The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1900-07-22
Aard. narrow. d. tor r,nalns oaks. smltten

hard. narrow, it for rendinr oaks. smitten
with sledge-bammer blows bv his Titanic
energy. II penetrates the toughest matter and
pierocs TO the very core OF things The
breadth Of his thought is less remarkable
| than Its depth. He goes straight TO the es-
sencc OF his subject rejecting accidents, de-
splstng ornament and. having seized It's
| truth, he grasps that with grip OF iron.
Dante seems made TO nullify the aphonsm
| mot deep the poet sees but wide" he is so
| determined TO BIO deep In Insight and exact
in detail that he limits his subject IL need
| be. in order to secure the utmost definite
ness. Nothing. again. can exceed the brevltv
| OF his speech. His words are like flowers
and fruits upon tree of rilence--dehnite,
precise, sincere, His pictures are painted
with the strctest parsimonv OF description
vet no medal-striker ever wrought his out
| lines sharper or his shadows deeper. The
| salient and essential points of an object as
| selected and made visible with such vivid
| ness that we discern the whole. II would
| seem as II each line OF Dante's poem. each
| smile. each aphorism. had been wrung from
| him with pain and Embellishments.
| But OF all the great world poems unques-
tlonably Dante's "Divlna Commedtn' may
| be Justly claimed to have O spiritual sense,
for It possesses a philosophic System and
admits Of allegorica Interpretation. 1t is
par excellencs the religious poem OF the
world. And religion, like philosophy. deals
directly with a first principle OF the uni
verse, while. like poetry. it clothes its uni
versal ideas in the garb OF spec" events
ana situations making them types and hence
symbols, of the kind which may become
allegories.
Homer, too. shows us the religion Of the
Greeks, but 1t is an art religion, having only
tho same aim as essential poetry-to turn
the natural into symbol of the spiritual.
Dante's theme Is the Christian religion,
which goes beyond the problem OF trans
figuring nature and deals with the far deeper
problem OF the salvation OF man. For man.
as the summlt OF nature, transhgures nature
at the same time that he attains the divine
Tho insight into the divine human nature OF
the highest principle of the universe and
the consequent necessity of human immor-
tally and possibility OF human growth into
divine perfection includes the Greek prin-
ciple as a subordinate phase.-W. t. Harris
~
The ''rlnd" and the odyssey" do not be-
come antiquated 20 us The characters OF
Shakespeare are perpetually modern. Homer
Dante. Shakespeare, stand alone in the
closeness OF their relation TO nature. Each
after his own manner gives us q view OF
life as seen by the poetic imagination, such
as no other poet has given us. Homer,
first OF all poets. shows us individual per
sonRges sharply defined, but in the early
stages OF intellectual and moral develop
,,o,t tho drs, rnnrasantatives ~ the race
at its conscious entrance upon the path OF
progress. with simple motives, simple theo-
ries of existence, simple and limited expert
ence. He is plain and direct In the presenta-
ton OF life, and in the substance no less
than in the expression of his thought.
In shukespeares work the individual man
is no less sharply defined. no less true to
nature. but the long procession of his per
sonages is wholly different in effect from
that Of the "Iliad and the odyssey"
They have lost the simplicity OF the older
race; they are products of a longer and
more varied experience; they have become
more complex. And Shakespeare is plain
and dice neither in the substance OF his
thought nor in the expression Of 1t. The
world has grown older. and In the evolution
OF his nature man has become conscious OF
tho irreconoilable paradoxes Of life, and
more or less aware that, while he is inhnlte
In faculty. he is also the quintessence OF dust.
But there is one essential characteristic in
which Shakespeare and Homer resemble each
other as poets-that they both show to us the
scene Of life without the Interference OF their
own personality Each simply holds the
mirror up to nature and lets us see the re-
Election without making comment on ,ne
show. II there be lesson in It we must
learn It for ourselves,
Dante comes between the two, and differs
more widely from each of them than they
from one another They are primarily poets
He is primarily morallst who is also
poet or Homer the man and of Shakespeare
the man we know and need to know moth
ing; 1t is only with them as poets that we
are concerned. But 1t is needful to know
Dante as Il man in order fully to appreciate
him as poet. He gives us his word, not as
reflection from an unconscious and indiffer-
ent mirror, but as from a mirror that shapes
and orders its reflections for definite end
beyond that of art and extraneous to it. And
In this lies the secret OF Dante's hold upon
so many and SO various minds. He is the
chief poet of mon as a moral being.-C. u,
Norton.