erte vie, fuor se' dell' arte. 
 Vedi il Sol, che in la fronte ti riluce ; 
 
 Vedi P erbetta, i fieri e gli arboscelli, 
 
 Che quella terra sol da se produce. 135 
 
 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 lo tuo arbitrio, 140 
 
 E fallo fora non fare a suo senno ; 
 Per ch' io te sopra te corono e mitrio. 
 
 222
 
 ' The heir of hopes too fair to turn out false." 
 
 (LIV) 
 
 r I ""HE Pilgrim has become the New Man, the regenerated 
 Jl Adam in Christ, restored to Eden, with the rights of 
 the heir to his Kingdom. 
 
 He may enjoy all its beauty and fruitfulness, and may 
 now partake of that Apple ' that grows on the many branches 
 of the blended Trees of Knowledge and of Life' those 
 fruits whose sweet odours have awakened his longings, and 
 those of other hungering and thirsting mortals. His will is 
 free from every bias of self and from all bewildering dark- 
 ness ; his own pleasure, his own true instincts, are to be 
 henceforth his guides. No check from without, no moni- 
 tion of law, except that of his own perfected affections, is 
 to lead him, and he will find his environment in complete 
 harmony with the full-grown powers of his being. 
 
 Is this the Golden Age of the ancients realized or restored, 
 or the fulfilment of the prophetic dreams of the Millennium 
 reign on Earth ? 
 
 Virgil seems to give voice to the realized aspirations of 
 all the ages in this Coronation and Consecration Ode of the 
 King and the Priest, and even to the earnest expectation of 
 Creation itself. He beholds in the New Man ' the goal of 
 Nature's restless, painful waiting ' the manifestation of a 
 Son of God, a joint heir with Christ, who, having suffered 
 with Him, is glorified also with Him. We should like to 
 linger with him here, but we see he does not linger. He 
 must explore his new Kingdom, and is to experience the 
 urging of the new wings, whose growth he is conscious of, to 
 carry him beyond this stage of its expression to the Fountain- 
 head of all its joys. 
 
 ' To roll, and sweep, and bend, 
 
 Suffice for Nature's part ; 
 
 But motion to an endless end 
 
 Is needful for the heart. ' 
 
 G. MACDONALD. 
 
 223
 
 ' Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. ,' 
 (LIV) 
 
 We saw the Pilgrim at the foot of the Mountain baptized 
 with morning dew, and with tears. We have seen him dis- 
 entangled from the distortions and maiming consequences 
 of Pride, Envy, Anger, and Sloth ; and have also seen the 
 cleansing of the Temple of his body, by interventions of 
 Grace, by emancipated Will, and finally by the Spirit's 
 Baptism of Fire. He is now clothed with the Armour of 
 God in righteousness and strength. He has not been thus 
 equipped to dwell in the delights of a Garden, even though 
 it be the Garden of God. He is to pause here, indeed, and 
 to enter into his inheritance of the fulness of the Earth. It 
 is a Station in the Divine Country for the rounding of his 
 soul by rest and beauty ; through the expansion of his 
 powers in its stillness, he will learn the interpretation of his 
 former life and see visions of the past, present, and future 
 history of man ; but he is bound for the City of God, and 
 the claims of that great Commonwealth are urging him 
 upwards. 
 
 A new Enterprise is to open before his enlarged vision ; 
 and the severely penetrating and inexorable eyes of his ideal 
 Love will detect yet more that he needs, ere this Son of the 
 Resurrection may ascend, as Christ ascended, to the right 
 hand of Power. 
 
 ' When thou art wholly given up to the obedience of the 
 Light and the Spirit of God within thee, then wheresoever 
 thou goest thou wilt have a Priest and an Altar along with 
 thee. Thou shalt then will only in His will, love only in 
 His love, be wise only in His Wisdom ; then it is that 
 everything thou doest is a song of praise.' W. LAW. 
 
 224
 
 'It is sown in dishonour ; it is raised in glory.' 
 ( LIV ) - 
 
 life is not as idle ore, 
 
 But iron dug from central gloom, 
 And heated hot with burning fears, 
 And dipt in baths of hissing tears, 
 
 And batter'd with the shocks of doom 
 
 To shape and use ..,-' 
 
 ' In Mem.,' cxviii. 
 
 4 As Conqueror and King he mounts the throne, 
 And wears the crown of human glory whence 
 Throne over throne surmounting he shall reign 
 One with the Last and First Intelligence.' 
 
 FITZGERALD. 
 
 225 15
 
 The new morning in Eden regained by the new Adam. 
 - ( LV ) 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO XXVIII. 1-36. 
 
 V"AGO gia di cercar dentro e dintorno 
 La divina foresta spessa e viva, 
 Ch' agli occhi temperava il nuovo giorno 
 Senza piu aspettar lasciai la riva, 
 
 Prendendo la campagna lento lento 5 
 
 Su per lo suol che d' ogni parte oliva. 
 Un' aura dolce, senza mutamento 
 
 Avere in se, mi feria per la fronte, 
 
 Non di piii colpo che soave vento ; 
 Per cui le fronde, tremolando pronte, i o 
 
 Tutte quanta piegavano alia parte, 
 
 U' la prim' ombra gitta il santo monte : 
 Non pero dal lor esser dritto sparte 
 
 Tanto, che gli augelletti per le cime 
 
 Lasciasser d' operare ogni lor arte : 1 5 
 
 Ma con piena letizia 1' aure prime, 
 
 Cantando, riceveano intra le foglie, 
 
 Che tenevan bordone alle sue rime, 
 Tal, qual di ramo in rarno si raccoglie 
 
 Per la pineta in sul liio di Chiassi, 20 
 
 Quand' Eolo Scirocco fuor discioglie. 
 Gia m' avean trasportato i lenti passi 
 
 Dentro all' antica selva tanto, ch' io 
 
 Non potea riveder dond' io m' entrassi : 
 Ed ecco F andar piu mi tolse un rio, 25 
 
 Che 'nver sinistra con sue picciole onde 
 
 Piegava F erba che in sua ripa uscio. 
 226
 
 ' A nd he showed me a pure river of water of life, 
 clear as crystal.' REV. xxii. i. 
 
 (LV) 
 
 Tutte 1' acque, che son di qua piu monde, 
 
 Parrieno avere in se mistura alcuna 
 
 Verso di quella, che nulla nasconde, 30 
 
 Avvegna che si muova bruna bruna 
 
 Sotto 1' ombra perpetua, che mai 
 
 Raggiar non lascia Sole ivi, ne Luna. 
 Co' pie ristetti e con gli occhi passai 
 
 Di la dal fiumicello, per mirare 35 
 
 La gran variazion de' freschi mai. 
 
 NO longer a Pilgrim needing a Guide, the new man 
 leads the way in his own land, the two Poets follow- 
 ing his footsteps. 
 
 Who should venture to mingle his poor words with the 
 impressions of the unfolding morning hour of the new day, 
 here so wonderfully opened to us. 
 
 The Song of Songs will not be discordant with the melody 
 that has awakened our inward ear. 
 
 ' Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away, 
 For lo, the Winter is past, 
 The rain is over and gone ; 
 The flowers appear on the Earth ; 
 The time of the singing of birds is come, 
 And the voice of the turtle is heard in our land ; 
 The fig-tree ripeneth her green figs, 
 And the vines are in blossom ; 
 They give forth their fragrance. 
 Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.' 
 
 Cant. ii. 10-14. 
 227
 
 Matilda gathering /lowers and singing was seen beyond 
 the clear stream ; she drew near, and the words of her 
 Song were heard by Dante. 
 
 (LVI) 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO XXVIII. 37-63. 
 
 ELA m' apparve (si com' egli appare 
 Subitamente cosa, che disvia 
 Per maraviglia tutt' altro pensare) 
 Una Donna soletta, che si gia 40 
 
 Cantando ed iscegliendo fior da fiore, 
 
 Ond' era pinta tutta la sua via. 
 Deh bella Donna, ch' a' raggi d' amore 
 
 Ti scaldi, s' io vo' credere a' sernbianti, 
 
 Che soglion esser testimon del core, 45 
 
 Vegnati voglia di trarreti avanti, 
 
 Diss' io a lei, verso questa riviera, 
 
 Tanto ch' io possa intender che tu canti. 
 Tu mi fai rimembrar dove e qual era 
 
 Proserpina nel tempo che perdette 50 
 
 La madre lei, ed ella primavera. 
 Come si volge con le piante strette 
 
 A terra ed intra se donna che balli, 
 
 E piede innanzi piede appena mette ; 
 Volsesi in su' vermigli ed in su' gialli 55 
 
 Fioretti verso me, non altrimenti 
 
 Che vergine che gli occhi onesti avvalli ; 
 E fece i prieghi miei esser contend 
 
 Si appressando se, che '1 dolce suono 
 
 Veniva a me co' suoi intendimenti. 60 
 
 Tosto che fu la dove 1' erbe sono 
 
 Bagnate gia dall' onde del bel fiume, 
 
 Di levar gli occhi suoi mi fece dono. 
 
 228
 
 Matilda gathering flowers ' is made glad with the 
 works of God's hands.' 
 
 (LVI) 
 
 WE are told later that the following was the song that 
 Matilda was singing, whose sound with its meaning 
 came across the clear streamlet to Dante's ear. 
 
 4 It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, 
 And to sing praises to Thy Name, O Most High : 
 To show forth Thy loving kindness in the morning, 
 And Thy faithfulness every night, 
 With an instrument of ten strings and with the Psaltery, 
 With a solemn sound upon the harp ; 
 For Thou, Lord, hast made me glad through Thy work ; 
 
 I will triumph in the works of Thy hands.' 
 
 Ps. xcii. 1-5. 
 
 Ruskin's words will teach us to see in Matilda the subli 
 mated Leah of the more spiritual Dispensation. 
 
 ' The Vision of Rachel and Leah has been always, and with un- 
 questionable truth, received as a type of the Active and Contemplative 
 life, and as an introduction to the two divisions of the Paradise which 
 Dante is about to enter. 
 
 ' Therefore the unwearied spirit of the Countess Matilda is understood 
 to represent the Active life, which forms the felicity of Earth ; and the 
 spirit of Beatrice the contemplative life, which forms the felicity of Heaven- 
 
 ' This interpretation appears at first straightforward and certain ; but 
 it has missed count of exactly the most important fact in the two passages 
 we have to explain. Observe (xxvii. 100) : Leah gathers the flowers to 
 decorate herself, and delights in her own labour. Rachel sits silent, 
 contemplating herself, and delights in her own image. These are the 
 types of the unglorified Active and Contemplative powers of man. 
 But Beatrice and Matilda are the same powers glorified. And how are 
 they glorified ? Leah took delight in her own labour ; but Matilda 
 " in operibus manuum Tuarum " in God's labour. Rachel in the sight 
 of her own face; Beatrice in the sight of God's face.' 'Modern 
 Painters,' vol. iii. 222. 
 
 229
 
 Matilda instructs Dante concerning the living seeds and 
 the Waters of Eden. 
 
 - ( LVII ) - 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO XXVIII. 118-144. 
 
 E SAFER dei che la campagna santa 
 Ove tu se', d' ogni semenza e piena ; 
 E frutto ha in se, che di la non si schianta. 1 20 
 L' acqua che vedi non surge di vena, 
 
 Che ristori vapor che giel converta, 
 
 Come flume ch' acquista o perde lena ; 
 Ma esce di fontana salda e certa, 
 
 Che tanto dal voler di Dio riprende, 125 
 
 Quanto ella versa da duo parti aperta. 
 Da questa parte con virtu discende, 
 
 Che toglie altrui memoria del peccato ; 
 
 Ball' altra d' ogni ben fatto la rende. 
 Quinci Lete, cosi dall' altro lato 1 30 
 
 Eiinoe si chiama ; e non adopra, 
 
 Se quinci e quindi pria non e gustato. 
 A tutt' altri sapori esto e di sopra. 
 
 Ed avvegna ch' assai possa esser sazia 
 
 La sete tua, perch' io piu non ti scuopra, 1 35 
 
 Darotti un corollario ancor per grazia ; 
 
 Ne credo che '1 mio dir ti sia men caro, 
 
 Se oltre promission teco si spazia. 
 Quelli, che anticamente poetaro 
 
 L' eta dell' oro e suo stato felice, 140 
 
 Forse in Parnaso esto loco sognaro. 
 Qui fu innocente 1' umana radice ; 
 
 Qui primavera sempre ed ogni frutto ; 
 
 Nettare e questo di che ciascun dice. 
 
 230
 
 Joyous Infancy. 
 - ( LVII ) 
 
 MATILDA unfolded to Dante the secrets of Eden, as 
 it was in the infancy of Man, and as it became 
 after his innocent laughter and sweet play ' were changed 
 by his own default to weeping and to toil.' She tells him 
 the Garden of Delights was then lifted up high towards 
 Heaven, but that seeds from thence fall down to fructify 
 the lower Earth, wherever they can find a worthy soil. She 
 also intimates that memories or thoughts fall from thence, 
 or have lingered or been engendered from thence, in the 
 hearts of men ; and have inspired the dreatns of the Golden 
 Age and haunted men's imagination with sensations of the 
 abiding Spring and of the Nectar, which make the Poets 
 sing. 
 
 It seems the Ideal Childhood known to Wordsworth and 
 other poet-souls, with its trails of glory ; and it is the spiritual 
 Childhood opened to us by our Lord, that is entered at 
 the new birth, and enjoyed in fresh tides from the inflowing 
 of the Kingdom of Heaven, which must enter our hearts 
 before we can enter Heaven. 
 
 The Water of Life flows through this region, purging away 
 in Lethe every memory of Sin, and renewing in Eunoe the 
 strength of Memory's hold on every good which it has 
 received. 
 
 So Innocence, as well as Virtue, becomes again the heritage 
 of the true Man. 
 
 231
 
 The three stars and four stars as Seven Nymphs upon the 
 right and left hand of the Triumphal Car. 
 
 ( LVIII ) - - 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO XXIX. 121-132. 
 
 TRE donne in giro dalla destra ruota 
 Venian danzando : 1' una tanto rossa, 
 Ch' appena fora dentro al fuoco nota ; 
 L' altr' era, come se le carni e 1' ossa 
 
 Fossero state di smeraldo fatter 125 
 
 La terza parea neve teste mossa. 
 Ed or parevan dalla bianca tratte, 
 Or dalla rossa ; e dal canto di questa 
 L' altre togliean 1' andare e tarde e ratte. 
 Dalla sinistra quattro facean festa, 130 
 
 In porpora vestite, dietro al modo 
 D' una di lor, ch' avea tre occhi in testa. 
 
 232
 
 The perfected Seven, or Heaven and Earth united. 
 (The Seen and Unseen in Union.} 
 
 ( LVIII ) - 
 
 VISIONS are opened in this Canto of the seven Candle- 
 sticks, seven rainbow-tinted Banners, the twenty-four 
 Elders of the Apocalypse, the four Living Creatures with 
 eyes within and without, the Chariot of the Church, drawn 
 by the Mystic Wonder (the Gryphon), Symbol of the double- 
 natured Human-Divine Christ (the semblance of the Eagle 
 and Lion in One), the Seven Damsels representing the four 
 Cardinal Virtues and the three Christian Graces all these 
 are seen, with the triumphal Car of the Church in their 
 midst. These Seven Damsels appeared to us as distant 
 stars in the opening Purgatorio, where the first four, paling 
 before the glory of the rising Three, disappeared. They 
 are now restored in new development and relationship. 
 The number seven has been associated for centuries with 
 the union of Heaven and Earth. 
 
 At the left hand Chariot Wheel the four early acknowledged 
 Virtues of Justice, Courage, Temperance, and Prudence, 
 were represented by four Maidens clothed in regal purple. 
 Prudence with her three eyes was their leader. ' Respice, 
 Aspice, Prospice,' we are told by commentators, were her 
 three capacities of Vision, implying Memory of the Past, 
 Knowledge of the Present, and Foresight of the Future. 
 
 At the right hand wheel of the Chariot were the three 
 blessed Maidens, the Christian Graces of Faith, Hope, and 
 Charity. Faith is white and glistening as the newly fallen 
 Snow, Hope as the Emerald in ever enduring depths of 
 Green, and Charity as flaming Crimson. Note that the steps 
 of the following two were directed always by the Song of 
 either Love or Faith. Hope has no consistency without the 
 leadership of One or the other. 
 
 2 33
 
 The glorified Beatrice is revealed, clothed in the colours of 
 the Christian graces in the midst of a cloud of flowers. 
 Virgil has disappeared. 
 
 ( LIX ) 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO XXX. 28-54. 
 
 COSI dentro una nuvola di fieri, 
 Che dalle mani angeliche saliva, 
 E ricadeva giii dentro e di fuori, 30 
 
 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, ch' alia sua presenza 35 
 
 Non era di stupor tremando affranto, 
 Sanza dagli occhi aver piu conoscenza, 
 
 Per occulta virtu, che da lei mosse, 
 
 D' antico amor sent! la gran potenza. 
 Tosto che nella vista mi percosse 40 
 
 L' alta virtu, che gia m" avea trafitto 
 
 Prima ch' io fuor di puerizia fosse, 
 Volsimi alia sinistra col respitto, 
 
 Col quale il fantolin corre alia mamma, 
 
 Quando ha paura, o quando egli e afflitto, 45 
 
 Per dicere a Virgilio : Men che dramma 
 
 Di sangue m' e rimasa, che non tremi ; 
 
 Cono?co i segni dell' antica fiamma. 
 Ma Virgilio n' avea lasciati scemi 
 
 Di se, Virgilio dolcissimo padre, 50 
 
 Virgilio, a cui per mia salute die'mi : 
 
 Ne quantunque perdeo F antica madre 
 
 Valse alle guance nette di rugiada, 
 Che lagrimando non tornassero adre. 
 
 234
 
 The Bride from Lebanon or Celestial Wisdom becomes 
 visible as the beloved Beatrice. 
 
 AFTER solemn thunder and glorious preludings of 
 Music and processions of Angels and Saints and 
 amid clouds of flowers, the manifestation to Dante of 
 Celestial Wisdom and of his own Ideal of Womanhood, 
 his own from his early childhood, bursts upon his Vision. 
 She is clothed in the three colours of the Christian Graces 
 already seen, with green mantle, veiled in pure white so that 
 her face is concealed, crowned like Minerva, yet with the 
 more sacred Olive-leaves, and vested in colour of living 
 flame. Her beloved presence was felt through the occult 
 Virtue dwelling therein, though her countenance was unseen. 
 Dante's awe and agitation were so great, that he turned 
 away to the Guide and Consolation of his pilgrimage, as a 
 Child would turn to his Mother for support, but the faithful 
 Virgil had disappeared. 
 
 We could hardly resist weeping with Dante unless we 
 learnt to let go the literal Virgil (' Virgilio ! Virgilio ! dolcis- 
 simo Padre !') and to see him here as the living Soul of 
 limited human reason now gathered up into, and flooded 
 with, the Light of the fuller glory of Celestial Wisdom 
 which henceforth shines into his Scholar's heart and mind. 
 By the decrease of John the Baptist in the increase of the 
 Bridegroom, he, who had been less than the least in the 
 Kingdom of Heaven, entered that Kingdom ; and in our 
 Lord's rapture over the fields, white unto the Harvest, He 
 foresaw the joying together of those that had sowed (as John 
 the Baptist and Virgil) with those who reaped. 
 
 2 35
 
 Beatrice calls Dante by name, and declares her own name 
 to him, yet severely rebukes him. 
 
 - ( LX ) 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO XXX. 55-81. 
 
 DANTE, perche Virgilio se ne vada, 5 5 
 
 Non pianger anco, non piangere ancora ; 
 Che pianger ti convien per altra spada. 
 Quasi ammiraglio, che in poppa ed in prora 
 
 Viene a veder la gente che ministra 
 
 Per gli altri legni, ed a ben far 1' incuora ; 60 
 
 In su la sponda del carro sinistra, 
 
 Quando mi volsi al suon del nome mio, 
 
 Che di necessita qui si registra, 
 Yidi la Donna, che pria m' appan'o 
 
 Velata sotto 1' angelica festa, 65 
 
 Drizzar gli occhi ver me di qua dal rio. 
 Tutto che '1 vel che le scendea di testa, 
 
 Cerchiato dalla fronda di Minerva, 
 
 Non la lasciasse parer manifesta ; 
 Regalmente nell' atto ancor proterva 70 
 
 Continue, come colui che dice, 
 
 E '1 piu caldo parlar dietro riserva : 
 Guardami ben : ben son, ben son Beatrice. 
 
 Come degnasti d' accedere al monte ? 
 
 Non sapei tu che qui 1' uomo e felice ? 75 
 
 Gli occhi mi cadder giu nel chiaro fonte ; 
 
 Ma veggendomi in esso, io trassi all' erba : 
 
 Tanta vergogna mi gravb la fronte 
 Cos! la madre al figlio par superba, 
 
 Com' ella parve a me ; perche d' amaro 80 
 
 Sente '1 sapor della pietade acerba. 
 
 236
 
 ' Love is not Love without Truth ; 
 Truth is not Truth without Love.* 
 
 (LX) 
 
 THE transfigured Lady now calls Dante by name by 
 his. baptismal name. It is the only time throughout 
 the Poem that any one of the multitudes who address him 
 utters that name ; here he says he must necessarily record 
 it. From her lips it must have pierced him with a wondrous 
 appeal ; and soon afterwards she declares herself to him, 
 though still veiled, as Beatrice : ' Look at me well ; I am 
 indeed, indeed I am Beatrice.' 
 
 These words of personal recognition and revelation per- 
 haps rendered this first speech of reunion more endurable 
 than it could otherwise have been. We can trace no tone 
 of tenderness in her words ; they have revolted many from 
 the Poet who could put them into the lips of his ideal 
 Woman. 
 
 ' Queenlike in look and gesture and severe,' she stood 
 before him, and seemed to hold in reserve yet deeper con- 
 demnation. 
 
 Dante teaches us, in his ' Vita Nuova,' what his ideal of 
 woman was, as she was seen in earthly relationship with 
 others and with himself. He says that, when she is with 
 other ladies, she does not only make herself pleasing to 
 them, but each one receives honour from her, and that so 
 much strength or virtue is in her beauty that it causes no 
 envy to others. Rossetti's translation is given further on of 
 his first Sonnet, portraying his perfect conception of his 
 Lady's gentleness and humility. 
 
 No reproaches such as those we have been studying in 
 Canto XXX. could have escaped the lips portrayed in that 
 Sonnet while she lived in Dante's sight at Florence. She 
 did, indeed, once refuse him her salutation, which seems to 
 indicate a moral conviction stronger than her loving desire 
 
 237
 
 Wisdom passeth and goeth through all things by reason of 
 her ptirencss. 
 
 (LX) 
 
 to please ; but the wide difference between Beatrice on 
 earth and Beatrice glorified should make us seek for Dante's 
 meaning. 
 
 Here, it seems, we see Beatrice as one with Dante's own 
 highest spiritual life ; and her voice, as his very own, 
 condemns that past condition of his lower nature which 
 remained beneath the Mount of Aspiration, as though all 
 joys were below. 
 
 As his purged inward eye again beholds the glorified ideal 
 of his life, he is constrained to lower his eyelids, and there, 
 in the clear stream at her feet, to behold the image of what 
 he had actually been, in intense contrast to the personalized 
 Purity, Faith, Hope, and Love now revealed. It is a renewed 
 vision of the white polished marble step at the stern portal 
 of Purgatory, and of the crystal stream that separated him 
 from Matilda. Light, as we can bear it, must ever more 
 and more make manifest the darkness that flees before it. 
 
 Dante feels its controlling dominion and the bitter savour 
 of its severe compassion ; even as a boy shrinks from a 
 Mother's lofty rebuke, he shrank before the stern require- 
 ments of Wisdom. 
 
 Dante has much to teach us concerning noble Love, 
 which is very different from the lessons taught us in this 
 generation. We need to learn ' with all Saints ' in each 
 generation in order to comprehend that which is deeper, 
 higher, and broader than any individual comprehension, 
 ' the love of Christ which passeth knowledge.' 
 
 238
 
 Beatrice at Florence. 
 - ( LX ) - 
 
 ' My lady looks so gentle and so pure 
 When yielding salutation by the way, 
 That the tongue trembles and has naught to say, 
 And the eyes which fain would see may not endure. 
 And still, amid the praise, she hears secure ; 
 She walks with humbleness for her array, 
 Seeming a creature sent from Heaven to stay- 
 On Earth, and show a miracle made sure ; 
 She is so pleasant in the eyes of men 
 That through the sight the inmost heart doth gain 
 A sweetness which needs proof to know it by ; 
 And from between her lips there seems to move 
 A soothing essence that is full of love, 
 Saying for ever to the spirit, "Sigh !" ' 
 
 2 39
 
 Dante feels the compassion of the heavenly choirs, but 
 Beatrice still insists on his having fallen short of his 
 glorious destiny. 
 
 - ( LXI ) 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO XXX. 91-120. 
 
 COSI fui senza lagrime e sospiri 
 Anzi '1 cantar di que' che notan sempre 
 Dietro alle note degli eterni giri : 
 Ma poiche intesi nelle dolci tempre 
 
 Lor compatire a me, piu che se detto 95 
 
 Avesser : Donna, perchk si lo stempre ? 
 Lo gel, che m' era intorno al cuor ristretto, 
 
 Spirito ed acqua fessi, e con angoscia 
 
 Per la bocca e per gli occhi usci del petto. 
 Ella, pur ferma in su la delta coscia 100 
 
 Del carro stando, alle sustanzie pie 
 
 Volse le sue parole cosi poscia : 
 Voi vigilate nell' eterno die, 
 
 Si che notte ne sonno a voi non fura 
 
 Passo, che faccia il secol per sue vie ; 105 
 
 Onde la mia risposta e con piu cura, 
 
 Che m' intenda colui che di la piagne, 
 
 Perche sia colpa e duol d' una misura. 
 Non pur per ovra delle ruote magne, 
 
 Che drizzan ciascun seme ad alcun fine, no 
 
 Secondo che le stelle son compagne ; 
 Ma per larghezza di grazie divine 
 
 (Che si alti vapori hanno a lor piova, 
 
 Che nostre viste Ik non van vicine), 
 Questi fu tal nella sua vita nuova 115 
 
 Virtualmente, ch' ogni abito destro 
 
 Fatto averebbe in lui mirabil pruova. 
 Ma tanto piu maligno e piu silvestro 
 
 Si fa '1 terren col mal seme, e non colto, 
 
 Quant' egli ha piu di buon vigor terrestro. 120 
 240
 
 ' As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten ; be zealous 
 therefore and repent.' REV. in. 19. 
 
 (LXI) 
 
 WHEN Beatrice's voice was silent, and Dante's shame 
 was further increased by the image he read of 
 himself in the clear fount, the Choir of Angels, to comfort 
 him, suddenly sang the words from Psalm xxxi. : ' In Thee, 
 O Lord, have I put my trust, let me never be ashamed.' 
 When he heard in their sweet melodies, ' that always follow 
 the notes of the spheres,' compassion expressed for himself, 
 his frozen heart was melted, and sighs and tears broke 
 forth. 
 
 Let us think for a moment of that choir. No note has 
 its source in the Singers themselves ; they are always listen- 
 ing to the larger melodies awakened by the breath that 
 moves throughout the mighty Universe, its Keynote of 
 Love being heard by them; they re-echo it in perfect 
 harmony and adaptation to every awakened ear. 
 
 Beatrice speaks again, turning to the Angels, who are 
 ever faithfully watching in the light of Day, and recounts to 
 them all the influences which had contributed to endow 
 Dante with the promise and potency of good. Not only, 
 she says, ' those great wheels that destine every seed unto 
 some end ' were in his favour. The abundant bounties of 
 celestial graces, with rains that descended from lofty summits 
 beyond the reach of the eye, had been poured out upon 
 him, so that the good seed might have borne fruit a hundred- 
 fold : 
 
 ' But all the more perverse, and wild, and rude, 
 Becomes the soil, with ill seed, left untilled, 
 As 'tis with more of natural strength endued.' 
 
 She recounts all her own endeavours to lead and sustain 
 him in the right way. After her ascension from flesh to 
 spirit, when beauty and virtue had increased in her, she 
 
 241 16
 
 The cleansing tears to be wiped away. 
 ( LXI ) 
 
 failed not to call upon him in dreams and otherwise ; but 
 these availed not, for he turned his steps into fallacious 
 paths, so that nothing remained for his salvation but to 
 show him the people of perdition. 
 
 Beatrice further declares it would infringe the decree of 
 God, should he drink of the Waters of Lethe ere the peni- 
 tence due to such dereliction had burst forth in tears. The 
 self-convicted Dante stands as a culprit before the judgment 
 of Love ; and she does not hasten to close the wounds she 
 has opened. She turns from the Angels, and brings the 
 keen point of her scathing words straight to his own heart. 
 
 Love speaks at sundry times in divers manners. There 
 are tender caresses and joyful surprises for one season, and 
 they are precious, for nothing else could have been appre- 
 hended by our dulness as Love ; and there is the passionate, 
 personal appreciation, that seems blind to our defects and 
 lifts us on to a pedestal of its own, making us ' forget our 
 self-despisings,' and this is precious, for nothing else would 
 have imparted power to our benumbed and discouraged 
 affections ; and there are the severe requirements of a Love 
 that is not blind, but has ' eyes of flame,' that will search 
 and try the beloved and hold up the mirror to his heart, so 
 lifting him on to the stepping-stone of his dead self that he 
 may rise to higher things. Few in the flesh, perhaps none, 
 are worthy to give or to receive such supreme tokens of love 
 as these last ; they belong to the realm of the spirit, where 
 the Celestial Wisdom and Love are worshipped as One. 
 Dante conceives Beatrice to be one in worship with him- 
 self, as well as one with himself in personal love; the 
 reproofs he puts into her lips are therefore his own ; in such 
 love ' the distinction of Me and Thee is swept away, and 
 there pulses in two individuals one warm life- 
 
 242
 
 The Dominion of Love. 
 ( LXI ) - 
 
 In the 'Vita Nuova' Dante speaks of 'the intolerable 
 Beatitude of Love.' The Lord of Love visits him in a 
 dream, and appears weeping over him. Dante asks his 
 Lord of all nobility, why he weeps ? He is answered in 
 these words, ' I am as the Centre of a Circle to which all 
 parts of the Circumference bear an equal proportion ; but 
 with thee it is not thus.' After this Vision many and 
 diverse questionings arose in his mind to be weighed or 
 combated ; two of these present themselves thus : Good is 
 the dominion of Love, for He draws His faithful disciple 
 from all petty things. The second was this : Not good is 
 the dominion of Love, for the more faithful the disciple, so 
 much the more must he pass through difficult and dolorous 
 pathways. 
 
 243
 
 Dante is forced to reconsider his life in the light of 
 Wisdom and Truth, and to confess its error ere he 
 may bathe in Lethe. 
 
 ( LXII ) 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO XXXI. 1-30. 
 
 OTU, che se' di la dal fiume sacro 
 (Volgendo '1 suo parlare a me per punta, 
 Che pur per taglio m' era parut' aero), 
 Ricomincib seguendo senza cunta : 
 
 Di', di', se questo e vero ; a tanta accusa 5 
 
 Tua confession conviene esser congiunta. 
 Era la mia virtu tanto confusa, 
 
 Che la voce si mosse, e pria si spense 
 
 Che dagli organi suoi fosse dischiusa. 
 Poco sofferse ; poi disse : Che pense? 10 
 
 Rispondi a me ; che le memorie triste 
 
 In te non sono ancor dalP acqua offense. 
 Confusione e paura insieme miste 
 
 Mi pinsero un tal si fuor della bocca, 
 
 Al quale intender fur mestier le viste. 1 5 
 
 Come balestro frange, qnando scocca 
 
 Da troppa tesa la sua corda e 1' arco, 
 
 E con men foga 1' asta il segno tocca ; 
 Si scoppia' io sott' esso grave carco, 
 
 Fuori sgorgando lagrime e sospiri, 20 
 
 E la voce allentb per lo suo varco. 
 Ond' ella a me : Per entro i miei desiri, 
 
 Che ti menavano ad amar lo bene, 
 
 Di la dal qual non e a che s' aspiri, 
 Quai fosse attraversate, o quai catene 25 
 
 Trovasti, perche del passare innanzi 
 
 Dovessiti cosi spogliar la spene ? 
 t E quali agevolezze, o quali avanzi 
 
 Nella fronte degli altri si mostraro, 
 
 Perche dovessi lor passeggiare anzi ? 30 
 
 244
 
 I have somewhat against thee because thou hast left thy 
 first Love.' REV. ii. 4. 
 
 ( LXII ) 
 
 THE whole of this Canto should be studied, for it 
 offers much food for meditation. 
 
 The New Man who has been baptized by Water and 
 Fire, who has climbed the steep ascent of the Holy Hill, 
 and has been purged from the seven root-sins that had 
 clung to him he who has been crowned and mitred King 
 and Priest, beholds again the transfigured Ideal of his soul 
 in the, as ever, personally beloved Beatrice ; and he stands 
 before her abashed, ashamed, convicted, till he falls before 
 her as one dead. We have to remind ourselves that he is 
 in the Eden of restored man, for this is more like 
 
 That sad, obscure, sequestered state 
 Where God unmakes, but to remake, the soul 
 He else made first in vain.' 
 
 Many have asked with Scartazzini, what are the sins 
 which are reproved and censured in Dante, when he had 
 passed through the second Kingdom where the human 
 spirit is purged ? See Vernon, vol. ii., 286. 
 
 The answer there given is, that these sins must be sought, 
 in the symbolical, rather than in the personal, relationship 
 between the two, and that the infidelity towards herself, 
 with which Beatrice reproaches him, indicates his infidelity 
 towards those who ought to guide man in accordance with 
 the doctrines of revelation ; that he had, in fact, followed 
 the teachings of a philosophical School at variance with that 
 of orthodox Theology. This may be a true explanation ; 
 but the passionate grief of his heart's overflow described 
 here seems to manifest a more personal poignancy of 
 remorse. His sins against his Ideal of Righteousness have 
 been repented of, and cleansed, and, he knew, forgiven ; we 
 
 245
 
 Love unknown. 
 - ( LXII ) 
 
 believe that this cleansing and forgiveness has rendered him 
 capable of a still deeper repentance, for we feel that it is 
 here, for the first time, that he is conscious that his sin has 
 been against Love. 
 
