To form an idea of the construction of Dante's 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 sugar loaf would represent the exterior figure; an amphitheatre would afford some idea of the interior. 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 comprizes. In proportion to the magnitude of the crime, the lower is the circle allotted. Thus is contrived a graduated scale of punishment, the circles becoming more and more contracted in their circumferences, as also sinking to a greater perpendicular depth. At the very lowest point, or centre of the earth, the arch-traitor Lucifer is fixed. Dante having passed this central point, proceeds on to the antipodes, where he places his mountain of Purgatory. ERRATA. Canto xi. line 71, read " Those driven by wind, those beaten down by rain." 106, for "These too," read " These two." 105, for awhile," read" the while." 141, for "for this," read" from this." 29, for "unfix'd," read "infix'd." ARGUMENT. In the midway of life Dante finds himself in a savage wilderness, within a dark valley. Attempting to make his escape, and to ascend a beautiful mountain in sight, he is opposed by three wild beasts, and driven back. He meets with Virgil, who offers to conduct him by a different road, and to show him the punishments of Hell and of Purgatory. INFERNO. CANTO I. In the midway of this our life below, I found myself within a gloomy wood, No traces left the path direct to show. Alas, how painful is it to declare The savage wildness of that forest rude, Whose dread remembrance still renews my fear! More bitter, scarcely death itself can be. But, to describe the good which there I found, I will relate what else 'twas mine to see. How first I enter'd, it is hard to say; In such deep slumber were my senses bound, 1 7 |