tions prevail, and there is a great redundancy of revenue, because no private interest divides with the Government the taxes which the people bear. That principle does not retard the accumulation of wealth, for their statistics show that the same rate of income tax produces for the revenue ten million dollars a year more to-day than it did ten years ago. Their navigation laws are based on liberty of action which, with the fostering principles of free trade, have made the British Isles the greatest maritime power in the world. The Imperial Government acts upon the principle that competition brings the reserve power of the people into the fullest play for the benefit of the nation, while coddling enervates the powers of those large interests which act as the mainspring of our national life. To cite an example of the efforts of our people to make water run up hill. The town of Midland has just voted a bonus of fifty thousand dollars for smelting works, to be constructed by some of our large protected capitalists in Montreal. The taxation of the people commences there. Then the people as a whole are to be taxed on the product by the protective duty. Again, there is a bonus of three dollars a ton on iron produced by the Dominion Government, and two dollars a ton by the Ontario Government. Here the taxable power of the people is used up for class interests. In the Mesaba range, south of the Canadian boundary on Lake Superior, iron ore is laid ready for shipment for fifty cents a ton, is conveyed cheaply to Cleveland or other places where it meets untaxed coal and is converted into iron which is sold for nine dollars a ton. We donate by burdensome taxation eight dollars before we can secure the production of a ton. Now, the harbour of Midland, at the terminus of the Midland Railway system, is for progressive purposes away ahead of any industry bolstered by such a false system, but here protective taxation again intervenes. We have burdened the railway with enormous tax-bearing securities, to and we have made our Canadian marine a close preserve, satisfied with a small business but large profits. Consequently, while the great lakes to the west are covered with shipping and industrial life, Midland, the most natural outlet, only hears the hum from a distance. The remedy is, allow the freest competition for the American marine come to Canadian ports, which will put fresh blood into Canadian shipping. Canadian shipping is at liberty to compete, and does compete with American shipping in carrying from a Canadian port to an American port, or from an American to a Canadian port, but it has a different rate in carrying from a Canadian port to a Canadian port where it has a monopoly. There is another phase of this large question which experience is opening out to our senses. Why should we not have free trade with Great Britain? Why should we not give greater attention to production which is the creation of new wealth? Protection to manufactures is a tax on production, and the market for manufactures under a different system might be enlarged in foreign markets, while all that producers ask is to be relieved of the manufacturers' tax. The principle of exchange in an international sense has not been sufficiently studied. Great Britain admits our products free, the United States takes them. We tax the product of British labor 28 or 29 per She is debarred from purchasing from us, except what she actually requires because we refuse to allow her trade to return. The statement can hardly be questioned that if there were no tax on the product of British labour except through our excise laws they would become larger purchasers, and Canadian producers would get better prices for what they sell to them. cent. In accommodating our trading powers to new conditions, our attention is naturally first attracted to that market that furnishes us with a constant and ever-growing free sale. It must be admitted that Great Britain is our best and most profitable customer; how to enlarge our trade with her, so that we can add to the material wealth of Canada from the natural resources with which our country abounds should be our first care. We have fostered our manufactures for twenty years until they have outgrown the small market Canada offers, and a different stimulus requires to be applied. That is cheaper raw material and an enlarged market by an application of the Canadian view of free trade, which is, "free on both sides." The only market we have the opportunity of applying that principle to is the British market. The idea that we must first force it to become a protective market in our favour before we can apply those principles is not sound. We ourselves have the opportunity of applying the principles of free exchange; it is for us to adopt them. If our exports are admitted free and we tax the return trade 30 per cent. somebody besides the producer of those exports gets the difference, that is clear. By the removal of that 30 per cent., unquestionably production becomes more profitable. Take iron ore as an example. England requires ore to aid in the production of her twelve million tons of iron. Tax her trade and she cannot purchase it. Remove the tax and she will come here and look for it. Iron ore is now being placed ready for shipment at the head of Lake Superior for fifty cents a ton for American smelters twelve hundred miles distant, and this enables them to produce cheap iron. It is equally advantageous on the Canadian side. Take off the tariff against British trade and we will open out a large market for Canadian ore, which is excluded from the United States market by a tax of fifty cents a ton. The pro duction and transportation of that trade would grow to large dimensions, without absorbing any of the taxable power of the Canadian people; the additional water transportation would not be a bar to the trade with the United Kingdom. The market for wood pulp would under like conditions be transferred from the American market to the Brit ish market. In the case of lumber it would be the same, and so we might go through the whole list of Canada's resources. No one will deny that our farmers will have their