ments inflicted for sin in the other world? but also, and especially, the other question, What is sin? To this question all the damned in the different regions of Hell reply: "Sin is withdrawal from the Highest Good; it is unhappiness, misery, suffering, in time and in eternity." In the damned souls of Dante's Hell, therefore, we have the revealed truth of the conscience in time, and the revealed truth of life in eternity. Foppi, G. B.: Osservationi sulla Teorica della Pena e del Premio studiata in Dante. Verona, 1870, 8vo. : Paur, H. Dante's Sündensystem, in Herrig's Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Literaturen, Vol. XXXVIII, Brunswick, 1864, pp. 113-30. Abegg, H. Die Idee der Gerechtigkeit und die strafrechtlichen Grundsätze in Dante's Göttlicher Komödie, in the Jahrbuch der deutschen Dante-Gesellschaft. Leipzig, 1867, Vol. I, pp. 177-257. Todeschini, Gius.: Dell' Ordinamento morale dell' Inferno di Dante, in Scritti su Dante. Vicenza, 1872, Vol. I, pp. 1-114. Ortolan, J.: Les Pénalités de l' Enfer di Dante. Paris, 1873, 8vo. De Gravisi, Fed.: Dei Cerchi infernali di Dante. Studio Filosofico e Critico sulla Gradazione dei Peccati e delle Pene, come sulla Corrispondenza di questi a quelli nell' Inferno Dantesco. Naples, 1876, 8vo. Genovesi, Vinc.: Filosofia della Divina Commedia nella Cantica dell' Inferno. Sguardo Sintetico. Florence, 1876, 8vo. Scartazzini, G. A.: Ueber die Congruenz der Sünden und Strafen in Dante's Hölle, in the Jahrbuch der deutschen DanteGesellschaft. Leipzig, 1877, Vol. IV, pp. 273-354. [Witte, Karl: Dante's Sündensystem in Hölle und Fegfeuer, in Dante-Forschungen, Vol. II, pp. 121-60. Tommasèo, Niccolò: La Pena nel Concetto di Dante, in Nuovi Studi su Dante. Turin, 1865, pp. 54–75.] § 7. PURGATORY, THE KINGDOM OF PENANCE. — Having come out from the shaft of Hell, upon the Islet, "to revisit the stars," Dante begins to go toward the mountain, across the abode of the Negligent. Here, being overtaken by the night, he falls asleep, and is taken up by Lucia, who deposits him at the foot of the ascent of Purgatory. He then passes through the Gate of Penitence and finds himself on the first ledge; then, ascending the mountain and going round it, always to the right, he passes from ledge to ledge, until he comes to the Divine Forest, where Virgil abandons him. Here he first meets Matelda, then sees a great procession coming toward him. Then Beatrice appears and sharply reproves him for his backsliding. The Poet repents, confesses, and is plunged in the river of Lethe. In a great vision, he is allowed to see the vicissitudes of the Church and the Empire; whereupon, having quaffed the delicious waters of Eunoe [Evvoia], he feels himself completely renewed, "pure and ready to ascend to the stars. "1 - If the arrangement of the moral treatise of the Hell is essentially Aristotelian, that of the Purgatory is Platonic. The sins in the Purgatory are not looked at in their effects, but in their causes. Hence, they are 66 [1" Puro e disposto a salire alle stelle." — Purg., XXXIII, 145. It is curious that all the three Canticles of The Comedy end with the same word, all reduced to disorders of love.1 Love disordered in its choice of the good, generates (1) a desire to domineer, by trampling upon one's fellows, that is, Pride; (2) a fainting of soul for fear of being abased, if another should be advanced, that is, Envy; or (3) a readiness to take offence, and to seek revenge for every little slight, that is, Wrath. Love disordered in its choice of the evil may be in defect or in excess. From the former springs lukewarmness in the quest of the true good, that is, Unconcern (Accidia); from the second spring (1) the immediate desire or abuse of riches, that is, Avarice and Prodigality; (2) the unregulated appetites of the palate, that is, Gluttony; and (3) the unbridled lust of the flesh, or Luxury. These are the seven deadly sins purged in the seven circles of Purgatory.2 [1 Nè Creator, ne creatura mai, Cominciò ei, figliuol, fu senza amore, O naturale, o d' animo; e tu il sai. Lo natural fu sempre senza errore; Ma l'altro puote errar (1) per mal objetto O (2) per troppo, or (3) per poco di vigore. Purg., XVII, 91 sqq.] [2 Paolo Perez, in his admirable work, I sette Cerchi del Purgatorio di Dante, arranges the sins purged in Purgatory thus: 1. Pride, 1. Sins of love erring in its object (per mal objetto) 2. Envy, 2. Sin due to defect of vigor in love (per poco di vigore) 3. Sins due to excess of vigor in love (per troppo di vigore) } 3. Wrath. 4. Unconcern. 5. Avarice, 6. Gluttony, On the spurs of the Sacred Mountain are found those who died under some ban or anathema, but who were converted on the point of death. Then, in the first circle, come the Negligent, divided into three classes. The first contains those who put off their conversion to God till the end of their lives, held back by the habit of crass laziness or sloth; the second, those who were cut off by a violent death, while presuming on a long term of life; the third, those who neglected the fulfilment of those highest duties for which they had a special mission here on earth. Their sin in this life is their The negligent are neglected; punishment in the next. hence the approach to the Kingdom of Purgation is not opened to them. One class has to wander round the mountain thirty times as long as they presumptuously remained in disobedience to the Church; another is prevented from entering Purgatory for as many years as they put off their repentance and remained in their inertia. Here we are still in the kingdom of punishment, of chastisement, not yet in that of purification. Before being admitted to the seven circles "where the human spirit is purged and becomes worthy to ascend to heaven," 1 the souls of the negligent must, for a time, undergo privation of the grace of purification. Their Perez shows that this arrangement was borrowed from a little book of St. Bonaventura's Speculum Beatæ Virginis (Lect. IV). Op. Cit., p. 266. Compare Fazio degli Uberti's Seven Deadly Sins. These are arranged in this order: (1) Pride, (2) Avarice, (3) Envy, (4) Luxury, (5) Gluttony, (6) Wrath, (7) Unconcern.] [1 Purg., I, 5 sq.] punishment, therefore, bears a close resemblance to the punishments of Hell. They are punished exactly in the respect in which they sinned, that is, their sin is here revealed in its true, inner nature. In the seven circles, the penitence consists in two things, (1) a Meditation, (2) a Punishment. The Meditation has for its objects the ugliness and sad effects of the sin committed, and the beauty and sweet fruits of the opposite virtues, and is accompanied by exercise in casting aside the vice and putting on the habit of the opposite virtue. Hence, the spirits undergoing purification either see with their eyes, or hear with their ears, examples of the fair virtues in which they must exercise themselves, and examples of punishment for the sins with which they were defiled during their life on earth. Again, each class of sinners has its own special punishment. The Proud learn to abase themselves, by walking on all fours and carrying very heavy weights. The Envious, clad in haircloth, have their eyelids sewed together with an iron wire, preventing them from casting an evil eye on the happiness of others. The Wrathful go round and round continually, tormented by a dense smoke which deprives them of vision. The Unconcerned run with eager haste, without stopping or resting. The Avaricious and the Prodigal weep bitterly, lying stretched out with their faces to the earth. The Gluttonous suffer hunger and thirst in the presence of food and drink. Finally, the Luxurious taunt each other mutually, in flames of burning fire. But these punish |