 The personal gifts of Providence are recounted, which, he 
 sees with the eyes of Beatrice, he has left untilled ; and her 
 faithful and continued endeavours to lift him above the 
 things of sense are seen to have been unfailing, both before 
 and after her death, as they were never understood hitherto. 
 Love has stood at his door and knocked ; he knows it now, 
 and it wounds him to the quick, as no general sense of 
 trangression against a righteous law could wound. Peter 
 went out and wept bitterly when the eyes of the beloved 
 Master rested upon him, and revealed his denial to him. 
 Dante knew that he had been false to the inward loyalty 
 that such a love demanded. Only in the knowledge of a 
 faithful, personal love can anything like deep contrition of 
 heart be experienced. Before tasting of Evil's oblivion 
 through the baptism of Lethe, he must become fully aware 
 of that evil ; he must own that the thing he had most loved 
 was indeed his greatest foe. Only by seeing this in its true 
 colour could he die to it and rise again with Her to the new 
 Celestial life. ' How can two walk together except they be 
 agreed ?' This renewed Man has to rise to the purely 
 spiritual man, to behold the Vision of the ' Holy, Holy, 
 Holy ' in the Holy of Holies not to dwell in innocent 
 childlike delights with his blessed Lady in the Garden of 
 Eden, but to be endowed with power from the right hand 
 on high to be a Ruler over many Cities. 
 
 246
 
 ' Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, 
 it abideth alone.' 
 
 ( LXII ) 
 
 After this overpowering taste of death, Matilda, as the 
 Active Ministress of Eden, immerses him in, and draws him 
 through, the cleansing Waters of Lethe. Then each Virtue 
 covers him with her arm, and he is led by them to the 
 ' Three beyond ' who ' more profoundly look,' and these are 
 to lead him again to Beatrice and to teach his eyes to behold 
 in hers the vision of Christ, symbolized in the double- 
 natured Gryphon. This 'Wonder,' in Itself unchanging, 
 was reflected in her eyes as now Man, now God. In this 
 vision of the Incarnation he finds a satisfying and yet stimu- 
 lating food which is indescribable ; a foretaste of the ultimate 
 Vision, the Source and Goal of all life. His words here are 
 few; his deepest Sanctuary is always veiled, as the wings 
 of the Seraphim veil their faces. 
 
 The Canto closes with the gracious intercession of the 
 blessed Three to Beatrice to do them the grace of unveiling 
 her Second beauty to her devoted Servant and Lover. 
 
 ' Tis somewhat late ! 
 And all thou dost enumerate 
 Of power and beauty in the World, 
 The righteousness of love was curled 
 Inextricably round about. 
 Love lay within it and without 
 To clasp thee, but in vain ! Thy Soul 
 Still shrank from Him who made the whole, 
 Still set deliberate aside 
 His love ! Now take love ! well betide 
 The tardy Conscience !' 
 
 R. BROWNING. 
 
 247
 
 The two streams from one Fountain, Lethe and Eunoe. 
 ( LXIII ) 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO XXXIII. 106-129. 
 
 SI come s' affigge, 
 Chi va dinanzi a schiera per iscorta, 
 Se trova novitade in sue vestigge, 
 Le sette donne al fin d' un' ombra smorta, 
 
 Qual sotto foglie verdi e rami nigri no 
 
 Sovra suoi freddi rivi 1' Alpe porta. 
 Dinanzi ad esse Eiifrates e Tigri 
 
 Veder mi parve uscir d' una fontana, 
 
 E quasi amici dipartirsi pigri. 
 O luce, o gloria della gente umana, 115 
 
 Che acqua e questa, che qui si dispiega 
 
 Da un principio, e sfe da se lontana ? 
 Per cotal prego detto mi fu : Prega 
 
 Matelda, che '1 ti dica. E qui rispose, 
 
 Come fa chi da colpa si dislega, 120 
 
 La bella Donna : Queste ed altre cose 
 
 Dette gli son per me ; e son sicura 
 
 Che 1' acqua di Leteo non gliel nascose. 
 E Beatrice : Forse maggior cura, 
 
 Che spesse volte la memoria priva, 125 
 
 Fatto ha la mente sua negli occhi oscura. 
 Ma vedi Eunoe, che la deriva : 
 
 Menalo ad esso, e come tu se' usa, 
 
 La tramortita sua virtu ravviva. 
 
 248
 
 The Best in me that sees the worst in me, 
 A nd groans to see it.' 
 
 ( LXIII ) 
 
 THE intercessions of the Three gracious Ladies Faith, 
 Hope, and Charity prevailed on Beatrice to unveil 
 her ' second beauty ' to Dante's longing eyes. 
 
 His full self-conviction, and his confession that the falla- 
 cious ' present things ' of the world had seduced him from 
 his heart-allegiance to his highest and best love, and his 
 subsequent baptism in the waters of Lethe, cleansing him 
 from the memories of sin, seem to have been the preparation 
 for the culminating vision that belongs to the apex of the 
 Purgatorial Realm. The clash of the flesh and the spirit 
 have been recognised all the uphill Way. The dream of 
 the enchanting Siren, and of the overcoming Lady of 
 Wisdom, embodied this conflict half-way up the Mountain. 
 
 The enchantments and illusions of things seen have now 
 vanished, but the Visible is not to vanish, or to be resisted 
 by the perfected King and Priest ; for here a deeper vision 
 is unfolded to him, which is to reconcile all things in Heaven 
 and in Earth. The four Virtues of Earth and their three 
 Heavenly Inspirers go before him ; he is led by them to 
 the profound and extended vision of the Incarnation. In 
 mysterious language, in few words, he tells us that, fixing his 
 eyes on the eyes of Beatrice, he beholds in those ' Emeralds ' 
 (eyes of enduring Hope as well as Wisdom) the Prodigy, or 
 double-natured Being, now GOD, now Man, both inextricably 
 One. 
 
 This perception of the point of contact, if we may so 
 express it, of the unifying of the redeemed and redeeming 
 flesh of Christ with the underlying substance of the creating 
 and anointing Spirit, is the revelation of Eden restored. 
 
 This is the Sacramental region where the outward and 
 visible Sign is regarded as the Word of GOD ; the region 
 
 249
 
 Dante is now bathed by Matilda in the life-renewing 
 Waters of Eunoe. 
 
 - ( LXIII ) 
 
 (Continued from last page.) 
 
 PURGATORIO, CANTO XXXIII. 130-145. 
 
 Com' anima gentil, che non fa scusa, 130 
 
 Ma fa sua voglia della voglia altrui, 
 
 Tosto com' e per segno fuor dischiusa ; 
 Cosi, poi che da essa preso fui, 
 
 La bella Donna mossesi, ed a Stazio 
 
 Donnescamente disse : Vien con lui. 135 
 
 S' io avessi, lettor, piu lungo spazio 
 
 Da scrivere, io pur cantere' in parte 
 
 Lo dolce her, che mai non m' avria sazio : 
 Ma perche piene son tutte le carte 
 
 Ordite a questa Cantica seconda, 140 
 
 Non mi lascia piu gir Io fren dell' arte. 
 Io ritornai dalla santissim' onda 
 
 Rifatto si, come piante riovelle 
 
 Rinnovellate di novella fronda, 
 Puro e disposto a salire alle stelle. 145 
 
 250
 
 The Sacramental Witness of the Union of Heaven 
 and Earth. 
 
 \ LXIII ) 
 
 where the indwelling Divine Spirit and ihe outward embodi- 
 ment are seen to be in such intimate life-currents of unity, 
 that the endeavour to wrench asunder the Goo-interwoven 
 twain might seem to threaten the destruction of two worlds. 
 
 This Central revelation is the Key that opens avenues 
 to many other visions appertaining to the same realm of 
 miracle. Beatrice displays to the Disciple pictures of the 
 Church and the Empire, present and future. She showed 
 him also the Mystic Tree again, renewed in foliage after 
 spoliation, and in lovely blossoming as with Apple blossoms, 
 such as, he says, 'made the Angels long for its fruit and its 
 perpetual marriage-feasts in Heaven' (xxxii. 75). The dis- 
 tinct interpretation of this Tree is hard to find. It seems 
 to combine allusions to the Tree of Knowledge, the Tree of 
 Life, the Cross, the Church, and the Tree of the restored 
 Humanity in Christ. 
 
 Beatrice instructs him to make known what he has seen 
 in fearless speech, and not to speak as in a dream. 
 
 These visions are far too intricate and need too much of 
 historic interpretation to be meddled with here. 
 
 Venturing to seek, as we have done, the simpler and 
 more personal spiritual nutriment of Pilgrims on the Way, 
 to be found in this great Poem, and leaving so much 
 aside, we yet must not fail to note the intense interest of 
 the Representative Pilgrim in all the events of the actual 
 matter-of-fact life around him. Unlike our own Bunyan's 
 Way of the Pilgrim, this Way is almost inextricably inter- 
 woven with the actions and hopes and fears and indignations 
 and protests of the Citizen, the Patriot, and the Churchman. 
 As we might expect (if the Sign of the Prodigy, the Union 
 of the redeemed Outward and Inward, has been truly inter- 
 
 25 1
 
 The Sacramental Witness of the Union of Heaven 
 and Earth. 
 
 ( LXIII ) 
 
 preted) there could be no leaving behind thoughts or actions 
 concerning such subjects ; they were to the Seer the ' visible 
 speech of God ' stamped within and without on the scroll 
 of Christ-illumined Life. We find them indeed surrounding 
 him in the highest heaven, in the very Courts of the Inner 
 Sanctuary of the Beatific Vision. Perhaps no Mystic was 
 ever so sensitive to external and practical things as Dante ; 
 perhaps none has so much felt the unity in himself of the 
 two worlds, as we are accustomed to call them, of the 
 Visible and of the Spiritual. 
 
 Dante meets with no other traveller in this region of 
 prophetic Vision ; though Statius follows him and is bathed 
 by Matilda with him in Eunoe, they seem to have had no 
 communion in words. Matilda, the active dispenser of the 
 bounties of Paradise, is more like one of the Nymphs or 
 Graces than any actual personality. She is the ministress 
 of Beatrice's behests with regard to Dante ; her will is merged 
 in that of Beatrice. The Angels and Graces and Proces- 
 sions of Saints and Elders seen by him are like those in 
 the Apocalypse, changing phantasies, displayed for the 
 teaching of the Seer alone, and for those who may learn of 
 him. 
 
 Such an exceptional region has been entered by saints 
 and mystics of all generations, and if the Key of this region 
 be accepted, this picture may be a prophecy, a promise for 
 all the race, when the due season of its purged and extended 
 faculties permits the consummation of the Wedding of Earth 
 and Heaven. 
 
 Our portion for to-day, the last lines of the Cantos of the 
 Second Kingdom, leave the New Man reunited with the 
 J*ove and Ideal of his personal life, not as yet in the perfect 
 
 252
 
 The Sacramental Witness of the Union of Heaven 
 and Earth. 
 
 ( LXIII ) 
 
 union of equality, but as a perfectly prepared disciple with 
 the perfect Teacher : 
 
 ' And what delights can equal those 
 That stir the spirit's inner deeps, 
 When one that loves, but knows not, reaps 
 A truth from one that loves and knows.' 
 
 At her request the ready and gentle Matilda, ' who makes 
 her own will of another's,' revives the fainting life of Dante 
 by the Waters of Eunoe. This baptism is not unto any 
 death, like that of Lethe ; it is all unto Life. Lethe had 
 destroyed in him the memory of sin in his past life ; now 
 Memory, re-dipt, is to restore to him every good thing that 
 has been imprinted there. 'Behold, I make all things new.' 
 Let us imagine the wealth of such a new world within as 
 this. The familiar old benedictions, unstained by our sins, 
 negligences and ignorances, in full potency ; Childhood's 
 gardens of delight and wonder re-opened ; the loving looks 
 and ways of Home alive, without the limiting irksomeness 
 of its restraints ; the unfolding stores of vital knowledge 
 rescued from our dulness ; the blessed intercommunion of 
 rekindled ardour in friendships ; each thought and word 
 of love and of kindred mind that has ' exalted us above 
 ourselves '; the strains of Poetry and of Music that have 
 swayed our Souls ; the flashes through Nature's grandeur 
 or simplicity that have revealed their intimate Source ; the 
 breathings of Prayer or Adoration that have passed through 
 or over us these all in ordered ranks, unified by the hidden 
 divine Love that lived in all. We may count up such things 
 and thousands more, even now as we can recollect them, 
 even under the chequered shades of our sorrows and our 
 
 253
 
 The Sacramental Witness of the Union of Heaven 
 and Earth. 
 
 ( LXIII ) 
 
 sins, unobliterated by Lethe. We may drink of the two 
 streams of the water of life in some measure each evening 
 of our lives, practising to forget and to remember, learning 
 more of the renewed life that stirred in the renewed man 
 as he 
 
 ' Returned from the most holy water 
 Regenerate, in the manner of new trees 
 That are renewed with a new foliage, 
 Pure and disposed to mount unto the stars.' 
 
 254
 
 PARADISO.
 
 THE ASCENSION THROUGH THE HEAVENS TO 
 THE PARADISO. 
 
 ' Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart 
 of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him. 
 
 ' But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit : for the Spirit 
 searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. . . . Now we have 
 received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God ; 
 that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.' 
 
 1 Cor. ii. 9-12. 
 
 ' I knew a man in Christ about fourteen years ago (whether in the 
 body, I cannot tell ; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell ; God 
 knoweth), such an one caught up to the third Heaven. And I knew 
 such a man (whether in the body or out of the body, I cannot tell ; God 
 knoweth), how that he was caught up into Paradise and heard unspeak- 
 able words, which it is not lawful (or possible) for a man to utter.' 
 
 2 Cor. xii. 2-4. 
 
 ' Grant, we beseech Thee, Almighty God, that like as we do believe 
 Thy only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to have ascended into 
 the Heavens, so we may also in heart and mind thither ascend and with 
 Him continually dwell, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy 
 Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.' Collect for Ascension 
 Day. 
 
 IT is with this prayer alone, and in this spirit, that we 
 venture to press into these opened Heavens. 
 We have, in the Inferno, studied the picture of the human 
 heart in both ignorant and wilful antagonism to its Divine 
 Centre and to right reason. 
 
 257 i?
 
 The Ascension through the Heavens to the Paradiso. 
 
 (O - 
 
 In the Purgatorio we have seen the human heart in its 
 true filial relationship to the Divine Centre, yet trammelled 
 with the consequences of the false conceptions that had 
 dominated it. 
 
 How shall we follow the Pilgrim along this almost un- 
 beaten path to the fully- developed spiritual consciousness, 
 generated in complete union with God and with His Uni- 
 verse ? 
 
 Experience, which has helped us in the former portions of 
 the Poem, is in great measure lacking to us here, and the 
 wings of our imagination fail us. We are warned by Dante 
 himself (Canto II. 1-15) that we had better not try to follow 
 his Bark across- waters that have never been navigated, 
 unless we have already, with a few, aspired to feed on 
 Angels' Bread. By ' these few ' the elements of well-being 
 and of bliss here opened to us have, indeed, been tasted, 
 and such divinely-nourished souls have said, and may say, 
 as the spirits of Light here described say, ' His Will is our 
 Peace.' ' Our joy is in receiving from Him and giving to 
 others ; our intellect finds its nourishment in His Truth ; 
 our heart is at rest in His Love.' 
 
 St. Paul tells the Ephesians that they have been ' raised 
 up together with Christ, and made to sit with Him in 
 Heavenly places ' ; and we have been taught to expect 
 the revealings of the 'deep things of God by His 
 Spirit.' 
 
 These things, 'freely given to us of God,' have been 
 known, and may be increasingly known, even by those who 
 are yet under the limitations of Sense and Time ; but till 
 these limitations are removed, and till the members of 
 Christ's mystical Body are in full fellowship, the vision, as 
 presented here, must continue an Ideal, towards which we 
 
 258
 
 The Ascension through the Heavens to the Paradiso. 
 - ( 3 ) - 
 
 may, indeed, continually approach, but which cannot be 
 entirely realized. 
 
 In the Paradise we naturally find less of external descrip- 
 tion and of varied symbolism than in the two first portions 
 of the Poem. 
 
 Its lofty themes are : the Providence of God ; the nature of 
 Will in Man ; the Order and Form of the Universe ; the ideal 
 justice of God as the cause of every manifestation of justice 
 on Earth ; the Incarnation ; the Atonement ; the Nature of 
 Faith, Hope, and Charity ; the Creation of Angels and Man ; 
 the Church militant and triumphant ; and the final goal, the 
 Vision of the Trinity, and Humanity One with God. These 
 subjects are treated, probably, much as theologians have 
 treated them before and since the time of Dante ; but they 
 are represented as received not on the authority of external 
 teaching alone, but in inner communion with the Celestial 
 Wisdom and with the spirits of just men made perfect ; they 
 are warmed with the heart's blood of the Seer, and inwoven 
 with his living experience. He blends them with biographies 
 of Saints, with the history of the age, and especially with 
 that of the Church in his own day. 
 
 With such histories the heart of the renewed man is felt 
 to be intimately connected, and the heavenly hierarchy is 
 portrayed as vibrating in fullest sympathy. 
 
 The Heavens not only rejoice in the triumphs of the 
 Church Militant, but blush with shame at her defeats. 
 
 The outward presentation of deep and spiritual con- 
 ceptions in artistic framework, appealing to our sense "appre- 
 hensions, must necessarily have its paradoxes. Here, 
 however, this framework is, as has been said, less definite 
 and outlined than in the preceding portions. The ascent 
 through the nine Heavens is no longer a painful climb, as 
 
 259
 
 The Ascension through the Heavens to the Paradise. 
 (4) - 
 
 in Purgatory, but the spirit is borne aloft without effort, 
 almost without sense of motion, as a necessary consequence 
 of ardent desire and of the gaze into the eyes of Beatrice 
 Beatrice, the soul of Dante's soul and its divinely nurturing 
 Mother. She is almost identified with Divine philosophy 
 and with perfecting grace. ' Her two eyes,' Dante tells us in 
 'Convito,' II., and in the 'VitaNuova,' 'are demonstrations 
 which look into the soul; and her smiles are persuasions 
 which enamour it, and emancipate it from all fettering con- 
 ditions.' 
 
 Like St. Paul, he knows not how his body could be lifted 
 beyond its own limits ; but ' God knew who lifted him with 
 His Light.' And he invents a word to express what, he 
 says, language cannot express, the transition from the 
 earthly to the heavenly to ' transhumanize ' (Canto I. 70). 
 
 We shall follow him through the nine Spheres of the 
 encircling and encanopying Heavens, each one revolving 
 with swifter and swifter motion as it approaches the Em- 
 pyrean, or Tenth Heaven of motionless Rest and Peace. 
 The swift and ardent desire of the soul is seen here as 
 spiritual motion, ' that ne'er rests until she doth enjoy the 
 thing beloved.' Purgatorio, XVIII. 33. This Heaven is 
 the Central point towards which all are pressing inwards 
 with this ardent desire; yet this Central point is, at the 
 same time, the Circumference that encloses our restlessness 
 with its rest. Beneath its outstreaming light the Mystic 
 White Rose of the glorified Church triumphant is brought 
 into its ideal perfection. The Ninth, or first moved Heaven 
 of swiftest motion, is the circle where ' they most know and 
 most love.' This transmits its virtues to the Eighth, and in 
 this way each receives from the Heaven above itself and 
 gives to the one below, though with diminished vitality. 
 
 260
 
 The Ascension through the Heavens to the Paradiso. 
 (5) - 
 
 Divine giving and Divine receiving make the rhythm of the 
 Spheres, and are the joy of the whole, manifesting the 
 interaction and reciprocity of the Father and the Son. 
 
 The two great powers of the spiritual life, Love and 
 Knowledge (dreamt of by the Pilgrim on the threshold of 
 the Eden-Paradise as Rachel and Leah, the active and 
 contemplative faculties of the soul), are seen in perfected 
 equilibrium in God, Who is called, in this relationship, ' The 
 Prime Equality.' The hunger of each soul is fed by par- 
 taking of this twofold perfection. 
 
 The Divine volition of St. John xvii. is seen to be ful- 
 filled, ' I in them and Thou in Me, that they may be one, 
 even as We are One.' Thousands, in the form of the 
 Celestial Eagle, are imagined speaking of themselves as ' I 
 and Me,' for all are of one spirit and one language. Though 
 personality is never lost (for who could emphasize it more 
 than Dante ?), it is continually represented as subordinated 
 to a social end. The blessed form themselves into figures 
 or words for the enlightenment of others ; the-disciple of 
 one Saint recounts the blessedness, not of his own Master, 
 but of the Founder of another Order ; and each fulfils in 
 increased joy some special act of love. The Divine Elec- 
 tive Light mingles with the consenting light of each, and 
 directs each to the action in which he rejoices, though he 
 knows not wherefore he especially is elected to this office. 
 XXI. 85-95. 
 
 The Light is broken into thousands of mirroring spirits, 
 that reflect it with joyful and varied capacity, but with equal 
 consent, and It remains One and Unbroken as ever. 
 
 Different degrees of glory are evidenced by the Saints 
 manifesting themselves in one or other of the nine graduated 
 Heavens, yet each abides, indeed, in the very heart of Para- 
 
 [261
 
 The Ascension through the Heavens to the Paradiso. 
 ( 6 ) - 
 
 disc. The Saint who has attained least is there as truly as 
 the Seraphim who is 'most absorbed in God.' 
 
 Each and ' all make beautiful the primal circle, and have 
 sweet life in different degrees by feeling more or less the 
 Eternal Breath.' 
 
 Light, Music, and joyous rhythmic Motion are the only 
 outward and visible signs of the Harmony and Joy that 
 prevail. The forms of the redeemed spirits are not defined, 
 except as concealed in their own light, till at last, in the 
 mystic White Rose, the Seer is able to discern their unveiled 
 countenances, or is, perhaps, granted a fore-gleam of their 
 future glory in the white-robed garments of the restored 
 body. For this restitution of the whole man they are repre- 
 sented as awaiting the Morning of the Resurrection. 
 
 The Beatific Vision, the consummation of the whole 
 Poem, for which each step of the Way has been preparing 
 the Pilgrim, must be reverently studied by itself after our 
 gradual approach to its excelling Glory. 
 
 262
 
 The Celestial Wisdom. 
 ( 7 ) - 
 
 WISDOM OF SOLOMON VII. 22-27. 
 
 ' 'I T 7 ISDOM, which is the worker of all things, taught 
 V V me : for in her is an understanding spirit, holy, 
 one only, manifold, subtil, lively, clear, undefiled, plain, not 
 subject to hurt, loving the thing that is good, quick, which 
 cannot be letted, ready to do good, kind to man, steadfast, 
 sure, free from care, having all power, overseeing all things, 
 and going through all understanding, pure, and most subtil, 
 spirits. For Wisdom is more moving than any motion : she 
 passeth and goeth through all things by reason of her pure- 
 ness. For she is the breath of the power of God, and a 
 pure influence flowing from the glory of the Almighty : 
 therefore can no defiled thing fall into her. For she is the 
 brightness of the everlasting light, the unspotted mirror of 
 the power of God, and the image of His goodness. And 
 being but one, she can do all things : and remaining in her- 
 self, she maketh all things new : and in all ages entering into 
 holy souls, she maketh them friends of God, and prophets.' 
 
 263
 
 Dante has been, he says, in the highest Light of Heaven, 
 and has seen that which, in his descent, he cannot repeat. 
 
 (I) 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO I. 1-12. 
 
 LA gloria di Colui, che tutto muove, 
 Per 1' universe penetra, e risplende 
 In una parte piu, e meno altrove. 
 Nel ciel, che piu della sua luce prende, 
 
 Fu' io, e vidi cose, che ridire 5 
 
 Ne sa, ne puo qual di lassu discende ; 
 Perche appressando se al suo disire, 
 Nostro intelletto si profonda tanto, 
 Che la memoria retro non pub ire. 
 Veramente quant' io del regno santo io 
 
 Nella mia mente potei far tesoro, 
 Sara ora materia del mio canto. 
 
 264
 
 ' Let Thy Light and Thy Truth lead me.' 
 
 (I) 
 
 ' A I '"'HE Glory of Him who moves and penetrates the 
 
 _L Universe' are the first words we hear at the en- 
 trance of this third Realm of Spirits ; they are addressed to 
 us from the midst of the after-glow of its consummate 
 Vision. The last quivering beam of transcendent Light 
 seems to have just passed away, and the Seer, filled to over- 
 flowing with the effulgence he has beheld, knows that, in 
 his descent from that glorious Mount of Transfiguration, his 
 memory will not hold that which had flooded the depths of 
 his mind. He invokes harmonious music to breathe forth 
 from his soul, and with power Divine to make manifest the 
 shadow, even, of the blessed realm that does remain trea- 
 sured within. 
 
 We may recall here the concluding lines of each portion 
 of the Poem, for these mark significantly steps in spiritual 
 progress. We learn at the same time to behold the stars, as 
 Dante plainly did, as Sacramental witnesses to the Order of 
 God's Universe. 
 
 On issuing from the uttermost darkness of the Inferno he 
 re-beholds them in the distant sky, and welcomes the sight 
 of them as a restoration to a lost consciousness. 
 
 In the last line of the Purgatorio, cleansed with baptisms 
 of Water and Fire, he recognises in himself the new life 
 which disposes him to mount unto the stars. He would 
 fain be amongst their undeviating courses and ministries, 
 and in the secret of their abiding order. 
 
 Lastly, at the end of the Paradiso, he perceives that his own 
 will and desires are moved by the ' same Love that moves 
 the Sun and the other Stars,' and he is aware that his heart 
 now beats in instinctive union with the Central Heart of the 
 Universe. 
 
 265
 
 Dante sees Beatrice's intense gaze at the Sim, and learns 
 to direct his eyes to the same Source. 
 
 (II) 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO I. 37-57. 
 
 SURGE a' mortal! per diverse foci 
 La lucerna del mondo : ma da quella, 
 Che quattro cerchi giunge con tre croci, 
 Con miglior corso e con migliore Stella 40 
 
 Esce congiunta, e la mondana cera 
 
 Piu a suo modo tempera e suggella. 
 Fatto avea di la mane, e di qua sera 
 
 Tal foce ; e quasi tutto era la bianco 
 
 Quello emisperio, e 1' altra parte nera ; 45 
 
 Quando Beatrice in sul sinistro fiance 
 
 Vidi rivolta, e riguardar nel Sole : 
 
 Aquila si non gli s' affisse unquanco. 
 E si come secondo raggio suole 
 
 Uscir del primo, e risalire in suso, 50 
 
 Pur come peregrin che tornar vuole ; 
 Cosi dell' atto suo, per gli occhi infuso 
 
 NelP immagine mia, lo mio si fece ; 
 
 E fissi gli occhi al Sole oltre a nostr 5 uso. 
 Molto e licito la, che qui non lece 55 
 
 Alle nostre virtu, merce del loco 
 
 Fatto per proprio dell' umana spece. 
 
 266
 
 The Pilgrim of the sky with larger, other eyes transcends 
 his former powers of vision. 
 
 (II) 
 
 THE Sun arose, we are told, at the most propitious 
 moment for Dante's mysterious ascent, when he and 
 Beatrice stood to welcome the advent of the World's Lamp. 
 This was when the Sun was in Aries and the three Circles 
 the Equator, Ecliptic, and the Equinoctial Colure meet, 
 forming three crosses with the horizon. These are sup- 
 posed to awaken associations with the Creation, Incarnation, 
 and the Crucifixion, each mystery having been manifested 
 in the season of Spring. 
 
 Statius and Matilda have vanished, leaving Dante and 
 his Celestial Guide alone for their ascent of Heart and 
 Mind. She intently fixes her eyes on the Sun, more intently 
 than the upsoaring Eagle, who mounts thitherward on 
 strongest wing ; and he, whom she guides and inspires, 
 learns from her gaze the first law of the purely Spiritual 
 Kingdom to seek the uncreated Light, the Source of all 
 illumination. 
 
 He finds he may transcend the natural laws of Earth, for 
 he starts from the plane of the restored Eden, to which 
 environment the primal man had been adjusted, with whose 
 powers the regenerate man is supposed to be reinstated. 
 
 Can we, indeed, measure or define the limits of man's 
 powers in the Spirit, since we know that we are born of the 
 Infinite One, and that our Lord has not only said, ' With 
 God all things are possible,' but ' All things are possible to 
 htm that believeth ' ? 
 
 Note lines 48-54, and the beautiful simile of the second 
 ray that issues from the first, and reascends 'like to a 
 Pilgrim who would fain return.' Dante likens himself to 
 this second ray, which he deems as kindled through behold- 
 ing Beatrice's gaze on the Sun. 
 
 267
 
 Dante learns to assimilate the new element by fixing his 
 eyes on Beatrice's eyes. 
 
 (Ill) 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO I. 58-84. 
 
 IO nol soffersi molto ne si poco, 
 Ch' io nol vedessi sfavillar d' intorno, 
 Qual ferro che bollente esce dal fuoco. 6c 
 
 E di subito parve giorno a giorno 
 
 Essere aggiunto, come Quei che puote 
 
 Avesse '1 ciel d' un altro Sole adorno. 
 Beatrice tutta nell' eterne ruote 
 
 Fissa con gli occhi stava, ed io in lei 65 
 
 Le luci fissi, di lassu remote ; 
 Nel suo aspetto tal dentro mi fei, 
 
 Qual si fe Glauco nel gustar dell' erba, 
 
 Che '1 fe consorto in mar degli altri Dei. 
 Trasumanar significar per verba 70 
 
 Non si poria ; perb 1' esempio basti 
 
 A cui P esperienza grazia serba. 
 S' io era sol di me quel che creasti 
 
 Novellamente, Amor che '1 ciel governi, 
 
 Tu '1 sai, che col tuo lume mi levasti. 75 
 
 Quando la ruota, che tu sempiterni 
 
 Desiderate, a se mi fece atteso 
 
 Con P armonia che temperi e discerni, 
 Parvemi tanto allor del cielo acceso 
 
 Dalla fiamma del Sol, che pioggia o fiurne 80 
 
 Lago non fece mai tanto disteso. 
 La novita del suono, e '1 grande lume, 
 
 Di lor cagion m' accesero un disio 
 
 Mai non sentito di cotanto acume. 
 
 268.
 
 Then by a Sun-beame I will climb to Thee. 
 (Ill) 
 
 THE light of the Sun is doubled as they ascend, and 
 the Aspirant's eyes have not yet learnt to continue 
 the steadfast gaze he had for a short time maintained. He 
 finds he must withdraw them and fix them upon Beatrice. 
 Even the regenerate man, led by the Spirit, cannot concen- 
 trate his vision on the Supreme Source of Light alone. 
 ' The Light of the Knowledge of the glory of God is re- 
 vealed in the face of Jesus Christ' revealed, yet veiled 
 also, in the flesh of the Son of Man. 
 
 Dante must be nourished by the food of the new element 
 he has entered. Ere he could bear the splendour of the 
 Light, and be lifted by it beyond himself, he must ' trans- 
 humanize' or pass over from human to Divine conscious- 
 ness. Some measure of these transcendent things must be 
 experienced, for language cannot convey them to us. 
 
 A new sound broke upon the Pilgrim's ear, as the double 
 flaming of the Sun's light broke upon his vision. He was 
 in the midst of the music of the spheres. Their motion 
 uttered, and was caused by, their desire for God. These 
 sounds, in orderly harmony, spoke the Peace of Heaven. 
 
 He longs to know the cause of the sound, and of the 
 light, and is told by Beatrice that he is no longer, as he had 
 falsely imagined, on Earth, but has unconsciously passed 
 into the first Heaven. 
 
 Through pure desire, and through Divine Grace, not 
 through effort, the transition has been made. 
 
 269
 
 Dante cannot understand the contradiction of physical 
 laws in the spiritual world. 
 
 ( IV ) 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO I. 97-123. 
 
 GlA contento requievi 
 Di grand' ammirazion ; ma ora ammiro 
 Com' io trascenda questi corpi lievi. 
 Ond' ella, appresso d' uno pio sospiro, 100 
 
 Gli occhi drizzo ver me con quel sembiante 
 
 Che madre fa sopra figliuol deliro ; 
 E comincio : Le cose tutte quante 
 
 Hann' ordine tra loro ; e questo e forma, 
 
 Che 1' universe a Dio fa somigliante. 105 
 
 Qui veggion F alte creature 1' orma 
 
 Dell' eterno valore, il quale e fine, 
 
 Al quale e fatta la toccata norma. 
 Nell' ordine ch' io dico sono accline 
 
 Tutte nature per diverse sorti no 
 
 Piu al principio loro, e men vicine : 
 Onde si muovono, a diversi porti 
 
 Per Io gran mar dell' essere ; e ciascuna 
 
 Con istinto a lei dato che la porti. 
 Questi ne porta il fuoco inver la Luna : 115 
 
 Questi ne' cuor mortali e permotore : 
 
 Questi la terra in se stringe ed aduna. 
 Ne pur le creature, che son fuore 
 
 D' intelligenzia, quest' arco saetta, 
 
 Ma quella c' hanno intelletto ed amore. 1 20 
 
 La provvidenza, che cotanto assetta, 
 
 Del suo lume fa '1 ciel sempre quieto, 
 
 Nel qual si volge quel c' ha maggior fretta. 
 
 270
 
 ' Not with Outward Makers force ' but ' like 
 inward Father.' 
 
 -(IV) 
 
 DANTE is puzzled by his strange ascent in contra- 
 diction to the law of gravitation. In the realm of 
 spirit we cannot reason from physical laws ; his questionings 
 are like those of Nicodemus : ' How can a man be born 
 again ? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb 
 and be born ?' 
 
 The paradoxes of the worlds of sense and of Spirit must, 
 indeed, continually puzzle us here. The answer of Beatrice 
 and the imagery of lines 100-102 suggest to us that we are 
 all immature, and not only so, but mostly sick with fever 
 and delirium, and that it is with a sigh and with tender 
 motherly compassion that the Celestial Wisdom looks upon 
 us and listens to our babblings. 
 
 Beatrice teaches the disciple something of the Providence 
 and Order of the Universe, whose pattern is in God ; and 
 he learns that all things, by a law within, are tending 
 towards the great Centre of Being. So, truly, another law 
 of gravity is disclosed, which must as necessarily draw his 
 spirit upwards as the rivulet must necessarily, in the physical 
 world, gravitate from a high mountain to the lowlands. 
 
 If the Spirit of the living God be in us, we must needs 
 draw Homewards to Him. The marvel would be 'to be 
 seated down belou* ' while that living fire, ever tending up- 
 wards to its home, is within. 
 
 Order is the technical expression for dependence of the 
 lower beings on the Highest, and for the revelation of the 
 Power of the Highest in the lower (103-105). 
 
 271
 
 The new law of gravitation revealed to Dante. 
 ( IV ) 
 
 (Continued from last page.) 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO I. 136-142. 
 
 Non dei piu ammirar, se bene stimo, 
 
 Lo tuo salir se non come d' un rivo, 
 
 Che d' alto monte scende giuso ad imo. 
 Maraviglia sarebbe in te, se, privo 
 
 D' impedimento, giu ti fossi assiso, 140 
 
 Com' a terra quieto il fuoco vivo. 
 Quinci rivolse inver lo cielo il viso. 
 
