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

and whilst it burnt stood looking at Porsenna with a steadfast and undaunted countenance; Porsenna at last in admiration dismissed him, and returned his sword, reaching it from his seat; Mutius received it in his left hand, which occasioned the name of Scaevola, left-handed, and said, ‘I have overcome the terrors of Porsenna, yet am vanquished by his generosity, and gratitude obliges me to disclose what no punishment could extort’; and assured him then, that three hundred Romans, all of the same resolution, lurked about his camp only waiting for an opportunity; he, by lot appointed to the enterprise, was not sorry that he had miscarried in it, because so brave and good a man deserved rather to be a friend to the Romans than an enemy.”

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Alcmaeon, who slew his mother Eriphyle to avenge his father Amphiaraüs the soothsayer. See Note 749.

Ovid, Metamorphoses, IX:⁠—

“The son shall bathe his hands in parent’s blood
And in one act be both unjust and good.”

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Beatrice, beloved of God; “that blessed Beatrice, who lives in heaven with the angels and on earth with my soul.” ↩

Lessing, Theol. Schrift., I 108:⁠—

“If God held all Truth shut up in his right hand, and in his left only the ever restless instinct for Truth,⁠ ⁠… and said to me, Choose! I should humbly fall down at his left, and say, Father, give! Pure Truth is for Thee alone!”

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It must not be forgotten, that Beatrice is the symbol of Divine Wis dom. Dante says, Convito, III 15:⁠—

“In her countenance appear things which display some of the pleasures of Paradise”;

and notes particularly “the eyes and smile.” He then adds:⁠—

“And here it should be known that the eyes of Wisdom are its demonstrations, by which the truth is most clearly seen; and its smile the persuasions, in which is displayed the interior light of Wisdom under a veil; and in these two things is felt the exceeding pleasure of beatitude, which is the chief good in Paradise. This pleasure cannot exist in anything here below, except in beholding these eyes and this smile.”

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The Heaven of Mercury, where are seen the spirits of those who for the love of fame achieved great deeds. Of its symbolism Dante says, Convito, II 14:⁠—

“The Heaven of Mercury may be compared to Dialectics, on account of two properties; for Mercury is the smallest star of heaven, since the quantity of its diameter is not more than two thousand and thirty-two miles, according to the estimate of Alfergano, who declares it to be one twenty-eighth part of the diameter of the Earth, which is six thousand and fifty-two miles. The other property is, that it is more veiled by the rays of the Sun than any other star. And these two properties are in Dialectics; for Dialectics are less in body than any Science; since in them is perfectly compiled and bounded as much doctrine as is found in ancient and modern Art; and it is more veiled than any Science, inasmuch as it proceeds by more sophistic and probable arguments than any other.”

For the influences of Mercury, see Note 1323. ↩

Burns, “The Vision”:⁠—

“I saw thy pulse’s maddening play
Wild send thee pleasure’s devious way,
Misled by fancy’s meteor ray,
By passion driven;
And yet the light that led astray
Was light from heaven.”

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Milton, Paradise Lost, V 235:⁠—

“Happiness in his power left free to will,
Left to his own free will, his will though free,
Yet mutable.”

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In illustration of this line, Venturi quotes the following epigram:⁠—

“This hospital a pious person built,
But first he made the poor wherewith to fill’t.”

And Biagioli this:⁠—

“C’est un homme d’honneur, de piété profonde,
Et qui veut rendre à Dieu ce qu’il a pris au monde.”

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That which is sacrificed, or of which an offering is made. ↩

Without the permission of Holy Church, symbolized by the two keys; the silver key of Knowledge, and the golden key of Authority. See Purgatorio IX 118:⁠—

“One was of gold, and the other was of silver;
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More precious one is, but the other needs
More art and intellect ere it unlock,
For it is that which doth the knot unloose.”

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The thing substituted must be greater than the thing relinquished. ↩

Judges 11:30:⁠—

“And Jephthah vowed a vow unto the Lord, and said, If thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into my hands, then it shall be, that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, shall surely be the Lord’s, and I will offer it up for a burnt-offering⁠ ⁠… And Jephthah came to Mizpeh unto his house, and, behold, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances; and she was his only child: besides her he had neither son nor daughter.”

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Agamemnon. ↩

Euripides, Iphigenia in Tauris, I 1, Buckley’s Tr.:⁠—

“O thou who rulest over this Grecian expedition, Agamemnon, thou wilt not lead forth thy ships from the ports of this land, before Diana shall receive thy daughter Iphigenia as a victim; for thou didst vow to sacrifice to the light-bearing Goddess whatsoever the year should bring forth most beautiful. Now your wife Clytaemnestra has brought forth a daughter in your house, referring to me the title of the most beautiful, whom thou must needs sacrifice. And so, by the arts of Ulysses, they drew me from my mother under pretence of being wedded to Achilles. But I wretched coming to Aulis, being seized and raised aloft above the pyre, would have been slain by the sword; but Diana, giving to the Greeks a stag in my stead,