Is founded every virtue, came to thee." "The flood," I answer'd, " from the Spirit of God Seems blunt, and forceless, in comparison." Which so persuade thee, are the voice of heaven?" "The works, that follow'd, evidence their truth;" I answer'd: "Nature did not make for these "Who voucheth to thee of the works themselves," Was the reply, "that they in very deed Are that they purport? None hath sworn so to thee." "That all the world2," said I, "should have been To Christian, and no miracle been wrought, [turn'd i.e. That the Spirit of God doth so fully discover itself both in the Old and New Testament, that all other arguments are but dull and heavy if compared with this." Stillingfleet. Or. Sa. b. ii. chap. ix. sect. xix. 4. The reader will perceive that our learned divine has made an error in his quotation of this passage. 1 The ancient bond and new.] The Old and New Testament. 2 That all the world.] "We cannot conceive how the world should be at first induced to believe without manifest and uncontrouled miracles. For as Chrysostom speaks, i onμείων χωρὶς ἔπεισαν, πολλῷ μεῖζον τὸ θαῦμα φαίνεται. It was the greatest miracle of all, if the world shou'd believe without miracles. Which the poet Dantes hath well expressed in the twenty-fourth canto of Paradise. For when the Apostle is there brought in, asking the Poet upon what account he took the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be the Word of God; his answer is, Probatio quæ verum hoc mihi recludit, Sunt opera, quæ secuta sunt, ad quæ Natura Non candefecit ferrum unquam aut percussit incudem. i.e. The evidence of that is the Divine Power of miracles which was in those who deliver'd those things to the world. And when the Apostle catechiseth him further, how he knew those miracles were such as they pretended to be, viz. that they were true and divine; his answer is, Si orbis terræ sese convertit ad Christianismum Est tale, ut reliqua non sint ejus centesima pars. i. e. If the world shou'd be converted to the Christian faith without miracles, this would be so great a miracle, that others were not to be compared with it. I conclude this, then, with that known saying of St. Austin, Quisquis adhuc prodigia, ut credat, inquiret, magnum est ipse prodigium qui mundo credente non credit: He that seeks for miracles still to induce him to faith, when the world is converted to the Chris Would in itself be such a miracle, The rest were not an hundredth part so great. And when that Worthy' thus, from branch to branch, "Who seest that, which thou didst so believe, One sole eternal Godhead, of whose love All heaven is moved, himself unmoved the while. Nor demonstration physical alone, Or more intelligential and abstruse, Persuades me to this faith: but from that truth tian faith, he needs not seek for prodigies abroad; he wants only a looking-glass to discover one. For as he goes on, Unde temporibus eruditis, et omne quod fieri non potest respuentibus, sine ullis miraculis nimium mirabiliter incredibilia credidit mundus? Whence came it to pass that in so learned and wary an age as that was which the Apostles preach'd in, the world without miracles shou'd be brought to believe things so strangely incredible as those were which Christ and his Apostles preach'd." Stillingfleet. Or. Sa. b. ii. chap. x. sect. v. §í. Donne, in his Sermons, (Vol. ii. p. 215. fol. edit.) quotes a similar passage from Augustine, and applies it to the demand for miracles, made by Roman Catholics on Protestants. 1 That Worthy.] Quel Baron. In the next Canto, St. James is called "Barone." So in Boccaccio. G. vi. N. 10. we find "Baron Messer Santo Antonio." 2 As to outstrip.] Venturi insists that the Poet has here "made a slip;" for that John came first to the sepulchre, though Peter was the first to enter it. But let Dante have leave to explain his own meaning, in a passage from his third book De Monarchiâ: "Dicit etiam Johannes ipsum (scilicit Petrum) introiisse subito, cum venit in monumentum, videns alium discipulum cunctantem ad ostium." p. 146. It cometh to me rather, which is shed Through Moses; the rapt Prophets; and the Psalms; The Gospel; and what ye yourselves did write, When ye were gifted of the Holy Ghost. In three eternal Persons I believe; Essence threefold and one; mysterious league Imprints and from this germ, this firstling spark Soon as my peace I held, compass'd me thrice Had oped my lips: so well their answer pleased. CANTO XXV. ARGUMENT. Saint James questions our Poet concerning Hope. Next Saint John appears; and, on perceiving that Dante looks intently on him, informs him that he, Saint John, had left his body resolved into earth, upon the earth; and that Christ and the Virgin alone had come with their bodies into heaven. IF e'er the sacred poem, that hath made Next from the squadron, whence had issued forth The first fruit of Christ's vicars on the earth, 1 The fair sheep-fold.] Florence, whence he was banished. 