 272
 
 that which drew from out the boundless deep 
 Turns again Home.' 
 
 - C IV.) 
 
 In the 'Convito ' (IV. 8) Dante quotes St.Thomas Aquinas 
 as saying, ' To know the order of one thing to another 
 is the proper Act of reason.' 'To perceive dependencies in 
 Nature is to perceive unity, and therefore to perceive the 
 Form that makes the Universe resemble God. . . . The 
 lowest rests on the highest, and not the highest on the 
 lowest. Things are substantial just in proportion to their 
 degree of participation in the Divine self-activity. W. T- 
 HARRIS. 
 
 In our selection for to-day it is as though we caught the 
 distant sound of the music of the spheres. Hope, with its 
 lyre of many broken strings, vibrates again to the assurance 
 that every creature, from the highest, ' with intellect and 
 love,' to the lowest, 'with instinct given.' is endowed 
 with its innate Pilot, who conducts each, 'freighted with 
 experience,' by diverse passages to the one true Haven of 
 Rest. 
 
 ' Who dost so strongly and so sweetly move, 
 While all things have their will, yet none but Thine.' 
 
 GEO. HERBERT. 
 
 273 l8
 
 The swift motion of desire carries Dante into the first 
 Heavens, the Eternal Pearl oj the Moon. 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO II. 19-45. 
 
 E. concreata e perpetua sete 
 Del deiforme regno cen portava 20 
 
 Veloci quasi come '1 ciel vedete. 
 Beatrice in suso, ed io in lei guardava : 
 
 E forse in tanto, in quanto un quadrel posa 
 
 E vola e dalla noce si dischiava, 
 Giunto mi vidi, ove mirabil cosa 25 
 
 Mi tolse '1 viso a se. E pero quella, 
 
 Cui non potea mia cura essere ascosa, 
 Volta ver me si lieta, come bella : 
 
 Drizza la mente in Dio grata, mi disse, 
 
 Che n' ha congiunti con la prima Stella. 30 
 
 Pareva a me che nube ne coprisse 
 
 Lucida, spessa, solida e pulita, 
 
 Quasi adamante che lo Sol ferisse. 
 Per entro se 1' eterna margherita 
 
 Ne ricevette, com' acqua recepe 35 
 
 Raggio di luce, permanendo unita. 
 S' io era corpo (e qui non si concepe 
 
 Com' una dimensione altra patio, 
 
 Ch' esser convien se corpo in corpo repe), 
 Accender ne dovria piu il disio 40 
 
 Di veder quella essenzia, in che si vede 
 
 Come nostra natura e Dio s' unio. 
 Li si vedra cio che tenem per fede, 
 
 Non dimostrato, ma fia per se noto, 
 
 A guisa del ver primo, che 1' uom crede. 45 
 
 274
 
 God communicates Himself to the longing soul, for His 
 nature and ours arc blended. 
 
 (V) 
 
 THE Picture of the great Sea of Being tarries in Dante's 
 mind's eye, and he imagines 'his own Ship that 
 singing sails along ' upon the bosom of the Ocean of unseen 
 Spirit life, piloted by Divine Wisdom, Harmony, and Art. 
 With something like a smile of scornful pity, he addresses 
 others in ' some pretty little boats ' that may be following in 
 his wake, and bids them beware of being lost on such an 
 untried voyage, unless, indeed, they had been fitted for it 
 by the Bread of Angels the ' daily Manna ' without which 
 (as the Lord's Prayer is paraphrased, Purgatorio, XI. 12), 
 
 ' In this rough wilderness, 
 Backward goes he who toils most to advance. ' 
 
 But fed thus, he says, and with their own thirst for the 
 Deiform realm, others may follow him and be borne onwards 
 as he and Beatrice were, as swiftly as the Heavens them- 
 selves. 
 
 Our own thirst for the spiritual, inspired by heavenly grace 
 can alone carry us on to Divine knowledge. 
 
 The Heaven of the Moon, that nearest to the Earth, is 
 the first symbol perceived by Dante of one of many Mansions, 
 or resting-places, in the Father's House. The Cone of the 
 Earth's shadow touches it, and this (as Dante supposes) 
 extends also over the two succeeding heavens of Mercury 
 and Venus. This shadow intimates that the spirits who 
 manifest themselves in these three spheres are in lower 
 degrees of the glory that differentiates one star from another. 
 
 Dante describes his entrance into this star as being like 
 that of a ray of light into water, without any displacement 
 of matter, and is led to feel after the intimate union of the 
 Divine and the Human. 
 
 275
 
 Dante's communing with Piccarda in the Moon-sphere 
 of Imperfect Wills. 
 
 (VI) 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO III. 37-57. 
 
 OB EN create spirito, che a' rai 
 Di vita eterna la dolcezza senti, 
 Che, non gustata, non s' intende mai, 
 Grazioso mi fia, se mi content! 40 
 
 Del nome tuo e della vostra sorte. 
 
 Ond' ella pronta e con occhi ridenti : 
 La nostra carita non serra porte 
 
 A giusta voglia, se non come quella 
 
 Che vuol simile a se tutta sua corte. 45 
 
 lo fui nel mondo vergine sorella ; 
 
 E se la mente tua ben mi riguarda, 
 
 Non mi ti celera 1' esser piu bella ; 
 Ma riconoscerai che io son Piccarda, 
 
 Che, posta qui con questi altri beati, 50 
 
 Beata son nella spera piii tarda. 
 Li nostri affetti, che solo infiammati 
 
 Son del piacer dello Spirito santo, 
 
 Letizian dal suo ordine formati. 
 E questa sorte, che par giu cotanto, 55 
 
 Pero n' e data, perche fur negletti 
 
 Li nostri voti, e voti in alcun canto. 
 
 276
 
 Unstable as Water, thoit shall not excel.' 
 Yet ' Out of weakness made strong.' 
 
 - ( VI ) - 
 
 IN this first heaven of imperfect wills, spirits were seen 
 by Dante as though reflected in water, or as outlines 
 of faces, no more salient than a pearl on a white forehead. 
 He fancied them but mirrored semblances, till Beatrice 
 encouraged him to speak to one who seemed anxious to 
 address him. 
 
 Perhaps weakness of character is intended to be expressed 
 by such faint and shadowy images. 
 
 Dante places infirmity of purpose and weak refusal of 
 responsibility as signs of the first downward steps in hell, 
 and makes them characteristic also of the lowest grade in 
 Paradise. It is Piccarda Donati, the sister of Corso and 
 Forese, and (it is believed) Dante's own sister-in-law, with 
 whom he converses. She was a Nun, and against her will 
 was forced to leave her Convent and marry. 
 
 It is affirmed later that ' Will is never quenched unless it 
 will ' ; and, even where physical violence prevails, Will must 
 triumph in death rather than yield. Dante begins to ques- 
 tion her with reverent curiosity concerning the sweetness of 
 Eternal life, ' which being untasted ne'er is comprehended.' 
 She answers with laughing eyes, and says he does not at 
 once recognise her, because she is more fair. He had in 
 purgatory met Forese and inquired of him concerning her ; 
 he spoke of his sister as not knowing whether she was more 
 beautiful or good, and as having already obtained her crown. 
 She declares herself to be blest in the slowest and lowest 
 sphere of the Heavens, for she rejoices in the Holy Spirit 
 and in the Order ordained by Him. 
 
 277
 
 Dante learns from Piccarda that the supreme joy of 
 Heaven is perfect union with the Divine Will. 
 
 ( VII ) - 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO III. 64-90. 
 
 MA dimmi : Voi che siete qui felici, 
 Desiderate voi piu alto loco, 65 
 
 Per piu vedere, o per piu farvi amici ? 
 Con quell' altr' ombre pria sorrise un poco ; 
 
 Da indi mi rispose tanto lieta, 
 
 Ch' arder parea d' amor nel prime fuoco : 
 Frate, la nostra volonta qu'ieta 70 
 
 Virtu di carita, che fa volerne 
 
 Sol quel ch' avemo, e d' altro non ci asseta. 
 Se disiassimo esser piu superne, 
 
 Foran discordi gli nostri disiri 
 
 Dal voler di Colui che qui ne cerne ; 75 
 
 Che vedrai non capere in questi giri, 
 
 S' esser'e in caritate e qui necesse, 
 
 E se la sua natura ben rimiri ; 
 Anzi e formale ad esto beato esse 
 
 Tenersi dentro alia divina voglia, 80 
 
 Perch' una fansi nostre voglie stesse. 
 Si che, come noi siam di soglia in soglia 
 
 Per questo regno, a tutto il regno piace, 
 
 Com' allo re, che in suo voler ne invoglia. 
 In la sua volontade e nostra pace : 85 
 
 Ella e quel mare, al qual tutto si muove 
 
 Cio ch' ella cria, o che natura face. 
 Chiaro mi fu allor com' ogni dove 
 
 In cielo e paradise, e si la grazia 
 
 Del sommo ben d' un modo non vi piove. 90 
 
 278
 
 Humility is the Throne of Love and Peace. 
 ( VII ) 
 
 THERE is great sweetness in these questions and 
 answers on the lowest step of the heavenly throne. 
 
 Dante, with his soaring nature and intense earnestness to 
 know and to extend fellowship in the joy of Communion, 
 inquires of Piccarda, whether she and other spirits in this 
 slowest, lowest sphere are not ' desirous of a higher place, 
 and to make more friends.' [Or, perhaps, to make more 
 friends with God. See line 66 ; also XXV. 90.] 
 
 Her look round on her companions, sure of full assent 
 from them while giving her own smiling answer, and her 
 glow in the grace and fire of love, seem to pulsate with 
 Heaven's own atmosphere. The One Will, the fount of 
 Peace filling and attracting every lower Will, is the Goal of 
 the onward movement of every form of life on the Ocean of 
 Being, which we read of in Beatrice's revealing utterance 
 (Canto I. 112) : 
 
 ' And His Will is our peace ; this is the Sea 
 To which is moving onward whatsoever 
 It doth create, and all that nature makes.' 
 
 Though Piccarda had failed in the strength of purpose she 
 would have attained by allying herself completely with the 
 Divine Will on Earth, here she is presented to us as a 
 blossom floating on the bosom of that Ocean of rest, swayed 
 by its undulations alone, in absolute peace of Union with 
 itself. Her words convince Dante that every part and grade 
 within that Will's dominion of Peace is Paradise, even though 
 God rain His Graces in different measures upon different 
 spheres.
 
 Dante is taught that all in Paradise are alike near to 
 God, but are manifested according to sense- apprehension 
 in different grades of merit. 
 
 ( VIII ) 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO IV. 28-48. 
 
 DE' Serafin colui che pin s' india, 
 Moise, Samuello, e quel Giovanni, 
 Qual prender vuogli, io dico, non Maria, 30 
 Non hanno in altro cielo i loro scanni, 
 
 Che quegli spirti che mo t' appariro, 
 
 Ne hanno all' esser lor piu o men anni : 
 Ma tutti fanno bello il primo giro ; 
 
 E dififerentemente han dolce vita, 35 
 
 Per sentir piu e men 1' eterno spiro. 
 Qui si mostraro, non perche sortita 
 
 Sia questa spera lor, ma per far segno 
 
 Delia celestial, c' ha men salita. 
 Cosi parlar conviensi al vostro ingegno ; 40 
 
 Perocche solo da sensato apprende 
 
 Cib, che fa poscia d' intelletto degno. 
 Per questo la Scrittura condiscende 
 
 A vostra facultate, e piedi e mano 
 
 Attribuisce a Dio, ed altro intende : 45 
 
 E santa Chiesa con aspetto umano 
 
 Gabbriele e Michel vi rappresenta, 
 
 E 1' altro, che Tobbia rifece sano. 
 
 280
 
 Not Equality, but Unity. 
 
 ( VIII ) 
 
 1 ^URTHER questions arise in Dante's mind as he turns 
 r again to Beatrice ; questions concerning Free-will 
 and Force with regard to broken vows ; questions also about 
 the Platonic doctrine of the Soul's return to the Stars. We 
 cannot follow these. His Celestial Guide reads his inner 
 questioning without his utterance. She assures him that 
 the Seraphim who is most immersed in God (remark the 
 expression, line 28, ' che piii s' india'), and the most exalted 
 Saint, with these who appear in lower spheres, have all one 
 standing in the abode of God, though they manifest them- 
 selves according to their merits to make sign to his limited 
 apprehension, even as Scripture language is fitted to men's 
 sense-apprehensions. 
 
 She says ' all make beautiful the primal sphere,' as though 
 the more or less of the Eternal Breath that filled each con- 
 tributed in some way to the beautiful motion and scintillation 
 of the ' sweet life.' No thought of exclusion or remoteness 
 could be the portion of any one palpitating with this Life of 
 Love's unity and variety. 
 
 281
 
 Dante expresses his joyful gratitude to Beatrice for her 
 life-giving words of Truth. 
 
 ( IX ) - 
 
 FARADISO, CANTO IV. 115-132. 
 
 COTAL fu 1' ondeggiar del santo rio, 115 
 
 Ch' usci del fonte ond" ogni ver deriva, 
 Tal pose in pace uno ed altro disio. 
 O amanza del primo Amante, o diva, 
 
 Diss' io appresso, il cui parlar m' innonda 
 
 E scalda si, che piu e piu m' avviva ; 120 
 
 Non e 1' affezion mia tanto profonda, 
 
 Che basti a render voi grazia per grazia ; 
 
 Ma Quei, che vede e puote, a cio risponda. 
 Io veggio ben che giaminai non si sazia 
 
 Nostro intelletto, se '1 ver non Io illustra, 125 
 
 Di fuor dal qual nessun vero si spazia. 
 Posasi in esso come fera in lustra, 
 
 Tosto che giunto 1' ha : e giunger puollo ; 
 
 Se non, ciascun disio sarebbe frustra. 
 Nasce per quello, a guisa di rampollo, 130 
 
 Apple del vero il dubbio ; ed e natura, 
 
 Ch' al sommo pinge noi di collo in collo. 
 
 282
 
 ' When He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide 
 you into all Truth. 
 
 / TV \ 
 
 v ljA - / 
 
 IN this address to Beatrice, Dante leads us beyond any 
 limit of the personality that clings to her name by 
 speaking of her words as 
 
 ' The flowing of the holy river 
 That issued from the font whence springs all truth ;' 
 
 and of herself as being 'the Beloved of the first Lover.' 
 Wisdom, speaking of the Creator, says, 'Then I was by 
 Him as one brought up with Him, and I was daily His 
 delight, rejoicing always before Him.' Prov. viii. 30. 
 
 The holy River's reviving power convinced Dante that the 
 mind could never be satisfied without Truth. He sees it is 
 fitted for its resting-place as a creature fits its lair. Man 
 desires Truth, which proves (he believes) that man can 
 attain it (128). 
 
 ' Man is in quest of truth, is in perplexity about it ; he 
 was created in it and for it, for none can seek for anything 
 but that which is lost, is wanted nor could one form the 
 least idea of it, but because it has belonged to him and 
 ought to be his.' WM. LAW. 
 
 Lines 130-132 are especially to be noted, as showing us 
 the Seer's conception of Doubt in its healthy condition. 
 He regards it as an offshoot from the living tree of Truth, 
 springing up at its root, and stimulating to further inquiry 
 and to further attainment of vital knowledge. Contrast 
 with this the Doubt, represented by Medusa's stony gaze, 
 which quenched all vitality (Inferno, IX. 51). 
 
 'The Inquiry of Truth, which is the love-making or 
 wooing of it ; the Knowledge of Truth, which is the presence 
 of it ; and the Belief of Truth, which is the enjoying of it ; 
 is the sovereign good of human nature.' BACON'S 'Essays.' 
 
 283
 
 Beatrice tells Dante her flaming love arises from her 
 perfect vision of the Eternal Light. 
 
 ( X ) 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO V. 1-12. 
 
 S' IO ti fiammeggio nel caldo d' amore 
 Di la dal modo che in terra si vede, 
 Si che degli occhi tuoi vinco '1 valore, 
 Non ti maravigliar, che cib precede 
 
 Da perfetto veder, che, come apprende, 5 
 
 Cosi nel bene appreso muove il piede. 
 lo veggio ben si come gia risplende 
 Nello intelletto tuo 1' eterna luce, 
 Che vista sola sempre amore accende : 
 E s' altra cosa vostro amor seduce, i o 
 
 Non e se non di quella alcun vestigio 
 Mai conosciuto, che quivi traluce. 
 
 284
 
 ' We needs must love the highest when we see it.' 
 - ( X ) 
 
 THE fuller vision of the Truth must ever kindle the 
 heart into a more ardent embrace of the Truth. 
 This thought is continually presented to us, as we ascend 
 the pathway that lies before us for heart and mind. Dante 
 teaches that the mind, or the capacity for perception, must 
 go before the capacity for loving and set that on fire. 
 
 Wisdom's eyes are aflame with love, through her gaze into 
 the Light or Truth. We are not taught to weigh the Heart 
 and the Mind in the balances one against the other, but 
 rather that ' they are halves of one dissevered world ' the 
 one hemisphere of intelligence awakening first, as it were, 
 through the shining of the Light into darkness, and then 
 causing the affections to awaken and to rejoice with the 
 mind in their object. 
 
 ' I too have sought to KNOW as thou to LOVE 
 Excluding love as thou refusedst knowledge. 
 ***** 
 Are we not halves of one dissevered world ? 
 
 Part ? never ! 
 
 Till thou the lover, know ; and I, the knower 
 Love until both are saved.' 
 
 PARACELSUS. 
 
 285
 
 Swiftly, as an arrow finds its mark, they reach Mercury, 
 where those are seen who for Fame did great deeds. 
 
 (XI) 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO V. 85-105. 
 
 COS! Beatrice a me corn' io lo scrivo : 85 
 
 Poi si rivolse tutta disiante 
 A quella parte ove '1 mondo e piu vivo. 
 Lo suo tacere e '1 tramutar sembiante 
 
 Poser silenzio al mio cupido ingegno, 
 
 Che gia nuove quistioni avea davante, 90 
 
 E si come saetta, che nel segno 
 
 Percuote pria che sia la corda queta, 
 
 Cosi corremmo nel secondo regno. 
 Quivi la Donna mia vid' io si lieta, 
 
 Come nel lume di quel ciel si mise, 95 
 
 Che piu lucente se ne fe il pianeta. 
 E se la Stella si cambib e rise, 
 
 Qual mi fee' io, che pur di mia natura 
 
 Trasmutabile son per tutte guise ! 
 Come in peschiera ch' e tranquilla e pura ico 
 
 Traggono i pesci a cib che vien di fuori, 
 
 Per modo che lo stimin lor pastura ; 
 Si vid' io ben piii di mille splendori 
 
 Trarsi ver noi ; ed in ciascun s' udia : 
 
 Ecco chi crescera li nostri amori. 105
 
 ' Life upsprings aspiring to be Immortality' 
 - < XI ) - 
 
 AFTER further discourse on broken vows and imper- 
 fection of Will, Beatrice turns again towards 'that 
 part where the world is most alive,' most alive with Light ; 
 both were silent as they beheld and received it. ' Voir, c'est 
 avoir,' it has been said. Seeing with eyes of the Spirit is 
 truly to hold and to have, and so they found themselves 
 swiftly borne into the Heaven of Mercury. 
 
 The spirits of those who have done great deeds manifest 
 themselves here ; but their great deeds were not done from 
 wholly pure motives, rather for Fame than for the noble 
 cause itself. 
 
 1 Fame is the reflection not of the deed itself, shining in us, as 
 inspired by the deepest conviction, but the reflection of the deed 
 shining in the recognition of our fellow-men.' W. T. HARRIS. 
 
 ' Nay, rather for the sake of me, their King, 
 And the deed's sake, my knighthood do the deed, 
 Than to be noised of.' TENNYSON. 
 
 The star was changed and became more luminous as 
 they entered it, and still more, Dante says, he, 'so mutable,' 
 was changed by this further ascent. Beatrice was welcomed by 
 more than a thousand ' splendours,' as the spirits are called. 
 
 The simile of the gold-fish in the pure and tranquil pool, 
 drawing to that part where something reaches them from 
 without, deeming it as food, intimately pictures that wel- 
 come. They say, ' Lo, this is one who shall increase our 
 Love !' as the newcomer reaches their Circle. We long for 
 such expansiveness and such ardour in our own social life, 
 as well as for the vital power that would so welcome 
 Wisdom's Divine nutrition within. 
 
 287
 
 The little Star is adorned with good and active spirits 
 whose desires had deviated from the highest goal. 
 
 - ( XII ) 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO VI. 112-126. 
 
 QUEST A piccola stella si correda 
 De' buoni spirti, che son stati attivi, 
 Perche onore e fama gli succeda : 
 E quando li desiri poggian quivi 115 
 
 Si disvi'ando, pur convien che i raggi 
 
 Del vero amore in su poggin men vivi. 
 Ma nel commensurar de' nostri gaggi 
 
 Col merto, e parte di nostra letizia, 
 
 Perche non li vedem minor ne maggi. 120 
 
 Quinci addolcisce la viva giustizia 
 
 In noi P affetto si, che non si puote 
 
 Torcer giammai ad alcuna nequizia. 
 Diverse voci fanno dolci note : 
 
 Cosi diversi scanni in nostra vita 125 
 
 Rendon dolce armonia tra queste ruote. 
 
 288
 
 * Law seen as a Divine Element, immanent in human 
 nature.' 
 
 - ( XII ) - 
 
 JUSTINIAN7 the Lawgiver and the Emperor, speaks in 
 this Canto as the representative of the orderly rule 
 established on earth for the right conduct of men. He 
 recounts the history and triumph of the Sacred Symbol of 
 the Roman Eagle. Later, in the sixth Heaven of Jupiter, 
 we shall see the Celestial Eagle, the ideal and sublimated 
 Justice, by virtue of which alone this lower manifestation of 
 Law and Justice had existed. 
 
 Justinian explains the deviation from the highest motive 
 that has characterized the active spirits that belong to this 
 sphere of Mercury. 
 
 They have nobly worked, in order that fame and honour 
 might come after them, but not with that single-eyed love 
 that mounts directly upwards. They were, however, so 
 disinterested, so kindled, by living Justice, that their happi- 
 ness is increased by reason of the measure of their joy being 
 so truly adjusted to their deserts. Again, as in the first 
 Heaven, the varieties of diverse voices and spheres are 
 dwelt upon as contributing to the harmony of the whole. 
 
 289 19
 
 Beatrice assures Dante that God's mode of redemption 
 could only be understood by love ; and restoration could 
 only be through Divine Humility. 
 
 (XIII) 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO VII. 55-60, 97-120. 
 
 TU dici : Ben discerno cib ch' i' odo ; 55 
 
 Ma perche Dio volesse, m' e occulto, 
 A nostra redenzion pur questo modo. 
 Questo decreto, frate, sta sepulto 
 Agli occhi di ciascuno, il cui ingegno 
 Nella fiamma d' amor non e adulto. 60 
 
 ***** 
 
 Non potea 1' uomo ne' termini suoi 
 
 Mai satisfar, per non potere ir giuso 
 
 Con umiltade, obbediendo poi, 
 Quanto disubbidiendo intese ir suso. 100 
 
 E questa e la ragion, perche 1' uom fue 
 
 Da poter satisfar per se dischiuso. 
 Dunque a Dio convenia con le vie sue 
 
 Riparar 1' uomo a sua intera vita : 
 
 Dico con 1' una, ovver con ambedue. 105 
 
 Ma perche 1' opra tanto e piu gradita 
 
 Dell' operante, quanto piu appresenta 
 
 Delia bonta del cuore ond' e uscita ; 
 La divina bonta, che '1 mondo imprenta, 
 
 Di proceder per tutte le sue vie no 
 
 A rilevarvi suso fu contenta. 
 Ne tra 1' ultima notte e '1 primo die 
 
 Si alto e si magnifico processo, 
 
 O per 1' una o per 1' altro fue, o fie. 
 Che piii largo fu Dio a dar se stesso 115 
 
 In far 1' uom sufficiente a rilevarsi, 
 
 Che s egli avesse sol da se dimesso. 
 E tutti gli altri modi erano scarsi 
 
 Alia giustizia, se '1 Figliuol di Dio 
 
 Non fosse umiliato ad incarnarsi. 120 
 
 290
 
 ' So deeply had human pride sunk us, that nothing but 
 Divine Humility could raise ws.' 
 
 ( XIII ) 
 
 THE Crucifixion under the Roman rule is spoken of 
 earlier in this Canto, and leads to Dante's ques- 
 tionings concerning the mysteries of Adam's Fall, the 
 Incarnation and the Atonement. These should be studied 
 with the context, and not divided here into fragments. 
 Dean Plumptre tells us that Dante's theory of the Atone- 
 ment is not identical with that of the early Church, or that 
 of Anselm, or that of Aquinas, or that of a Vicarious Satis- 
 faction, which has been predominant in Protestant theology. 
 Among the great mediaeval theologians, Hugh of St. Victor 
 seems the one in whose footsteps he treads most closely. 
 
 Whatever may be our Christian creed, the two portions 
 that have been selected cannot but aid our thoughts con- 
 cerning these great themes. 
 
 Dante's question has been one that has arisen in many 
 minds. Could not God have pardoned man without the 
 Incarnation and the Passion ? In our first six lines for 
 to-day he is told that this mystery of the Atonement must 
 remain buried before the eyes of one whose very nature has 
 not been matured in the flame of Love. In the second 
 part, he seems taught that mankind, in proud and inde- 
 pendent aspiration (or presumption ?) had so lost the 
 possibility of the lowliness necessary for the reception of 
 God's Truth, that nothing but the sinking of the Divine 
 Son within humanity could restore man's nature and render 
 possible Humility's descent with Himself. So God would 
 descend into the very depths of man's littleness, with its 
 debased flesh conditions, that He might renew His creature's 
 whole life with the gift of Himself, and raise man to the 
 Divine Goodness. In such a way, God's love would be 
 brought infinitely more within touch than by a free pardon 
 without it. 
 
 291
 
 The ways of Providence are spoken of by Charles Martel 
 as astral influences. 
 
 (XIV) 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO VIII. 97-111. 
 
 LO Ben che tutto '1 regno che tu scandi 
 Volge e contenta, fa esser virtute 
 Sua provedenza in questi corpi grandi ; 
 E non pur le nature provvedute 100 
 
 Son nella mente, ch' e da se perfetta, 
 
 Ma esse insieme con la lor salute. 
 Per che quantunque quest' arco saetta, 
 
 Disposto cade a provveduto fine, 
 
 Si come cocca in suo segno diretta. 105 
 
 Se cib non fosse, il ciel, che tu cammine, 
 
 Producerebbe si li suoi effetti, 
 
 Che non sarebber arti, ma ruine : 
 E cib esser non pub, se gl' intelletti, 
 
 Che muovon queste stelle, non son manchi, 1 1 o 
 
 E manco '1 primo, che non gli ha perfetti. 
 
 292
 
 ' If man constantly aspires, is he not elevated?' 
 (XIV) 
 
 IN the earlier lines of this Canto we read of the ascent 
 of the Aspirant to the third Heaven of Venus, and are 
 again told that he was only aware of the ascent through 
 beholding more radiancy and beauty in the Countenance of 
 his Celestial Guide. 
 
 The spirits in this sphere of Venus are seen as lamps, 
 and their motion is described as circulating more or less 
 swiftly in proportion to their inward vision ; a beautiful 
 revelation of the unity here, between the active and con- 
 templative life ! One of those spirits, Charles Martel, son 
 of Charles II. of Naples, had been known to Dante ; he 
 tells Dante that he is concealed from him by the gladness 
 that is rayed round about him, and ' hides him even as a 
 creature is swathed in its own silk.' As the poor souls were 
 seen in the dark world, swathing themselves in the flames 
 of their passions, so it is intimated here that the clothing of 
 good works, which these spirits had spun like silk-worms in 
 their earth-life, was shining with their own transfiguring joy. 
 We are reminded here of Milton's Sonnet : 
 
 ' Thy works, and alms, and all thy good endeavour 
 Stay'd not behind, nor in the grave were trod ; 
 But, as Faith pointed with her golden rod, 
 Follow'd thee up to joy and bliss for ever. 
 Love led them on, and Faith, who knew them best, 
 Thy handmaid, clad them o'er with purple beams 
 And azure wings, that up they flew so drest, 
 And spake the truth of thee on glorious themes 
 Before the Judge, who thenceforth bid thee rest 
 And drink thy fill of pure immortal streams.' 
 
 293
 
 Seed unadapted to its soil develops ill, and men are 
 warped from Nature's calling by perverse interference. 
 
 (XIV) 
 
 (Continued from last page.) 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO VIII. 139-148. 
 
 Sempre natura, se Fortuna truova 
 
 Discorde a se, come ogni altra semente 140 
 
 Fuor di sua region, fa mala pruova. 
 E se '1 mondo laggiu ponesse mente 
 
 Al fondamento che natura pone, 
 
 Seguendo lui, avria buona la gente. 
 Ma voi torcete alia religione 1 45 
 
 Tal, che fu nato a cingersi la spada, 
 
 E fate re di tal ch' e da sermone ; 
 Onde la traccia vostra e fuor di strada. 
 
 294
 
 Heaven-born instincts are not to be resisted. 
 - (XIV) 
 
 Dante is awakened into fuller joy by seeing his friend's 
 joy. By Charles Martel's history of himself and of his 
 successor the question is aroused in Dante's mind, given 
 in the first line of our extract : 
 
 ' How from sweet seed can bitter issue forth ?' 
 
 Truly a deep and universal question ! Our Lord Himself 
 asks the same in His parable, but can hardly be said to 
 answer it, ' From whence, then, hath it tares ?' (though He 
 speaks, indeed, of an Enemy and of the sleep of man as the 
 immediate cause). Here some interesting thoughts on the 
 Providence of God are given, always in Dante's mind con- 
 nected with the Stars, as channels of His influences and of 
 His orderly will ; ' they receive from above and give to those 
 below.' Charles Martel speaks of Providence as a power or 
 law, implanted within all those vast bodies, which keeps them 
 from falling into ruins. He also speaks of their influences 
 preventing the effects of natural heredity amongst men by 
 endowing them with varied qualities and varied circum- 
 stances, and tells him men are destined for diverse offices 
 in the Commonwealth of a City ; but that Fortune's Wheel 
 or the perverseness or carelessness of parents or governors 
 wrests a man's natural bias aside, and makes the born soldier 
 a monk, or the born preacher a king, and that this is one 
 cause of much divergence from the true course.
 
 Dante recognises a Spirit or ' Gladness ' like a fine ruby 
 bright in sunshine, Folco of Marseilles, whom he 
 eagerly questions. 
 
 - (XV) 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO IX. 67-81. 
 
 L' ALTRA letizia, che m' era gia nota, 
 Preclara cosa mi si fece in vista, 
 Qual fin balascio in che lo Sol percuota. 
 Per letiziar lassu fulgor s' acquista, 70 
 
 Si come riso qui : ma giu s' abbuia 
 
 L' ombra di fuor, come la mente e trista. 
 Dio vede tutto ; e tuo veder s' inluia, 
 
 Diss' io, beato spirto ; si che nulla 
 
 Voglia di se a te puote esser fuia. 75 
 
 Dunque la voce tua, che '1 ciel trastulla 
 
 Sempre col canto di que' fochi pii, 
 
 Che di sei ale fannosi cuculla, 
 Perche non satisface a' miei desii ? 
 
 Gia non attendere' io tua dimanda, So 
 
 S' io m' intuassi, come tu t' immii. 
 
 296
 
 'But when Love turns to ill, or doth pursue 
 Good with more eager care, or less, than right, 
 The thing made to its Maker works untrue.' 
 
 ( XV ) - 
 
 THE third Heaven, like the two preceding and lower 
 Heavens, is a heaven of imperfect wills ; the imper- 
 fections of those in this sphere have been especially fostered 
 by the influences of Love that fell short of the Divine Charity, 
 and were allied with selfishness and disorderly action. 
 
 'The planet Venus gives notice of the rising Sun as 
 Lucifer, and it follows the setting Sun as Hesperus ; its 
 course is back and forth along the heavenly pathway, and 
 not always progressive.' W. T. HARRIS. 
 
 One who speaks with Dante here says, that over it ends 
 the shadowy Cone cast by our world ; so, allegorically, it is 
 still in the shadow of imperfect earthly affections, and 
 excluded from the higher degrees of glory. 
 
 Yet the joys of those manifesting themselves here are 
 undimmed by memories of their sins, though they are aware 
 that the. 'splendour of the Star had overcome their virtue.' 
 
 'We must remember that Lethe has taken away all 
 memory of evil, and it is known to have been only what, 
 when repented of, it actually was a stepping-stone to 
 higher things.' DEAN PLUMPTRE. 
 
 Their joy flashes forth like jewels, even as smiles make 
 radiant the countenance on earth, and as grief in the dark 
 world darkens the sad mind's outward expression. 
 
 Dante's eager desire to know the history of one of these 
 'joys,' or 'glad ones,' is expressed in to-day's portion. He 
 speaks of them as bringing joy to Heaven by their songs 
 that ever flow from the Seraphim above, an intimation of 
 the blessed circulation of joyous harmony throughout the 
 many Mansions of the Father's House. The intimacy of 
 
 297
 
 Dante is told that Rahab is at rest in this Heaven. 
 - ( XV ) 
 
 (Continued from last page.) 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO IX. 115-125. 
 
 Or sappi che la entro si tranquilla 115 
 
 Raab ; ed a nostr' ordine congiunta, 
 
 Di lei nel sommo grado si sigilla. 
 Da questo cielo, in cui 1' ombra s' appunta 
 
 Che '1 vostro mondo face, pria ch' altr' alma 
 
 Del trionfo di Cristo fu assunta, 120 
 
 Ben si convenne lei lasciar per palma, 
 
 In alcun cielo, dell' alta vittoria, 
 
 Ch' ei s' acquistb con 1' una e 1' altra palma ; 
 Perch' ella favoro la prima gloria 
 
 Di Giosue in su la terra santa. 125 
 
 298
 
 The first trophy of Christ's Victory. 
 - ( XV ) - 
 
 the interpenetrating of spirit with spirit is expressively 
 uttered by the verbs coined by Dante (line 81), 'S' io 
 m' intuassi, come tu t' immii ' If I could in-thee myself as 
 thou in-me-est thyself. 
 
 Amongst those who have been impressed by the influences 
 of this Star, Dante is told that Rahab is resting, like a Sun- 
 beam in the pure water. ' Before all other souls was she 
 taken up,' set free from amongst the imprisoned ones when 
 Christ descended into Hades. 
 
