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himself in the same grammatical essay mentioned immediately above: this form of speech which had been spoken by Adam, and by all his children until the building of Babel, descended as a peculiar inheritance to the Hebrews, in order that our Saviour, when born among them, might speak not the language of confusion, but of beauty and grace. The chosen few to whom this sacred idiom was intrusted were of the seed of Sem, from whom proceeded the people of Israel, who down to the moment of their dispersion continued to employ this most ancient of tongues (1).' This opinion recorded so tenaciously is referable to the controversy between scholars, as to whether the books of Moses were originally written in Hebrew, or Chaldaic: it appears to be in order to decide in favour of the former, that Dante asserts its superior antiquity; and not from a wish to pronounce between the Syriac, Samaritan, and Phænician, which be apparently considered as only dialects

(1) Hac forma locutionis locutus est Adam; hac forma locuti sunt omnes posteri ejus usque ad ædificationem turris Babel; hanc formam Jocutionis hæreditati sunt filii Heber, qui ab eo dicti sunt Hebræi. • Each class of workmen' (he says) was inflicted with a separate language; bricklayers with one, carpenters with another, etc. In proportion to their alacrity in building, was the deformity of the tongue allotted to them. With a few who took no part in the fabric the sacred idiom was still left. Quibus autem sanctum idioma remansit... hæc minima pars fuit de semine Sem... de qua ortus est populus Israel qui antiquissima locutione sunt usi usque ad suam dispersionem. De Vulgari Eloquio, Lib. 1. cap. 6 - 7.

GANTO VII.

of Hebrew; as indeed they probably were (1). It is curious to observe how frequently is the proverb exemplified of there being nothing new under the sun! A solemn proposal, of which the Edinburgh Review (2) speaks highly, has been made to the Asiatic Society by a learned peer of France and member of the Institut, to adapt the Roman letters to the various Oriental languages (3). But I dare say, M. de Volney was little aware that his plan had been put into practice so many ages since; and that of the five tongues, Persian, Turkish, Syriac, Arabic, and Hebraic, which he writes in European characters, the old Tuscan poet had already preceded his invention with regard to two - the two principal of them. Whether such a device be approved of or not, as likely to be of any general benefit either to science or commerce, the defence of Dante in his particular circumstances rests upon more substantial ground, that of experience. For to nothing else than its being written as it was, can we attribute the preservation of his verse down to this day: had the copyists been doomed to labour at words, of which not only the meaning was hidden to them, but with whose letters they were also unacquainted, it would have been altogether impossible for

(1) Of these Contiguous Countries the letters and the language, always analogous, were once probably the same. Ed. Rev. No. LXIV. (2) Id. Id.

(3) L' Alphabet Européen appliqué aux langues Asiatiques, etc. Par C. F. Volney, Comte et Pair de France et membre de l'Institut.

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any intelligible traces to have been retained; and the Divine Comedy would have been really disfigured with the ridiculous mummery of which it has been so ridiculously accused. As things stand however, it is credible that we have the Hebrew verse free of any adulteration, and precisely as it came from the Author's pen; which is more than can be said of much of the Italian. His own expectations might have been still more flattering; and when he used these letters through condescension to the illiterate (who might have been disgusted at strange hieroglyphics totally illegible to them, but not so at a barbarous exclamation which they could read though without understanding it, that inhuman dissonance being uttered by a fiend ) I dare say he thought they would be no secret to the learned; and, universal learning increased, it was not unnatural if he believed that his Hebrew would not only be explained, but at last be transcribed in its original form. As to the conservation of his verse, arguing thus, we see he argued rightly; but not so, as to the flourishing of the tongue in which it was composed. Petrarch and Boccaccio instead of improving on his example, and so gathering in all the springs of ancient lore, turned the stream of fashion in a beautiful but narrowed channel; and consequently the erudition of the East has almost dried up, not acquired force, in Italy. The illiterate solution, which it is probable Dante meant as a mere temporary tribute to

CANTO VII.

the ignorance of his age, has not only contented his countrymen ever since, but when at last the discovery of the truth is made and published, they are so unprepared to appreciate it, that it is slightly or not at all mentioned in two or three editions of the Divine Comedy made quite recently: and my own (I mean this Comment) will be the first to present it in its clear light. Let then their bard have justice, albeit tardily, done to him: and without pretending that his Orientalisms enhance his reputation as a poet, let him have credit for something superior to any gifts of imagination devoted patriotism and learning; for the first may be given in vain, but each of the two latter argues virtuous cultivation of the mind. These engaged him to employ various incentives to quicken his fellow-citizens to knowledge and wisdom; and one road to wisdom was certainly to study the compositions of Asia, the birth-place of their religion and of every art and science: for if with a similar patriotic intention we shall find him citing the Provençal, we must acknowledge that it agreed better with his own taste to cite Hebrew; since, though the former might have been more fitting for the intellects of his audience, and pleasing to his ear from its melody, it could never have been the favourite language of one, who, though sweet and tender when he pleased, was much oftener sublime; and who therefore rather belonged to the schools of Greece and of the East, than of France;

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his Muse having far less relation to the playfulness of the sentimental Troubadours, than to the great epic and Biblical writers, whom he rivals in the union of daring fancy with profound scientific meditation.

This expression Wolf' directed to Plutus, the God of the Avaricious, proves Dante's distinct desire to prevent his being confounded with Pluto: for the Wolfish shape of the former is as remote as can be, from the giant bulk and all the infernal magnificence with which the latter is invested:

Now wave the banners of the king of Hell (1).

As we descend, the guilt of the sufferers deepening leaves less room for commiseration: so that, although Virgil's reply to Plutus be similar in substance to that already made to Charon and Minos(2), it is no longer limited (as it was then) to a bare sublime assertion of omnipotent will, but adds contempt and menace, and reminds the fallen Cherub of

the sword

Of Michael from the armoury of God.

The answer also, by naming Plutus the swoln

(1) Hell, Canto XXXIV.

(2) Infernò, Canto 111. v. 94. — Canto ▼.

Id. Id. pp. 205 — 277

Y. 23. Hell, Comment to