exercising a sound discretion. The recollection of the past came over his soul like the bitterness of death; when, awakened to a conviction of the truth, he contemplated the dangers he had escaped.* But with these personal feelings were blended others of a far more comprehensive character; and, in the miseries of his native land, Dante felt all the sympathy which the most devoted patriotism could inspire. On arriving at the termination of the valley in which he had been wandering, he looks upward, and beholds a Mountain illumined with the beams of the Sun of Righteousness. His eyes are directed with joy to this beautiful abode of virtue, upon which Revelation sheds its unerring ray. To impart to others that light which was graciously vouchsafed to himself is the object of his earnest desire. Animated by the prospect, he procceds on his journey with sanguine hopes of rescuing Italy from inisery, and bringing peace and liberty to his distracted country.

Scarcely has he begun to ascend the mountain, when he is successively opposed by three wild beasts - a Panther, a Lion, and a sheWolf. The restlessness of the Panther, its varied colours, and cruel disposition, afford a lively representation of Florence divided into the implacable factions of the Neri and Bianchi, and continually fluctuat ing at the caprice of a changeable and headstrong populace. The continued vexation experienced from this animal impedes the progress of Dante, and frequently inclines him to retreat. Various circumstances, however, combine to encourage him :-the beautiful season of spring -the religious consolation of Easter-the commencement of a new century (1300), ushered in by a solemn Jubilee, and a change in the state of parties at Florence, described by the grey skin of the Panther, present to him the brightest omens of success. But these hopes are soon dissipated by the appearance of the Lion,-emblematical of France, and his ambitious interference in the government of Florence. The poet is at the same time attacked by the she-Wolf, intended to represent the avaricious Court of Rome. These two powers uniting tc oppose the virtuous endeavours of Dante, he despairs of reaching the summit of the beautiful mountain. He sees his miserable country, for which he possessed the most ardent love, become a prey to the ambition of foreign potentates, and exposed to all the calamities of tyranny and misgovernment.

From the union of temporal with spiritual power in the person of the Pope, their manifold evils derived their source. Hence, to confine the authority of the See of Rome to religious affairs, and to reestablish in Italy the imperial authority, were two of the great objects Dante had in view. As heirs of the Cæsars, the Emperors were considered by Dante the lawful monarchs of Italy; and to the revival of their dominion he looked forward with anxious expectation. Disappointed in the hope of executing his benevolent projects, Dante is driven back into the dark valley, where the voice of reason is mute; when the shade of Virgil appears before his eyes, and re+ Purg. vi. 103, xvi. 110, 127.

• Inf. i. 25.

✰ Pur. xxvii. 145. xxx. 137, and the D: Monarchi passim.

commends him to climb the mountain by some other road-declaring it fruitless to attempt a passage in opposition to the Wolf, "whose greediness will permit none to tread the same path with herself, but will assuredly effect their destruction." For the present, he says, Italy is doomed to submit to her control, and to suffer from the intrigues of the Court of Rome from the kings of the earth, till the arrival of a prophetic conqueror, described under the image of a Greyhound, who is destined to chase the Wolf back into her native hell.*

In the meantime Dante is to awaken the Italians to a sense of their condition, and to prepare them for a return to the primitive simplicity of the Christian Church. Nor are the means his genius suggests unworthy of so noble an undertaking. A poem is to be constructed of a peculiar kind, which shall contain the most convincing evidence, blended with beauties so inimitable as to ensure its neverfailing reception in the hearts of men throughout all ages. To enable him to execute his arduous design, Virgil offers to become his guide, and to lead him through Hell and Purgatory; that thus visiting, as it were, in turn every description of sinner, he might be enabled to make a lasting record of what he had seen, and reveal to mankind the cause of those iniquities which had covered the land with the darkness of the shadow of death. Should he wish, says Virgil, after reviewing the punishments assigned to the wicked, to behold the blessed abode of the saints in Paradise, and stimulate his country to virtue by a description of heavenly bliss-" a soul more worthy shall conduct his flight."

In contemplating at first the mighty work, the poet feels a distrust of his ability to perform it, and expresses doubt as to his fitness for so arduous an undertaking. Virgil, however. comes to his assistance, and gives an account of his mission. Divine Mercy, having commiserated Dante's unhappy state, had been the first, he declares, to prevail upon Justice to temper his strict decrees.† Lucia or Grace descends accordingly, and entreats Beatrice, or heavenly Wisdom, to exert herselt ir. behalf of one of her most devoted friends, engaged in mortal combat with sin and death on the tempestuous sea of wickedness. Beatrice swiftly leaves her blest abode, and coming to Virgil, with earnest entreaty implores his aid to rescue her friend from the perils by which he is surrounded.

Encouraged by the assurance of heavenly support, the ardour of Dante is revived, he expresses his eagerness to pursue the new path recommended by Virgil, and acknowledges him as his guide and master. He desists from any open contention with the Court of Rome; and summons all the energies of his mind in the execution of his "Sacred Poem."§ Calling up from their graves those Pontiffs who had chiefly been instrumental in corrupting the Church by their lust of power and wealth, he gives to the world a retrospective view of their lives, and fearlessiy exposes the depravity which had brought such manifold evils on the world. By contemplating the effects of sin-by reflecting on the various Inf. i. 100, & note. ♦ Inf. ii. 94. t Ib. 107. § Par. xxv. 1.

and terrible punisnments it incurs, the mind is to be impressed in the first place with an awful sense of Divine Justice; and with this object we are conducted to the gate of Hell.

