New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1897-04-18
TWO views OF DANTE.
MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHY AND
MODERN PSYCHOLOGICAL
FATALISM.

iii The E THfRTEENTH CENTURY. BY Frederic
1zaT%m Pub 1e i for the Cathedral
Library Reading Circle. PIP. XIV, 5Of The "a
thedral Library Association.
THE SPIRITUAL SENSE OF DANTE'S DIVINA
COMMEDIA. BY w. T. Harris. PIP. XXI la3'
Houghton, Miflin & Co.
It must seem strange to any one who has had
more less to do with medieval literature and
the modern studies Of 1t that Ozanam's almost
classic work should have had to wait so long for
a translator. However. the book ought to he
welcome in any 1t came originally from
the hands OF a man born. as one may say, to the
thought Of the Middle Ages. In spirit and appar
entity in detail the translator has been faithful
to her model and thus the reader Of English Is
put In possession OF one of the very best among
the introductlons to the study of Dante. II the
work is we'll read it will serve to repress the
modern tendency to interpret the 'Divina Com
media apart from its historic environment. The
nineteenth century. with its supercilious toera-
ton Of previous ages. sometimes grows weari-
some in its attitude of patronage. We laugh at
the medieval worthless who described antique
Greeks and Romans as If they knights
Grant, and who reckored bishops at time
when Christianity was unknown. And yet we
insist upon reading the present into the past,
only in more subtle way. Ozanam can be ac-
cused of doing this only in chapter. Gener-
ally his point Of view Is that of a churchman
contemporary with Dante and imbued with the
same ideas. To the mind of Dante there was no
such gap between the classic past and his own
present as the ordinary Of writer's after the
Renaissance and down to very recent date
imagined. He was aware that his knowledge of
antiquity fragmentary, but there lurked In
his mind no suspicion of the portentous legend
about the Dark Ages that to cloak the igno-
rance OF critics and historians for several hun
dred years to come. No such legend existed in
his time. For OZanam it exists only as some
thing which has to he disproved His argument
for the unbroken continuity of literary and
learned tradition has but one defect 1t is too
brief But that defect has been remedied since
his time in works that have set forth in detail
the grammatical science the critical learning
and the links in literary succession which pain
full industry has discovered in the history of the
past. The impressions which Ozanam gave of
literary tradition were not complete, but they
have been shown since to be virtually correct
far as they went. The present tendency is 70
find many literary revivas before the great one
which Dante heralded. The tendency of coming
times will he to unite these by clearer knowl-
edge OF what interviewed.
concentrated at a few great centres This made
the culture of n comparatively meagre class
seem much more widespread than 1t really was.
Take the territory once included In the Roman
empire and consider the average status Of the
whole population say in Virgil's time, as COM
pared with that of Dante; II will be seen at once
| that an enormous advance had been made. At
| the same time 1t was less easy for given man
| to be greatly learned in Dante's time than in
| virgls. This difference compensated for in
| It's turn by the fact that Dante in the few
thors whom he thoroughly studied had an epit-
| ONE Of what to Virgil meant the whole circle of
| Greek and Latin letters. In addition to this
| there was tho popular "reminiscences of antiquity,
| which, II II vtiated book knowledge somewhat.
| still gave it life and vividness. There also
| a book learning of ancient Christianity accom-
| panied by popular tradition. Finally came the
literature. the learned discussion. the polite
verse and the oral lore of the period to which
| Dante belonged 1t is plain. them that Dantes
environment far from being of is-
norance, even compared with the present day.
| Up to a date just preceding that of Dante,
learned activity had been centralized in the dis
putes Of theology. But Other professions besides
that OF the clerk had begun to claim something
| like a separate existence Not all doctors
priests Of old: nor. after Innocent ", was the
| favorite study of Jurisprudence allowed to seize
| all the best places in the Church, thing 1t had
| begun to do. Theology, seeing the growth of
| natural science under the tutelage of the
| Arabians and OF law under the glossa tors who
| had recovered the Justinian Code began to en-
courage philosophy which in the person of
| man like Albertus Magnus embodied all the
forces Of the learning in the service of the
| Church. Hitherto the work of philosophy had
| been comparatively easy. 1t had only to explore
| the doctrines of the Church, not to establish
their truth-theology took care Of that point
but to show how they were conceivable in rea-
| son. To this task added that of ex
planning the order Of nature, so that theology
| would still be the ultimate knowledge and the
order Of history that the Church would be
| the ultimate fact In politics and society. The
| processes of civilization in Europe had led up to
| these conclusions in practice. Supremacy was
| denied to theology only by certain disciples of
| Averro9s, and to the Church only by the par
tisans Of the decaying imperial system Outside
Of these comparatively isolated groups. the world
was dominated by the thought of Aquinas and
| Bonaycntura, In whom formal logic and mysti-
| cism conspired to sustain what in the thirteenth
| century seemed to be the lesson OF history. At
| Canossa in the dismal tragedy of the Hohen-
| staufen, In all the mseries of the empire, what
was there to learn except that the world tended
ever to the feet of the Church?
1t was just at this supreme point that Dante
parted company with his masters in philosophy.
| He has studied natural science with Albert the
| Great he has learned to reason divine
| things from st. Thomas. his allegory has per-
/ haps been deepened by Bonaventura. But con-
! corning the state and concerning the relation Of
| the Church to temporal affairs, he has Views OF
his own In the discussion Of these matters and
! OF Dantes orthodoxy II Is possible that OZanam
! has carried back some modern views into the
! thirteenth century The savage critcisms TO
which Dante subjected certain Popes ana other
dignitares of the Church have no point for their