The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri (13 inch ebook reader .txt) 📕

the spirits appear, are not assigned them as their places or dwellings. They show themselves in these different places only to indicate to Dante the different degrees of glory which they enjoy, and to show that while on earth they were under the influence of the planets in which they here appear. Dante expressly says, in Canto IV 28:⁠—

“He of the Seraphim most absorbed in God,
Moses, and Samuel, and whichever John
Thou mayst select, I say, and even Mary,
Have not in any other heaven their thrones
Than have those spirits that just appeared to thee,
Nor of existence more or fewer years;
But all make beautiful the primal circle,
And have sweet life in different degrees,
By feeling more or less the eternal breath.
They showed themselves here, not because allotted
This sphere has been to them, but to give sign
Of the celestial which is least exalted.”

The threefold main division of the Paradiso, indicated by a longer prelude, or by a natural pause in the action of the poem, is:⁠—1. From Canto I to Canto X 2. From Canto X to Canto XXIII 3. From Canto XXIII to the end. ↩

Wisdom of Solomon 1:7:⁠—

“For the spirit of the Lord filleth the world”;

and Ecclesiasticus 42:16:⁠—

“The sun that giveth light looketh upon all things, and the work thereof is full of the glory of the Lord.”

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The Empyrean. Milton, Paradise Lost, III 57:⁠—

“From the pure Empyrean where he sits
High throned above all highth.”

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2 Corinthians 12:2:⁠—

“I knew a man in Christ about fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I can not tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell; God knoweth:) how that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.”

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Convito, III 2:⁠—

“Hence the human soul, which is the noblest form of those created under heaven, receiveth more of the divine nature than any other.⁠ ⁠… And inasmuch as its being depends upon God, and is preserved by him, it naturally desires and wishes to be united with God, in order to strengthen its being.”

And again, Convito, III 6:⁠—

“Each thing chiefly desireth its own perfection, and in it quieteth every desire, and for it is each thing desired. And this is the desire which always maketh each delight seem insufficient; for in this life is no delight so great that it can satisfy the thirst of the soul, so that the desire I speak of shall not remain in our thoughts.”

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Chaucer, House of Fame, III 1:⁠—

“God of science and of light,
Apollo! thorough thy grete might
This litel last boke now thou gye.
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And if that divine virtue thou
Wilte helpen me to showen now
That in my hed ymarked is,
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Thou shalt yse me go as blive
Unto the next laurer I se,
And kysse it for it is thy tre.
Nowe entre in my Brest anone.”

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Chaucer, Ballade in Commendacion of Our Ladie, 12:⁠—

“O winde of grace! now blowe unto my saile;
O auriate licour of Clio! to write
My penne enspire, of that I woll indite.”

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Ovid, Metamorphoses, VI, Croxall’s Tr.:⁠—

“When straight another pictures to their view
The Satyr’s fate, whom angry Phoebus slew;
Who, raised with high conceit, and puffed with pride,
At his own pipe the skilful God defied.
Why do you tear me from myself, he cries?
Ah, cruel! must my skin be made the prize?
This for a silly pipe? he roaring said,
Meanwhile the skin from off his limbs was flayed.”

And Chaucer, House of Fame, 139, changing the sex of Marsyas:⁠—

“And Mercia that lost hire skinne,
Bothe in the face, bodie, and chinne,
For that she would envyen, lo!
To pipen bette than Apollo.”

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A town at the foot of Parnassus, dedicated to Apollo, and here used for Apollo.

Chaucer, Quene Annelida and False Arcite, 15:⁠—

“Be favorable eke thou, Polymnia!
On Parnassus that, with thy susters glade
By Helicon, and not ferre from Cirrha,
Singed, with voice memoriall, in the shade
Under the laurer, which that maie not fade.”

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That point of the horizon where the sun rises at the equinox; and where the Equator, the Zodiac, and the equinoctial Colure meet, and form each a cross with the Horizon. ↩

The world is as wax, which the sun softens and stamps with his seal. ↩

“This word almost” says Buti, “gives us to understand that it was not the exact moment when the sun enters Aries.” ↩

Milton, Paradise Lost, III 593:⁠—

“Not all parts like, but all alike informed
With radiant light, as glowing iron with fire.”

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Milton, Paradise Lost, V 310:⁠—

“Seems another morn
Risen on mid-noon.”

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Glaucus, changed to a sea-god by eating of the salt-meadow grass. Ovid, Metamorphoses, XIII, Rowe’s Tr.:⁠—

“Restless I grew, and every place forsook,
And still upon the seas I bent my look.
Farewell forever! Farewell, land! I said;
And plunged amidst the waves my sinking head.
The gentle powers, who that low empire keep,
Received me as a brother of the deep;
To Tethys, and to Ocean old, they pray
To purge my mortal earthy parts away.”

“As Glaucus,” says Buti, “was changed from a fisherman to a sea-god by tasting of the grass that had that power, so the human soul, tasting of things divine, becomes divine.” ↩

Whether I were spirit only. 2 Corinthians 12:3:⁠—

“Whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell; God knoweth.”

One of the questions which exercised the minds of the Fathers and the