of blessed spirits, twelve in number. Thomas Aquinas, who is one of these, declares the names and endowments of the rest.

LOOKING into his first-born with the love,

Which breathes from both eternal, the first Might
Ineffable, wherever eye or mind

Can roam, hath in such order all disposed,
As none may see and fail to enjoy. Raise, then,
O reader! to the lofty wheels, with me,
Thy ken directed to the point', whereat
One motion strikes on the other. There begin
Thy wonder of the mighty Architect,
Who loves his work so inwardly, his eye
Doth ever watch it. See, how thence oblique 2
Brancheth the circle, where the planets roll
To pour their wished influence on the world;
Whose path not bending thus, in heaven above
Much virtue would be lost, and here on earth
All power well nigh extinct: or, from direct
Were its departure distant more or less,
I' the universal order, great defect

Must, both in heaven and here beneath, ensue.
Now rest thee, reader! on thy bench, and muse
Anticipative of the feast to come;

So shall delight make thee not feel thy toil.
Lo! I have set before thee; for thyself
Feed now the matter I indite, henceforth
Demands entire my thought. Join'd with the part 4,
Which late we told of, the great minister 5
Of nature, that upon the world imprints

The point.] "To that part of heaven," as Venturi explains it," in which the equinoctial circle and the zodiac intersect each other, where the common motion of the heavens from east to west may be said to strike with greatest force against the motion proper to the planets: and this repercussion, as it were, is here the strongest, because the velocity of each is increased to the utmost by their respective distance from the poles. Such at least is the system of Dante."

2 Oblique.] The zodiac.

3 In heaven above.] If the planets did not preserve that order in which they move, they would not receive nor transmit their due influences: and if the zodiac were not thus oblique; if towards the north it either passed, or went short of the tropic of Cancer, or else towards the south it passed, or went short of the tropic of Capricorn, it would not divide the seasons as it now does.

The part.] The abovementioned intersection of the equinoctial circle and the zodiac.

5 Minister.] The sun.

The virtue of the heaven, and doles out

Time for us with his beam, went circling on Along the spires1, where each hour sooner comes; And I was with him, weetless of ascent,

But as a man3, that weets him come, ere thinking. For Beatrice, she who passeth on

So suddenly from good to better, time

Counts not the act, oh then how great must needs
Have been her brightness! What there was i'th' sun,
(Where I had enter'd,) not through change of hue,
But light transparent-did I summon up
Genius, art, practice-I might not so speak,
It should be e'er imagined: yet believed
It may be, and the sight be justly craved.
And if our fantasy fail of such height,
What marvel, since no eye above the sun
Hath ever travel'd? Such are they dwell here,
Fourth family of the Omnipotent Sire,

4

Who of his spirit and of his offspring 5 shows;
And holds them still enraptured with the view.
And thus to me Beatrice: "Thank, oh thank
The Sun of angels, him, who by his grace
To this perceptible hath lifted thee.'

Never was heart in such devotion bound,
And with complacency so absolute
Disposed to render up itself to God,

As mine was at those words: and so entire
The love for Him, that held me, it eclipsed
Beatrice in oblivion. Nought displeased
Was she, but smiled thereat so joyously,
That of her laughing eyes the radiance brake
And scatter'd my collected mind abroad.

Then saw I a bright band, in liveliness Surpassing, who themselves did make the crown, And us their centre: yet more sweet in voice, Than, in their visage, beaming. Cinctured thus, Sometime Latona's daughter we behold,

1 Along the spires.] According to our Poet's system, as the earth is motionless, the sun passes, by a spiral motion, from one tropic to the other.

2 Where.] In which the sun rises every day earlier after the vernal equinox.

3 But as a man.] That is, he was quite insensible of it.

4 Fourth family.] The inhabitants of the sun, the fourth planet.

5 Of his spirit and of his offspring.] The procession of the third, and the generation of the second person in the Trinity.

When the impregnate air retains the thread
That weaves her zone. In the celestial court,
Whence I return, are many jewels found,
So dear and beautiful, they cannot brook
Transporting from that realm: and of these lights
Such was the song1. Who doth not prune his wing
To soar up thither, let him2 look from thence
For tidings from the dumb. When, singing thus,
Those burning suns had circled round us thrice,
As nearest stars around the fixed pole;

Then seem'd they like to ladies, from the dance
Not ceasing, but suspense, in silent pause,
Listening, till they have caught the strain anew:
Suspended so they stood: and, from within,
Thus heard I one, who spake: "Since with its beam
The grace, whence true love lighteth first his flame,
That after doth increase by loving, shines
So multiplied in thee, it leads thee up
Along this ladder, down whose hallow'd steps
None e'er descend, and mount them not again;
Who from his phial should refuse thee wine
To slake thy thirst, no less constrained3 were,
Than water flowing not unto the sea. [bloom
Thou fain wouldst hear, what plants are these, that
In the bright garland, which, admiring, girds
This fair dame round, who strengthens thee for
I, then, was of the lambs, that Dominic [heaven.
Leads, for his saintly flock, along the way
Where well they thrive, not swoln with vanity.
He, nearest on my right hand, brother was,
And master to me: Albert of Cologne 5

1 Such was the song.] The song of these spirits was ineffable. It was like a jewel so highly prized, that the exportation of it to another country is prohibited by law.

2 Let him.] Let him not expect any intelligence at all of that place, for it surpasses description.

3 No less constrained.] "The rivers might as easily cease to flow towards the sea, as we could deny thee thy request." 4 I then.] "I was of the Dominican order."