 ' Full meet it was to leave her in some Heaven, 
 Even as a palm of the high victory 
 Which He acquired with one palm and the other.' 
 
 She is spoken of as having ' set her seal on the order of 
 the Star in its supremest grade.' We must remember that 
 she was looked upon as the representative of the Faith that 
 foresaw the triumph of Joshua in opening the Land of 
 Canaan to the Israelites, symbolizing the greater One who 
 was to open the Kingdom of Heaven to all believers. The 
 writer of the Hebrews cites her amongst the victorious by 
 faith, and St. James amongst those whose faith was quickened 
 by works. She was the ancestress of David, and therefore 
 of David's greater Son, and is a representative of one circle 
 of the lost ones whom He came to seek and to save. We 
 cannot but wonder why the Magdalen's name should not be 
 mentioned here. 
 
 299
 
 Dante finds himself within the Sun, but is not conscious 
 of his ascension except as a man is conscious, ere it 
 come, of a first thought. 
 
 ( XVI ) - 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO X. 28-40. 
 
 LO ministro maggior della natura, 
 Che del valor del cielo il mondo imprenta 
 E col suo lume il tempo ne misura, 30 
 
 Con quella parte che su si rammenta 
 Congiunto, si girava per le spire, 
 In che piu tosto ognora s' appresenta : 
 Ed io era con lui ; ma del salire 
 
 Non m' accors' io, se non com' uom s' accorge, 35 
 Anzi '1 primo pensier, del suo venire. 
 Oh, Beatrice, quella che si scorge 
 Di bene in meglio si subitamente, 
 Che 1' atto suo per tempo non si porge, 
 Quant' esser convenia da se lucente ! 40 
 
 300
 
 ' The breath of God within, to Him returning.'' 
 ( XVI ) 
 
 A FOURTH ascension, by means of the ''radiance of 
 grace kindling true Love, which afterwards grows by 
 loving,' brings the Aspirant into the fourth family of Heaven. 
 This is a wonderful description of Prayer, or Heavenly 
 Communion. 'The love kindled from above,' that must 
 increase by exercise (St. Thomas Aquinas, who speaks here, 
 tells Dante), ' becomes so resplendent within, that it conducts 
 thee upward by that stair,* where without reascending 
 none descends.' Once having gained those heights, none 
 can again contentedly remain below. 
 
 This is the Heaven of the Sun, the greatest Minister 
 of Nature, who with his strength impresses the world and 
 measures for us Time. 
 
 This sphere stands between the triplet of lower Heavens 
 of imperfect wills and the triplet of higher Heavens of per- 
 fected Wills. It is the antithesis to the descent into the 
 abyss of Malebolge with Geryon, which marked the transition 
 from the weak compliance with evil impulses to that of 
 deliberate and wilful choice of evil for self-ends. Here we 
 are amongst the mighty who have set their faces steadfastly 
 to the Light, and are now in the full illumination of the 
 Spirit of God. 
 
 The great Theologians are ' the splendours,' or Suns, that 
 belong to this Sun region of Light and Heat. 
 
 * The same golden stairway that will reappear later. 
 
 301
 
 Dante beholds that which is incommunicable in the Source 
 of Light, for it transcends genius and art and experi- 
 ence. 
 
 - ( XVI ) - 
 
 (Continued from last page.} 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO X. 41-48. 
 
 E quel ch' er' entro al Sol, dov' io entra' mi, 
 
 Non per color, ma per lume, parvente, 
 Perch' io 1' ingegno e 1' arte e 1' uso chiami, 
 
 Si nol direi, che mai s' immaginasse : 
 
 Ma creder puossi, e di veder si brami. 45 
 
 E se le fantasie nostre son basse 
 
 A tanta altezza, non e maraviglia ; 
 
 Che sovra '1 Sol non fu occhio ch' andasse. 
 
 302
 
 The LigJit of Life. 
 
 ( XVI ) 
 
 In the three opening lines of this tenth Canto the doctrine 
 of the Trinity is mystically expressed. The Holy Spirit 
 the Spirit of Love is breathed forth from Father to Son 
 and from Son to Father, and is manifested in the Order of 
 the Universe, especially in the flaming source of Light. 
 Dante thinks we must needs contemplate this Light with 
 joy, and find the art of that Work-Master, ' who doth love it 
 so within Himself, His eyes ne'er part from it.' 
 
 The Poet beseeches his readers to remain seated at the 
 Table he spreads for them, to pursue in thought what they 
 have foretasted, and to feed themselves (line 22) ; he is 
 continually pressing upon us the truth that we cannot receive 
 these heavenly jewels at second hand, that they cannot be 
 transported from the realm he has visited, that each must 
 go thither himself, if he would behold them. It is, how- 
 ever, a step towards seeing them to believe that another has 
 seen beyond our own limited horizon, and we may at least 
 long that our eyes may penetrate further. ' Come and see,' 
 said Philip to Nathaniel. 
 
 4 The greatest of the Ministers of Nature ' is pointed out 
 to us in our portion for to-day as the Visible or Sacramental 
 form of deepest mystical significancy given to man in Nature 
 the wondrous sign of the invisible and spiritual grace 
 within its rays and properties ; perhaps if we knew more of 
 these, we might through them discern more of the unseen 
 spiritual Reality that causes them. 
 
 ' For the invisible things of Him ... are clearly seen, 
 being understood by the things that are made.' Rom. i. 20. 
 
 33
 
 Dante, brought into the fourth Family of the Father, 
 rejoices in thanksgiving, and becomes absorbed in God. 
 The Sun spirits circle round him. 
 
 ( XVII ) 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO X. 49-66, 139-148. 
 
 TAL' era quivi la quarta famiglia 
 Dell' alto Padre, che sempre la sazia, 50 
 
 Mostrando come spira, e come figlia. 
 E Beatrice comincib : Ringrazia, 
 
 Ringrazia il Sol degli angeli, ch' a questo 
 
 Sensibil t' ha levato per sua grazia. 
 Cuor di mortal non fu mai si digesto 55 
 
 A divozione ed a renders! a Dio 
 
 Con tutto '1 suo gradir cotanto presto, 
 Com' a quelle parole mi fee' io ; 
 
 E si tutto '1 mio amore in lui si mise, 
 
 Che Beatrice ecclissb nelP oblio. 60 
 
 Non le dispiacque, ma si se ne rise, 
 
 Che lo splendor degli occhi suoi ridenti 
 
 Mia mente unita in piu cose divise. 
 Io vidi piu fulgor vivi e vincenti 
 
 Far di noi centre, e di se far corona, 65 
 
 Piu dolci in voce, che in vista lucenti. 
 
 * * * * * 
 
 Indi, come orologio, che ne chiami 
 
 Nell' ora che la sposa di Dio surge 140 
 
 A mattinar lo sposo perche 1' ami, 
 
 Che 1' una parte 1' altra tira ed urge, 
 Tin tin sonando con si dolce nota, 
 Che '1 ben disposto spirto d' amor turge ; 
 
 Cosi vid' io la gloriosa ruota 145 
 
 Muoversi, e render voce a voce in tempra 
 Ed in dolcezza, ch' esser non pub nota 
 
 Se non cola dove il gioir s' insempra. 
 34
 
 ' God in us, from our hearts veil after veil 
 Keeps lifting, till we see with His own sight 
 And altogether run in unity's delight.' 
 
 ( XVII ) 
 
 A GLORIOUS Vision of the Light of God, of His satis- 
 JT\. fying Portion, of the regenerating Power breathed 
 forth in His Holy Spirit, seems to be experienced by Dante. 
 The Celestial Guide bids the receiver of so much grace give 
 thanks, and he tells us that never was heart of mortal so 
 
 disposed 
 
 ' To worship and to give itself to God.' 
 
 He was so absorbed in love to Him that for a time even 
 Beatrice was forgotten, 'and this displeased her not'; but 
 his human consciousness, which had been for a moment 
 one with God (63), 'was restored to its perception of the 
 plurality of Creation by her smile.' PLUMPTRE. 
 
 The Lady of grace had still to continue her work of 
 ' making the Aspirant strong for Heaven.' The spirits, 
 whom he sees after his act of adoration and love to the 
 ' Sun of Angels,' were vivid and triumphant as they circled 
 three times around those whom they welcomed ; they were 
 even 'more sweet in voice than luminous in aspect.' These 
 were great Theologians, whose voices had taught and 
 charmed the Church. The names of seven were given by 
 Thomas Aquinas, who was himself one of this seven-stringed 
 lute of sweet voices. The fifth amongst these, strangely 
 enough, was Solomon perhaps placed with them on account 
 of his ' Song of Songs.' 
 
 Dante is reminded of musical chimes, that call the Bride 
 of God to matins, by the echoing of voice in answer to voice 
 of these encircling, flaming spirits ; doubtless he intends to 
 convey the harmony of the truths they uttered and con- 
 firmed through the testimony that each gave to the teaching 
 of the other. 
 
 305 20
 
 St. Francis and St. Dominic. 
 ( XVIII ) 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO XI. 28-42. 
 
 LA provvidenza, che governa '1 mondo, 
 Con quel consiglio, nel quale ogni aspetto 
 Creato e vinto, pria che vada al fondo, 30 
 Pero ch' andasse ver lo suo Diletto 
 
 La sposa di Colui ch' ad alte grida 
 
 Dispose lei col sangue benedetto, 
 In se sicura ed anche a lui piu fida, 
 
 Duo principi ordinb in suo favore, 35 
 
 Che quinci e quindi le fosser per guida. 
 L' un fu tutto serafico in ardore, 
 
 L' altro per sapienza in terra fue 
 
 Di cherubica luce uno splendore. 
 Dell' un diro, perocche d' ambodue 40 
 
 Si dice 1' un pregiando, qual ch' uom prende, 
 
 Perche ad un fine fur 1' opere sue. 
 
 306
 
 ' Why live 
 Except for love how love, ^mless they know ?' 
 
 ( XVIII ) 
 
 IN this Canto, and the next, we are given the histories of 
 St. Francis of Assisi and of St. Dominic, who belong 
 to this sphere. 
 
 The first is recounted by St. Thomas Aquinas, who was a 
 disciple of St. Dominic ; while that of St. Dominic is told 
 by St. Bonaventura, who belonged to the Order of St. 
 Francis. Dante points out the degeneracy of these orders 
 in later days, and evidently desires to remind them of the 
 unity of their Founders and early disciples, as well as of the 
 absence of all rivalry and jealousy in true spiritual life. We 
 are told, in the portion before us, that the Providence, which 
 cannot be fathomed by mortal sense, ordained these two 
 spiritual Princes for His Bride the Church, that she might 
 go towards her own Beloved between them more safely and 
 more faithfully. One, St. Francis, was seraphic in his ardour 
 of love ; the other, St. Dominic, ' a splendour of Cherubic 
 light and knowledge.' These two have already been repre- 
 sented to us in the Earthly Paradise as supporting the Biga 
 of the Church, one at each wheel, as the Love Power and 
 the Knowledge, or Wisdom, Power. St. Francis, portrayed 
 by Art, bears the signs of the love-wounds of Christ ; St. 
 Dominic, the reflected Star of Christ-light. The necessity 
 for the interaction of Heart and Mind is again brought 
 before us. 
 
 The spirits of the Sun- realm are all spoken of as Suns, 
 and in these two Children of the Sun we are reminded of 
 the Heat and Light that emanate from the heavenly body. 
 
 We cannot forbear wishing that the heart of St. Dominic 
 had been more penetrated with the love-rays which had 
 been kindled by the Christian Creed, of which, as we are 
 told, he was the holy Athlete. He is spoken of in relation 
 
 37
 
 St. Dominic. 
 ( XVIII ) 
 
 to the Church as (XII. 55-57) 'Benignant to its own and to 
 its enemies cruel.' Those who persecute, 'thinking they 
 are doing God service,' need the illumination of Light 
 as much as the warmth of Love. Our Lord tells us 
 that they do these things because they have not known 
 the Father nor the Son. The Divine-human relationship 
 has not enlightened their thoughts about 'doing God ser- 
 vice ' (John xvi. 2, 3). 
 
 The following lines from the history of St. Dominic are 
 fine in their portrayal of him as the Champion of the 
 Church. He would ask nothing for himself but permission 
 to do battle against the erring world (Canto XII. 97) : 
 
 ' With will and doctrine then himself he threw 
 In Apostolic office to proceed, 
 
 Like torrent which its streams from high source drew ; 
 And so upon the heretics' false breed 
 
 He fiercely swept, most vehemently there, 
 Where rebel will did most his course impede.' 
 
 DEAN PLUMPTRE'S translation. 
 
 ' Poi con dottrina e con volere insieme 
 Con 1' ufficio apostolico si mosse, 
 Quasi torrente che 1 'alte vene preme ; 
 E negli sterpi eretici percosse 
 
 L' impeto suo, piu veramente quivi, 
 Dove le resistenze eran piu grosse.' 
 
 Three lines from the history of St. Francis must be 
 quoted. After speaking of his mystical marriage with 
 Poverty, St. Thomas Aquinas, who recounts the story, says 
 (Canto XI. 76-78) : 
 
 ' Their concord, and their looks of joy profuse, 
 The love, the wonder, and the aspect sweet, 
 Made men in holy meditation muse.' 
 
 ' La lor concordia, e i lor lieti sembianti, 
 
 Amore e maraviglia, e '1 dolce sguardo, 
 Faceano esser cagion de' pensier santi.' 
 
 308
 
 St. Francis of A ssisi. 
 (XVIII) 
 
 Poverty was made of joyous aspect by St. Francis, as 
 well as St. Francis by Poverty, so that many became 
 enamoured of her. 
 
 The daily Prayer of the blessed St. Francis was : ' My 
 God and my All, who art Thou, sweetest Lord, my God ? 
 And who am I, a poor worm, Thy Servant ? Holiest Lord, 
 I would love Thee ! Sweetest Lord, I would love Thee ! 
 Lord, my God, I give to Thee all my heart and body, and 
 vehemently desire, if I might know how, to do more for 
 Thy love.' 
 
 He would often say, ' My brethren, let us now begin to 
 serve God,' and in the waning years of his life would add, 
 ' Up to this time, we have done nothing.' 
 
 THE SONG OF THE CREATURES. 
 
 Praised by His Creatures all, 
 
 Praised be the Lord my God ; 
 By Messer Sun, my brother, above all, 
 Who by his rays lights us and lights the day 
 Radiant is She with his great splendour stored, 
 
 Thy glory, Lord, confessing. 
 
 By Sister Moon and Stars my Lord is praised, 
 Where clear and fair they in the heavens are raised. 
 
 By Brother Wind, my Lord, Thy praise is said, 
 By air and clouds, and the blue sky o'erhead, 
 By which Thy creatures all are kept and fed. 
 
 By one most useful, humble, precious, chaste, 
 By Sister Water, O my Lord, Thou art praised. 
 
 And praised is my Lord 
 
 By Brother Fire he who lights up the night, 
 Jocund, robust is he, and strong and bright. 
 Praised art Thou, my Lord, by Mother Earth 
 Thou Who sustainest her, and governest, 
 And to her flowers, fruit, herbs, dost colour give and birth. 
 
 S. FRANCIS OF Assist. 
 
 39
 
 Dante is instructed to behold God's ideal signet shining 
 more or less through each created thing. 
 
 (XIX) 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO XIII. 52-81. 
 
 CIO che non muore, e cio che pub morire, 
 Non e se non splendor di quella idea, 
 Che partorisce, amando, il nostro Sire : 
 Che quella viva luce, che si mea 55 
 
 Dal suo lucente, che non si disuna 
 
 Da lui, ne dall' amor che in* lor s' intrea, 
 Per sua bontate il suo raggiare aduna, 
 
 Quasi specchiato, in nove sussistenze, 
 
 Eternalmente rimanendosi una. 60 
 
 Quindi discende all' ultime potenze 
 
 Giu d' atto in atto, tanto divenendo, 
 
 Che piu non fa che brevi contingenze : 
 E queste contingenze essere intendo 
 
 Le cose generate, che produce, 65 
 
 Con seme e senza seme, il ciel movendo. 
 La cera di costoro, e chi la duce, 
 
 Non sta d' un modo ; e pero sotto '1 segno 
 
 Ideale poi piu e men traluce : 
 Ond' egli avvien ch' un medesimo legno, 70 
 
 Secondo spezie, meglio e peggio frutta ; 
 
 E voi nascete con diverse ingegno. 
 Se fosse appunto la cera dedutta, 
 
 E fosse il cielo in sua virtu suprema, 
 
 La luce del suggel parrebbe tutta : 75 
 
 Ma la natura la dk sempre scema, 
 
 Similemente operando all' artista, 
 
 C' ha 1' abito dell' arte e man che trema. 
 Pero se '1 caldo amor la chiara vista 
 
 Delia priina virtu dispone e segna, 80 
 
 Tutta la perfezion quivi s' acquista. 
 310
 
 ' Thy will but holds me to my life's fruition.' 
 (XIX) 
 
 THIS is the third passage on almost the same theme 
 that we find in the Paradise. There is so much to 
 awaken our thoughts in each that all are given. 
 
 The first Canto I. 103 brings before us especially the 
 idea of the Form and Order of the Universe, ' that makes it 
 resemble God,' and each created thing, with its instinct or 
 tendency leading it by various ways homewards to God. 
 
 The second Canto VIII. with a repetition of the same 
 thought, dwells rather more on the perfection of the Mind 
 that foresees and preserves each form unto its fruition, and 
 who has fore-ordained diversity of personality for divers 
 offices in Earthly polities, also providing against the uni- 
 formity that heredity would otherwise produce. 
 
 This third passage seems to emphasize, in its opening 
 beautiful lines, that each animate and inanimate object is 
 manifested by the splendour of the Divine Idea that resides 
 within it. In the later lines the inadequacy of the soil or 
 wax that must receive the Idea is dwelt upon. It is affirmed, 
 in the lines that follow our quotation, that the primal Earth 
 and Adam in Paradise had received, in rightly prepared 
 soil, the 'signet seal' of God. The first and the second 
 Adam alone of the human family had the resulting per- 
 fection of ' prepared wax ' with the ' true brilliance ' of the 
 Idea. It is implied, therefore, throughout this passage that 
 it was Adam's transgression that caused the failure in his 
 descendants and in his environment of Nature to correspond 
 at all adequately to the effulgence of the Idea that caused 
 the existences we behold. The origin of Evil is left un- 
 touched.
 
 ' The Life was the Light of men.'' 
 (XIX) 
 
 Turning again to the first lines of to-day's portion, we are 
 taught if this be the true interpretation of the difficult 
 passage that the Love of the Father is ever flowing forth 
 in the Word or Idea, who as the Son is ever manifesting 
 His thoughts through the effulgence of the Spirit. That 
 intrined rays of Light, from which the Living Source of 
 Light Himself is never separated, pass into nine Spheres or 
 Suhsistencies as into a Mirror, the Unity of the Light ever 
 remaining unbroken in Itself. 
 
 These nine Subsistencies are the nine Hierarchies of the 
 Heavens. Each Circle is swift in motion and in power to 
 receive and transmit the Vision of God, as each is in 
 proximity to the Tenth Encircling Heaven of Stillness and 
 Rest, whence the Effulgence of Light emanates. 
 
 Each Hierarchy receives the unbroken ray, and transmits 
 it to the next beneath without imperfection or distortion, as 
 it appears, but with diminishing splendour, till the remotest 
 Heaven that encompasses this Earth is reached. Here, as 
 it has been said, 'the wax' of Nature, through its own 
 inherited powerlessness, is but inadequately fitted to receive 
 and manifest the impress of the Divine ray that informs it. 
 Our poor wax may be likened 'to an Artist's trembling 
 hand,' that can but ill produce the idea of his brain. 
 
 The products of the Idea are called, in Scholastic lan- 
 guage, its 'contingencies.' 
 
 Such utterances as these, we know, are but the strivings 
 of human lips to make known a man's own concepts of the 
 unutterable workings and ways of God in His Universe. In 
 the minds of some they may awaken quickening suggestions 
 of the manifoldness and fulness within and around the Child 
 of God and Inheritor of the Kingdom of Heaven. 
 
 312
 
 The out-flowing Life perfecting Itself in expression. 
 (XIX) 
 
 The inspired words of St. Paul tell us that we are all 
 Children of the Light (i Thess. v. 5), and the words we 
 have been studying might seem an expansion of the same 
 thought. 
 
 To behold every living thing, and every human being, as 
 existing by virtue of its intrined ray of Light, consciously or 
 unconsciously endeavouring to respond to its impress, can 
 hardly fail to enrich our outlook. We may be helped by 
 such imaginative suggestions to behold each flower more 
 gloriously arrayed than Solomon, and each child of man 
 with Christ 'in him the Hope of Glory,' even though he 
 may be at the moment obscuring that glory. See Col. i. 
 15-19, 26, 27 ; John i. 1-14. 
 
 ' One Almighty is, from whom 
 All things proceed, and up to Him return, 
 If not depraved from good : created all 
 Such to perfection, one first matter all, 
 Endued with various forms, various degrees 
 Of substance, and, in things that live, of life ; 
 But more refined, more spiritous, and pure, 
 As nearer to Him placed, or nearer tending 
 Each in their several active spheres assigned, 
 Till body up to spirit work, in bounds 
 Proportioned to each kind. So from the root 
 Springs lighter the green stalk ; from thence the leaves 
 More aery ; last the bright consummate flower 
 Spirits odorous breathes.' 
 
 'Paradise Lost,' v. 469. 
 
 313
 
 St. Thomas Aquinas warns Dante against hasty 
 judgments. 
 
 (XX) 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO XIII. 112-123, 130-142. 
 
 EQUESTO ti fia sempre piombo a' piedT, 
 Per farti muover lento, com' uom lasso, 
 Ed al si ed al no, che tu non vedi : 
 Che quegli e tra gli stolti bene abbasso, 115 
 
 Che senza distinzione afferma o niega, 
 
 Cosi nelP un come nell' altro passo ; 
 Perch' egli incontra che piu volte piega 
 
 L' opinion corrente in falsa parte, 
 
 E poi 1' affetto 1' intelletto lega. 120 
 
 Vie piii che indarno da riva si parte, 
 
 Perche non torna tal qual ei si muove, 
 
 Chi pesca per lo vero, e non ha 1' arte : 
 
 * * * * * 
 
 Non sien le genti ancor troppo sicure 130 
 
 A giudicar, si come quei che stima 
 
 Le biade in campo pria che sien mature : 
 Ch' io ho veduto tutto '1 verno prima 
 
 II prun mostrarsi rigido e feroce, 
 
 Poscia portar la rosa in su la cima; 135 
 
 E legno vidi gia dritto e veloce 
 
 Correr lo mar per tutto suo cammino, 
 
 Perire alfine all' entrar della foce. 
 Non creda monna Berta e ser Martino, 
 
 Per vedere un furare, altro offerere, 140 
 
 Vedergli dentro al consiglio divino ; 
 Che quel pub surgere, e quel pub cadere.
 
 Everything holds a slender guiding clue 
 Back to the Mighty One-ness.' 1 
 
 -(XX) - 
 
 ST. THOMAS AQUINAS, who is supposed to have 
 been conversing with Dante in the last two Cantos, 
 winds up with a warning against hasty judgments on sub- 
 jects imperfectly understood. In lines 130-142 he speaks 
 of ignorant and hasty judgments of our fellow-creatures. 
 
 We were led (No. xviii.) to consider the life of each as in 
 progress towards the realization of its Divinely-impressed 
 innate ideal ; the concluding lines of this Canto might 
 well have sprung from such a thought, and have suggested 
 the question, Can we pronounce on an incomplete and 
 growing life ? As an answer to this question, how capti- 
 vating to both reason and imagination is the Poet's simile 
 in lines 133-135 ! 
 
 With Dame Bertha and Master Martin we might well 
 have judged through the long winter 'a rigid and fierce 
 Thorn ' as only fit for burning ; later we find it crowned 
 with the outbreathing of the consummate Summer's Soul 
 the Briar- Rose ! What Prophet could have predicted such 
 a miracle of lavish grace and beauty as the 'brilliant 
 signet ' impressed within that harsh and prickly plant of the 
 dry ground ! 
 
 We may easily pronounce on the failure of an action or 
 an enterprise when it is concluded, as on the perishing of 
 the ship at the Harbour's mouth ; but we venture to ask, 
 Does any mortal eye see the conclusion of a Life ? 
 
 ' Absolute terms are not applicable to man who is ever 
 on the way, progressively manifesting the power of the Ideal 
 that dwells in him, and whose very life is conflict and 
 acquirement ' through mistake and failure. PROFESSOR 
 HENRY JONES on Browning. 
 
 315
 
 ' From centre unto rim, from rim to centre.'' 
 ( XXI ) - 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO XIV. 1-12. 
 
 DAL centre al cerchio, e si dal cerchio al centre 
 Muovesi 1' acqua in un ritondo vaso, 
 Secondo ch' e percossa fuori o dentro. 
 Nella mia mente fe subito caso 
 
 Questo ch' io dico, si come si tacque 5 
 
 La gloriosa vita di Tommaso, 
 Per la similitudine che nacque 
 
 Del suo parlare e di quel di Beatrice, 
 A cui si cominciar, dopo lui, p ; acque : 
 A costui fa mestieri (e nol vi dice, io 
 
 Ne colla voce, ne pensando ancora) 
 D' un altro vero andare alia radice.
 
 * Where thine meets mine is my life's true condition.' 
 XXI - 
 
 THE opening lines of this Canto convey to us a very 
 vivid impression of spiritual Communion. 
 
 As a circular vessel of water vibrates from the Circum- 
 ference to the Centre, and then again from the Centre to 
 the Circumference, so the mind of the receiver of spiritual 
 emotion had stirred beneath the breath of St. Thomas 
 Aquinas while he had spoken ; it came ' from rim to centre/ 
 and the answer awakened within himself from ' centre to 
 rim,' as the speaker ceased. It is yet more suggestive to 
 find that the answering thought (which takes the form of 
 another question) was not one which Dante himself formu- 
 lated in speech or mind (lines 10, n), though it came from 
 the Centre ; it is uttered for him by the Soul of his Soul, 
 Beatrice. 
 
 The ensuing lines (omitted in order to shorten the portion 
 for to-day) contain a question, whether such blossoming 
 Light as Dante has witnessed can remain the same eternally ; 
 and if it does, after the glad flames shall be revestured in 
 flesh at the Resurrection, how shall physical sight sustain 
 such glories ? What a natural misgiving of satiety is apparent 
 in these questions ! The new joy that seemed to quicken 
 the song of those encircling him reassured Dante and made 
 him exclaim (lines 25-27) : 
 
 ' Whoso lamenteth him that here we die 
 That we may live above, has never there 
 Seen the refreshment of the Eternal rain !' 
 
 Light and its glorious effulgence have been hitherto much 
 dwelt upon ; now we are called to imagine the quickening 
 joy of refreshing showers. 
 
 3 1 ?
 
 The melody of the spirits under the refreshing showers. 
 The ' modest voice ' of Solomon ? 
 
 ( XXI ) 
 
 ( Continued from last page. ) 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO XIV. 25-27, 34-51. 
 
 Qual si lamenta perche qui si tnuoia 25 
 
 Per viver colassu, non vide quive 
 
 Lo refrigerio dell' eterna ploia. 
 
 ***** 
 Ed io udii nella luce piu dia 
 
 Del minor cerchio una voce modesta, 35 
 
 Forse qual fu dell' angelo a Maria, 
 Risponder : Quanto fia lunga la festa 
 
 Di Paradise, tanto il nostro amore 
 
 Si raggera d' intorno cotal vesta. 
 La sua chiarezza seguita 1' ardore, 40 
 
 L' ardor la vis'ione ; e quella e tanta, 
 
 Quanta ha di grazia sovra suo valore. 
 Come la carne gloriosa e santa 
 
 Fia rivestita, la nostra persona 
 
 Piu grata fia, per esser tutta quanta : 45 
 
 Per che s' accrescera cib che ne dona 
 
 Di gratuito lume il sommo Bene, 
 
 Lume ch' a lui veder ne condiziona : 
 Onde la vision crescer conviene, 
 
 Crescer 1' ardor, che di quella s' accende, 50 
 
 Crescer lo raggio, che da esso viene.
 
 ' Can God provide 
 For the large heart of man what shall not pall ?' 
 
 (XXI) 
 
 No dead-level of one over-powering and ' sober certainty 
 of bliss ' can Life Eternal unfold, but waves of unexpected 
 union with the manifold many-coloured expressions of that 
 Life descents of Divine Grace as refreshing dew and rain, 
 ever producing ascents of renewed adoration and love. It 
 is, indeed, our mortal dulness that finds satiety anywhere ; 
 it is our death in the very midst of life. The more abundant 
 life of the Spirit uncurtains new joys and brings refreshment 
 and sweetness, even with the tears that are to be wiped 
 away. 
 
 ' A modest voice, perhaps like that of Gabriel to Mary,' 
 answered from the Lustre most Divine of all those around 
 them ; not that of St. Thomas Aquinas, but, strange to say, 
 the wise King's perhaps because his voice had been attuned 
 to a sweetness that Dante so much loved in the Song of 
 Songs. 
 
 The fifteen lines that follow (37 to 51) and beyond (to 
 line 60) are placed in Solomon's lips ; they will well repay 
 our study. He says that all the glory of the Saints is derived 
 from their vision of God, and is proportioned to the ardour 
 of their vision ; and that, when re-clothed with body, all 
 powers will be more complete, and well able to sustain all 
 the graces received. 
 
 Dante then perceives that the glorious Sun-spirits are 
 desiring their re-vesturing not for themselves chiefly, ' but 
 for the Mothers, the Fathers, and the rest who had been 
 dear, before they became eternal flames.' 
 
 ' The new life which is accorded to man by means of his regeneration 
 in the power of faith and prayer is not mere spirit, but corporeal and 
 substantial. " The body of the resurrection," even if it is invisible to 
 mortal eyes, is far more durable and indestructible than any imaginable 
 physical form.' J. BOEHME. 
 
 319
 
 Dante's Vision of the Cross in the ruddy star of Mars. 
 - ( XXII ) - 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO XIV. 94-108. 
 
 CHE con tanto lucore e tanto robbi 
 M' apparvero splendor dentro a duo raggi, 95 
 Ch' io dissi : O Elios, che si gli addobbi ! 
 Come, distinta da minori e maggi 
 
 Lumi, biancheggia tra' poll del mondo 
 *Galassia si, che fa dubbiar ben saggi ; 
 Si costellati facean nel profondo 100 
 
 Marte quei raggi il venerabil segno, 
 Che fan giunture di quadranti in tondo. 
 Qui vince la memoria mia lo ingegno : 
 Che in quella croce lampeggiava Cristo 
 Si, ch' io non so trovare esemplo degno. 105 
 
 Ma chi prende sua croce e segue Cristo, 
 Ancor mi scusera di quel ch' io lasso, 
 Vedendo in quell' albor balenar Cristo. 
 
 * The Milky Way, or 
 
 'Galaxy, that maketh wise men doubt.' 
 
 320
 
 ' Desperate tides of the whole great world's anguish 
 Forced through the channels of a single heart. 1 
 
 ( XXII ) 
 
 A NOTHER Ascension translates this 'Pilgrim of the 
 /~Y Sky ' into the fifth Heaven of Mars ; he knew he 
 was more uplifted 
 
 ' By the enkindled smiling of the Star, 
 That seemed to me more ruddy than its wont.' 
 
 The new grace called forth an ardent thanksgiving from 
 his heart, and in a moment he was assured it was accepted 
 by the ' red splendours that appeared.' 
 
 We know that colour was ever to him the vesture of Love. 
 The glorious Army of Martyrs are found here, and the 
 Crusaders who died fighting for the Faith. 
 
 These heroes of the Cross have accomplished great deeds, 
 like those in Mercury; but they are unlike those in the 
 purity of the motive that inspired them. Not through love 
 of fame, but through the self-sacrificing spirit born of the 
 constraining love of Christ, had they overcome. 
 
 These are placed nearer the Empyrean than even the 
 Sun-spirits, for, as this has been interpreted by Buti, 'a 
 greater and more burning ardour of love is in those who 
 fight and conquer the world, the flesh, and the devil, than 
 in those who exercise themselves with the Scriptures.' 
 
 In this Heaven ' the Cross shines forth in mystic glow,' 
 and here in vision, as in a flash of lightning Christ gleamed 
 forth in the whiteness of dawn upon the Cross. The 
 reverence that will not further describe that can find no 
 similitude for His appearance is like Dante's, who ever 
 travels along his way with bowed head. He tells us that 
 one who himself takes up his Cross and follows Christ will 
 forgive his reticence, for he will have the vision and know it 
 to be unutterable ; and he only who lives in Christ's Spirit 
 can behold the Vision. 
 
 321 21
 
 Dante hears the melody of the spirits united in the 
 venerable Sign. 
 
 ( XXII ) 
 
 (Continued from last page.) 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO XIV. 118-129. 
 
 E come giga ed arpa, in tempra tesa 
 
 Di molte corde, fan dolce tintinno 
 
 A tal, da cui la nota non e intesa; 120 
 
 Cosi da' lumi che li m' apparinno 
 
 S' accogliea per la croce una melode, 
 
 Che mi rapiva senza intender 1' inno. 
 Ben m' accors' io ch' ell' era d' alte lode, 
 
 Perocche a me venia : Risurgi, e vinci, 125 
 
 Com' a colui che non intende ed ode. 
 Ed io m' innamorava tanto quinci, 
 
 Che infino a li non fu alcuna cosa 
 
 Che mi legasse con si dolci vinci. 
 
 322
 
 The mysterious melody of the Cross, loved, though not 
 understood, by the Pilgrim. 
 
 ( XXII ) 
 
 It is noteworthy that here, and in other places where the 
 Sacred Name is mentioned, it is three times repeated (if at 
 the end of a line), for Dante will not make another word 
 rhyme with it. 
 
 The spirits of this sphere are seen passing up and down 
 and across the great Sign like moats in a Sunbeam or like 
 flames behind Alabaster. They passed, ' some swift, some 
 slow,' and from them arose the lute-like sounds of a Hymn 
 that was rendered indistinct, as it might seem, by softening 
 distance arid mysterious import the music of the Cross ; 
 its words were not distinguished by the listener's uncompre- 
 hending ears ; yet he says he well perceived that it was of 
 lofty praise, and that it was addressed to Him who had 
 conquered, and who was called upon to go forth conquering 
 yet ! ' Risurgi e vinci ' were the words that he was able to 
 distinguish. 
 
