Ill understood, this doctrine led of yore Mankind astray; whence Mercury, and Jove, And Mars, became the names that planets bore. The other doubt that in thy mind holds sway, Has less of venom, since it will not prove To firmer faith, and not to heresy : If violence be, when he who is constrain'd Contributes nought to the necessity, These souls no real violence sustain'd: Since will, unwilling, is not to be quench'd, But, like to fire, persists incessantly, Though thousand times by violence it be wrench'd. Therefore, if more or less it bend,--to force It gives assistance ;-as did these, who ought Such as kept Laurence on the bars, and wrought D 61 67 73 79 Loos'd from their bonds, they surely had retraced 85 Such, that beneath its troublous weight opprest, A coming danger, we, against our will His mother slew, to please his sire; and hence Here it is fitting thou should'st bear in mind And such offences no excuse may find. 91 97 103 Absolute will consents not to ill deed So far consenting only, as it fears Lest, drawing back, worse evil should succeed. Absolute will Piccarda meant forsooth; Another sense the will I spake of bears; So that we both express'ed ourselves with truth." Such was the current of that River blest, 109 115 Pour'd from the Fountain whence all truth doth flow; Whereat my doubts were wholly laid to rest. "O Sovereign dearling of the primal Love, Goddess," I said, "whose speech inflames me so, That more and more its genial warmth I prove; Depth of affection have I not, that may Sufficient be thy favour to requite: Let Him, who vieweth, and who can, repay. I see full well the mind can ne'er exist Content, unless illumed by that True Light, From which dissever'd may no truth consist. Therein it rests, like beast within its lair, Delighted, when 'tis reach'd; for otherwise All human efforts unavailing were. And hence springs Doubt, like to a tender shoot, 121 127 This doth invite me, this my heart assure Sparkling, and full of love upon me threw; 133 139 NOTES Page 30. (Line 4.) Thus Ovid. Met. v. Nescit utro potius ruat, et nunc ardet utroque; Page 31. (Line 13.) As Daniel explained Nebuchadnezzar's dream, and thereby appeased his wrath against the Magi, so Beatrice removed the doubts of Dante. (19.) This "righteous will" means the intention of the Nuns to fulfil their vows. Piccarda and Constance, mentioned in the last canto, are here alluded to. (23.) "Plato taught that our souls were created before our bodies, and distributed among the stars, whither they returned, after the union with the body was dissolved; and remained there a shorter or longer time, according to their merits or demerits on earth."-Lombardi. "Atque ille, qui recte et honeste curriculum vivendi a naturâ datum confecerit, ad illum astrum quocum aptus fuerit, revertetur.”—Cicero. Frag. de Universo. Thus Shakspeare, 1st pt. Henry VI. act i, sc. 1. "A far more glorious star thy soul will make Than Julius Cæsar, &c. And, Spenser, Hymn to Love. "But that fair lamp, from whose celestial ray For it is heavenly born, and cannot die, Being a parcel of the purest sky." (27.) The answer to the first question commences line 67. In reply to the second, Beatrice here shows that Plato's philosophy is not applicable to heaven; and that angels and spirits are said, humanly speaking, to have different mansions assigned them, merely to show their different degrees of glory. .in Page 32. (Line 37.) Viz. "Piccarda and Constance :-not that this lunar sphere is chosen by them, but to signify that as it is the lowest and farthest from God, they enjoy but a small degree of glory among the blessed saints."-Costa. (43.) “The sacred poets were under the necessity of speaking of God in a manner adapted to human conceptions, and of attributing to him the actions, the passions, and the faculties of man... conformity with the weakness of the human understanding." -Louth, Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews, vol. i. p. 359. In his mode of illustration, Dante imitates St. Paul.-"St. Paul likens the different degrees of glory which the blessed shall enjoy to the different degrees of splendour in the heavenly bodies, as 'one star differeth from another.'"-1 Cor. xv. 41. Bp. Van Mildert. Works, vol. vii. p. 497. "It is true, whilst |