"Look humbly upward; see His will disclose
The forfeit first, and then the fine impose,-
A mulct thy poverty could never pay,

Had not Eternal Wisdom found the way."

Dryden. Religio Laici. (122.) See line 67, and note. (130.) The doctrine of Dante according to the opinion of those times is, that the Angels, the heavens, and the soul of man being created immediately by God, are eternal; but that the elements, plants, beasts, &c. created by the stars, or by the Angels in them, i.e. by secondary causes, are perishable. This distinction may appear fanciful, as also the idea of the heavens being imperishable, since we are told, "the heavens shall pass away;" but the heavens spoken of in this text are merely the atmosphere of the earth; see Jos. Mede,-whereas the heavens of Dante are the heavenly bodies of whose destiny we know little. They may wax old, and undergo change, and yet be imperishable. Dante's idea is grounded, Lombardi says, on a passage in Ecclesiastes, "I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever." Cap. iii. 14.

Page 66. (Line 143.) "Fecisti nos, Domine ad te, et irrequietum est cor nostrum donec requiescat in te.”—St. Augustin. See Purg. xvi. 85, &c. (145.) i.e. Man having been created immediately by God, must therefore live for ever-his apparent death being merely temporary. In reply to Venturi, who calls this "a lame argument for the resurrection," Cesari observes, "that Dante, so far from maintaining an argument ex cathedra, is merely making a passing remark."

CANTO VIII.

ARGUMENT.

In the planet Venus, the third heaven, Dante meets with his friend, Charles Martel, king of Hungary. He laments that Parents do not bring up their children to those professions to which they are most suited.

THE heathen world (such was their fatal dearth

Of knowledge) erst supposed that Venus' rays
The impulse gave to headstrong love on earth;
Wherefore the nations, who in error stray'd,

Not only join'd to celebrate her praise,
And honour by their sacrifices paid;

But Cupid, and Dione too confest,

As though she were the mother, he the son; And said he rested on fair Dido's breast. From her who affords this prelude unto me, The ancients named the star, that looks upon The sun in front and rear alternately.

1

I mark'd not when within that orb divine

I entered, but perceived my entrance there,—
Seeing my Lady with more beauty shine.
And e'en as in a flame a sparkle shows;

And as distinctly voice from voice we hear,

When, one sustain'd, the other comes and goes; So other lights beheld I in that light,

Circling with more or less celerity,

As beam'd the Eternal vision on their sight. Never from lofty cloud descended wind,

Or visible or not, so rapidly,

But slow would seem its progress and confin'd,
Compared in speed unto those Lights divine

Which now we saw approaching from that round
Where the high Seraphim supremely shine:
And in the rear of the impassion'd train
Hosanna rang with such extatic sound,
My spirit yearns to catch those tones again.

Then one of those celestial ones came near,

And singly thus: "Thy wish we would obey,
Since it delights thee to behold us here.

With the celestial Princedoms circle we,

(The same our thirst, our motion, and our way) Who thus on earth were erst address'd by thee.

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19

25

31

'Ye who intelligent, the third heaven move; Yet will we rest awhile, if unto thee

It give delight, we so abound in love.” Then soon as were mine eyes in reverence bent Upon my Lady's gracious face; and she

Had reassured, and fill'd them with content;

I turn'd again unto the Light that made

Such ample promise, and; "Who art thou?” cried, My voice, by passionate emotion sway'd: And when I spoke, oh! how divinely bright

That spirit shone-in size how amplified,
Through joy fresh added to its own delight!
Thus beautified, it said: "On earth below

But little time I dwelt; and otherwise
Had been avoided much impending woe.
The gladness that around me beams, in cloud
Of dazzling radiance hides me from thine eyes,
Like insect folded in its silken shroud.
Thy love to me was worthily display'd;

And had I upon earth been living still,

In more than leaves had been that love repaid. The left bank which is water'd by the Rhone, What time it hath been mixt with Sorga's rill, Me for her Sovereign was prepar'd to own;

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43

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Ausonia's horn too, which its towns of pride (Bari, Gaëta, and Crotona) shows,

Whence Tronto to the sea, and Verdë glide. Already on my forehead shone the crown

Of that fair land through which the Danube flows, When from its German boundaries it comes down: And beauteous Sicily (with smoke o'ercast,

Pachinus and Pelorus' rocks between,

Where on the gulf falls Eurus' keenest blast, By rising streams of pitch with sulphur blended) Had still her kings expected to have seen

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Through me from Rodolph and from Charles descended, If evil rule, by which is ever stirr'd

A subject people, had not caused the cry,

'Death, death,' throughout Palermo to be heard. And did my brother the event foresee,

The hungry Catalonian poverty

Would not unto his harm encouraged be;

For surely it behoves him to beware,

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79

Or others for him, lest his bark he sink

By loading her with more than she can bear.
He, of his liberal father the reverse,

Requireth other troops than those who think
Of nought but how they best may fill their

purse.