THE reader must imagine a vast concavity or pit, reaching from the surface of the earth down to the centre, and divided into nine circles gradually diminishing in circumference. An inverted cone would represent the exterior figure; an amphitheatre would afford some idea of the interior.

Within the Gate of Hell, but before the commencement of the circles, is a dark valley running around the mouth of the infernal pit. This is the outskirt of Hell, styled Limbo, and is the receptacle of neutrals and worthless wretches rejected alike of Heaven and Hell.

The nine circles are severally appropriated to the punishment of crimes of a particular genus; and some of these are subdivided according to the different species of offences which that genus comprises.

Each circle is under the guardianship of a Demon, who is the emblem of the vice therein punished. Those who have given way to their passions are appositely whirled by the force of a violent wind, (Semiramis, Helen, Faris, &c. Canto v.) Those who, set in high places, should have raised their thoughts to heaven, instead of grovelling below, are turned topsy-turvy, their heads downwards. (Pope Nicholas, Boniface, &c. Canto xix.)

In proportion to the magnitude of crime the lower is the circle allotted Thus is contrived a graduated scale of punishment, the circles becoming more and more contracted in their circumference, as also sinking to s lower depth. At the very lowest point, or centre of the earth, the archtraitor Lucifer is fixed. Dante having passed this central point, proceeds on to the antipodes, where he places his mountain of Purgatory.

INFERNO.

CANTO I.

ARGUMENT.

DANTE, attempting to escape from the valley of sin, and to ascend this Lill of virtue, is driven back by three wild beasts. The poet Virgil comes to his assistance.

Is the mid-journey of our life below,

I found myself within a gloomy wood,-
No traces left, the path direct to show.
Ah! what a painful task to tell how drear,

How savage, and how rank that forest stood,
Which e'en to think upon renews my fear!

More bitter scarcely death itself can be.

But to disclose the good which there I found, I will relate what else 'twas mine to see. How first I entered, it is hard to say ;

In such deep slumber were my senses bound,
When from the path of truth I went astray.
But soon as I had reached a Mountain's base,

(Where the low vale that struck me with dismay
Obtains a limit to its dreadful space)

I looked on high, and saw its shoulders bright
Already with that glorious planet's ray

Which guideth man through every path aright.

13

1. At the age of 35, A.D. 1300, "The days of our age are threescore years and ten." Psalm xc. 10. Throughout his works Dante compares life to a journey, and exhorts men, "in order to travel with safety, to obtain the light of that wisdom which visited us in our likeness." Dante, Convito Trat. iii. 5. 2. The dark wood represents ignorance and error-" the erroneous wood of this life." Dante, Convito Trat. iv. 24. 3. "Teach me thy way, O Lord, and lead me in the right way." Psalmı xxvii. 13. 11. Sleep in the Scriptural sense, "Awake thou that sleepest," &c. Eph. v. 14. 13. The hill of Virtue.

14. The vale 16. The

of Woe-"the dolorous valley of the abyss." Canto. iv. 8. summit of the "Delectable Mountain" is clothed with the beams of the sun-" the Sun of Righteousness which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." St. John i. 9. Upon the top of the mountain is situated the terrestrial Paradise. Purg. xxviii. The sun is called a planet -being so considered in Dante's time.

B

Then was awhile allayed the chilling fear
That in my heart's deep lake had trembling stood,
The night I passed in anguish so severe :
And like to one all breathless-who at last
Escaped ashore from out the perilous flood,
Turns to the wave, and gazing, stands aghast;
E'en so my mind, though yet intent on flight,
Turned backward to review that vale of gloom
Which never spared the life of mortal wight.
Soon as my weary frame had rest obtained,

Up the lone steep my journey I resume;
But firmer still the lowest foot remained.
To climb the ascent I scarcely had essayed,

When lo! an agile Panther barred my way,
Exceeding swift, in spotted coat arrayed.
Confronting me, she plied her nimble feet,
And in my progress caused me such delay,
That oft I turned with purpose to retreat.
It was the hour when morning dawns on high;
And now the sun was rising in the east,
With those fair stars that bore him company
When Love Divine first launched them in the sky:
These happy omens now my hope increased-
The Panther's coat that shone with brilliant dye-

The season sweet, and early morning bright:
Not that without dismay I saw appear
A Lion's form that burst upon my sight.

The

27. Certain death awaits those who remain in the vale of Woe. 32. The Panther or Leopard represents Envy, personified by the gay, changeable and factious city of Florence. 40. The world was anciently believed to have been created in the Spring. "Ver illud erat." Georg. ii. 336. The sun was in Aries-the season, spring-the time, morning -the day, Good Friday-and the state of parties at Florence, as repre sented by the Panther, favourable:-all these happy omens however ar dissipated by the appearance of the Lion and the She-Wolf. allegory of the three beasts is taken from Scripture, "A Lion out of the forest shall slay them; and a Wolf of the evenings shall spoil them; and a Leopard shall watch over their cities." Jeremiah v. 6. 42. An allusion to the factions of the Neri and Bianchi into which Florence was divided. 45. The Lion represents the ambitious power of France, personified in Philip le Bel-a naughty and bloody tyrant, who, intrigu ing with Pope Boniface VIII. aimed at securing to France the govern