2 For its sake.] For the sake of that faith. Toward us moved a light, at view whereof Before me sat they down, so burning bright, 1 Galicia throng'd with visitants.] See Mariana. Hist. lib. xi. cap. xiii. "En el tiempo," &c. At the time that the sepulchre of the apostle St. James was discovered, the devotion for that place extended itself not only over all Spain, but even round about to foreign nations. Multitudes from all parts of the world came to visit it. Many others were deterred by the difficulty of the journey, by the roughness and barrenness of those parts, and by the incursions of the Moors, who made captives many of the pilgrims.-The canons of St. Eloy, afterwards, (the precise time is not known) with a desire of remedying these evils, built, in many places, along the whole road, which reached as far as to France, hospitals for the reception of the pilgrims." In the Convito, p. 74, we find "la galassia, &c." the galaxy, that is, the white circle which the common people call the way of Saint James;" on which Biscioni remarks: "The common people formerly considered the milky way as a sign by night to pilgrims, who were going to Saint James of Galicia; and this perhaps arose from the resemblance of the word galaxy to Galicia. I have often," he adds, "heard women and peasants call it the Roman road," "la strada di Roma." Lo there (quod he) cast up thine eye, Se yondir, lo! the Galaxie, The whiche men clepe the milky way, Chaucer, The House of Fame, b. ii. 2 One of the other.] Saint Peter and Saint James. 3 Who.] The Epistle of St. James is here attributed to the elder apostle of that name, whose shrine was at Compostella, in Galicia. Which of the two was the author of it, is yet doubtful. The learned and candid Michaelis contends very forcibly for its having been written by James the Elder. Lardner rejects that opinion as absurd: while Benson argues against it, but is well answered by Michaelis, who, after all, is obliged to leave the question undecided. See his Introduction to the New Testament, translated by Dr. Marsh. ed. Cambridge, 1793, vol. iv. cap. xxvi. § 1, 2, 3. Mr. Horne supposes, that as the elder James "was put to death by Herod Set down with faithful pen; let now thy voice, 3 Such cheering accents from the second flame 2 With hope, that leads to blissful end; declare, Agrippa, A.D. 44, (Acts xii.) it is evident that he was not the author of the epistle which bears the name of James, because it contains passages which refer to a later period, viz. v. 1-8, which intimates the then immediately approaching destruction of Jerusalem, and the subversion of the Jewish polity." Introduction to the Critical Study and Knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, Ed. 1818, vol. ii. P. 600. Largess.] He appears to allude to the Epistle of James, chap. i. v. 5. "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him." Or, to v. 17: "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights." Some editions, however, read "l'allegrezza," "joy," instead of "la larghezza." As oft.] Landino and Venturi, who read "Quanto," explain this, that the frequency with which James had commended the virtue of hope, was in proportion to the brightness in which Jesus had appeared at his transfiguration. Vellutello, who reads "Quante," supposes that James three times recommends patient hope in the last chapter of his Epistle; and that Jesus, as many times, showed his brightness to the three disciples; once when he cleansed the lepers (Luke, v.); again when he raised the daughter of Jaïrus (Mark, v.); and a third time when he was transfigured. As to Lombardi, who also reads "Quante," his construction of the passage seems to me scarcely intelligible. lift 2 The second flame.] St. James. 3 I lifted up.] "I looked up to the Apostles." "I will up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.' Psalm cxxi. 1. |