productive capacity increased by the removal of the burdensome tax against their principal and most profitable customer. Production from the soil is the great source of Canada's wealth, and no industry suffers so much from the tax on the international trade for their surplus products as our agricultural community. No one appreciates that more than our western farmers. Remove the tax on our trade with Great Britain on the broad principle of free exchange, and there will be fresh life run through every artery of Canadian industry. By increasing the productive capacity and the consequent increase in wealth of Canada's resources, no injury will befall any industry. Add free iron, coal and coal-oil to the general free-list and a great impetus will be given to the industry of our iron-workers. These are principles of trade which new conditions force upon our attention. We find that under our present system of monopoly, which gathers force under protective taxation that the taxable power, which should alone exist for national strength, is being transferred in undue proportions to private or class interests. The effort in our political life is a race for selfish control, and is fastening by legislation the chains of commercial and political serfdom. The welfare of the nation, or the prosperity of the masses has little place in our political controversy under these cir cumstances. The alienation of taxable power is most easily shown in coal oil. South of the boundary it retails at ten cents a gallon, north it retails at 25 cents a gallon. The consumption is 19,000,000 gallons refined oil, of which about 11,000,000 is produced and 8,000,000 imported. The difference represents the taxable power. Fifteen cents on 19,000,000 gallons is $2,850,000, of which the Government only receives $400,000, or five cents a gallon on the eight million gallons imported. The strength of the national Government depends upon keeping under its own control, so far as possible, the taxable power of the people. A strong national Government based upon wisdom and justice redounds to the welfare and comfort of the whole population. A national Government weakened by the alienation of its taxable power necessarily becomes subordinate to those influences that have absorbed the taxable power. In the days of old, when chivalry was at its height, Robin Hood took from the rich and gave to the poor, and ran his risk of the gallows; in these days the reverse obtains, and tribute is now levied on the poor and DANTE'S DIVINE COMEDY.* I. THE INFERNO. THE place of Dante in the first rank of the literary men of the world is, like that of Homer and Shakespeare, established and unassail able. His great poem, called by him La Commedia, to which a sure human instinct has added Divina, is, by universal consent, one of the great possessions of the human race. It is called a comedy, Dante says in his dedication to Can Grande della Scala, because it "begins with adversity. .. but its matter ends prosperously." The succession of visions recorded in this poem was granted to Dante on the intercession of Beatrice for the establishment of his faith, and for the removal of his doubts. He was to be conducted by Virgil first through the abodes of the lost and then through the place of purification; and, afterwards Beatrice was to guide him through the regions of the saved. The first (Hell) was the place of retribution and despair; the second (Purgatory) the place of cleansing and of hope; the third (Paradise) the place of fruition and of intimate communion with God. Dante, writing in his thirty-fifth year, (in the middle of the journey of our life") tells how he finds himself endeavouring to climb a mountain in order to escape from a forest in which he had become entangled. Here he was encountered by three beasts, a panther, a lion, and a she-wolf, (a reference to Jeremiah v. 6; cf. 1 John ii. 16) representing the vices of voluptuousness, pride and avarice; and in their second intention, Florence, France, and the Papal Court. Whilst overwhelmed with fear and losing all hope of ascending the mountain, Dante was met by Virgil who told him of his purpose to lead him first through the "spirits of old tormented," and next those "who dwell content in fire." After some hesitation he consents to accompany him whom he regards as his master (il maestro), and they arrive at the gate of hell. Very remarkable and noteworthy is the inscription they found there. Every phrase of it deserves study. "Through me you pass into the city of woe: Through me you pass into eternal pain : Through me among the people lost for aye, *The first of three papers by Professor William Clark, of Trinity College, Toronto. Justice, the founder of my fabric moved, Eternal, and eternal I endure. All hope abandon, ye who enter here." Let us remember we are here coming to the abode of the lost, the impenitent, the hopeless. We have no reason to doubt that Dante held the doctrine of his age and of the great doctors, like S. Thomas Aquinas. But we may also see in the pictures of misery which he presents to us, the fruits and consequences of sin in this life. In the case of the impenitent this loss is insuperable. In the second class, the dwellers in Purgatory, there is purification with the hope of bliss; and in Paradise fellowship with God. We We have here represented what theologians call the punitive state, the purgative, the illuminative, and the unitive. We note here that the inscription declares Hell to be the work of Justice and of the Holy Trinity, represented by Power, Wisdom and Love. Hell is the first of created things, inasmuch as law enters along with existence and exists for ever. In regard to the structure of hell, Dante departs to some extent from the theory of the school-men. They represented Hell and Purgatory as being beneath the earth, and divided into four compartments: 1. Hell, the abode of devils and the lost, the place of despair. 2. Purgatory, the place of penance and purification, adjacent to Hell, but different, the place of hope. 3. Limbus Infantum, the place of unbaptized children. 