'On Poetic Interpretation of Nature':-'By Nature, then, I understand the whole sum of appearances which reach us, which are made known to us, primarily through the senses. It includes all the intimations we have through sense of that great entity which lies outside of ourselves, but with which we have so much to do. For my present purpose I do not include man, either his body or his mind, as part of Nature, but regard him rather as standing out from Nature, and surveying and using that great external entity which encompasses and confronts him at every turn, he being the contemplator, Nature the thing contemplated.' In conclusion, I wish to express my sense of gratitude to Professor Charles Eliot Norton, the most distinguished of American Dante scholars, who, although I was a stranger to him, consented, with rare kindness and courtesy, to read my MS. I have re-written parts of the book, and revised the rest in the light of his suggestions and corrections, and whatever value it may have is largely due to him. I would also acknowledge publicly my obligations to Mr. Irville C. Le Compte for aid in reading the proof and in verifying citations. WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY, MIDDLETOWN, Conn., * MAY 25 1907 DANTE'S CONCEPTION OF NATURE DANTE uses the word Nature in the Divina Commedia with a variety of meanings. While some of these have but little to do with the subject of this book, it may not be without value, nevertheless, to give a brief discussion of them all, and in this way to obtain a more complete view of what Nature meant to him. In the first place, the poet uses the term, as we do to-day, to express the peculiar characteristics, the properties, disposition, and inclination of a thing, as the natura del loco,1 natura malvagia e ria2 (referring to a wolf), and natura larga3 (referring to Charles II., King of Naples). Umana natura expresses the sum of all those qualities which differentiate man from 1 Inf., xvi. 17; cf. also natura del monte, Purg., xxvii. 74; also Par., xxiii. 42. 3 Par., viii. 82. 2 Inf., i. 97. A animals, although sometimes it means simply mankind,1 or the human race, and once it seems to be a circumlocution for life.3 A further extension of the same idea is the application of the term nature to angels and to God, who is called variously the divina, miglior, and universale natura.5 4 The most important sense, however, in which the word is used is the philosophical or metaphysical one, and this use is by far the most frequent. In general, Dante's conception of Nature is like that of Aristotle, whom he, through S. Thomas Aquinas, follows closely. In sharply distinguishing between Nature and God, however, Dante differs in an important respect from the ancients, with whom the distinction between the two is often confused.6 Christianity had supplied the poet 1 Par., xxxiii. 4. 2 Purg., xxviii. 78. In similar manner, all beings whatsoever are called tutte nature (Par., i. 110). 'Dell' umana natura posto in bando' (Inf., xv. 81). In Convito, iii. 4, it is used as a synonym for Nature herself. 4 Par., xxix. 71; the whole body of angels are referred to in the words 'Questa natura sì oltre s'ingrada In numero' (Par., xxix. 130-131). ↳ Par., xiii. 26; Purg., xvi. 79; 'La natura universale, cioè Iddio' (Convito, iii. 4). 6 Cicero defines nature as 'principium et causa efficiens |