To where his feet had been moved round his head,
And, like to one who mounts, clung to the hair
So that to hell again, methought, we sped.
Then panting, as a man forespent with toil,

My master said: "Hold fast; for by such stair
Must we escape from this accursed soil."
Through hollow rock then issued forth my guide,
And on the brink providing me a seat,
Sate himself down with caution by my side.
I raised my eyes;—nor change did Ĭ expect
To find in Lucifer; when lo, his feet,
That late hung down, were seen in air erect!
And how I then with trouble was overcast,

Let grosser minds imagine-not with sense
Endowed to mark the point which I had past.
Now spoke the master: Rise-no more delav-
Long is the road and rough that leadeth hence;
And Phoebus soon will wake the early day."
No royal path was that on which we were,

79

85

91

97

But wrought by nature, savage, wild, and rude;
Nor was there aught but troublous twilight there.

"Ere we depart from the abode of woe,

Master," I said, when on my feet I stood,
"Lest I in error stray, some words bestow.
Where is the ice ?-and wherefore is his head
Fixed upside down? and tell the reason why
From night to morn the sun so soon hath sped."

Then he: "Thou dost imagine we are still

On the other side the central point, where I
Clasped the earth-piercing Worm, fell cause of ill.

103

So far as I continued to descend,

That side we kept; but when I turned, then we Had passed the point to which all bodies tend. Now art thou come the hemisphere beneath

Opposed to that which forms earth's canopy; Under whose highest cope poured forth his breath The man who sinless lived and sinless died.

93. The centre of the universe and of gravity.

109

115

108. The great

dragon or old serpent, called the Devil and Satan, which deceiveth the

whole world." Rev. xii. 9.

knowledge of this law of gravity.

Thy feet upon a little sphere are placed: Its other front is on Judecca's side. Morn rises here, when it is evening there;

And he, whose locks to aid us we embraced,
Remains still fixed, as when he formed our stair.
Hither he fell from heaven, what time forsook

Its place, through dread of him, the dry land here,
And 'neath the veil of ocean, refuge took,
And reached our hemisphere:-so, through like drea:l,
The earth here sinking down, did disappear,
And, there exalted, lifted up its head.
As far from Beelzebub as the profound
Abyss is deep, a place there is below,
Not known by sight, but only by the sound
Caused by a rivulet that downward borne
In gentle windings, by its constant flow
A channel in the stony rock hath worn."
My guide and I this secret pathway chose,
To reconduct us to the world of light;
And up we journeyed, heedless of repose,
He mounting first, while I his steps pursued ;-
Till, through an orifice, heaven's splendours bright
Burst on mine eyes :-emerging thence, we viewed
The stars once more unfolded to our sight.

12.

127

133

139

117. The circle of Judas, through which Dante had just passed.Treachery, as instanced in Lucifer and Judas, who are coupled together, is punished in the lowest depth of hell, as the most abominable of crimes. 120. Half his body remained on one side the centre of the earth, and half 123. The shock given to the earth by his on the other side. fall drove a portion of the waters of the ocean to the southern hemisphere. 125. The same shock caused a depression on one side of the globe, and an elevation on the other. Upon this mountain, uncovered by the sea, Dante 127. Dante now speaks: "Beyond Beelplaces his Purgatory. zebub or Lucifer, i. e. on the other side of the centre extends a rocky path, equal to the depth of hell, or the semi-diameter of the earth, so dark as to be only discoverable by the sound of a rivulet which runs through it." Up this rude path, or water course, the poets proceed to the surface of the 133. "In opposite hemisphere, and again obtain a sight of the stars.

these last verses, after the sorrow that pervades this part of the poem, begins to breathe a sweetness which prepares the soul for that calm deligh with which it will be soothed from the first to the last verse of the suo⚫eeding canticle."-Ugo Foscolo, Discorso

END OF INFERNO.

THE PURGATORIO.

INTRODUCTION TO THE PURGATORIO.

In his pilgrimage through the Inferno, Dante represented sinners, immersed in darkness and misery, as one vast kingdom of the dead.-He now proceeds to describe another state of existence, wherein those who desire to enjoy the light of true religion submit themselves to its remedial discipline. For the purpose of exhibiting this "second kingdon" in an allegorical form, agreeably to his general design, he adopts the prevailing idea of Purgatory, which his imagination bodies forth as a lofty mountain, where souls, in the course of a toilsome ascent, are purified from sin, and fitted to enter the heavenly mansions. This mountain, clothed with the rays of the Sun of righteousness, he had seen afar off, when he first awoke to a sense of his miserable condition in the wilderness of sin. To climb its steep and rugged sides is the task to which the pilgrim now applies himself.

In the lower region at the foot of the mountain, are found indolent spirits, who are doomed to wander thirty times as long as they delayed repentance, before they are admitted within the gate of Purgatory. During this period they are placed under the superintendence of Cato of Utica,‡ a venerable old man, who appears to be introduced as a personification of self-control, or that true liberty, which consists in a perfect mastery over the passions. Among the spirits in these outskirts of Purgatory the poet spends a considerable time; and eight cantos are occupied in relating the various incidents that occur. In the ninth canto, Lucia or Grace, who originally interested herself in obtaining for our poet the aid of Beatrice and Virgil, during the night assists Dante up the steep to the entrance of Purgatory; when the Angel who

At first sight reference appears to be made solely to the world of spirits. That Dante, however, had a more useful object in view, and intended to represent the inhabitants of earth, is evident, when he himself tells us that the whole poem may be considered as an allegory of man in his capacity as a free agent, of meriting reward or punishment."Dedication of the Paradiso.

§ Ib. ix. 55.

guards the gate imprints on his forehead seven P's, as the mark of seven sins, from which he is to purify himself in the seven rounds of the mountain.

Admitted within the gate of Purgatory, the poets proceed upward by a narrow way to the first circle or ledge. In this, Pride is punished with severe inflictions; and on the sides of the marble rock are displayed examples of Humility -wrought by Dante in so striking and picturesque a manner, as to show most forcibly the peculiar skill of the imaginative sculptor. The remaining six circles, each devoted to the punishment of a particular vice, occupy several cantos. The fourteenth is distinguished for the bitter sarcasm and heart-felt sorrow with which the poet laments the degeneracy of Italy.

Having effaced the stains of vice, and passed through the purifying fire, Dante is carried up a lofty stair to the summit of the mountain. A new scene here opens before us.†—The garden of Eden is discovered in all its pristine beautylovely and deserted, as it is supposed to have remained since the expulsion of our first Parents, and waiting in readiness to receive the Daughter of Jerusalem, on her descent from Heaven, and to admit the redeemed into the presence of their King, upon his holy mountain of Zion. A description of the terrestrial Paradise follows,-the living verdure of the forest tempering the fervour of the early day-the leaves trembling before the soft impulse of a gentle wind-while the birds in many a throng are joyfully hailing the matin hour. And, as if Dante was determined to embellish this part of his poem with all the most soothing ideas that nature suggests, the river Lethe is seen running through the meadow,―with its gentle wave bending down the grass that springs at its side, and-beyond all compare with earthly streams-clear and transparent:—

"And yet it moved in darkness on its way,

Dark, in the depth of that perpetual shade."

On the other side of the river, a lady now appears, walking alone, and singing, as she culls the flowers that adorn her path. The poet asks her the purport of her song, when Matelda replies, that she is rejoicing in the works of her

• Canto x. 1.

+ Ib. xxviii.

Ib. xxviii. 31.