 The undefined vision, the music of tenderness and yet of 
 triumph, the indistinguishable words, and the soul more 
 captivated than by aught else, reveal to us again, as in 
 Canto VII. 58, the condition of heart and mind Dante 
 deems necessary for the contemplation of the mystery of the 
 Cross ' maturity in the fire of Love.' He speaks of the 
 fifth Heaven of Mars in his ' Convito ' as the central sphere 
 between the Empyrean and Earth, and has doubtless there- 
 fore placed the manifestation of the central truth of the 
 Incarnation of Love even unto death, at this point, in the 
 crimson glow. He, at the same time, marks self-sacrifice as 
 the keynote of Heaven's life ; as he made its antithesis, self- 
 interest and its progressive isolation, the centre of the 
 stagnation and death that pervades Hell. 
 
 323
 
 Dante cannot at first understand the profound 
 speech of Cacciagiiida. 
 
 ( XXIII ) - 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO XV. 37-54. 
 
 INDI, ad udire ed a veder giocondo, 
 Giunse lo spirto al suo principle cose 
 Ch' io non intesi ; si parlb profondo. 
 Ne per elezi'on mi si nascose, 40 
 
 Ma per necessita ; che '1 suo concetto 
 
 Al segno de' mortai si soprappose. 
 E quando 1' arco dell' ardente affetto 
 
 Fu si sfogato, che '1 parlar discese 
 
 Inver lo segno del nostro intelletto, 45 
 
 La prima cosa, che per me s' intese, 
 
 Benedetto sie Tu, fu, trino ed uno, 
 
 Che nel mio seme se' tanto cortese. 
 E seguito : Grato e Ionian digiuno, 
 
 Tratto leggendo nei magno volume, 50 
 
 U' non si muta mai bianco ne bruno, 
 Soluto hai, figlio, dentro a questo lume 
 
 In ch' io ti parlo, merce di colei 
 
 Ch' all' alto volo ti vesti le piume. 
 
 3 2 4
 
 Cacciaguidas ardour had to be calmed before he could 
 adapt himself to Dante's incapacity. 
 
 ( XXIII ) 
 
 THERE was silence amongst the blessed spirits when 
 the melody of the Cross subsided. Silence, to give 
 him who longed to know opportunity of asking. One of 
 the lights (even as a falling star) was seen to pass from the 
 right extremity of the transverse line of the Cross, down its 
 Central bar to its foot, and seemed a flame behind Alabaster. 
 The eyes of Beatrice were beaming such a smile that Dante 
 thought his own, in beholding them, had sounded the depths 
 of the grace vouchsafed to him, and that he must have seen 
 the culminating point of his own Paradise. The love that 
 knew what the joy of this meeting would be both to Dante 
 and to his ancestor Cacciaguida (for he was the descending 
 Light) was overflowing in Beatrice. 
 
 As the spirit drew down to Dante's level, he was aware 
 that pleasant words were spoken and that a vision of happi- 
 ness was before him, but he understood not ; not because 
 the spirit was unwilling to manifest himself plainly, ' but by 
 necessity' (line 41) by reason of Dante's incapacity to grasp 
 either language or vision surely the constant impediment 
 to our reception of messages from above. It was by reason, 
 also, of the spirit's high mental conception and of the ardour 
 of his love in projecting this conception, as it were, far 
 beyond our mortal mark. At length Dante began to dis- 
 tinguish words, after the spirit's burning sympathy had 
 slackened through its first overflow ; and these words were 
 of thanksgiving to God for loving kindness to his descendant. 
 Cacciaguida, who spoke, made Dante understand that he 
 had been awaiting his approach, and that he had foreseen 
 it in the mighty Volume of the unchanging decrees of God's 
 Providence. This Volume he read in the light of God's 
 Countenance, whether its contents were light or dark. 
 
 3 2 5
 
 C acciaguida' s ardour had to be calmed before he could 
 adapt himself to Dante's incapacity. 
 
 ( XXIII ) 
 
 ( Continued from last page. ) 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO XV. 55-69. 
 
 Tu credi che a me tuo pensier mei 55 
 
 Da quel ch' e primo, cosi come raia 
 
 Dall 'un, se si conosce, il cinque e '1 sei. 
 E perb, ch' io mi sia, e perch' io paia 
 
 Piu gaudioso a te, non mi dimandi, 
 
 Che alcun altro in questa turba gaia. 60 
 
 Tu credi '1 vero ; chb i minori e i grandi 
 
 Di questa vita miran nello speglio, 
 
 In che, prima che pensi, il pensier pandi. 
 Ma perche '1 sacro amore, in che io veglio 
 
 Con perpetua vista, e che m' asseta 65 
 
 Di dolce disiar, s' adempia meglio, 
 La voce tua sicura, balda e lieta 
 
 Suoni la volonta, suoni '1 desio, 
 
 A che la mia risposta e gia decreta. 
 
 326
 
 God's breath in Prayer returning to his birth' 
 
 - ( XXIII ) - 
 
 Cacciaguida continues, that he is aware that Dante does 
 not ask him his name because he knows that all in the 
 heavenly land who behold the Source of Life and Light can 
 read therein the thoughts, even unborn, of another. But, 
 he says, in order to satisfy the sacred love : 
 
 ' Now let thy voice secure and frank and glad 
 Proclaim the wishes, the desire proclaim, 
 To which my answer is decreed already.' 
 
 Here the great paradox of Prayer is touched ; God knows 
 thy thoughts and desires though unformulated even to thy- 
 self; yet shall thou utter thy will and desires in a voice 
 bold and glad and certain ; ' for so shall the Sacred Love 
 which decrees the answer be satisfied.' We see the mystery 
 of Prayer here presented, as was presented the mystery of the 
 Atonement ; it is opened alone to those whose ' eyes were 
 matured in the flame of Love.' 
 
 'The heart has its reasons as well as the head.' The 
 Heart of God and the heart of man have to be satisfied by 
 communion. 'My Son, give Me thy heart' is the Father's 
 cry. The Father loves to be asked for good things by His 
 children, as well as to give them ; the Children love to ask 
 and to receive from Him, knowing that this reciprocity is 
 the very food of Love, nay more, it is Love ; for there need 
 to be two conscious hemispheres, of giving and receiving, in 
 perfected Love. 
 
 'The 'glad certainty' reminds us of the words, 'All 
 things are yours, and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's.' 
 Christ inspired His disciples with the same confidence 
 when He said, ' Whatsoever things ye ask, believe that ye 
 receive them, and ye shall have them.' 
 
 327
 
 The Power in the Word. 
 ( XXIII ) 
 
 To the logical understanding the paradox of Prayer must 
 perhaps remain a paradox and foolishness, and the question 
 remain a question ' If God is wise and good, will He not 
 do what is best for us without our asking Him to do so ?' 
 May a hint come to us of some Divine necessity for Prayer, 
 by our consideration of the Name of Him (the Word) who 
 ,is the Utterer of God to man and of man to God ? 
 
 The Creative Act, as expressed to us in Genesis, is linked 
 with God's utterance ' Let there be Light.' May it be that 
 man's utterance, or formulated desire through the Word, has 
 to unlock, as with Milton's golden key, the treasures of 
 Eternity, our own though unappropriated ? 
 
 We learn the power of prayer ' the power of our own 
 sonship is not power to over-ride God's law, but to co-operate 
 with it ; it depends on our intelligent co-operation with the 
 Divine method. . . . "Nature, as Lord Bacon said, can 
 only be controlled by being obeyed." In accurate theology 
 God has been generally regarded as inherent in nature as 
 well as transcending it ; as working out a Divine purpose in 
 the whole ordered system . . . the laws of nature are limits 
 in His working, only so far as they express something of 
 that law of perfect reason against which, says St. Augustine, 
 God can no more work than He can work against Himself.' 
 GORE'S Bampton Lectures, V. 
 
 3*8
 
 God's breath in Prayer returning to his birth.' 
 ( XXIII ) 
 
 To THE SUPREME BEING. 
 
 The prayers I make will then be sweet indeed 
 
 If Thou the Spirit give by which I pray ; 
 
 My unassisted heart is barren clay, 
 
 That of its native self can nothing feed ; 
 
 Of good and pious works Thou art the seed, 
 
 That quickens only where Thou say'st it may ; 
 
 Unless Thou show to us Thine own true Way 
 
 No man can find it. Father, Tnou must lead. 
 
 Do Thou, then, breathe those thoughts into my mind 
 
 By which such virtue may in me be bred, 
 
 That in Thy holy footsteps I may tread ; . 
 
 The fetters of my tongue do Thou unbind, 
 
 That I may have the power to sing of Thee 
 
 And sound Thy praises everlastingly. 
 
 MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 3 2 9
 
 Dante affirms that heat and radiance are 
 equal in the Sun. 
 
 (XXIV) 
 
 PARAUISO, CANTO XV. 70-83. 
 
 I' MI volsi a Beatrice ; e quella udio 70 
 
 Pria ch' io parlassi, ed arrisemi un cenno, 
 Che fece crescer 1' ale al voler mio : 
 Poi cominciai cosi : L' affetto e il senno, 
 Come la prima Egualita v' apparse, 
 D' un peso per ciascun di voi si fenno ; 75 
 
 Perocche al Sol, che v' allumo ed arse 
 Col caldo e con la luce, en si iguali, 
 Che tutte simiglianze sono scarse. 
 Ma voglia ed argomento ne' mortali, 
 
 Per la cagion ch' a voi e manifesta, So 
 
 Diversamente son pennuti in ali. 
 Ond' io, che son mortal, mi sento in questa 
 Disagguaglianza. 
 
 33
 
 The equality of Love and Knowledge among the Blessed 
 received through their vision of God. 
 
 ( XXIV ) 
 
 THE invitation to speak out gladly and boldly his desire 
 is at once responded to by the well-instructed soul. 
 The words that he uses have been chosen for one of our 
 subjects of meditation, partly on account of the remarkable 
 name by which he speaks of God, ' the primal Equality.' 
 The lines that follow show his meaning to be that in God 
 Love and Knowledge are equal, even as (Dante believes) 
 Light and Heat are equal in the Sun. 
 
 The varying degrees of Love and Knowledge in the 
 Church Militant have often been referred to in the Poem ; 
 the necessity for both has been repeatedly affirmed, and 
 here the reading all in God's Countenance, where Truth 
 and Love are equal, seems, to the more and more ascending 
 soul, the primal bliss of Heaven. Dante reminds Cacciaguida 
 that, being mortal himself, he is opprest with the inequality 
 of capacity in the two wings that bear him aloft ; his know- 
 ledge is not equal to his desire or love; even with the 
 Celestial Wisdom at his side, he cannot, as the souls of the 
 emancipated Saints, read all in the Divine Countenance. 
 He therefore begs to learn from the spirit who speaks to 
 him his name and the reason of his paternal welcome. In 
 answer to these questions a long history is given, not only 
 with regard to Dante's ancestors, of whom Cacciaguida was 
 one, but concerning the condition of Florence in earlier and 
 simpler days ; and protest is made against the luxury and 
 degeneracy of the current time.
 
 Cacciagnida foretells to Dante his separation from 
 all pleasant things. 
 
 ( XXV) 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO XVII. 19-45. 
 
 MENTRE ch' i' era a Virgilio congiunto 
 Su per lo monte che 1' anime cura, 20 
 
 E discendendo nel mondo defunto, 
 Dette mi fur di mia vita futura 
 
 Parole gravi ; avvegna ch' io mi senta 
 
 Ben tetragono ai colpi di ventura. 
 Per che la voglia mia sara contenta 25 
 
 D' intender qual fortuna mi s' appressa ; 
 
 Che saetta previsa vien piu lenta. 
 Cosi diss' io a quella luce stessa, 
 
 Che pria m' avea parlato : e, come voile 
 
 Beatrice, fu la mia voglia confessa. 30 
 
 Non per ambage, in che la gente folle 
 
 Gia s' invescava, pria che fosse anciso 
 
 L' agnel di Dio che le peccata tolle ; 
 Ma per chiare parole, e con preciso 
 
 Latin rispose quell' amor paterno, 35 
 
 Chiuso e parvente nel suo proprio riso : 
 *La contingenza, che fuor del quaderno 
 
 Delia vostra materia non si stende, 
 
 Tutta e dipinta nel cospetto eterno. 
 Necessita pero quindi non prende, 40 
 
 Se non come dal viso in che si specchia 
 
 Nave che per corrente giii discende. 
 Da indi, si come viene ad orecchia 
 
 Dolce armonia da organo, mi viene 
 
 A vista '1 tempo* che ti s' apparecchia. 45 
 
 * Contingency, that which from our standpoint may or may not 
 come to pass, is ever-present in the eternal Now of the mind of God.' 
 DEAN Pi. UMPIRE. 
 
 33 2
 
 ' Its discords, quenched by meeting harmonies, 
 Die in the large and charitable air.' 
 
 ( XXV ) 
 
 DANTE inquires concerning his own future, which had 
 been partly foretold to him on the Mountain of 
 Purgatory, and he says he feels himself ' foursquare against 
 the blows of chance ' ; for what is the meaning of chance or 
 Fortune to one who is beyond the realm of the wheel that 
 goes up and down ? Cacciaguida answers ' not as those 
 ancient oracles who spoke in vague phrases before the 
 manifestation of the great At-one-ment of Heaven and 
 Earth, but with clear and unambiguous words.' It seems 
 intimated that the paternal love was by this Divine manifes- 
 tation set free to express itself. 
 
 He again declares that all is depicted in the Eternal 
 aspect, for in that which is transitory the Truth can never 
 be read. In this Love-enlightened Knowledge, Dante's 
 forefather read the sad history of his offspring's separation 
 from everything he cared for, his banishment from Florence, 
 and the bitterness of a stranger's food and of dwelling in a 
 strange land. Yet all these impressions of woe reach Cac- 
 ciaguida as he gazes into the Divine Light, ' even as the 
 sweet harmony of an Organ reaches the ear ' ; their discords 
 are resolved into harmonies, and the sequence and unity of 
 the whole is seen to be good. 
 
 In the spiritual region it is clearly discerned that all the 
 changes and chances of this troublesome world (though each 
 is not good in itself), ' work together for good ' to those who 
 receive them in the love of God. 
 
 333
 
 Cacciagtiida's Counsel to Dante. 
 
 ( XXVI ) 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO XVII. 103-132. 
 
 IO cominciai, come colui che brama, 
 Dubitando, consiglio da persona, 
 Che vede e vuol dirittamente, ed ama : 105 
 Ben veggio, padre mio, si come sprona 
 
 Lo tempo inverse me, per colpo darmi 
 
 Tal, ch' e piu grave a chi piu s' abbandona ; 
 Per che di provedenza e buon ch' io m' armi, 
 
 Si che, se '1 luogo m' e tolto piu caro, no 
 
 Io non perdessi gli altri per miei carmi. 
 Giu per Io mondo senza fine amaro, 
 
 E per Io monte, dal cui bel cacume 
 
 Gli occhi della mia Donna mi levaro, 
 E poscia per Io ciel di lume in lume, 115 
 
 Ho io appreso quel, che, s' io '1 ridico, 
 
 A rnolti fia savor di forte agrume. 
 E s' io al vero son timido amico, 
 
 Temo di perder vita tra coloro 
 
 Che questo tempo chiameranno antico. 120 
 
 La luce, in che ridea Io 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, 125 
 
 Pur sentira la tua parola brusca. 
 Ma nondimen, rimossa ogni menzogna, 
 
 Tutta tua vision fa' manifesta ; 
 
 E lascia pur grattar dov' & la rogna. 
 Che, se la voce tua sara molesta 1 30 
 
 Nel primo gusto, vital nutrimento 
 
 Lascera poi, quando sara digesta. 
 334
 
 ' That utterance may be given me, that I may open 
 my mouth boldly.' EPH. vi. 19. 
 
 ( XXVI ) 
 
 THE opening words, that introduce Dante's further 
 rejoinder to Cacciaguida, picture for us in strong 
 simple outline the ideal Counsellor : 
 
 ' Persona 
 Che vede, e vuol dirittamente, ed ama.' 
 
 (One who sees, and uprightly -wills, and loves.) 
 
 Desiring counsel from such an one as this, Dante speaks 
 the wrestling doubts that arise within his heart. In his 
 passage through the three spiritual worlds, he says, he has 
 learned truth which to tell again would be to many a savour 
 of pungent herbs ; yet, on the other hand, to prove only a 
 timid friend to Truth would cost him his own enduring life. 
 At once the light flashed forth from him, 'who saw, and 
 uprightly willed, and loved '; it flashed back to the questioner 
 as sunlight in a golden mirror. Dante is ,>told that he must 
 lay aside utterly all falsehood and make his vision manifest. 
 
 Some, whose consciences were o'ercast, would wince under 
 the 'parola brusca,' but vital nutriment should remain 
 behind, when the harsh and molesting words should be 
 digested. 
 
 The power of the Word, both towards Heaven and in the 
 world, seems meant to be the instruction for the spiritual 
 man throughout this paternal discourse. He is instructed 
 to be bold, glad, and confident towards Heaven ; bold and 
 sincere also in declaring God-given truth to man ; he must 
 declare it without disguise, even should it be distasteful and 
 bitter. It is hinted, that all excuse for veiling the truth in 
 vague and foolish words is done away since the Lamb of 
 God was slain, who taketh away the sins of the World. 
 
 335
 
 Dante ascends to the White Star of Jupiter, 
 the Home of just Rulers. 
 
 ( XXVII ) 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO XVIII. 58-79. 
 
 ECOME, per sentir piu dilettanza 
 Bene operando, 1' uom di giorno in giorno 
 S' accorge che la sua virtute avanza ; 60 
 
 Si m' accors' io che il mio girare intorno 
 
 Col cielo insieme avea cresciuto 1' arco, 
 
 Veggendo quel miracolo piu adorno. 
 E quale e il trasmutare, in picciol varco 
 
 Di tempo, in bianca donna, quando 1' volto 65 
 
 Suo si discarchi di vergogna il carco ; 
 Tal fu negli occhi miei quando fui volto, 
 
 Per lo candor della temprata Stella 
 
 Sesta, che dentro a se m' avea ricolto. 
 Io vidi in quella giovi'al facella 70 
 
 Lo sfavillar dell' amor che 11 era, 
 
 Segnare agli occhi miei nostra favella. 
 E come augelli surti di riviera, 
 
 Quasi congratulando a lor pasture, 
 
 Fanno di se or tonda or lunga schiera ; 75 
 
 Si dentro a' lumi sante creature 
 
 Volitando cantavano, e faciensi 
 
 Or D, or I, or L, in sue figure. 
 Prima cantando a sua nota moviensi. 
 
 336
 
 The Celestial Eagle as Ideal Justice. 
 - ( XXVII ) - 
 
 THE personal communication between Dante and his 
 Ancestor being ended, the latter uttered the names 
 of many of the great spirits in that fifth sphere of the 
 Heavens. Even as each name was uttered, the ' splendour ' 
 of each spirit was revealed, moving athwart or revolving in 
 the great Cross. Again the power of the Word calls forth 
 the manifestation of light and personality. Looking to 
 Beatrice to learn what his next action should be, Dante 
 beholds her again surpassing herself in radiancy and beauty, 
 and in this way he became aware of their having made a 
 further ascent. They had left the glowing Mars, and had 
 reached the white and temperate Sphere of Jupiter, the 
 Sixth Heaven ; the habitation of Ideal Justice, personified 
 in the righteous rulers of the World. As we saw in Mars 
 the sublimated, self-sacrificing Love, that in Venus had 
 fallen short through admixture of selfish passion, we see in 
 Jupiter the finer and more ideal Justice, which was repre- 
 sented in imperfect fashion under the Standard of the Roman 
 Eagle in Mercury. Here is the soaring Celestial Eagle, 
 where dwell the spirits of enlightened Righteous Rulers. 
 
 From this Sphere spring the cause and inspiration of all 
 lower manifestations of Justice. 
 
 337 22
 
 The Birds of Light form themselves as Vowels and 
 Consonants into words. 
 
 ( XXVII ) 
 
 (Continued from last page.) 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO XVIII. 88-93. 
 
 * * * * * 
 
 Mostrarsi dunque cinque volte sette 
 
 Vocali e consonant! ; ed io notai 
 
 Le parti si, come mi parver dette. 90 
 
 Diligite justitiam, primai 
 
 Fur verbo e nome di tutto '1 dipinto : 
 
 Qui judicatis terrain, fur sezzai. 
 
 33*
 
 The Pilgrim instructed in the love of pure Justice. 
 _( XXVII )_ 
 
 The Bird of God, in which all the spirits are here unified, 
 seems, like St. John's Eagle, to be the symbol of the Spirit 
 of God inspiring the Rule of Justice. The holy beings 
 who show themselves in the figure of this Eagle (as the 
 Martyrs and Crusaders in Mars showed themselves within 
 the form of the Cross), when they disperse themselves for 
 special objects, are seen in companies like flights of birds. 
 These, 'moving to their own song,' form themselves into 
 figures and letters to welcome with love and instruction the 
 soul newly arrived amongst them. The first sentence flashed 
 into him by these birds of light was ' Love Justice, you who 
 govern the world.' 
 
 ' As we rise from Heaven to Heaven in the Paradiso, we 
 reach a more adequate state of devotion of the individual 
 to the welfare of the social whole. Each one unites with 
 his fellows to produce an aggregate social result. As in 
 Mars they are arranged within the form of a colossal Cross, 
 so in Jupiter they spell out Ethical principles, or present a 
 great Eagle.' 'Spiritual Sense of Dante,' by W. T. HARRIS. 
 
 ' True Justice . . . lies for the most part beyond the limits of any 
 acknowledged law. The idea of Justice involves the idea of rights ; 
 but at bottom rights are equivalent to that which really is; and the 
 recognition of these rights, therefore, the justice required of our hands 
 or our thoughts, is the recognition of that which the person or the thing 
 in its inmost nature really is ; and as sympathy alone can really discover 
 that which really is in matter of feeling or thought, true justice is in its 
 essence a finer knowledge through Love.' PATER'S Essays. 
 
 339
 
 The just spirits show themselves in the Celestial Eagle, 
 and thousands speak as 'I and my ' in this unity. 
 
 ( XXVIII ) - 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO XIX. 1-27. 
 
 ~P) AREA dinanzi a me coll' ali aperte 
 A La bella image, che nel dolce frui 
 
 Liete faceva 1' anime conserte. 
 Parea ciascuna rubinetto, in cui 
 
 Raggio di Sole ardesse si acceso, 5 
 
 Che ne' miei occhi rifrangesse lui. 
 E quel che mi convien ritrar testeso, 
 
 Non porto voce mai, ne scrisse inchiostro, 
 
 Ne fu per fantasia giammai compreso ; 
 Ch' io vidi, ed anche udii pailar lo rostro, 10 
 
 E sonar nella voce ed lo e Mio 
 
 Quand' era nel concetto e Noi e Nostro. 
 E comincio : Per esser giusto e pio 
 
 Son io qui esaltato a quella gloria, 
 
 Che non si lascia vincere a desio. 1 5 
 
 Ed in terra lasciai la mia mernoria 
 
 Si fatta, che le genti li malvage 
 
 Commendan lei, ma non seguon la storia. 
 Cos! un sol calor di molte brage 
 
 Si fa sentir, come di molti amori 20 
 
 Usciva solo un suon di quella image. 
 Ond' io appresso : O perpetui fiori 
 
 Dell' eterna letizia, che pur uno 
 
 Sentir mi fate tutti i vostri odori, 
 Solvetemi, spirando, il gran digiuno, 25 
 
 Che lungamente m' ha tenuto in fame, 
 
 Non trovando li in terra cibo alcuno. 
 
 34
 
 One perfume, one beauty, one love-language. 
 ( XXVIII ) - 
 
 THE perfect unity of 'just men made perfect' is here 
 symbolized by thousands speaking together, in one 
 voice uttering ' I and my,' though they should have said 
 literally ' We and Our.' In the purgatorio (Canto XV.) we 
 were taught the beauty of the word 'Ours' rather than 
 ' Mine,' with regard to possessions shared ; here unanimity 
 is expressed by many speaking as One. ' That they may 
 be One even as we are One ' is fulfilled in this Vision of 
 Union. All separate self-assertion, all desire to be dis- 
 tinguished, must vanish, before this bliss of Heaven can be 
 welcomed as bliss. Personality is submerged, though not 
 extinguished, in the conception of the whole ; each, in union 
 with the whole, represents the whole. Later, names and 
 characteristics are dwelt upon ; but here we are shown the 
 sacrifice of each to the social community, in joy and song 
 and word. The illustrations given of the love and beauty 
 of these interwoven, intermingled spirits are very forcible. 
 As many embers give out one feeling of warmth, so the 
 many loves as from one large heart gave out one love- 
 language ; and again, manifold odours from the various 
 flowers of eternal joy were perceived as one perfume. 
 
 34 1
 
 Dante appeals to the Sempiternal Justice for an answer to 
 his burning question, and is reminded of man's short 
 
 sight. 
 ( XXIX ) _ 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO XIX. 70-81. 
 
 UN uom nasce alia riva 70 
 
 Dell' Indo ; e quivi non e chi ragioni 
 Di Cristo, ne chi legga, ne chi scriva ; 
 E tutti suoi voleri ed atti buoni 
 Sono, quanto ragione umana vede, 
 Sanza peccato in vita od in sermon i ; 75 
 
 Muore non battezzato e senza fede : 
 Ov' e questa giustizia che '1 condanna ? 
 Ov' e la colpa sua, sed ei non crede ? 
 Or tu chi se', che vuoi sedere a scran na, 
 
 Per giudicar da lungi mille miglia 80 
 
 Con la veduta corta d' una spanna ? 
 
 342
 
 ' Son of man, can these bones live ?' EZEK. xxxvii. 
 
 ( XXIX ) 
 
 IN this central home of Love and ' Living Justice ' the 
 soul that has long ached with hunger to know, under 
 the burden of one great question, eagerly seeks to be satis- 
 fied. The question (with others akin to it) has burdened 
 many a heaven-taught heart growing in the knowledge and 
 love of God and man ; it has been answered differently 
 through the ages by saints of God, or left untouched as a 
 mystery not to be fathomed by the mind of man. ' Where 
 is the justice that condemneth him who dies without baptism 
 and without faith, who has yet lived a sinless life ? Where 
 is his fault (if it has been caused by circumstances for which 
 he is not responsible) if he do not believe?' (lines 77, 78). 
 The answer given here may silence, if it does not satisfy : 
 
 ' Now who art thou, that on the bench would sit 
 In judgment at a thousand miles away, 
 With the short vision of a single span ?' 
 
 The Voice, or rather concurrent voices, continued, imply- 
 ing, or seeming to imply, that Scripture answers the doubt.* 
 The Voice then affirms that it is the primal Will, never 
 disjoined from the Good Supreme, that, in raying forth, 
 occasions every idea of justice amongst finite beings, and 
 must therefore be the only standard of Justice. After a 
 pause, it is declared in distinct language that ' Unto that 
 Kingdom never had one ascended who had not faith in 
 Christ.' Yet the absolute exclusion from that Kingdom 
 seems modified, by the terms of more or less near to Christ, 
 in the lines that follow : 
 
 ' But look thou, many crying are Christ, Christ ! 
 Who at the judgment shall be far less near 
 To Him, than some shall be who knew not Christ.' 
 
 Lines 106-108. 
 
 * Those who would see how much of Scripture has been cited in 
 support of opposite views on this subject, with an attempt to harmonize 
 the two sides, are referred to 'The Restitution of All Things,' by the 
 Rev. A. Jukes (Longmans). 
 
 343
 
 The murmuring river and the Lark's song. 
 ( XXX ) 
 
 PAR AD ISO, CANTO XX. 19-30, 73-78. 
 
 UDIR mi parve un mormorar di fiume, 
 Che scenda chiaro giu di pietra in pietra, 20 
 Mostrando 1' uberta del suo cacume. 
 E come suono al collo della cetra 
 
 Prende sua forma, e si come al pertugio 
 Della sampogna vento che penetra; 
 Cosi, rimosso d'aspettare indugio, 25 
 
 Quel mormorar dell' aquila salissi 
 Su per lo collo, come fusse bugio. 
 Fecesi voce quivi, e quindi uscissi 
 Per lo suo becco in forma di parole, 
 Quali aspettava '1 cuore, ov' io le scrissi. 30 
 
 ***** 
 Qual lodoletta, che in acre si spazia 
 Prima cantando, e poi tace contenta 
 Dell' ultima dolcezza che la sazia ; 75 
 
 Tal mi sembib 1' imago della imprenta 
 Dell' eterno piacere, al cui disio 
 Ciascuna cosa, quale ell' e, diventa. 
 
 344
 
 How hear we every man in our own tongue wherein we 
 were born ? 
 
 (XXX) 
 
 THE One voice of united Voices is again brought to 
 the ear ; it is heard as the murmuring of a clear 
 river, awakened into varied sound by its descent from rock 
 to rock. Though the many-voiced Voice speaks as ' I and 
 My' through the organ of utterance of one celestial bird, 
 it comes not upon the ear as a monotone, but as one of 
 blended harmonies; the many personalities which enrich 
 its notes are throbbing through it, not merged in one, but 
 in conscious combination. The fulness of that outflowing 
 Spirit, and His continual supply of the Water of Life, is 
 imaged to us by the 'affluence' of the Fountain Head 
 on the Mountain-top, that, descending from rock to rock, is 
 scattered into countless drops of the crystal stream. 
 
 From the united speakers came such a language ' as the 
 heart of the listener awaited ' (line 30). It is the heart of 
 the exile that awaits and longs for this harmonious language 
 amid the confused and alien Babel tongues of the strange 
 land in which he sojourns. The cessation of this language 
 is compared (75-78) to the Lark's silent rapture, satisfied 
 with the last sweetness of his song; and such (the Poet 
 seems to suggest) is the joy of the Creator in imprinting 
 His ideal in each creature, and in bringing each into that 
 perfectness which makes it the thing it is. 
 
 In the omitted portion of this Canto five righteous Rulers 
 are named as belonging to this Sphere of the sixth Heaven. 
 Amongst these Hezekiah is cited (49-54), and we learn that 
 in his spiritual condition he becomes aware that his penitent 
 prayer did not change the righteous purpose of GOD, but 
 delayed its Time-manifestation. 
 
 345
 
 Dante is taught that warm love and living hope prevailed 
 in the salvation of two righteous heathen. 
 
 ( XXXI ) - 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO XX. 94-99, 127-132. 
 
 T^EGNUMccelorum v'iolenza pate 
 *- * Da caldo amore, e da viva speranza, 95 
 
 Che vince la divina volontate ; 
 Non a guisa che 1' uomo all' uom sovranza, 
 
 Ma vince lei, perche vuol esser vinta ; 
 
 E vinta vince con sua beninanza. 
 
 * * * * * 
 
 Quelle tre donne gli ftlr per battesmo, 1 2 7 
 
 Che tu vedesti dalla destra ruota, 
 
 Dinanzi al battezzar piu d' un millesmo. 
 O predestinazion, quanto rimota 130 
 
 E la radice tua da quegli aspetti, 
 
 Che la prima cagion non veggion tola ! 
 
 346
 
 ' True prayer is not a mere wishing or desiring, but an 
 action within the Power of the Omnipotent God' 
 
 ( XXXI ) 
 
 THE mystery of Prayer is again touched upon as an 
 apparent, but not a real, conflict of the human and 
 divine volition. It is shown us here as rather the fervour 
 of Divine love and living hope, awakening in man the 
 conquering force that belongs to the Kingdom of Heaven, 
 and wins the Kingdom of Heaven. 
 
 The burden of the question concerning the Salvation of 
 the righteous heathen still oppresses Dante's yearning heart. 
 Among the five righteous Rulers named in this Canto, he 
 finds two that belonged to the heathen world Trajan and 
 Riphseus. He learns that they had passed from their mortal 
 bodies not as Gentiles, as was supposed, but as Christians 
 ' in the steadfast faith of feet that were to suffer, and had 
 suffered,' Trajan having lived after those wounded feet had 
 trodden the way home to God, and Riphseus a thousand 
 years before. There was a tradition that the intercession 
 of St. Gregory had resuscitated Trajan, and that he lived on 
 earth a short time as a Christian, and was made worthy 
 to attain the blessed life. It is said of Riphaeus that through 
 grace he set all his love on righteousness, and that from grace 
 so deep 'a fountain wells that never hath the eye of any 
 creature reached its primal wave.' No rite of baptism had 
 then been ordained, but the Three eternal Maidens them- 
 selves were his baptism. 
 
 Dante learns that the ignorance of man cannot sound the 
 depths of God's grace. With Him all things are possible, 
 and in the two exceptional instances of Riphaeus and Trajan 
 miracles were worked to save them from perdition. He adds, 
 ' nor can the mystery of Predestination be sounded by any 
 who see not the First Cause entire ' ' tola,' or as a Whole. 
 
 347
 
 Dante ascends to the Home of the contemplative spirits, 
 and beholds the golden Stairway that mounts beyond. 
 
 ( XXXII ) - 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO XXI. 28-51. 
 
 DI color d' oro, in che raggio traluce, 
 Vid' io uno scaleo eretto in suso 
 Tanto, che nol seguiva la mia luce. 30 
 
 Vidi anche per li gradi scender giuso 
 
 Tanti splendor, ch' io pensai ch' ogni lume 
 
 Che par nel ciel, quindi fosse diffuso. 
 E come per Io natural costume 
 
 Le pole insieme, al cominciar del giorno, 35 
 
 Si muovono a scaldar le fredde piume ; 
 Poi altre vanno via senza ritorno, 
 
 Altre rivolgon se, onde son mosse, 
 
 Ed altre roteando fan soggiorno ; 
 Tal modo parve a me che quivi fosse 40 
 
 In quello sfavillar che insieme venne, 
 
 Si come in certo grado si percosse. 
 E quel che presso piu ci si ritenne 
 
 Si fe si chiaro, ch' io dicea pensando : 
 
 Io veggio ben 1' amor che tu m' accenne. 45 
 
 Ma Quella, ond' io aspetto il come e '1 quando 
 
 Del dire e del tacer, si sta : ond' io, 
 
 Contra '1 disio, fo ben s' io non dimando. 
 Per ch' ella, che vedeva il tacer mio 
 
 Nel veder di Colui che tutto vede, 50 
 
 Mi disse : Solvi il tuo caldo disio. 
 
 343
 
 'Henceforth \N.V.~\ye shall see Heaven opened, and the 
 Angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son 
 of Man.' JOHN i. 51. 
 
 - ( XXXII ) - 
 
 THE harmonious voice in Jupiter had ceased, and the 
 eyes of Dante's aspiring spirit were again concen- 
 trated on those of his Celestial Guide. Hitherto the attain- 
 ment of each new Sphere had been known to him by his 
 perception of fuller splendour in the radiant smile of Beatrice, 
 but in the Seventh Heaven of Saturn (the Heaven of the 
 contemplative) she smiled not. 'If I were to smile,' she 
 says, ' thy mortal power would in such glory be consumed, 
 even as a leaf by the lightning.' Perhaps for such a reason 
 as this the eyes of the Apostles 'were holden,' when their 
 risen Lord appeared to them and they knew Him not. 
 
