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

the fierce Lapithes which did them dismay,
Being now placed in the firmament,
Through the bright heaven doth her beams display,
And is unto the starres an ornament,
Which round about her move in order excellent.”

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The Chiana empties into the Arno near Arezzo. In Dante’s time it was a sluggish stream, stagnating in the marshes of Valdichiana. See Note 440. ↩

The Primum Mobile. ↩

St. Thomas Aquinas, who had related the life of St. Francis. ↩

The first doubt in Dante’s mind was in regard to the expression in Canto X 96,

“Where well one fattens if he strayeth not,”

which was explained by Thomas Aquinas in Canto XI. The second, which he now prepares to thresh out, is in Canto X 114,

“To see so much there never rose a second,”

referring to Solomon, as being peerless in knowledge. ↩

Adam. ↩

Christ. ↩

Solomon. ↩

All things are but the thought of God, and by him created in love. ↩

The living Light, the Word, proceeding from the Father, is not separated from Him nor from his Love, the Holy Spirit. ↩

Its rays are centred in the nine choirs of Angels, ruling the nine heavens, here called subsistences, according to the definition of Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, I Quaest. XXIX 2:⁠—

“What exists by itself, and not in anything else, is called subsistence.”

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From those nine heavens it descends to the elements, the lowest potencies, till it produces only imperfect and perishable results, or mere contingencies. ↩

These contingencies are animals, plants, and the like, produced by the influences of the planets from seeds, and certain insects and plants, believed of old to be born without seed. ↩

Neither their matter nor the influences of the planets being immutable, the stamp of the divinity is more or less clearly seen in them, and hence the varieties in plants and animals. ↩

If the matter were perfect, and the divine influence at its highest power, the result would likewise be perfect; but by transmission through the planets it becomes more and more deficient, the hand of nature trembles, and imperfection is the result. ↩

But if Love (the Holy Spirit) and the Vision (the Son), proceeding from the Primal Power (the Father), act immediately, then the work is perfect, as in Adam and the human nature of Christ. ↩

Then how was Solomon so peerless, that none like him ever existed? ↩

1 Kings 3:5:⁠—

“In Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night: and God said, Ask what I shall give thee.⁠ ⁠… Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this thy so great a people? And the speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing. And God said unto him, Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long life, neither hast asked riches for thyself, nor hast asked the life of thine enemies, but hast asked for thyself understanding to discern judgment, Behold, I have done according to thy words: lo, I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart; so that there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee.”

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The number of the celestial Intelligences, or Regents of the Planets. ↩

Whether from two premises, one of which is necessary, and the other contingent, or only possible, the conclusion drawn will be necessary; which Buti says is a question belonging to “the garrulity of dialectics.” ↩

Whether the existence of a first motion is to be conceded. ↩

That is, a triangle, one side of which shall be the diameter of the circle. ↩

If thou notest, in a word, that Solomon did not ask for wisdom in astrology, nor in dialects, nor in metaphysics, nor in geometry. ↩

The peerless seeing is a reference to Canto X 114:⁠—

“To see so much there never rose a second.”

It will be observed that the word “rose” is the Biblical word in the phrase “neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee,” as given in note 93. ↩

Parmenides was an Eleatic philosopher, and pupil of Xenophanes. According to Ritter, History of Ancient Philosophy, I 450, Morrison’s Tr., his theory was, that:⁠—

“Being is uncreated and unchangeable,

‘Whole and self-generate, unchangeable, illimitable,
Never was nor yet shall be its birth; All is already
One from eternity.’ ”

And farther on:⁠—

“It is but a mere human opinion that things are produced and decay, are and are not, and change place and color. The whole has its principle in itself, and is in eternal rest; for powerful necessity holds it within the bonds of its own limits, and encloses it on all sides: being cannot be imperfect; for it is not in want of anything⁠—for if it were so, it would be in want of all.”

Melissus of Samos was a follower of Parmenides, and maintained substantially the same doctrines.

Brissus was a philosopher of less note. Mention is hardly made of him in the histories of philosophy, except as one of those who pursued that Fata Morgana of mathematicians, the quadrature of the circle. ↩

“Infamous heresiarchs,” exclaims Venturi, “put as an example of umerable others, who, having erred in the understanding of the Holy Scriptures, persevered in their errors.”

Sabellius was by birth an African, and flourished as Presbyter of Ptolemais, in the third century. He denied the three persons in the Godhead, maintaining that the Son and