But, when thou shalt be in the joyous world,
Make me to dwell in others' memory:

Ask now no more, for I no more will tell.'

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This said, his fix'd eyes all askance he roll'd ;

A moment look'd at me; then bow'd his head,
And with the other nighted spirits fell.

When thus my Guide; 'From yonder couch they rise

No more until the angel-trump shall sound. Then, when the Adversary Power shall come, Each one will to the cheerless tomb repair,

His former shape and moulder'd flesh resume, And hear the aye-resounding voice of doom.' Onward with slow steps o'er the loathsome mass Of rain and spirits blent we held our way, Touching a little on the life to come.

Whence I inquired; 'O Master, say, these torments—

Will they increase after the general doom,

Or will they be as now, or less intense?'

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Whereto he said; To thy science & repair,

Which wills that as each thing more perfect is,

It has a keener sense of joy and woe.

Albeit this accursed people ne'er

Attaineth unto full perfection, yet

Will they be nearer to it then than now.'9

Thus round that circling road we wound our way,
Conversing more than I can here repeat :

We gain'd the pathway that conducts below :
There found we Plutus, 10 the arch-enemy.

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The Aristotelian philosophy. Metaph. iv. 16.

9 The inference-that on recovering their bodies they will experience an increase of suffering-is implied.

10 The God of riches.

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CANTO VII.

Pape Satan.

ARGUMENT.

THE Poets descend into the fourth circle. Here they view the souls of the Avaricious and of the Prodigal, in large troops, arranged in circles, and rolling heavy weights, which they dash against one another. The Prodigal taunt the Avaricious with their miserliness, and the Avaricious taunt the Prodigal with their reckless expenditure. Driven asunder, they retrace their steps, each pur. suing the course of his own semi-circle, until they reach the extreme point, where they are again severed. Conversing on the office of Fortune, and the vicissitudes of which she is the author, the Poets descend into the fifth circle, following the course of a rivulet which brings them to the margin of Styx ;-where, wallowing on the surface of its filthy waters, they view the souls of the Angry, smiting and rending one another in ferocious conflict. From beneath they catch the echoes of the inarticulate wailings of the Slothful, who are fixed in the slime at the bottom of the pool. Having made a wide circuit round the edge of the lake they arrive at the base of a tower.

'PAPE Satan, Pape Satan, aleppe!'

Plutus 'gan bay with hideous din-but he,

The gentle-hearted sage who all things knew,

1 This line is said to mean, 'Ho! Satan, ho! Satan, my chief!'

'Pape,' is probably the Greek πañаí,

Aleppe' is Hebrew.

Spake word of comfort; 'Let not thy dismay
Confound thee: whatsoe'er his power, it shall

Not stay thy progress down this rock-hewn way.'
Then rounding swift upon that passion-blown

Visage, he said; Accursed wolf, be still!

Within thyself that rabid wrath consume.

Not without cause is this descent into

The gulf: 'tis will'd on high, where Michael pour'd

Vengeance upon the Heaven-revolted crew.'

As when a ship's sails swollen by the gale

Collapse and fall about the shivering mast;

So to the earth the savage monster fell. Thus down into the fourth abyss we pass'd,

Traversing more of that dark region fill'd

With all the evils of the universe.

Ah me! Justice Divine-how dost thou heap

New pains and travails, which these eyes beheld:
Ah! wherefore take such vengeance on our sin ?

As wave with wave upon Charybdis' pool

Meets, and is broken, and runs diverse; so

The people here in eddying circles move. Here saw I folk more numerous than elsewhere

Thronging on either side with clamorous howls,

And rolling by main force huge weights along.

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ΙΟ

5

Encountering, they dash together; and then

Each one forthwith wheels round, and backward rolls, Crying aloud; 'Why hoard ye?' and 'Why d'ye spend?' 30

Thus they return along the gloomy ring,

Each in his place to the opposing point,

Crying always in their opprobrious strain.

Then each one, after shock, wheels round again,
Thro' his half-circle, for another tilt.

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I, all my heart thrill'd thro' with anguish keen,

Said; 'O my Master, now to me impart

What spirits are these, and if they all were priests-
These with the shaven crowns upon our left.'

And he replied; All these in their first lives

Were so warped in their mental sight that they In their expense no fitting measure keptDistinguish'd clearly by their piercing cries

When to those two points of the ring they come,

Where the conflicting faults drive them apart.

These without covering of hair upon

Their crowns were priests and Popes and Cardinals,

In whom the excess of avarice was found.'

Then I; 'O Master, surely amongst all these
There needs must be whom I can recognise―
Souls that were tainted by those ills.' But he

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