lifted up from earth to heaven. And yet it is the lowest heaven which first he visits-the heaven of the moon, with its waxing and waning, the proper home of those whose wills on earth were imperfect through instability. Here are nuns, who, being constrained to marry, did not return to their vows when they had opportunity. This sphere is revolved by the angels. The next sphere is that of Mercury, and archangels have it in charge, turning it in due order around the earth and the sphere of the moon which it encloses. In this sphere of Mercury abide those whose wills were on earth imperfect through love of fame-men of great activity and eloquence, who lived on the whole for God, yet at the same time had some regard to the praise of

men.

Then comes the sphere of Venus, revolved by the Principalities, and fitly made the home of those whose wills on earth were imperfect through excess of human love, even though that love was in itself lawful. Here Dante is led to

Admire the Art that turns to good

Such passion, and the Wisdom manifold
Whence earthly love by heavenly is subdued.

Thence he is lifted to the sun, the fourth heaven, revolved by the Powers. Here, in this chief light of the material universe, I am happy to observe that he places the abode of doctors of divinity and philosophy, probably because they have themselves been sources of light to the church.

The sphere of Mars, to which the poet next ascends, is revolved by the Virtues. Here he sees the forms of

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distinguished warriors, confessors, and martyrs for the faith, not drawn up in the order of an earthly army but ranged together in the shape of a cross. Then comes the sphere of Jupiter, of which the Dominations have control. Here rulers eminent for justice are disposed, in the shape of an eagle; and wonderful to tell, the eagle, collective representation of earth's noblest kings and potentates, itself finds a voice, and speaks to Dante of the greater things of the divine kingdom. In the planet Saturn, or seventh heaven, revolved by the Thrones, are found contemplative spirits, or those who have furnished the most illustrious examples of the monastic life. The cold sphere of Saturn is peculiarly adapted to the monks and hermits, who have resigned the warmth of the fireside and the fervors of civic life in order to give themselves to prayer and to the study of heavenly truth.

The heaven of the fixed stars comes next; for Dante knew of no planet beyond Saturn. Here the cherubim move the sphere, and the apostles and saints of the Old and of the New Testaments have their dwelling. And here, before he is permitted to ascend higher, Dante passes an examination on the subject of faith, hope, and love-St. Peter, St. James, and St. John successively conducting it. When he has shown himself expert in these prerequisites to heavenly bliss, the poet is carried up to the ninth or highest heaven, revolved by the seraphim. This sphere is called the Primum Mobile, because its motion is most rapid, and is the cause of motion to all the spheres which it encloses. This highest heaven is starless and crystalline; and here "the nine orders of the celestial hierarchy circle in fiery rings

around the Light which no man can approach unto, manifested as an Atomic Point."

Dante has reached the summit of being, and is permitted to gaze upon its uncreated Source. A stream of light proceeds from God himself. In that light the multitude of saints and angels find their blessedness.

And as a cliff looks down upon the bed

Of some clear stream, to see how richly crowned
With flowers and foliage is its lofty head;
So all from earth who hither e'er returned,

Seated on more than thousand thrones around,
Within the Eternal Light themselves discerned.

It is the "Rose of the Blessed"-the great company of the redeemed, circling like petals of a rose, rank beyond rank, around the mystical lake of light which reflects that "Light which no man hath seen or can see." The saints of all ages are here, from Adam to St. Paul, and from the Virgin Mary to Beatrice. All the praises which Dante has hitherto lavished upon the lady of his love fail now, he says, to give any adequate conception of her loveliness, as with him she ascends to the highest heaven.

But his love is now no merely earthly love-he has learned the lesson that "our loves in higher love endure." Love for God draws him nearer to Beatrice, and conversely love for Beatrice draws him nearer to God. His eyes, and all eyes, are supremely set on the Highest of all-the triune God, into partnership with whom our humanity has been taken, in the person of the Son, and whose Trinity in Unity is now unfolded to the adoring contemplation of his creatures. At the

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intercession of St. Bernard, Dante is enabled with purified sight to gaze directly upon the supreme Jehovah, and is moved to pray that grace may be given him so to utter what he sees that generations to come may catch some glimpse of the sublime vision:

O sovereign Light! who dost exalt thee high
Above all thoughts that mortal may conceive,
Recall thy semblance to my mental eye,
And let my tongue record the wondrous story,
That I to nations yet unborn may leave

One spark at least of thy surpassing glory!

But the sight transcends all powers of description. Only one thing is made plain,-and that the greatest thing of all,-in God, Light and Love are one :

The glorious vision here my powers o'ercame ;
But now my will and wish were swayed by Love-
(As turns a wheel on every side the same)
Love at whose word the sun and planets move.

So ends "The Divine Comedy." The translation of Wright, which I have generally used because it best. represents the rhythm and rhyme of the original, is in these last lines in one respect defective; it does not put at the end the word with which Dante meant his poem to close. That word is the "stars." With this word

ends the "Inferno":

Emerging, we once more beheld the stars.

With this word he ends the "Purgatorio":

And with a will endued to mount the stars.

With this word he ends also the "Paradiso":

The Love that moves the sun and the other stars.

We can now see how narrow and unintelligent that criticism is which represents Dante's poetry as savage and grotesque, and regards the poet as capable only of rough effects. The truth is that Dante is the most sensitive of all poets to the changeful aspects of nature; every hour of the day or of the night has to him its peculiar beauty; no poet ever read in the book of nature more spiritual lessons; no poet ever expressed those lessons in more varied and melodious phrase. When the boys of the street saw Dante go by, they said: "There goes the man that was in Hell!" and there was in his countenance a solemn gravity which gave verisimilitude to the popular report. But he did not revel in horrors, as some imagine. It was his instinct of righteousness, and not a morbid disposition to gloat over suffering, that furnished the animus of his dark descriptions of the torments of the lost. He had an enthusiasm for justice; but then he had also a soul tremulously sensitive to the least of earth's sorrows and to all those benignant agencies by which God would remedy them. Dante was thorough going. He saw the depth of man's need; he saw the grandeur of the heavenly discipline. He did not waste his fervors on sin or sinners; he reserved those fervors for struggling purity and for God's plan of rescue and restoration. Dante is the most ethical of poets-he measures all things by the standard of the sanctuary. But all beauty that is real or lasting-all moral beauty, in