The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-03-28

glory Of the Italian renaissance burst
upon Europe and kindled the flame Of
devotion TO art and letters which, be
ginning with Italy, surrounded the
world. Then came the third period,
with the search for new worlds by
Calico and Columbus.
It was in the Divine Comedy that
all the elements of culture which were
at work in the middle ages, each in its
own sphere and possibly in different
language and IN a different cline from
all the others, meet for the first time
and combine in one living and perfect
whole. Dante is at once a creative and
traditional genius. He said =hat
everybody else was saying but
in language and in an artistic form
that no one thought of using. He takes
the common dialect spoken by the wo-
men and children of Italy, thought I'M
worthy for any serious work, and in ii
he treats the great themes of philoSO-
phy' and science hitherto confined to
Latin and the quiet of the cloister
There was the fine wheat of the Latin.
he said, but there was also the barley
bread of the vulgar dialect, and it was
| in this alone that the common people
could be fed the bread of life. The
| Divine Comedy" contains a record of
all that concerned Europe in the mid
die ages: a complete system Of what
was thought and felt on politics. on art,
on astronomy. on religion. These ele-
ments which each existed separately.
would probably have been outgrown or
supplanted, were they not combined
/ through the mysterious principle Of
! life by the personality of the poet
1t was this faculty of harmonizing
what were opposing tendencies of civil
Z he -
thought of all time in the language of
today and in faultless form that make
an era in literature. for Dante first
showed in an eminent degree that open
ness of mind, which appreciates and ap-
prOpriateS the good wherever It is
found. and which always must remain
the mark of the highest culture. It is
this universally which characterizes
the work of Dante which has given so
many theories as TO the contents of the
! Divine Comedy" For one it is his
tory of the political parties of Italy,
containing portraits never to be forgot
ten of the warriors and criminals of
history. To another it is treatise on
scholastic philosophy. To Florence and
other Italian cities of the fourteenth
and fifteenth centuries it was a text
book on morals. and SO was comment
ed in the churches. To another il was
the first clarion note of the protestant
reformation. To another still it is the
most intimate personal revelation of a
powerful human soul.
1t is a textbook on astronomy and
medieval science. All these and other
theories have been given, and all are
true. 1t depends on the side from
which the work is approached. Like
the Bible. every one found in il what
he wished to find. Some read it because
it placed their enemies in hell; others
with the hope of finding their friends
in heaven; others because they find
there the thought and feeling of r1anv
{ centuries, compressed like the gifts 10
humanity in Pandora's box, into the
compass of one mystic, unfathomable
/ song" No danger that the spirits Of
/ the deep or the doors of the celestial
/ plains shall ever evapOrate, for they
/ are held secure as by plates OF triple
steel. Each perfect in itself, they fol
I low each other Ike the waves Of the
( sea, those shafts of glowing rhyme re-
vealing the wonders Of the deep until
/ the travellers have reached the further
/ shore. And when they ascend the Ia
boTious mount, and later, in company
with a heavenly guide, the poet con-
tinue his flight through circles OF inf
mite space, there Is no touch of weari-
ness until the great song is done and
ends with the word stelle-the stars.
1.-THE central man of all the world. -
says Ruskin, ''as representing in perfect
/ balance the ina ginative moral and in
! tellectual faculties all at their high
est"
We receive from Dante the same i'm
/ preston Of universal intellect as from
! Shakespeare, with this difference: That
while Shakespeare conceals his own
/ personality behind a moving multitude
as broad as humanity, Dante himself is
always present with his undying love
as "tra nscendent as his scorn."
"a little philosophy" said Bacon.
'sleads away from religion. but much
philosophy brings back religion" Sainte
Beuve has similarly remarked: There
is a certain degree Of poetry which car
ries away from reality, and there is a
greater amount of poetry which brings
back to it, which embraces all history"