4. Lim bus Patrum, or Abraham's bosom, inhabited by the righteous who died before Christ. They further taught that Heaven consisted of three parts: 1. The visible Heaven, or the firmament. 2. The spiritual Heaven, the abode of angels and saints. 3. The intellectual Heaven, where the blessed enjoy the vision of God. Dante's representation is different. According to him, there is outside hell proper, but within the gate, a vestibule occupied by the cowards and the undecided, hateful to heaven and hell alike. Hell itself is a conical gulf in the earth made by Lucifer when he was precipitated from heaven, and the making of this cavity within the earth caused the formation of a conical erection outside, which became the hill of purgatory. Within the inverted cone of hell there are nine circles in all, larger at the top and naturally narrowing as they descend. Sins resolve themselves into two great classes, those of infirmity, and those partaking of malice. Generally they are represented as the perversion of good and of man's powers. Sins of weakness are less heinous in their nature, but comprehend larger numbers of men and women. As, in the descent, they gain in intensity, they lose in extension; yet the subdivisions increase, for example, there are ten kinds of fraud. The seven cardinal sins represented in the Inferno are: 1, Incontinence; 2, gluttony; 3, avarice; 4, anger; 5, heresy; 6, violence; 7, fraud. The sins are enumerated in a somewhat different manner, and in an inverse order, in the Purgatorio, as we shall see. But we return to the vestibule of the cowardly and undecided. Here all Dante's scorn and contempt breaks forth. If a sense of justice had not restrained him, his indignation would have sent them deeper. As it is, he brings out the loathsomeness of such a character. Dante would seem to have good authority for his estimate. We are all familiar with the passage in the song of Deborah in which Meroz is cursed because of the indifference of its inhabitants. Even more striking is the imagery in which the Lord of the Church sets forth his feeling of disgust towards lukewarm Laodicea, and if we may pass from these lofty heights to modern secular literature, we have in the "Tomlinson" of Mr. Rudyard Kipling an admirable and powerful picture of one who is "too bad for blessing. and not bad enough for banning." It is of this class that Virgil speaks the words so often quoted: "Speak not of them, but look and pass them by." (Non raggionam di loro, ma guarda e passa.) Dante adds: "Forthwith I understood, for certain, this the tribe One figure was singled out for special notice, "the shade of him, who to base fear yielding abjured his high estate." (In the original the often quoted words, "Che fece per viltate il gran rifiuto.") The reference is generally supposed to be to Pope Celestine V., who gave up the papal throne from a sense of unworthiness. It was characteristic of Dante to lack sympathy with such a character. Still to ordinary mortals it is satisfactory to know that the Church took a more favourable view, for Celestine was canonized A. D. 1313. They now came to the River Acheron, identified by Virgil with the Styx. Across this river the lost are ferried by Charon. The sights and sounds of horror, the earthquake and lightning flame which followed, Dante says, 'all my senses conquered," and he dropped down, "as one with sudden slumber seized." But he was awakened by "a crash of heavy thunder" which "broke the deep slumber in my brain"; and now he found himself on the brink of the "lamentable vale." In the first circle he finds the Limbus of the unbaptized, those who have been guilty of no wilful sin against God. With a fine discrimination Dante represents those dwelling in Limbus as suffering no torments, but only experiencing longings which are never satisfied. Even if we do not follow Dante in his picture of the unseen world, we have here a striking representation of the longing of the world without God. "The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain." And there is a hint given that the doors of Limbus are not hermetically sealed. Virgil gives an account of the visit of "a puissant one," who had removed some from that place (a reference to 1 Peter iii. 19). They soon encounter a band of five poets, from Homer downwards. Dante is admitted to their number, and Virgil being one, he be il comes the seventh. Next they encounter heroes and sages, and preeminent among the latter, the great Aristotle whom Dante describes as 66 maestro di color che sanno (the master of those who know), a grand phrase which Cary translates, not with his accustomed felicity, "the master of the sapient throng."* We now come to the second circle, containing the first class of sinners, those guilty of concupiscence, passion, incontinence. Minas examines those who enter, and determines their place. We note here, of Dante, in his intercourse with the lost, the union of pity and compassion with inexorable justice. With profound insight he repre sents the occupants of this circle, the incontinent, as tossed about incessantly in the dark air, and swept along by hurricanes. "Now gin the rueful wailings to be heard, Now am I come where many a plaining voice Smites on mine ear. Into a place I came Where light was silent all. Bellowing there groaned A noise, as of a sea in tempest torn By waving winds-the stormy blast of hell, With restless fury drives the spirits on, Whirled round and dashed amain with sore annoy. When they arrive before the ruinous sweep, Their shrieks are heard, their lamentations, moans, And blasphemies 'gainst the good power in heaven, I understood that to this torment sad Of all the inhabitants of the second circle there were two who principally attracted the attention of Dante, and whose names are familiar to all students of the Commedia, Francesca da Rimini and her lover and brother-inlaw, Paolo, son of Malatesta, Lord of Rimini. Loving Paolo, she had been married against her will to his brother Lanciotto, who one day surprised them and slew them. Francesca tells the pathetic story to Dante, feeling the pain of it *On the whole, the writer has no hesitation in regarding Cary's translation of Dante as the best representation of the original. |