The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-04-11

Of Dante is the soul of, one individual
man. We no longer follow the move
ment Of battles; we no longer sail over
the world. We penetrate deeper and
deeper. then higher and higher, the ex-
periences Of a single individual. 1t is
a strange transition. What does il
mean2 1t means that Christianity has
come into the world, and has revealed
that the fate Of nations and the stir
ring Of the peoples are Of less account
in the eternal vision than those inward
events and actions which determine
the moral destiny Of separate men.
At first the older epic very likely
seems the greater to US, assuredly the
more entertaining. There is more va
riety in it, a wider range of character
and incident, perhaps. we think. more
healthful and cheerful tone. Now it is
impossible to measure the great I'M
aginative treasures of the race against
each other. or to say one is greater than
another. To each star its own glory
And yet If we look deeper We shall
hardly say that Homer is more cheer
full than Dante These ancient epics
are essentially, when analysed, sad.
Their gods are now friendly, now hos
tile. but always capricious; their heroes
largely the sport of fate; the lOveliest
woman in them the fatal Helen, the
source of disaster. ruin and shame:
when all the eager fighting is done 1t
is hard to see that there is any worthy
end to it all. and a great darkness
awaits warriors and wanderers, the en-
tire human race. as it passes out of
sight into mystery.
IT is not because Dante holds, in a
mechanical way, to life beyond death
that his poem seems to the thoughtful
reader more fraught with hope and in
ward joy than that Of the Greek world.
It is because here and now he reveals
eternity. Reading him, we feel how
wonderfully life has been enriched, how
its scope has broadened, how many new
elements have entered it. as the race
has gone on living. The range Of emo
ton, Of aim, of experience, both IN JOY
and sorrow. is widened beyond all
words. 1t is of little use to make an
assertion like this without proving it,
but one must read Homer and Dante
to see whether the thing is true. The
love of woman in Dante is no longer
a devOuring fate, a bitter cause OF
strife; it has become holy, and it leads
men up to God Suffering is no longer
the strange blight imposed upon the
race by a mysterious fate. Mysterious
still-how otherwise PIT is yet fraught
with redemptive power. An end of JOY
beyond all human thought awaits the
wanderer. The best Of enduring hap
piness that the ancient world could
| conceive is recognized and given a place
| in Dante, but so has mans power OF
! imagining Joy risen through the ages
| that this old pagan happiness is by
/ Dante actually put within the limits
| of hell. The elysian fields, the paradise
/ of antiquity. the happiest future for
virtuous men that Homer and Virgil
/ could dream of. are in his underworld
| There live forever all the noble men
who knew not Christ. They rest from
| their labors; they wander on enameled
| meads: they abide in majestic dwell
! ings: they share high converse undis-
turbed by wrath or fear Nor Homer
nor Virgil could conceive a higher joy
But Dante knew higher-a heaven Of
ecstasy and rapture into which no pa
gan poet ever might soar He has beer
reproached for leaving his great hea-
| thens in limbo, and we may regret thai
/ he put them there, but at least we neusi
recognize that he gave them ali they
had ever wished. in fullest measure.
The epic of antiquity. the epic Of the
/ outward life, will always have Wider
appeal than Dante. 1t viii Away;
possess. in a sense, more action, var
/ ety. actually and charm Yet every
| f7ispassionate reader must recognize
| whether with joy or sorrow, the new
! regions entered and explored by th'
| soul of man, and the new treasure.
brought from within between the tim'
of the .Iliad'' and Odyssey and TIT
time of the Divine Comedy.
There would seem at first sigh