5 Albert of Cologne.] Albertus Magnus was born at Laugingen, in Thuringia, in 1193, and studied at Paris and at Padua; at the latter of which places he entered into the Dominican order. He then taught theology in various parts of Germany, and particularly at Cologne. Thomas Aquinas was his favourite pupil. In 1260, he reluctantly accepted the bishopric of Ratisbon, and in two years after resigned it, and returned to his cell in Cologne, where the remainder of his life was passed in superintending the school, and in composing his voluminous works on divinity and natural science. He died in 1280. The absurd imputation of his

Is this; and, of Aquinum, Thomas1 I.
If thou of all the rest wouldst be assured,
Let thine eye, waiting on the words I speak,
In circuit journey round the blessed wreath.
That next resplendence issues from the smile
Of Gratian2, who to either forum3 lent
Such help, as favour wins in Paradise.
The other, nearest, who adorns our quire,
Was Peter, he that with the widow gave 5

having dealt in the magical art is well known; and his biographers take some pains to clear him of it. Scriptores Ordinis Prædicatorum, by Quetif and Echard. Lut. Par. 1719. fol. tom. i. p. 162. Frezzi places Albertus Magnus next in rank to Aristotle:

Alberto Magno è dopo lui 'l secondo:

Egli suppli li membri, e 'l vestimento
Alla Filosofia in questo mondo.

Il Quadrir. lib. iv. cap. 9.

1 Of Aquinum, Thomas.] Thomas Aquinas, of whom Bucer is reported to have said, "Take but Thomas away, and I will overturn the church of Rome;" and whom Hooker terms "the greatest among the school divines," (Eccl. Pol. b. iii. 9), was born of noble parents, who anxiously but vainly endeavoured to divert him from a life of celibacy and study. He died in 1274, at the age of forty-seven. Echard and Quetif. ibid. p. 271. See also Purgatory, Canto xx. v. 67. A modern French writer has collected some particulars relating to the influence which the writings of Thomas Aquinas and Buonaventura had on the opinions of Dante. See the third part of Ozanam's Dante et la Philosophie Catholique au treizième siècle. 8°. Par. 1839.

2 Gratian.] 66 Gratian, a Benedictine monk belonging to the convent of St. Felix and Nabor, at Bologna, and by birth a Tuscan, composed, about the year 1130, for the use of the schools, an abridgment or epitome of canon law, drawn from the letters of the pontifs, the decrees of councils, and the writings of the ancient doctors." Maclaine's Mosheim, v. iii. cent. xii. part ii. cap. i. § 6.

3 To either forum.] "By reconciling," as Venturi explains it," the civil with the canon law."

4 Peter.] "Pietro Lombardo was of obscure origin, nor is the place of his birth in Lombardy ascertained. With a recommendation from the Bishop of Lucca to St. Bernard, he went into France to continue his studies; and for that purpose remained some time at Rheims, whence he afterwards proceeded to Paris. Here his reputation was so great, that Philip, brother of Louis VII. being chosen bishop of Paris, resigned that dignity to Pietro, whose pupil he had been. He held his bishopric only one year, and died 1160. His Liber Sententiarum is highly esteemed. It contains a system of scholastic theology, so much more complete than any which had been yet seen, that it may be deemed an original work." Tiraboschi, Storia della Lett. Ital. tom. iii. lib. iv. cap. ii. 5 That with the widow gave.] This alludes to the beginning of the Liber Sententiarum, where Peter says: "Cupiens aliquid de penuria ac tenuitate nostrâ cum pauperculâ in gazophylacium domini mittere, &c."

To holy church his treasure. The fifth light',
Goodliest of all, is by such love inspired,
That all your world craves tidings of his doom2:
Within, there is the lofty light, endow'd
With sapience so profound, if truth be truth,
That with a ken of such wide amplitude
No second hath arisen. Next behold
That taper's radiance3, to whose view was shown,
Clearliest, the nature and the ministry
Angelical, while yet in flesh it dwelt.
In the other little light serenely smiles
That pleader for the christian temples, he,
Who did provide Augustin of his lore.

Now, if thy mind's eye pass from light to light,
Upon my praises following, of the eighth 5
Thy thirst is next. The saintly soul, that shows
The world's deceitfulness, to all who hear him,
Is, with the sight of all the good that is,

1 The fifth light.] Solomon.

2 His doom.] It was a common question, it seems, whether Solomon were saved or no.

3 That taper's radiance.] St. Dionysius, the Areopagite. "The famous Grecian fanatic, who gave himself out for Dionysius the Areopagite, disciple of St. Paul, and who, under the protection of this venerable name, gave laws and instructions to those that were desirous of raising their souls above all human things, in order to unite them to their great source by sublime contemplation, lived most probably in this century (the fourth); though some place him before, others after, the present period." Maclaine's Mosheim, v. i. cent. iv. p. 2. c. 3. § 12.

4 That pleader.] In the fifth century, Paulus Orosius "acquired a considerable degree of reputation by the History he wrote to refute the cavils of the Pagans against Christianity, and by his books against the Pelagians and Priscillianists." Ibid. v. ii. cent. v. p. ii. c. ii. § 11. A similar train of argument was pursued by Augustine, in his book De Civitate Dei.

Orosius is classed by Dante, in his treatise De Vulg. Eloq. lib. ii. cap. vi. as one of his favourite authors, among those "qui usi sunt altissimas prosas,"-" who have written prose with the greatest loftiness of style." The others are Cicero, Livy, Pliny, and Frontinus. Some commentators, with less probability, suppose that this seventh spirit is Saint Ambrose, and not Orosius.

5 The eighth.] Boëtius, whose book De Consolatione Philosophiæ excited so much attention during the middle ages, was born, as Tiraboschi conjectures, about 470. "In 524 he was cruelly put to death, by command of Theodoric, either on real or pretended suspicion of his being engaged in a conspiracy." Della Lett. Ital. tom. iii. lib. i. cap. iv.