The Lexington intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1901-1949, 1904-12-24
Florence Trails History Of Italian
Literature

I'm last weeks issue two typo.
graphical errors occurred. The text
should read 1.-THE arrangement Of the
table Of contents is the best that the
writer recalls seeing"
Add the lines,
IAN things created found me still
the same
l was before, %eternally l last D"
The continuity OF the poem is
beautifully sustained, 10 the transi.
ton from the dark shadows OF the
Inferno to the bright lights of the
Paradise. In this respect Dante sur
passes Milton, for Paradise Lost
absorbs all the readers interest, and
Paradise Regaiued is not often read
but Dante's poem is Of ever power
throughout,
In no part of Dante's great work
does the in%dividualism Of his genius
appear more clearly than in the
Paradise. Also, nowhere do the in
%tellectual and theological idiosYn-
crasies Of the Middle Ages, stand out
more distinctly The imagery Of the
poem is like a magnificent building,
so grand that it h~armonizes even the
gargoyleS.
Among the macy exquisite lines,
the final one of the following passage
is SAID by Matthew Arnold to be
"the most perfect specimen of poetry
In all literature:"
"Brother, our will is now at rest,
BY virtue Of that love which makes
us wish
For what we have, and thirst not for
aught else
1t pleases both the kingdom
And the king, who 10 His will en-
folds us
In His will is our peace"
Doubtless his own fine lines were
suggested by it:
"Calm soul of all things, make it
mine,
TO feel, amid the city's jar,
That there abides a peace Of Thine
Man did not make, and cannot mar.
1t is striking, yet we ~instiIctlyely
recognize it as wholly fitting, that
the ascending spheres OF this Heaven
of dominant intellect should REQUIRE
for their highest guide not Theolog
ical Science, but Contemplation a.
Love, and that 'neaIe,t to all the H.
ettahle arcanum Of the Holy Trinity
the lowly Mary" Aud IT,, - siepit
can't that DAME, who's poem begi
with a vision OF most awful, un bdipe
doom ,-''Who ent rs here .hopelts,
himself must Dame. "-enG, With
"beatiic vision OF "rvrrItVerin
light" vouchsafed in an Vtr t
prayer to the Virgin Mother:
Daughter of thy Soo,
Humble, yet higher han all creatur s
Thou art she who hast enn,bl-i
Human nature,
Now be who from the lowest point
Has seen the living spirits one by Oh
OF the whole Universe,
Begs from thee SO much grace
That be uay lit lia e. Is to happiness
divine"
The Divine Comedy is indeed tb,
voice Of the Middle Ages, italy was
the very center Of the worlds strife,
more turbulent than Vcsuvlus; past,
present and future civilization seemed
there inteTlocked 10 hopeless con.
fusion and deadly strife. Such we're
the conditions which produced the
poet and his poem. 1t expresses the
struggle between darkness and light,
the awful expiration Of sin, the
%penitential paogs and submission Of
PurgatOry, and the great trlumphs Of
Paradise won.
Miss Trail happily concludes her
analysis Of Dante as follows, "The
completeness Of the magnificent
poem must impress the mind OF
every reader. 1t is one Of the proofs
Of the human intellect belonging to
all Traces, ali lands, all time. In
the actual reading of it. one is tempt
to exclaim ''the Universe is In this
bookl"
A II. WILSON.