 Beatrice bids Dante fix his mind in the direction of his 
 eyes (for she had told him they were now in the seventh 
 splendour of Saturn), and read in that mirror the figure that 
 should appear to him. 
 
 Obedience to her commands was as great a joy as the 
 contemplation of her countenance, and he perceived at 
 once the shining golden Stairway that led too far upwards 
 for his eyes to reach its goal. Innumerable flashes of 
 splendour descended these wonderful steps, as though all 
 Heaven were pouring down them ; some advancing, some 
 retreating, some wheeling about them like flights of rooks 
 around their home-trees. One of these sparkling spirits as 
 he drew near became so clear to Dante's eyes that he said 
 within himself, ' Well I perceive the love thou showest me.' 
 But these ethereal splendours seem to have presented no 
 outline of form recognisable to the outward eye. The 
 form of each is apparently concealed by its vesture of 
 dazzling light ; this has been remarked since the three 
 Heavens have been left below over which the Earth's 
 shadow extends. 
 
 349
 
 St. Peter Damiano explains why music is silent and 
 Beatrice smiles not, in the Seventh Heaven. 
 
 ( XXXIII ) 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO XXI. 52-72. 
 
 ED io incominciai : La mia mercede 
 Non mi fa degno della tua risposta, 
 Ma per colei, che il chieder mi concede, 
 Vita beata, che ti stai nascosta 55 
 
 Dentro alia tua letizia, fammi nota 
 
 La cagion che si presso mi t' accosta ; 
 E di' perche si tace in questa ruota 
 
 La dolce sinfonia di Paradise, 
 
 Che giu per 1' altre suona si devota. 60 
 
 Tu hai 1' udir mortal, si come '1 viso, 
 
 Rispose a me ; pero qui non si canta 
 
 Per quel che Beatrice non ha riso. 
 Giu per li gradi della scala santa 
 
 Discesi tanto, sol per farti festa 65 
 
 Col dire, e con !a luce che m' ammanta. 
 Ne piti amor mi fece esser piu presta ; 
 
 Che piu e tanto amor quinci su ferve, 
 
 Si come il fiammeggiar ti manifesta. 
 Ma 1' alta carita, che ci fa serve 70 
 
 Pronte al consiglio che il mondo governa, 
 
 Sorteggia qui, si come tu osserve. 
 
 350
 
 ' Who maketh His A ngels spirits, and His ministers a 
 flame of fire.' 
 
 - ( XXXIII ) - 
 
 THE unknown Splendour, pausing on the Golden Stair- 
 way, desiring lovingly to speak with Dante, was 
 addressed by him with great reverence and courtesy in 
 these very perfect lines. He asks why the sweet music which 
 he has heard in each preceding Sphere should here be silent ? 
 Peter Damiano answers him and reminds him that his senses 
 of sight and hearing are mortal, and that for the same reason 
 that Beatrice smiled not, the Symphonies of the Seventh 
 Heaven must needs be silent; the ravishing sounds and 
 sight would destroy the frail vessel that received them. The 
 perfection of the Seventh Heaven is here expressed the 
 Home, as it were, of Beatrice and of Contemplatives, who 
 are ever ascending its Golden Stairway. Dante longed to 
 inquire what the relationship of this Spirit was with him- 
 self, yet waited till he was authorized to do so by Beatrice. 
 Divine Wisdom, who reads all in Him who sees all things 
 (not only the Pilgrim's individual needs and desires), bids 
 him now let loose and make these desires known. He 
 is told that the readiness of Love shown by this Spirit arose 
 from no more ardour in himself than burnt in those above, 
 but that the office had been allotted to him by the High 
 Charity that controls the world, and makes His ministers 
 these flames of love. He apparently perceives no unveiled 
 countenance amongst these Flames ; the submergence of 
 external identity seems to convey to us the ideal state 
 of the unity of Love and Service in which all were con- 
 joined. ' Not I but Christ ' was the language of every heart ; 
 Christ was to be supremely 'admired in all His Saints.'
 
 Dante is taught that the reason of election to any office 
 is cut off from every created mind. 
 
 ( XXXIV ) 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO XXL 73-102. 
 
 IO veggio ben, diss' io, sacra lucerna, 
 Come libero amore in questa corte 
 Basta a seguir la provvidenza eterna. 75 
 
 Ma quest' e quel ch' a cerner mi par forte, 
 
 Perche predestinata fosti sola 
 
 A questo uficio tra le tue consorte. 
 Non venni prima all' ultima parola, 
 
 Che del suo mezzo fece il lume centre, 80 
 
 Girando se come veloce mola. 
 Poi rispose 1' amor che v' era dentro : 
 
 Luce divina sovra me s' appunta, 
 
 Penetrando per questa, in ch' io m' inventro ; 
 La cui vertu col mio veder congiunta 85 
 
 Mi leva sovra me tanto, ch' io veggio 
 
 La somma essenzia, della quale e munta. 
 Quinci vien 1' allegrezza, ond' io fiammeggio ; 
 
 Perche alia vista mia, quant' ella e chiara, 
 
 La chiarita della fiamma pareggio. 90 
 
 Ma quell' alma nel ciel che piu si schiara, 
 
 Quel serafin che in Dio piu 1' occhio ha fisso, 
 
 Alia dimanda tua non satisfara ; 
 Perocche si s' inoltra nell' abisso 
 
 Dell' eterno statute quel che chiedi, 95 
 
 Che da ogni creata vista e scisso. 
 Ed al mondo mortal, quando tu riedi, 
 
 Questo rapporta, si che non presuma 
 
 A tanto segno piu muover li piedi. 
 La mente, che qui luce, in terra fuma ; i oo 
 
 Onde riguarda come puo laggiue 
 
 Quel che non puote, perche '1 ciel 1' assuma. 
 352
 
 ' Oh, the depths of the riches, both of the Wisdom and 
 knowledge of God ! how unsearchable are His judg- 
 ments, and His ways past finding out!' 
 
 ( XXXIV ) 
 
 THE questioning spirit would fain know why Peter 
 Damiano was sent down the Golden Stairway to 
 welcome him rather than any other who loved as much ' or 
 more ' (68). 
 
 The swift, whirling motion of the flame gave sign of the 
 joy of the spirit in the Will that attuned all in these happy 
 spheres into harmony with Himself; and then the Love 
 within the flame expressed, as far as the Seer could grasp 
 it, the secret of the consciousness of One who acts in the 
 Light and Love of the Spirit, conjoined with the full 
 acquiescence and energy of his own spirit. He is aware, 
 he says, that a Divine Light pierces the light in which he is 
 ever living and moving, and that a power of vision beyond 
 his own, yet combining with his own, lifts him so far above 
 himself that he can behold the beatific vision of the Supreme 
 Essence. This Vision, he adds, causes the joy with which 
 he flames ; and in the measure of his own clearness of 
 vision his flame becomes more or less clear. But he 
 declares that no created being can penetrate that abyss 
 from which the cause of election springs; and Dante is 
 charged to carry back this message to the mortal world : 
 that none with the denser mind of earth should attempt to 
 fathom this mystery, for to heavenly beings, in fullest light, 
 it is unfathomable. 
 
 ' In Sophocles the Divine righteousness asserts itself not in the award 
 of happiness or misery to the individual, but in the providential Wisdom 
 which assigns to each individual his place and function in a universal 
 moral order.' ' Some Aspects of Greek Genius,' PROFESSOR BUTCHER. 
 
 353 23
 
 St. Benedict describes the Missionary's work at 
 Monte Cassino. 
 
 (XXXV 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO XXII. 28-57. 
 
 ELA maggiore e la piii luculenta 
 Di quelle margherite innanzi fessi, 
 Per far di se la mia voglia contenta. 30 
 
 Poi dentro a lei udi' : Se tu vedessi, 
 
 Com' io, la carita che tra noi arde, 
 
 Li tuoi concetti sarebbero espressi. 
 Ma perche tu, aspettando, non tarde 
 
 All' alto fine, io ti faro risposta 35 
 
 Pure al pensier, di che si ti riguarde. 
 Quel monte, a cui Cassino e nella costa, 
 
 Fu frequentato gia in su la cima 
 
 Dalla gente ingannata e mal disposta. 
 Ed io son quel che su vi portai prima 40 
 
 Lo nome di Colui che in terra addusse 
 
 La verita, che tanto ci sublima. 
 E tanta grazia sovra me rilusse, 
 
 Ch' io ritrassi le ville circostanti 
 
 DalP empio culto che '1 mondo sedusse. 45 
 
 Questi altri fuochi tutti contemplanti 
 
 Uomini furo, accesi di quel caldo 
 
 Che fa nascere i fiori e i frutti santi. 
 Qui e Maccario, qui e Romualdo ; 
 
 Qui son li frati miei, che dentro a' chiostri 50 
 
 Fermaro i piedi, e tennero '1 cuor saldo. 
 Ed io a lui : L' affetto che dimostri 
 
 Meco parlando, e la buona sembianza 
 
 Ch' io veggio e noto in tutti gli ardor vostri, 
 Cos! m' ha dilatata mia fidanza, 55 
 
 Come '1 Sol fa la rosa, quando aperta 
 
 Tanto divien quant' ell' ha di possanza. 
 354
 
 ' Man, then, must open himself, almost as a Rose which 
 can no longer remain closed.' 
 
 ( XXXV ) 
 
 EVEN in this Sphere of holy Contemplatives a loud 
 cry arose, overpowering Dante with terror, and re- 
 minding us of the close interweaving of events and lives on 
 Earth with those who dwell within the veil. The Saints in 
 light, here or beyond, are supposed to thrill with Divine indig- 
 nation at Sin, as well as with joy at the conversion of sinners. 
 
 Dante turns for refuge to Beatrice, ' as a pale and breath- 
 less boy to his Mother.' The character of Motherhood is 
 the one that appears dominant in Beatrice's relationship 
 with Dante in her 'Second beauty.' St. Benedict tells 
 Dante that, if he could only see the living and glowing Love 
 as he himself sees it, the desires that fill his heart would 
 be called out into expression. 
 
 He recounts his own life at Monte Cassino, the first who 
 carried to those deluded and ill-disposed people 
 
 ' The name of Him who brought upon the earth 
 The truth that so much sublimateth us ' (42). 
 
 He describes his fellow-labourers as ' enkindled by that 
 heat which maketh holy flowers and fruits spring up ' a 
 fine motto for the Missionary, who by this vivid illustration 
 is reminded that he himself should be as a burning glass to 
 concentrate the rays of the Sun of Righteousness and Love 
 upon the plants of the Lord, in order that they may burst 
 into flower and fruits. Dante answers that the blessed 
 warmth he feels there has so much fostered his own con- 
 fidence, that it is like the Rose opened with all her powers 
 by the Sunshine, so that the flower becomes in actualized 
 fact what she truly is in potentiality. 
 
 What a glorious moral atmosphere to inbreathe and to 
 breathe out is this, wherein each is emboldened to become 
 his truest, noblest self, and each is prompted to draw forth 
 others towards their own special perfection ! 
 
 355
 
 St. Benedict instructs Dante that his requests are to be 
 fully answered in God, beyond Time and Space. 
 
 ( XXXVI ) _ _ 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO XXII. 58-74. 
 
 PERO ti prego ; e tu, padre, m' accerta, 
 S' io posso prender tanta grazia, ch' io 
 Ti veggia con immagine scoverta. 60 
 
 Ond' egli : Frate, il tuo alto disio 
 
 S' adempiera in su 1' ultima spera, 
 
 Ove si adempion tutti gli altri e '1 mio. 
 Ivi e perfetta, matura ed intera 
 
 Ciascuna dis'ianza ; in quella sola 65 
 
 E ogni parte la, dove sempr' era : 
 Perche non e in luogo, e non s' impola, 
 
 E nostra scala infino ad essa varca, 
 
 Onde cosi dal viso ti s' invola. 
 Infin lassu la vide il patriarca 70 
 
 Giacob isporger la superna parte, 
 
 Quando gli apparve d' angeli si carca. 
 Ma per salirla mo nessun diparte 
 
 Da terra i piedi. 
 
 356
 
 ' We cannot ask the thing which is not there, 
 Blaming the shallowness of our request.' 
 
 XXX\ 7 I _ 
 
 BY the Sunshine of Love Dante's petition is drawn from 
 his heart. He would fain see the unveiled Coun- 
 tenance of St. Benedict. He is answered in words that 
 must carry our faith beyond the region of Time and Space, 
 even to the hidden summit of Jacob's Ladder. ' And 
 behold the Lord stood above it.' Gen. xxviii. 13. In that 
 hidden Source of Love and Light he is told that his high 
 desire shall be fulfilled, where all others and his own ( Bene- 
 dict's) shall be fulfilled, and where each desire is ripened 
 and perfected and complete; where every fragment of a 
 desire is, where it has ever been, in the unity of the whole. 
 Here is the ground of our confidence, even the Heart of 
 our Father ; not in the apparent fulfilment at this moment 
 or that of our ignorant request. 
 
 In time-conditions our answer may be just as much the 
 response of Wisdom and Love when it is the ' No ' that 
 may seem to us like silent disregard, as when it is the 
 fulfilment that we understand as the 'Yes.' 
 
 ' The true doctrine of peace in Prayer is stated by St. John with 
 perfect simplicity and clearness, namely, that no unanswered prayer is 
 lost. Somewhere are laid up all those intercessions that seemed to be 
 in vain all answered, converted into better, sweeter, nobler things than 
 it was in us to ask or think. " Beloved, we know that we have " we 
 know it are aware of it as simple matter of fact "that we are in 
 possession of all the gifts we have begged of Him." Nothing more 
 sad than to pray and agonize with all faculties day after day, and to 
 rise, when all is over, and say : " He has not given it me. He knows 
 best, I submit, but He has not heard my prayer." Nothing more 
 strong, nothing more pure than the insight which John gives, " He has 
 heard me, I know not how. I shall know. Till then I would not 
 unpray one prayer. I do not fear to have been presumptuous. I could 
 not bear to think of having prayed less or less intensely. I have the 
 petition I have asked of Him. I know it."' ARCHBISHOP BENSON. 
 
 357
 
 The Contemplative^ are swept up the Golden Stairway, 
 Dante and Beatrice following in their train. They 
 thence survey the Universe. 
 
 - ( XXXVII ) _ 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO XXII. 97-105, 124-137. 
 
 COSI mi disse, ed indi si ricolse 
 Al suo collegio ; e '1 collegio si strinse : 
 Poi, come turbo, in su tutto s' avvolse. 
 La dolce Donna dietro a lor mi pinse 100 
 
 Con un sol cenno su per quella scala ; 
 
 Si sua virtu la mia natura vinse. 
 Ne mai quaggiu, dove si monta e cala 
 
 Naturalmente, fu si ratto moto, 
 
 Ch' agguagliar si potesse alia mia ala. 105 
 
 * * * * * 
 
 Tu se' si presso all' ultima salute, 
 
 Comincio Beatrice, che tu dei 125 
 
 Aver le luci tue chiare ed acute. 
 E pero, prima che tu piu t' inlei, 
 
 Rimira in giuso, e vedi quanto mondo 
 
 Sotto li piedi gia esser ti lei ; 
 Si che '1 tuo cuor, quantunque pub, giocondo 130 
 
 S' appresenti alia turba trionfante, 
 
 Che lieta vien per questo etereo tondo. 
 Col viso ritornai per tutte quante 
 
 Le sette spere, e vidi questo globo 
 
 Tal, ch'io sorrisi del suo vil sembiante. 135 
 
 E quel consiglio per miglior approbo 
 
 Che 1' ha per meno. 
 
 358
 
 ' That my free soul may use her wing, 
 Which now is pinioned with mortalitie, 
 As an intanglcd, hampered thing.'' 
 
 ( XXXVII ) 
 
 WHEN St. Benedict ceased speaking, he with his 
 circle of contemplative spirits who had descended 
 the Golden Stairway to welcome Dante were gathered 
 together and swept upward like a whirlwind. 
 
 Beatrice, as Celestial VYisdom, urged her disciple onward 
 and upward in their track. It was in her strength and in 
 her power of vision that his earthly heaviness was overcome, 
 and that he found himself gathered up into the flight of 
 those who went before. The laws of Spirit, at one now 
 with his own essential being, carry on his upward tendency 
 more easily and swiftly than the body on Earth is impelled 
 by its own natural laws of motion. 
 
 Even before our spiritual faculties are developed, the 
 companionship and the words of those above ourselves do, 
 for a time at least, carry us into regions of thought, or hope, 
 or love, or prayer beyond our own. Is not this a promise 
 that we also belong to these heavenly hills, and may find 
 our home there when our true nature is in right supremacy ? 
 
 The ascent by this Golden Stairway of union with the 
 ascended and ever-ascending Son of Man suggests neither 
 effort nor difficulty ; it is either impossible to a man, or it 
 is a yielding to a force of Spirit beyond his own. 
 
 Line 124. Before Dante becomes aware of any fresh 
 revelation, even as he is being caught upwards, he is told 
 by Beatrice that he is now so near the last Salvation, or his 
 saving health, that he may look downwards with unclouded 
 and piercing eyes, and behold the vast Universe at his feet. 
 Such a vision will, she says, make his heart glad, and ready 
 to beat in unison with the triumphant joy of the heavenly 
 host above. 
 
 359
 
 The Soul's vision of the Universe. 
 (XXXVII ) - 
 
 The marvellous picture of this transcendent survey may 
 be contrasted with that shown to our Lord from the exceed- 
 ing high mountain whence all the kingdoms of the world 
 were perceived in a moment of time, their glory and 
 authority laid at his feet and promised to Him by 'the 
 World Ruler of this darkness.' Eph. vi. 12, N.V. 
 
 The endeavour of that deceitful Magician was to magnify 
 the importance of the world's allegiance in the eyes of Him 
 who would indeed sacrifice Himself (but not Truth) to save 
 the world loved by the Father. Here the Divine Wisdom 
 would teach her Disciple to weigh and measure in the 
 Balances of Truth, the Heavens, the Creation, and the 
 World. In the light of God, he smiles at the 'ignoble 
 semblance ' of this world, ignoble not as to size alone, we 
 are sure. He calls it 'the little threshing-floor that makes 
 us so proud,' as if its chief purpose were to thresh the wheat 
 of righteousness from the chaff of semblances ; he would 
 count its glories and honours as less than nothing to the 
 wise. He is enlightened, also, concerning the vast propor- 
 tions of the framework of Creation, things visible and 
 invisible, and sees the little speck of the Earth in due 
 relationship to the whole. 
 
 ' That which we call vastness is, rightly considered, not 
 more wonderful, not more impressive than that which we 
 insolently call littleness ; and the infinity of God is not 
 mysterious, it is only unfathomable ; not concealed, but 
 incomprehensible ; it is a clear Infinity, the darkness of the 
 pure unsearchable Sea.' -J. RUSKIN. 
 
 360
 
 The moral worth of man, incommensurate with Sense. 
 - ( XXXVII ) 
 
 The inspired words of Isaiah may have been brought to 
 his mind as they are to ours by this wonderful survey. ' He 
 hath measured the waters in the hollow of His Hand . . . 
 and comprehended the dust of the Earth in a measure, 
 and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a 
 balance. . . . Behold, the Nations are as a drop of a 
 bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance ; 
 behold, He taketh up the isles as a very little thing. . . . 
 Lift up your eyes on high and behold who hath created 
 these, that bringeth out their host by number. He calleth 
 them all by names, by the greatness of His might ; for that 
 He is strong in power not one faileth.' 
 
 The disciple learning, as Isaiah did, that Time and Space 
 are nothing to the infinite, all-pervading Spirit, who is the 
 Sustainer and Substance of the whole life, would at the 
 same time be taught, as Isaiah was, that the moral worth 
 of man is not touched by these finite measurements. In 
 the midst of vastness he will not say, ' My way is hid from 
 the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God,' 
 for, as it is expressed at the beginning of the verses quoted 
 above (Isa. xl.), the Infinite One 'feeds His flock as a 
 Shepherd and carries the lambs in His bosom. It is He 
 that giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no 
 might He increaseth strength.' Isa. xl. 12, 15, 26; also 
 v. ii and 29. 
 
 361
 
 bird awaiting the Sun-rise. 
 
 ( XXXVIII ) 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO XXIII. 1-15. 
 
 COME 1' augello, intra 1' 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 gli pasca, 5 
 
 In che i gravi labor gli sono grati, 
 Previene '1 tempo in su 1' aperta frasca, 
 
 E con ardente affetto il Sole aspetta, 
 
 Fiso guardando, pur che 1' alba nasca ; 
 Cosi la Donna mia si stava eretta 10 
 
 Ed attenta, rivolta inver la plaga 
 
 Sotto la quale il Sol mostra men fretta : 
 Si che veggendola io sospesa e vaga, 
 
 Fecimi quale e quei che disiando 
 
 Altro vorria, e sperando s' appaga. 1 5 
 
 Dante has already twice taken his illustrations of God's living 
 relationship with His creatures from bird life : once in Canto XVIII. I io, 
 
 ' From Him doth flow 
 That power which makes each creature's nest its care ' 
 
 (Plumptre's Translation), 
 or, in Longfellow's more literal words, 
 
 ' From Him is remembered 
 That virtue which is form unto the nest.' 
 
 Again, in Canto XX. 74-78, the Lark's silent rapture in the last sweetness 
 
 of her song is compared to 
 
 ' The imprint 
 
 Of the Eternal pleasure, by whose will 
 Doth everything become the thing it is.' 
 
 362
 
 * How often would I have gathered thy children together, 
 even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings.' 
 MATT, xxiii. 37. 
 
 - ( XXXVIII ) 
 
 IT is remarkable that, immediately after the magnificent 
 survey of the whole Universe, with which the last 
 Canto closes, we should be led to concentrate our attention 
 on the nest of the Mother-bird and her brood ; perhaps lest 
 we should be lost in the terrible interstellar spaces, and 
 forget the intimate connection of the ' Inward Father ' with 
 each sentient creature of His creation. 
 
 In the Parable from Nature before us, satisfied with its 
 perfection as a Poem, we might perhaps fail to read the 
 spiritual significance of its details, and its relation to the 
 preceding Canto 
 
 The Mother-bird's care and love for her ' sweet brood ' is 
 dwelt upon ; her fostering watch over them through the 
 dark hours remembered ; her yearning love to behold them 
 again in the light, and her anxiety to feed them again, ' when 
 her heaviest labours will be welcome to her,' are carefully 
 noted. She is pointed out to us as keen to be on the wing, 
 anticipating the dawn with eager outlook, and with ardent 
 affection awaiting the sunrise. Such had been the fostering 
 care of the disciple's spiritual life by Beatrice, as repre- 
 sentative of the Divine Motherhood, and such was the rapt 
 expectation he now read in her countenance, as she gazed 
 towards the uprising Sun. He was taught, by beholding 
 her thus, to desire, to yearn, and to hope with her. For 
 by the ladder of heavenly Contemplation they have been 
 translated into the Eighth Heaven, the Sphere of the fixed 
 Stars, and they are here to await even fuller revelations of 
 the knowledge of the Glory of God. 
 
 ' The Power which built the starry dome on high 
 And poised the vaulted rafters of the sky, 
 Teaches the linnet with unconscious breast 
 To round the inverted Heaven of her nest.' 
 
 (Quoted in Longfellow's notes.) 
 
 363
 
 The Vision of the Sun that kindles myriads of Lamps. 
 . ( XXXIX ) 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO XXIII. 19-30. 
 
 E BEATRICE disse : Ecco le schiere 
 Del trionfo di Cristo, e tutto '1 frutto 20 
 
 Ricolto del girar di queste spere. 
 Pareami che '1 suo viso ardesse tutto ; 
 E gli occhi avea di letizia si pieni, 
 Che passar mi convien senza costrutto. 
 Quale ne' plenilun'ii sereni 25 
 
 Trivia ride tra le ninfe eterne, 
 Che dipingono '1 ciel per tutti i seni ; 
 Vid' io sopra migliaia di lucerne 
 
 Un Sol, che tutte quante 1' accendea, 
 
 Come fa '1 nostro le viste superne. 30 
 
 3 6 4
 
 ' The Lord cometh with ten thousands of His Saints' 
 
 JUDE 14. 
 
 - ( XXXIX ) 
 
 THE vision of Christ as a lightning gleam upon the 
 Cross, flashing forth in the whiteness of dawn in the 
 midst of the ruddy Mars, was the only manifestation of 
 Himself hitherto granted to the ascending Disciple. Re- 
 garding that experience his words were very few ; he could 
 find none, with all his genius, to utter that which his memory 
 recalled. He had to appeal to those who take up their Cross 
 and follow Christ to excuse his attempting to describe what 
 he saw ; for they, he says, have seen Him also, and they know 
 the vision to be incommunicable. Those only who have the 
 Spirit of Christ can behold Him, whether in His humiliation 
 or in His glory. 
 
 The Revelation now made to the spiritual man is a 
 further advance into the vision of Him as He is the fulfil- 
 ment of the Divine volition of Christ : ' Father, I will that 
 they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where 
 I am ; that they may behold My glory.' John xvii. 24. 
 Beatrice's wistful yearning gaze, with which he has joined 
 his own, has prepared him for this supreme effulgence. 
 One more glimpse such as this, yet more wondrous still, is 
 to be the Crown of all that has been vouchsafed to him. 
 The three visions the mystery of Christ on the Cross, 
 Christ in glory with His victorious band of Saints and 
 Angels, and Christ in the bosom of the Father reveal to 
 us the unmeasured reach of the blessed inheritor of the 
 Kingdom of Heaven. After a very short pause of yearning 
 hope and expectation the whole Heavens become more and 
 more resplendent. Beatrice's glowing face and eyes of ecstasy 
 are aflame with the reflected glory, as she exclaims : 
 
 ' Behold the hosts 
 
 Of Christ's triumphal march, and all the fruit 
 Harvested by the rolling of these spheres.'
 
 The Triumph of Christ. 
 -(XXXIX)_ 
 
 (Continued from last page.) 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO XXIII. 3I - 4 5. 
 
 E per la viva luce trasparea 
 
 La lucente sustanzia tanto chiara, 
 
 Che lo mio viso non la sostenea. 
 Oh Beatrice, dolce guida e cara ! 
 
 Ella mi disse : Quel che ti sobranza 35 
 
 E virtu, da cui nulla si ripara. 
 Quivi e la sapienza e la possanza 
 
 Ch' apri la strada tra '1 cielo e la terra, 
 
 Onde fu gia si lunga disianza. 
 Come fuoco di nube si disserra, 40 
 
 Per dilatarsi si che non vi cape, 
 
 E fuor di sua natura in giu s' atterra ; 
 Cos! la mente mia, tra quelle dape 
 
 Fatta piu grande, di se stessa uscio, 
 
 E che si fesse rimembrar non sape. 45 
 
 ?66
 
 ' Nothing is hid from the heat thereof.' 
 ( XXXIX ) 
 
 Above ten thousand burning lamps he saw ' A Sun that 
 one and all of them enkindled ' the living Sun of whom our 
 Sun is the faint image and emanation, the Kindler and Source 
 of all Light. He beholds the Divine Substance through the 
 living Light that vestures Him, and is overwhelmed by it ; 
 his eyes were not yet conditioned by the Light to bear the 
 Light. Beatrice tells him that nothing can shield itself from 
 the potency of this piercing Light. ' His countenance was 
 as the Sun that shineth in his strength ' are the words of the 
 beloved Apostle who had lain on the breast of the Lord in 
 His days of humiliation ; yet, he says, after beholding Him 
 in glory, ' When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead.' 
 
 Beatrice affirms that the thoroughfares between heaven 
 and earth had been opened by the Wisdom and Omnipo- 
 tence centred in the Light before him 'the Mystery which 
 from all ages had been hidden ' and yearned for (Eph. iii. 9), 
 now made manifest to His Saints in the image of the invisible 
 God, the first-born of all Creation (Col. i. 15). The Disciple 
 knows that, as he gazed, his mind escaped its former boun- 
 daries ; he was more than himself, but knows not what 
 he became. He sinks under the overwhelming revelation, 
 and in vain tries to bring it back to his mind, whilst he 
 retains the emotion and wonder it has produced. Beatrice 
 recalls his eyes to herself, for he must not gaze longer, and 
 he is now able to bear her smile, after the glimpse of a 
 glory that so far excelled all other. These things are unutter- 
 able ; he says, further on, that he finds his way cut off from 
 representing Paradise. He thinks, when the ponderous 
 theme is realized, that he cannot be blamed if the mortal 
 shoulder trembles under it. 
 
 ' It is no passage for a little boat, 
 This which goes cleaving the audacious prow, 
 Nor for a pilot who would spare himself.' (67-69.) 
 
 367
 
 Beatrice directs the eyes of Dante beyond her face to the 
 Garden of the Rose and the Lilies. 
 
 (XL) - 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO XXIII. 70-87. 
 
 PERCHE la faccia mia si t' innamora, 70 
 
 Che tu non ti rivolgi al bel giardino, 
 Che sotto i raggi di Cristo s' infiora ? 
 Quivi e la rosa, in che '1 Verbo divino 
 
 Carne si fece ; e quivi son li gigli, 
 
 Al cui odor si prese '1 buon cammino. 75 
 
 Cosi Beatrice. Ed io, che a' suoi consigli 
 
 Tutto era pronto, ancora mi rendei 
 
 Alia battaglia de' debili cigli. 
 Come a raggio di Sol, che puro mei 
 
 Per fratta nube, gia prato di fiori 80 
 
 Vider, coperti d' ombra, gli occhi miei ; 
 Vid' io cosi piu turbe di splendori 
 
 Fulgorati di su da raggi ardenti, 
 
 Sanza veder principio di fulgori. 
 O benigna virtu, che si gl' imprenti, 85 
 
 Su t' esaltasti per largirmi loco 
 
 Agli occhi li che non eran possenti. 
 
 368
 
 ' soaring Soul ! faint not nor tire ! 
 Each Heaven attained reveals a higher !' 
 
 - (XL) 
 
 THE Eighth Heaven, called the heaven of the Fixed 
 Stars, moved by the Cherubim, seems manifested as 
 a region of Vision, rather than as an allotted stage of the 
 differentiating glory of any one circle of Saints. 
 
 The Contemplatives had been swept up the Golden 
 Stairway, and in their track the ' Soaring Soul,' urged 
 upwards by the Celestial Wisdom. There seems to have 
 been a descending stream of glory to meet this ascent. 
 
 The Beatific Vision was not even yet to be reached and 
 endured by One who, notwithstanding the abundance of 
 the revelations granted to him, was still under some of the 
 limitations of the body. 
 
 The dazzling Glory had been withdrawn in loving kind- 
 ness to give more scope to the eyes that were too weak to 
 bear it. Beatrice counselled him to look around and behold 
 the flowers of the Garden, blossoming under the rays of 
 Christ. She points out the Blessed Virgin and the Saints ; 
 the first as ' the Rose in which the Word Divine became 
 incarnate,' and ' the Lilies by whose perfume the good way 
 was discovered' (73-75). A living thought indeed, and not 
 merely poetic imagery, to those who, having been blind 
 perhaps to the Truth, have yet been attracted to its Way 
 by the aroma of loving and beautiful lives ! 
 
 Dante must again make further effort to obtain the 
 victory of the Spirit over his frail and over-tasked capacity 
 of Vision. He tells us that, as he had formerly looked on 
 a sunlit meadow of flowers, himself under the shadow of the 
 cloud from which the rays had broken forth and illumined 
 the meadow, in like manner he was enabled now to behold 
 the blessed ones in the Garden of God, because of the 
 gracious veiling of the dazzling splendour from his eyes. 
 
 369 24
 
 Beatrice's intercession to the Elect for living water 
 for Dante. 
 
 - ( XLI ) - 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO XXIV. 1-9. 
 
 OSODALIZIO eletto alia gran cena 
 Del benedetto Agnello, il qual vi ciba 
 Si, che la vostra voglia e sempre plena ; 
 Se per grazia di Dio questi preliba 
 Di quel che cade della vostra mensa, 
 Anzi che morte tempo gli prescriba, 
 Ponete mente alia sua voglia immensa, 
 E roratelo alquanto : voi bevete 
 Sempre del fonte onde vien quel ch' ei pensa. 
 
 37
 
 ' Steadfast in the Faith.' 
 
 ( XLI ) 
 
 THE intercommunion of those whom ' God hath 
 quickened together with Christ and raised up with 
 Him and made to sit with Him in the Heavenly places ' 
 (Eph. ii. 5-7) is fully realized and expressed in the opening 
 lines of this Canto. 
 
 This quickened Spirit beholds the blessed Company at 
 the great Supper of the Lamb, who is ever satisfying their 
 desires. The ' immense desire ' of the soaring Soul to par- 
 take of some crumbs that fall from the plenitude of the 
 Divinely spread Table is expressed for him by Beatrice, his 
 Soul's Soul ; she says : 
 
 ' Ye drinking are 
 Forever at the Fount whence comes his thought. ' 
 
 He says later, that he cannot picture the joyous movements 
 and songs that responded to this invocation, for that our 
 imagination is too coarse for such 'folds' or involutions, 
 and our language has too glaring tints. We know there are 
 sounds in the physical world far too delicate for our organs 
 of hearing, and colours that transcend our range of vision. 
 How much more must escape our blunted spiritual capacities ! 
 Yet how apt we are, when we perceive nothing, to say there 
 is nothing to perceive ! 
 
 The three Apostles chosen by our Lord for beholding on 
 Earth the deeper mysteries of His life, Peter, James, and 
 John, were thought of in the early Church as Representatives 
 of Faith, Hope, and Charity. ' These Three,' as it was 
 said in the earthly Paradise, ' more profoundly see' With 
 these the Disciple of Celestial Wisdom is to be brought 
 into close Communion ; and his convictions concern- 
 ing the three Christian Virtues are unfolded to us in 
 Canto XXIV. and the two following. It is hardly possible
 
 Dante's Confession of Faith to St. Peter. 
 ( XLI ) 
 
 ( Continued from last page.) 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO XXIV. 130-147. 
 
 Ed io rispondo : Credo in uno Dio 130 
 
 Solo ed eterno, che tutto '1 ciel muove, 
 
 Non moto, con amore e con disio. 
 Ed a tal creder non ho io pur prove 
 
 Fisiche e metafisiche ; ma dalmi 
 
 Anche la verita, che quinci piove 135 
 
 Per Moise, per profeti e per salmi, 
 
 Per 1' evangelic, e per voi che scriveste, 
 
 Poi che 1' ardente Spirto vi fece almi. 
 E credo in tre Persone eterne ; e queste 
 
 Credo una essenzia si una e si trina, 140 
 
 Che soffera congiunto sono ed este. 
 Delia profonda congiunzion divina, 
 
 Ch' io tocco mo, la mente mi sigilla 
 
 Piii volte 1' evangelica dottrina. 
 Quest' e '1 principio, quest' e la favilla, 145 
 
 Che si dilata in fiamma poi vivace, 
 
 E, come Stella in cielo, in me scintilla. 
 
