CANTO VII.

enough in this poem to certify that he would have changed his style, though not sentiments; for these were strikingly an union ( to repeat my former words) of entire fidelity to his own Church with much tolerance towards that of others (1). If bribery, plunder, extortion, and all the enormities of avarice and debauch were displayed by pseudo-republicans, and free discussion interdicted by pseudo-philosophers, it is them that our poet, who was truly both a philosopher and a republican, would have reprobated: for the context of all his writings justify the assertion, that it was manifestly to the beneficial or pestilential nature of men's actions that he attended, and not to see by what rank or garb the actors were distinguished military or clerical whether by toga or cas

sock, bonnet or tonsure (2). '

Virgil, having given a negative to Dante's question whether any of those shades were to be recognised, goes on to tell him of the appearance which their bodies shall present when rising from the grave on the last day. The Avaricious shall be seen with 'clenched hand' (col pugno chiuso):

(1) Hell, Comment, Canto 11, p. 87.

(2) Sive ille Episcopus, sive sit laicus; Imperator et dominus, aut miles et servus, aut in purpura, aut in serico, aut in vilissimo panno jaceat; non honorum diversitate, sed operum merito judicabitur. Febronius, de statu Ecclesiæ, p. 778.

CANTO VIE

and this is the expression which, I already said, should be understood even of the semblances of bodies (1), the ghosts, after (perchè tieni?) why keep?' The prodigals shall rise to judgment with bald crowns' (co'crin mozzi ): which may

refer either to the Italian they have shaved him' (l'hanno pelato), the proverbial mode of designating a man ruined by his excesses; or else to the medical observation that premature baldness is generally the consequence of a wild, extravagant life. This want of hair is not to be referred to the tonsures, or shaven heads, of the Romish clergy twice before alluded to in verse XXXIX and XLVI. It is only the prodigals that are to rise with 'bald crowns;' whereas the Clergy, though accused both of avarice and prodigality, were more characteristically guilty of the former vice. Then whatever resemblance appear between the figures, this present one has nothing to do with either of the preceding (2).

Q.

LX.

'Evil spending and evil hoarding robbed them

(1) La vanità che par persona. Inf. Canto vi. v. 36.

(2) This resemblance is not much in the Italian. Neither the technical term chercuti, nor coperchio piloso al capo (which is only applicable to the upper part of the head and is thus synonimous with chercuti, 'tonsured') has a similar signification with crin mozzi—which last expression refers to the entire head of hair as being cut or torn off. But Mr. Cary's "whose heads are shorn,"" that with no hairy cowls are crowned" and "those with close-shaven locks" all seem synonimes.

CANTO VII.

of the beautiful world' is the verbal exposition. Most annotators interpretetbeautiful world', Paradise but some (amongst whom I am one) think it signifies this beautiful, natural world (1). That both misers and prodigals render it a joyless scene with regard both to themselves and others, is most true; for those deprive themselves of pleasure, and these become callous to the sense of it. I have preferred putting this obvious interpretation on the text to that usually given (avarice and prodigality shut all these wretches out of Paradise), because Virgil need scarcely have told that to Dante, who sees them in hell; and besides, it were a repetition of what has been said so often. Indeed when it is added, that, to explain the sadness of their present plight requires no varnish of words' (parole non ci appulcro), since it is visible of itself, we naturally reflect that to tell us they are not in Paradise is also superfluous; since we behold them in this Tartarean hell, whose very nature is to be eternal to its occupants. But the passage, as I understand it, conveys a fine moral verity, and one not mentioned before.

'In no production of any follower of the Muse (says M. Ginguené) 'is there a picture of Fortune superior to the one now before us, perhaps not

(1) Alcuni espongono mondo pulcro i beni mondani, i quali di lor natura son belli. Landino, Comento, p. 43.

GANTO VI.

even in that fine ode of Horace (O Diva gratum quæ regis Antium) than which there is nothing finer, on the same subject, in ancient poetry (1).' Instead of considering such praise over-rated, I would remove the perhaps. Yet we must reflect that, when Dante' wrote, the current philosophy, but particularly astronomy was very different from what it is at present: so that to prevent the passage in question from seeming abstruse, it is requisite to recollect the philosophical system on which it reposes; and for that purpose we may consult Dante's own words in the Convito.

'It is almost uniformly believed that there are several heavens; and that they are directed in their motion by several intelligences, in commoner language spirits, or Angels. That on such subjects little can be positively demonstrated to human reason is true; yet that little (says the Philosopher) is calculated to impart more delight, than the investigations in which we can obtain mathematical evidence. As to the number of heavens, much have opinions varied. Aristotle, and many old astronomers, reckoned the remotest of them from us that of the fixed stars; beyond which it was held there was nothing. Ptolemy perceiving that that eighth sphere or heaven moved with more than a single motion (and being constrained by that philosophical principle, which

(1) Hist. Litt. d'Italie, vol. n. p. 68.

CANTO VIL

necessarily requires that a first mover should be the simplest imaginable power) laid it down, that there must be a celestial body beyond that of the fixed stars, in order to communicate to the Universe its primal great revolution. This is what is still taught. There are nine moveable heavens, spheres, or orbits rolling one within the other; to which this our Globe is the little centre. The nearest of them to us is that of the Moon; the second that of Mercury; the third, of Venus; the fourth, of the Sun; the fifth, Mars; the sixth, Jupiter; the seventh, Saturn; the eighth, of the fixed stars; and the ninth, that of the first Mover. The seven first are planets, that wheel in their wheeling orbits; the stars of the eighth are fixed in their orbit, and it is only it that wheels; and the ninth is that which gives all the others their primitive impulse, or great original motion from east to west; by which effect alone we are assured of its existence, since it is itself invisible to our mortal eyes. Beyond all these, we Christians suppose a tenth heaven. This tenth is the Empyrean, the source of light, immoveable itself, but the cause of the motion of the prime Mover. That prime Mover then, that crystalline, diaphanous, transparent, or ninth heaven rolls with incomprehensible swiftness withinside of this tenth heaven this region of tranquillity, this peaceful home of an infinite Deity; who can never be entirely beheld by any other than himself alone. This is his