 372
 
 ' Persuasion and belief had ripened into faith, and faith 
 become a passionate intuition.'' 
 
 ( XLI ) - 
 
 to make extracts from them without injuring their meaning ; 
 but a few characteristic lines are quoted from each. 
 
 St. Peter first addresses Dante, and draws out from him 
 his confession of faith. His concluding words are given in 
 the second Fragment before us (line 131). The thought 
 is partly a physical explanation of the Universe. The 
 immense velocity of the Primum mobile, which moves all 
 the lower spheres, is itself caused by the desire to unite 
 itself with the Empyrean, as the abode of God. 
 
 All physical motion is deemed to originate in spiritual 
 desire and love towards the Unchanging Centre of all 
 Life. 
 
 Dante will not prove his faith, he says, by physical or 
 metaphysical arguments alone, but from the spiritual in- 
 fluences of Truth, as poured down through the channels 
 of Moses, the Prophets, the Psalms, the Gospel, and St. 
 Peter's own Epistles. In line 107 he says that, if Chris- 
 tianity were assumed to be only natural, the conversion of 
 the world would be a greater miracle than any attested by 
 its records. He declared his belief in the Unity of Essence 
 and the Trinity of Persons of the Divine Being (line 141). 
 
 'When I endeavour to contemplate the One Eternal 
 Glory, it resolves itself into Three ; when I would gaze upon 
 the Three, they blend into One.' ST. GREGORY NAZTANZKN. 
 
 We are led in the last three lines of our portion for to-day 
 to consider the relation between the spark of living Truth 
 within and the sparks of external teaching and testimony; 
 by this confluence, as it were, the vivid flame is engendered 
 which becomes the abiding and lucent star in the soul's 
 heaven. Compare 2 Peter i. 19. 
 
 373
 
 Dante's Confession of Hope as the certain expectation 
 of future Glory. 
 
 ( XLII ) 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO XXV. 52-57, 67-78. 
 
 LA Chiesa militante alcun figliuolo 
 Non ha con piii speranza, com' e scritto 
 Nel Sol che raggia tutto nostro stuolo. 
 Perb gli e conceduto che d' Egitto 55 
 
 Vegna in Gerusalemme per vedere, 
 
 Anzi che '1 militar gli sia prescritto. 
 
 ***** 
 Speme, diss' io, e uno attender certo 
 
 Delia gloria futura, il qual produce 
 
 Grazia divina e precedente merto. 
 Da molte stelle mi vien questa luce ; 70 
 
 Ma quei la distillo nel mio cor pria, 
 
 Che fu sommo cantor del sommo Duce. 
 Sperino in te, nell' alta tt-odia 
 
 Dice, color che sanno '1 nome tuo : 
 
 E chi nol sa, s' egli ha la fede mia? 75 
 
 Tu mi stillasti con lo stillar suo 
 
 Nella pistola poi ; si ch' io son pieno, 
 
 Ed in altrui vostra pioggia ripluo. 
 
 374
 
 ' Joyful through Hope.' 
 
 ( XLII ) 
 
 THE Disciple, having shown himself as ' steadfast in 
 the Faith,' is blest by St. Peter, and rejoiced over 
 by him, in the Spirit of the Master who had welcomed the 
 Apostle's own confession of God-revealed Truth when on 
 Earth. 
 
 A few opening lines of this Canto express the memory of 
 the beautiful Baptistery of St. John at Florence, where Dante 
 was baptized into the Faith. A personal hope springs up 
 as he glances backwards to that ' fair sheepfold, where, a 
 lamb, he slumbered,' that his poem would overcome the 
 hatred of his fellow-citizens, and that he might return to 
 that very font and receive there the Poet's crown. From 
 this touching visionary hope (unfulfilled, at least, as he 
 pictured it) Beatrice recalls him by pointing out to him 
 with ecstasy the Apostolic Representative of Hope. This 
 is St. James the Greater, the son of Zebedee, who was 
 supposed by Dante to be the writer of the Epistle of 
 St. James. 
 
 Beatrice speaks to St. James of Dante as one who pos- 
 sesses as much Hope as any child of the Church Militant, 
 and even affirms that it has been on this account that it 
 ' was conceded to him to come out from Egypt into Jeru- 
 salem, before his earthly warfare is accomplished.' He is 
 then encouraged to make known his definition of Hope, 
 and his grounds for Hope. The living, glowing heart of 
 Hope in St. James breathes answeringly back to him a 
 new impulse of hope, for, as it has been said in an earlier line: 
 
 1 What comes hither from the mortal world 
 Must needs be ripened in our radiance.' 
 
 The ancient and the new Scriptures, Dante says, show 
 him this sign (of Hope) ' in all whom God hath made His 
 
 375
 
 St. James welcomes Dante's Hope. 
 ( XLII ) - 
 
 ( Continued from last page. ) 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO XXV. 79-99. 
 
 Mentr' io diceva, dentro al vivo seno 
 
 Di quello incendio tremolava un lampo 80 
 
 Subito e spesso a guisa di baleno ; 
 Indi spiro : L' amore, ond' io avvampo 
 
 Ancor ver la virtu, che mi seguette 
 
 Fin alia palma ed all' uscir del campo, 
 Vuol ch' io respiri a te, che ti dilette 85 
 
 Di lei ; ed emmi a grato che tu diche 
 
 Quello che la speranza ti promette. 
 Ed io : Le nuove e le Scritture antiche 
 
 Pongono '1 segno, ed esso Io m' addita. 
 
 Dell' anime, che Dio s' ha fatte amiche, 90 
 
 Dice Isaia che ciascuna vestita 
 
 Nella sua terra fia di doppia vesta ; 
 
 E la sua terra e questa dolce vita. 
 E '1 tuo fratello assai vie piu digesta, 
 
 La dove tratta delle bianche stole, 95 
 
 Questa rivelazion ci manifesta. 
 E prima, appresso '1 fin d' este parole, 
 
 Sperent in te, di sopra noi s' udi : 
 
 Al che risposer tutte le carole. 
 
 376
 
 Hope in the ultimate Beatitude of Soul and Body. 
 ( XLII ) 
 
 friends.' We have all been baptized, and, may we say ?, by 
 our Church and our Parents prayed into the joyfulness of 
 Hope may we all find and patiently cultivate this our 
 inheritance ! 
 
 Dante applies to the ' friends of God,' sealed by Hope, 
 some words of Isaiah Ixi. 7, ' they shall possess double.' 
 
 ' Isaiah saith that each new clothed shall dwell 
 *With twofold raiment in his own true land, 
 And that land is this life delectable.' (91-93.) 
 
 One of our well-known hymns tells us that, in the bliss of 
 Heaven, ' Hope is emptied in delight.' Can this be so, 
 when the inexhaustible infinitude of God must ever extend 
 above and beyond His offspring's reach ? Supersensuous 
 Hope is ' based on the faith or insight into the knowledge 
 of God and the Final Cause of His Creation. It is thus, 
 as St. Thomas Aquinas explains it, " a sure expectation of 
 future glory." ' It is to the will what faith is to the intellect. 
 With the inequalities of insight and the vicissitudes of life, 
 Hope supports the Soul during its nights and eclipses, 
 giving steadfastness to the Will.' T. W. HARRIS. 
 
 When the communing regarding Hope is ended, the 
 disciple hears the very words he had quoted as the first 
 that poured Hope into his heart ' echoed by all the dancing 
 Sons of Light '; they are, as he said, ' by the chief singer 
 unto the chief Captain ' (sperent in Te), ' And they that 
 know Thy Name will hope (Vulg.) in Thee, for Thou, Lord, 
 hast never failed them that seek Thee.' Psalm ix. 10. 
 
 The glorification and beatitude of soul and body. 
 
 377
 
 The glorious apparition of the Apostle of Love. 
 ( XLIII ) 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO XXVI. 16-18, 25-45. 
 
 LO Ben, che fa contenta questa corte, 
 Alfa ed omega e di quanta scrittura 
 Mi legge amore o lievemente o forte. 
 * * * * * 
 
 Per filosofici argomenti, 25 
 
 E per autorita che quinci scende, 
 
 Cotale amor convien che in me s' imprenti ; 
 Che '1 bene, in quanto ben, come s' intende, 
 
 Cos! accende amore, e tanto maggio, 
 
 Quanto piu di bontate in se comprende. 30 
 
 Dunque all' essenzia, ov' e tanto avvantaggio, 
 
 Che ciascun ben, che fuor di lei si truova, 
 
 Altro non e che di suo lume un raggio, 
 Piu ch' in altra conviene che si muova 
 
 La mente, amando, di ciascun che scerne 35 
 
 Lo vero, in che si fonda qut sta pruova. 
 Tal vero allo intelletto mio sterne 
 
 Colui, che mi dimostra il primo amore 
 
 Di tutte le sustanzie sempiterne. 
 Sternel la voce del verace autore, 40 
 
 Che dice a Moise, di se parlando : 
 
 lo ti faro vedere ogni valore. 
 Sternilmi tu ancora, incominciando 
 
 L' alto preconio, che grida 1' arcano 
 
 Di qui laggiu, sovra ad ogni altro bando. 45 
 
 378
 
 ' Rooted in Charity.'' 
 ( XLIII ) 
 
 ' A ND now abideth Faith, Hope, Love, these three ; and 
 J~\. the greatest of these is Love.' 
 A brighter Splendour now approached the Two who had 
 hitherto discoursed with Dante, and Beatrice exclaimed 
 
 (XXV. 112): 
 
 ' This is the one who lay upon the breast 
 Of Him, our Pelican ; and this is he 
 To the great office from the cross elected.' 
 
 The ardent gaze of Dante, bent on discerning the aspect 
 of the Apostle of Love, consumed his power of vision. He 
 turned in vain to Beatrice ; he could not see her, ' though 
 close at her side, and in the happy world.' 
 
 While thus blinded to all but the inner perception of 
 Divine Love, his attention is concentrated on the words 
 that issued from the burning Effulgence ; he is told that 
 his Lady shall restore his sight, and that in the meantime 
 he is to express the aim of his soul and make known by 
 what influence he had bent his bow to this aim. He 
 answers (16-18) that the blessedness that satisfied that 
 region (' Lo Ben '), the Supreme Good, even the knowledge 
 of God, is the beginning and end of ' all the writing that 
 Love reads to him, either in a whisper or aloud ' the Secret 
 of Life the secret, as he adds (lines 43-45), that the Gospel 
 of the Apostle of Love, in its beginning, proclaims aloud 
 the Divine Word made known by the Lord of Love to be 
 with God and in Man. He is asked again by what 
 process his Soul was led to the true object of Love ? His 
 answer is, that Reason and Revelation alike give a basis for 
 Love. The primal Love when comprehended must needs 
 enkindle Love. No kind of good can exist apart from that 
 Divine Essence. 
 
 ' What else looks good is some shade flung from love ; 
 Love gilds it, gives it worth.' 
 
 379
 
 The Converse of St. John and Dante regarding Love. 
 ( XLIII ) - 
 
 ( C ontinucd from last page. ) 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO XXVI. 55-69. 
 
 Perb ricominciai : Tutti quei morsi, 55 
 
 Che posson far lo cuor volgere a Dio, 
 
 Alia mia caritate son concorsi ; 
 Che 1' essere del mondo e 1' esser mio, 
 
 La morte che el sostenne perche io viva, 
 
 E quel che spera ogni fedel com' io, 60 
 
 Con la predetta conoscenza viva, 
 
 Tratto m' hanno del mar dell' amor torto, 
 
 E del diritto m' han posto alia riva. 
 Le fronde, onde s' infronda tutto 1' orto 
 
 Dell' Ortolano eterno, am' io cotanto, 65 
 
 Quanto da lui a lor di bene e porto. 
 Si com' io tacqui, un dolcissimo canto 
 
 Risono per lo cielo ; e la mia Donna 
 
 Dicea con gli altri : Santo, santo, santo. 
 
 380
 
 The manifold and all-prevailing cords of Love. 
 - ( XLIII ) 
 
 Dante continues (55) that Love may capture the heart in 
 many ways, and that many means have concurred to draw 
 him from the restless ' Sea of perverse love ' and to place 
 him on the firm shore. He had been drawn to that shore 
 by the life in the Creation of God, by his own life or being, 
 by that death which Christ endured that he might live, by 
 all that the faithful hope for with him, by a vivid conscious- 
 ness of the truth revealed ; all of these had turned his heart 
 from perverse love to God's love. 
 
 As he speaks with blinded eyes we can imagine his glow- 
 ing, and now inward, vision of the ' Garden fair ' in which he 
 stood, and to which Beatrice had lately directed his eyes ; 
 his heart was throbbing with love to the Chief Good, and 
 therefore to all around him who were blossoming, as he had 
 perceived them before his blindness, under the rays of Christ. 
 He loves, he says, all the leaves that embower Christ's 
 Garden, and he knows that the sap of each plant is derived 
 from that Eternal Gardener ; he is aware, also, that the 
 love drawn from his own heart to each of these is just 
 proportioned to the good each one of these plants contains 
 of the Gardener's ingrafting. 
 
 When he ceased speaking the whole Heavens were filled 
 with music and voices, Beatrice's amongst them, singing the 
 words, 'Holy, Holy, Holy.'
 
 The Primnm Mobile or ninth Heaven entered where 
 ' they most know and most love.' 
 
 - ( XLIV ) - 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO XXVII. 100-114; XXVIII. 
 
 41-45, 70-72. 
 
 LE parti sue vivissime ed eccelse 100 
 
 Si uniformi son, ch' io non so dire 
 Qual Beatrice per luogo mi scelse. 
 Ma ella, che vedeva il mio desire, 
 
 Incomincio, ridendo tanto lieta, 
 
 Che Dio parea nel volto suo gioire : 105 
 
 La natura del moto, che qu'ieta 
 
 II mezzo, e tutto 1' altro intorno move, 
 
 Quinci comincia come da sua meta. 
 E questo cielo non ha altro dove 
 
 Che la mente divina, in che s' accende no 
 
 L' amor che '1 volge e la virtu ch' ei piove. 
 Luce ed amor d' un cerchio lui comprende, 
 
 Si come questo gli altri ; e quel precinto 
 
 Colui che '1 cinge solamente intende. 
 
 * * * * -sf- 
 
 Da quel punto XXVIII. 41 
 Depende il cielo e tutta la natura. 
 Mira quel cerchio che piu gli e congiunto, 
 E sappi che '1 suo muovere e si tosto 
 Per 1' affocato amore ond' egli e punto. 45 
 
 * * * * * 
 
 Dunque costui, che tutto quanto rape 70 
 
 L' alto universe seco, corrisponde 
 Al cerchio che piu ama e che piu sape. 
 
 382
 
 The Angelic Temple whose only walls are 
 Light and Love. 
 
 - ( XLIV ) 
 
 IF Love blinds the eyes, it is in order to bestow a deeper 
 and further-reaching power of vision. The blinding 
 of the Disciple passed away like a dream, every mote was 
 chased from his eyes ; his spiritual vision became clearer 
 than before, through the radiance of the Celestial Wisdom, 
 'in whose countenance God seemed to rejoice.' This 
 aspect of Beatrice impels Dante upwards into the next 
 Heaven, the ninth, and the swiftest in motion. 
 
 We are here led away from semblances and similitudes, 
 from locality, time, and space, into the Divine Mind itself, 
 wherein is kindled the Love that moves and encircles this 
 swiftly revolving Sphere. 
 
 In the physical Cosmos (of Ptolemaic Astronomy) this 
 Primum Mobile moves with a marvellous velocity (as it is 
 supposed) through its intense desire to unite itself with the 
 calm, motionless Empyrean which is the dwelling-place of 
 God. 
 
 ' In the Spiritual Cosmos Love is also, in like manner, the cause of the 
 rapid motion of the Innermost Circle of the Seraphim who excel in 
 ove and are nearest to the Divine Presence ' (Dean Plumptre). 
 
 'Be ye holy, for I am holy,' and ' Be ye therefore perfect, 
 as your Father in Heaven is perfect' are commands of pro- 
 phetic import, unfolding to us that we are born for perfec- 
 tion and can find no resting-place short of our Divine 
 inheritance. This ninth Heaven represents, then, this Circle 
 of perfection, where spirits are most purely conjoined with 
 the Eternal Being of God. These are they ' who love most 
 and know most,' who are the most ardently desirous of 
 partaking, ever more and more, of His infinite Love and 
 Truth never satiated, but ever satisfied, in zealous activity 
 and in profound vision. 
 
 383
 
 Beatrice unfolds the mystery of the Hierarchies. Blessed- 
 ness consists in the Vision that awakens Love. 
 
 ( XLV ) 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO XXVIII. 97-114. 
 
 EQUELLA, che vedeva i pensier dubi 
 Nella mia mente, disse : I cerchi primi 
 T' hanno mostrato i Serafi e i Cherubi. 
 Cos! veloci seguono i suoi vimi, 100 
 
 Per simigliarsi al punto, quanto ponno ; 
 
 E posson quanto a veder son sublirhi. 
 Quegli altri amor, che dintorno gli vonno, 
 
 Si chiaman Troni del divino aspetto ; 
 
 Per che '1 primo ternaro terminonno. 105 
 
 E dei saver che tutti hanno diletto, 
 
 Quanto la sua veduta si profonda 
 
 Nel Vero, in che si queta ogn' intelletto. 
 Quinci si pub veder come si fonda 
 
 L' esser beato nell' atto che vede, no 
 
 Non in quel ch' ama, che poscia seconda. 
 E del vedere misura e mercede, 
 
 Che grazia partorisce e buona voglia ; 
 
 Cos! di grado in grade si procede. 
 
 384
 
 And like a Star in Heaven the Truth was seen.' 
 
 _ ( XLV ) : 
 
 THE Polar Star for all hearts and minds is at length 
 discovered. The false centre of gravity, Self, was 
 left in the pit of dark isolation and death far below ; the 
 Soul has now found its own Country of Love and Truth, 
 and knows the pulsation of circulating Life Eternal in God 
 and in His harmonious and vital Universe. 
 
 ' I heard them sing Hosanna choir by choir 
 To the fixed Point which holds them at the Ubi' 
 
 (at the appointed place, or in true order). 
 
 Beatrice unfolds the mystery of the Hierarchies who 
 encircle the Point of Light. Each Angelic Order moves 
 the Heaven inversely correlated to it. 
 
 Those who desire to comprehend Dante's marvellous and 
 complicated conception of the natural and moral scheme 
 of the Universe are advised to study Chapter II. of Miss 
 Rossetti's ' Shadow of Dante.' 
 These Angelic Hierarchies 
 
 ' All have delight 
 
 As much as their own vision penetrates 
 The Truth, in which all intellect finds rest.' 
 
 Blessed contrast to the reiteration we hear as the restless 
 waves of Time break upon our shores ! What is Truth ? 
 What is Truth? The faculty of discerning the Truth is 
 declared here by Dante to be anterior to that of loving the 
 Truth. 
 
 Beatrice speaks of the Creation of the Angels in answer 
 to an unspoken question of the Disciple's. The outburst 
 of Creation as a glorious manifestation of Love, by some 
 necessity of the Divine Nature, is wonderfully conveyed to 
 
 385 25
 
 The Creation of the Angels. 
 (XLV) 
 
 ( Continued from last page.) 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO XXIX. 13-21. 
 
 Non per avere a se di bene acquisto, 
 
 Ch' esser non pub, ma perche suo splendore 
 Potesse, risplendendo, dir : Sussisto ; 1 5 
 
 In sua eternita, di tempo fuore, 
 
 Fuor d' ogni altro comprender, come i piacque, 
 S' aperse in nuovi amor 1' eterno amore. 
 
 Ne prima, quasi torpente, si giacque ; 
 
 Che ne prima ne poscia procedette 20 
 
 Lo discorrer di Dio sovra quest' acque. 
 
 386
 
 The Eternal Love unfolded into new Loves. 
 ( XLV ) 
 
 us in these lines (13-18). To the three last (19 to 21) we 
 may find a very helpful Commentary in some words of 
 Tennyson : 
 
 ' " Let there be light, and there was light "; 'tis so : 
 For was, and is, and will be, are but is ; 
 And all creation is one act at once, 
 The birth of light ; but we that are not all, 
 As parts, can see but parts, now this, now that, 
 And live, perforce from thought to thought, and make 
 One Act a phantom of succession : thus 
 Our weakness somehow shapes the shadow, Time. ' 
 
 The nature of the Angels is spoken of, and the fall of 
 Lucifer through presumption ; he had been seen by Dante 
 as ' one constrained by all the burden of the World.' The 
 faithful Angels are described as ' modest ' and so ' apt for 
 more exalted vision.' 
 
 Memory is not necessary to them, it is said, for their 
 vision of God's countenance has never been interrupted, 
 and they read there all that was and is. In the Eternal 
 Present of God, as well as His Eternal Presence, there is 
 no room for the painful pathos of the Past. 
 
 Beatrice then deplores the distortion of truth below, 
 where men somnambulate in their love of appearances, and 
 shepherds are said (as in Lycidas) to feed their flocks 
 with wind rather than with pasture. 
 
 We are constantly reminded, even in the very highest 
 flights of the Spirit, that those on earth are intertwined 
 with the heavenly hosts ; and the heavens are seen to blush 
 at the wrongs done below, especially those done by the 
 representatives of spiritual powers ' a devil's graft on God's 
 foundation-stone.' 
 
 387
 
 The Empyrean entered. Dante's vision quenched by over- 
 powering Light, then rekindled with stronger power. 
 
 ( XLVI ) 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO XXX. 37-60. 
 
 CON atto e voce di spedito duce 
 Ricomincib : Noi semo usciti fuore 
 Del maggior corpo al ciel ch' e pura luce ; 
 
 Luce intellettual piena d' amore, 40 
 
 Amor di vero ben pien di letizia, 
 Letizia che trascende ogni dolzore. 
 
 Qui vederai 1' una e 1' altra milizia 
 Di Paradiso ; e 1' una in quegli aspetti 
 Che tu vedrai all' ultima giustizia. 45 
 
 Come subito lampo che discetti 
 Gli spiriti visivi, si che priva 
 Dell' atto 1' occhio de' piu forti obbietti ; 
 
 Cos! mi circonfulse luce viva, 
 
 E lasciommi fasciato di tal velo 50 
 
 Del suo fulgor, che nulla m' appariva. 
 
 Sempre 1' Amor, che queta questo cielo, 
 Accoglie in se con si fatta salute, 
 Per far disposto a sua fiamma il candelo. 
 
 Non fur piu tosto dentro a me venute 55 
 
 Queste parole brevi, ch' io compresi 
 Me sormontar di sopra a mia virtute ; 
 
 E di novella vista mi raccesi 
 
 Tale, che nulla luce e tanto mera, 
 
 Che gli occhi miei non si fosser difesi. 60 
 
 388
 
 ' Life's self is nourished by its proper pith, 
 And we are nurtured like a Pelican brood.' 
 
 ( XLVI ) 
 
 IN our last passage it seemed, indeed, as though the 
 spiritual capacities of the New Man were enlarged to 
 their uttermost to receive of the fulness of God ; yet there 
 is here a further entrance from the holy precincts into the 
 pure Light Itself. The Truth is not now discerned as the 
 Star above, but as an enswathing veil of living flashing light 
 inbreathed, incorporating itself with the whole personality 
 of this Child of Light. His former capacity of vision must 
 again through this overwhelming experience be obliterated. 
 Beatrice assures him that such is ever the welcome or 
 ' perfect Salute ' given by Love into this Heaven of stillness 
 ' To make the candle ready for its flame.' 
 
 Hitherto, perhaps, reflected light has been the only 
 conscious portion of the New Man ; though Christ, the 
 Hope of Glory, burnt within, the Disciple could but feel 
 that Christ was there as a Star imprisoned and entombed 
 by his own limitations ; but now the Child of Light is to be 
 more than the Light-Bearer ; he is to be himself a flame of 
 light, every atom of body, soul, and spirit imbued with 
 substance for the crowning, consuming flame. 
 
 ' No sooner had within me these brief words 
 An entrance found, than I perceived myself 
 To be uplifted over my own power, 
 And I with vision new rekindled me 
 Such that no light whatever is so pure 
 But that mine eyes would meet it with repose? 
 
 To meet fresh Light with repose knowing ourselves as to 
 the manner born is a glorious thought ! The Light within 
 and the Light without may be compared now to 
 
 ' Two meteors of expanding flame, 
 Those spheres instinct with it become the same, 
 Burning, yet ever inconsumable ; 
 In one another's substance finding food.' 
 
 ' Epipsychidion.' 
 
 389
 
 
 Dante's newly -kindled power of vision perceives the imagery 
 which is preface to the Truth, as a River. 
 
 - ( XLVII ) 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO XXX. 61-81. 
 
 EVIDI lume in forma di riviera 
 Fulvido di fulgori, intra duo rive 
 Dipinte di mirabil primavera. 
 Di tal fiumana uscian faville vive, 
 
 E d' ogni parte si mescean ne' fiori, 65 
 
 Quasi rubini ch' oro circoscrive. 
 Poi, come inebriate dagli odori, 
 
 Riprofondavan se nel miro gurge ; 
 
 E s' una entrava, un' altra n' uscia fuori. 
 L' alto disio, che mo t' infiamma ed urge 70 
 
 D' aver notizia di cio che tu vei, 
 
 Tanto mi piace piu quanto piu turge. 
 Ma di quest' acqua convien che tu bei 
 
 Prima che tanta sete in te si sazii : 
 
 Cos! mi disse il Sol degli occhi miei. 75 
 
 Anche soggiunse : II fiume, e li topazii 
 
 Ch' entrano ed escono, e '1 rider dell' erbe 
 
 Son di lor vero ombriferi prefazii ; 
 Non che da se sien queste cose acerbe, 
 
 Ma e il difetto dalla parte tua, 80 
 
 Che non hai viste ancor tanto superbe. 
 
 39
 
 ' The new receptivity deserves 
 The new completion' 
 
 - ( XLVII ) 
 
 WITH newly kindled power of vision, ' with the whole 
 body full of light,' Dante is able to perceive un- 
 dazzled the imagery which he describes. 
 
 A river of Light reveals itself to him, between two banks 
 adorned with a wonderful Season of Spring ; it seemed to 
 him that living ruby sparks issued from the effulgent torrent 
 and sank into the flowers on the banks, and again, as though 
 inebriate with odours, they plunged into the living waters of 
 Light. Beatrice tells him he has seen ' unripe ' (acerbo) 
 imagery only, which but ' dimly prefaces ' the truths to be 
 revealed later. She says this unripeness proceeds from his 
 own incompleteness of vision. He must drink of that water 
 of Light and Life, and bathe his eyes in it, before his great 
 thirst to behold truly can be slaked. The river itself, clear 
 and splendid as it is, he will find, when he has tasted of it 
 and bathed his eyes in it, will broaden out into a wide 
 circular Sea, and the lovely, sparkling, moving jewels will 
 become living organizations. The heaven-taught eye of 
 the true Seer will ever in its growing powers behold the 
 enlargement of Truth, which can never be stereotyped, for it 
 is Infinite. The Truth changes not (as Beatrice affirms), 
 but ' we have to grow up info Him (Who is Truth) in all 
 things.' 
 
 1 In the higher world, it is not as in our dark dwelling-place, wherein 
 sounds can be compared only with sounds, colours with colours, and a 
 substance only with that which is directly related to it. There all things 
 are more closely related with each other. There the light is sounding ; 
 melody produces light ; colours have motion because they are living, 
 and the objects are all at once sounding, transparent and moving, and 
 can penetrate each other.' ST. MARTIN. 
 
 391
 
 Dante, after bathing his eyes in the River of Light, 
 perceives it transformed into a circular Ocean. 
 
 ( XLVIII ) 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO XXX. 82-99. 
 
 NON e fantin che si subito rua 
 Col volto verso il latte, se si svegli 
 Molto tardato dall' usanza sua, 
 Come fee' io, per far migliori spegli 85 
 
 Ancor degli occhi, chinandomi all' onda 
 
 Che si deriva, perche vi s' immegli. 
 E si come di lei bevve la gronda 
 
 Delle palpebre mie, cosi mi parve 
 
 Di sua lunghezza divenuta tonda. 90 
 
 Poi come gente stata sotto larve, 
 
 Che pare altro che prima, se si sveste 
 
 La sembianza non sua in che disparve ; 
 Cosi mi si cambiaro in maggior feste 
 
 Li fiori e le faville, si ch' io vidi 95 
 
 Ambo le corti del ciel manifeste. 
 O isplendor di Dio, per cu' io vidi 
 
 L' alto trionfo del regno verace, 
 
 Dammi virtude a dir com' io Io vidi. 
 
 392
 
 ' Melting into this radiance, we blend, 
 Mingle, and so become a part of it.' 
 
 ( XLVIII ) - 
 
 THE immature capacity of spiritual vision which Beatrice 
 had told Dante was still his (in the last lines of our 
 last portion) is now to be ripened by his stooping down and 
 bathing his eyes in that effulgent river of Light. His whole 
 will leaps to the reception of his long-sought element, even 
 as a hungering babe to its mother's milk. This is the last 
 of the many Baptisms of the mounting soul. It is self- 
 administered, as none of his former baptisms have been ; 
 he now takes freely of the water of life. He has found this 
 water as Ezekiel did, first reaching to the ankles, then to 
 the knees, then to the loins, and lastly ' waters to swim in, 
 that could not be passed over.' As his eyes are further 
 opened, he finds the onward rolling river has become a 
 ' Circular Ocean of Light,' its circumference ' would be too 
 large a girdle for the Sun.' Did he now behold Truth as 
 the Divine Whole rather than as expressed in the succeeding 
 moments of onward-rolling Time ? 
 
 The sparks of ruby light and the flowers (as he had before 
 thought them) he now perceives as manifestations of the 
 two Hosts of Heaven : the Angels and the Saints. How 
 they were raised in magnificence and joy ! or rather, how 
 much more truly his own opened eyes could perceive them ! 
 
 Three times he uses the words ' I saw.' ' lo vidi,' ' io 
 vidi,' ' io vidi,' as if never before had he seen ! He places 
 these words at the end of three alternate lines, as he always 
 places the name of Christ. He saw not semblances, but 
 realities, for he had indeed reached the 'triumph of the 
 veracious realm.' 
 
 393
 
 The Veracious Kingdom. 
 - (XLVIII) - 
 
 ( Continued from last page. ) 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO XXX. 100-108. 
 
 Lume e lassu, che visibile face 100 
 
 Lo Creatore a quella creatura, 
 
 Che solo in lui vedere ha la sua pace ; 
 E si distende in circolar figura 
 
 In tanto, che la sua circonferenza 
 
 Sarebbe al Sol troppo larga cintura. 105 
 
 Fassi di raggio tutta sua parvenza 
 
 Reflesso al sommo del mobile primo, 
 
 Che prende quindi vivere e potenza. 
 
 394
 
 The Centre of all Vitality and Power. 
 - ( XLVIII ) - 
 
 Hitherto, Dante had but looked as it were upon masks. 
 He finds he must appeal to the Splendour of God, which 
 had given him power to behold, to give him power also to 
 say in what manner he beheld these veracious things. It 
 is this Light, he says, this wide-spreading circular Ocean 
 of Effulgence like the glassy Sea, clear as crystal before the 
 throne of God, which makes the Creator visible to each 
 creature, 'who only in beholding Him has Peace.' All 
 Vitality and Power issue thence, and impel the motion of 
 the first moved Sphere, which transmits and reflects the 
 transcendent beam. 
 
 Peace, Dante often affirms, is the primary condition for 
 the Love and Knowledge of God, and for righteousness, 
 liberty, and progress on Earth ; from this conviction his 
 intense desire arose for strong, orderly Government in 
 Church and State. He says in the ' De Monarchia,' ' And 
 since what is true of the part is true of the whole, and it 
 happens in the particular man that by sitting quietly he is 
 perfected in Prudence and Wisdom ; it is clear that the 
 human race in the quiet or tranquillity of Peace is most 
 freely and easily disposed for its proper work, which is 
 almost Divine, as it is written, "Thou hast made him a 
 little lower than the Angels." Hence it is that not riches, 
 not pleasures, not length of life, not health, not strength, 
 not comeliness, was sung to the Shepherds from on high, 
 but Peace.' 
 
 395
 
 The beauty of the Saints mirrored in the 
 ' Glassy Sea ' of God. 
 
 ( XLIX ) 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO XXX. 109-132. 
 
 ECOME clivo in acqua di suo imo 
 Si specchia, quasi per vedersi adorno, 1 1 o 
 Quando 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 P infimo grado in se raccoglie 1 1 5 
 
 Si grande lume, quant' e la larghezza 
 
 Di questa rosa nell' estreme foglie ? 
 La vista mia nell' ampio e nell' altezza 
 
 Non si smarriva, ma tutto prendeva 
 
 II quanto e '1 quale di quell' allegrezza. 1 20 
 
 Presso e lontano li ne pon, ne leva ; 
 
 Che dove Dio sanza mezzo governa, 
 
 La legge natural nulla rileva. 
 Nel giallo della rosa sempiterna, 
 
 Che si dilata, rigrada, e redole 125 
 
 Odor di lode al Sol che sempre verna, 
 Qual e colui che tace e dicer vuole, 
 
 Mi trasse Beatrice, e disse : Mira 
 
 Quanto e '1 convento delle bianche stole ! 
 Vedi nostra citta quanto ella gira ; 1 30 
 
 Vedi li nostri scanni si ripieni, 
 
 Che poca gente omai ci si disira. 
 
 396
 
 ' The Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting Light, 
 and thy God thy glory.' ISA. lx. 18, 19. 
 
 - ( XLIX ) - 
 
 ALL mirrored in the glassy, crystal Sea of the Light of 
 God, the Seer now beholds in thousands of ranks 
 the souls above ' who have returned thither from us below.' 
 They have journeyed to no strange land, but have returned 
 to their true Home ! 
 
 The Spring-quickened banks of the Stream, reflected in 
 the water, were the ' foreshadowing prefaces ' of these Saints 
 and Angels, mirrored in the Light of God. He changes his 
 imagery again, and the thousands, tier above tier, of the 
 white-robed saints appear to him like the petals of a snow- 
 white Rose, of vastest amplitude, around its golden Centre 
 of Light. The separate flowerets had passed away into one 
 vital organization of beauty and unity. The Seer, with per- 
 fected powers, can behold the height and depth of the 
 immeasurable fulness around him. 
 
 (118-121) ' My vision in the vastness of the height 
 Lost not itself, but comprehended all 
 The quantity and quality of that gladness. 
 There near or far nor add nor take away.' 
 
 No natural law of space can hold in the spiritual kingdom. 
 The only gulf of separation there is between those whose 
 loves and aims are diverse. 
 
 The changing imagery we are studying, and such lines as 
 those quoted above, make us feel as does the Seer himself, 
 the futility of using the same language for the things of the 
 senses and those of the spirit unless, indeed, we understand 
 the former to be only ' foreshadowing prefaces ' of the latter. 
 The scales and the measuring rods of each realm cannot be 
 interchanged. Beatrice points out the vast circuit of the 
 City that has no limits, and that is, notwithstanding, compre- 
 hended in one glance. She points out, also, that the allotted 
 Seats are nearly filled, and says the number of the Elect 
 must soon be completed. 
 
 397
 
 The Hosts of the Saints, the Bride of Christ, 
 seen as the Mystic White Rose. 
 
 (L) 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO XXXI. 1-15. 
 
 IN forma dunque di Candida rosa 
 Mi si mostrava la milizia santa, 
 Che nel suo sangue Cristo fece sposa. 
 Ma 1' altra, che volando vede e canta 
 
 La gloria di Colui che la innamora, 5 
 
 E la bonta che la fece cotanta, 
 Si come schiera d' api, che s' infiora 
 
 Una f lata, ed altra si ritorna 
 
 La dove il suo lavoro s' insapora, 
 Nel gran fior discendeva, che s' adorna i o 
 
 Di tante foglie ; e quindi risaliva 
 
 La dove lo suo amor sempre soggiorna. 
 Le facce tutte avean di fiamma viva, 
 
 E 1' ale d' oro ; e 1' altro tanto bianco, 
 
 Che nulla neve a quel termine arriva. 1 5 
 
 398
 
 * The Holy City, new Jerusalem, coming down from 
 God out of Heaven, prepared as a Bride adorned for 
 her husband* 
 
 THE Snow-white, Mystic Rose remains before the 
 spiritual Poet's vision as the image of the Bride of 
 Christ, made meet for Him by His outpoured Life-blood. 
 He sees the hosts of Saints, in the unity of one vital organism 
 of beauty, purity, and sweet perfume, expanding beneath 
 the Divine rays of the uncreated Sun ; he sees the hosts 
 of Angels with faces of vital flame and wings of gold, now 
 sinking like bees amidst the living petals of the Rose, 
 bringing with the fanning of their wings both Peace and 
 Ardour, now re-ascending to the blessed Fountain of Life 
 and Peace, where ' evermore their love abideth,' and whence 
 they replenish their own powers. A glorious example for 
 the Church below, of Service sustained and gladdened by 
 Adoration ! 
 
 The contrast of this Ideal of Light, Sweetness, and Unity 
 with our dark, disintegrated, and tempest-tossed outward 
 conditions, will not fail to awaken an Amen to the cry of 
 the Seer in lines 27-30. 
 
 ' O Trinal Light that in one Star sublime 
 Dost with thy rays their souls so satisfy, 
 Look down_with pity on our storm-beat clime.' 
 
 PLUMPTRK'S Translation. 
 
 399
 
 The Hosts of the Angels, like bees sinking into the Flower, 
 carry Peace and Ardour into the White Rose. 
 
 (L) 
 
 ( Continued from last page. ) 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO XXXI. 16-30. 
 
 Quando scendean nel fior, di banco in banco 
 
 Porgevan della pace e dell' ardore, 
 
 Ch' egli acquistavan ventilando il fianco. 
 Nb 1* interporsi, tra '1 disopra e '1 fiore, 
 
 Di tanta moltitudine volante, 20 
 
 Impediva la vista e lo splendore ; 
 Che la luce divina e penetrante 
 
 Per 1' universe, secondo ch' b degno, 
 
 Si che nulla le puote essere ostante. 
 Questo sicuro e gaudioso regno, 25 
 
 Frequente in gente antica ed in novella, 
 
 Viso ed amore avea tutto ad un segno. 
 O trina luce, che in unica Stella 
 
 Scintillando a lor vista si gli appaga, 
 
 Guarda quaggiuso alia nostra procella. 30
 
 ' We are come . . . to an innumerable Company of 
 Angels, and to the general Assembly and Church 
 of the Firstborn.' 
 
 (L) - 
 
 It is not difficult, as we look within and around, to dwell 
 on the dark side of 'poor shipwrecked Humanity.' We 
 often picture its sufferings, sins, and feebleness concentrated, 
 as it were, in one organism of failure and woe. May we 
 not, on the other hand, by an effort of will and faith, lift our 
 eyes to the other hemisphere of Humanity, and behold its 
 nobler, transfigured soul, in separated consciousness of Love, 
 Purity, and Vital Power, in the Sunshine of the Divine 
 Ardour and Peace ? Have we not had experience of some 
 fragments of that other hemisphere ? and if we venture to 
 look into the darker heart of humanity, have we not our 
 White Rose, also as a true vision of its Hope and Peace ? 
 ' Your Father Abraham rejoiced to see my day : and he saw 
 it and was glad,' and many of the seed of the Faithful have 
 seen the triumphant Day of Christ in the hearts of His 
 militant Hosts, going forth with Him conquering and to 
 conquer ; not as a future ' Perhaps,' but as a present Reality. 
 Many chapters of the roll of Faith's heroes might be added 
 to that of Hebrews xi., for truly 'the time would fail us' 
 also, in our own day, to tell of our ' Gideons and Baraks, 
 and Samsons and Jephthas.' 
 
 401
 
 Beatrice has disappeared. St. Bernard takes her place. 
 ( LI ) 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO XXXI. 64-78. 
 
 ED, Ella ov' e ? di subito diss' io. 
 Ond' egli : A terminar lo tuo disiro 65 
 
 Mosse Beatrice me del luogo mio. 
 E se riguardi su nel terzo giro 
 
 Dal sommo grado, tu la rivedrai 
 
 Nel trono, che i suoi merti le sortiro. 
 Sanza risponder gii occhi su levai ; 70 
 
 E vidi lei che si facea corona, 
 
 Riflettendo da se gli eterni rai. 
 Da quella region, che piii su tuona, 
 
 Occhio mortale alcun tanto non dista, 
 
 Qualunque in mare piu giu s' abbandona, 75 
 
 Quanto li da Beatrice la mia vista ; 
 
 Ma nulla mi facea, che la sua effige 
 
 Non discendeva a me per mezzo mista. 
 
 402
 
 ' There was no more Near nor Far.' 
 ( U ) 
 
 THE Seer continues to gaze above, around, below, 
 taking note of all he sees, even as a Pilgrim does in 
 the holy place he visits, hoping to retell it on his return. 
 Everywhere there meet his eye 
 
 ' Faces ... of charity persuasive, 
 Embellished by His light and their own smile.' (49, 50.) 
 
 words wonderfully significant of the union of the Divine 
 with each human personality. What can be more char- 
 acteristic of a friend than his own smile ? 
 
 Beholding this illumination of Love in these faces, he is 
 able ' to comprehend with all Saints the breadth and length 
 and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ which 
 passeth knowledge' (Eph. iii. 18, 19). He desires to ask 
 Beatrice of things of which he is in doubt, and turns to 
 seek her countenance. She has disappeared : he finds in 
 her place by his side St. Bernard, 'an old Man habited 
 like the glorious people,' who looks at him with the benign 
 joy and the compassion of a tender father. 
 
 The extract for to-day continues the narration with 
 Dante's startled, spontaneous exclamation, ' And She, where 
 is she?' Pointed out by St. Bernard, the Seer beholds her 
 in her own place by the side of the contemplative Rachel, 
 who is a companion of the Blessed Virgin, and of Lucia, 
 the ministrant of grace and compassion. No earthly eye 
 could measure the space between himself and her, but he 
 tells us the distance was nothing to him (' nulla mi facea '), 
 because her image descended not to him ' through any 
 misty medium.' In the innermost Sanctuary distance 
 cannot be ; in heart and soul the two are one in God. In 
 her ascension to the place prepared for her we may read, by 
 
 403
 
 Dante's Thanksgiving to Beatrice, and her last smile. 
 (LI )_ 
 
 (Continued frail last page.} 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO XXXI. 79-93. 
 
 O Donna, in cui la mia speranza vige, 
 
 E che soffristi per la mia salute, 80 
 
 In Inferno lasciar le tue vestige ; 
 Di tante cose, quante io ho vedute, 
 
 Dal tuo podere e dalla tua bontate 
 
 Riconosco la grazia e la virtute. 
 Tu m' hai di servo tratto a libertate 8$ 
 
 Per tutte quelle vie, per tutt' i modi, 
 
 Che di cio fare avean la potestate. 
 La tua magnificenza in me custodi, 
 
 Si che 1' anima mia, che fatt' hai sana, 
 
 Piacente a te dal corpo si disnodi. 90 
 
 Cosi orai ; e quella si lontana, 
 
 Come parea, sorrise e riguardommi ; 
 
 Poi si torno all' eterna fontana. 
 
 404
 
 'In the primal sympathy which having been must ever be.' 
 (LI) 
 
 the light of the Lord's Ascension, the Divine way towards a 
 more abiding Presence than there can be under the misty 
 conditions of the flesh. 
 
 The very Beatrice Portinari who had first awakened 
 the soul of the Seer, and has been to him the repre- 
 sentative of Divine Wisdom and Theology (sometimes, 
 indeed, merged, as to her own personality, in these Powers), 
 is now again realized, seen by him, as through her own 
 special personal fitness, enthroned and glorified amongst her 
 peers. He can now fully open to her the grateful homage 
 of his heart, and tell over all the virtue and the grace he 
 recognised in her ways and expedients for leading him from 
 Slavery into the glorious freedom of the Child of God. 
 His last words to her are these : 
 
 ' Preserve towards me thy magnificence, 
 So that this soul of mine which thou hast healed, 
 Pleasing to thee, be loosened from the body 
 
 and she, so far away, 
 
 Smiled, as it seemed, and looked once more at me ; 
 Then unto the Eternal fountain turned.' 88-93 
 
 Leave me not, God, until Nay, until when ? 
 Not till I be with Thee, one heart, one mind, 
 Not till Thy Life is Light in me ; 
 And then leaving is left behind ! 
 
 G. MACDONALD. 
 
 405
 
 St. Bernard takes the place of Beatrice in directing 
 and instructing Dante's vision. 
 
 - ( LII ) - 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO XXXI. 94-99. 
 
 E'L santo Sene : Acciocche tu assommi 
 Perfettamente, disse, il tuo cammino, 95 
 A che priego ed amor santo mandommi, 
 Vola con gli occhi per questo giardino ; 
 Che veder lui t' acuira lo sguardo 
 Piu a montar per lo raggio divino. 
 
 * XXXII. 52-57, 142-151. 
 
 Dentro all' ampiezza di questo reame 
 
 Casual punto non puote aver sito, 
 
 Se non come tristizia, o sete, o fame : 
 Che per eterna legge e stabilito 55 
 
 Quantunque vedi, si che giustamente 
 
 Ci si risponde dalP anello al dito. 
 
 *#*#* 
 E drizzeremo gli occhi al primo Amore, 
 
 Si che, guardando verso lui, penetri, 
 
 Quant' e possibil, per lo suo fulgore. 
 Veramente ne forse tu t' arretri, 145 
 
 Movendo 1' ale tue, credendo oltrarti, 
 
 Orando, grazia convien che s'impetri : 
 Grazia da quella che puote aiutarti ; 
 
 E tu mi seguirai con 1'affezione, 
 
 Si che dal dicer mio lo cuor non parti ; 150 
 
 E comincio questa santa orazione. 
 
 406
 
 Dante learns ' to mount along the ray Divine ' and is 
 instructed in the perfection of Divine Providence and 
 the necessity of Grace and united Prayer. 
 
 ( LIT ) 
 
 ST. BERNARD, the aged, mystic Saint, is to direct the 
 Pilgrim's eyes, and to instruct his spirit, as he ap- 
 proaches the completing and consummate vision. Instead 
 of Beatrice, Dante, the disciple of St. Thomas Aquinas, 
 who was the Master of men's intellects, needed now the 
 rapturous impulse from the Master of men's hearts, as St. 
 Bernard has been called. Instead of Beatrice, the person- 
 ally beloved, a universal representative of Woman was to be 
 revealed to him through St. Bernard, the Virgin's faithful 
 servant. He directs the Pilgrim, who has all but reached 
 his Goal, to behold one Saint after another in God's Garden, 
 and tells him this will discipline -his sight 'further to 
 mount along the ray divine '; he bids him observe the 
 countenances, and listen to the baby voices (47) of the 
 ' Festinata gente,' the hastened folk, as he calls the children 
 who had died ere they knew right or wrong ; and points out 
 that each of these had his allotted place, and his own dis- 
 tinctive hair and crown; for in the Kingdom of God's 
 Providence nothing is casual, but all is adjusted, as the 
 ring fitted to the finger. He is then told to gaze into that 
 face which most resembles Christ's, whose clearness will alone 
 dispose him to behold Christ. Finally, he is instructed to 
 direct his eyes to the Primal Love, and, as far as in him lay, 
 penetrate himself with that effulgence. He must continue 
 in prayer for needed influx of grace, uniting his heart with 
 St. Bernard's words, lest (through isolation from com- 
 munion) he should be only flapping his wings, without 
 making upward progress. 
 
 407
 
 St. Bernard's Invocation of the Daughter and Mother 
 of Christ. 
 
 ( LIU ) 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO XXXIII. 
 
 VERGINE MADRE, figlia del tuo Figlio, 
 Umile ed alta piu che creatura, 
 Termine fisso d' eterno consiglio, 
 Tu se' colei che 1' umana natura 
 
 Nobilitasti si, che '1 suo Fattore 5 
 
 Non disdegno di farsi sua fattura. 
 Nel ventre tuo si raccese 1' amore, 
 
 Per lo cui caldo nelP eterna pace 
 
 Cosi e germinate questo fiore. 
 Qui se' a noi meridiana face i o 
 
 Di caritade ; e giuso, intra i mortali, 
 
 Se' di speranza fontana vivace. 
 Donna, se' tanto grande e tanto vali, 
 
 Che qual vuol grazia, ed a te non ricorre, 
 
 Sua dis'ianza vuol volar senz' ali. 15 
 
 La tua benignita non pur soccorre 
 
 A chi dimanda, ma molte fi'ate 
 
 Liberamente al dimandar precorre. 
 In te misericordia, in te pietate, 
 
 In te magnificenza, in te s' aduna 20 
 
 Quantunque in creatura e di bontate. 
 Or questi, che dalP infima lacuna 
 
 Dell' universe insin qui ha vedute 
 
 Le vite spiritali ad una ad una, 
 Supplica a te, per grazia, di virtute 25 
 
 Tanto, che possa con gli occhi levarsi 
 
 Piu alto verso 1' ultima salute. 
 
 408
 
 The eyes of all the Blessed waiting on the Eternal Light 
 for Dante's illumination. 
 
 ( LIII ) 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO XXXIII. 
 
 Ed io, che mai per mio veder non arsi 
 
 Piii ch' io fo per lo suo, tutti i miei prieghi 
 
 Ti porgo (e prego che non sieno scarsi) 30 
 
 Perchfe tu cgni nube gli disleghi 
 
 Di sua mortalita co' prieghi tuoi, 
 
 Si che '1 sommo piacer gli si dispieghi. 
 Ancor ti prego, Regina che puoi 
 
 Cio che tu vuoli, che conservi sani, 35 
 
 Dopo tanto veder, gli affetti suoi. 
 Vinca tua guardia i movimenti umani ; 
 
 Vedi Beatrice con quanti beati 
 
 Per li miei prieghi ti chiudon le mani. 
 Gli occhi da Dio diletti e venerati, 40 
 
 Fissi nell' orator, mi dimostraro 
 
 Quanto i devoti prieghi le son grati. 
 Indi all' eterno lume si drizzaro, 
 
 Nel qual non si pub creder che s' invii 
 
 Per creatura 1' occhio tanto chiaro. 45 
 
 Ed io ch' al fine di tutti i desii 
 
 M' appropinquava, si com' io doveva, 
 
 L' ardor del desiderio in me finii. 
 Bernardo m' accennava, e sorrideva, 
 
 Perch' io guardassi in suso ; ma io er^. 50 
 
 Gia per me stesso tal qual ei voleva : 
 Che la mia vista, venendo sincera 
 
 E piu e piu, entrava per lo raggio 
 
 Dell' alta luce che da se e vera. 
 
 409
 
 Dante's Prayer for the rekindling oj one spark of the 
 Glory for the future people. 
 
 ( LIII ) - 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO XXXIII. 
 
 Da quinci innanzi il mio veder fu maggio 55 
 
 Che '1 parlar nostro, ch' a tal vista cede ; 
 
 E cede la memoria a tanto oltraggio. 
 Qual e colui che sonniando vede, 
 
 E dopo '1 sogno la passione impressa 
 
 Rimane, e 1' altro alia mente non riede, 60 
 
 Cotal son io, che quasi tutta cessa 
 
 Mia visione, ed ancor mi distilla 
 
 Nel cuor lo dolce che nacque da essa. 
 Cosi la neve al Sol si disigilla, 
 
 Cosi al vento nelle foglie lievi 65 
 
 Si perdea la sentenzia di Sibilla. 
 O somma luce, che tanto ti lievi 
 
 Da' concetti mortali, alia mia mente 
 
 Ripresta un poco di quel che parevi ; 
 E fa' la lingua mia tanto possente, 70 
 
 Ch' una favilla sol della tua gloria 
 
 Possa lasciare alia futura gente : 
 Che, per tornare alquanto a mia memoria, 
 
 E per sonare un poco in questi versi, 
 
 Piu si concepera di tua vittoria. 75 
 
 Io credo, per 1' acume ch' io soffersi 
 
 Del vivo raggio, ch' io sarei smarrito, 
 
 Se gli occhi miei da lui fossero aversi. 
 E mi ricorda ch' io fu' piu ardito 
 
 Per questo a sostener tanto, ch'io giunsi 80 
 
 L' aspetto mio col Valore infinite. 
 
 4lo
 
 The concentration of all good in the pure ray of Light 
 which rivets his gaze. 
 
 (LIII) 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO XXXIII. 
 
 O abbondante grazia, ond' io presunsi 
 
 Ficcar lo viso per la luce eterna 
 
 Tanto, che la veduta vi consunsi ! 
 Xel suo profondo vidi che s' interim 85 
 
 Legato con amore in tin volume 
 
 Cib che per 1' universo si squaderna : 
 Sustanzia ed accidente e lor costume, 
 
 Tutti conflati insieme per tal modo, 
 
 Che cib ch' io dico e un semplice lume. 90 
 
 La forma universal di questo nodo 
 
 Credo ch' io vidi, perche piu di largo, 
 
 Dicendo questo, mi sento ch' io godo. 
 Un punto solo m' e maggior letargo,* 
 
 Che venticinque secoli all 1 impresa, 95 
 
 Che fe Nettuno ammirar 1' ombra d' Argo. 
 Cosi la mente mia tutta sospesa 
 
 Mirava fissa, immobile ed attenta, 
 
 E sempre nel mirar faceasi accesa. 
 A quella luce cotal si diventa, i GO 
 
 Che volgersi da lei per altro aspetto 
 
 E impossibil che mai si consenta ; 
 Perocche '1 ben, ch' e del volere obbietto, 
 
 Tutto s' accoglie in lei, e fuor di quella 
 
 E difettivo cib ch' e li perfetto. 1 05 
 
 * It is supposed these lines imply that every moment of time is 
 swallowing up the memory of the Beatific Vision, which belongs not to 
 mortality, and which for ever rivets the gaze of Celestial Spirits. 
 
 411
 
 His growing power of vision discovers Three Circles in 
 the Light and our own Image depicted therein. 
 
 (LIU) 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO XXXIII. 
 
 Omai sara piu corta mia favella, 
 
 Pure a quel ch' io ricordo, che d' un fante 
 
 Che bagni ancor la lingua alia mammella. 
 Non perche piu ch'un semplice sembiante 
 
 Fosse nel vivo lume ch' io mirava, 1 1 o 
 
 Che tale e sempre qual s' era davante ; 
 Ma, per la vista che s' avvalorava 
 
 In me, guardando, una sola parvenza, 
 
 Mutandom' io, a me si travagliava. 
 Nella profonda e chiara sussistenza 115 
 
 Dell'alto lume parvermi tre giri 
 
 Di tre colori e d' una contenenza ; 
 E 1' un dalP altro, come Iri da Iri, 
 
 Parea riflesso, e '1 terzo parea fuoco 
 
 Che quinci e quindi igualmente si spiri. 1 20 
 
 Oh quanto e corto '1 dire e come fioco 
 
 Al mio concetto ! e questo, a quel ch' io vidi, 
 
 E tanto, che non basta a dicer poco. 
 O luce eterno, che sola in te sidi, 
 
 Sola t'intendi, e, da te intelletta 125 
 
 Ed intendente, te ami ed arridi ! 
 Quella circulazion, che si concetta 
 
 Pareva in te, come lume reflesso, 
 
 Dagli occhi miei alquanto circonspetta, 
 Dentro da se, del suo colore istesso, 130 
 
 Mi parve pinta della nostra effige, 
 
 Per che i) mio viso in lei tutto era messo. 
 
 412
 
 A lightning-flash reveals the unutterable Truth. 
 -(LIII) 
 
 PARADISO, CANTO XXXIII. 
 
 Qual e '1 geometra, che tutto s' affige 
 Per misurar lo cerchio, e non ritrova, 
 Pensando, quel principio ond' egli indige; 135 
 
 Tale era io a quella vista nuova : 
 Veder voleva come si convenne 
 L' imago al cerchio, e come vi s' indova ; 
 
 Ma non eran da cib le proprie penne ; 
 Se non che la mia mente fu percossa 140 
 
 Da un fulgore, in che sua voglia venne. 
 
 All' alta fantasia qui manco possa : 
 Ma gia volgeva il mio disiro e '1 velle, 
 Si come ruota che igualmente b mossa, 
 
 L' Amor che muove il Sole e 1' altre stelle. 145 
 
 43
 
 ' Draw off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon 
 thou standest is holy ground.' 
 
 (LIII) 
 
 r I ^HE closing Canto of the Paradiso must not be 
 J_ separated into fragments. 
 
 It is hoped that those who have followed some footsteps 
 of the upward ascent in the preceding Selections will desire 
 to study as a whole this magnificent conclusion in its own 
 language. 
 
 In the Heaven of Heavens, the Empyrean itself, Dante 
 learns that he needs yet more grace and power from the 
 Fountain ere the ' Chief Pleasure ' (the Sommo Piacer) can 
 be revealed to his mortality. 
 
 For the full reception of this grace, he must not only him- 
 self aspire more ardently, but must be aided by the prayers 
 of St. Bernard, the ' faithful Bernard ' of the Blessed Virgin, 
 as he calls himself, and at his request, by her intercessions 
 also, and those of all the Blessed. 
 
 The Canto opens (i to 39) with this Invocation of the 
 Daughter and Mother of Christ, as he addresses her ; per- 
 haps, as Dean Plumptre notes, the most noble utterance that 
 her Cultus has ever evoked. 
 
 If this utterance seems to us a more fitting invocation of 
 the Primal Source of all essential and ideal life, than of 
 even the purest embodiment of that life, we yet would not 
 desire to criticise it here, but rather to stand with Dante, 
 seeing where we can with his eyes, and learning as we may 
 from his vision. 
 
 Dante must have intended to convey a special meaning in 
 parting with Beatrice on the Threshold of the Goal to which 
 she has been leading him. As the Celestial Wisdom, we 
 might have expected Her to lead him to the Presence 
 Chamber, in which, as Wisdom, She ever dwells ; but in 
 Dante's eyes Beatrice Portinari has resumed that personality 
 
 414
 
 The low Estate of the Bond-maiden magnified 
 by the Lord. 
 
 ( LIU ) 
 
 (now glorified) which he has known and loved from child- 
 hood, and has taken the place allotted to her amongst the 
 august company of the Contemplative Saints. He has seen 
 her farewell smile, and has rendered to her the grateful 
 homage of his overflowing heart. 
 
 She was to him, as we know, the outward and visible sign 
 of the Celestial Wisdom ; he is now to behold the outward 
 and visible sign of the Divine Ideal of Woman. This 
 represented ideal of Womanhood is to be freed from all 
 merely individual associations, and united with the name 
 and character of Mary, known to all who know the name of 
 Christ. She, who was pronounced by Heaven to be 
 ' blessed amongst women,' by her close, pre-ordained, and 
 manifested relationship to the Divine-Human flesh of the 
 Son of Man, is through Him related to the redeemed and 
 consecrated flesh of all the Sons of men. The sacredness 
 of her Virginity and of her Motherhood, of her especial 
 functions and ministry, is to become the inspiring and con- 
 trolling ' Pattern in the Heavens ' of all thought and action 
 with regard to all women. 
 
 In God the Woman is one hemisphere of the Divine 
 Image, for ' God created Man in His own image . . . male 
 and female created He them.' Feminine receptivity, lowly 
 serviceableness and Motherhood, are revealed to be as truly 
 in God as the masculine virtues and Fatherhood. The 
 spiritual Man, represented by Dante, is on the verge of the 
 all-completing, consummate vision of God and Man in 
 unity. As the last preparation for the reception of this 
 mystery in its fulness, he is to behold the Woman as an 
 integral part of the Divine Humanity, personalized by the 
 Blessed Virgin ; he sees her distinguished from, yet in most 
 
 415
 
 1 My substance curiously wrought in the lowest 
 parts of the Earth.' 
 
 (LIII) 
 
 intimate relationship with, her Divine Source ; he sees her 
 also distinguished from, yet in universal relationship with, 
 the human race. The lowly Handmaiden of the Lord, ever- 
 more exercising her gracious ministries, which are, indeed, 
 channels of grace, is the crowned Queen of angelic ministries 
 in the very precincts of the Holy of Holies. 
 
 St. Bernard pleads the development of ' this man ' 
 (questi 22) from the lowest depth of the Universe through 
 one after another of the spiritual lives, ' even as far as this,' 
 as a claim for the gift of yet more power to uplift him higher 
 towards the uttermost Salvation. May we not consider 
 that these words point to the hope and destiny of the whole 
 human race ? 
 
 Not as an exceptional experience of one member of the 
 human family would we interpret his vision, but as the 
 promise anticipated in one of the first-fruits of the race for 
 the whole of that race. ' For if the first-fruit be holy, the 
 lump is also holy ' (Rom. xi. 16). 
 
 Dante has made manifest to us, as, perhaps, no other has 
 done, the immeasurable spaces to be traversed in the evolu- 
 tion of the human being. From the unconscious sleep in 
 the dark and bitter Forest, dominated on awaking by wild 
 animal life, he has descended (with others) by gradual steps 
 of selfish desire to the dark, deep abyss of absolute, self- 
 centred death ; through the discipline of that painful self- 
 consciousness (the initial point, however, of all progress), 
 and through the experience of the necessary consequences 
 of anguish and desolation in the evil choice, we have 
 followed the emerging of his enthralled will in its upward 
 struggles. His many cleansings of Water, of Fire, and of 
 blinding Light, have been revealed. We have learnt 
 
 416
 
 The New Man risen with Christ. 
 
 (LIII) 
 
 through him of his inherited instructions from the Sages of 
 Antiquity, and from the Prophets and Apostles and Saints ; 
 he has made known to us the awakened questions and 
 answers of the living Spirit in his own heart ; the diverse 
 unfoldings of Providence and Nature ; and the lavish minis- 
 trations and gifts of Heaven's Grace. 
 
 On the summit of the Mount of purification, that Sacra- 
 mental region where the inward and spiritual and the out- 
 ward and visible are at one, we saw him as anointed King 
 and Priest over himself, and so fitted for that Eden environ- 
 ment, the very overflow and necessity of his sublimated life. 
 There he is risen again with Christ. Since then we have 
 been endeavouring to follow him with Christ in ' His Ascen- 
 sion through the ' Heavenly places,' to the central spiritual 
 truths and causes that move the Heavens and the Earth, 
 even to the Primal and Ultimate Truth and Cause Himself. 
 
 In this union with the Father, he is in his own measure 
 with Christ to receive the right hand of Power for the 
 succour of his Brethren. 
 
 These 'far distances ' of ideal progression, symbolized by 
 his first deep descent into the lower parts of the Earth, 
 his long upward climb through the seven circles of the 
 Purgatorial Mount, and his Ascension through the nine 
 Spheres of the Heavens, force upon our minds some con- 
 ception of the far-reaching purpose of God throughout the 
 ages, in the fashioning of His Creation and of His Offspring 
 out of the confusion and darkness of chaos into the order 
 and light of union with Himself. 
 
 The concluding lines of the prayer of St. Bernard show 
 him to us as expressing, not his own desires alone (though 
 these, he says, exceed in ardour any he ever felt for his own 
 
 417 27
 
 The New Man ascending with Christ to the 
 
 right hand of Power. 
 ( LIII ) - 
 
 salvation), but the desire of the whole Choir of the blessed, 
 who join with clasped, uplifted hands their prayer with his. 
 The eyes of the Virgin also are waiting on the Source 
 of Light, in the self-same expecting hope. He for whom 
 they prayed had exhausted every desire of his heart in this 
 ' ultimate ardour ': he needed not the sign that St. Bernard 
 gave him to look upward, for this was the spontaneous 
 attitude of his whole being. He is aware that his purified 
 capacities of vision become more and more united with the 
 pure Light which is Truth Itself. 
 
 ' For as my vision to more pureness came 
 Still more and more, it passed within the rays 
 Of that high, bright, self-verifying flame.' (53, 54.) 
 
 We who read are like the people ' waiting for Zacharias 
 while he tarried in the Temple. And when he came out he 
 could not speak unto them : and they perceived that he had 
 seen a vision in the Temple : and he continued making 
 signs unto them and remained dumb ' (Luke i. 22). 
 
 We know, as we perceive his signs, that we are not seek- 
 ing to follow a Poet's dream that half eludes his grasp, but 
 that we see One who has been grasped by an overmastering 
 Power. The Vision has swept over him and has vanished ; 
 his memory cannot hold it. The 'distilled sweetness' of it 
 alone remains in his heart : it is melting ' as the dazzling 
 Snow in the sunshine, and is as the leaves of the Sibylline 
 books scattered by the wind.' 
 
 67. Yet he cannot keep even that residue, that c distilled 
 sweetness ' shut up in his own breast ; he is mightily con- 
 strained to cry to the Supreme Light to re-lend a little to his 
 mind, so that one single spark, even, of the glory may be 
 
 418
 
 Essential Love at the core of the tangled knot of the 
 Universe. 
 
 (LIII)- 
 
 inherited ' by the future people,' and that a larger view of 
 the Lord's Victory may be conceived. As he endeavours 
 to recall it, he wonders how he could have endured the 
 keenness of that living ray of Light. It seems to him it 
 must have been through the concentration of his gaze on its 
 infinite Potency (Valore) that he was able to bear it : had 
 he stood aside, as it were, to scan the ray from his own 
 separate position, with any measurement of it, or of himself, 
 those scintillations would have utterly bewildered him ; but 
 he lent himself to their vibrations and ventured to join his 
 sight with the Infinite Glory, and thus his sight was un- 
 scathed. Perhaps St. Peter's look at the waves, apart from 
 the Divine Aspect, and the sinking that followed, may con- 
 versely illustrate the meaning here. 
 
 85. After his appeal to the Supreme Light, and his ex- 
 pression of thankfulness for the abundant grace which had 
 emboldened him so to fix his eye on that Light, he again 
 endeavours to reveal ' for the future people ' and for their 
 ' comprehension of Christ's Victory ' that which he beheld 
 in the Light and with the Light. 
 
 He saw ' bound together ' in its depths, ' as in one volume, 
 the Love that in its loose sheets or leaves is scattered 
 through the Universe.' Love was perceived in the Self- 
 existing Being, in all that is dependent on Him, and in all 
 the properties and modes of operation outflowing from 
 Him ; and all were so marvellously interwoven and co- 
 ordinated that one simple ray expressed to him this 
 essential Love at the core of the tangled ' knot ' of the uni- 
 verse (91). 
 
 He thinks it must, indeed, have been this great truth that 
 he found, for in uttering it he feels his heart enlarged with 
 
 419
 
 He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.' 
 (LIII) 
 
 more abundant joy. Joy, indeed, must be ever 'distilling' 
 from this heart-knowledge which passeth knowledge ! 
 
 1 06. And now, in answer to his prayer, something of 
 the last and supreme reflection of that revealing glory re- 
 vealing, though ' dark with excess of Light ' is divinely re- 
 lent to him. His words, he says, can be but the inarticulate 
 sounds of the Babe at its Mother's breast. 
 
 Words of the intermeddling stranger should indeed be 
 few here. 
 
 The mysterious Secret, which is the goal and the inspira- 
 tion of the long Pilgrimage, is revealing itself to the spiritual 
 eye the Alpha and Omega of all Life in its fulness, of all 
 Hop^, of all Love the revelation made not by flesh and 
 blood, but by the Father Himself. 
 
 112. As he searched those deeps of Light with growing 
 powers of Vision, the appearance of the Light seemed to 
 the Seer to grow and change. Yet it changed not ; it was 
 his power of vision that was strengthening ; he could dis- 
 tinguish in that Light Three Circles : Two as of a self, 
 reflecting Iris ; One as of Fire breathed forth from the 
 Twain ; and lo ! within the Centre of that Unity, of the 
 same colour as that Circulating Light, there appeared to be 
 ' Our own image] the Sign of the Son of Man in the 
 Heavens ! 
 
 To know the mystery of the Union of God and Man in 
 the Incarnation had been the hunger of the Seer through 
 his long ascent. In the restored Eden he had seen the 
 double nature of Christ reflected from the symbol of the 
 Divine Man (the Gryphon) in the eyes of Beatrice; he had 
 there also observed the apparent variations of the Un- 
 changing One, now Man, now God. He was now more 
 profoundly united with the wondrous Light, yet his wonder- 
 
 420
 
 ' Filled with all the fulness of God.' 
 (LIII)- 
 
 ing flights of thought still fell short of that which he sought 
 to grasp the Manhood taken into God. This mystery was 
 to be revealed in one lightning flash of intuition, and thus 
 the Truth itself, in its totality of God, Man, and the Uni- 
 verse, smote in upon his soul. 
 
 The consummate moment passes and fades, and he 
 strives not to retain it ; for all his will, all his desires, are 
 interpenetrated with the Supreme Will, an onward motion 
 a motion which is yet perfect rest ; for it is one with the 
 perfected harmony of the whole wheel of Life, inbreathed 
 by the ' Love which moves the Sun and the other Stars.' 
 
 GLORIA IN EXCELSIS DEO ! 
 
 Elliot Stock, Patfrnosttr Row, London.
 
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